Honduras Journals

A little finality

2010-06-05T08:56:00.000-07:00

Hello any friends out there still checking our blog! So sorry to leave you hanging...
Our lives have changed quite a bit since our last post in February. We left Honduras March 15h and spent the next month visiting friends and family in Indiana and PA as well as checking in with the MCC headquarters. We loaded up a moving truck mid-April and headed to Albuquerque, where we are now staying with my dad and step-mom Brenda. Besides moving back to the states and to New Mexico, we've had some other major changes as well... our baby bean was born last Tuesday, May 25th! Samuel Lamar Lind Clouse is beautiful and we are having so much fun getting to know him.

Our plan all along was to stay with my dad and Brenda until mid-summer and then find a place of our own... that is working out well, and felt very timely indeed as my dad had an emergency quadruple bipass heart surgery a few weeks ago. The surgery went well and we are now both recovering at home together.

It feels strange to no longer be in Honduras... we miss our MCC friends and Honduran friends very much... it's amazing how quickly life changes and life in the states, which once seemed so far away, becomes all encompassing. Things have moved so quickly for us since our return that it seems hard to process our time in San Pedro and Tegucigalpa.

So now Andrew is settling into his roll as half-time Associate Pastor for Youth at Albuquerque Mennonite Church and I'm enjoying being a mom and thinking about work or school options for the fall. We're not sure where the next few years will take us here in Albuquerque and so far we can take it only one day at a time.

For now, here are some good pictures of little Samuel.

Just a few more days in the flower

2010-02-24T06:24:00.000-08:00

"Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin... into the future..."

Our friend Adam Lawrence, ex-SALTer extraordinaire, visited us last weekend which turned out to be a major blessing for various reasons. He helped us around the house a lot; carrying buckets of water for me and helping me speed clean the house when at one point we thought we might unknowingly be hosting a surprise baby shower, AND he served as our unofficial photographer for the weekend; taking photos of various neighbors, the market where we always go but have never managed to get any pictures of, and most importantly the not-so-surprise baby shower which turned out to be at somebody else’s house after all, Gracias a Dios. Plus it was just great to see him again and share some good conversation.

With just a few days left of work and our house in packing/sorting shambles, it’s really starting to feel real that we will be leaving Tegucigalpa next Monday. It’s been so nice to spend some time with people at various “going-away” type events; first the baby shower on Friday and then a grill-out with Andrew’s co-workers on Sunday. The baby shower was a total riot and unlike any I’ve ever been to in the states: it included group games that involved a lot of screaming and jumping, good food and cake, and (the best of all) some really great guitar playing and singing by a father-son duo from our church. What it did not include was a lot of presents, which made my comfort level go way up. Juanito, my boss Juan’s son who is our age, was visiting from D.C. where he lives with his wife and paints and makes music, and the two of them performed a lot of beautiful, old campesino songs, most of which I’d never heard before. Sometimes everyone else joined in and sometimes just the two of them sang, their voices harmonizing over their two guitars while the rest of us sat transfixed. They sang and sang, and to my surprise it was soon long past our normal 9-ish bedtime and I was left wondering, “Why couldn’t we have had these kinds of gatherings all year???”
Sometimes it isn’t until the very end when we can begin to fully appreciate what we are leaving behind.

You can click HERE to view some of Adam’s photos from the weekend. Below are a few highlights.

Adam Lawrence is in the middle. Our last official guest in Honduras!!

Church friends at the baby shower. Lourdes, on the left, was our host.

Juan Hernandez and his son Juan Ernesto, taking a breather during the singing. As the president of the library board of directors, Don Juan is my boss... I've known him all year and had no idea he could play the guitar and sing so well.

Andrew's co-workers on revistazo.com. A pretty fun group of folks - after spending just one afternoon with them I could see how Andrew gets to learn so much more "caliche", or slang, than I do. Claudia, on the left, hosted lunch for everyone.

Rooting out government corruption

2010-02-09T14:52:00.000-08:00

A couple of months ago I took an early morning bus to San Pedro Sula, this time as an undercover reporter in search of corruption. I was armed with a report put out by the organization Democracy Without Borders that listed every single check written by the Honduran government in the last six months from the community development fund. In theory, this fund is for members of Congress to use to build schools, pave roads, plant trees, house orphans, and fund all sorts of do-gooder projects. The reality is that it is essentially a government slush fund with few controls and almost no accounting that Congresspeople can use to buy favors, votes, or for to line their own pockets. What I found was shocking. In some cases the money arrived as it was supposed to, resulting in a few computers for a school, or a new roof on a community center. In many cases, a project began but was never finished, or the finished product was so insignificant I wondered how the project was ever approved. And in the most shocking cases, the money never even arrived, and no one seems to know where it is.

The result of the investigation has been published, along with the investigations of my Revistazo.com colleagues who found equally disturbing stories all over the country. The link to my article can be found here (Google translator version in Google English found here.) The rest of the articles can be found on the right-hand side of www.revistazo.com.

Here are a couple of the sad stories I happened across:

Colinas de Suiza

This photo is of an empty water tank in the community Colinas de Suiza (Hills of Switzerland) in Villanueva, Cortés. This community, perched on the very top of a deforested mountain with an amazing 360 degree view, has no water system. They rely on what falls from the sky. About five years ago, the community made contact with a professor from the Colorado School of Mines, who brought engineering students down to Honduras to carry out a study, and, ultimately, to build a water storage tank for the community that would provide everyone with running water.

Many years and thousands of dollars later (including a mere $5,000 from the Honduran Congress) the big, steel tank is finished, sitting right beside the public school. Unfortunately, it is not hooked up to anything and is completely empty.

According to the pastor from the local evangelical church (pictured...I can't find his name!), the community was in search for the rest of the money to hook up the pipes to a well at the bottom of the mountain when the city government decided to expropriate the tank using the eminent domain law. Since it was a public service, they argued, the government has the right and responsibility to run it. The city government promptly forgot about these responsibilities, however, and have made no indication that they will remember them any time soon.

For now, the community continues to suffer and fume that the work they did was for nothing.

Villa Florencia

This community in San Pedro Sula is 25 years old, and since it was built the city has done nothing to improve the dirt side roads and potholed main streets. According to the report by Democracy Without Borders, the Honduran Congress approved two separate checks for $25,000 each in 2006 to pave roads in this neighborhood. The neighborhood association, however, says that they have not been able to trace the whereabouts of the money. Furthermore, they only knew of one of the $25,000 checks. The second was news to them. The neighborhood association treasurer said they have gone back and forth between the Congresswoman who promised the money and the city government who was supposed to carry out the project to try and find the whereabouts of the money. Each "kicks the ball to the other," as he so eloquently stated. This is possible because the Congress makes no effort to check up on whether the projects were finished, or whether the money ever got to the community. In fact, the Congressperson can request that the check be written in his or her name so he or she can hand the money out personally.

San Manuel

The road leading out to the village of Santiago in the municipality of San Manuel is 4 kilometers of mostly muddy potholes (combined with beautiful views of a river and lots of parrots), except for the first 200 meters. The Honduran Congress approved $50,000 to pave this small, insignificant stretch of road, and it appears that the money arrived and was honestly spent (an engineer sent a breakdown of what he figured the costs were, and it was more than $50,000). But why, when there are urgent projects like the water tank in Colinas de Suiza left undone, would the Congress spend these precious, limited funds on 200 meters of a highway that few people use? The problem with this slush fund is that the Congresspeople can go around from town to town and hand out token amounts of money in exchange for their votes. There is no planning involved. It's all politics. It is an example of how the system is broken, and how the government sees the poor as pawns to be manipulated for their own power. This, to me, is the saddest part: an account called the community development fund continues to be used to steal what dignity the poor have left--with their own tax money.

February already??

2010-02-07T13:27:00.000-08:00

I realize way too much time has passed since our last update. After such tragedy in Haiti and us being really preoccupied with that, it just felt trivial to write about our daily comings and goings here in La Flor… but some of our plans for the next couple of months have changed and we thought that you, our devoted family and friends and random strangers, should know about them.

First of all, rather than returning to the states in June as originally planned, we’ve decided to head back in March. This came about for a number of reasons, the biggest of which being our Bean is due in May and we’d like to be home with family for his big arrival.

So! All of a sudden we have just three weeks left of our work here in Tegucigalpa, after which we’ll pack up and head to San Pedro and spend two weeks there winding up our work with MCC. We plan to fly out of San Pedro on March 15th, and then spend the next several weeks visiting Andrew’s family in Goshen and PA, spending time with friends, going to a few weddings, hoping to get to Albuquerque where we plan to live with my dad for a few months before eventually getting our own place. Bean will be born, we will be parents, life will be oh-so-very-different than it is now.

How are we feeling? So many things – excited, overwhelmed, pre-maturely nostalgic – mostly excited though. The past two and a half years have been an amazing experience that I’m sure we’ll be processing for awhile. Words fail me. But it definitely feels like time to get back home to family and friends. Some goals for the next weeks: finish up our work well, soak in the sights and sounds and people of La Flor del Campo, take all the pictures we’ve been meaning to take all year, eat more pineapple while we can, try to convince our young neighbor to stop playing on his roof (he already feel twice), preach one more time at church (Andrew), and learn a few more Honduran slang words (Amanda). Here are a few pictures we selected from the last couple of months to give an idea of what we've been up to. Like I said, we’ve been slacking in the picture department, but plan on making up for it shortly.

Dependency on the United States

2010-01-21T10:21:00.000-08:00

I was looking around at some data on DataGov and came across some statistics that astounded me, so I decided to share. The chart below shows remittances by country as a percentage of that country's GDP. In other words, What percentage of Honduras's GDP is money that was sent home by immigrants working abroad? Take a look at the charts below.

Remittances as percent of GDP

In 1979 the percent of GDP that remittances represented was .05%. In 2008, it's 20%. The data is similar for El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, and Nicaragua. As a whole, 6.53% of Latin America's GDP was generated by workers outside of their home countries.

This suggests to me that the last 30 years of neoliberal economic policy, structural adjustments, and free trade agreements have had the dual effect of a.) encouraging Latinos to emigrate to the United States, and b.) increasing Latin American dependency on the US to very unhealthy levels. It is true that during this same time these economies did improve. But what does it mean when a large chunk of that growth is due to economic activity that is physically risky, destroys the social fabric of home communites, and breaks the receiving country's laws?

But I'm no economist. Other thoughts on how to interpret this data?

Article on the MCC webiste

2010-01-20T08:52:00.000-08:00

This article was posted on the MCC news page about Haiti on Tuesday: http://mcc.org/stories/news/compassion-more-widespread-violence-haiti

I found it to be a welcome change from the news coming from the international media, which seems to mainly be focusing on violence and looting.

Our good friends and fellow Honduras MCC team members Kathy and Virgil Troyer arrived in Haiti last Saturday. They're working as the regional disaster response coordinators for Latin America. Yesterday we were forwarded an email from them reporting that they are doing okay; busy with daily struggles to help support the MCC team there (practical things like getting food together, filtering water for many people, trying to change U.S. currency in order to buy gas and other supplies, etc). I am really in awe of the work they and other Haitian and international MCC workers are doing... here, we just keep praying for the people in Haiti. What else can you do?

Thoughts on Haiti

2010-01-14T06:28:00.000-08:00

I can't help but imagine myself in the same situation as my MCC counterparts in Haiti. The thought that grips me is that the earthquake the struck Honduras last year was the same magnitude, yet Honduras was essentially left unharmed. Seeing the pictures of Port-au-Prince reminds me of Tegucigalpa: shacks perched precariously on hillsides, shoddy construction, flimsy infrastructure. This could have been Teguc.

Imagine. The earthquake rocked Haiti before 5 p.m. I would have still been at work on the other side of the city. Streets are blocked, traffic stopped. Night falls soon after. I can imagine myself sprinting through the dark to Flor del Campo, my mouth dry, eyes filled with concrete dust, unable to make phone contact with my pregnant wife. Four hours by bus from the MCC office. Hungry, thirsty, frightened. It's too much for my small brain to comprehend.

Yet this is the apocalyptic reality for the Haitian people living in Port-au-Prince. Women are giving birth on the streets. Children are weeping, homeless and hungry. People are contracting tropical diseases and have no comfortable place to lay down.

I have inserted links to the blogs of MCCers in Haiti on the right-hand side. Not all are updated, but I'm sure they will be soon. Consider donating to MCC's relief efforts. I can vouch for the organization: www.mcc.org.

2 lists

2009-11-25T09:12:00.000-08:00

I, too, and a bit worried about elections. And so to turn my mind to other thoughts, I am compiling a list of Things That Are Ridiculous About the United States of America that I have thought of after 2 + years on the outside:

1. Zoning laws 1. Here, if you have a big pile of bricks and some sand, you got yourself an extra room, or maybe an apartment behind your house. Whatever works.

2. Zoning laws 2. Thanks to my friend Ben, I just found out that it is ILLEGAL to keep chickens in your yard in Goshen. Seriously! What are we afraid of? Fresh eggs, pleasant clucking sounds; I don't see a bad side. I don't think my neighbors here would understand the concept of chicken illegality.

3. Nursing homes. I have a new appreciation for inter-generational living. So much so that Andrew and I are going to give it a go for awhile when we get back.

4. Anxiety, sometimes even fear, of women breastfeeding in public. I think this might stem from our overall fear of anything that connects us with the animal kingdom. I have gotten completely nipple de-sensitized... breastfeeding is everywhere. It happens everyday. It's natural. I promise. Nobody gets hurt.

5. Lack of good, cheap, inter-state public transportation. We can get from San Pedro to Tegucigalpa, a five hour bus ride, for less than $5. Or you can spring for air-conditioning, really comfy seat, movies, and a white bread/mystery meat spread sandwich plus a coke for $15, with no stops along the way. Why can't we do this in the states? Greyhound is tired and sad and drooping and super-inconvenient, not to mention strangely expensive.

6. Disposable diapers. Seriously. If Honduran women can get up at 5am to wash their cloth diapers by hand, we can take the time to throw ours into a washing machine. And save the planet a little.

7. The Buffet. Luke-warm, bad tasting, sneezed upon and handled food in massive quantities. Although this does not apply to Indian buffets, which are pretty much awesome and should be encouraged.

8. Absolutely enormous houses for small families. The houses that have rooms that nobody really goes into most of the time, but are still furnished, and of course, heated and cooled depending on the outside temperature. This particular beef relates to ridiculous thing number 3.

9. Lawns. Grass? Unless you're playing soccer or frisbee on it I'm really not sure what it's for. We should have gardens, and eat stuff from them. Or more trees. Shrubs at least.

10. Dryers. Sun, anyone? This also relates to beef numbers 1 & 2, as Ben also told me that in some places it is ILLEGAL to hang your laundry outside.

Wait! Just in case you are thinking that I have no love for my homeland, here is a quick list of things I totally love and miss and can't wait to get back to:

1. Sidewalks.

2. Bike paths.

3. Pedestrian right-of-way.

4. Diversity.

5. My bike.

6. Swimming pool access.

7. Gender equality.

8. Our constitution, which is old and easy to understand. I'm pretty sure a military coup would not fly under our constitution.

9. Trees in the cities. And birds.

10. Amazing variety of food.

Elections

2009-11-24T06:59:00.000-08:00

This Sunday's elections have been hailed by the United States and the de facto Honduran government as the only exit to the political crisis that has further impoverished this already struggling country. The United States has been clear that they will recognize the results of the elections, despite the fact that Zelaya was not returned to the presidency. Most Latin American countries say they will not recognize the new government, but only time will tell whether the elections will put the situation to rest.

Some fear violence on election day. Many (most?) are apathetic. I have not talked to one person who will be voting on Sunday. My sense is that Hondurans are so fed up with the political corruption and impunity that to vote on Sunday is to legitimize a system that is deeply broken.

If you are interested, here is a blog entry that summarizes the militarization surrounding these "free" elections. The most troubling reality to me is that the military has sent a letter to all mayors asking them to provide names and telephone numbers of all of the people in their communities who belong to the resistance movement. The fact that the armed forces can so openly root out people it considers to be political dissidents proves to me that this was, indeed, a military coup.

Mormons, Jehova's Witnesses and Thieves...O My

2009-11-08T07:16:00.000-08:00

Sometimes interesting people come to the door. Today it was the mormons. I was snapping beans in the kitchen when they arrived... Andrew was up the stairs buying eggs at the pulperia. I saw them, three of them, in their white shirts and black ties and metal name tags, through the window, and I nervously took a handful of beans with me to the door. In normal Flor del Campo fashion I talked to them through the narrow bars of our porch door for a bit until I felt too ridiculous and unlatched the door, exposing myself to their full-on mormon eye contact. They must teach the eye contact thing in missionary training because they are all very good at it. It is hard to maintain constant eye contact with three clean-cut men at the same time, but not to be intimidated, I did my best.

The tall, blond, blue-eyed mormon on the left was surprised and I think a little flustered to find this dirty-haired gringa at the door, socks jammed into flipflops coming up to meet capri pants, green beens in hand. His spanish came out too quickly and a little jumbled, and more than once I had to ask him to repeat himself as he asked me what state I was from and what I was doing here... turns out he's been in the neighborhood 3 months. Believe me, there is nothing more awkward than meeting someone from your own country in both of your second language... ask any expatriate. It is part challenge, part confusion, all awkward. Especially when they are evangelizing you.

I have nothing against mormons. Growing up in the Northwest, I was fascinated by their large families and backyard trampolines, and often wondered if all of them had a propensity for theater or if that was just a phenomena of my particular highschool.

Andrew is nervous and distrustful of mormons... he came back to the house, eggs in hand, eyed them and quickly entered the house after a short greeting. He grew up in the midwest, so mormons were a thing of legends and jokes to him... not the kids tripping next to him in gym class. He prefers to be evangelized by Jehova's Witnesses. It's true, they have more to give and less to ask of you... happy to leave the latest Watchtower pamphlet and the daily scripture, without asking to chat, come inside, or press any life-altering religious decisions. Last weekend it was the Jehova's Witnesses who came knocking. I am nervous and distrutful of Jehova's Witnesses so I hid in the bedroom while Andrew chatted them up. They left after a few minutes and after leafing through the Watchtower a bit he started wondering out loud about JW theology. What is it they believe? Why don't they celebrate birthdays? What is this magical number about anyway? I ignored him.

