25. July 2010 by Fortunato Velasquez.

I cry when I see the state of the hospital that serves the community where I live.  The Roberto Suazo Cordoba Hospital in La Paz was built during the presidency of Mr. Suazo Cordoba, a native of the city, in the 1980s.  The hospital is located at the “El Soldado” round-about, the city’s busiest intersection and entryway to the mercado at the right of the picture on the bottom right where thousands of citizens of the outlying aldeas come on weekends to shop and be seen.  At the hospital is where most of the departamento’s babys are born.  The pictures are of the maternity ward.  I work with the Hogar Materno Grupo de Apoyo (support group), a group of cititizens and hospital employees who raise money to improve the quality of life for the hospital’s patients.  The Hogar Materno is a separate building where the aldeas’ poor pregnant mothers come down from the mountains to stay before they are ready to deliver, often staying there several days: the conditions there are even worse than in the pictures.  My present projects at the hospital are to help install a potable water system at the Hogar Materno similar to the one installed by ADEC (Agua Desarroyo para la Comunidad) at the Hogar San Jose for the orphan children, and to write an SPA grant (Small Project Assistance) to renovate the hospital’s maternity unit.  There is so much to do….

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12. July 2010 by Fortunato Velasquez.

I could kick myself in the butt.  Sometime during my five days at the Copan Ruins I inadvertently changed the setting on my camera from the small pixel size that allows me to post photos onto my blog to the larger size that doesn’t unless I resize them, which takes a long time, especially when there are hundreds of pics.  Included here are the few I did take of the Copan Ruins in the smaller postable size.  My pics of Cancun, Merida, Yucatan and Guatemala will have to wait.  The Copan Ruins are quite large.  The very top left pic shows the paved path one can walk to reach the ruins from the town named Copan Ruinas, the area once a suburban living area of the ancient central ruling center where the largest pyramids and stone buildings housed the government and its bureaucracy.  The top two left pics next to the sendero (path) show how as the centuries passed the pyramids were built larger by successive dynasties, on top of existing structures.  The door of the second top left pic leads to the building seen in the cutout, a huge ceremonial center called the Rosalillo, discovered intact with much of its original color.  The stellae and works of art positioned throughout the Copan Ruins made me imagine myself walking here amongst the teeming population living here when the highly advanced civilization that occupied the Copan Valley nestled among forested mountainous peaks was at its zenith over a thousand years ago, one of many similar Mayan cities.  I have returned to my duties in La Paz and expect to be posting more pics in the smaller pixel size soon.

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3. July 2010 by Fortunato Velasquez.

No matter how humble, there is no place like home.  Copan Ruinas, Honduras; Guatemala; the beaches of Cancun on the Caribbean; the beaches of Merida, Yucatan on the Gulf of Mexico; the thousand-year-old stupendous stone buildings and pyramids my ancestors constructed to build their many magnificent cities; and all the colorful, intricate artisanry redolent of ancient culture created by beautiful people, my people, resurrected in me a pride that I realized anchors my presence to those first ancestors who rose from the middle American jungles over 3,000 years ago to build a far-flung, highly stratified civilization.  I am already planning another journey next spring to visit the ancient Mayan sites of Tikal and Palenque, this one to be entirely overland without a daily itinerary to hinder my movements.  I discovered on my recent travels that the freedom allowed to me by choosing my bus rides whenever lets me linger, wherever.  And at the end of the road, I come home to La Paz, Honduras.  I will post a few pictures after I wind down, for I am expecting a contingent of PCVs from the La Paz area to gather on my rooftop tomorrow for a Fourth of July barbeque. 

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10. June 2010 by Fortunato Velasquez.

The bites began the day after I returned from Tegus last Thursday from Mid-Term Meds.  The little critters like to eat at night.  Halfway through a PCVs term of service we are required to see the PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer) for a medical evaluation.  We submit stool samples, they draw blood, we have a dental exam and eye exam and the docs address any questions we have with a brief physical exam.  Ironically, the critters weren’t even considered.  They must have climbed aboard my body from the filthy seat I occupied on the bus, either to there, or back home.  Sunday night the bites were so bad I couldn’t sleep, yet I could not see anything on my body; just the felt bite and intense itching afterward.  But Sunday night, I couldn’t sleep after all, I captured two of the tiny little buggers between my fingertips and squashed them onto a piece of paper.  As big as a period and tan colored.  The doc in La Paz didn’t know what they were, but prescribed meds.  The dermatologist I consulted in Comayagua two days later diagnosed Scabiasis y Pediculiasis and showed me blown-up pictures of numerous of the vile creatures, all related.  There, I said, recognizing my tormentors from the many photogenic beasties and the welts they raised as they fed on my carcass.  I will be medicating myself as I vacation to the Copan Ruinas, Guatemala, Cancun and Merida, capital of the Yucatan in Mexico where I will meet up with my daughter Andrea and her family.  The photos above show the purified water project complete and the final touching up of the operational system.  I return to La Paz July 3rd.  Life is good, bugs or no bugs.

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30. May 2010 by Fortunato Velasquez.

