Welcome to Honduras
Alexandra Fournier
October 12, 2011

At the end of July Shannon and I had the opportunity to travel to the western highland mountains in Guatemala and visit the interns in Comitancillo. Now, 6 months since we first arrived in our host countries, the Guatemalan interns; Claudia and Mafe, had their turn to visit the CAUSE Honduras programs in Iriona.

With much anticipation and excitement, the girls arrived after several long days of travel. The biggest challenge they faced during their time was the heat. Even though it rains frequently in October, we still reach temperatures of around 40 C˚ in Ciriboya, and in comparison to the cold mountains it’s quite a shock. A staff meeting on the first morning gave them an introduction to the CAUSE programs in Honduras, a chance to get to know the staff, as well as Claudia’s first motorcycle lesson! That morning we also gave the girls a tour of the clinic next door and introduced them to the Cuban doctors, some of our closest friends in Ciriboya. Although Ciriboya is a very small community, Shannon and I wanted to give them the full experience; eating lunch at Tia Vita’s restaurant, stopping by at Ester’s store (one of the nicest women in the community), visiting the beach, enjoying local women’s delicious coconut breads and travelling to other communities. That afternoon we travelled by car and boat to Sangrelaya, a community where CAUSE started running Leadership and Business Development programs for the first time this year. Since the classes are slowly coming to an end, the women discussed what topics they learned from the course, including: rights of women and children, health, nutrition, drug addiction, financial management as well as their community project. The women of Sangrelaya are planning on building a fence and entrance way around the local cemetery as their community project and were kind enough to give us a tour.

On their last day in Ciriboya, the four of us left at 6am with our neighbour Mirna to venture into the mountain where they cultivate yucca every morning. Yucca is one of the biggest agricultural products produced in Iriona and through a long process is baked to make cassava. Mirna and her sister let us accompany them on a typical morning’s work into the yucca field where they showed us how they use machetes to clear the field of brush, dig the yucca out of the ground and pull with all their might. The local women who are yucca farmers are some of the strongest women I’ve ever met. Once the yucca was collected, they placed it in big burlap sacks which they carry on their backs. On our way back to the community, they took us to another property of theirs that was lush with orange and grapefruit trees. The women used long braches to reach the fruits high up in the trees, and then twist and shake the branches to make the fruits fall down. Although the trip was wet and extremely muddy, the adventure was well worth it to experience such a unique aspect of Garifuna culture, especially for our Guatemalan friends.