Flying with Air Asonog!

Hola a todos (as) soy Edgard Cardoza voluntario del proyecto Sources-Fuentes soy de la ciudad de Santa Rosa de Copan Honduras, esto es lo que ha acontecido durante las últimas semanas: estuvimos trabajando en el documento final agregando anexos haciendo traducciones, el equipo hondureño además trabajamos en la preparación de nuestro primer taller de validación en Belén Gualcho Ocotepeque, el Jueves primero de Septiembre fue el gran día para nosotros como era de esperarse el nivel de stress era un poco alto viajamos hasta Belén y nuestra sorpresa fue que varias cosas de logística no estaban listas al igual que el grupo de jóvenes al cual impartimos el taller. Pero finalmente iniciamos el taller y fue muy interactivo tanto de los jóvenes como de los participantes de la Municipalidad al final de la jornada todos agradecieron la oportunidad de recibir el taller. Como equipo hicimos nuestras propias conclusiones aspectos a mejorar mantener y algunos aspectos a cambiar.

El día Viernes fue nuestro debriefing iniciamos con una evaluación del taller, el equipo canadiense se despidió de Ramiro quien nos ha apoyado durante el proyecto, hicimos nuestras propias evaluaciones en la rueda socrática de la que teníamos al inicio hasta el final luego viajamos hacia Termas del Rio donde nos pudimos relajar y trabajar a la vez. De regreso en Santa Rosa sin energía eléctrica por cierto tuvimos una fiesta de despida a la luz de las velas la cual estuvo muy divertida con muchos sentimientos encontrados de felicidad y tristeza porque los amigos canadienses viajaban el siguiente día hacia San Pedro Sula.

El día Sábado inicio muy temprano haciendo las últimas compras de souvenirs los sentimientos a flor de piel unos más que otros verdad Vanessa Peña, como a las 2 de la tarde fue la despedida del equipo canadiense familias anfitrionas y nosotros dijimos hasta pronto con sentimientos de tristeza.

Esta semana inicio con mucha nostalgia trabajamos en unir la herramienta final y trabajar para los próximos talleres de Rio Blanco, Camalote Lempira.
Por mi parte solo me queda agradecer esta oportunidad a ASONOG, Canadá World Youth y mis amigos Ana María, Vanessa Peña, Emanuele Lucia, Julia Ruiz, Marie-Helene, Daniela Gaetane, Laura Howard y a todos y todas que de una u otra forma nos han apoyado en esta aventura. GRACIAS, THANKS, MERCI.

Peace out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Water Workshop #1: Huge Success!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of taking in the first of our water-themed workshops developed over the course of the Sources-Fuentes adventure.  Ana-Marie, Emanuele and Marie-Helene put on a rather polished performance for the all-female Canada World Youth group here in Santa Rosa.

 Right from the start they promised this wasn't going to be a day spent sitting infront of a Power Point presentation, eyes-glossed over, willing the breaks and the lunch to come sooner.  They were right!  With their three main themes of Consumption, Access and Bottled Water, we all enjoyed a fun filled day with games, small group presentations, debate, and even a candy-filled evaluation at the end of the day.

CLICK HERE to view a workshop photo album!

Following the 5 step "Image Shifting"model, the facilitators incorporated so much of the learning that we've had throughout this project.  There wasn't only technical content about water, but also a dynamic presentation style, working in two languages, and ensuring that the day was really participative.

To watch a really interesting 7 minute video we enjoyed and debated go to "The Story of Bottled Water".  It just might make you think twice about choosing bottled over tap.

Well, I don't want to give it all away.  Stay tuned, because this workhsop will be coming to a "Canadian city near you", this autumn, to be enjoyed by 8 more Canada World Youth groups there.

The Honduran team is cooking up their own workshop too, which will be revealed next week when we venture back to Belen Gualcho, Honduras to share our findings about their water situation in that community, and to inspire more youth to get involved in water issues at the local level.  This time I'll try not to crash the truck!

Stay tuned, logged-on, and committed to action! ;)

WTF -> Workshops Totally Finished… or almost…!

2 more weeks and its over??? Seriously !?!? I can’t believe that we have a few more days to work on these workshops and then it all ends… or actually it just STARTS! There many things to do after the program ends but as for now we are just focusing in making a few tweaks on our tool and doing lots of translation. One might think that working in 3 languages is hard but let me tell you that it’s not…. It’s not hard….it’s just a pain in the …. head! We are 1 day away from starting our validation workshops, it’s time to test our “little” experiment and find out if we’ve created a monster BUAHAHA!!!!! Or if we’ll turn into monsters after finding out if we need to remove or add things to our tool.

