Did you ever feel like you were getting lost in the shuffle? Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) must have felt that way while they were visiting Camasca on their brigade a few weeks ago. They were here for two full weeks, doing amazing work, but we must apologize for not giving them a lot of attention. I feel like I need to put some effort in my excuse for being so inconsiderate. There were only five of them: three physicians, one pharmacist, and one exceptionally talented fifteen-year old named Henry (son of Amy, one of the physicians). Five people can easily get lost, right? Besides, the whole time they were here, we had all sorts of other, bigger brigades coming and going. Our first ever surgical brigade demanded a great deal of our attention. Not to mention Brown/Wingate in Guachipilincito, VCU/FFPCS in Pinares, and a dental brigade jumping back and forth between Concepcion and Santa Lucia. February was one tremendously busy month. So, if the five people who spent time in Camasca felt as if they were neglected, you are probably right, and we’re sorry. But no one ever complained.
Perhaps I’m being a bit hard on myself. Truly, these five individuals were not at all demanding. If the squeaky wheel gets the grease, the quiet wheel simply turns unnoticed. The MAHEC brigade members unpretentiously arrived in town and checked into the local hotel. They got all their meals at the restaurant. Every day, they simply walked over to the health clinic or they spent some time at our bilingual school doing health screenings and playing with the kids. Henry, the fifteen year old who has fallen in love with the little town of Camasca, spent his days at the bilingual school. Henry was doing so well at the bilingual school that we were trying to sign him up as a volunteer. There’s that crazy little catch about having to finish High School.
He and his mom had been here before. MAHEC is very familiar with and well known by the town of Camasca. It wasn’t any big deal for them. I guess they just kind of blended in. Their service was actually profound, but it was administered with such subtlety that it demanded no praise. I realize now why it was that the few times I had the fortune to visit with them I felt so relaxed. It was as if they were saying to me, “Look, just leave the special china in the cabinet. We’re good with the plastic ware.” There’s an integrity in such service that we would all do well to emulate.
They seemed to do it all on their own with very little help from us. But lest you all think that we didn’t notice the amazing work you did, the beauty of the just relationships you committed yourselves to, and the special place you hold in the hearts of the people of Camasca and particularly the students at our bilingual school, we just want to say THANK YOU. I’m sure you’ll be back. Don’t forget to tell us when you’re coming.
Celebrations of Success
Celebrations of Success
It’s a time of celebrating around the world. The celebrations are different according to where you are. Thanksgivings are a bit difficult here as it is just another Thursday. Still, we celebrated it on the following Sunday with some friends from Colorado State University. They had the onerous task of picking out the live bird and carrying it to its sacrificial end. No presidential pardon in Honduras. Our celebrations have picked up since then. December 8 is the Roman Catholic feast of the Immaculate Conception, and as this is the feast day of the town we live in, we experienced a whole week of “fiestas patronales.” We began with a parade where our Shoulder to Shoulder car was one of six “carrozas,” or floats. We came in fourth for the competition (next year we’ll dedicate more energy to decorating), but the young woman who we sponsored as the candidate for town queen actually won the competition, the Shoulder to Shoulder Queen of Concepción. We had a “Rueda Chicago,” Ferris Wheel, in town that we rode upon. It was stacked up on tree stumps, and as it turned, it rocked a bit. The policeman standing next to it, however, told us it was perfectly safe, and why would anyone not believe a Honduran policeman. The Christmas season has officially started as of today, December 17, with the “aguinaldo,” the nine days before and including December 25. We weren’t aware of this until 4:00 AM this morning when we were joyously awakened by the sounds of sonic boom firecrackers, followed by a tone-deaf band. But there are celebrations here at this time of year that are truly joyous that simply don’t happen in the US.
Here, as the school year here runs from February through November, we celebrate graduations. The schools pull out all the stops to enliven their graduation events with extreme fest. Our kindergarten class held its graduation on November 28. Believe me, I have never seen anything cuter than a five-year old dressed in cap and gown proudly clutching a diploma. Our celebration with excessive pomp and circumstance looked about the same as hundreds of other kindergarten graduations throughout the Frontier of Intibucá. But, the difference between our public school and all the others is the superb education and the mastery of English amongst our students. This would not be possible without the commitment and fidelity of our donors. It is with enthusiasm and gratitude that our students, and their parents, realize the dream of securing an excellent education and an opportunity for success.