He popped out the door to see where they went. Only Andrew would ask a JW back to the house. They were just coming back up the stairs, so he flagged them down and politely asked them if they thought everyone but them and their fellow JW's were destined for hell. Now the nice lady with the shade umbrella was the one to be nervous and distrutful, and a little out of her element... she excused herself and went to have a quick conference with her co-horts at the top of the stairs. Two minutes later another nice lady brought the smaller, thicker, “¿Qué Enseña realmente LA BIBLIA?” and said maybe when they had more time they could come back to chat.

Not all of our visitors have a religious motive. Yesterday a young man brought a very blingy (there is no other word to describe it's rhinestone-encrusted amazingness), tech-y, over-the-top cell phone to the door. He held it out to us through the bars, asking if we could please switch the language setting to Spanish, since he couldn't understand any of the English settings. He said a friend had sent it to him. Uh huh. We couldn't figure it out right away so he left it with us, which we let him do because it all happened so fast... and now the blingy thing is sitting on the table two feet in front of me, blue light blinking. We never did figure it out, he never did come back to get it. I don't like having the expensive, clearly-stolen-at-some-point thing in the house, but what to do? We await his return. Maybe it's better to go away for the weekends.

Accord? Think again.

2009-10-31T08:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's jubilant headlines suggest that the political standoff in Honduras has come to an end. If you simply read the headlines yesterday you may be led to believe that Zelaya is already back in power, and that the November elections would be recognized by all of the world's governments. But there is still once hitch: according to the agreement both sides would let the National Congress decide whether Zelaya would be reinstated. The Congress, however, seems to have no intention of calling the emergency session for the vote. Al Jazeera is reporting this morning that since Congress members are busy campaigning all over the country, there is no time to vote.

The National Congress, Roberto Micheletti, and the entire de facto government has continually insulted the Honduran people's intelligence throughout this political crisis. They seem to think that they can do whatever they want without consequence, despite the fact that most Hondurans favor Zelaya's return and dissaprove of the coup. After four months of constant protesting, despite the repeal of Constitutional guarantees and the crackdown on "dissidents," they can be assured the Resistance will not stay quiet.

It is hard to be over dramatic about Honduras's economic situation resulting from the coup and the global financial crisis. A slew of factors are coming together to form the perfect storm that could do as much economic damage as Hurricane Mitch, or knock it down to the level of Haiti or sub-Saharan Africa. Unemployment has skyrocketed; due to a non-existent rainy season most farmers lost their crops and the water reserves going into the dry season are essentially empty; due to lack of rain and high temperatures (the average high in October is 79 degrees; yesterday was 90, and it was as hot as most days this month) the coming wildfire season will devastate the forests; the de facto government has racked up huge internal debt for which the new government will be responsible to pay. The list goes on and on. An economist from the organization FOSDEH told me two nights ago that the percentage of the population living in poverty will increase from 59 percent to 70 percent this year alone. He said the statistics were enough to turn him into an alcoholic.

With this in mind, consider that my organization, ASJ, has asked each presidential candidate for their plan on how they intend to confront these problems. Less than a month before the elections no one has anything. Unbelievable.

Would you like to take a survey?

2009-10-28T10:17:00.000-07:00

This week I had the interesting opportunity of helping to administer a survey in our colonia, Flor del Campo, regarding the situation of land ownership in the community. They survey was part of the Asociación para una Sociedad más Justa's land rights project, whose lawyers and community organizers accompany neighborhoods in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula who are fighting for land titles. First, a little context.

Flor del Campo, like many communities in Tegucigalpa, originally formed more than twenty years ago as a land invasion. This is common, and still happening, as more and more people migrate from the country to the city to look for work. This phenomenon has caused many land ownership conflicts, in which members of wealthy families claim to own large tracks of land that encompass these land invasions, and take advantage of the situation to charge rent upon threat of burning down houses, or worse. Often more than one rich land owner lays claim to the same land, and community members find themselves paying rent periodically to five or six people. This instability has been responsible for countless murders of community leaders fighting for land titles. About five years ago ASJ successfully lobbied the government to implement a new law to clear up these problems. Essentially, if an occupied piece of land is in dispute, the government can expropriate the land, place a value on it, and charge the community members an amount pay for the amount of land they own. Once each homeowner pays this amount, he or she receives an official land title, proving he or she owns the land. This money is held in a bank account. Meanwhile, the people who claim to own the land fight in court. Whoever is ruled to be the proper owner gets the money in the bank account. Win, win, win.

Flor del Campo was the first neighborhood to go through this process. The goal of this survey was to find out how many people have received their land titles, and, if they have, whether they have used them to get loans for home improvement.

In a morning of surveying I encountered some eye-opening realities. A few observations:

1.) The hardest question for people to answer was, "How many people live in this household?" Some people had to count and recount after running out of fingers, others argued about whether a family member lived in the house or not, others simply said they did not know. Wow.

2.) With the surveys I did, the average number of people living in a household was between 9 and10. There was not one house with fewer than 8. These aren't 2,500 square foot suburban mcmansions, either.

3.) In all of the households but one, the highest number of family members employed was two. That means in the best case scenario, two people were supporting households of 10, 11, or 12 people.

4.) Only one household reported a monthly income of more than $250.

5.) At one house, a woman busy grinding corn for tortillas did not seem to know who owned the house, how many people lived there, or whether she even had a tortilla business. This is not a reflection on her intelligence...I think having a gringo in her humble living room/bedroom/kitchen was just too embarrassing for words.

Rainy season? Not yet.

2009-10-25T16:22:00.000-07:00

The quick political update: talks between Zelaya and Micheletti have so far failed to bring any kind of resolution. Zelaya is still running his government and emitting decrees from the Brazilian embassy (this will be five weeks tomorrow) - which, sidenote, always has me wondering, what kind of bed situation is going on in there? Micheletti seems to be holding out for the elections and trying to get Zelaya and supporters to sign a document stating that his government is legitimate. I have no idea what November elections will bring, but there has been talk both of voting boycotts, and the government forcing people to vote.

One unfortunate bi-product of this mess is the early and sad ending of the public education school-year, after days and weeks and added-up-to months of missed classes. One of my English students, Dayro, stopped by yesterday... he is a senior and will be graduating this coming Saturday, but his highschool isn't holding a graduating ceremony or party or anything. He wasn't even given end-of-the-year exams. Nobody was this year - all students are being automatically passed through to the next grade.

On a more personal note - Andrew and I have been pretty busy lately. Andrew's work continues to step it up another notch every time he seems to get comfortable with something, making him seriously doubt any cultural stereotypes of a more laid-back work environment.

I started another round of English classes, this time adding an intermediate class for about 12 of my past students, which has been really fun. We've graduated to the past tense!!! We can talk about how we felt yesterday! I am trying to be a little more zen-like about my work environment, and not let the interpersonal weirdness and dynamics come home with me - now both of my initial co-workers have been fired, which was a sad and frustrating experience for all of us since there was little to no communication from the board of directors about that decision. My new co-worker is a former board member, very quiet, very male, very... quiet. We are very polite to each other.

The neighborhood news is that firecrackers are IN. Everybody has them. They could go off at any moment.

Our new country representatives (our bosses) arrived a few weeks ago and they are great!!!! And yes, they are probably reading this. But really, they are great. We had a team meeting last weekend at Valle de Angeles which was an absolutely fabulous break from work and the city, complete with a hike, good singing, food that we didn't have to cook, and an espresso machine.

What else is new.... hmmm.... well, I'm pregnant. That's pretty new. Bonus prize for those of you who read all the way to the end! Primero dios, we'll be bringing a little catracho home with us. Please, no curfew jokes.

Impasse

2009-09-27T20:00:00.000-07:00

Two folks from our colonia who support the resistencia have died in the last week. On Tuesday a 65-year-old man who was buying food at a corner store in Flor del Camp was shot when the resistencia march encountered police. People from our church said the marchers were unarmed when the police began to fire. Last night a 24-year-old girl died from asthma complications after she was exposed to tear gas fired by police to disperse protesters. This all hits closer to home, though we didn't know either one personally.

Tonight Reuters is reporting on a presidential decree to suspend certain civil liberties, such as freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, in an attempt to quiet the resistance. Radio Globo, one of the only pro-resistance--though not always accurate--news sources, said that the decree also calls for the station to be officially silenced, along with Channel 36. We'll see this week if these reports turn out to be true.

The curfews at this point are only in place at night, but the suspension of civil liberties, if true, does the same thing in one fell swoop. Now the military and police can arrest anyone at any time.

Someone at church today said that we are "living in a time of shadows." For many who consider this fight to be against injustice and tyranny, these are dark days indeed.

This is what happens when the entire country goes shopping at once

2009-09-23T15:02:00.000-07:00

Today the Micheletti government lifted the curfew from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. to let the country stock up on food, water, medicine, gas, and whatever else people needed. Is this a sign that we should prepare to hunker down for at least another few days?

We walked to La Colonia, a big grocery chain with two stores nearby. We try not to shop there too much, preferring instead local venders, but some things are available only here--chickpeas, split peas, lentils, peanut butter, etc. Enough justifying.

It was crazy. Stockers couldn't keep up with demands, as people stocked up on essentials, such as rice, beans, tortilla mix, flour, meat; non-essentials, such as Coke, single serving sugary yogurt drinks, frozen fish sticks, pre-pureed beans; and things I wouldn't think of buying in a crisis, such as doll sets and drying racks. The most popular item: styrofoam Cup-o-Soups. That aisle had been ransacked.

The meat section had been totally picked through.

We didn't eat before we left. Big mistake.

The line we waited in for two hours. Hope we don't have to do that again for a while.

Curfew extended

2009-09-23T07:53:00.001-07:00

The curfew was extended last night until 6 p.m. tonight, though some news sources are reporting that it will be lifted from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., possibly for a pro-Micheletti march. We are going to take advantage of that time to visit some folks in our community.

Last night was an ugly night in Tegucigalpa. Tires burning, people shot, police repression...you can read about much of it at www.hondurascoup2009.blogspot.com.

Laying siege

2009-09-22T19:04:00.001-07:00

The Honduran de facto government has essentially laid siege to the Brazilian Embassy, where Mel Zelaya has been holed up since yesterday morning. While there have been threats that soldiers may storm the embassy, the government continues to say it will respect the embassy's sovereignty. This is a big waiting game.

But in addition to the embassy, the government is essentially laying siege to the entire country, with a curfew that has been extended until 6 a.m. tomorrow morning. That will be 36 hours of continuous curfew, and with all of the demonstrations happening in various parts of the country tonight I would guess they will extend it again tomorrow. (We pray they won't.) Radio Globo is reporting that people desperate for food have begun sacking food distribution centers. Consider that many people here live day to day, buying only what they need for the day because it is all they can afford. Additionally, many people depend on the wages they receive every single day selling tortillas, fruit, vegetables, housewhares, etc., in order to buy the food they need. If everyone is in curfew, they don't sell. Add to that the fact that many of the corner stores where many people buy their rice and beans are running out of food, because the distribution trucks are not allowed on the streets. This is after only one day.

As we sit here eating delicious red bean veggie burgers, taking stock of the food we have saved up we can't help but recognize the privilege it is to have enough food to get through a week. Hope it doesn't take that long.

They may be preparing to storm the Brazilian Embassy

2009-09-22T07:23:00.001-07:00

1.) We are under a curfew until at least 6 p.m. tonight.

2.) Thousands of people camped out at the Brazilian Embassy last night in a peaceful protest to protect Mel Zelaya, who showed up unexpectedly yesterday morning. The military dispersed them with tear gas and pressured water.

3.) We are listening to Radio Globo right now, and they are reporting that the military seems to be preparing to storm the Brazilian Embassy.

Here's an excellent blog to read with context.

Please join us in praying for peace.

Unexpected and dramatic news from Tegucigalpa: Mel's back

2009-09-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

According to new reports and confirmed by the US State Department, deposed presidente Mel Zelaya snuck back into the country and is in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa. Thousands of Mel supporters have gathered outside the embassy. The Micheletti government, up until recently, has been denuing that Mel is back. And, surprisingly, the government has not issued curfew, and military are not in the streets. It is hard to separate fact from rumor, but all signs point to Mel actually being in the country.

I have no idea what's going to happen.

Here is a blog I wrote for Sojourner's.

Almost Famous

2009-09-05T16:15:00.001-07:00

Andrew's on a podcast! You should listen to it!
http://www.mcc.org/podcasts/

Really? September?

2009-09-01T17:02:00.000-07:00

We have been BUSY lately... Andrew and I have made two trips to San Pedro in the last two weeks; first to pick our two new one-year volunteers up from the airport and get them started with their orientation to Honduras, and then to see off our friend Caleb Yoder, our friend and fellow MCCer, as he finished his 3-year term this month, and then drive back to Tegucigalpa with Laura and all her things as she will be living not too far from us. We were especially glad to see Caleb safely on the plane, or at least headed in that direction, since he was just recovering from a bout with typhoid fever... he gets the award for coming down with the most serious illnesses in MCC Honduras history, after suffering from dengue fever and then a staph infection last year. Go Caleb! Stop getting sick!

Some highlights from the trip and the last two weeks:
1. I finished up with my second round of beginning English classes.
2. I learned how to make a really fancy piñata.
3. We were able to spend two nights on the farm with the Stephens family during which we got to taste my all-time favorite hot sauce that Stephanie made (they gave us a jar - we are putting it on everything) AND (this is the best part), we got to climb up and hang in hammocks that Sean strung 50ft up a big tree behind their house. I'm hoping we can sleep in them next time we stay there, but for now it was fun to make it all the way up and do a little tree climbing. I got a tree burn on my right arm as a trophy.
4. We ate a great fried fish dinner on the way home by the lake.

In other news... Andrew's position at ASJ has changed a bit - he now will be writing pretty much exclusively for revistazo.com, ASJ's online spanish publication. He's starting some in-depth investigative reporting on the illegality of the coup, and will be overseeing two writers that will join revistazo shortly. He's a little stressed.

It's been two months now and the coup and coup-related tensions continue. It's frustrating how long it's being drug out and how little regard for public opinion, safety, and human rights the government and military are showing. For some, marches and demonstrations are a daily reality as they struggle to resist the coup; for others, life continues as normal.

Dinner at the farm.

All harnessed in and hanging up high.

Max is admirably fearless.

Goodbye Caleb.

Welcome back Rachel and hello to Andrés, our new fellow MCCer from Colombia. Here waiting for fried fish at the lake.

Just a few pictures...

2009-08-08T16:26:00.000-07:00

It's been a nice little Saturday... Andrew and I got up, had some coffee, then headed down to the open air market downtown. After some pupusas (for me), and baleadas (for him), we got down to business and bought as many fresh fruits and vegetables as we could carry. I painted a little this afternoon and then we made pizzas with my friend Ivonne. This is the first Saturday in months that we've had to just relax around the house and get to the market, so very nice. Here are just a few recent pictures:

Guillermo really likes to hang out in the pool when it's hot. It doubles as a bathroom.

Making bagels. I was not able to flip this picture. Yes. Lame. But the bagels were NOT lame; in fact they were quite tasty and a new personal favorite, and pretty much the only thing I'm willing to bake.

This we took on a recent day venture to Santa Lucia, my new favorite little town in Honduras. Unfortunately, none of the scenic pictures I took are worth posting, since it was gray and rainy most of the day... but you can see how happy we were to be out of the city for a bit.

My first English students with their diplomas. We were just missing Jessica, who couldn't make it due to one of the demonstrations that blocked her way back home after a visit to her family out East.

Painting flowers on Saturday.

This little friend landed on Andrew's hand while we were waiting for the bus one day. I kind of think he was blowing a kiss at me. Flirting a little bit.

Clowning around

2009-08-05T10:04:00.001-07:00

In addition to a smooth and economical ride, Honduran busses often provide unexpected entertainment: preachers giving sermons about the end times, salespeople pitching various skin creams and magical pills that cure everything from earaches to cancer, and, my personal favorite, clowns.

Yesterday on my way home from work with one of my co-workers, Deily, we treated to an act by a very cute, very young clown couple. It was probably the best clown act I had ever seen on a bus, due to their genuineness. This wasn’t just a sad way to make money by telling crude jokes about women and mothers-in-law, as most clown acts are. They really took their art seriously. And the rest of the bus really found it hilarious when they used the gringo—me—as their volunteer.

It went something like this, with the actors being Boy Clown, Girl Clown, Gringo, and Deily:

Boy clown: *Something about what would happen if all the women on earth suddenly died. Morbid, but fodder for a good clown act.*

Girl Clown: But if all the women on the earth died, you men would be in big trouble. Who would cook for you?

BC: Not a problem at all. Look. Hey, gentleman standing there. (Points at gringo.)

Gringo: (Turns to Deily.) Uh-oh.

BC: Gentleman, can you cook?

G: Uh, yes.

BC: See, Girl Clown? He can cook. Problem solved. He’ll cook for me, and I’ll cook for him.

GC: Ah, but who would wash your clothes?

BC: Not a problem at all, Girl Clown! Gentleman, gentleman. Can you wash clothes?

G: (Face red, trying not to notice that everyone is staring and laughing at him.) Yes.

BC: See, Girl Clown? He’ll wash for me, and I’ll wash for him.

GC: Ok, Boy Clown. But I know one thing that you can’t do. Who will have babies?

BC: Gentleman, gentleman. Can you have babies?

Deily: (Jabbing Gringo in the back.) Tell him no, Andrés! Tell him no!

G: (Wags finger at Boy Clown.) No.

BC: Some punch line that couldn’t be heard as entire bus was laughing at the gringo who can cook, wash clothes, but can’t have babies.

Good stuff. So good that I gave them 10 lempiras. It was probably worth at least 12.

The relajo continues...

