Friday, June 24, 2011

Destination: Honduras

Summer vacation: time to revisit the blogosphere.




I spent the last week in Honduras with the non-profit Global Brigades working on a series of home infrastructure projects. Students from UC Davis, UCLA and Maryland united forces to become the Bruggies and work with the rural community Zurzular. We poured cement floors in homes to alleviate the prevalence of Chaggas disease, built special stoves to help combat respiratory problems, built latrines and pilas for water storage, and taught classes in Spanish about the human body to the children.





The experience was humbling, to say the least. My major lets me study how to empower communities, and this experience was certainly a good exercise in praxis. Public health initiatives are definitely a real and viable solution to some of the serious inequality that exists in this world. Our projects, while small, did help improve the quality of life for the families we worked with. They also are efficient. For example, the eco-stoves use less firewood, which means cutting back on deforestation and the amount of time spent gathering wood. Having water storage devices frees up time to advance economic mobility rather than spending hours walking to and collecting water. It’s things like this that we take for granted back home in the United States. We forget how interconnected social and economic forces are with health. Good health should not be a privilege: it is a basic right.




In Honduras, I found enjoyment in simple pleasures. Long bus rides were spent rocking out to reggaeton and cheering to Lil’ Jon’s “Get Low”. Making friendship bracelets for new friends. Relaxing in hammocks. Drinking wine and watching fireflies. The slew of jokes about unfortunate bowel movements and getting sick. Plantains guest starring in every meal in a new form. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches around the clock. The sun rose, I spent the day doing construction, and then the sun set. The Internet and the rush of daily life felt so far away.







But now, onwards to Washington, D.C. Another airplane, another city, another adventure. Final exams ended not too long ago, and already, my summer vacation is in full swing.