Honduras for Spring Break
Israel Lopez, 21, international business, traveled with 11 other individuals back to Honduras this past spring break, March 12 through March 21.
Four of them were on the Technical Team, two of them were on the future projects/research team, and five of us were on the Education Team.
“Our goal on this trip was to install the radio network, assess the schools for integration of technology, and research any civil/water/sanitation projects in Juticalpa, Olancho, Honduras,” Lopez said.
They were there for a total of 10 days in country.
Day one, the technical team started the implementation schedule.
“We had to adapt pretty quickly to how ‘things are done in Honduras,’ Lopez said.
While there were a few dramatic moments, but they accomplished their technical implementation goal; connecting three schools, and six volunteer locations.
All with an engineering pride that only an IT person could appreciate, 12 megabits per second of bandwidth, between one to four milliseconds of latency, and zero to four percent packet loss.
“We provided spares, troubleshooting tools, and training for the local IT administrator,” Lopez said.
They are very prepared to keep what we installed operational.
As the technical lead I have never met such a hardworking and passionate group of people.
We all worked from 7am to at times 11pm, we stuck through the tough times, and with our dedication we nailed it.
As for the Education Team, they made themselves available to the teachers of the three schools.
They made it clear that they were not ‘evaluating’ just advising, and would be serving as a resource.
Some of the revelations from the assessment included a supply-list of simple non-technical solutions to problems; to programs to deliver technology to the teachers; and some software for students to understand technology.
“While I hardly saw the Education Team, we knew they were working very hard to deliver their final report and assessment.” Lopez said.
The Research Team, met with local officials to discuss ways Engineers Without Borders could help in Civil, Water, or Santiation.
They identified a few projects that a local EWB team can adopt and develop.
“We wanted to see where other engineering projects would be available in our community,” said Lopez.
While there will always be more work to do, we are preparing a list of next project potentials.
This list will be made available online & at their next meeting May 4th. Visit http://www.ewb-oc.org/ for details.