ICS blog

Team Blantyre can hardly believe that we are now well into the second half of our placement and are determined, now more than ever, to achieve all the targets set for us.

The toilet block at Namwiri is nearly ready for handover. It is structurally complete with only the roof and doors to finish. Since splitting into two groups, the pace of the work has increased and the waiting-for-tools-to-become-free has decreased. The door frames have been inserted and the wall to separate the teacher’s toilet from the learner’s has been built.  We are due to start building at Mdeka Primary on Monday the 6th and as a team, are very much looking forward to getting stuck in again!  

Upon arriving in Mdeka the team were anxious to begin work immediately. Our first assignment was to service several of the community boreholes, some of which also provided water for a number of schools. Lead by our Borehole technician, Mr. Harold Danger, we successfully restored life to 18 boreholes over a period of two days. The local communities were all very keen to watch and help where they could. It was shocking to see the condition of some of the pumps and it was obvious that some had not been serviced since they were built.

Sadly we’ve come to the end of our 10 weeks in Honduras; each one of us has had an exciting, eye-opening and challenging time in this fascinating country. We have seen and experienced so much more than any of us could have imagined.

The placement is still going on, many things are happening. So far we have done so many activities like participatory diagnosis in Katengeza and Phalazi villages, attending life skills training, training the youths at Malingunde primary and secondary schools and also the youths at the youth centre in T.A Masumbankhunda’s compound as well as the youths at Phalazi village on life skills. We also did PHAST survey in Phalazi and Katengeza villages and cooking demonstration at Phalazi village during an activity on food processing.

One of the most important aspects of the ICS volunteer programme is the interaction between people of different nationalities and cultures. To achieve this amongst the volunteers, most international programmes have both international and national volunteers. Here in Honduras, however, only international volunteers have taken part in the programme up until now, but during this cycle we have been lucky enough to have had two national volunteers join the programme.

Food safety, security and nutrition are serious issues in the developing world. Nicaragua is classed as the second poorest country in the western hemisphere with figures from the UN Food and agriculture agency stating that 27% of the population suffers from malnutrition.

Appearing as if by magic from the cloud of dust that enthralled us, we pulled up in Mr and Mrs Siansali’s yard just as the sun was bobbing gently below the trees. We were met with frantic waves and toothy smiles by the cheery couple, who were quickly joined by their daughter Valencia to greet us. After generous introductions from all we were given a brief tour of the family home by Mr Siansali. It was a spacious enclosure, dotted with thatched huts made entirely from wood, mud and straw.

Our first visit to the children’s home was on the way from Ojojona, where we had been training for a week at the beginning of April. Despite a fairly long drive to Marcala, we all felt excited as we pulled up outside the children’s home in La Paz. We stumbled out of the mini bus to face what can only be described as a rather dilapidated building. Upon entering, impressions of the building and structure didn’t improve but the sense of well-being we felt was overwhelming.

This weekend marked the end of the seventh week of our volunteer placement in Honduras and our mid-term review, an opportunity to reflect on and review our experience so far and look towards the future prospects of our volunteer journey.