2009-07-31T02:16:00.000-07:00

So it's 3:00 am and I couldn't sleep... life here in post-coup Flor del Campo goes on... last week my friend Arely had her baby (giving me an eye-opening glimpse of the Honduran public health system), and yesterday my friend Tina's mom passed away. Daily life in Flor del Campo continues, despite the fact that kids haven't had regular classes since the beginning of this month. I haven't written on this blog for almost three weeks now. Why the silence? Quite honestly I just don't know what to say... I've run out of words. Honduras is no longer front page news around the world, but anxieties and tensions continue to rise; the economic ripple affects are being felt as tourism has come to a screaching halt and major road closures due to marches and demonstrations are crippling local businesses. Everyone is tired of this mess.

Yesterday was a hard day for many people in our community. The main food market in Comayaguela, where most people from our neighborhood go for weekly grocery shopping, burned to the ground. This is a market where hundreds of people made their living selling fresh meat and cheese, grains and veggies and non-food essentials like clothes and burned CDs and DVDs. I haven't been down to the market after the fire, so it's still hard to imagine the damage; much less the despair that all those people with small businesses are suffering after losing everything they had.

Yesterday also brought a teacher friend of mine, Yesenia, to the library... she was very distraught after spending the morning at a pro-Zelaya, anti-coup march on the outskirts of the city. My normally super-calm and warm friend was visibly shaken by the violence she'd seen, as a fellow teacher had been shot by the military during the demonstration. She said the police threw tear gas and there was lots of pushing and chaos - later on the radio I heard an interview of another teacher who'd been badly hurt during the march.

Yesterday also marked day 6 of a 24-hour "toque de queda", or curfew, for the people in the departments bordering Nicaragua. They are being forced to stay in their houses because they have the unfortunate position of living between an ousted president and a militarily imposed president. The curfew started before last weekend, meaning people living in these rural areas weren't able to make the customary trip to buy groceries and staples. So yes, the poor are suffering. Stuck in their homes without food and in some cases without water - under threat of arrest if they decide to take to the streets.

So here I am, sitting in my dark living room in the middle of the night, thinking about Tina and her mom, the people from the market, Yesenia and her fellow marchers who witnessed such violence today, and people under curfew near the border. The injustice is mind-numbing. And paralyzing - probably the reason I haven't written in weeks despite the need to write and share with you, friends and family and maybe a smattering of strangers, what's going on here and how we're feeling. Plus I don't like to be a downer. I'll share one happy thought before signing off: as I mentioned, classes have been canceled most days because teachers are striking, but despite that; one super-cool, super-dedicated teacher named Jorge Juan decided to hold his sixth grade class in the library for a few days so his kids wouldn't be so far behind when their graduation exams come up in a few months. There is hope for the world.

Amanda is in Sojourners

2009-07-10T13:18:00.000-07:00

Since Amanda probably doesn't want to engage in shameless promotion, I'll do it for her. Here is a piece she wrote for the Sojourners blog.

I, personally, think it's amazing.

Mel joins the jet set

2009-07-05T18:44:00.000-07:00

First of all, a translation:

Estamos abajo del toque de queda lo cual empieza a las 6:30.

Colloquial translation: We are under a curfew starting at 6:30.
Literal translation: We are under a touch of stay starting at 6:30.

And we are under a touch of stay after a gripping day that has taken this country to new levels of tension. Ousted presidente Mel Zelaya, who has been using his fair share of fossil fuels by flying around Central and North America this week, was set to make his triumphant entrance this afternoon. Thousands of his supporters surrounded the airport to welcome him back to town. At around 5 p.m. we ran outside to cheering and the sound of an airplane. I looked up and saw the plane that was supposedly bringing him home. It made two laps around the city, acted as if it were going to land, and took off into the distance. The military had blocked the runways with humvees and didn't give Mel permission to land. He took off to Managua, and, later, El Salvador, promising that he will find a way in sometime this week. Though he has not succeeded in coming back to Tegucigalpa, he has been successful in keeping his name and face in the international media.

Today two were killed and two injured when soldiers opened fire on the crowd. It was the first blood to be shed and hopefully the last, but people are getting scared. Today our church was canceled for no reason and despite the fact that everyone lives within five blocks. A pastor I spoke with at a church fundraiser used the words "civil war" in a sentence. The country is becoming increasingly polarized to the point where it isn't as much about Mel as it is about the poor having a voice. Suddenly the formerly marginal socially minded groups, poor farmers, and folks from the country have something rallying them together and a target at which to direct the anger that has been building for the last twenty years of oligarchic rule. Mending this country back together is going to be very difficult, but maybe it is a good thing that the wounds of time are being exposed.

We continue to feel safe and look forward to the time when this standoff comes to a conclusion. It's stressful to live with such uncertainty and to see the poor suffer and lose hope.

Here is an article I co-authored with my boss, Kurt Ver Beek, in Christianity Today that explains a bit more about the situation.

6 days later...

2009-07-04T01:39:00.001-07:00

It's 2:30 am and as I lay awake with a stomach-ache I started feeling a bit guilty to any faithful family and friend blog readers who might have been checking our blog this week hoping for some insight into the Honduran situation. My apologies. Something about wading through the deluge of blogs, local print, web and television news, international mainstream news, various rights-organization reports, and then finally many Honduran professionals' analysis of the situation - well, it left me a little speechless. And wary. Wary because so many of those sources came across so strikingly one-sided and in some cases downright false that I became struck by the power of words, and the responsibility we all have to be careful with how we use them. From a wary news-reader I have become a downright skeptic in the space of one week. I graduated!!

First for a personal note - the week has been a strange combination of building tension and anxiety, and absolute boredom. Andrew and I have logged in long hours in the casita just reading news and ruminating on what could happen here in the next days or weeks. The colonia we live in is on the edge of the city near the airport, so while we've had an up close and personal view of military plane and helicopter traffic all week, we're pretty far from the increasing (in size and frequency) demonstrations from both sides in the downtown areas. Andrew is much more connected to the goings-on as he commutes to the other end of town for work and has done some work interviewing and gathering information this week (I'll let him fill you all in on the fruits of that later). I, however, have spent most of the week sitting with my co-worker Ivonne in the empty library. Schools are canceled, nobody is coming in - I had to cancel the two new English classes I started this week. Tuesday's first day of class was a total bust as I was frazzled and my poor students had to squint to see the whiteboard during one of several power outages. The upswing of this is my craftiness is back on - I taught Ivonne to knit so together we produced two scarves and one hat during work. Military coup = crafty productivity.

On a less-personal note: tensions are running high as the new Honduran government installed after the military coup (many people calling it an arrest) refuses to back down and allow Pres. Mel Zelaya return. Micheleti declared that if Zelaya came back to the country he would be arrested and tried. As you all know from the international coverage of the situation - the international community, along with the Organization of American States, is backing Zelaya and threatening economic sanctions for Honduras if he isn't re-instated as President. The country is clearly divided and Hondurans supporting the ousted president are being silenced in scary ways. Local and international news sources that cast Zelaya in a positive light have been blocked, Zelaya supporters coming in from rural areas (most of his support lies in poor rural areas) have been denied access to cities by the military (here is footage on cnn.com of soldiers shooting tires out of 4 or 5 buses as protesters stood by), and yesterday we heard several reports from reliable sources that human rights organizations and leaders were arrested and detained by the military.

I think it's human nature to want to know who the good guys and who the bad guys are in situations such as these, so we can take the necessary steps to support the good guys, condemn the bad guys. In this case it's really not that simple. Zelaya is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a good guy. He made a lot of empty promises in order to gain the support of the poor. Micheleti is no better. I think this is a case of wealthy people and career politicians doing their best to retain their power and wealth. The ones who will lose in this political clash, as always, already are and will continue to be the poor. As the second poorest nation in the western hemisphere, this situation is the last thing Honduras needed. I keep thinking about people we've met out in the campo; people who were already struggling to get by day to day. The poor people that make up the majority of Honduras' population are the ones that will suffer from economic sanctions that will come if Micheletti and the congress refuse to negotiate and cooperate with the international community. The poor majority are fed promises and faulty information from all sides; they are the least educated with the least access to good information, and the most likely to suffer from this mess.

Coups

2009-06-28T11:14:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-06-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-24T09:34:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-22T20:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-13T14:52:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-13T11:22:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-04T06:50:00.000-07:00

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.

I feel the earth...move...under my feet

2009-05-28T07:47:00.000-07:00

Amanda and I awoke last night about 2:30 a.m. to seven seconds of excitement. An earthquake that struck exactly 200 miles north of Tegucigalpa made our little house in Flor del Campo shake and rattle ever so slightly, and caused Amanda and I to stand up and walk around aimlessly for a couple of minutes. We also made a contingency plan that involved putting on pants, leaving the keys in the door, and placing a flash light at the ready in case we needed to make a quick escape.

We didn't sleep much after that, partly out of fear of a stronger earthquake, but also because three Honduran friends called throughout the night to make sure we were ok. We appreciate that they were thinking of us.

The quake was reported as magnitude 7.1. According to most people I've talked to, last night's trembling was the strongest they had ever experienced in Honduras. Apparently a tsunami watch was put into affect and later lifted, and officials are reporting four deaths -- all children -- in various parts of the country. Sections of a major bridge linking San Pedro Sula to the town of El Progreso reportedly fell into the river. Officials are still assessing the damage.

Here is the AP article about the earthquake.

Papa loves mangos

2009-05-22T17:46:00.000-07:00

I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that mangos might be my favorite thing in the whole world. I love their red, yellow, green and orange peels; I love their juicy flesh; and I really love that at the fruit stand down by the soccer field they are five for a dollar!

But I'm sad that they will only be around another two weeks or so. I guess the 11-month anticipation is the price you pay for perfection.

Article on Revistazo.com

2009-05-14T18:59:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd post a link to my first-ever published article in Spanish. It appeared today on Revistazo.com.

I'll just say that after the Revistazo.com editor made her changes that it doesn't look exactly like my original submission, but at least I know what most of the words mean.

I love libraries

2009-05-06T10:46:00.000-07:00

I forgive anyone in advance for not reading this and just skipping to the pictures. It's probably what I would do.

I've put off writing about my new job up until now... but here goes. I work for Biblioteca Flor del Saber, a community supported library in our marginalized community called Flor del Campo. From our house I walk up some stairs, over a dirt road, up a windy little alley and down a windy little alley, down another dirt road and then I'm there at the beautiful iron gates of the library - twisted into vines and flowers and pretty things.

My first two months I spent on various projects: I organized the literature section alphabetically and did an inventory of books so that we could find books according to author and also check if we even have said book. The library was originally organized using the Dewey Decimal System, but within each major section the books were in no apparent order (they were actually in order by size, but no order that helps find a particular book). Eventually I hope we can get the whole library organized and inventoried, but the collection has over 4500 hundred books so it will take awhile. My co-workers Ivonne and Carolina and I also work together to put up monthly murals with information about national holidays and people of interest. We also help patrons and attend to requests for homework help. The library is a great resource but unfortunately kind of under-used, so we're also working on ways we can promote the library by hosting community events and doing more school visits.

Yesterday was my first day of teaching English classes - we're offering one free class to youth ages 12 - 18 in the morning and one for adults ages 18 and up in the afternoon, Tuesdays and Thursdays, for six weeks. I forgot how much I love teaching! I procrastinated, of course, on the planning; but I really enjoyed teaching and am looking forward to designing the rest of the course. It's fun to have total teaching freedom and the liberty to direct the class any direction we want to go... I'm going to type up all my lesson plans and materials to hopefully use for future classes.

I love the library. I love how beautiful and quality it is, and the fact that this amazing resource is smack dab in the midst of an impoverished neighborhood, and that kids and adults have access to this wealth of books and a computer lab. The downside is this: the organization that donated the books and materials and got this whole thing going, a private organization called the Reicken Foundation, was based on the wealth of one family. And that family lost most of their money in the market crisis recently, leaving the 50+ libraries they founded in Honduras with hardly any support. My two co-workers haven't been paid since January (that's right... January), and we haven't had Internet service in that long. It's a daily struggle for them to remain motivated as the questions of how they'll pay rent and feed their kids become increasingly difficult and pressing.

As an MCC worker, my rent, food, and all life's necessities are taken care of. I literally have absolutely no financial concerns, and I find myself taking that for granted, something that embaresses me when faced with the needs of my co-workers. One of them broke down in tears just yesterday worrying about how they were going to put food on the table. I've given and lent some money, but also don't want to get into the long-term habit of supporting the people I work with, people that SHOULD be receiving salaries. So what should I do? I know what Dorothy Day would have done... she would have emptied out that savings account in Goshen and cooked up meals for everyone on a daily basis. I'm just not that cool, or giving, or trusting. I struggle with what I really think people of faith are called to do and the daily shortcomings when that call is more than we can handle, or not what we want to hear.

View of the library facing the front door. Looks like Ivonne is straightening up.

Literature section. It's really a great collection.

Ivonne explaining about the global warming

Carolina demonstrates how the ozone layer is like an umbrella over the earth, shielding us from the harmful rays of the sun. I didn't get this on photo, but later, Ivonne cuts a big hole in the umbrella and Carolina sticks her hand through the hole... you can just feel yourself getting skin cancer.

The sixth graders attending the Earth Day talk were floored by this news, and vowed never to pollute the earth again.

I'm not sure why everyone is hugging.

Ivonne, me, and Carolina in front of our April mural, with the children's corner off to the right. I am a giantess.

Birthday fiesta!

2009-05-03T18:07:00.000-07:00

I was skeptical, but Amanda had no worries that everyone would fit into our tiny house for our joint birthday party. We threw a pizza fiesta for friends, church people and neighbors to celebrate the passing of another year. Some people showed up to see what gringo pizza was like, others were just really curious how we decorated our house. No matter the reason for coming, the party was a success, and a reminder of the joys of living in a close-knit community. We're not sure of the count, but there were around 30-35, and only two couples we had never met.

We continue to learn new things about Honduran culture. Apparently only brothels use Christmas lights during the year. Thanks for the tip, Tina! No wonder there's always a line outside our door at night.

See our party photos here.

* Note: Due to photographer's oversight, our good friends Kathy and Virgil did not make the album despite the fact that their help with the party was indispensable. Thanks, Kath and Virg.

Our house was full.

The Cantor family, who gave us this wall hanging.Escarlet ready to bake her pizza creation.

All of our birthday presents.

I like birds

2009-05-02T16:23:00.000-07:00

As Amanda mentioned in a previous post I have recently become enamored with -- or obsessed with -- birding. I'm not sure what it is, exactly, but I would not be as fanatical about it if it weren't for Virgil Troyer, MCC Disaster Response Coordinator, and Birder Extraordinaire. Actually, I also owe much thanks to my father-in-law, Ralph Lind, for buying Amanda and I a pair of incredible binoculars; and to my mother-in-law, Brenda Janzen, for gifting me an exhaustive Central American birding book. Thanks! I think what I like about birding is that it's a low-impact, low-equipment hobby that involves lots of reading, research, and careful observation.

I've compiled a really nice list of birds in the last 6 months, which I will not reprint here, but hope that in the next year I can add many more, including the elusive and beautiful Resplendant Quetzal.

Here are a couple of pictures from our team retreat near Lake Yojoa, taken at Finca Las Glorias.

A Ferruginous Pygmy Owl. Virgil and I spent at least half an hour tracking this guy through the woods, listening to his call and trying to answer back. Apparently my imitation was convincing. He flew right up to us, sat on his perch and had a nice long conversation.

The Belted Kingfisher. I took this picture through Virgil's awesome spotting scope. (If you want to get me another optical present, Ralph...)

First Rain!

2009-05-02T14:28:00.000-07:00

It started slowly with a few drops and then gradually grew into a great, pounding rain. Andrew made some hot pinol (a corn based hot-chocolate-esque drink) and we sat out on our plastic chairs on the porch and watched the rain come down, washing the dusty trees and plants clean and sweeping the accumulated garbage down the gutters. I love rain! I just love it...especially after the hot dry season months, when you think it might never rain again here and everything is dry and brown, thirsty for water from the sky. We've been told that before the climate started changing here and the weather patterns were more predictable, the first rains of the year always came during the first week of May in Tegucigalpa. Our friend David went as far as to say they always came on May 3, every year, like clockwork (although I find this hard to believe... I mean, what about leap year?) It is very comforting to think that, this year at least, we are getting off to a normal start. I can imagine farmers all over will sleep a little easier tonight, and the city water board can rest assured that the water supply did not run out before the first big rain of the year, as predicted by the pessimists. It's starting again! The tinkling on the tin roof! Gotta love it.

The view looking up the stairs from our porch. We're happy that whoever designed this staircase included a little river to channel away the rushing rainwater.

Enjoying a hot cup of pinol.

This was a couple of days ago, but I thought I'd put it here anyway. Amanda cleaning out our pila, otherwise known as our mosquito farm.

Semana Santa

2009-04-28T20:16:00.000-07:00

I want to give a little belated report on our lovely Semana Santa, or Holy Week, the week leading up to Easter.

Our dear friends Paul and Charity decided to spend the first part of a belated honeymoon visiting us (along with mutual friends Ben and Joy who live in another part of Tegucigalpa). We bussed up and met them in San Pedro and spent a day and a half showing them around our old, very hot, stomping grounds. We then bussed back down to Tegucigalpa to show them our new casita and impress them with the number and variety of ant colonies flourishing here. Next on the agenda was a day-long hike through La Tigra national park and overnight stay on the other side, near the little town of San Juancito. After exploring another little town nearby the next day we got back to San Pedro and all six of us crammed into our house for the night so we'd be ready to bus to Comayagua the next day - the first Colonial capital of Honduras, a town noted for its Semana Santa celebrations.