It has been raining every day for the past three weeks, mostly at night, although there are occasional daytime showers.  Last night, however, it rained all night and it is still raining right now in the middle of the day.  And these are not sprinkles but a downpour that has been coming down for several hours.  There is so much water in the air that the salt in my shaker has become a viscous goo.  The rainy season is during May and June, this year with a vengeance.  We had a team of eight INFOP (Instituto de Formacion Profesional) agricultural students at the Hogar San Jose last week to help plant valeriana on the grounds and lay out future gardening spots.  They were there when our last two water tanks arrived and helped with the installation.  It was hands-on learning and right up their alley.  The final installation has unfortunately been delayed due to a missing regulator valve.  Consequently, the delivery of potable water cannot begin until the valve arrives, which I hope is soon.  For I leave on vacation June 12th and will not return to La Paz until July 3rd and I would sure like to have the system in place before my departure.

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24. May 2010 by Fortunato Velasquez.

“Tengo miedo,” she said.  I’m scared.  The second-year high school student stood before the escalator at the Cascadas Mall.  She had never seen an escalator and hesitated putting her foot onto the upwardly moving step.  Many of the students at the Instituto Lorenzo Cervantes are from rural aldeas (villages) that have few services or amenities (no running water, paved streets, stores).  My contraparte Ana, the Profe Guadalupe, and myself chaperoned thirty alumnos to Tegucigalpa’s Museo de la Historia de Honduras last Saturday.  Tegus, the capital city of more than one million inhabitants, contains many wonders, the fabulous museum being one.  Although prohibited from taking pictures in most exhibits, especially the mixographs of Mexican artist Tamaya, we were allowed a little freedom.  Afterward we went to the mall for lunch and shopping.  The kids had a great day.  I had a great day.  I love my job!

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20. May 2010 by Fortunato Velasquez.

Dr Barry Byer of the Virginia Hospital Center Medical Brigade arrived with his team last Saturday to assess the Hogar San Jose’s needs.  The expectant children brushed their teeth twice that morning and dressed in their best clothing.  Sister Edith played the guitar to make the norteamericanos feel welcome.  We hope they remember us when they return to the States.  Monday, my contraparte Licenciada Ana and I returned to the prison to complete the HIV post-testing with the results of the 47 tests we did on the 11th.  Everyone turned out negative.  To document more good news, I have been notified by the ADEC water engineers that the purification tanks will be installed at the Hogar San Jose next Tuesday May 25th.  The children will soon have potable water to drink on a 24-hour basis.

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14. May 2010 by Fortunato Velasquez.

Of the 176 prisoners at the Centro Penal (15 of them women) 40 elected to have HIV tests done, a quarter of them women.  Our team is led by a dynamo of a nurse, Licenciada Ana, who has rejuvenated the approach to the education and treatment of HIV/AIDS in the departamento of La Paz.  All university graduates in the country are called Licenciado, hence yours truly, who has also been appointed to the board of the Comite Interinstitucional de Lucha Ante el VIH/SIDA, a group organized of different community activists to fight the scourge of HIV in the country, Central America’s highest.  My title on the comite is that of an Asesor-Tecnico, sort of like an educator.  Each departamento has a comite.  I personally interviewed and provided HIV counseling to 8 prisoners who chose to be tested.  The bottom pics show our arrival at the prison and the top left pic shows our team of health care workers, four of whom were auxiliary nurses in training.  It is an honor to have been selected to work with these dedicated professionals.  Three weeks ago, a brand-new CAI clinic (Centro de Asistencia Integral) opened at the hospital in La Paz, a clinic focused on the education and treatment of those in the community diagnosed with HIV.  It will be a challenge to try and overcome the stigma and discrimination in the local populace that accompanies a diagnosis like this in a semi-rural community whose citizens still take pride in being known as a Paceno, someone who was born here, and who subsequently takes pride in knowing everyones’ lineage.

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9. May 2010 by Fortunato Velasquez.

I still have to wash my undies on Mother’s Day.  From bottom right is my pila where I do my laundry on my rooftop terraza.  I have great plans for a rooftop garden that will one day change the ecological landscape of my home.  I spend a lot of time up here, the view is terrific, as you can see from my panoramic pics.  I live right in the center of the city and across the street a new commercial establishment is being constructed. Sunday is my only day off and the only day I have to take care of housekeeping tasks. Tomorrow I’m coordinating the shipment of 20+ bags of compost to the Hogar San Jose; Tuesday I’m going to the local prison as part of a team to do HIV counseling and testing for 40 scheduled prisoners; and Saturday I am facilitating a medical brigade team from the states at the orphanage.  Interspersed among those activities are four English classes I give weekly to different age groups.  This past weekend my friend Jen came to visit from Trujillo, a twelve-hour trip away, bless her heart.  She was in town to give an HIV charla to the soon-to-be new class of H-16 Peace Corps Volunteers. There is never a dull moment in Honduras.

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30. April 2010 by Fortunato Velasquez.

A hamburger has to have pickles, tomato, lettuce, onion, cheese, mustard, mayonnaise, meat and a hamburger bun, which is what we feasted on last Saturday at the Hogar San Jose.  The kids had their first cheeseburgers ever with Lays Potato Chips and they loved them.  My friend Patrick, posted at San Marcos, Santa Barbara, had stopped for the night on his way to Tegus from where he would ship out after having finished his two-year tour and I put him to work cooking hamburgers.  He’s tall as a pine tree, very Anglo-looking, and dressed in a bright green T-shirt and bright yellow pants he kind of reminded me of a hamburger himself.  The kids loved him.  Afterward we sat around and ate watermelon, the kids commenting on the technique of eating hamburgers that I taught them.  Grab the burger with both hands, open mouth wide, bite!  And enjoy!

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