About the trip:
A few months ago there was an announcement that there would be a late summer trip to Honduras that students at UNCA were invited to attend. This trip was described as a service learning project which will allow us to visit another country, learn about its people, and help some local schools in the process. I figured that more details were to follow, but that’s still the understanding I have today. You see, rather than going to Honduras with the Idea that we will be fixing things there, we are going with the intention of helping in any way we can. We have some understanding of the culture and customs of the people there, but far less than we will upon our return. We also have some idea of where we will be staying, but many of the details are vague. We will be staying in a little village called Santa Lucía which is located in the south western part of the country, in the mountains. We will be working with a non-profit organization that does a lot of work there called Shoulder to Shoulder. They have a medical facility there which we will be staying at. This facility has running water and electricity most of the time as well as internet access, when the electricity is working. These things can and have been know to stop working for days at a time. The schools and people we will be helping are not all fortunate enough to have accommodations as good as the ones we will be staying in. I’m told that by comparison we will be given the celebrity treatment. This is a country where the minimum wadge is about $3.30 per day and most people don’t have more than a 6th grade education. It is easy to get caught up in the idea that we are privileged to the point that we can ‘fix’ things here or discouraged by the daunting poverty and lack of health care and educational systems. But that is one reason that we are partnered with Shoulder to Shoulder for this trip. They have been doing work in this area for over 13 years and have no plans of leaving any time soon. While our trip will be brief, only lasting two weeks, and therefore can’t have any tremendous impact on the country, region, or even individual lives within the country, shoulder to shoulder will provide planed, steady support for many years. This form of aid is less destabilizing than large, brief projects which tend to cause more problems over the long term. We will be involved in a larger project which will help the lives of the people of Honduras for years to come and will change our lives forever.
About the blog:
This blog is an idea of mine that comes from a blog that I did earlier this year on a trip to Hattiesburg, MS to work with Habitat for Humanity. This time I will be posting weekly about my research and preparations leading up to the trip to Honduras. This will last from today, 5/4, through July 31st. Beginning August 1st we will be on our way to Honduras and I will begin posting daily during the two week trip until August 14th, when we return. After that I will return to weekly postings about the additional research, fund raising events, and community awareness programs that we will be doing. This blog will conclude with the end of the fall semester in mid-December. Other members of the group from UNCA that will be going on this trip are invited to post here as well and may be guest bloggers from time to time, there are about 13 of us going to Honduras.
I’ve never used this poll feature before, but I have a question for you readers so let’s see if this works.
Tags: Planning, Research, Shoulder to Shoulder
