Coups

The Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya, was taken from the presidential palace by the military this morning and is in exile in Costa Rica. This is the first military coups in Central America since the Cold War.

We were woken up by a phone call from one of our church leaders this morning informing us that the military had arrested Honduran president Manuel Zelaya this morning. He is currently in exile in Costa Rica. Here is an article in the NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/world/americas/29honduras.html?_r=1&hp

The scariest part this morning was the lack of communication. They cut power to the whole country and shut down the media so there was no information about what was going on. Fighter jets flew right over house very low and there were helicopters taking off from our nearby airport. All of this was meant to be an intimidation, I think. The power is back on, however, and our internet seems to be working. People are definitely frightened and don't know what is going to happen, so people are staying home and out of the streets.

We felt blessed to have church this morning, attended only by a few people. But we prayed, sang, and talked about what was going on. Among the themes that emerged:

* God is always with us, even in times of strife.
* The powerful people who run this country (10 families) have tremendous power over the country. They tell us what they want to hear, they decide when we have power and information, and generally hold the country hostage.
* We have a duty to keep ourselves informed and not believe everything we read. Then, as Christians, we need to testify to the truth in all situations.

We are fine and feel hopeful. We don't know if the power will stay on, so if you don't hear from us it is probably because we are incomunicado for the moment. Please pray for the country. Pray for safety for everyone and a peaceful resolution to this ugly situation.

We'll be in touch.

When is an urn more than just an urn? When it's the 4th one.

Honduras today finds itself in the throws of political upheaval, and it all has to do with the fourth urn, more colloquially known as the fourth ballot box.

For the last few months trouble has been brewing in the Honduran government as President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya has advanced in his decision to include in the November elections a fourth ballot box that will determine whether Honduras will form an assembly to reform the constitution. This Sunday is the national referendum in which Hondurans will vote whether that fourth ballot box will be allowed.

So what is the big deal? It depends who you ask. The cuarta urna has its supporters and opposition, of course.

Those in favor of the cuarta urna say that the new constitution will provide the opportunity to rewrite the constitution to eliminate corruption.

Those against it believe that Manuel Zelaya simply wants to change the constitution so that he can run for a second term (presidents are allowed only one four-year term in Honduras). Not only that he wants a second term, but that he wants to install himself as dictator, a la Venezuelan Presdient Hugo Chavez, with whom Zelaya maintains a friendly relationship.

Everyone in the government -- the armed forces, the Congress (even Mel's own party), the attorney general, the Supreme Court -- is against Zelaya. The Supreme Court has ruled the move illegal and unconstitutional, but he's going through with it nonetheless. Rumors have been flying around for weeks now that there will be a military-led coups to toss Zelaya out of power before Sunday's referendum. Last night Zelaya sacked the head of the armed forces, and the rest of the military leaders resigned in solidarity, essentially leaving all of the military powers without a head.

It is hard to know exactly what to believe, partly because it is impossible to get reliable information. The media are all owned by the wealthiest people in the country who are decidedly against the cuarta urna and out of touch with the reality that most Hondurans live. Zelaya and his advisers, however, have provided scant information about what they actually want to change in the constitution, which smells fishy. It seems to me that if Zelaya did install himself as dictator and tried to run the country like Venezuela, he would run into major problems. For one, the country is essentially bankrupt and has no oil fields, as does Venezuela, to finance socialist reforms.

Today and tomorrow are important days for Honduras. No one knows how the situation will play out. No matter what, most Hondurans seem to think that no matter what happens the government will remain as corrupt as ever, looking out only for themselves and their own interests. It's a sad state of affairs, this hopelessness. With so much poverty, poor education, crumbling infrastructure, and now a financial crisis that is swelling the already double-digit unemployment rate, the future for this country looks dim. The fourth ballot box seems like just another dead end, not a light at the end of the tunnel.

Update: Here is an Associated Press article about the situation.

Another article from the Council on Hemispheric Affairs about the cuarta urna. Presents both sides fairly well.

The end of a very short era

Last Thursday marked the official end to my first round of English classes... although instead of having class we had a pizza party at my house, and admittedly spoke Spanish the whole time until I tried to start a round of "what do I like?" in English to wind things down, which effectively killed the party.

Here are a few pictures of my actual last day of teaching (I thought a game of Jeopardy would be fun, but nobody had ever heard of Jeopardy and in the end it got a little overly-competitive and was kind of a downer for the losing team. I inadvertently put most of the shy people on one team). A few people were missing, but this was about it by the end of the course - I'm hoping when I start the second round of classes next week I'll have more students! Along with this class I also taught one for highschool kids, and a conversation class of 4 students who already have a pretty solid English background. My goal is to have enough students by the fall to start a few intermediate classes.



Some things I really love about teaching English in Flor del Campo:
1. I'm always learning new things. Super cheesy but true.
2. Generally students are really, really motivated and really, really grateful for any extra time I'm willing to spend with them. Which not only makes me feel like it's always time well spent, but it also makes me feel like a super star.
3. English classes here are very expensive, so I love that my classes are free for everyone. I also love that several of my students are house-wives and normally don't have the opportunity to attend a class or learn something new.
4. I was walking down the street above our house the other day and a little girl I didn't recognize said "Hola Profe" (short for profesora and pronounced like "pro-fey"). I think when I go back to teach elementary school in the states I will insist on going by "profe".

