From Kyle Anderson - Honduras Update

This is Kyle Anderson's post, that I would like to re-post here. Because it's a reminder that even small things make a BIG difference (especially in the lives that it impacts directly). Hope you don't mind Kyle, but this is great. - Ryan


Hi friends!!...and Jason,

This was such a great trip!! I tagged along with a group of volunteers from Kansas to assist with a clean water project for a very poor town of about 500 people called Buena Esperanza, located in a remote, mountainous region in southern Honduras. The trip was freakin' awesome! There are tons o...f reasons for this, and I'll try to explain them in the picture captions, but there was one aspect that really, really ruled. And here's a quick synopsis of it: Ok, in working in Honduras I've encountered tons and tons of people who are in desperate need of warm clothes, but it's logistically and financially very difficult to provide them with any more than what each volunteer group brings down in their luggage and leaves behind as a donation. But we may have stumbled upon a way to make that a thing of the past. Yay!

*YOU SHOULD READ THIS PART 'CAUSE IT'S AWESOME!!!*

So, after witnessing how cold and poorly clothed the people of Buena Esperanza were, I talked with Arnoldo (a friend from the capital whose knowledge and insights are priceless, he is aptly nicknamed "The Hero of the Hills"), and we came up with a plan. Before I left I went along with the local pastor to every home in the village (86 in all) and did a survey of each one's needs. I took a picture of each house and noted in a binder a description of the poverty level of each house, the measurements of the structures if they were in need of a new roof (almost all were), and, most importantly, we made a list of the ages and sexes of all those who lived in each house. In the near future we'll be putting together a roof project (which I'm super psyched about), but in the meantime we were able to put together and distribute warm clothing packages for EVERY SINGLE PERSON in the village!!!

The trick to doing it cheaply was instead of shopping at local second hand stores or paying for donated clothes to be shipped down, we purchased the clothes straight from the local distributors who get them shipped straight from the States in huge bulk. Apparently this has been tried before but the quality of the clothing was a constant problem. But not with the guy we found. I purchased 500 pounds of great quality adult and children's sweaters and jackets (seriously, better than the junk I have at home) for under a thousand dollars American. This enabled us to give each person (again, about 500 in all) in Buena Esperanza a full compliment of warm clothes for less than 2 dollars per person. It was Uh-freaking-mazing!!! I'm so stoked to see if we can implement a similar project on a larger scale throughout the country. That would be awesome!!!