Excerpt from an email to a friend in Bolivia:
Honduras was an incredible experience. We were only in-country for 10 days, but I got a glimpse of the culture. Since it was Semana Santa, the whole country shut down, especially on Thursday and Friday - we could hardly find a place open to buy food. Luckily we were prepared, but it was a little unsettling not having options. Definitely a good thing to experience - it gave me a small sense of what it's like to have no option for the poor.
I also saw how the "importance" of a person varies. There we were, just a couple of college students and people were thrilled to have Americans in their presence. Several people in the smaller villages we visited like Dolores in western Honduras had never seen gringos before, particularly the kids, and definitely not so many at once.
The machismo really stood out. We would walk around Santa Rosa where John and a few Peace Corps workers are the only real gringos they see - not a big tourist town - and get all sorts of stares and whistles and loud comments from men who assumed we didn't speak Spanish (and sometimes I'm glad I didn't know the slang when John would glare their way). But in the tourist town of Gracias where there's a great cloud forest - Celaque - the stares were even more blatant. Even to the point that people would stop cars and roll down windows and stare as we walked by two feet away. That was later in the week, so it we were kind of used to it by then but it surprised me that in a tourist town the stares were more blatant than in the town where at least the majority of the stares were out of curiosity. Especially when the police were the "perpetrators."
Sidebar: I had an interview for study abroad the week before break to spend the fall in the Netherlands and the spring in South Africa studying community organizing. I'm really excited about both. One of the questions they asked me was if I were lost, what would I do? I said I'd go to a center of transportation (gas station, train station, etc) to get directions/oriented. And if there wasn't one around? Then I'd probably ask a woman with children for help. Then I would probably ask someone else to make sure I got the same directions. They said they hadn't heard that answer before, which surprised me given the number of students they interview for study abroad. The typical answer is that a person would go to the police. I realized that my travel experience when I'm not with family has been in countries where the police are not necessarily the most trustworthy people to seek help from and that was my frame of reference when answering rather than thinking of how stable the Netherlands is. And on that topic, I'm debating which language to learn in South Africa. I plan on learning Afrikaans since it's related to Dutch and that's why the programs are connected. But I'm afraid that the language I chose - Xhosa v. Afrikaans - will be symbolic because I'm not sure if one language is more associated with one racial group or group of particular social standing. Oh well. I hope to learn enough Dutch and Afrikaans/Xhosa to be fluent so I can get a Rotary Scholarship to one of the countries but that's at least a year away.
The people of Honduras are so friendly. I am amazed by the poor and how caring and giving they are. We stopped to tour a church in a small village on our way back into town because the church we were helping to build would be identical to it. The family who lived next to the church insisted that we come in for refreshments just because they saw that we were extranjeros. I was relieved to see that they poured us pop so we could accept it.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
iHola de Honduras!
iHola todas! I am in Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras and having a blast! We got in on Friday night and after 2 hours in customs, we met up with John Donaghy - our in country host - a little more tired, much warmer, and one bag lighter than when we left Ames that morning. It was nice to be out of the airport. We spent the night at a hotel in San Pedro Sula, not too far from the airport.
We started off Saturday morning with a traditional breakfast of platanos con crema y huevos rancheros: sweet bananas with creme and eggs with peppers. The bishop - Monsenor Luis Alfonso Santos - wanted to pick us up but the President of the Republic (of Honduras) was visiting Santa Rosa to dedicate a new street that was about to be paved, so the bishop had to be there as well. Instead he sent two cars to pick us up. I rode with Ramiro, Katie, and Mary & John, Mitch, and Marla rode with Rafael. We had quite the discussion about the geography, impact of the mines on the agriculture and the people, and of course politics.
Ramiro told me about how he is working to get the government to impose a tax on the mines since they are engaging in cyanide leeching which gets into the water supply and causes health problems. They don't want environmental laws because there will be no enforcement of the laws and most officials are easily bought off by the mining companies anyway. He also asked my impression of the war in Iraq. I told him it was mostly unpopular in the States, but now that we're there, what do we do? I have friends who are fighting there now. He said popular sentiment in Honduras is that we never should have gone in and should leave immediately. I asked him about Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. He said most people like him because he is doing a lot of good things to help countries in Latin America. Ramiro doesn't speak any English so all of our communication was in Spanish - I was impressed by my abilities to communicate. It was broken but I got the message across.
We arrived in Santa Rosa de Copan around noon and got settled in with two Spanish nuns - Hermanas de la Immaculada - who run a home for girls from the countryside who are attending school and need a place to stay. Since it is Semana Santa - Holy Week - they are all home and their rooms are available for us to stay in. Mitch is staying just down the street at John's house.