We arrived expecting large crowds of people... only to find the town nearly deserted. It wasn't until evening that people started coming out of the woodwork, and shortly after sunset there was a re-enactment of the Last Supper in front of the Cathedral overlooking the central park and town square. That was followed by a procession, one of several during the next few days. The real excitement started around midnight when local families and business and various groups started the 9-hour process of creating alfombras, or carpets, from dyed sawdust, sand, and other natural materials. This creative marathon was the result of months of planning; we got up early to see them putting on their finishing touches. The art was incredible - I don't think I've been so excited in months and I think it was just all that creative energy in the air. I took a lot of pictures but the ones here are my favorites - a lot of the photos are of the artists themselves because that's what I found the most exciting - seeing how families and groups worked together to produce the carpets. Shortly after the carpets were completed, they were destroyed in a blaze of glory. The "blaze" coming in the form of Jesus (and several young apprentice Jesus's) carrying crosses, followed by altar boys swinging incense, several priests, and a big float with Moses and the 10 commandments, Elijah on a flaming chariot, and Jesus carrying the cross, all being hefted by about 20 young guys wearing robes and hoods that made them look creapily similar to KKK members. I'm still not quite sure about the symbolism there - we asked several people since our return and nobody seems to really know what's up with the capes. That aside, it was an impressive scene and we followed it through several stations of the cross. I was moved by this massive religious display, so unlike anything I've seen in the states.

Still to come: an update on my work on the library and la vida here in Flor del Campo. We are planning a big homemade pizza fest this Sunday afternoon to celebrate Andrew's birthday on Monday. I have discovered my favorite pizza topping combo: carmelized onions and roasted red peppers. Oh yes. We are hoping to shock and awe all of our neighbors, and see how many people we can fit into our little house.

(In case you missed the link to our pictures above, you can see more of our pictures here.)

Creating a more just society

2009-03-22T12:46:00.000-07:00

I've had a nice long break from blogging, and am ready to return in full force! Maybe I wasn't inspired because there wasn't much going on. We're still in the honeymoon phase of our move to Teguc, so I'll try to take advantage of the shiny new veneer on our MCC experience and talk about my new job at the Asociacion para una Sociedad Mas Justa.

Here's the link to the Spanish site.

ASJ is an organization fighting within the Honduran justice system to create a fairer playing field for some of Honduras's most marginalized citizens. The work at ASJ focuses on labor rights, land rights, monitoring the use of public funds, alternative news gathering (www.revistazo.com), and providing low-income people with psychological and legal aid.

For now, I'll talk briefly about land rights and labor rights.

This last week was actually a very big one for ASJ. Two years ago one of their labor rights attorneys, Dionicio Diaz Garcia, was murdered by two hired assasins who worked for a private security company. Dionisio worked to defend the rights of security guards who had suffered labor abuses. A couple of weeks ago the two men were convicted, and last week they were sentenced to 21 years in prison (the maximum is 30). This represented a major victory for ASJ. They aided the prosecution in investigating and compiling a case against the murderers, and advocated internationally for justice to be done. In Honduras, many officials are afraid to convict people, as they are afraid that they themselves might be killed in retaliation. The intellectual author of the crime has yet to be prosecuted. On one hand, this victory sends a message that impunity won't be tolerated. On the other hand, I think ASJ hoped that two men who killed a human rights lawyer who worked for the poor would get the maximum sentence.

ASJ's labor rights work focuses mostly on security guards and cleaning company employees. Both of these types of companies tend to have the worst labor abuse records (failing to pay minimum wage, not giving time off or vacation days, firing people without fair cause) because they often hire people who have very little education. They take advantage of Hondruas's high unemployment rate (I heard that it was 25%) and threaten to fire employees when they demand the rights offered to them under Honduran law. But the owners of these companies tend to be well connected and very rich, earning themselves a certain amount of protection from the authorities and the government. ASJ is going up against some powerful people.

On the land rights front, ASJ is working alongside various community leaders who are trying to get fair titles for their land. The land titling process is messy. Often times various supposed land owners claim ownership of the same parcel, and there are few good surveys and records in many of these old communities. Many neighborhoods started as squatter villages and gradually became more formalized. ASJ helped write a new Honduran law that allows the government to take ownership of a community where land ownership is in dispute, and allow the people living there to pay into an escrow account. Once the courts decide who the owner is, the owner gets the money in the account, and the community members get the titles to their land. In Cofradia, a community near San Pedro Sula, three community leaders have been murdered by assasins hired, most likely, by supposed land owners who don't want what the land to expropriated. ASJ is helping to investigate the killings (despite the fact that the police are ignoring the crimes), and continues to help other community leaders who are receiving threats. They also continue to aid leaders in expropriating the land, though the government has been slow, despite pressure from the World Bank and international NGOs. The fight is long.

Otherwise, ASJ is involved in a host of other activities. The Gideon Centers, located in some of Tegucigalpa's poorest neighborhoods (including Flor del Campo), offers psychological and legal aid for a fee of $.50. This is the only service of this nature I have ever heard of in this country. Legal cases include labor abuses, child support, proof of paternity, spousal abuse, etc. They deal with many of these in a holistic way, tending to not only the legal case but also the person's mental well-being.

The mission of this Christian organization revolves around the idea that people of faith are called to advocate for the rights of the poor and marginalized. In many cases the strong laws in Honduras are not enforced, and uneducated people from poor communities have few advocates, or may not even know what their rights are. We are called to work within the system to change laws, or to enforce existing laws, to ensure that the "least of these" is taken care of. There is danger involved, but Jesus said that Christians would be hated by the world.

It looks as if I will be involved in advocacy in the Cofradia land rights case, and a whole host of communications and public relations activities. I've only been there two weeks. Here is a video that we just posted of a Honduran cleaning woman telling her story. All I did was put in the subtitles in Windows Movie Maker, but at least it is an example of some of the advocacy work we do.

On a lighter note, here is the view of our community out of the porch window.

And Amanda doing the laundry.

In the heart of the flower of the field

2009-03-14T11:33:00.000-07:00

Here we are in Tegucigalpa! We moved in a week ago last Thursday, to a colonia called "Flor de Campo." But wait, rewind, first a short update:

February was FULL, hence the lack of blogging. We were very busy hosting the annual food, faith and justice learning tour for youth through the Canadian Food Grains Bank for two weeks. We didn't take many pictures ourselves but as soon as we get some pictures from the participants we'll post them for your viewing pleasure. Right after they left, Andrew's parents and youngest brother Zach came to visit for one full week and we had a lot of fun showing them around Copan, the Tela beach, and cramming into our apartment when we were in San Pedro. Zach had the pleasure of sleeping in the laundry room. The Clouse trio left on a Sunday, and we had until Thursday to pack everything up and clean our apartment for the last time. That week was very bittersweet: some good friends from La Iglesia Central Menonita, where we've attended for the last year and a half, hosted a dinner for us on Monday and sent us away in style with some singing and a blessing that reminded me that we will still have friends there despite being four hours away in a new and yet unknown city. I was surprised at how sad I was to leave our apartment that had become home; we got kind of choked up saying goodbye to David and the other construction workers that work on the apartment next to ours and Dobie, the watchdog that Andrew has been keeping tick-free since November of last year.

So last Thursday we packed it all up in a big truck that Darrin, our boss, arranged to transport us to our new home and took off for the capital city and a new adventure... 6 hours and one fried fish lunch later we unpacked everything, carrying it from the narrow street above our house down the cement stairway that leads to our front door. We quickly realized we needed to downsize, as not all the furniture from our apartment fit into this tiny little house that we now call home.

Andrew by our front door. This was taken from the steps above. The stairway leads down to the street below us.

Our porch and clothes-washing center. The view to the right looks out over the neighboring colonia. The basil plant to the left fell shortly after taking this picture. Apparently I wasn't as smart as I thought.

Our bedroom and home office.

Living/dining room

We named this gecko Choco after his apparent fondness for chocolate chips.

This move represents a very big change... we went from a nice big apartment in the center of San Pedro to a very small house in a colonia on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa. A "colonia" is generally quite different than barrios in the middle of a city - they are almost like small towns within themselves and generally more crowded and lower-income than centralized areas. I am already missing luxuries like running water every day (water comes every other day for about 12 hours) and daily garbage pick-up (we still haven't been able to figure out when the garbage truck will come - our nice new neighbor Sandra promised she'd call us when it does). I'm honing my washing-clothes-by-hand and waging-war-on-ants skills. BUT, we are also already enjoying what a neighborhood like this provides. Here are some new novelties in list form:
1. NEIGHBORS. They are everywhere and everyday we meet more people who are curious about our presence. It's great. I love it.
2. A nearby church community. We will go to the small Amor, Fe, y Vida church - the night of our arrival two women from the church came with their daughters to greet us; both brought dinner. We ate plato tipico AND spaghetti and chatted. A few minutes later 6 other people from the church showed up to greet us, so there were 13 of us in our little living room - more people than we ever had in our apartment in San Pedro.
3. Freshly made tortillas just down the stairs, four for 1 lempira. Last night we had some confusion when we ordered 12, and instead of twelve tortillas we got 48 (for 12 lempiras). While they were preparing them I kept thinking "man, SOMEBODY ordered a lot of tortillas..."
4. Pulperias, or small in-home stores, are everywhere, so we don't have to go to the supermarket to get most things.

We miss our San Pedro friends a lot, but are adjusting to a new way of life. We are enjoying the weekend after our first week of work at our respective jobs... and there I will leave you all hanging. Details about said new jobs to follow.

Walking in circles

2009-01-28T11:17:00.000-08:00

Hello faithfull readers. My Dad recently reprimanded me for not blogging in a while - we have actually been kind of busy lately. We went to Nicaragua for the regional MCC retreat; a spiritual retreat giving us a lot of time for reflection and prayer and discussion with people from all over having similar experiences with MCC, which I enjoyed immensely and would be happy to tell anyone who is interested more about. Recently we hosted a church group from Bluffton Ohio who has a sister relationship with a Mennonite church here near San Pedro, and we are gearing up for our big annual ¨Food, Faith & Justice" youth study tour from the Canadian Food Grains Bank. But rather than going into details about any of the above, I'm just going to copy and paste something I wrote after a wet walk I took a week or so ago with Andrew (sorry for the lack of pictures... it was raining, after all):

We just had a long and rainy weekend without much activity. Saturday, after a few hours of coffee drinking, dinking around, and looking out the windows, I was struck by the urge to walk around the circunvalación – the circular road that goes all the way around the center of San Pedro Sula. There’s something about a circular road that just invites you to try walking around it. Despite the rain Andrew was game for it – and after some more piddling we set off, in our running shoes and track pants, me with my rain coat, and enough money to get some snacks and a taxi if things got ugly.

It actually didn’t take as long as we’d initially thought – about two and a half hours in all. It was perhaps the ugliest walk I’ve ever taken just for the sake of walking – most of the way there is no sidewalk, and of course it’s along the busy road the whole time. There was a lot of dodging of big holes in the sidewalk, broken glass, garbage, ect. We walked directly north from our apartment until we reached the circunvalación, then walked counter-clockwise all the way around. It struck me how we started off in a fairly middle, or lower-middle class neighborhood (the North side), and as we reached the Western top of the circle, we passed nicer and nicer stores, coffee shops, chains, bars (although still no sidewalks – this is not a pedestrian friendly route). We stopped briefly for pupusas at our favorite little pupusa restaurant just a quarter of the way in, partly to get out of the rain and partly because we hadn’t brought anything to eat or drink with us and were already ready for a break. Pupusas are by far my favorite Honduran snack/lunch food – especially the ones with beans and melted cheese inside the corn tortilla, with pickled onions and cabbage on top and a side of hot salsa. Delicious! I stay away from the ones stuffed with chicharron, or pig skin. I am not that hard core.

Then as we passed into what we thought of as the 3^rd quadrant, it got dingier, and old Chinese restaurants and mechanic shops started to replace the glitzy chain stores, and even the mud looked dirtier. I think it was raining harder, too. Right in the middle of the 3^rd quadrant, or the South part of the circle, was the butt end of the big open air food market. The end where they put all the rotting cabbages, and neglected horses stand in the rain to munch on whatever debris is available. Here we had to run to avoid getting hit by a garbage truck, and had trouble maneuvering between the big mud puddles and piles of rotting vegetables. I tried to hold my breath for the length of the market but failed, breathing in a big gasp of sickeningly sweet air. We continued curving around slowly, past more food markets, tire shops, mechanics, more tire shops, more mechanics... slowly back to the middle class neck of the woods and home.

At the end of it all I felt kind triumphant, even though it hadn’t really been that long of a walk. It was fun to do something spontaneous. We stripped off the wet and muddy pants and sneakers, took low pressure hot showers, made some tea, and settled down to do some more web surfing/rain watching. Just another Saturday in San Pedro.

Once again I am reminded that San Pedro is a city of stark contrasts, the wealth and poverty distinct from one another, but thrown together at times to create jarring contrasts. Big shiny SUVs whipping past horsecarts, shoeless youth sleeping in front of the Espresso Americano coffee bar on cardboard mats.

2009 here we come

2009-01-02T11:42:00.000-08:00

Posted here are some pictures from the holidays...
Andrew and I spent all day Christmas Eve making cookies and listening to Christmas music and trying to get in the Christmas groove... somehow it was harder to feel like it was really Christmas this year. That evening we sang along with the church choir in the truly spectacular Christmas drama/music extravaganza - which ended with us singing "Al Mundo Paz" (joy to the world) with the nativity actors in freeze frame throughout the entire 5 minute medly. I wish I could somehow convey this climactic moment with equally expressive prose - but words are failing me and you'll all just need to use your imaginations.

Christmas Eve was passed at the home of our good friend Alejandra and her family - we ate great food and shot off a few firecrackers - my nerves were pretty frazzled by the time midnight rolled around because fireworks go off ALL DAY LONG around here. I had to put my hitting-the-floor-at-the-sound-of-gunshots instincts on hold.

We spent Christmas day and a few days afterwards with our friends Josh and Maria at the farm in El Cipres - trying not to be too sad about their upcoming departure from Honduras. After a few days of house hunting in Tegucigalpa we came back to celebrate Maria's birthday/New Year's Eve with the two of them and about a zillion neighborhood children who were all eager to partake in some promised piñata fun. A bunch of kids showed up about 3 hours early, ready to camp out in front of the house for fear of missing any action.

It was a good end to 2008. I already feel a certain heaviness about this new year in light of the recent bombings in the middle east and a general "doomy" feeling that I can't shake. I wonder what this new year will bring... it's sometimes hard to sort out all the hope, anxiety, dreams, prayers, frustrations and thanksgivings that fill my head and heart when I think of a whole new year to come. Happy new year to you all! And if anyone out there figures out the secret, let me know.

And now for the "Big News"...

2008-12-20T05:43:00.000-08:00

Apparently I have been very reckless with my writing. I forgot a lesson learned (not just once, or twice, or three times even...) which is this: when you are young and married, you should never speak of "news" or "changes to come" or even, yes, "excitement".... unless you are pregnant. Which, sorry to disappoint, I am not. I foolishly wrote about upcoming changes in my last blog without remembering this important fact, and unfortunately caused more than one person to think our lives were about to get a lot more interesting than they actually are!

We're actually just planning a move: from San Pedro to the capital city Tegucigalpa. We are taking up two other positions with MCC while scaling back what we do as Connecting People coordinators; Andrew will be doing communications writing for an organization called ASJ (Association for a more Just Society) and I'll be working for a community library called Flor de Saber (Flower of Knowledge). Despite some sadness about leaving the church community and friends here in San Pedro, I'm pretty excited about this move and the changes it will bring. We won't be traveling nearly as much, but we'll be able to settle into a community and have Honduran co-workers and speak Spanish all day - all great things. The biggest unknown at this point is what neighborhood we'll live in - unfortunately our jobs are at opposite ends of the city so commuting will be tricky for at least one of us, and Tegucigalpa is renowned for its bad rush-hour traffic. We're planning a house-scouting trip after Christmas and will keep you all updated.

Christmas greetings and blessings to you all!

Thanksgiving and Christmas all wrapped up in one

2008-12-16T09:27:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone! We are looking forward to our second Christmas here in Honduras, and anticipating a lot of changes to come in the next year. We'll write more about that in the next few weeks.... for now I wanted to add a few pictures and wish everyone a happy new year!

My mom and her friend Hugh came to visit during the last few weeks of November... we had a lot of fun showing them around and trying to give them a little taste of our Honduran life. Of course most of our collective highlights were food related: a Thanksgiving feast courtesy of MCC friends Josh and Maria (they also invited about 40 other community members and co-workers - an impressive feat), a fried tilapia lunch at Lago Yojoa, and an amazing pincho (shish-kabobs) lunch at our friends Mario and Melba's house. We spent time at the beach in Tela and then at the ruins in Copan. Good times were had by all, although I think our guests were more than happy that they didn't need to spend one more night in our small apartment, with less than hot water.

Maria gave a nice "this is why we're having an enormous lunch in the middle of a Thursday" explanation of Thanksgiving for friends and neighbors at the farm.

Mom and Hugh in the central park of San Pedro.

Mom and Marcos (in the middle with his cute granddaughter Paola on his lap) have the same birthday so we invited ourselves over to celebrate with some chocolate cake. The Flores family is maybe the most photogenic family I've ever met.

The delicious spread we had at Mario and Melba's house - chicken, sausage and beef pinchos, refried beans, encortido (hot pickled veggies), queso secco, and tortillas. Yum.

Friends Melba, Marcela, and Mario.

Hugh and Andrew doing a little balcony birding while we waited for our fried tilapia, which was delicious. Andrew is fast becoming a major bird enthusiast.

Mom and I at our hotel in Tela.

Our anniversary fell on Thanksgiving this year. That's right. 4 years.

2008-11-19T09:53:00.000-08:00

I feel that an update is in order...
Andrew and I just got back from a great trip to Tegucigalpa. We met with several organizations that we're hoping to place one-year SALT volunteers with next year, two of which will be new placements.

It has been relatively dry for a while after the heavy rains of a few weeks ago. Shortly after the worst of the rains and mudslides we traveled with some Menno. church leaders from western Honduras to see some of the damaged areas and also to visit several temporary shelters where families whose communities were destroyed by the hurricanes were staying. The churches from that area wanted to get an idea of how many families were affected and what their short and long term needs were, and also just be a visiting presence. They came up with a count of around 120 families living in shelters. We spent some time talking with them and it was very sobering to think about the losses that they'd sustained - staying in schools and churches with no idea how long they'd be receiving emergency relief, not enough blankets and sleeping mats to go around, no idea of what the future holds for them. And it was cold up there! Rainy and windy the entire time. I was inspired by the local pastors' desire to love and care for their neighbors in need. They decided that the immediate needs could be met with blankets, soap, towels, rice and beans and some other staple foods, all put in buckets that could serve several purposes. They requested money for these resources from Mennonite Central Committee, which we took back to our MCC representatives. Unable to sleep easy, I also sent a few emails to my parents and others asking if they thought they or their churches would want to help... my mom got super on the ball and raised a bunch of money from her church and siblings, which will all go to MCC for the emergency relief buckets.

