First Eager 'Amigos' Back From Honduras

From The Houston Chronicle, July 1965
By Jan Morgan

   The first contingent of "amigos" to Honduras from Houston's River Oaks Baptist Church is home. But they're ready to return to the project of inoculating Hondurans against polio, smallpox, diptheria, typhoid, and tetanus.
   "Houston looked pretty good," said Kirby Atwood, 18, discussing the group's return Monday night at Houston Intercontinental Airport. But asked if he would go back, Kirby replied: "I sure will, if they have it again next year. I didn't want to come back." But he had a job he had to come back to. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. H. Kirby Atwood, 5932 Riverview.
   Another "amigo," Larry Hankamer, 17, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond E. Hankamer, 5117 Doliver, predicted that more churches would sponsor such projects in the future, after they have heard about the River Oaks Baptist project.

Two Groups to Go
   The first first contingent of 90 young Houstonians left in June, following an advance group of 20. They returned Monday and the second group of 90 left Tuesday. It will return Aug. 2. Then a third group of 90 will leave with a return date of Aug 23.

   The project involves students from many Protestant and Catholic churches besides the sponsoring church. Each student pays his transportation cost.
   During their three weeks in Honduras the first group gave more than $150,000 inoculations to about 50,000 persons, Kirby estimated. They could have given more but the strike against some American shippers idled ships and left their supplies and vaccines sitting in this country.
   Kirby said of the Hondurans: "They welcomed us with open arms. The people were so friendly and outgoing. There was no anti-American feeling whatsoever"
   The 110 students divided into teams and worked in 34 towns and villages in facilities provided by the Hondurans. "When the word would get out that we were giving inoculations, they would come in from the hills all over," said Kirby.

Long Lines Formed

In the nation's second largest city, San Pedro Sula, where Kirby worked, the students used an air gun capable of giving 50 shots in four or five minutes for the inoculations. Even so, lines five and six blocks long formed throughout the day, he said.
   Larry was in Santa Rita, a village of 2000. People there wouldn't come to a clinic unless theyw ere sick, he said, so the students went from house to house with conventional hypodermics to give the inoculations.
   The students stayed in "the best they had to offer," Kirby said. In some places that was a 12-room house. In others it was "four walls, what they called a roof, and a table. That was it."
"It's hard to imagine how much poverty there is," said Larry. People had little to do but sit and because of the diet of rice, beans, and tortillas had litttle energy. Children had few or no clothes and chickens and pigs walked through the houses, he continued.
   Most of the students in the first group are eager to go back next summer, if the project is repeated, they said.
Kirby, a member of St. Luke's Methodist Church, plans to enter Southern Methodist University in September to study engineering. Larry plans to enter the University of Texas to study architecture. He is a member of the sponsoring church, River Oaks Baptist.
   Kirby praised the church for sponsoring the project. "I'm glad it's done by private individuals," he said. "There was not one drop of government money in it."