We spent Saturday walking around town and buying fruit at the market. We ate dinner with the sisters at a local pizza place. Actually, we spend most days walking around town. There are taxis, but mostly we walk. Saturday night, though, Sor Maria Jesus and Sor Marissa, our hostesses, drove us around town in the back of their truck: up and down the hills under a star-studded sky in the warm evening air - it was gorgeous. [Cultural note: stop signs are optional. In fact, people slow down more when there is no stop sign.]
Sunday morning we got up at 3:45am to make alfombras in the street for Palm Sunday. Here, they cover the streets in a path of decorative designs like crosses, doves, flowers, and chalices made of sawdust and then line them with real flowers. Then they process along the path from the local church - St. Martin - to the Cathedral in the town square. The procession includes Jesus on a donkey, all of his disciples, a statue of Jesus carried by four men, the priest, and lots of incense. It began at tipo 8am [about 8am - that's the time to gather and it will start sometime after that] and lasted until 11am. Then we ate lunch at John's - baleadas are the traditional meal of corn tortillas, beans, and crema, plus fresh mango, pineapple, and papaya.
Then it was naptime. Our siesta was not long enough.
We walked around town some more to change money and get licuados (a milk and fruit drink similar to a smoothie) before dinner with the bishop. He is something. He treated us to dinner at one of (if not the) nicest places in town and offered lots of alcohol, cigars, and desserts [all of which we turned down because this is a church trip and we were full from a huge meal]. But he was very energetic and enthusiastic and happy to spend time with us which was nice. Afterwards we walked around the town square for a while and he asked about our schedule for each of the remaining days of the week asking when we could get together again. It was touching how hospitable he was to us and how pastoral he is to his people. He stands up to the government every chance he gets [even when they are armed] and in the streets paused to say hello and ask after families of people he knew. The country is 90% Catholic or more and he is a well known figure after 24 years as bishop. For a man of 71 he looks at least 15 years younger.
Having had a long day, we eagerly went back to bed. Monday morning came at 4:30am. My alarm clock is not particularly accurate in time (it cost $2.50) and on top of that I had to guess the time to set it, I didn't have a clock to set it from. Anyway, I read it wrong and we all got ready by 4:50am thinking we were late when we were really an hour early. So we took naps and got to John's...late anyway. Mass started at 6am at the radio station.
Author's note: today has been another full day and I am tired. Here is the short version of what happened:
Monday:
6am - Mass, Marla sick :(
7:30am - breakfast at John's
8am - to Kindergarten in Colonia Divina Providencia: 50 kindergarteners, 1 teacher - mostly orphans
Noon - lunch with Padre Roel - very liberal priest ... ask me about him
1:45 - 2:30pm - nap, this is exhausting
3pm - visit Hogar San Jose - a home for malnourished children newborns to age 5 run by the Missionaries of Charity after 5 years old, they either go home to their families who could not take care of them before due to financial situation or imprisonment or to the orphan homes next to the kindergarten.
6pm - dinner at John's
7pm - Stations of the Cross at St. Martin with the "base community" that John belongs to
10pm - BED!
Tuesday...I'll tell you about later. It was a fun day at the Copan Ruins followed by a talk by famous Brazilian Catholic theologian and former priest Leonardo Boff.
I haven't written much about the people other than Romiro. The interactions I've had with them are very important and the reason we are here. However, 1) I don't have time - I'm detail oriented and as you can see I am not terribly brief and 2) I want to explain that in person - if I write it all now you'll have nothing to ask me about when I get home. They are touching and have impacted me as a person and made me consider new possibilities for my own future. They are absolutely filled with God. Sandra, a young girl who lives in a shack with no electricity and at least 4 siblings and her mother brought us snacks on Sunday morning because she wanted to offer us something. She gave from what very little she had to her new friends. As John says, the most important thing is that we were paying attention to her. But here I go writing too much again. The Kindergarten and the Home for Malnourished children have been the most moving so far - I'll talk to you when I get home. Hope all is well. Abrasos hasta luego.
We started off Saturday morning with a traditional breakfast of platanos con crema y huevos rancheros: sweet bananas with creme and eggs with peppers. The bishop - Monsenor Luis Alfonso Santos - wanted to pick us up but the President of the Republic (of Honduras) was visiting Santa Rosa to dedicate a new street that was about to be paved, so the bishop had to be there as well. Instead he sent two cars to pick us up. I rode with Ramiro, Katie, and Mary & John, Mitch, and Marla rode with Rafael. We had quite the discussion about the geography, impact of the mines on the agriculture and the people, and of course politics.