Graduations were not only celebrated at our bilingual school, but at many middle schools and high schools throughout the Frontera. Thirteen young men and women, having been supported by our scholarship program, graduated from High School this year. Education and a high school diploma are taken for granted in the United States. Here, that is not the case. Public education is said to be free, but when you add up the costs of materials, uniforms, transportation, and other incidental costs, education beyond the sixth grade is simply too great of a financial burden for most families. With the generosity of our donors, many families are given a priceless gift. Children are given an education, an opportunity to journey along a road that takes them from the despair of poverty to the hope of a successful career. The students who receive scholarships through Shoulder to Shoulder’s donor program are committed and intelligent. They have all the tools for success, but lack the resources to achieve it. But you and we have shouldered with these students and their families, and this year thirteen of them have realized a milestone that would otherwise have been impossible.
Congratulations High School Graduates – Class of 2015
José Milton Mejía Nolasco – Magdalena
Denis Antonio Ramos – Camasca
María Claudia Mejía Ramos – Camasca
Deylyn Yanory Amaya – Camasca
María Estela Vásquez – Camasca
Neiby Merari – Concepción
Dania Concepción Ramos – Concepción
María Fátima Orellana Castro – Concepción
Lesbia Suyapa Márquez – Concepción
Elmer Danilo López – Concepción
Jhonal Alejandro Torres Mejía – Concepción
Estenia Vásquez Pineda – Concepción
Enrique Mauricio Arévalo – Concepción
If you would like to read more about these graduates and the accomplishments of other students receiving scholarship support, please follow the links below.
A Road to Travel
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A Road to Travel
One of the things I often find quite humorous living on the Frontera, where there are no paved roads, is asking for driving directions. One typical answer might go something like this: “Once you cross the river (literally crossing through the river), you should look off to your right and take that road. Look carefully, because it may be difficult to recognize it as a road. After that, you’re home free, providing of course your truck does not go careening down the 500 foot cliff.” Even odder than the answer for directions, is the answer for how long any particular trip will take. The answer is always the same: a short, somewhat insecure, pause followed by the answer of “twenty minutes.” Nothing here is only twenty minutes away. It usually takes about an hour to get from one town to the adjacent one, and that’s on the main road (‘main’ being an adjective used very liberally). The answer of twenty minutes is either denial, pure and simple, or perhaps a wish. It may also be an acknowledgement that if roads were paved, it really wouldn’t take more than twenty minutes to get from any place on the Frontera to any other place.
But they aren’t paved, and traveling here is something of a metaphor for how difficult, bordering on impossible, it is to get anywhere. But on Saturday, November 7, Damaris Quintero and Kate Clitheroe, who run the Yo Puedo girls’ empowerment program, along with the assistance of Damaris’ husband, managed to transport ten sixth grade girls from all over the Frontera to the southernmost town of Santa Lucia for a twenty-four hour retreat. Getting them there was quite a challenge. But that challenge dims in comparison to the miracle of where the program Yo Puedo is getting them. The roads of opportunities for young girls living on the Frontera are even more impassable than the roads between the small villages. The huge potholes along these roads, the rivers that need to be crossed, the dangers of ditches and cliffs that present themselves at every corner, are so negating of any journey that most girls end up simply stuck. They often become mothers much too young, a generational, cyclical poverty spins them into a limiting destiny. The road is lost.
The ten girls who made the journey to the Santa Lucia Clinic and the Yo Puedo retreat represent nine Yo Puedo schools. In the Yo Puedo program the girls are learning that they can make their own decisions about who they are and who they will become. They do not need to be stuck along the side of the road. The retreat presented the same theme, but in a way to honor these young girls who have been so very committed to the program. The theme for the event was how to be a young person who goes against the current, the current being society’s pressures that often stifle someone’s own decision making. In the retreat they named and took ownership of their talents, learned the processes for making informed decisions, and decided what they would do to go against the current. At the closure, they shared their life goals, and perhaps it was not a surprise that among them were doctors, dentists, lawyers, and teachers.
To be honest, it is not clear whether these young women will realize their dreams. They may in fact be overcome by the harshness of the journeys they have already begun. However, one thing is clear. If these young women do not believe in themselves, the greatness they possess within themselves, then nothing will ever change for them. The Yo Puedo program and this Yo Puedo retreat has started them along an incredible journey.
The road is not what impairs the journey, but rather the unwillingness to take it.