The whole experience was another reminder of what it means to be a person of privilege in this world. It's always the poor who are most affected by turbulent times and climate. Every night I go to bed in a dry place with a full belly. Sometimes Andrew and I can get worked up worrying about global warming or the economic crisis (will we ever find jobs when we go back? What's going to happen if bark beetles eat up all the trees in the West? What happens if crazy people in Nevada keep building hotels with fountains?? And golf courses!) But I have never gone to sleep with the same kinds of worries or uncertainties that many people face daily. I passed a kid sleeping on the sidewalk by himself yesterday that couldn't have been older than 7 or 8. Then I got to the office and read about AIG executives spending gross amounts of money that was given to them by our government. Where's the justice?

Graffiti in Gracias

2008-11-03T11:33:00.000-08:00

Some graffiti at a construction site in Gracias, Lempira: The ancient voices tell us that we are children of the earth, and that mother (earth) can be neither sold nor rented.

Still raining!

2008-10-20T08:17:00.000-07:00

It's still raining! Last night the rain started again with intensity... MCC friends who live an hour away were coming in to the city and the normally 1.5 hour bus ride stretched to 2.5 hours - the bus had to go around the flooded river and cross at a different point. One major river south of San Pedro, Rio Ulua, has flooded. Schools have been canceled, and everyone is waiting to see if the river closest to San Pedro, Rio Chamelecon, will also flood it's banks. If it does flood many colonias on the outskirts of the city will be inundated with water. However frustrating it may be, it seems like the only thing to do is watch and wait to see what happens... people seem prepared for this as everyone has dealt with flooding before. You can follow this link to read about the damage to other parts of the country.

The newspapers are calling this rain "El fantasma de Mitch", or "the ghost of Mitch", the major hurricane that destroyed much of Honduras' infrastructure in 1998. Hondurans seem to go by a pre-Mitch and post-Mitch calendar, referring to major events or contruction according to whether something happened before or after the devastating hurricane. We feel very fortunate to live on the second floor of a strong cinderblock structure. How strange it feels to stand on the balcony overlooking the street filled with rushing water, imagining the people living along the banks of the rivers who are no doubt fearing for their homes and maybe where they will end up sleeping tonight.

On a personal note, the flooding delayed my first day of teaching English at the Kid's Land Preschool and School, run by La Liga de Lactacion Materna (yes, that is exactly what it sounds like). After several months of hoping to find an organization to volunteer with during weeks when we are not hosting groups or traveling, I found out about this bilingual school looking for a volunteer to help with English classes. It is quite flexible and will work with my schedule and so I'm pretty excited to get started. They are wrapping up their school year soon so, so I'll mainly be reviewing what grades 2 - 7 (I'll meet with each class for about 45 minutes) should have learned this year.

This country is soaked

2008-10-15T08:11:00.000-07:00

Rain has fallen without ceasing in San Pedro Sula since early last night. According to many locals more rain has fallen this month than in Octobers past, though I can't verify this information. No matter what, the country is soaked and the land is falling. This is particularly frightening for those who live in the poorest communities in the country, as they are the most vulnerable to mud slides.

As if that were not enough, Tropical Depression 16 is making its way across the north coast, dropping loads of rain in its path. Tomorrow it is supposed to hit San Pedro, and will dump at least 2 inches of rain with winds of 45 mph. This may not sound so bad, but with the earth already saturated this could be disastrous for many communities. San Pedro will be fine; it's those in and near the mountains and those in low-lying areas that will have the problems. Many homes flood with less than one inch. We'll keep you updated.

Is that the air??

2008-10-09T12:14:00.000-07:00

A week ago last Thursday Andrew and I flew back to San Pedro after spending over two weeks in the states visiting friends and family... we spent a short day and a half in Albuquerque before driving to Hesston, KS with my dad and his wife Brenda to celebrate my gram's 95th birthday. This was the main reason for our trip and was definitely worth the effort. During the three-day birthday bash we caught up with the Linds, ate a lot of my aunt Marilyn's good food and, along with all my relatives, bid on Gram's quilts and other homemade quilty things... we were all given baggies with 50 dried beans for the auction. Gram wanted to see her treasures doled out to loved ones and wanted to have some fun while she was at it. There were minimal tears and I think we're all still friends.

We took Amtrak from Newton to Goshen (in my opinion the train is THE WAY to travel) and spent a good bit of time there staying with Andrew's parents and remembering what it's like to have a really active social life. We even made it to the MCC relief sale in Goshen where I was able to get my fill of apple fritters, sausages, and egg rolls. I savoured biking everywhere I needed to go (even at night!!!) and still feeling safe. It was a really great trip.

On the flight back "home" to San Pedro I was thinking about things that struck me as odd or notable about being in the states for a while. I felt inundated by politics and the fear of economic disaster... I probably shouldn't have watched so much news. I also saw the towns I call home in a new light - the streets looked cleaner and wider for one thing. After being accustomed to being among a gringo minority among the generally mestizo Honduras, I was struck by the incredible diversity of Chicago during our 3 hour train layover downtown. And then struck by the whiteness of my Goshen community, especially at the MCC relief sale. Despite a good trip it did feel good to get back here. As we stood and stretched with the other passengers aboard our TACA airlines plane at the end of our flight, the back door of the plane was opened, letting in a wall of hot, humid air that engulfed us all. The loud woman behind us was coming to Honduras for the first time to visit her Honduran in-laws with her husband and kids exclaimed loudly, ¨What is that smell?? Is that the air??!! Oh [explitive]! We're going to sweat our [different explitive] off here!"
Home sweet home.

Some photos of the birthday lady and one of her (4) identical cakes:

Más fútbol

2008-09-11T12:19:00.000-07:00

Honduras continues its march towards the World Cup, having beat both Canada and Jamaica this week. From my understanding, one more win will guarantee a spot in the next round of World Cup qualifying matches. Ramon Nunez (jumping, screaming) has caught fire, scoring three of the last four goals for the catracho (that's what they call Honduras) team.

...and I say hello

2008-09-01T08:32:00.000-07:00

(From left: Liz Goering, Michael "Shakazulu" Wiebe-Johnson, Rachel Reed)

MCC recently welcomed three new SALTers to the growing Honduras team. So far, Liz, Michael, and Rachel have settled in nicely, and after next week's team meeting will begin one year of service in their placements.

Liz will be working as a teacher near Tegucigalpa at the Montana de Luz orphanage for children with HIV/AIDS.

Michael will be in La Campa with the Mennonite Social Action Commission, working as an environmental educator/eco-tourism specialist.
Rachel will work in the Nueva Suyapa neighborhood of Tegucigalpa with Stewardship of Christian Ministries as a micro-loan specialist.

Mapping our world

2008-08-29T08:54:00.000-07:00

For any map geeks out there...

I've started a Google map with some important San Pedro Sula landmarks for MCCers and others who are interested. My eventual goal is to map out as many bus routes as possible, but that is a work in progress.

So, if you're curious, check out the interactive map below. (The only frustrating thing is that on the hybrid view, the streets do not line up.) You can also check out the larger map by clicking on the link below the map.

Ver mapa más grande

Honduras vs. Mexico

2008-08-25T09:13:00.000-07:00

Honduras faced off against Mexico Wednesday in the next round of playoff games in the march towards qualifying for the World Cup. (I blogged about this once before here.) We happened to be in La Ceiba for the match, and were eager to watch the game in a crowd of Honduran fans. Our first stop was the popular and unfortunately named sports bar, Expatriates. It was too popular for us that night, so unsure of where else to go, we made our way over to the mall food court, where I knew there were at least a few TVs around. Turns out it was the place to be.

While soccer can make grown men cry, it can also make them pump their fists with joy. Below is a video taken after Honduras scored its only goal of the match.

They cheered just as loudly after every replay.

We made our exit before the game was over and upon arrival to our hotel we heard that Mexico had scored two goals within two minutes soon after we left. The final score was a depressing 2-1. According to my source (the guy at the front desk of the Hotel Canadien) Honduras must with 3 of the next 5 games to advance to the next round of the World Cup qualifiers . If not, we may find ourselves in a country of weeping macho men.

Honduras food issues on NPR

2008-08-06T07:39:00.001-07:00

As a couple of people commented on the last blog entry, NPR is doing a series on food issues in Honduras. You can see and hear the most recent article here.

An interesting story behind this series: You may notice that the photos that appear on the site were taking by none other than MCC's very own Joshua Eley-McClain, who works on a tilapia farm owned by the MAMA project. Dan Charles, an NPR reporter and Mennonite from Washington, D.C., contacted MCC after his on-the-ground contact canceled on him at the last minute. Josh traveled around with him for a week Dan interviewed government officials, Monsanto big wigs and subsistence farmers.

One of the interesting things in this story for me is the bit about worms, and how they destroy crops that have not been genetically modified, but leave the corn with the worm-killing crops untouched. I have no doubt that yields have been substantially higher with genetically modified crops, but this is only a short-term solution. My understanding of basic evolutionary biology is that as the disease-resistant strains of corn get stronger, so do the worms. Like computer security, in which the good guys try to stay one step ahead of the hackers, modern-day farming is a continuous battle between nature and humans playing God. Eventually, the worms will win, and then there will be no harvest. Heirloom varieties of crops have been around forever, and developed naturally as the hardiest and most disease resistant. As genetically modified crop strains intermingle with heirloom varieties, or as industrial farming companies buy up heirloom strains (which they call "competitors"), crop biodiversity falls, leaving us with one strain to pin our hopes on.

When talking to a poor Honduran farmer, however, who is thinking of nothing but subsistence, these arguments are hard to make.

I want to make it clear that I'm neither a scientist, nor an agriculturalist, so I should probably tread lightly when writing about my take on these issues. I understand it is part of a larger, more complex conversation, and am just adding my two cents to the fray.

The miracle that is food

2008-08-05T13:30:00.001-07:00

Food has been in the headlines recently, with food crises coming to a head in more than 40 different countries. Honduras, like every other developing country, has been effected dramatically by the increasing food costs. Many of the basics that Hondurans live on -- rice, beans, cooking oil -- have almost doubled in price from a year ago. Back then, people were stretching every last lempira. Now, many of the poorest are hardly getting by.

Haiti and Ethiopia seem to be two of the poorest hit countries, and we haven't personally seen scenes as tragic as families being forced to eat mudcakes, or drought-ravaged families having absolutely nothing. But the poor of Honduras are getting poorer, and somehow oil companies and food corporations, such as Monsanto, are just getting richer. (Don't be fooled by their sustainability pledge. It's a public relations scheme to offset their poor public image.)

There have been several excellent articles written that get to the heart of what is behind this current crisis, including this one from Sojourner's. Increased oil prices and climate-change reduced supply have been major players in the most recent increase, but the issue goes much deeper than that. For the last number of years, trade liberalization policies --pro-globalization policies -- have caused many countries to import much of the food the previously grew for themselves. Haiti, for example, used to be able to feed most of its people on native crops, such as ground nuts. Thanks to globalization, Haitians were able to buy food from the global buffet, as they were inundated with cheap staples from the US and other developed nations, where farm subsidies kept the prices artificially low. Now, as the price has gone up, Haitians not only can't afford the imported food, but they quit growing their own because it didn't make them any money. Now, they are hungry and without options.

True food security, which I consider one of the top issues arising so far this century, means a country can feed it's own people without the need to trade with other countries. Governments need to worry about feeding their own people and investing in small farmers and locally based agriculture. Many of the projects that MCC Honduras supports are centered on local, individual agriculture -- family gardens that can mean the difference between sustenance and famine.

Food security is an individual thing as well, and by growing as much of our own food as possible, we can increase the global food supply. The food supply is currently controlled by corporations who do not value biological diversity, environmental sustainability, or good taste. It's all about profits, and as many have written lately (such as in the book "The End of Food" by Thomas Pawlick), the current food system hangs dangerously on the edge of a cliff that is caving in. Food is a miracle, but it is a miracle that requires careful management before it is too late.

There is hope for a better future, but it comes with sacrifice. I have been inspired recently by the book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle," by Barbara Kingsolver. The book, which recounts Kingsolver's year of eating locally, Kingsolver challenged herself to grow all of her family's food for a year in her own yard. That which she did not grow, mostly meat, was purchased locally. It took work, but in the end she proved that she personally could grow all of their food for a year on a fourth of the land that it takes to grow food for the average processed-food eating American. That's good news for a globe that will someday have to feed 9 billion mouths. But this means that we don't support the overuse of fossil fuels in filling our plates. No more bananas, kiwis, pineapples, Alaskan salmon (unless you live in Alaska) -- fuel prices will continue to increase, the cost to the environment are just too high, and it supports the global corporate food machine. I have been forced to reevaluate my consumer food habits. But in the end, it's not that much of a sacrifice. Local food is fresher, tastier, and it supports farmers in the local economy. I wish I could go down to the Goshen farmer's market right now! I guess I'll just eat a banana instead.

You say goodbye....

2008-07-22T08:16:00.001-07:00

It was two days ago now that Andrew and I drove two other MCC service workers to the airport to see them off, along with a few others who went along for the ride. It was a sad goodbye. Adam and Sarah were here a year, arriving just a few weeks before we did. Our team of 9 volunteers plus two small kids is now down to 7, although we'll soon be welcoming some newcomers this August. I guess this is the nature of doing service work in another country - you make as many local connections and friends as possible, but there is a certain comfort in the small community of other extanjeros that are going through the same experience of being a foreigner; living and working within a different cultural context. And the community by nature is ever changing as new people come and other people finish their terms and leave.

Adam and Sarah will be missed by us, but also by the host families that they spent the entire year with, the organizations they worked for and the churches they attended. This experience continues to teach me the value of community... sometimes I still feel isolated here, but am always grateful for the small MCC community here, as well the slowly deepening feeling of community we have with our local church and friends here in San Pedro. We are social animals! We all need a herd! But more than just "being" around people, community is sharing food, ideas, concerns and hardships, questions, struggles, how we experience the divine, and of course the occasional random chat.

Maria and Sarah at Sarah and Adam's farewell pizza dinner... their "despedida".

Sarah and Adam with all their stuff packed and ready to head to the airport. Adam holding up fairly well despite the fact that he had dengue fever at this point and was advised not to travel.

Andrew and I with our friend Julia from Tegucigalpa (capitol city of Honduras). She spent a week with us while she was on vacation from school: fun for us, perhaps a tad boring for her as we go to bed a little earlier than the average university student.

¿Y la tercera?

2008-06-12T16:03:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I feel as if my landlady comes around just to find something to yell at me about, usually involving my inability to correctly lock the huge gate that guards our apartment.

Recently, when I was leaving in the middle of the day, she was parked right outside the door and watched me as I double locked the gate. I said hello, she she stared at me like I was an idiot and simply said, "Y la tercera?" And the third lock? So I stuck my key in and turned it once more for a good solid triply bolted lock.

Then, last evening, she was parked inside the gate talking to the young man who guards the apartment complex at night. We were helping some friends move their suitcases from their car to our house, and since she was standing right by the door with the guy who is responsible for locking up, I simply closed the gate without bothering to lock it. I figured she was about to leave. But, no; she beckoned me back.

"Do you know why you have to lock this door?" she asked.

"Ummm...yes. Because someone could get in."

"Right. So why didn't you lock it?"

"Because you were ready to leave and I figured David would lock up after me," I replied, though it probably sounded more like, "The locking might have taken place upon the departure you might have been making in the near future by the watchmen who has the name of David."

"He'll just forget," she said about poor David. And then, even more condescendingly, "Show me how you lock it."

I could hardly believe my ears. Is this third grade? I guess I do talk like a third grader around her, since she makes me so nervous. But seriously. Show her how I lock it?

Never mind the fact that in our same yard, in front of the apartments being built, anyone could hop over the fence in a matter of seconds.

Anyway, I was so mad I decided to complain for a while about the ceiling fan in our bedroom thatshe still hasn't fixed. She just told me she doesn't have time and doesn't want to buy one. At least I wasted twenty minutes of her time babbling.

So, I realized, my landlady makes me feel like a moron, and refuses to fix things: Is this just a glimpse of the life of a Latino renter in Goshen?

In and around the apartment

2008-06-11T14:37:00.000-07:00

The sunset behind the Merendón mounatin range on the outskirts of San Pedro.

Amanda and my morning ritual...coffee straight from the mountain.

Two of the construction workers working on a building in our complex.

San Pedro Sula, 5 a.m.

2008-06-09T15:20:00.000-07:00

This morning we said goodbye to Jen and Miriam, with only a small mishap. The taxi we had confirmed last night failed to show up, and when I called the dispatcher he was unable to locate any taxis. So we jumped in the car and raced to the terminal to catch their 6 a.m. bus. And in my haste to leave I didn't realize that the door was locked, stranding poor Amanda on the balcony. At least she had the hammock.

It's been a while since I'd been up this early, but it's well worth it. This is the east-facing view off of our balcony.

A few images

2008-06-07T11:12:00.000-07:00

Miriam Miller, Peter Moyer, Amanda, and Jen Eberly in front of the waterfall at Pulhapanzak Falls.

A lizard, hanging out on a rock by the falls.

A restaurant in the food court at the bus terminal in San Pedro. My question is, What is that weird green thing with it's arm around the Mexican dude?

The ceiling in one of the city busses we take into the office. This refurbished school bus may have taken little Andrew to middle school once upon a time.

A nice mural

2008-06-05T15:45:00.000-07:00

Jen Eberly, our vistior and friend from Goshen, in front of one of the murals in the cathedral in San Pedro Sula.

