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Thriller fiction and Non-fiction

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Exploring

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I realize I’m very fortunate to see parts of the world that most people never dream of seeing. I get the chance to see beauty in forms that I have never seen before. And I relish every moment of those experiences.

We took today off and explored a bit. Elmer wanted me to see the mountains and see how people live in the villages in the mountains ringing La Ceiba, Honduras and some of the beauty that is the jungle. After driving to the near the head waters of the Cangrejal River, we made our way back down to the Pico Bonita National Park. The office is on one side of the river, but to get to actual park we had to cross a very long, very bouncy suspension bridge. We were probably 75 feet above the rocky river running below us.

We had planned on a short hike, 30 minutes or so, just to get a feel for the land. Not expecting to be gone too long, we opted to leave the water in the car. That is one of those decisions you see in the movies and you immediately scream at the actors that they are making a mistake. The route that the people in the office told us would take about a half an hour was actually just to the point where we could go back another half an hour to see a water fall—we opted against that. But we still had another “half an hour” back to the bridge. Except it took us about an hour to get to place to make the turn and finish out the loop.

Granted, I stopped a number of times to take photographs. And it was hot and humid. Most of the time, the air barely moved. It could even get dark and oppressive. This was a single track trail, up and down over rocks and leaves and fallen trees. I slipped a couple times, and once actually made it a couple feet over a hillside. Fortunately, I was holding onto a small tree when I did it. And Elmer grabbed my arm to steady me as well. On that final leg of the hike, well into the second hour, we passed a couple plastic bottles other visitors had left behind. Elmer reached down and carried them out with us.

If you want to see more images from the day, check out the album I posted on FB. If you’re not already a “Friend” send me an invitation.

But, while we were driving around and exploring, some other things caught my eye that weren’t quite as beautiful. The road up the mountain was dirt and gravel. In a couple places, small children were standing beside the road—and I mean 5-9 years old—throwing dirt into potholes. Whenever a car would come through, they would stick out their hands for money.

The air was filled with smoke in a lot of places. I finally realized why. The farmers were lighting fires on the hillsides to clear land in preparation for planting beans. And the rainy season is coming on. I am sure they have been planting that way for many, many years, but with the steep terrain and the hillsides cleared of vegetation, you know almost all of the topsoil will end up in the river. And they will move on to the next hillside the next year.

There were other things, public health and sanitation related, that disturbed me even more.  I realize there are many things in the world that need fixing and no one person can do it all. I have no interest in trying to save the world. And frankly, some of the things I saw can probably be found just as easily in the United States, too. I chose not to photograph those things. Without having a reason, it felt like it would have been exploitative.

I didn’t watch Oprah’s final show recently, but I understand she called on her viewers to find something to be passionate about; something that makes life worth living. I would repeat that. I have no (serious) issue with most of the “entertainment” on TV today, but it is simply mind-numbing entertainment. We all need to relax from time to time and that is fine. But there are other opportunities in our own back yard to get involved and make a difference in someone’s life. Helping out one person, or one situation, can often have a much greater influence than you even realize.

Appreciate the beauty around you, but find a way to make it even better. Maybe it simply starts with picking up a discarded plastic bottle or two on a trail. You never know what might happen when you do.

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Six o’clock news

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This morning as we were getting started, a member of the National Congress entered our training and spoke for a few minutes. But more importantly, he listened for a while. He wanted to hear what we were teaching the boat captains. Just a little while after that, presumably after speaking to the congressman outside, a crew from the La Ceiba television station and a photographer from the newspaper showed up and watched our training for a while—the odds are good we will be on the evening news.
The government had decided to close the lobster fishery all together in Honduras. But after pressure from the divers and the boat owners (and the rest of the fishing industry) they have decided on a two-year extension. But in that time, they dive community has to make serious steps to fix the problems. The government wants to see the number of divers injured each year drop off sharply. Actually, the government has made no promises after this two year extension, but the boat owners believe if they can fix things, the government will allow them to continue.
Over the last three days, Dr. Mejia and I put on an eight hour training program for 54 dive boat captains touching on everything from oxygen first aid, to stocking first aid kits, to how to prepare and use a Foley Catheter. We prepared certificates of completion for each of the participants to show what they had done. We just found out that the boat captains association (APICAH) has laminated those certificates and boat captains will be required to display them (along with other certificates showing their equipment is in good working order) or they will not be allowed to leave the dock and harvest lobster once the season reopens in July. That is a tremendous step, and is also an indication of why every boat captain has taken the training so seriously.
I can only hope that more organizations with a stake in the lobster industry in Honduras get involved and work to make things better. It’s not a simple fix. It’s not the “evil boat captains” taking advantage of the divers. It’s not the “drugged out divers” not following the rules and getting hurt. Neither of those things exists–at least not as a group. Everyone has a role to play to fix the problem, keep more divers healthy and protect the fisheries here in Honduras. They will have to work together to do it. Things look promising from here on out, though. We will just have to wait and see to make sure each group follows through on its plans.
More later, but after the conversations I have had on this trip with the stakeholders in the industry, I am more encouraged than before.