Life in the office is a bit crazy…meetings here and there between Canadian and Honduras groups (not in exclusive kind of way but in a “let’s get this thing together” kind of way). We all have different responsibilities among the group some are busy going around buying stuff for the validation workshops and others are freaking out a bit about the translating part…lots and lots of information! Some are thinking how can there be so much to do and so little time… but there’s always a way to get things done (Oh yes that’s what I think). So I took some time off from translating and decided to vent by writing a blog :) yay yay!!!

So yes… lot of work but like I said… I’m sure we’ll manage to get everything done and ready ;) !!! Switching subject a bit…it’s only Monday and I can’t wait for Sunday to be here woohoo …. First of all the translation work will be done by then AND…. OLIMPIA the greatest team EVEEEEER (at least in Tegucigalpa…my hometown :P ) will be playing against Deporte Savio, Santa Rosa’s soccer team!!! I guess that will lower my stress level a lot….although… I’m really into FUTBOL (spanish for soccer) especially when my team is playing and I yell a lot during the game…well at least I’ll get to set free my lungs!

I guess that this time there’s no story about any cockroach or milking a cow …its juts me venting about our work this week! I’m not surprised though, I kind of knew that the last weeks were going to be a bit crazy, it’s just that it all seems to be happening so fast… We will be saying goodbye to our Canadian teammates in 12 days!!! Wow… now that I think about it… I better stop whinning about how much work there is to do or how translating isn’t really fun…. And just try to enjoy our last days here! I’ve learned so much during this almost 3 months, worked with great people, milked a cow and had near death experiences (I mean the cockroach experience)… I just have to think about those things and keep in mind the goal of this program and I’m sure that in 2 weeks from now I’ll be blogging about how this was all worth it!!

Drinking Water, Sea Water and Hot Water

Last week was quite productive as a whole. On Monday we had the opportunity to visit a water treatment facility in Santa Rosa de Copan. We had also previously visited a water treatment facility in Perth, ON. What was incredibly interesting is that both facilities use almost the exact same processes to treat water. The engineer that gave us the tour in Santa Rosa de Copan told us that they guarantee the water that gets to the taps of the homes of the city is safe enough to drink; they run regular tests. What’s shocking is that nobody knows this; people believe that the water isn’t safe enough and the majority of the population of Santa Rosa still purchases bottled water. How is this possible, having access to a safe product for free, but still opting to purchase it instead. After the initial disbelief over the situation, I was reminded of all the people I know in Canada that have access to safe drinking water, but genuinely believe that bottled water is somehow safer and better. Anyways, back to Honduras, I’m sure there’s another side to this story and there is a reason why people still feel the need to drink bottled water. But I do wish there was more energy invested in finding out the truth, and if the water really is safe enough to drink in Santa Rosa, which seems to be the case, create more awareness.

The rest of the week mostly consisted of continuing the development of our workshop. Towards the end of the week though, I definitely felt as though we were all ready for a break and could not get our minds off of the mini-vacation we had planned for this past weekend. Thursday evening finally came, and we could not hide our excitement! After a day of work in San Marcos Ocotepeque, we hurried home to prepare our luggage for our 4 day excursion to the beach!!! Five of the six members of our group left Santa Rosa Friday morning at 4:00 AM, destination Sambo Creek! We finally got there mid-day. After an exhaustive day of travel, we were overcome with energy and could do nothing else but run and jump when we saw the never ending beach that we had access to from our hotel. It felt like paradise. We even had a mango tree right outside our hotel room from which we immediately starting collecting mangos the minute we discovered it. Saturday was spent touring Cayos Cochinos, a group of 16 minuscule islands in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. I am not exaggerating when I say that I have never seen water so clear in my life! We did some Snorkelling and saw some incredible coral reefs, after which we stopped on one of the islands for lunch. Our meal was fried fish which was fished approximately 1 hour before we ate it! After a walk around the island where we had lunch, which took no more than 5.2 minutes, we finally headed back to Sambo Creek. On Sunday, I abandoned the group and went on a little excursion on my own to the hot springs of Sambo Creek. Simon, my tour guide was absolutely incredible. He spent the day with me and we hiked in the forest around the hot springs. The actual going-in-the-hot-spring portion of the tour was preceded by a mud bath; talk about being pampered! I then spent the next couple hours stepping in and out of hot water like a lazy turtle. Like all good things, the excursion had to come to an end. When I returned to our hotel, a few of us walked along the beach for a couple of hours before a nice home-cooked pasta dinner. The day we were dreading, Monday, our last day, arrived. I spent the entire morning on the beach, walked one last time to the community of Sambo Creek, had a quick lunch, and as I was going to take a quick shower right before leaving, I discovered that the main water valve of the hotel had been shut for maintenance purposes. Without any other choice, we all hoped on a bus back to Santa Rosa de Copan around mid-day smelling like salt water.

Tuesday was back to work. I definitely felt invigorated and ready to work after a few days of relaxation. Only three weeks left in Honduras (AHHH!). Will we finish this crazy adventure we’ve embarked on and have a workshop by next Wednesday? I sure hope so!