“We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression…The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way…The third is freedom from want…The fourth is freedom from fear.”
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1941
March 1, 2002
Dear Family and Friends,
Usually Jennifer writes the bulk of the update letters and I edit. This time around we have switched roles as Jennifer is too tired from walking up and down a mountain. She went on a three hour hike today to observe our community nurses administering vaccinations to children in the surrounding villages. Her eyes were opened to a whole new process of medical care and she was very thankful for the system of care we receive in the United States. Up in the village the nurses do not use gloves when giving shots, there is no sharps container to discard used needles and there is no guarantee that each child will be reached as the mothers do not always make vaccinations a priority. Communication is poor in the out lying villages where “Vaccination Day” is announced only through word of mouth and usually only a day or two prior. Needless to say, Jennifer came home exhausted, yet determined that we write this update letter since we have had a few requests from interested readers to know what we have been doing for the last couple of weeks. The most frequent request has been to hear about Mom Vander Poel’s trip to Honduras.
Having Mom Vander Poel (Jennifer’s mom) visit was such a treat! We loved having someone come who speaks English (although she learned many Spanish phrases on the trip), and who was interested in everything she saw. Most of all we enjoyed sharing our experiences with someone from home. Not to mention all the wonderful “surprises” Mom Vander Poel packed with the help of Mom Silvera in an extra suitcase for us to keep! Our most unique item was the La Choy Beef Pepper Oriental Chow Mein in a can with crunchy chow mein noodles in a bag! We have been craving some good Chinese food for a while! We thought you may like to read for yourself some of Mom Vander Poel’s reflections on her trip. With her permission we are quoting her directly. Enjoy!
“There are friendly people wherever we go. The town of Concepción de Maria is small, but warm. Actually the people are warm, the temperature is hot! Some afternoons I’d sit with my feet in a big bucket of water and a fan blowing on me, reading a good book, sipping ice tea or the water that was boiled daily. It was so refreshing and nearly the only way to stay cool!”
“Jen and Shawn have a very modest home, but it is home. Cooking with one burner and a toaster oven takes creativity, ingenuity, and lots and lots of patience. You learn to make do with what you have. Sometimes what you planned for a meal may turn into a different dish by the time you sit down to eat, but I do that in the states, too.”
“Going to church was a new experience also, even the dogs are welcome. The people certainly know how to sing and the service usually lasts a couple of hours. We brought water wherever we went, including church as it gets pretty warm inside.”
”One of my favorite Spanish sayings is ‘café por favor’ (coffee please), but I do not like their coffee which is served already sweetened. They must add at least a cup of sugar per pot. Even young children drink coffee. The other popular drink is Pepsi. Anything sweet! I did find a wonderful cup of black coffee on the last two days of my trip when we stayed at a German couple’s bed and breakfast cabin in the mountains of San Juancito, a small town about one hour northeast of the capitol, Tegucigalpa. If you ever come to Honduras, I highly recommend staying at the cabin. It is high up in the mountains and very peaceful. You feel near heaven in this serene place. In fact some people call San Juancito ‘a little piece of heaven on earth.’”“I did not like the overly crowded, hot buses. The heat was stuffy, confining and nearly suffocating. The dust was thick and grimy. To make matters worse the bus driver drove entirely too fast around the curves and at one point I almost went to tell him to slow down, but I didn’t know how to say that in Spanish! I know now when I get back to the U.S. what I will pray for…all the bus rides that Jen and Shawn have to endure!”
“We stayed at one hotel in Choluteca (the town where Jen and Shawn do their grocery shopping) and I was not too excited about the tiny lizards (about 2-3 inches long) crawling on the walls. Shawn tried to convince me that they were harmless. Before we all went to bed, I tucked my towel underneath the door to keep any other critters out! At least this helped me psychologically, for I am sure there were many other ways for them to sneak into our room.”
“It was a joy to be here for the baptism of baby Jennifer Maria. I played photographer for the event and took many fun photos of the proud parents and proud new Godparents (Jen and Shawn!). You will have to look on their website to see this precious baby.”
“One of the highlights of my trip was the dedication of the new library. It was very touching to see the children and adults alike so delighted…I saw a couple of elderly men looking through the windows watching the children inside. You could feel their sense of pride. Just to watch the children looking at the books caused so much excitement. It was touching.”
“Another memorable experience was the day we went to the orphanage and shared some color crayons, color sheets and stickers with the children. It was a day of emotion and tears to see the children so happy about a box of crayons – including the teenagers. I was amazed at how something so small can be such a blessing to someone else. It reminds me that truly the best things in life are simple, inexpensive, and shared!”
“As I am writing, the lights are dimming. It reminds me of how the lights dim when the power is being used to obtain hot water. One morning as I was making pancakes for breakfast and just frying the fourth pan cake, the electricity went out. The three of us shared four pancakes and yogurt. I put the batter in the fridge figuring the electricity would come back on, which it did 6 hours later. That was the day after Jen’s birthday so we played a game of Scrabble (a birthday gift) and for lunch we enjoyed some trail mix I brought from the states.”
