11 years of service to Honduras:
Interview with Rodger Harrison,
president of Paramedics for Children
Steve Yancey
Special to Honduras This Week
Courtesy Rodger Harrison/Paramedics for Children
Harrison proudly displays his "Favorite Adopted Son" certificate he received from Copan officials.
Rodger Harrison has that
look about him: you can see it in
his eyes when he talks about his
organization, founded 11 years ago in the historic village of Copan
Ruinas, Honduras. Paramedics for
Children (PFC) includes a medical
clinic, ambulance services, mountain
village school supply programs
and now, the construction of a children’s home and daycare center.
When asked why he started PFC,
Harrison replies “That has always
been a very hard question to
answer. I have found it a lot easier
for me to explain to people what I
do, rather then try to explain why
I do what I do.”
So the question remains, what
motivates a person to do a 180
degree turn in their life and travel
to a strange country to start an
international children’s charity?
Again I asked, and Harrison
responded, “To me it was a calling
of the heart. I can only say that
working with PFC brings me great
happiness and a purpose to my life.
My business career started in the
commercial real estate business,
and a medical recruiting company.
Life was good to me, and I made
a lot of money, but something was
missing. When I retired in 1990,
I realized that it was time to give
back a little for all I have gotten
out of life, so I went back to college
and got a paramedic license. Then
followed six of the most incredible
years of my life working in a
job that I loved and enjoyed, until
I was involved in a work-related
injury and found myself sitting on
the sidelines again wondering what
I could do to reacquire the excitement
of running on an ambulance
with all the adventure that goes
with it.”
“Fighting boredom, and not
wanting to get back into the corporate
rat race, I took a vacation to
Honduras. I liked the country, so
in 1997 I decided to spend a month
or two in Copan Ruinas, to study
Spanish. I met a lot of great people
there who taught me some of the
many customs and introduced me
to the indigenous Chorti Mayan
Indians who live and work in the
Copan Valley. Soon, I found myself
taking school supplies to children
in the mountain villages. Before I
knew it, I was hooked.”
When asked about the adventurous
part of his Honduran
odyssey, Harrison reflected, “I thought I had seen it all after
being a paramedic from the states,
but nothing prepared me for the
experience of starting a volunteer
ambulance service in Honduras.
We had a great group of guys,
and I can’t count how many times
the ambulances showed up at the
front door of my house with every
type of emergency call you could
imagine. Sometimes we would have
five or six emergencies a night.
One night, a gun shot or machete
cutting and the next night, some
woman would be having a baby.
Often we treated the patients in
our living room. It was neverending,
never a dull minute. Thank
goodness things have slowed down
a little since we got the clinic open
in 2005.”
Even delivering school supplies
into the mountains has provided
some interesting moments for
Harrison. Until 2003, he had to
deliver the school supplies by horse
back. He recounted, “During those
days, we would sometimes be in
the saddle for up to 8 hours a day.
I got thrown from my horse three
times, snake bit once, horse bit,
dog bit, delivered twins, and fell
in the Copan River. We had a lot
of fun in those days and still do,
except that most of the time we
use our Kawasaki four-wheel drive
Mules to get there instead of the
horses.”
As we talked, there were so
many stories about his work and
of the friends he’s made over the
years. He talked of his work and
of all the changes he’d witnessed
in Honduras over the last decade.
I asked him if he could pick one
particular accomplishment of which
he was most proud. He told me
that right after he had delivered
the first of eight ambulances to
Copan in 2000, its mayor and city
council awarded him a “Mi Hijo
Adoptivo Predilecto” (adopted son
of Copan)” certificate. Harrison
said, “At the time, and as far as I
know, I am the only gringo in the
history of the town to be given this
honor, and to me that was something.”
The award proudly and
prominently hangs over his desk.
At 57, Harrison is still going
strong and so is PFC. The charity
has expanded to other countries
such as Guatemala, Indonesia,
Colombia, Cuba, and parts of
Africa. His home and headquarters
have been recently converted
into a bed and breakfast, and all of
the profits are used to support his
many programs. Harrison went on
to say, “The PFC story, like any
good adventure, just keeps getting
better and more fun year after
year. We never stop, and we never
quit. This year we hope to double
the size of our clinic and increase
our children’s school supply
programs.”