Some things that were humbling about teaching English:
1. I asked for some feedback from my few and faithful remaining students at the end of our term, as to why they thought we'd lost about half the class. Most were quiet, a few said that a lot of people want to learn English but don't want to actually study, and then Brenda, ever honest, told me it's because I gave too many quizes. Point taken.
2. It turns out that English is very tricky and I've had to do a lot of work just figuring out how to explain some of the weirder parts of the English language. Should have taken that TESOL class at GC. But I think marine biology was probably way more fun.

Feeling good about La Campa

Amanda and I just returned from a refreshing, yet exhausting trip to visit Michael, one of our SALTers, in La Campa. Refreshing, because La Campa has to be one of the quaintest and most relaxing towns in Honduras. Exhausting because it required two 10-hour travel days (2 hours of which were spent in the back of a truck on very bumpy roads) of traveling to get there and back to Tegucigalpa.

It was worth it, though, to see Michael, and to participate in a good, old-fashioned campo cow slaughtering.

The festivities started on Sunday at 4 a.m. with a deep jab to the jugular. I missed that part, thankfully, but was present and fully awake for the subsequent skinning, gutting, dismembering, and sale of the beast. It was pretty amazing. At 4:04 a.m. it looked like this.


Here he was at 5.

And at 12:30 p.m.

(That's him in the bowl in the middle of the table.)

We ordered two pounds of rump roast, but they grilled it up for us so it was kind of chewy, but very fresh and local.

Otherwise, we enjoyed a morning in Gracias, Lempira; two hikes through canyon country; two nights at our favorite bed and breakfast; and some good discussion with a prominent member of the community about local-government corruption. For an interesting blog about that, check out Michael's blog entry.

Anyway, here are some pictures from our time in La Campa.

Colloquial/literal translations

Literal translations are funny. A guy down by the soccer field selling tomatoes just slapped me on the shoulder as I walked by and yelled, "¿Qué pedo, chele?"

Colloquial translation: "Hey, what's up, whitie?"

Literal translation: "What a fart, light-skinned guy."

A surprising new pet and an English story

First, the story:
As any teacher of a new language could probably tell you, learning a new language has it's funny moments. My 7-week English class is winding to a close this week, and we have had our fair share of humor, for sure. It's kind of half and half, which is nice: they get to laugh at my occasional Spanish slip-ups, which I think actually make them much more comfortable to try out crazy English pronunciations, and I get to have my own little private English jokes, which I have to wait to share later with Andrew. Here is my favorite: we recently learned food vocabulary, and after having a little "market" with cut-out fruits and veggies, everyone made their own restaurant menu complete with drinks, main dishes, sides, and desserts. My most intense student, let's just call her Brenda (that's her real name), was the first to turn in her homework, as usual. Brenda is a very literal person. She needs to know the exact definitions of every word I write down. I could tell she had laboriously looked up lots of new words. Her list of drinks looked like this: coffee, tea, juice orange, sprite, fresh, cocaine tail, milk of chocolate... wait! Did you catch it? Cocaine tail? I turned to her and asked what she'd been going for with cocaine tail because I just had no idea. Her reply: I'm going to be mean and leave you hanging on that one to see if anyone was quicker than I was.

Our new pet:
Melvin, who is also in my English class and on the library board of directors, came into the library for this morning's board meeting carrying a turtle. He'd found it on the road outside. We let it wander around for awhile, and then he and Dyro made the rounds to all the neighboring houses to see if anyone would claim it. Long story short: I GOT THE TURTLE! All of my nurturing needs are now being fulfilled with our little Guillermo. I think he was starving because after a long, harrowing morning in the library, I brought him home and we gave him a rotten banana, a mango pit, and two worms from our compost bin. He devoured everything, which was a good show, getting all goopy in the process, and now he's sacked out behind the recyclables that I don't know what to do with on the porch. We have an enclosed porch, so we plan on making him as cozy as possible and enjoying life with a new pet.

Guillermo hitting the mango hard

The most beautiful bird in Honduras

Last weekend, Kathy, Virgil, Amanda, and I spent a beautiful weekend in the mountains of La Tigra National Park, not far from Tegucigalpa. While there, I achieved one of the most important goals for my time in Honduras -- the witnessing of the beautiful Resplendent Quetzal. It's is the kind of bird that eludes you if you are trying to find it, so the key, apparently, is to casually be walking along the road trying to find a singing clay-colored robin, and just happen to come upon it sitting conspicuously on a branch just off to the right of the road. At least that's how it happened for us.

It was an incredible site -- a male in full plumage, shimmering green and red in the evening sunlight. Virgil and I (the only ones who saw it) gazed at it wide-eyed for a few seconds, then I tried to take a picture, in which the magnificent birded ended up a shaky, dark green blob. (The picture above is not mine.) This bird is special for a couple of reasons. For one, it is just so much more beautiful that it almost doesn't make sense. Two, few people ever see it, even in a zoo, because quetzals die in captivity. Third, rampant habitat destruction in Central America has driven this bird close to extinction. They need large swaths of undisturbed forest with lots of dead trees for nesting sites.

We spent Sunday morning with Honduran birding fanatic Daniel Germer, whose Web site Hondubirding.wordpress.com is linked to our blog on the right. It was a great connection and super fun morning. We also made his blog! Check it out here. Here are some other birds we saw:

Mountain Trogon
Rufous Browed Wren
Scaled Antpita
White-Faced Quail Dove
Black-Throated Jay
Strong Billed Woodcreeper
White Eared Hummingbird
Common Bush Tanager
Chestnut Capped Brushfinch
Slate-Colored Solitaire
Slate-Throated Redstart
Bushy Crested Jay

I'll try not to write about birds again for while.