As easy as kicking a drunk

Foremost, my apologies for the delay between postings, this was due to a short trip back to the states. In any case, I was crazy enough to come back to Honduras, and my first blogging order of business will be to relate my adventure on the medical brigade to La Hicaca, an excursion that happened just before my U.S. vacation.

The purpose of this brigade was straightforward; we were to check on twenty some water filters given in April to residents of La Hicaca, a small village in Olancho, a northern costal territory east of La Ceiba in Honduras. These water filters were the work of Dr. Pat, a specialist in adoption medicine and third world orphanages, and affiliated with a Virginia university. He was helped by Annie, a nurse and former NPH Honduras volunteer who now works for the NPH International medical team. She has worked closely with Pat on his NPH projects, for Pat also leads a brigade of medical students from his university each summer to do health check-ups for residents of La Hicaca and smaller towns outside Olanchito, the major township in Olancho with about 40,000 residents. The brigade is hosted by the Catholic Church in Olanchito, and they helped him identify the need for potable water in La Hicaca. In this tiny village, there is no electricity or running water, and residents were suffering from diarrhea and vomiting, especially children, due to parasites and bacteria in the water. Pat and his team handed out 22 filters (basically clay pots set inside larger plastic buckets with spigots) to homes in La Hicaca with specific instructions on how to care for them. He had come back test the quality of the filtered water and see how residents were doing.

With these simple goals in mind, we set off, leaving from the Ranch at 5AM Friday September 26. The running joke on the nine hour marathon through Honduras to Olanchito (thru Tegucigalpa, El Progresso, Tela, La Ceiba—this was the only safe, paved road there) was about the condition in which we’d find the filters. Pat not too optimistically predicted 6 out of 22 would be in use, with the rest of the round clay pots decorating La Hicacan yards with Honduran flora. To our surprise, when we went to La Hicaca on Saturday we found quite the opposite. Residents were actually using the filters, and when we asked them how they were feeling, most reported that incidences of diarrhea and vomiting in the children had disappeared or were dramatically reduced. This was rather heartwarming. In addition, the buckets occupied places of prominence in each home, and their owners cleaned and maintained them fastidiously. We took water samples from each of the filters, and Pat resolved to bring more filters down next spring.

With these reports the trip was by and large a success, and furthermore so because I learned one of the best Hondurismos I’ve seen yet, thanks to our guide Jorge. Jorge works for the church’s radio program in Olanchito, and as he grew up in La Hicaca, he offered to take us to the village. This required navigating cow herds and crossing a swollen stream, and prompted me to describe such a drive “a piece of cake.” I asked Jorge if there was a Spanish equivalent for something really easy. Sure, he said, it’s like patear un bolo—“kicking a drunk.” Because they can’t defend themselves, he said, waving his arms in front of him. Of course…

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These are pictures of some residents of La Hicaca. To the near left can be seen a red water filter bucket in the background. Most all the buckets were carefully covered in with a clean cloth like this one.