“Of all the experiences I had, of course the most memorable time was being with Jen and Shawn. I love them so much.”
We are so proud of our Mom for trying so many new things here! The bus rides, the food, the language, the heat without air-conditioning! We also have to thank her for cooking for us! She has that mother’s touch. We enjoyed some great pasta with her and my personal favorite was her homemade banana bread! I wish she was still here to play Scrabble. I have found that Jennifer is extremely competitive with this game and doesn’t like to loose. At least with Mom Vander Poel here, I had someone on my side. We have put the game away for a few days as we don’t have marriage counseling readily available in Concepción de Maria.
It was truly a highlight for us to have Mom Vander Poel here for the dedication of the new library. She was intrigued with how the library project started and thought we should share the story. Thirty-four years ago a man named Allen Andersson (whom mom met at the dedication ceremony) came to Honduras as one of the first of many Peace Corps volunteers. At that time he came to teach physics and chemistry at the university in Tegucigalpa. After finishing his time in Peace Corps he returned to the U.S. and eventually amassed a fortune through computer engineering and stock trades. He returned to Honduras two and a half years ago looking for a way to start libraries. The Riecken Foundation, named for his mother and father-in-law, was formed to provide finances and management advising to local civic organizations who are interested in building libraries in their communities. Although the foundation provides a majority of the funding, the surrounding communities play an integral part by providing most of the labor and materials for the physical building. The Riecken Foundation’s goal is to build 1000 libraries in Latin America. The first six of the libraries were dedicated and opened the week of February 11th, 2002 with four being opened in Honduras and two in Guatemala.
Since its opening, Jennifer and I have been visiting the library almost daily. No one was quite sure of what type of success to expect as the Honduran culture is not accustomed to reading for pleasure and have very few books in their homes. Most of the older people in the community can not read or read at a fifth grade level or lower. It is very encouraging to report that the library has exceeded everyone’s expectations. When we go to the library in the afternoon the tables are full of children of all ages reading, exploring the computers, and doing their homework together. By far one of the most exciting things to do in life is to enlighten children; not by telling them, but by empowering them to learn for themselves. The library is definitely empowering them and has become the new “hot spot” in town.
We have started meeting with the librarians weekly to discuss different topics related to their jobs. We are working with the librarians to view their work as a business. Even though it is a non-profit organization, they still incur costs for printing materials, office supplies and minor repairs. Concepts of keeping a budget, charging people to print copies or photos from the digital camera, and creating a work plan are brand new ideas for the librarians. But, they are enthusiastic to learn and develop their library into a thriving community resource.
The other project we started this week is giving computer classes to students and teachers at the local high school. Jennifer and I are teaching four classes a day on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. These classes include an introductory course for the younger students and a more comprehensive course for the senior class. The first set of classes went pretty well and I only had to tell one group that I own a watch from the U.S. and therefore my classes start by U.S. time and not by Honduran time, which is anywhere from a half an hour to an hour later than something is normally scheduled to begin.
I was a little nervous about teaching kids about computers, when many have never even touched a computer before. It has been fun so far. The previous volunteer in our site told me he had one girl tapping the screen with the mouse trying to “click” something on the screen. The closest story I have to his experience, is I noticed one boy who kept running out of mouse pad space to use the mouse. As he would use the mouse to scroll across the screen to the left, he would physically pick up the keyboard and move it further to the left to make more room for his mouse. Eventually he ran out of keyboard cord and mouse cord to complete his task. The concept of keeping the mouse on the mouse pad is something that takes a few tries to get used to.
We have 15 students in our senior class and will be teaching them for four months. In a couple months we will dedicate one unit entirely to email and how it works. For this class, we are wondering if any of you (our faithful readers) would be interested in helping us teach this unit! We need 15 volunteers to write an email to one of the students that we will assign to you. The commitment would involve writing one short email letter, which we will translate for the student. Their assignment for the class will be to send you a response via email, which we will also translate for you. It will be just a “one email” commitment. We are using this idea to give them a tangible example of how email works. Many of the students have relatives in the United States and we want to encourage them to correspond with their friends and family after they feel comfortable with how the “email” process works. So, if you are interested in this project, let us know and we will send more instructions in the next month or so.
Well, Jennifer just looked over my shoulder and said my letter is getting a bit lengthy. She told me that she doesn’t want any of our readers to lose interest (what a good editor she makes!) It is late, so I suppose this is a good time to close. I will end with a thought from Mom Vander Poel, “truly the best things in life are simple and shared!” She encouraged us during her visit and we hope her reflections do the same for you.
Take care,
Shawn-Miguel and Jennifer
Peace Corps Honduras
"Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get - only with what you are expecting to give - which is everything." -Katherine Hepburn