As I interviewed Harrison, I
knew there was a lot more to tell.
As I peeled back the many layers
of his life, I discovered that he
has had many careers: he holds
a commercial pilot license, is a
professional musician, a published
songwriter, and still plays in a band
when he is not in Honduras.
When pressed about further
details of his life, he added, “Life
to me is a game; my memories are
the way I keep score.” Then he
grinned, winked, and asked if I
wanted a rum and coke.
For more background information
about Rodger Harrison, please
visit the Paramedics for Children
web site at http://paramedicsforchildren.org.
Electric bicycle turns heads, saves gas
Laura Stray
Honduras This Week
Laura Stray/Honduras This Week
Fabrizio Cross' electric bike allows him to run errands and can carry cargo - using no gas.
Canadian Fabr i z io Cross
designed and built an electric
bicycle, which he uses almost every
day to run errands around the
city. He and his wife come from
British Columbia. She works at the
Canadian Embassy in Tegucigalpa.
We recently caught up with
Fabrizio to find out more about his
gas-saving vehicle.
Honduras This Week (HTW): What was your inspiration to build
an electric bicycle?
Fabrizio Cross (FC): I bought
an electric conversion kit for a
standard bicycle, but I found that
the technology and the way it
worked and felt was very imperfect
for riding. I also wanted something
with a recumbent position, which
also meant that I could fit the
batteries underneath the seat of
the bicycle, unlike no other electric
bike. It took me around 100 hours
through a period of 4 years to build.
HTW: What speed can the
bicycle go?
FC: The maximum speed that it
can reach is around 70km per hour,
but I have changed the setting on
it, so that it only reaches 30km per
hour. Whilst the bicycle is set to
30km per hour the horsepower is
12.
HTW: How did you build the
bicycle?
FC: Working as a graphic
designer, I had made plenty of plans
to ensure that the bicycle would
work efficiently. I mainly used old
bicycle parts, but for the frame for
the bike I welded scrap pieces of
metal to obtain my desired shape.
Also, unlike standard bicycles
where the seat is adjusted dependent
on the rider’s height, on this
bike the pedals are adjusted.
I also decided to include a
reverse option on the bicycle, which
not even the motorcycles have,
which makes them all very jealous.
I also incorporated a storage area
on the back of the bicycle, which
I used, when I was in Canada, to
store my mountain bike, and then
use the electric bike to ride to our
meeting point.
HTW: How long can the bicycle
run without being recharged?
FC: It can do around 50-60km
before needing to be recharged,
although I charge the battery after
every time I use it, to sustain its
optimum life. The charger is integrated
to the back of the bicycle,
so if I lose power whilst out I can
recharge it from any power supply.
HTW: I notice that the bicycle
has no lights?
FC: This is because I don’t
ride it during night, as I feel that it would not be entirely safe, and
I also do not use the bicycle in
adverse weather conditions either,
so there really has been no need for
me to install a light.
HTW: Are you considering
building another bike?
FC: As technology has
advanced, I would definitely be
interested in building another more
refined bicycle. There would also be
an option now where you could use
solar panels to create the energy to
run the bicycle, which would help
with fuel consumption issues.
For information about how to
build an electric bicycle, please
contact Fabrizio Cross at tig@myresults.com.
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Chickens Coming Home to Roost
Marco Cáceres
projecthonduras.com
An extremely provocative
conversation that is evolving in the
United States is one that focuses
on the question of whether or not
the bad things that happen to the
country, such as the attacks of
September 11, 2001, are a direct
result of US government foreign
policies. The mere suggestion that
somehow the US caused 9/11 to
happen and thus bares at least
some responsibility is hurtful to
many Americans.
The suggestion was made by US
Representative Ron Paul of Texas
during a Republican presidential
debate on May 15, 2007, and he was
quickly rebuked by former Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani of New York. The
suggestion had previously been
made in a sermon by Rev. Jeremiah
Wright of United Trinity Church of
Christ in Chicago shortly after 9/11.
