I live in the Cangrejal River watershed (La Cuenca) in Las Mangas, Honduras. It is a jungle paradise and I am seriously living a dream day in and day out. I am the assistant director and photography instructor for a non-profit organization called GUARUMA. We teach classes about environment, photography and computers to 60 children in two communities. You can see some my students’ work from this past semester on my Guaruma photo blog. I just started them on photojournalism after years of nature photography. They really took off and I can't wait to see them progress next semester.
Currently I am sitting in my cute little house looking at my bed that is draped with a mosquito net. I hear lots of bugs chirping and birds crawling around on my metal roof. I can see into my living room/kitchen and bathroom from my bedroom and my house is connected to our computer lab that is the only Internet cafe in La Cuenca, which is name for the whole watershed of communities that live here. Outside we have a nice yard where we are assembling a new concrete table with space in the middle for a guaruma tree. Looking across my yard I can see our volunteer house that houses 3 or 4 people. Just above our houses is our classroom, which is filled with the kid’s photos, completed projects and artwork, and this building is connected to the local kindergarten. Behind this classroom is our vegetable garden and to the side of our classroom is our orquideario or orchid greenhouse. Of the 10 or so communities of La Cuenca, Las Mangas is by far the cleanest and hopefully that is evidence of our presence here. Las Mangas is a small community of around 300 people, with one grade school, 7 pulperias or little stores run out of people's houses, one restaurant/cabins, a cemetery, a futbol field (just can't bring myself to call it soccer anymore), and a gorgeous river that runs alongside the entire town.
Keep in touch and as always leave comments as you wish.
Here’s my today:
I hear someone calling my name and I crawl out of bed, still sick
The gate must be locked, I hate that we have to worry about security
“Que tranzas?” I respond with “nada” and try to wipe the sleep from my eyes.
The children start showing up early at around 8am and the day begins with little time to catch my breath…wait stop that… “Got any eggs” says one of my teachers, yeah, will you cook some for me? sweet
So I grade the last of my final exams and eat my fried eggs and onions hoping it will stay in my stomach for at least an hour or so
I’ve been sick for 3 days probably just the flu but who knows.
I decide to take some pills because I know I’m gonna have to push myself today despite the illness.
We start construction on a huge concrete table and seats and prep to paint trash barrels for the community.
The sun is shining, music is playing and the kids are all smiling. It doesn’t get much better than this …that is until the barbecue.
Afterwards, I’m dirty, cement is everywhere and the kids energy pushes me on.
What a great day, let’s just hope it doesn’t rain on the table before it dries.
Rain rain stay away come again in two days.
Cool image by Franklin Rivera of Marlon pushing the cement up the plank to platform. That's out of focus me in the background.
We started the table in the yard, where it'll go, but quickly realized that it wasn't gonna work so we moved it to more level ground...
