In April of 2014 I’ll return to Honduras on my third trip… this was written after our first trip in January of 2012: 

Last week I went to Honduras along with 4 other members of my local Rotary club to install clean water filters in a joint project with Pure Water for the World. The trip was paid for by our Rotary club aong with a $3,000 sponsorship from Wesley Chapel Toyota / Honda.

I packed my steel-toe boots, leather gloves, some heavy duty work clothes and a bag full of balloons. Our group of Rotarians were joined by a handful of other folks from around the country: a writer, an accountant, a dentist, 2 paralegals, a construction consultant and the CEO of an electronics company. Our base of operations was the town of Trojes (pronounced TRO-hayes).. a rag tag town with dirt roads near the Nicaraugan / Honduras border.

Pure Water for the World (PWW) has installed over 2,000 water filters and over 600 latrine facilities in the communities surrounding Trojes, and during our trip we added several water filters and 7 new latrines to that total. Another component of PWW’s mission is educating Hondurans about basic hygiene issues.

In Trojes we stayed in the Hotel Moderno ( I think it rates NEGATIVE 3 stars in the Michelin guide). Every morning about 200 roosters would promptly wake us up at 5AM. My first morning I climbed up to the roof of the hotel and was amazed at how you could hear roosters crowing and dogs barking from every point on the compass. From my vantage point I could see the entire town and the tropical mountains beyond…

Everyday after a decent breakfast at a local outdoor restaurant we would climb into the back of several 4X4 pick-ups and head up to the homes far up into the mountains. Sometimes it would take almost 2 hours to reach our destination, and as we climbed the mountains on muddy, slippery roads we were always about 8 inches from plunging off the side and falling several hundred feet into the jungle below. Once we got off the truck we had to hike a couple hundred yards down a steep muddy path to get to the target household.

The people living up in the mountains lived in adobe shacks with dirt floors, no electric, no sewer system, windows that were just a hole in the wall and a wood burning stove. One family that we helped grew coffee, beans and rice right there on the side of the mountain. Every home had one or 2 half starved dogs wandering around along with a gaggle of chickens and curious barefoot children everywhere you looked.

The Honduran people have a different attitude about danger and child rearing, I would see little kids right on the edge of the roads all over the country, and many times you would see a child totally alone with nary an adult in sight. Up in the mountains these little children would run up and down the muddy footpaths like it was nothing… I got the feeling that any child who reached adulthood must be one tough son of an onion….   

This trip gave me a new perspective and made me thankful for all the things we take for granted here in the United States.