Ramiro told me about how he is working to get the government to impose a tax on the mines since they are engaging in cyanide leeching which gets into the water supply and causes health problems. They don't want environmental laws because there will be no enforcement of the laws and most officials are easily bought off by the mining companies anyway. He also asked my impression of the war in Iraq. I told him it was mostly unpopular in the States, but now that we're there, what do we do? I have friends who are fighting there now. He said popular sentiment in Honduras is that we never should have gone in and should leave immediately. I asked him about Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. He said most people like him because he is doing a lot of good things to help countries in Latin America. Ramiro doesn't speak any English so all of our communication was in Spanish - I was impressed by my abilities to communicate. It was broken but I got the message across.
We arrived in Santa Rosa de Copan around noon and got settled in with two Spanish nuns - Hermanas de la Immaculada - who run a home for girls from the countryside who are attending school and need a place to stay. Since it is Semana Santa - Holy Week - they are all home and their rooms are available for us to stay in. Mitch is staying just down the street at John's house.
We spent Saturday walking around town and buying fruit at the market. We ate dinner with the sisters at a local pizza place. Actually, we spend most days walking around town. There are taxis, but mostly we walk. Saturday night, though, Sor Maria Jesus and Sor Marissa, our hostesses, drove us around town in the back of their truck: up and down the hills under a star-studded sky in the warm evening air - it was gorgeous. [Cultural note: stop signs are optional. In fact, people slow down more when there is no stop sign.]
Sunday morning we got up at 3:45am to make alfombras in the street for Palm Sunday. Here, they cover the streets in a path of decorative designs like crosses, doves, flowers, and chalices made of sawdust and then line them with real flowers. Then they process along the path from the local church - St. Martin - to the Cathedral in the town square. The procession includes Jesus on a donkey, all of his disciples, a statue of Jesus carried by four men, the priest, and lots of incense. It began at tipo 8am [about 8am - that's the time to gather and it will start sometime after that] and lasted until 11am. Then we ate lunch at John's - baleadas are the traditional meal of corn tortillas, beans, and crema, plus fresh mango, pineapple, and papaya.
Then it was naptime. Our siesta was not long enough.
We walked around town some more to change money and get licuados (a milk and fruit drink similar to a smoothie) before dinner with the bishop. He is something. He treated us to dinner at one of (if not the) nicest places in town and offered lots of alcohol, cigars, and desserts [all of which we turned down because this is a church trip and we were full from a huge meal]. But he was very energetic and enthusiastic and happy to spend time with us which was nice. Afterwards we walked around the town square for a while and he asked about our schedule for each of the remaining days of the week asking when we could get together again. It was touching how hospitable he was to us and how pastoral he is to his people. He stands up to the government every chance he gets [even when they are armed] and in the streets paused to say hello and ask after families of people he knew. The country is 90% Catholic or more and he is a well known figure after 24 years as bishop. For a man of 71 he looks at least 15 years younger.
Having had a long day, we eagerly went back to bed. Monday morning came at 4:30am. My alarm clock is not particularly accurate in time (it cost $2.50) and on top of that I had to guess the time to set it, I didn't have a clock to set it from. Anyway, I read it wrong and we all got ready by 4:50am thinking we were late when we were really an hour early. So we took naps and got to John's...late anyway. Mass started at 6am at the radio station.
Author's note: today has been another full day and I am tired. Here is the short version of what happened:
Monday:
6am - Mass, Marla sick :(
7:30am - breakfast at John's
8am - to Kindergarten in Colonia Divina Providencia: 50 kindergarteners, 1 teacher - mostly orphans
Noon - lunch with Padre Roel - very liberal priest ... ask me about him
1:45 - 2:30pm - nap, this is exhausting
3pm - visit Hogar San Jose - a home for malnourished children newborns to age 5 run by the Missionaries of Charity after 5 years old, they either go home to their families who could not take care of them before due to financial situation or imprisonment or to the orphan homes next to the kindergarten.
6pm - dinner at John's
7pm - Stations of the Cross at St. Martin with the "base community" that John belongs to
10pm - BED!
Tuesday...I'll tell you about later. It was a fun day at the Copan Ruins followed by a talk by famous Brazilian Catholic theologian and former priest Leonardo Boff.
I haven't written much about the people other than Romiro. The interactions I've had with them are very important and the reason we are here. However, 1) I don't have time - I'm detail oriented and as you can see I am not terribly brief and 2) I want to explain that in person - if I write it all now you'll have nothing to ask me about when I get home. They are touching and have impacted me as a person and made me consider new possibilities for my own future. They are absolutely filled with God. Sandra, a young girl who lives in a shack with no electricity and at least 4 siblings and her mother brought us snacks on Sunday morning because she wanted to offer us something. She gave from what very little she had to her new friends. As John says, the most important thing is that we were paying attention to her. But here I go writing too much again. The Kindergarten and the Home for Malnourished children have been the most moving so far - I'll talk to you when I get home. Hope all is well. Abrasos hasta luego.
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