Fútbol (Soccer)

2008-06-05T08:20:00.001-07:00

There really is no US equivalent to a Central American soccer game. Hondurans are nuts for their World Cup team -- La Selección -- which has the best chance of qualifying for the World Cup since the 80's. Last night I had the privilege of freezing my butt off watching the first qualifying match between Honduras and Puerto Rico. Fun, but miserable.

The rain began about 5:30, as I and two other men from the church were entering the stadium, and it didn't stop for the entire five hours we spent standing in the back of the bleachers. The game was supposed to begin at 7:30, but they waited until 8:30 to see if field conditions would improve. They didn't; the field was just an hour soggier, but they gave it a go anyway. It was ugly, with the players slipping and sliding all over the muddy pitch, but Honduras pressed on victorious, 4-0. The fans got what they wanted. All I wanted was for them to cancel the game.

What is it about people -- let's be honest -- about men that makes them sit out for hours in pelting rain to watch a bunch of other men kick around a ball for a while?

¡Viva la Selección!

Street kids and photos

2008-06-02T13:10:00.000-07:00

Over the last few months I have become accustomed, and almost calloused, to the presence of very young children living in the streets. I was reminded of this when we were traveling around last week with some Mennonite church leaders from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. (You can see some photos of the trip here.) One of the participants, Nelly Rivera, commented on a little girl standing in the middle of a dirt road near Choloma. She said that if this were Puerto Rico, she would have called child protective services. I remember having those same thoughts about six months ago, when we passed a little boy in only a diaper playing with a hammer and nails that were left out on the front stoop of a house. I assume that boy's parents were around somewhere, but this little kid was in a dangerous situation, and no one took any notice.

Just yesterday we were walking to church when we caught up to a young boy -- probably 9 or 10 -- limping down the sidewalk. We stopped and asked him what happened to his foot, and he showed me where a piece of glass had imbedded itself in the middle of his foot. He had no shoes, and his ratty shorts and shirt were about falling off. Where did he come from? Where are his parents? Sadly, chances are he will look for a home, and will find it in one of the many street gangs.

I feel overwhelmed by poverty, and particularly when vulnerable small children are left on the streets to fend for themselves. I don't have any answers for this troubling reality of life in Central America. But I pray that I don't let these images of poverty harden me any more than they already have.

On a cheerier note, here are some more pictures of our trip with our most recent visitor, LaRita Craft. She just finished her master's in piano at University of Missouri at Kansas City, and celebrated with a trip around Honduras.

A Catch-up List...

2008-05-21T12:24:00.000-07:00

The highs and lows of our first Honduran summer so far:

Highs:
1. We've been traveling a lot for work lately - we made it to the beautiful little town of La Campa to check out where one of the new short-term MCCers will live and work next year with an organization called CASM (Mennonite Social Action Commission). We bumped around in the back of a truck for two days visiting some very small mountain communities, made it to a ribbon-cutting ceremony of sorts (one community we visited was celebrating the completion of many small metal silos that they will use to store their corn crops), and hiked up to a waterfall in protected rain forest. Click Here to view some pictures.

2. We had an MCC team meeting in Tegucigalpa for a few days - it was great to spend a few days with everyone AND we made it to a Guillermo Anderson concert in San Juancito. I am officially a fan.

3. During a day trip for some meetings in La Ceiba, a woman I'd met during our first few months here complimented me on my improvement in Spanish. This was a pretty big deal for me. I treated myself to an ice cream afterwards.

4. Andrew's birthday was the first weekend of this month and there was much celebration. We made vegetarian groundnut stew for MCC friends, enjoyed some air-conditioning at the mall with some Honduran friends, and spent almost 3 hours trying to figure out a few chords with the church choir. And then we had cake.

5. Our Goshen friend LaRita finished up grad school in Kansas City this month and decided to celebrate by spending a week with us! We spent some time with MCC friends Josh and Maria at their farm, went on an early morning birding trip at Lago Yojoa, and got in some good beach time so she could show off her early summer Honduran tan when she gets back home.

6. There has recently been an energized movement for peace in San Pedro. We see bumper stickers distributed by the local paper, La Prensa, that read "Recuperemos La Paz" (Let's restore the peace) all over the city, and there was recently a large peace march that went through the center of the city. After my last post on the violence that is so prevalent in the media and in the minds of people here it's been really refreshing to experience the excitement around peaceful change.

7. When LaRita came she brought us dark chocolate, a french press coffee maker, and new flip flops that I'd ordered. Awesome.

Lows:
1. It is just pretty darn hot and hazy around here. The temperature doesn't let up much at night and I am sweating more than I ever thought possible. The dry season is stretching on longer than normal, and the skies have been hazy for weeks as farmers have been burning last year's crops to get ready to plant. We took a hike up the mountains on the edge of the city and from there we could barely see the city through the haze. First people said the rains should come around the 15th, which has come and gone. Farmers in La Campa told us that the rains used to start like clockwork right around the 3rd of May... this knowledge of the changing climate did not help Andrew's and my global warming paranoia.

2. We've both been sick a bit on and off - I blame the heat and also that mysterious salad I ate at the bus terminal a few weeks ago.

As you can see, the highs are outweighing the lows so things are pretty good in general. I am "casually" looking for a second volunteer-type position to help keep myself busy when we are not traveling with groups or planning for groups. We will be meeting a group of church leaders from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic tomorrow at the Nicaraguan border to lead a learning tour of Honduran Mennonite organizations this next week. Seven whole days of nothing but Spanish! Andrew put together some favorite Honduran pictures on our Picasa site. Click here to view them (some might be repeats).

Life and Death in San Pedro

2008-04-23T09:08:00.000-07:00

In some ways yesterday was just an average day in San Pedro... Andrew and I went about our daily routine in the hot and bustling city center; keeping relatively cool and removed in the MCC office. The following two events shook me up and caused me to reflect on what exactly IS an ordinary day in San Pedro, and reminded me once again that I'm not in Indiana anymore.

1. After over a month of not being able to meet up with my Spanish teacher, Veronica, we finally had a class yesterday afternoon. Because of my frequent traveling for work and her jam-packed schedule, it is rare that we are able to have class at all - hence my original purchase of 30 hours of classes stretching out over the span of 5 months now. I entered the school to find everything changed - new secretarial staff and the furniture rearranged. When Veronica arrived 10 minutes later I found out the reasons behind the changes and also why we hadn't been able to meet for so long. She told me that a month ago, during our usual class time and on a day when our class had been canceled because she had been unable to come, the school had been robbed and the owner of the school had been stabbed and killed at her desk. I had remained clueless to this tragic event mainly because I had left San Pedro for two weeks and hadn't read the papers. Sometimes I don't read the paper here just because it's often depressingly filled with news of tragic events that happen so often. This opens my eyes yet again not only to the violence that has become so commonplace, but also to the undercurrent of fear that people live with here. This is why most businesses have armed guards and why our apartment is surrounded by a huge wall topped with razor wire. Violence seems to go uninvestigated by the underpaid city police force.

Rumors are circulating that this seemingly random act of violence was not random after all, and actually instigated by someone connected with the school - some kind of personal vendetta. If so, is this kind of violence the Central American counterpart to the sue-happy culture of the U.S.? Maybe so, in a culture where the legal and political systems cannot be counted upon.

On a lighter note...
2. Later in the afternoon Andrew and I took the Ruta 7 bus to try and figure out where the route goes. We went past the Texaco station, one of the Universities, some fancy neighborhoods and some desolate looking ones. While stopped at a red light I saw a horse tied up to a fence next to a ditch - a familiar sight. The horse was licking what appeared to be a very new and very wet colt. My eyes traveled beyond the young one and saw long strands of afterbirth and red guck still hanging from the new mama's back end. This was not such a familiar sight for this city-born girl, and I stood up to watch the nature-show-worthy scene, along with the other right-side sitting passengers of the Ruta 7. Here we were, sitting and sweating it out on the dusty hot intersection and a scene of gross natural beauty was right there among the bustling traffic. I couldn't help feeling sad for this horse, having to give birth tied to a fence post in the San Pedro heat with no shade in sight. And more than a little worried that the newborn would eventually wander into oncoming traffic... but I guess these things have a way of working themselves out. I so often feel bad for animals around here, but life is just kind of rough. For everyone. Dogs and horses and chickens included.

Question: do I have more compassion for animals than people? I am reminded of a recent David Sedaris story in the New Yorker to the effect that similar sentiments are quite common - after Hurricane Katrina a lot of people sent money to help save trapped animals, not people. More questions to follow as this is getting obnoxiously long.

Health care

2008-04-11T09:34:00.000-07:00

A week ago today I woke up with an annoying little tickle in my throat. Over the weekend, it turned in to a full-fledged something, and Sunday I woke up with a fever of about 101.3 F. I haven't had a fever like that in a while, but I may call it the most miserable fever of my life, considering that the temperature in our room was not much less than it was in my head. Between Saturday evening and most of Monday my temperature hovered between 100 and 101.
So, on Monday I decided it was time to go to the doctor. Marcos Flores, the Honduran office assistant, took me to a diagnostic clinic first, where they took blood and urine samples. At 3:30, once the results were ready, I picked them up and headed to Heber Flores's health clinic. Heber, Marcos's nephew, attends the Mennonite Church here in San Pedro and operates a sliding scale health clinic.

Anyway, the tests were normal, so had me hop up onto the exam table, where he quickly deduced the beginnings of a throat infection. "Strep?" I asked. "We'd have to do a test, and the results won't be available for a few days," he said. "We better just give you antibiotics. Do you prefer pills or injections?"

Easy.

"Pills."

"Really? The injections work much faster." It was a direct attack on my manhood.

I agreed to the injection.

"So drop your pants."

I hadn't agreed to this. But before I knew it, he was shoving a needle right into my left butt-cheek.

"There, much better," he said. "Now just come back tomorrow for the second one."

So, two soar butt cheeks later my throat infection is miraculously cured.

Also, on a health-care related note, while I was in Azacualpa last weekend I accompanied an injured Adam Lawrence, one of the SALT volunteers, to the sobador, the gentleman who rubs and cracks soar joints. It was fascinating -- he was a shirtless older gentleman with a cowboy hat, and an eternal smile on his face. He sat Adam down on a ratty old chair and his family gathered around as he took a glob of Icy Hot, and slowly started massaging the ankle that Adam turned while playing soccer. After numbing it up, he cracked it multiple times. Adam seemed to feel a little better

Before we arrived I had considered having him look at the joint where my leg meets my hip that was bothering me after the previous night's soccer game. After watching him smear icy hot all over Adam's leg, and imagining him massaging close to my crotch, I decided against it. My leg felt better instantly.

A note on melons

2008-03-27T07:29:00.001-07:00

As you have probably heard, cantaloupes exported from Honduras have been accused of causing a salmonella outbreak that has affected 50 people. The FDA has essentially banned cantaloupe import, at least from the company responsible, which has major ramifications for the cantaloupe export industry. The Honduran government has responded to this crisis in various ways: earlier this week, Honduran president Mel Zelaya was interviewed on CNN and broke open a melon, cut a slice, and proceeded to feast on it without fear; yesterday, three top Honduran officials traveled to Washington to fight the ban.

So while North Americans are fearing death by melon, some Honduran workers are fearing death by starvation. Ok, that's a little dramatic, but according to yesterday's newspaper, 1,800 employees have already been laid off. In a country whose major economic activity is exporting, one anomaly in the market can be almost catastrophic, at least for the people who are absolutely dependent on the foreign market for their livelihood.

Perhaps this warrants a comment on export in general. In February, Amanda and I had the opportunity to visit the largest shipping port in Central America, just up the road from San Pedro Sula in Puerto Cortez. As I said before, Honduras is an export country. It ships coffee, bananas, pineapples, watermelons, cantaloupes, clothing, mangoes, car harnesses, papayas, grapefruit, plantains, and much more all over North America and Europe.

Environmentally, those are a lot of miles of shipping.

Economically, Honduras is absolutely dependent on the markets in other countries.

If the coffee market is flooded with cheap coffee from Asia, Honduran farmers make nothing. If the banana crop is wiped out by a hurricane, the country takes a major economic blow. What does it mean, as a North American, to be tied to Central America in this way? Our tastes and whims have such a direct effect on families in Honduras being able to eat, yet we don't know much about where our food and consumer products actually comes from -- the faces behind those who sew our shirts and pick our mangoes. When you meat a struggling coffee farmer who pleads with you to buy fairly traded coffee, it demands a new sense of urgency. By choosing to not buy fairly traded coffee, I'm essentially telling him that his life is not worth the few dollars more per pound I would have to pay. All of our consumer choices have a direct effect on actual people, and this realization has been haunting me, and will continue to haunt me as I begin to rethink my consumer choices now and in the future.

Hondurans in New Orleans

2008-03-24T08:57:00.000-07:00

There is a nice article on the MCC news website about a group of Hondurans and Guatemalans who spent two weeks in New Orleans volunteering for Mennonite Disaster Service, helping to construct homes and sharing common experiences of hope after a hurricane. Click here to read the article.

The Canadians came and went

2008-03-13T07:44:00.000-07:00

Our first big learning tour is over and we are still in the "well, what do we do now?" stage of our recovery. The whole trip went well; we had a great group of participants from the Canadian Food Grains Bank, and I think Andrew and I learned more in a little over two weeks than in the last few months. The focus of the trip was on food security and was advertised as a "food, faith and justice" tour. Some highlights:

1. Playing soccer with the youth group from the Mennonite church in Tegucigalpa - kind of an embaressing show from us gringos, but fun - I've been wanting to play soccer since we got here.
2. A visit to AFE - Amor, Fe y Esperanza (love, faith, and hope) - this is the school started for children living in the dump which Andrew wrote about before. There is something very special about this place of hope in the midst of so much despair. We got in some more good soccer with the kids there that afternoon and the visit was a highlight for many of the participants.
3. A lecture on the geo-political history of Honduras by a rivetting professor of history from Tegucigalpa, Don Mario. He hosted us on his back porch and wowed us for a good hour and a half until we were thoroughly late for dinner.
4. Visiting rural coffee farms up in the mountains near Guatemala during the harvest. A Honduran organization called CASM (Mennonite Social Action Committee) is working with farmers to help them diversify their farms and use innovative technologies such as vermiculture (worm composting) and biodigesters in order to move towards sustainability and organic production. Very cool. We stayed in a little "eco-hotel" for 3 nights (they should call it an eco-cabin really), I hardly got any sleep, but it was worth it to get up into the fresh air and take a 5-hour horseback ride that skirted the Guatemalan border and made my rump sore for two days.
5. Nightly reflection, discussion, singing (in English!), and prayer with this group of thoughtful young people, all from different faith traditions and walks of life. We were challenged by our visits and speakers to consider our role as North Americans in the issues of globalization, corporate farming, free trade and cheap labor, and poverty. This has left me still feeling unsettled and questioning our own role here, but I suppose that is a good thing.
6. We got in some good game playing and I'm going to go ahead and take some credit for spreading the Dutch Blitz love further North, including "The Rock".

Some questions:
1. How can someone not like beans?
2. Why did I never learn Canadian geography as a child?
3. Can a two week, intensive cultural learning experience change life-long decisions and habits? Going along with our speaker Kurt ver Beek (we have a link to his website and work on long-term affects of short-terms missions under "related links") and assuming a big "No" to that question, how can we move towards meaningful and lasting change?

I have many more questions, which all add to my unsettled feelings these days. On a personal note, I'm also hoping to find a good place where I can volunteer my afternoons or mornings that fits in with our sporatic travel schedule. When we are busy we are really really busy, and when we're not, we're just not.

Semana Santa is around the corner! We're looking forward to hosting travelers from my home church in Portland, painting the office, and celebrating Easter and fellow MCCer Adam's birthday with an Easter Feaster extravaganza. Pictures of our travels with Canadians and Easter Feaster to come at a later date.

Photos, photos, photos

2008-02-12T07:56:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy couple of months here in San Pedro. We are preparing for our first major learning tour, comprised of youth from the Canadian Food Grains Bank who will be spending two weeks studying food security issues in Honduras. We'll take them all over the country, from Tegucigalpa; to El Cajón near Lago Yojoa; to Azacualpa, Santa Barbara; and, finally, San Pedro Sula. We'll visit a clothing factory, the world's largest Tilapia exporter, farm projects in the mountains, a women's rights organization, the Canadian International Development Agency office, and much more. We'll also probably be incomunicado for a while.

Here are two photo albums of some highlights from the last month:

Click here for pictures of our good friends Joel Cano and Vanessa Flores at their wedding on the beach.

Here are some pictures of our first work and learn team, five folks from First Mennonite Church of Bluffton. We spent most of the week assisting with various building projects at the Mennonite Church in La Lopez Arellano, just north of San Pedro Sula.

Searching for food and dignity

2008-02-04T14:28:00.000-08:00

In the mountains outside of Tegucigalpa there is a community that lives among the rats, cows, dogs, gang members, drug addicts, alcoholics, and glue sniffers in the municipal dump. Every day hundreds of trucks dump waste from all corners of the city, and children fight the buzzards for scraps of food, and each other for bits of metal or plastic to recycle for a few lempiras. The scene is almost unimaginable. A man approached us and opened his shirt to show how cancer had eaten away part of his chest; an 8-year-old girl in a camouflage hat was the dirtiest human being I have ever encountered; a young man with a few teeth hanging on giddily played for me the harmonica he just found in the piles of trash.

No human being should ever have to be subjected to this sort of undignified existence.

The hope in the midst of this chaos is a school called Amor, Fe, y Vida -- Love, Faith, and Life. For seven years, Jeony, a mild-mannered Methodist pastor with a huge heart and a head full of dreams, has developed a school for the children who live in and around the dump with hopes of sending them on to something better. The hope is that they will at least graduate from sixth grade, the mandatory level of schooling for Honduran youth. At least a few have graduated from high school and have gone on to technical schools. Jeony hopes many will go on to university and come back to help teach others who call the dump their home. Above all, however, they hope to teach the kids that they are loved by and are dignified through God

There is no way to sum up what we saw today in a few paragraphs. But swirling around in my mind is the haunting call to action Joeny left us with. He said that his years working at the dump have taught him that there is a difference between pity and compassion. Pity means you get back in your car, go home to your warm house and forget what you saw, or consider it a hopeless cause. Compassion means you ask every day, "What more can I do?" If nothing else, there is always prayer. He said that before he started with the people at the dump he didn't have anything to pray for after 15 minutes or so of devotions. Now he has over 1,000 reasons to pray -- all the people who call the dump their home.