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“We plan to use this information…”

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“We plan to use this information to have fewer injuries among the divers this year.” That is what two of the older boat captains said to me as they left our training today. Wow. Pretty incredible feeling, and a little daunting, to realize they are putting so much hope on the information you are giving them. I hope they manage to do it. It will be an uphill battle and attitudes and practices will have to change on both sides for it to happen. They all realize they can’t continue on this way, though.

In the 13 months from December 2009 through the end of 2010, Dr. Mejia treated 130 severely injured Miskito Indians at his clinic. These divers had significant weakness and paralysis. There wasn’t a minor injury among them. The government wants to shut the diving down entirely. Or at least keeps making noises about it. So, if the boat captains want to keep fishing, and the divers want to keep earning a living, they have to find a way to do it—without jeopardizing life and limb.  No one expects this will be easy, but at least they are making efforts.
Next week, Dr. Mejia is planning to spend a week or more in Puerto Lempira working with the divers as well. He wants to educate them in the same way that we are educating the boat captains. Yesterday we chatted about the idea of training some of the disabled divers as boat medics who can care for an injured diver and not require the boat captain to do it. I can’t think of a better person than a previously injured diver to discourage bad diving habits and encourage good ones.

But while today may have ended on a high note, it started out a little crazy. When Dr. Mejia picked me up at the hotel, he told he me he had just heard on the news that the city was going to shut down power to the eastern end of town at 8 am. We planned to conduct our training today at the offices of the Association of Industrial Fishermen for Caribbean and Honduras (in Spanish, the acronym is APICAH for Association Pescadore Industrial…). And those office are on the eastern end of town. So, we got there and waited. Eight am passed so we thought we were safe and we began to set up. Just as we were about to get rolling, the air conditioner turned off. It was 8:30 am. So much for being prompt. Since most of what we planned to present included laptops and projectors, we had to move.

Across town we headed in caravan to Dr. Mejia’s clinic. There was barely room, but we made it work. Everyone just got close and friendly. I will easily concede that today was not as good as yesterday. The captains were not quite as serious in the afternoon. And the two men who spoke to me at the end were some of the prime instigators of the disruptions. Not that they were intentionally causing trouble, just wisecracking and talking amongst themselves when we were attempting to explain something. But, in spite of their inattention, even they got it. They understood the seriousness of the day and it’s importance.
A very cool feeling. So far, we’ve had a tremendous opportunity to speak to 40 boat captains in two days. Tomorrow, another 19 or so. And that is nearly all of the boat captains working in Honduras with Harvesting Divers. A pretty tremendous accomplishment. Will they all change? Not even close. But a few will. And the word will get out that those boats are better to work on. And the Miskitos will change, too.
One step at a time.

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Boat captains

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Today, Dr. Elmer Mejia and I spent more than 8 hours talking to a group of 18 boat captains about oxygen first aid, the causes of diving injuries and how to better care for their divers. And the amazing part was, they never stopped paying attention. Even more amazing—there wasn’t a single monster in the room.

Every time I talk about the Harvesting Diver project, it seems like the boat captains end up being the ones who get blamed for exploiting the divers. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be that simple. If they were exploiters, I can’t imagine them taking an entire day out of their lives to learn about providing first aid for an injured or disabled diver. There is the liability side of it, of course, but if they were forced to be there, I don’t think they would have had the attitude they did.
We spent the entire morning addressing the skills and information necessary to provide oxygen first aid, using the DAN course. Because Elmer was translating for me, and they asked a lot of questions, we spent more than an hour and a half working our way through the knowledge development portion. They preferred that over a subtitled video—they wanted to be able to ask questions and learn more. We went over CPR and everyone took their turn on the manikin. And each person got a round of applause when they were finished. Doesn’t sound like a group of monsters to me.
In the afternoon, Elmer took over with a more detailed lecture on dive accidents. And then taught the boat captains how to prepare and insert a Foley Catheter when the divers surface but aren’t able to urinate. I didn’t hear a joke or a single person make a snide comment like they weren’t willing to do that. Maybe it was peer pressure. Maybe today was just the best of them and the next two days will even out a bit, but I was impressed.
My guess is the next two groups of captains will have the same attitude. Makes things much harder to figure out.
Lionfish side note: Lionfish are an invasive species that aren’t supposed to be in the Caribbean. But they are here. This is the one fish that everyone (the fishermen, the environmentalists) agrees on. We need to eat them into extinction—at least those on this side. Not the ones in the Pacific. Throughout the Caribbean, people are organizing fish rodeos and encouraging restaurants to prepare them. So, today we had Lionfish Ceviche as a snack and then fried Lionfish for lunch. First time I’ve had it. It was good. Not terribly fishy and had a good texture. So, eat up world. Lionfish is the next delicacy. And we are supposed to overfish this one!

