Week 8 – Semana Ocho

November 20th, 2007 by Sophie Hermann

Well, the end of week 8 means I´ve been here 2 months already, with only one month left to go… time has flown!
Due to bad weather again in the mountains, we did not get any work done on site at Chiligatoro, but we finished the classroom painting on Tuesday for the daycare centre, so it looks all good with a fresh coat of paint on the walls and the ceiling…
The second half of the week I spent my mornings at the hospital garden, creating a drainage ditch, removing the top layer of weeds and roots, and then hoeing the soil. Hard work, but rewarding, and the sun even came out and shone down on us… The first trees are in: avocadoes, pears, peaches and apples, and the area dedicated for the vegie garden has had calcium put down on half the area, the other half the area being where we are currently still working. The two volunteers whose brainchild this project was had the pregnant women out to water regularly, as the garden is essentially for their benefit. One of the older maintenance men came out to lend us a hoe for digging the irrigation trench, and explained how these would work. As he spoke in relatively quick Spanish I only got about half of what he was saying, and as usual made the other half up in my head (getting quite a good imagination)… as he went on his way, he left us with a poem, standing next to us in the field, his eyes bright and his voice without hesitation, he spoke about life, about the link between optimism and happiness, about the present and the future, and blessed us with his gift of prose.
One of my greatest personal achievements this week was at the daycare centre, where I managed to get Naomi, a two year old, to eat by herself. Up until this point I´d noticed if she wasn´t fed by someone else, she would just wait patiently until a helper would come along and spoon the food into her mouth. I decided there were loads of kids younger than her who could do it, and it was about time she did too, so I guided her hand on the spoon over mine, scooped up some beans and rice, and brought it to her mouth. The second mouthful I helped her put the food on the spoon, and she was able to guide it to her mouth by herself. After that she was away! I was most chuffed, and figured she just needed a bit of encouragement… it did take her twice as long as anyone else to eat, but hey, a bit of practice… by the time I leave I aim to have Naomi eating like the best of them!
Friday afternoon a group of 6 of us left for Lake Yojoa, to stay at the DnD Brewery (second time for me but first time for the others). Stories of warm blueberry pancakes, cool mango ale and fresh fish from the lake was more than enough to entice them on the 3 hour journey on 3 buses from La Esperanza…
This time however, the sun shone both Saturday and Sunday, which meant we were able to go to the waterfall… very spectacular! We hired a guide and were shepherded through the mighty waterfall, clad in a very attractive attire of swimsuits, goggles and shoes (or in my case, tramping boots and socks) as the guide said it was safer so we did not cut our feet. What an experience! The water pounding down, powerfully, mercilessly, the spray even many metres away drenching us… We formed a line, all holding hands, treading carefully across the rocks as the water cascaded down upon us, whipping our breath away… To get behind the waterfull we had to jump into a pool of water, and reform our line on the other side of the bank, again, the water pounding down on us, the spray of the water misting in front of our eyes, goggles fogging up, our voices stolen away from us into the rush of wind and water, only our hands in each others creating a sense of strength and communication in the otherwise isolating conditions… Once behind the waterfall we were allowed a breather, until the wind blew another mouthful of water against us… we were lead up into a narrow space between the rocks, and then up into a cave behind the waterfall! It was amazing, we were all quiet, perched on the ledge in the dark, as our eyes tried to adjust to the light, all we could see were the forms of the other adventurers, with whispered breathless tones of the awesome experience we´d just had.
The return was similar, although by this stage my brain didn´t have to remind my nose to breathe, and a sense of exhilaration was in the air. We were all glad that our initial sense of fear and intrepidation did not stop us from being able to enjoy the experience!
We returned in high spirits for good food, drink, card games, chilled out music and general banter al fresco style at the brewery. Yeah I´m not really roughing it in Honduras am I ; )
Sunday morning four of us girls ventured down to the canal and hired a rowboat with ideas of rowing to the lake. Amidst many peals of laughter from both ourselves and the two others and men left on the bank, we finally figured out which way the rowers should sit, which way the boat shoud be pointing, which way the oars should be slicing through the water, and which direction the lake was… despite all this, we still managed a fairly haphazard methodology, zigzagging down the river, with cries of ¨No too much Sophie, wait for Emma¨, ¨Now Emma, hold on, Sophie needs to correct her side¨, the two rowers intent on their rhythm, another bailing out the water seeping in the bottom, and the fourth directing us with her hands as to who needed to compensate with her oar… all to great hoots of laughter all around. As we approached the overhead footbridge, the two armed men in camouflage gear on guard (a reasonably common site in Honduras in totally random locations) seemed to enjoy the four turistas attempting to row smoothly down the canal!
By the time we turned around, hoping the others were still on the bank to show off our new relatively smooth and quickened paddling pace, we had not sighted the lake at all… never mind, we had great fun in the process!
We left late morning, and even managed a stop for lunch at a place directly on the lake, which was beautiful and serene… we all wished we could stay there all evening or even longer… the stunning scenery of this country certainly has touched us all…