Joeny's project is documented here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWn4zkND0mc

Help take a bite out of crime

2008-01-25T09:52:00.000-08:00

In the last two weeks I have had two run-ins with the Honduran police, a jumpy bunch, if I do say so myself. First, early last week after dropping off a group from Bluffton, Ohio, at their hotel, I was pulled over less than half a block from our apartment after apparently stopping at an intersection where there was no stop sign. Guilty as charged, I'll admit, if that is a crime. Actually, it was more of a rolling stop in fear that the car speeding towards me on the cross street was not going to observe his stop sign. Anyway, four young motorcycle cops (one of them 20 -- I asked him, much to Amanda's chagrin) with machine guns stopped me and asked me in quiet, quick Spanish for my license, which I handed over. And my passport, which I did not have on me. Apparently this is a worthy crime in Honduras, and, as one of the cops reminded me, if a Honduran in the states was caught without a passport he would be deported immediately. So we waited in silence. And waited. Stared at the sky. Waited. After fifteen minutes, with a few failed attempts at small talk, they said the were going to forgive me this time. They let me drive the half a block to my house, watched as we pulled in to the gate, and sped off to catch other criminals.

Then two nights ago, after a nice dinner with the same group in the swankier part of town, I was caught heading the wrong way down a dark street that suddenly became one-way. A truckload of policemen was right there, as if waiting for a confused gringo. Another young cop took my license and asked me to exit the car to talk with his supervisor, who explained to me that he was going to write me a ticket, like they do in the states. I accepted my fate and asked to clarify exactly the process. According to the Honduran book of traffic laws, if a driver is caught violating a traffic law, the police officer is to withhold the driver's license, and the lawbreaker must go to the bank to pay the fine to reclaim his license. This police officer, however, told me that it would be easier to just pay the fine on the spot so I don't have to stand in line at the bank. I told him that I would prefer to pay at the bank, as that is the proper way. He used a different tack. "Well maybe you'd like to help us pay for the gas for this truck." Again, I told him I'd prefer the bank option. Somehow I maintained my composure, and actually spoke fairly decent Spanish, while the young cop on my right was carelessly swinging his machine gun back and forth. After looking at my license a little longer he told me he would forgive without a ticket. I thanked them, stepped back into the car, took a few deep breaths, and took off towards the hotel.

Obviously, in each situation the police officers were hoping for a bribe, affectionately called a mordida -- literally a bite. People here live in fear of the police. My luck has been due largely to the fact that I'm a gringo, and the police and I both know that this entails certain leverage. An average Honduran does not have the luxury of reporting abuse to the most powerful embassy in the world. What would it do to your psyche to know that reporting a crime is useless, because many of the police have been paid off by the criminals? Corruption at this level contributes to what I would call anarchy -- lawlessness, caused by the fact that there is no one to turn to. In these instances I have merely tasted the fear immigrants in the states feel towards the police, not to mention the anxiety that Hondurans feel on a daily basis.

"Ese no es espaguetis" (This is not spaghetti)

2008-01-18T09:09:00.000-08:00

I thought this story would be worth sharing...

The other evening we walked home from the office after a long day of orienting, translating (mostly Andrew), and traveling around the city with a group of folks visiting from a church in Ohio. We were pretty tired, didn't have much food in the fridge and so had decided to just eat out for a change. It wasn't until we'd already reached the large blue wall topped with razor wire surrounding our apartment that we noticed the family sitting inside their truck parked out front, waving and smiling at us. It was our new friends, Román and Delmy and two of their four small kids, Aby and Román (junior - otherwise known as Románcito - possibly the cutest kid ever). They live about 30 minutes away and had been parked out front for over an hour waiting for us to get home. We felt pretty honored - so far friend-making and hanging out with Hondurans has been slow to happen, besides the casual meeting people that happens at church. It's hard to know how to get to know people better when the formal inviting people over for dinner or out to do something doesn't seem to happen as much in this culture. So we'd finally been "dropped-in" on and we were pretty excited.

We rushed to invite them up to our apartment and do all the right things - including running out to the nearest pulperia to buy sodas since all we usually have around is water. I thought it would freak them out if Andrew were to help me cook so I knew it was up to me - what to make? My choices were beans and rice or pasta. I chose pasta, since making beans and rice for Hondurans is just too intimidating - surely they would not be impressed with my gringafying of their native cuisine. So I whipped up the usual veggie marinara sauce that I usually make and some bow-tie pasta, the only kind we had around. In the process I made the dire mistake of telling the kids, who were watching me with great interest, that I was making spaghetti.

Finally I had it all together, served in a bowl, Honduran-style with toast stacked on a little plate. Plastic chairs were pulled in from outside, small children were put on cushions so their chins were at least even with our awkwardly-tall table, when I noticed Románcito was sitting there looking pretty devastated. He whispered to his dad "pero ¿dónde está la comida?" (but where is the food?)

His father kindly tried to explain that the strange looking geometrical blobs covered in red stuff mixed with distateful vegetables was actually made out of the same thing as his beloved noodles. And that the sauce was actually not that different from ketchup. I couldn't help laughing as the poor little guy wrinkled up his face, examined a few bow-ties up close and almost broke out in tears. Actually everyone got a pretty big kick out of it (excluding Románcito - who eventually did eat toast and cheese, but only after his sister assured him that it was, in fact, real cheese), and despite making a small child cry with my cooking I felt really good about the evening. In a small way it felt like we'd finally arrived. And it made a last impression - his parents later told us that the next morning at breakfast little Román said, "Amanda no me dió espaguetis..." (Amanda didn't give me spaghetti)

2008-01-03T12:09:00.002-08:00

San Pedro turned cold overnight on Tuesday. I´m sitting here in the MCC office actually wearing a sweater AND socks - it feels a little like Goshen in October.

I´m suffering from some post-friend, post-Christmas, post-beach blues. We had a really great Christmas, made special by an overnight visit from our friends Maria and Josh, and celebrating Christmas eve with Marcos and his family.

The infamous Tasara Redekopp, former roommate and Goshen College amiga, arrived on the 27th for our first official more-than-overnight friend visit. We had a fabulous time giving her a 5-day mini tour of Northern Honduras; spending a little time exploring San Pedro, bussing out to the beautiful beach in Tela for two nights, then heading south near Lago Yojoa to spend New Year´s Eve (and Maria´s birthday) with other MCCers Callie, Caleb, and Josh and Maria at their farm in El Cipres. Click here to see a few more pictures (we hope to add some of Tasara´s soon). We ate a lot of good food, Tasara soaked in some much needed vitamin D and even bought some art.

We decided to take a tour boat out to Punta Sal, a national park outside of Tela. The day-long trip included a big fried fish lunch, complete with tajadas and beans and rice (typical north-coast fare). When Andrew made reservations for us over the phone he thought to mention that Tasara is a vegetarian and wondered if they had vegetarian options. Alex, who we met later and turned out to be our tour-guide, paused over the phone and then said, "what they will do Andres, they will give you the plate, and take off the fish." Another highlight was when Tasara and I were having trouble getting back on to the boat in thigh-high water that was getting choppier by the minute, and Alex tried to heave Tasara log-throwing style onto the boat. Marvin, the boat capitan who was much blessed with impressive muscles, saved the day and literally swept us off our feet, and before we knew it we had both been deposited safely inside. There was much cheering. There was less chearing on the jarring boat ride back when Marvin continued to go top-speed through the choppy waves and I had to hang on for dear life.

El Apartamento

2007-12-27T08:36:00.000-08:00

We spent all of yesterday making and hanging curtains. It literally took us all day because Andrewhad to drill into the concrete wall to hang them - something that seemed to get harder and harderover time. Either the concrete was getting more and more solid, or, well.... that must be it. Click here to see the promised photos of the apartment which we love dearly. I must say, I think the challengeof getting out, speaking Spanish, meeting new people, and feeling totally acclimated here would be much easier if I didn't like being home so much.

Christmas Greetings!

2007-12-21T14:42:00.001-08:00

Andrew and I are gearing up for our first Honduran Christmas in a few days... it's really hard to believe that Christmas is coming when it's so hot and, well, un-Christmasy around here. December was a busy month for us, as we continue to adjust and find more things to do. Our apartment really is feeling like home (I promise to post pictures soon) and we've been able to have people over for dinner a few times which makes it feel even more like home. I was pretty sick yesterday, just a 24-flu thing, but didn't even mind too much because it gave me the chance to just lay around the house and enjoy some hours of quiet by myself.

This past weekend we went with the whole MCC team up to Cerro Azul Meambar National Park which is right by the biggest lake in Honduras, Lago Yajoa. There are ten of us MCC workers in Honduras (along with 2 small kids) and we have team meetings three times a year where we can get together, relax, share some stories, and get a few games in. The park was beautiful and my first experience being up in the cloud forest. It rained the whole first day we were there and was actually pretty cold (we did a lot of sharing of the few meager warm clothes a few of us had brought). The second day cleared up a bit and a bunch of us went on a 4 hour hike up the mountainside... we went up among huge ferns and tropical plants that I'd never seen, and stopped by a big waterfall on the way back. Pretty idyllic - plus it met a serious hiking craving that I've had for a while. We often go on the "coke sign hike" - the paved, urban hike up to the huge coca-cola sign on the hillside facing San Pedro Sula; but there really isn't any substitute for getting away from the city and on a "real" trek. You can check out our pictures here.

We'll be celebrating Christmas with MCC friends Josh and Maria - the other childless, host-familyless couple here in Honduras. Although we're surely going to miss family and friends from home, I'm excited to celebrate Christmas in new ways... for instance: Andrew and I will be performing in the Christmas choir at the local mennonite church on Christmas Eve. Always a real treat. We've had 3 performances so far and we just keep getting worse. I really can't say why. After that, we're heading to Marcos' house for Christmas Eve tamales. Marcos works part-time at the office here and is a favorite of mine - he has daughters my age and feels kind of like a Honduran dad figure. His youngest daughter told us we're going to wait until EXACTLY midnight to eat our tamales - we'll see if I can make it. It feels good to be included in their family Christmas, and I really do feel blessed to be here right now.

Merry Christmas!

Just give it a good Thanksgiving push!

2007-12-01T14:06:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving came and went with little fanfare here in Honduras, though, inidentally, the only Thanksgiving email I received was from a Honduran amigo here in San Pedro. Anyway, Darrin (one of our country reps), Amanda and I spent Wednesday through Friday in the mountains of Danlí and Trojes visiting an MCC partner who helps subsitence coffee farmers diversify their crop load for when coffee prices drop. Getting up to the projects is a trip, but it's worth it.

First, a four-hour-bus ride from San Pedro Sula to Tegucigalpa, a one-and-a-half hour 4 X 4 truck ride to Danlí, a 2-hour car ride from Danlí to Trojes, and two more hours on muddy cliff-side roads out to the project site near the Nicarguan border. At one point I was pretty sure we weren't going to make it...

But we did, and were treated to some of the most amazing mountainscapes and charming farms I've seen.

These coffee farms tend to be built on steep sides of mountains, which present huge challenges in planting gardens. The MCC partner teaches farming techniques, such as using sugar cane, which has thick, deep roots, to help anchor the soil.

In the picture below, the farmer was drying his corn inside his living room because of the recent heavy rain.
We were greeted warmly by the families. At the first house we visited we enjoyed fresh sugar cane juice with a squeeze of sour orange. In the pictures below they are sending the sugar cane through the press.

While it was hard to know that my family was gathered around the turkey in Goshen on Thanskgiving Day, and I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the chance to be in Central America, experiencing a very different way of life than I had in the US. And though Thanksgiving is not observed in Central America, a poor farm family invited us into their homes for a delicious feast of free-range chicken, potatoes, rice, and corn tortillas.

It was a very good Thanksgiving.

Time for my sad face...

2007-11-15T08:10:00.000-08:00

When I'm asked how good my Spanish is I usually respond with something non-specific like, "Well, I'm learning more every day," or "I can understand more than I'm able to speak." I am in the fuzzy zone which is somewhere between beginning-intermediate and whatever comes after that, also known as "Level Dangerous."

Level Dangerous involves a lot of reassuring head bobbing that communicates that yes, I understand what you are saying to me even if you're not getting much else in the way of feedback. And, most of the time, I DO understand what you are saying to me. Until I reach Overload. Overload is the state someone in Level Dangerous reaches when they have maxed-out their listening comprehension. This can happen unexpectedly. I have found that I'm more likely to reach overload when I'm in a small group and I'm not the only one expected to listen in Spanish. Constant eye-contact, a friendly smile, and slow reassuring head bobbing is very important when in Overload.

This usually works just fine. Usually. The system breaks down when the speaker strays from friendly, informational, or happy topics and onto other more serious and sometimes even sad territory. This can happen without warning. The other day a woman was telling Andrew and I about how her brother had been married for a long time and was not able to have children. His wife, pregnant with another man's child, eventually left him and went to the states. Up until this point we had been talking about the photos of her cute grandchildren that were posted all around the house, and I was still wearing my happy face. Belatedly, way too far into the sad brother story than was socially appropriate, I realized it was time for my sad face and a slow side to side head bob. I can't wait to be in Level Almost There.

MCC Honduras team pictures

2007-11-12T07:48:00.000-08:00

This Friday was the despedida for Jeff, the volunteer whose work we are taking over. We went to Fred's Kitchen and delighted in various international cuisine offerings, including European vegetarian crepes, Thai-ish peanut butter chicken, and American cheeseburgers. Here are some team pictures to give you a sense of our work environment.

The MCC Team (Center to left around table): Jeff Eschleman, Maria Eley-McClain, Adam Lawrence, Sarah Winter, Caleb Yoder, Darrin Yoder(with Caleb), Julie Aeschliman (with Lucía), Andrés, Amanda, Josh Eley-McClain.

In the paila of the Nissan.

Josh, Jeff, Maria.

Sarah and Simon

Jeff leaves on Friday, so I guess we have to hope we have gleaned as much of his encyclopedic knowledge about Honduras as possible. Everywhere we've gone in the country people tell us how much Jeff has meant to their lives. He will be missed.

The globalization of war

2007-11-04T19:34:00.000-08:00

Today, while waiting at Charlie's Chicken for a chicken sandwich and side order of tajadas, a friendly middle-aged gentleman approached my co-volunteer, Josh, and me and greeted us in labored English: ¨Hello. How are you?¨ It isn't uncommon for a Honduran to approach gringos for a rare chance to practice what English they know.

Anyway, this led into a conversation about how he learned English. Apparently he worked in security at the US Embassy in Baghdad a year ago and was one of the many guards responsible for securing the premises in the Green Zone. His salary was high -- about nine year's worth of work in one -- but it was dangerous and thankless. Josh said he has heard that the job did not include insurance.

This man was not the only Honduran sent to Iraq for security work. According to this article there is a contingent of at least 600 Hondurans who were essentially outsourced as private security for American interests in Baghdad. They were to be paid between $900 and $1,500 a month for a six-month tour in Iraq. In this report, the salary promised that was promised to a Chilean mercenary was not what he received, but the worker did not see the contract until he was on the plane for Baghdad.

Incidentally, this chilling line from the first report was also eerily similar to a comment the man at Charlie's Chicken had made: ¨The instructors 'explained to us that where we were going everyone would be our enemy, and we'd have to look at them that way, because they would want to kill us, and the gringos too,' an unidentified trainee told the AFP wire service. 'So we'd have to be heartless when it was up to us to kill someone, even it was a child.'

As is generally the case with globalization, the Honduran security workers were not compensated as well as their US counterparts. According to yet another article, which talks mostly about Colombians used as private security personnel, the Latin American mercenaries were paid half of what their American counterparts received. In the report quoted above, the American secuirty personnel received more than 10 times what the Chileans did.

What does this say about how we value a person from a developing country compared to a person from a developed country? They are both doing the same work in the same dangerous situation, but the Honduran mercenary is essentially viewed as less valuable. Yes, $1,500 a month is significantly more than the Honduran worker would make here in Honduras, but to me the salary in this line of work is essentially the value of someone's life.

The reality is globalization allows us to outsource all of our dirty work to cheap labor -- t-shirts, car parts, and killing.

Soy yo, el gringo

2007-10-25T08:04:00.000-07:00

Two days ago I drove for the first time through the crazy streets of San Pedro. Amanda and I had to drop off our monton of clothes at Bubbles, the local laundromat. The drive went well; I even sneaked right across the insanely busy Avenida Junior during the beginning of rush hour. We dropped off the clothes, left my name -- Andres -- and returned to the truck to head home. Of course the truck wouldn't start and we didn´t really know what to do. The nice ladies at the laundromat said we were more than welcome to leave our truck in their narrow parking lot until we came up with a plan, but if we left it there overnight, they said, it would be gone by morning. So we helplessly walked back to the office to find help from our older and wiser MCC friend, Jeff. At about 9 p.m. all of the folks in the office who were here for Connecting Peoples meetings we´ve had this week walked down to Bubbles to push start the truck. It took some doing, and must have been a funny site to see a herd of gringos pushing a beat-up Nissan truck down the road with every dog in the neighborhood going nuts, but finally the truck started and we all hopped in the back.

It´s times like this, when I feel helpless, that I feel the most self conscious of the fact that I´m different. No matter how much I try to blend in by not wearing shorts, trying to speak Honduran Spanish, etc., strangers will always recognize me for what I am -- a gringo. But it´s endearing, and it gives me character, I think. I have never been more aware of that fact before yesterday, when Amanda and I returned to Bubbles to pick up our clothes. Oddly, the woman recognized us and didn´t even have to ask my name. She had the bag of clothes waiting for us at the window. While walking home, I noticed a piece of tape on the bottom of the trash bag that held our folded laundry. I assumed it said ¨Andres,¨ the name I gave to the woman when I left the clothes. But no, the the label was even more simple and descriptive -- ¨gringo.¨

Labor abuses in Honduras

2007-10-24T06:30:00.000-07:00

Honduras is known for its cheap labor. If you look at the tag on your shirts, chances are many of them were manufactured right here in San Pedro Sula, where wages and operating costs are low. Most of the plants, however, are reported to be fairly well run, and the jobs are highly sought after as some of the best paying jobs in this economically depressed country.

