Peace Corps Honduras: Honduras Trip Report, Feb.-March 2013, #3

Obviously, folks since 2 premature postings have already gone out today, no use putting the text here once again. You can read all about it in versions #1 and #2. Sorry I didn't get a chance to do a final edit before the @#$%^&* blog twice posted itself spontaneously!! It seems as though it had a mind of its own. Here, I will only post the remaining photos and try to explain them, but will not attempt again to intersperse them with the text, as obviously, I'm not capable of that. Or perhaps the photo-posting system got overloaded? Ideally, these would have been slide shows. One slide show was originally posted when this blog started, but I have been unable to duplicate that. Check back and read the text separately (twice, if you like)!! I knew it would be a challenge for me to try to insert the photos in their rightful places. Now, I give up and beg your indulgence. Thank you. Gracias.

OK, where were we? Will try not to repeat photos already posted earlier, just those that remain. However, I may end up repeating some. Below are Santa Lucia photos.

Orchid gorws out of a living tree.

Last two above, when fire was smoldering

The Last Supper, no Honduran home can be without it.

Kids getting therapy at Teleton in Choluteca, including some doing speech mirror therapy

and a boy indulging in tactile therapy.

My former scholarship student Jorge with his bride, above. Below, boys play street soccer at night in Choluteca after the blazing sun goes down.

Above, two 20-year-olds abandoned by the fathers of their children; top is Neris, a possible future nursing student, with her almost two-year-old daughter; below is Marciel whose year-old son accompanies her every day as she makes tortillas at Guasaule at the Nicaraguan border. Their children looked healthy.

Above, in El Triunfo, Jose Luis after motrocycle accident avoiding collision with a dog, his twin daughters, almost 2, his mother (my hostess) cooking, and Mercedes, now 95, with her niece and sitting alone. Her sister was away in Teguc.

Above, top Pedro Joaquin's twin daughters, wife and family, PJ making music and in his home shop fixing electronic equipment, below, early lip/palate patient, almost grown up.

Above scenes all from El Triunfo, mostly folks who begged me to take their photo.

Above, patients wait outside Triunfo health center. Inside, nurse looks through paper files.

Above motorize cart hired for the day, kids bathing in river.

Top, one of my champion village health volunteers, Blanca, in Rio Grande #1. Local school kids.

Scenes en route to Matapalos, would you trust your child on that diesel-operated ferris wheel?

This is Matapalos where my late volunteer, Lea, lived; she and her husband are buried up the hill next to her parents. Her grandchildren are among the school kids. A daughter and son appear below.

Above, Bessy, begging at the Honduras-Nicaragua border--gave her money to buy a cell phone, which I hope she still has.

Bus station rest rooms

Sandra's leg looks tumor-free.

Sandra with her mother, who has decided seven children are enough.

Luis's children, Alexandra and Elian, play with their new puppy next to their new maid, Salome.

Tearing up La Esperanza's cobblestone streets in deference to vehicle drivers.

Around La Esperanza, above Luis's daughter Alexandra fingers a melon. Lottery ticket seller in wheelchair he made of bicycle parts.

More Esperanza scenes, including two young men in their cups.

Here above, La Esperanza's Banco Atlantida teller line--was my bank when I lived in Honduras. North-coast friend Felicita's 20-year-old son works there. Later, at dinner with him. Then below, Chunga on left with a customer at her market clothes shop.

At Jesus de Otoro birthing center, I donate a wheelchair to the doctor in charge. A newborn with severe harelip/cleft plate with his mother. Another woman who has just given birth nurses's her baby girl.