Our First Presentation - Tocoa

We made it to Tocoa and settled into our hotel rooms. The Tocoa Rotary Club showed us many of their wonderful projects. At one of their projects, a school, we met a young boy about 8 years old that told us he works 7 days each week to help support his family because his father drinks. This young boy earns the equivalent of ten dollars each week. He is a mechanic and can fix cars.




School in Tocoa


We also saw a Hogar Maternidad (home for pregnant women). Without this critial pre-natal care the infant mortality rate would be higher than it already is. The Rotary Club paid to build the home and also pays to support the running of the facility. The home is near a hospital. We went to visit the pediatric ward. The boys and girls had separate ¨wards¨. There were childen there suffering from asthma and dengue fever. They even had a burn unit where one child was being treated.

Home for Pregnant Women

We were very greatful that Carlos, one of the Rotarians, spoke beautiful English. In addition, there was a woman here from MIT working on her Ph.D. project which is an early warning system for flooding.

We visited a fire house where we met many bomberos (fire fighters). The Tocoa Rotary Club provided all of the equipment for the firehouse including several trucks and a boat. Most of the fire fighters are volunteers.




Firehouse in Tocoa


On our last night in Tocoa we gave our presentations to the Rotary Club. They were very kind since our Spanish is very bad. We leave today for La Ceiba.





Tocoa Rotary Club