But this report put out by the National Labor Committee on labor practices in one Honduran Alcoa auto parts processing plant is absolutely shocking. According to the report, workers were systematically abused and denied basic rights guaranteed by the UN and the International Labor Organization. Here is one of the more disturbing excerpts from the report:

At Alcoa, it is not uncommon for workers to have to urinate, or even defecate, in their clothing after repeatedly being denied permission to use the bathroom. The bathrooms are also dirty, lacking lights and toilet paper. Workers who take “too long” may be pulled from the toilet by guards. There have even been cases of women being made to disrobe and lower their underpants to prove they were having their period so they could use the bathroom more than twice a day. Workers arriving 15 minutes late can be punished with the loss of two-and-a-half or three days’ wages. With as little as ten minutes notice, workers on the night shift can be ordered to remain working for another six hours, keeping them at the factory from 4:15 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.—nearly 14 hours. All overtime is obligatory and those who object can be fired. Many lines work this mandatory 13 ¾ hour shift five nights a week, putting them at the factory 68 ¾ hours a week. Especially in Plant III, where the air conditioning has been broken for nearly a year, fainting is common as factory temperatures often reach 104 degrees. Supervisors yell at the workers, “Hey, Donkey, move!” or “Work, you prisoners!” Security guards patrol the shop floor and if they see someone resting for even a few seconds, they will poke that person with their baton and order them to keep moving. Especially at night, workers take strong caffeine pills to stay awake and race to meet their high production goals, as well as pills for muscle pain, and later sleeping pills in order to sleep during the day. Production speed-ups are routine and arbitrarily set by management. In June, workers were told they had to increase their production from nine harnesses a day to 12. This was a 33 percent increase in production, with no wage increase.

Fortunately, this report has attracted some international attention after Alcoa fired all employees who were recognizing their legally guaranteed right to unionize. My hope is that this international awareness will turn consumers´heads to the realities of cheap labor here in Central America, encouraged by so called ¨fair-trade¨agreements. I guess we need to ask ourselves a very difficult and complex question: Are these human rights abuses a fair trade-off for cheaper auto parts?

These are a few of my favorite things...

2007-10-12T19:40:00.000-07:00

One activity we did during MCC orientation in July was the Meyers-Briggs personality test. I found out that my love of making lists pushes me over the edge into the "judging" category, and out of the "perceiving"category, which I was formally so fond of. So here we go...

The little things that can make any day exciting:

1.) Kissing. I love it when women I've just met give me a kiss on the cheek as a greeting or farewell. It's more of a cheek brush with a kiss to the air... it makes me feel accepted and even a little loved. It's even better when they kind of grab my elbows with both hands and hold on for a little bit. Why don't we do this in the states? Why all the awkward half-waves?

2.) Fruit juices. One can purchase an amazing assortment of fruits for just a few lempiras (18 lempiras = $1), so it is possible to experiment with a blender and any number of combinations of fruits. There are also many, many fruit juice mini-restaurants around, which will juice fruit for you, blend it with ice and lots and lots of sugar for around a dollar. We've discovered that it's worth it to ask for a little less sugar than normal.

3.) Walking. I am definitely a little nervous about the city buses; traffic is intense and so biking isn't a good option, so I'm thankful that I enjoy walking.

4.) Snack food. Specifically, baleadas (flour tortilla with refried beans, cream, and cheese, folded in half with pickled spicy veggies to put on top), and pasteles de pollo, otherwise known as empenadas. Very tasty.

5.) Amiga. The special Friday section of the La Prensa, San Pedro's daily paper, which is just for women.

6.) TV. I feel guilty for including this, but I have watched more t.v. here in 5 weeks than I did probably all of last year; mainly when we've been staying with host families. I think it's helping me with my spanish.

7.) Cool, breezy evenings.

8.) Rain.

9.) My spanish teachers, who are usually fairly patient with me.

10.) Two potential new friends, who also happen to speak pretty good english, but seem patient with spanish-learners (PTL).

To be fair, I'll include an abbreviated list of some things that can make a day in Honduras not quite so exciting:

1.) Exhaust, and traffic in general.
2.) Fried food, every day, every meal, everything fried, then fried some more.
3.) The practiced "come hither" look that so many men seem to have down, that has caused me to start being a sidewalk-starer.
4.) Sad, sick, and miserable-looking street animals.
5.) The big things: poverty, homeless children, unemployment, environmental degradation... all things that shouldn't be tritely tacked on to the end of an abbreviated list. All things that I'd like to write more about in the future when I'm not tired from a 4 hour bus ride and ready for bed.

Goodnight from San Pedro...

La Ceiba -- Honduras's girlfriend

2007-10-10T16:21:00.000-07:00

After a brief stay in San Pedro Sula, we headed to the north coast last Thursday to explore Tocoa, Trujillo, and La Ceiba. La Ceiba, the third largest city in Honduras with 100,000 inhabitants, is affectionately known as Honduras's girlfriend. I don't quite know what that means, but the guidebook explains Honduras's three largest cities this way: in San Pedro Sula, you work; in Tegucigalpa you think; in La Ceiba, you party. We haven't partied yet, just like we haven't really worked while in San Pedro Sula, but I can easily say that the North Coast is my favorite part of Honduras so far. To be fair, I have yet to see Tegucigalpa, but we'll had there this weekend. On Thursday we explored the old colonial town of Trujillo, and ate ceviche in a restaurant right on the edge of the ocean. It was so close to the water that I would expect that during high tide the water comes right up to the first row of tables. It was painful to not be able to swim, as we caught only a quick lunch before heading back to Tocoa but at least have some good itineraries in mind for visitors. The rest of the weekend was spent attending the Honduran Mennonite Church's National Assembly. Most of the pastors from Honduras were there, so it was a good chance to get to know some of Honduras's Mennonite big-wigs.

Since then, we've been in La Ceiba taking classes at the Central American Spanish School. Classes are four hours in the morning, leaving the rest of the day for study, relaxation, and exploration. Today's afternoon activity was one of the most unexpected surprises so far. We had previously been told to hit La Ceiba's Butterfly and Insect Museum, as it houses one of the best collections of Honduran butterflies, moths and insects, so we decided to spend our afternoon there. Upon entering we were greeted by a gringo named Robert Lehman, who graduated from Goshen College -- Amanda's and my alma mater -- in the 60's. After graduating from Goshen, he worked as an elementary school teacher for one of the American schools owned by the Standard Fruit Corporation (now Dole) and ended up staying. Throughout his thirty plus years here he has amassed an amazing collection of more than 14,000 specimens from 101 countries. He spent many of his nights out in the mountain jungles with a black light and white sheet, collecting moths, beetles, butterflies, dangerous moths, and other creepy crawlers. I got the sense that he no longer collects in the mountains, but is now an avid trader of insects throughout the world. He is currently awaiting a shipment of 700 butterflies from Poland.

You never know where you'll find a Maple Leaf.

As for the rest of this week, we'll have two more days of classes at the Central American Spanish School, and head back to San Pedro Sula on Friday. A Learning Tour from MCC in Akron will be meeting us in Tegucigalpa on Sunday, before which we plan to go to the Honduras National team game against Panama. It's a tough life.

Pictures from Copan Ruinas

2007-09-29T21:10:00.000-07:00

The street our host family's house was on.

The same street, looking the other way. We took this road up the mountain one day and were surprised by the quick change from middle class houses to extremely poor clay homes.

Another typical street in Copan.

A toucan in Copan's beautiful tropical bird sanctuary.

Our new friend, Eric Shultz, talking to the birds.

More touristy bird shots.

The president leading the Independence Day parades. The streets were packed with school children who paraded on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The corn maiden.

Dulce Maria, our cute-as-can-be host sister, is on the right. She attends the bilingual school in Copan, and had the honor of holding one of the school's banners.

Dulce Maria; Ernesto, our host father; and Amanda at the Saturday parades.

The Guacamaya Language Institute.

The goose in our back yard. At night, when the roosters were screaming away, the goose would get into the action with her sad-sounding honks. We called her Honker.

Ben Beachy, our first visitor, surprised us our second weekend in Honduras.

Dulce Maria on our beloved study hammock.

A women's weaving cooperative located in the mountains outside Copan. We took horses up to a village where La Pintada -- descendants of the Mayans -- live and work. One of the horses kicked Amanda on the way up. She wasn't happy. Neither was Amanda.

One of the girls at La Pintada wearing my sunglasses.

A typical afternoon of studying in our room. We studied a ton. It was great.

The temple at the beginning of the Mayan ruins in Copan. They are spectacular, but unfortunately our memory card filled up so we didn't get many photos. They got bigger later.

Andrew and Karla, his language teacher, out in the garden. Classes were from 8 to 12 every morning with a break of at least half an hour in the middle.

Amanda with Nelly, her teacher. Sometimes she gets frustrated.

Amanda, Eric, and Andrew, outside of the school on our last day. Somehow Andrew and Eric always dressed the same.

The teachers: Luis, Julia, Karla, Enrique, Nelly

The fam: Ernesto, Sarah, Dulce Maria. Not pictured, Sonia, the 22-year-old daughter.

A long weekend...

2007-09-17T14:20:00.000-07:00

Hello from Copan! So far I have let Andrew do all the writing - the public nature of a blog has been a bit intimidating for me, but here goes...
We´ve been attending language school for over a week now. I´ve never been so motivated to learn something in my life, but I am finding language study to be tedious and frustrating at times, with exciting moments when something finally clicks or I remember the word for "around".

We actually only had four days of classes last week. Friday we had the day off because it was the beginning of the Independence Day celebrations, which lasted all weekend. We watched kids parading around the central square in school uniforms and band costumes and all kinds of interesting get-ups both Friday and Saturday mornings. After the excitement of the parade on Friday morning, we realized we didn´t have much to do except study for three days. Andrew and I were both sitting around our room Friday afternoon when it started raining pretty heavily. A few minutes later the power went off - and stayed off for the rest of the evening. We sat in the dark, books in hand, for a few minutes before making our way to the kitchen where our host mom, Sara, was kind enough to give us a candle. After playing Farkle and various card games by candlelight for the next few hours Andrew wondered out loud what our friends at home were doing... this marked the beginning of our first home-sick, or at least friend-sick, thoughts of our friends and family since we´ve been here. Up until that point I think we´d both been too busy with daily things to think of home much. Nothing like sitting around on a Friday night in a new country to bring out some lonesome feelings!

Amazingly, we got a phone call about 10 minutes after the power went back on. It was Ben Beachy, of course, a friend from college who just happened to be working in San Pedro Sula for 10 days and had the smarts to figure out how to reach us at our host family´s house. He wound up taking a bus from San Pedro the next morning and so we spent the next 24 hours happily catching up with him before he had to take the bus back the next day. We never expected to see a familiar face quite so soon in our journey but it was a very welcome surprise!

We are getting in good walking shape here - we usually wind up walking the steep cobbled streets downtown at least three or four times a day. We decided to explore one of the roads that winds up into the mountains the other day and found a whole new, less-touristy and much more impoverished side of Copan. I´m still trying to get used to the fact that we are really in Central America. It´s helpful for me to just walk around and soak it in sometimes - it´s easy to get caught up with studying Spanish and kind of forget what a big turn my life has taken in the last two weeks!

I tried to upload some pictures to jazz this up a bit, but the computer here at the school is pretty slow and it was taking too long - we´ll post a bunch of pictures from Copan when we get back to San Pedro Sula. Our stay here just got extended another week, so we wont be getting back to the big city until probably around the 29th or so. Yay! More classes! Hopefully my head can take it.

Copàn Ruinas

2007-09-10T08:09:00.000-07:00

Compared to the clogged, loud, busy streets of San Pedro Sula, Copan Ruinas - where we are currently taking language classes - is a bonafide paradise. The cobblestone streets are silent at night, and this morning a thin cloud of mist hung low over the mountains that surround the city. I feel lucky to be in this beautiful place. My host family is a working class family of four who rent rooms to tourists and visiting Hondurans at $10 a day, which includes three meals a day, and two clothes washings a week. The food is wonderful. Last night was a typical dish of small corn tortillas, a dish of refried beans, scrambled eggs, and sweet plantains. I was so hungry after our four-hour bus ride (on which we were treated to the gruesome film Blackhawk Down) which arrived at 2 p.m. I didn´t eat until 6:30. I did get in some good soccer, however, as we watched the Honduran national team tie with Costa Rica at the director of the language school´s house. We met him on the school steps right before the game started, and he was anxious to whip us off to our host family right away so he could enjoy the game. When he found out we liked soccer, however, he invited us in.

The last few days have been spent in team meetings with other MCCers in Honduras. It has been gringo central so far, as we spent the last few days enjoying good food, conversation, a visit to the MAMA project (more on that in another entry) and a soccer game between two local Honduran teams. We have a wonderful team of engaged young adults who are scattered throughout the country. The country reps and Amanda and I will be the only ones in San Pedro Sula, but our job will take us to other parts of the country often, so we´ll see other MCCers regularly. It was great to make new friends, but now we need to meet some Hondurans. My host family is a good entry into the Honduran culture. I have found that the Hondurans I´ve met aren´t as outgoing as Cubans. In Cuba, I felt as if I made friends instantly. That may also have been due to the fact that Cubans were always trying to sell us something. I believe that Hondurans are just as friendly as Cubans, but maybe a little more reserved. It may take some work to feel accepted as part of the culture. I look forward to attending the Mennonite Church in San Pedro Sula. I believe we´ll make friends quickly there.

I hope to post some pictures from Copan later this week. It is just such a beautful place, and I´m sure I can´t capture it in photos. We also hope to explore the Mayan ruins, hot springs, and the spectacular hiking, so there may be some good pictures to share soon.

Honduras

2007-09-06T06:44:00.000-07:00

Amanda and I arrived without delay yesterday at 3 p.m. We entered through customs with minimal confusion and were greeted by Darrin Yoder, one of our country reps; his two-year-old son, Simon; and Jeff Eschelman, who is currently doing our job. After dropping our baggage off at the MCC office and guest house (where we are staying) we drove to Darrin´s house to meet his wife, Julie Aeschliman, and their newborn daughter, Lucia. They live in a clean, efficient house in one of the neighborhoods north of town. We had a wonderful meal of fresh fruit salad and tostadas with pinto beans and fresh vegetables. The electricity went out in the middle of dinner and was still off at the guest house when Jeff drove us back. No matter; we found some candles, got ready for bed, and slept a total of 12 hours. Not bad.

I´ve been surprised that there is almost not talk of the hurricane here. It did minimal damage, besides some localized flooding, and there have been no reports of mudslides. I´ll be anxious to see if there is any mention of it in today´s paper. My mind is absolutely swimming with new sounds, sites, words, and I´m sure it´s going to take weeks until I feel completely comfortable. Until then, I´m just happy to soak it all in.

Today is going to be hot. We were spoiled yesterday with overcast skies and a nice breeze. They say the pleasant months should be here soon.

Thanks for the e-mails wishing us well. I´ll continue updating as I have time. I find blogging to be cathartic.

Entre hurricanes

2007-09-03T07:29:00.000-07:00

I discovered yesterday that Hurricane Felix, a potentially catastrophic category 5 storm, is heading straight towards the Mosquito Coast of Honduras. According to www.weather.com, it is supposed to strike Honduras about when our flight from South Bend is due to leave.

I don't know much about hurricanes, but I do know that no Honduran can forget the devastating impact of Hurricane Mitch, which, according to Wikipedia, killed 11,000 in Honduras alone. I have heard reports of as many as 17,000 killed. My understanding is that the winds were not the problem; the intense rain -- possibly 75 inches -- caused massive flooding and mudslides. Developing countries, with their lack of infrastructure, are not prepared for these super hurricanes that are becoming more and more common every year.

We will certainly track the progress of this storm to see what effect it has on our Wednesday morning flight. My guess is that it will be delayed, if not canceled. Our concern, however, must be minimal when compared to the people living on the coast of Honduras and Nicaragua.

T-3 days

2007-09-02T11:11:00.000-07:00

Today was our sending service at church, and, let me just say, it was the best sending I can imagine. It was Assembly Mennonite Church's annual Labor Day hymn sing, so we filled ourselves to overflowing with wonderful four-part singing. We leave Wednesday morning at 7 a.m. from South Bend, with connecting flights in Atlanta and Miami before arriving in San Pedro Sula late afternoon.

Our goodbyes have been hard, as has been cleaning out the remnants of my pre-school through college memory boxes. It's hard to know what to keep. I decided that an object's value is a function of my sentimental attachment to it, and how badly I want my children to find it after I die. I decided against keeping my music theory notes, but placed my third-grade baseball card proudly on my mom's bedside table. I recycled my Bio World notes, but kept my fourth-grade report on Peru. I'm still not sure what to do with my playing card collection. Amanda and I laid out all of our clothes to be packed and made some final (tough) offerings to the Goodwill gods. It's humbling to think that all we need will be packed in two suitcases, two backpacks, and four carry-on bags. So far we don't know much about our first few months on location. We do know, however, that we will spend two weeks in Copán at a language school, and that Amanda and I will live with separate host families to aid us in our Spanish practice. We'll see how that goes.

For now, more goodbyes to say, more to pack, and a few more boxes of memories to sift through.

Starting to say goodbye

2007-05-22T09:11:00.000-07:00

Well, it's all starting to feel very real. Yesterday was my campus wide farewell, which was fun, but bittersweet. In just two weeks we will be packing up our house and saying goodbye to our beloved cats. Then, we'll live out of a suitcase until August as we visit family in Albuquerque, NM; and attend MCC training in July. It's going to be rough, and Amanda and I are both stressed, but I'm sure we'll be ready to go when September finally comes around.