Visit To The Finca

I have a Honduran friend, Jorge, who lives on a farm north of the NPH ranch. The farm is primarily a dairy farm and he makes his money by selling the milk to a large Honduran dairy company, but also occasionally butchers a cow to eat and sell the meat. He has been bugging me for months to visit the “finca” to have lunch, meet the cows and see the small pueblo where he grew up. This Sunday, I finally gave in.

When we arrived, I was surprised to find that he has quite a few employees who live and work on the farm. His home is very simple and typical Honduran, but spacious, clean and comfortable. The farm was positioned on a large, fairly flat piece of land, but surrounded by lush green mountains. I am not a farm (or even outdoor) girl, but even I will admit that it was beautiful.

For lunch, we traveled down the road to the home of a man who occasionally works on the farm, but also has his own small tilapia farm. His house, which he built himself, was very simple. It was made of concrete block and consisted of 2 rooms. One with a wood burning stove, counter top, sink and small table for eating. Another room with one double bed and one single bed was the bedroom for him, his wife and their 5 year old son, Diego (who, when asked, told me he was 10). The bedroom had one window that was covered, but the windows in the kitchen were just open spaces. There was not one toy in sight (although, I am sure they own a soccer ball) and Diego played with a stick and the dog the entire time we were there.

The man led us into his backyard where he had 4 small square ponds that Jorge claimed he dug himself while Jorge drank beer and slept in a lawn chair. He told us each pond had about 1000 fish and as he threw food into one of the ponds it bubbled like a Jacuzzi as all of the fish mouths opened and closed against the surface. He tossed a net into the pond and within seconds removed about 8 fish. With the help of Diego, he untangled the fish from the net and put the good sized ones in a bag and tossed the little ones back into the pond. After 3 cycles, our lunch was picked out and they began skinning the fish. As we each sipped on cold beers, his wife floured and fried each whole fish. (I actually made a special request to have the head of mine removed. I just can‘t eat him when he is looking at me.) The fish were obviously very fresh and delicious.

After returning to the farm, Jorge and I went for a tour of the near by pueblo on his 4-wheeler. Driving that big machine up through the mountains was not easy and I can still feel the little muscles in my arms that got a workout that day. The ride was amazing and there were several points where we had great views over looking the valley towns and even an old mining sight outside of Tegus. As I drove through the cobblestone streets of the pueblo, Jorge pointed out all of the antique Spanish buildings and even an old water purification system built by the Spaniards that is still used by the people living there. The town was so cute and very well maintained by the people there. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera to capture the sights.

Quinceaneros

In the latin american culture, the 15th birthday is a very special event that is typically celebrated with an elaborate party that can sometimes rival a wedding. Of course, here on the ranch, it is impossible to throw an elaborate party for the 15th birthday of each individual. Therefore, each year there is one elaborate party to celebrate all that have completed 15 years that year. It is the biggest party of the year.

This year there were 8 girls from my hogar that turned 15. That made the quinceanero celebration very special for me. They began talking about the party months before the actual date and were fitted for special dresses way in advance because they were hand made by a ranch employee. Each girl has a padrino (godfather) and each boy a madrina (godmother), which is typically an employee or volunteer who is their escort for the evening. My girls began asking for padrinos way in advance and of course all of the quinceanero boys waited until the last minute. Because I don’t really have much contact with them and don’t know those boys very well, I was not a madrina. Because of this, I was able to spend the entire night with my girls.

I spent Thursday night giving pedicures, which is not a pleasant experience since many of the girls have a foot fungus that never seems to go away (for this, I think I should win volunteer of the yearJ). Then on Friday, after work, I spent time watching them prepare their hair, nails and make-up, taking pictures all the while. Of course, walking through the boys side of the ranch, one would never know there was a big event planned for that evening. They were all found playing games in the dirt or soccer on the cement court. When the preparations were finally done. The girls and boys lined up with their padrinos and madrinas outside the church for presentation in front of the entire ranch at mass. After mass, those participating in the evening took a bus down to the school for a special dinner.

