“We plan to use this information…”

“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.