The sounds and stories we use to narrate the past form much
of our identity. Euphonious memories paint the pictures of my summer in
Honduras as a thirteen-year-old child in the late 90s. I met children who chanted my name, “Michael,
Michael!” I heard prayers in three
languages at once prior to shared clanks of cuchara to frijol. We woke up to the cock’s crow and went to bed
to the crashing of Caribbean waves. I
can still hear Pastor Carlos singing “How Great Thou Art” in Garifuna while
paddling the Limon. “Corina, Corina” played in the
foreground before laughter and singalongs.
“I can’t explain what it is like.
You just have to go.” was the way I responded to my parents. This was just days after the click of a
camera prefaced Uncle Tom standing a patient half my size next to me in the middle of clinic one day and saying “He and Michael are the same age.” The voice of my dear friend Gloria Lacayo
walking me through the identification of malaria under a microscope personalized the aeration of Off! canisters.
I have only ever skipped a year returning to Honduras once in the last twenty-three. I was writing a paper for grad school on “The Song of Hiawatha” when footage of the 2009 Coup crushed my dreams of a work trip to Copan and Utila. That missed year of travel did not hurt and possibly helped our leadership group process "serving from home." It was over that next year that we assessed
interest and strategized what would become AHMEN’s Community Empowerment
Program. The next several seasons
resulted in cheers of “Agentes Comunitarios de Salud Integral” graduating from
their 3-year trainings and applause to success stories of graduates' resulting achievements. Many bucket percussion sessions by the
Río
Plátano
and steel drum sunsets in Roatan later and the Río team was formed as as a yearly supplemental seminar series for 1-2 workshops sites. Out of the lion's den, our Honduran counterparts have arrived equipped to lead their own capacity trainings.
That is why it is with a sad heart and disappointed soul I
have to say that AHMEN’s Río de Agua Viva team is unable to return to Honduras this
year. We will postpone our travels until
further notice. The current world
climate has provided us multiple reasons to avoid our regularly scheduled community education team. However, within the last few week Honduras has not reopened its border from a May 15 decree. Morally, though, we
cannot risk traveling with Covid-19 to small
towns across the North Coast where the virus might not ever reach without the
arrival of Western missionaries. History
looks unkindly on that American tale, Feivel.
No, we write a new saga!
All of you, God. We precisely set up ACSI to serve as an end
to the white savior complex, and we are seeing it thread the needle like Odysseus
right now!
Jerry Castillo’s group of ACSI have completed a distribution
of essential goods to the neediest homes in and around Punta Piedra, Cusuna,
Iriona, Ciriboya, and Sangrelaya. The
coolest part isn’t that this happened in response to the food supply chain
screeching to a halt from stay-at-home orders but that ACSI-Cusuna decided it
was their responsibility to do it. Based upon the fact that they could not
conduct a previously-scheduled training on community savings and loan due to
social distance recommendations, Jerry and the gang proposed using this relief
effort as a community project.
Currently we are awaiting ACSI-Jutiapa’s final planning for
a similar effort by the Youth Network.
Greg Thompson
has done an excellent job taking over the responsibility of leading this portion of the Río team. The Youth Network advocates
for clean planet and clean communities on a whole. Last month, though, they approached this relief effort as a mentorship for their younger members. A distribution of food bags will take place
later this week!
ACSI-Yorito would like your help in proceeding to the next
level in sustainable clean water technology on a community-wide scale. They seek training from a medium-sized non-profit
specializing in scaling up what the group has already accomplished in terms of
cisterns and home-based bio-sand filtration.
I can’t wait to read reports from our leaders in these
locations and see what the agents in Raistá propose. They are still grieving from losing three
community members in a recent fire at the mayor’s house. Pastor Wilinton continues to smile the value
of health education to whomever will listen.
Stay tuned for more updates!
We will not be returning to Honduras until we can do so
ethically. In the meantime, we will
continue to support those Catrachos and Catrachas on the ground fighting for
basic rights to clean water, enough to eat, healthcare, education, and a home
in which to prosper. How can you
help? To truly make use of our lost
travel time, we could really use your help in the following areas:
·
Community Development Intern
o
Communication liaison, documentarian, web
presence development, discounted travel
·
Río de Agua Viva team leader to Yorito
o
Begin working with ACSI to bring dynamic sustainable economic development workshops, medical brigades, and
long-term planning volunteers
·
ACSI-Yorito planning committee
o
Maintain relationships with Yorito central
committee to ensure ongoing planning and project development
·
ACSI-Roatan planning committee
o
Work with Roatan Río team leader to plan an
educational needs assessment for a 3-year workshop training in Roatan
·
Traveling team members for all teams
o
The only requirements are to be open-minded and
as prepared as possible. Topics include environmental awareness, health
education, appropriate technology, community organizing, and more!
·
ACSI chief of fundraising
o
We are seeking an individual who would like to
donate several hours per month to help conceive and carry out various
fundraising strategies to multiply our efforts to provide both vital
capacity-building for Honduran leaders and scholarships for deserving volunteer team
members.
What can you do to help some kick ass community leaders build a healthier
and more just Honduras?
Together, we are the difference.
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