That sermon, which quoted heavily
from comments made by former
US ambassador to Iraq Edward
Peck, is currently the source of a
heated debate in the US.
Part of the reason for the “heat”
was Wright’s repeated use of the
phrase, “chickens coming home
to roost”. The phrase is meant to
convey the view that if a country
repeatedly uses violence against
other nations and exploits them
economically, eventually someone
will strike back.
On December 4, 1963, Malcolm
X gave a speech called “God’s
Judgment of White America”.
That speech is often referred to
as “The Chickens Come Home to
Roost” because of Malcolm X’s
response to a question following
the speech concerning President
John Kennedy, who had been assassinated
less than two weeks earlier.
Malcolm said that Kennedy’s death
was a case of “chickens coming
home to roost”, meaning that the
violence to Black America that he
had failed to stop had come back
to him.
The phrase is inflammatory
for three reasons. The first is that
it sounds inflammatory. It feels
insulting. The second is that it makes for an excellent sound bite,
and thus it tends to be played back
over and over again by the media
to the point that it becomes a part
of the national psyche. The third
reason is that the phrase has been misinterpreted as meaning that
those who were the targets of the
attacks deserved what they got.
My observation of Paul, Peck,
and Wright and my reading of the
transcripts of their comments is
that they were simply stating the
obvious, and that is that a country
(or an individual, for that matter)
that uses force against others will
eventually have force used against
it. The relationship is not too
dissimilar to Newton’s third law of
motion… “To every action, there is
an equal and opposite reaction.”
Our world is too interconnected
to assume that something we do,
whether good or bad, can be an
isolated event. In time, everything
we do comes back to comfort us
or haunt us. The same is true for
our companies, our organizations,
our families, our communities, and
our countries. It has nothing to do
with whether we “deserve” whatever
befalls us. It is just a fact of
life. To quote Frederick Buechner, “The life I touch for good or ill will
touch another life, and that in turn
another, until who knows where
the trembling stops or in what far
place my touch will be felt.”
It is this thought process that
seems to be the mantra for so
many of the foreign and domestic
groups that do volunteer work in
Honduras. It is an advanced way
of thinking because it understands
the simple reality that we cannot
afford to ignore the plight of the
poor, disadvantaged, and disempowered
in Honduras or elsewhere.
And it is not solely about displaying
compassion for our fellow human
beings or seeking justice for all.
It is about being pragmatic and
finding solutions to social problems
while there are still peaceful alternatives
to be had.
The consequences of not acting,
of being apathetic are potentially
as violent and destructive as acting
with force. To those in need, it is all
the same.
Problem # 14
Three couples staying on an island wanted to cross the water using
a boat that could only hold two people at time. In those days, it was
improper for a woman to be with a man who was not her husband
unless her husband was also present. How many trips were required?
Each way counts as one trip.
Answer to Problem # 12
bcda = ¾ (abcd) + 1
then 4 (bcda) = 3(abcd) + 4
4(1000b + 100c + 10d + a) =3 (1000a +100b + 10c +d) + 4
4000b + 400c + 40d + 4a = 3000a + 300b + 30c + 3d +4
3700b + 370c + 37d = 2996a +4
37(100b + 10c + d) = 37 K,
where K= (2996a +4)/37 = (80 +36/37) a + 4/37 = 80a + (36a +4)/37;
and 36a + 4 is multiple of 37; then a=4, and K=324.
Hence 100b + 10c +d =324; then we found that b=3, c=2, and d=4.
The Lottery Number is 4324
We received correct answers from:
Joel Escoto, UNAH, Tegucigalpa MDC
Andrea Gútierrez/Honduras This Week
Frequent "Dare to Think" winner, Scott Farrell, wins a 2-night stay at the Honduras Mayo. Congrats!
Think you know the answer? Please submit your best guess to:
DARE TO THINK; rosipache@yahoo.com.mx
You have two weeks, starting today
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