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Lobster Symposium

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More than 150 people attended the opening presentation of the “Symposium of Spiny Lobster” that began today in La Ceiba, Honduras. The meeting is all about the sustainability of the lobster harvest, throughout the Caribbean, with a focus on lobster here in Honduras. And it just so happens I’m on the agenda, too!
Ok, I knew I was coming down to lecture and provide training for the boat captains who take the harvesting divers out to the dive sites. I just didn’t know it was this big of a deal. Pretty impressive, all together. And that opening presentation had some really interesting statistics on the state of lobster harvests as well. I have asked for a copy of it so I can reference it later–after it is translated of course.

After that opening, though, the wheels came off a bit. Last week, I sent a shipment of equipment and materials to use in the training this week so it would be here in time for me to use. And it arrived in San Pedro Sula last Thursday. And that is as far as it got. For some reason it got hung up in customs.

At first they needed additional information from Dr. Mejia. And that delay tripped it up. On Monday the Customs computer system was down. FedEx finally retrieved the box yesterday. When they confirmed it to us this morning, but said it might take a day or two more to get it out to us Dr. Mejia and I jumped in the car and drove three hours up the road to pick it up. That’s one way.

The organizers of the event were very understanding, and actually somewhat apologetic since they knew it was their own governmental system that caused the delay and not us. We’ve rescheduled the four groups of boat captains into three and will get all the training done beginning tomorrow. Just the way it goes. We begin at 8:30 in the morning teaching oxygen first aid. I’ve honestly taught this DAN program to more than 500 students and in a couple different languages (through interpreters) but I am really looking forward to these programs the next few days. I can’t think of a place it has ever been more needed or a single class that I think could have a better chance of directly improving the life and health of a human being. That is pretty cool.

The picture above is of the opening presentation. But more important to me is the fact that the men sitting at that table are the divers themselves. I met a couple of them last year when I was in Puerto Lempira. At the time, they commented that people had come to meet with them before. Those people took pictures, made promises and then nothing happened. It has been slow in coming, and this is a first step, but I hope they see that we are trying to do something to improve their lives.

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Full Circle

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The sights, sounds and smells of a place like this come back quickly when you step outside. The semi-controlled chaos on the streets, the brush fires set to clear away growth from the fields, the odd combinations of English and Spanish on the road signs and streets. The heat and the ever-present humidity. But there is also optimism and an energy that is hard to beat.
It was a little more than a year ago when Dr. Matias Nochetto and I joined Dr. Elmer Mejia in La Ceiba, Honduras to see what we could do to help out the hyperbaric chamber here and, in turn, help out the Miskito Indians who harvest lobster.

On that visit, we learned how dire the situation was: more than 2000 men were disabled because of diving, and hundreds more joined them every year. And those were the men who lived through their injuries. Many others didn’t.

Now I’m back in La Ceiba. Dr. Mejia invited me down to help him put on three days of training in Oxygen First Aid and additional measures for the boat captains and owners. These are the men who care for (and are responsible for) the divers. This problem isn’t new and there isn’t an easy solution. If you shut down the diving—like has been proposed and the government has attempted to do—the men have no way to make a living and no way to support their families. Their only other option is smuggling drugs. But if something isn’t done, more men will die.

This scheduled training is a great first step. The boat owners realize they have to do something. They have to be more responsible. And they have to take better care of their divers. If they don’t , the government is prepared to shut them down for good. And then everyone loses.

So, I was thrilled to hear from Dr. Mejia when I arrived that he had been invited to speak to the Honduran National Congress in Tegucigalpa today and give his recommendations on how the divers can reduce their risk and how we can improve their care. That is a tremendous first step and a great recognition of the work Dr. Mejia has done. He has not been alone in this. Many others have pursued this project over the years. Groups have conducted training for the divers, lobbied the government and provided health care opportunities. The changes we are seeing (I say very hopefully) are the culmination of many different people working for many years to improve things for these men who harvest the sea.

The next few days should be interesting as we are going to attend a symposium tomorrow where various groups will be taking up these exact same questions. And then the training begins the next day. It should be an interesting week.
Hopefully this won’t just be a circle, but an upward spiral.

For more background:

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