"Summertime"

Hola! To provide an update on UPEP’s trip, this is Ben Kirby, a Civil and Environmental engineering junior and member of the UPEP Water group.

For the first time in El Porvenir, I awoke this morning to the alarm clock instead of our friendly neighborhood roosters. Realizing today is my assigned cleaning day, I got an early start, but first things first: I began brewing some Café Copan coffee while I took in the already hot and humid beach breeze. As I washed dishes and swept a few beetles off the floor, I decided to listen to music. John Coltrane’s “Summertime” was the song of choice. Being the first to rise this morning, I sat on the porch with beach in view with no one but John Coltrane for company. I found myself reflecting on the group’s experiences as our first week came to a close. I reached the conclusion that “Summertime” and our group’s experiences have several common traits:

1) Like Coltrane’s sax solos, the first week was fast-paced. For instance, our schedule on Day 5 began around 7:30am for dengue outreach with the Centro de Salud (health clinic). Paired with clinic employees, we went house to house to inspect wash basins, barrels, bottles, etc. for mosquito larvae. I was paired with Gabriel, a 22-year-old English-speaking local, with whom I have developed a fairly close bond. During inspections, we encountered two of seventeen houses with mosquito larvae, both of which tested positive, meaning the larvae’s mother mosquito carried dengue. Afterwards, UPEP members regrouped and toured El Porvenir’s municipality building on the way back to the house. The municipality’s kitchen crew was busy making lunch which emitted the enticing aroma of shrimp and spices leaving me enviously craving their food. At the house, I settled on Chef Boyardee ravioli straight from the can. A few of us took a quick beach break and cooled off in the water. In the evening, we took a ride to the colegio to meet the Junta de Agua, El Povenir’s water management group. The Junta presented two informative videos they made which discuss water conservation, water sanitation, and the town’s water system, among other themes. Afterwards, we discussed the videos and touched base with the Junta. For dinner, we ate at an open-air restaurant on the beach. To my delight, shrimp was on the menu. With my shrimp craving satisfied, we moseyed on over to the basketball court to play with Alex, the bombero, and his friend Oscar. At this point, the time was already around 9pm. After a draining game of baloncesto, the day was not yet over. We went to Nick’s restaurant for some refreshments while we checked emails and relaxed. After showering and chatting a bit, it was bed time and well past midnight. Day 5 was over.

2) Improvisation is key in both “Summertime” and our everyday projects. One unforeseen event arose when the local school teachers went on strike, effectively closing El Porvenir’s schools which we had plans to work with. Thus, we rolled with the punches, and new plans were developed. We also invited the colegio students to have a culinary and cultural exchange for dinner last night. With limited access to American ingredients, we had to choose dishes we could prepare in house. The group worked its magic, and we served peanut butter and jelly sandwiches along with banana pancakes and homemade syrup. Our improvisation continued as the students arrived, bringing blocks of ice for a traditional Honduran pineapple-based drink called “chicha.” However, the ice blocks needed to be broken into much smaller ice cubes. To break the ice, we looked for a hammer or useful tool without success and failingly attempted to break the ice by throwing it on the concrete floor. To solve this problem, we grabbed a large rock from outside instead and successfully broke the ice blocks. On the topic of breaking ice, we figuratively broke the ice after a bit of awkwardness between the colegio students, most of whom speak no English, and the UPEP members, several of whom speak only “un poquito” Spanish. Colin, a UPEP Garden group member, plugged in his iPod and proceeded to have an impromptu dance off with a Michael Jackson-idolizing colegio student named Dixon. This helped break down the language barrier and brought cheers and laughter from all present. After the dance off, we were all dancing at some points and having a good time. Jessica, also of the UPEP Garden group, further broke the ice by offering her services as a Henna tattoo artist. Seemingly every colegio student stood in line for a tattoo and being a good sport, Jessica spent most of the night inking the students. With the help of some quick thinking and improvisation, the night was a success in my book.

3) Like even John Coltrane, who mastered the technique of circular breathing, the group needs an occasional breather. This morning’s schedule had originally included an early morning mountain hike up to the town’s water tank with the Junta de Agua for inspection, cleaning, and general maintenance. However, more improvisation came as a water pipe broke near the Centro de Salud requiring the Junta’s total attention, effectively cancelling the hike. This allowed for a little breather and beach time as well as time for the writing of this blog.

As Week 2 begins, I would say all is going well. Aside from a few minor cuts, stomach aches, and pesky mosquito and ant bites, morale is high, and there is already a feeling of accomplishment but not of complacence. In the meantime, stay tuned and expect an update from Colin in the next day or two.

