Carol in Honduras

My impression of Rosario is that she is a leader of leaders. She was raised in one of the communities that we went to yesterday, has a background in social work and may or may not be a midwife. She runs a clinic in a town near Quetzaltanango which has the goal of quality care for less money than the private clinics charge……and to avoid the public system which apparently will kill you if your disease doesn’t.

Rosario seems to be a leader of leaders. She is the initiator and glue for the women’s groups that she has started. There are 15 rural communities that have formed women’s groups. The women who choose to be involved come together to form a group and choose a president and secretary. Those groups then have an elected council who monitor the community groups. They then have had access to various projects like more efficient cook stoves, latrines and water filters. They also have some sort of a micro loan thing and the families can then have access to a cow, pigs, rabbits for their own use or to sell to supplement their income.

As we arrived the kids came running down the hill to greet and help us. We arrived to a crowd of people…….everyone from the community, education and government officials, TV crews …..

There were speeches and presentations

And tamales

And cake

And dancing

And best of all, piñatas!

It was over a year ago that I first went to Vega Grande with OSCAR to see the makeshift school…..4 poles and a roof. Yes! Vega Grande needs a school! Give me a proposal. The materials would cost around 5000$ US and the foreman another 500$. The community would commit to all the labor, the local govt. would commit to supplying the land. Saul wrote up the proposal on behalf of the community and I said OKAY….Let’s build a school.

This is the day of the inauguration and we’re getting ready to pack up.

A 40 minute drive took us to the place where we had to go on foot through the fields and over abridge and up a hill.