The dinner was held in the school auditorium, which had been transformed into a banquet hall with beautiful handmade decorations that the tias had been working on for months. There was a balloon arch where each boy and his madrina was presented and an ivy covered swing set where each girl and her padrino was presented. The ceiling was draped in hundreds of pink paper flowers.

The dinner was typical Honduran fare, but with a small red wine toast to all of the quinceaneros. Almost all of the kids and some of the adults took one sip of the wine and declared it undrinkable because it didn’t have enough sugar. Anyone who has visited Honduras will not be surprised to hear this. I was able to take advantage of this and accumulated at least one full glass of wine. After dinner, the rest of the ranch joined the party. Each quinceanero had one dance with their padrino/madrina as we all watched. It was obvious nobody here does much “waltzing” (as they called it) because they were all bouncing off of each other like a bunch of balls in a pinball machine. After “the waltz”, the quinceaneros had their own performance and did a more modern dance choreographed by my roommate Candy. The night was completed with a big dance party that lasted until about 1 in the morning. This was without a doubt the best night I have had in Honduras.

Physical Therapy on The Ranch

My job is going great and everything is coming together. I finally have a set schedule that is working well right now and all of my “patients” have been attending regularly. I love every minute I spend in the “specials” house, Santa Maria Reina. There are 2 teenage girls with CP (or possibly some genetic disorder that presents very similarly) who I work with trying to do range of motion, positioning and caregiver education. There is also a girl who has some significant physical and mental problems of unknown origin who is very challenging, but also very fun to work with. Another girl has residual problems resulting from a case of menengitis when she was a child. She is a very sad case because she is totally normal and bright in the cognitive sense, but trapped in a body that doesn’t function very well. She can walk, but with very poor coordination and balance making it really unsafe. I have been trying to find something to help her walk, but have been unsuccessful as of now. I also work with the “special” boys house, Casa Emmanuel. These boys have a large range of problems, but all of them can walk independently, although it isn’t always pretty.

My favorite day of the week is spent in Casa Angeles, which is a house in the city for those kids who are very significantly impaired and need to be close to doctors. These kids are the most challenging for me because many of them are in need of splints, braces and wheelchairs that can’t be afforded. They spend their days lying around in the big room of the house, but I am very impressed that every Wednesday most of them spend the morning in hippotherapy (for those who don’t know, this is therapy with horses). I attended the therapy once and was able to actually get on the horse with the kid and do therapy. It was great and the little boy was so much more cooperative than normal.

The rest of my work time is spent in the physical therapy gym in the school. There I treat the kids who have minor physical problems. Most of these kids are between the ages of 5 and 10 and just have some delays in coordination and strength development. For me, the biggest challenge with these kids is behavior. It is very different from my previous jobs in that there is no parent to discipline (or threaten discipline) the kids. It is also difficult for me to motivate them or scold them in Spanish. There are several older kids that receive physical therapy and they are much easier to work with, but still challenging in other ways. Louis is a sixth grader with torticollis. This is a shortening of the muscles on one side of the neck that causes the kid to maintain the head tilted to that side and rotated to the opposite side. It usually affects babies, but they either receive therapy or grow out of it by the time they start walking. Louis is proof that kids don’t always just grow out of it. He consistently has his head tilted and now has developed a significant spinal scoliosis. Because the position of his head is a habit that has developed for 12 years it is impossible for me to fix. My only goal is to keep it from getting worse and try to manage his scoliosis.

The other older kid that I work with, Angela, has a syndrome that has caused abnormal growth of her long bones, malpositioning of the joints and other various abnormalities like having 6 toes on each foot. However, she has normal cognition and is quite bright. A few years ago, she went to the States with an orthopedic doctor who volunteers on the ranch several times a year. He surgically repositioned the bones of her legs to allow her to walk more normally. She lived with his family in Minn for 9 months during the recovery time and she speaks English very well. She has been helping me with my Spanish. Again, my goal for her is to maintain her strength and mobility.