"Idle Time"

Any picture is worth 1000 words- a hackneyed expression, maybe, but in this case a truism. Unfortunately, I only have 600 to describe Ut Prosim El Porvenir’s mission over 2500 miles from Blacksburg. But if I could choose one scene to half-articulate, I’d show you our extended and diverted walk home last night from the local secondary school of El Porvenir, Honduras.

Since our arrival in Honduras, we’ve quite literally hit the ground running. From the start, our daily schedule has enveloped us and taken on a life of its own: an unwitting game of chicken on the Honduran roadways with an intrepid taxi driver, followed immediately by an onslaught of rapid, agriculturally-themed Spanish with the local garden group, which led invariably to laying the beginning foundation of the fire station with a group of vaguely related, jocular, and water-happy volunteer firefighters, not to be overshadowed by the door-to-door Dengue inspections we helped conduct in conjunction with a meticulously capable team from the health clinic, courtesy of a national emergency Dengue mandate. However, four days into the mix, catching my breath and reclining on the untouched Honduran shore, it’s not any of these events which fully prove an allegory for UPEP’s presence in the community, but rather the seemingly insignificant return trip from one such event.

As Heather, our nonprofit community liaison, advised us yesterday, “Idle time always represents an opportunity.” And so it did. Dragging our feet on the freshly paved Porvenir streets on the way back to the volunteer house last night, the seven of us were physically exhausted but in high spirits, shouting out our token Spanish phrases haphazardly to the local pulperia owners and their naked, sun-kissed children. From the obscurity behind us came the cry, “Ey! Every-bady! Lez go! High fives!” Circling us on a tricked-out bicycle was Alex, the apparently bilingual head of El Porvenir’s volunteer fire department. I’d like you to picture Alex as the guy at your high school who knew everyone and played every sport. Well. Now add a wife, a few children, and the respect of an entire community, and you’re beginning to understand the role that Alex Rodriguez plays in this town.

As he treated us to a sampling of the Backstreet Boys and Justin Bieber while Alex herded us down the street, an idea struck him, “Ey. guys! Come to my mahm’s! I cho ju plans!” We stepped into a nearby pulperia (corner store), where he retrieved some papers from the back and seated us all around a picnic table. He then proceeded to lay in front of us 3 different blueprints for his distant and ideal firehouse, all professionally designed and executed, and acting in sharp contrast to the surrounding tin roofs and one room shacks. Speaking rapid and fervent Spanish, Alex articulated every detail of his dream for the community, from the garages that would house the already present and functioning fire trucks, down to the last bunk bed, where, he assured us, there would always be room for community volunteers to overnight. Finally, we turned our attention to the last page of the plans, which consisted of a list of numbers attached to a large quantity of zeroes in any language. Alex glanced down at the page, smiled at us wearily, and said, “Si Dios lo quiere, va a pasar.” (If God is willing, he will make it happen).

Exchanging Spanglish goodbyes a few hours later with Alex and his fellow bombero (a secondary student who moonlights as a shark hunter), we mentioned that our group would be “reforesting the beach” with the secondary school later this week. The bomberos eagerly sought out further details and rapidly indicated their commitment to such a pursuit, also mentioning that they were hoping to challenge us to a basketball game the next night. I marveled to myself at how in a town where thirty minutes late translates to a prompt arrival, community initiatives seem to spring up with surprising alacrity.

Reflecting on our parting last night, I find that it presents an apt metaphor for UPEP’s principal function in El Porvenir. We’re not here to provide physical labor, or act as founts of wisdom, or offer donations. There is such a hotbed of excitement and potential involvement just simmering under the surface, as Alex’s commitment so significantly proved. Our aim is to gather this vision, harvest it, and provide these diverse and vibrant community members with the stage and resources to meet one another halfway- something our visibility in the community has already begun to foment.

Ut Prosim El Porvenir: So That I May Serve The Future

Welcome to the Ut Prosim El Porvenir's summer 2010 blog. This is Emily Barry, the graduate student leader of this group. It has been six days since UPEP’s arrival in the coastal town of El Porvenir, Honduras where we will be blogging for the duration of our month-long trip. UPEP is a Virginia Tech student-run service-learning course where students learn about the community of El Porvenir and about issues of international development and community organization related to their particular field of interest. Then, students travel to El Porvenir to work with a variety of local government and non-profit groups to form relationships and build capacity within existing community programs. We have a total of eight VT student participants in El Porvenir this summer, and these students are working with community partners on programs geared towards public health outreach, women’s empowerment, agriculture, and water sanitation. We will try to update our blog every few days, so stay tuned! The first blogger is Nicole Russell, a junior Business Management/Spanish major.