La Canasta Basica

One of the best gifts that many families can get during the holidays is what's called a "Canasta basica" or a "basic basket."  This consists of basic staples such as rice, beans, maseca (corn flour for tortillas), coffee, sugar, vegetable shortening or oil, and soap.  Some might have a different combination with spaghetti or wheat flour, etc.  Since the holidays are a time of increased costs for many families, this gift basket can be just the boost they need.  I remember pitching in with a friend and putting together a big one for my future mother in law once (now we just buy her the supplies and forgo the basket).  The plastic tub part of the basket is actually very useful for many families as they are truly multipurpose--soaking and washing clothes,  soaking whole corn to make tortilla masa, holding clean dishes, etc.  My school used to give a canasta basica to all of the cleaning staff at our Christmas and mothers day assemblies which I thought was sweet (until I got a little cynical about it and thought the best gift would be paying them enough to not need a canasta basica, but that's another story).  I saw this nicely packaged version at the supermarket this week--already assembled for about $18 and wanted to share rhis tradition.

Note: the phrase "canasta basica" or "granos basicos" is also used in Honduras to refer to the price of basic goods that everyone eats and uses and is also used to gauge the national economy.

Merry Christmas and Feliz Navidad from Honduras!

Here are a few shots from the 24th to show how Hondurans get ready to party on the 25th.  I couldn't resist snapping one of the ginormous amounts of Salva Vida beer being unloaded and distributed at the grocery store.  The others are of some neighbors and friends' set up for making nacatamales, a traditional food at Christmas.

Visiting and Sharing

The pace of life in Honduras is so different than in the US.  In the US, or at least in my city, Washington D.C.,  life is centered around work, and right now I am making plans with some of my best friends for a month from now because that's when the three of us likely have time for each other.  There is not much of a culture of just dropping by, at least not for those of us who have kids and probably too many commitments.  In fact, the last time I can remember thay dropping by and seeing who wanted to hang out happened in college, when our peer group lived very close together with large blocks of unstructured time.  I started to write this post a year and a half ago (Finishing today on 12/29/14), which was my first visit back to Honduras since leaving to live in the US again, probably because this daily habit of visiting was so different from what I was living.   This time visiting is no different--I wonder how everyone has so much free time to just hang out.  The short answer,  a lack of formal work and a strong sense of community. 

One of the beautiful things about visiting friends in Honduras is that no matter what time of day it is, everyone always makes sure you are well received and fed somehow.  Most of the time (and since most of our friends are in the lack of formal work category) that involves sending one of the kids out to the pulperia around the corner to buy a few bags of churros (chips and snacks) that are 1 or 2 lempiras each.   Top it off with a 2 liter bottle of Coca-Cola or Tropical and you've got yourself official visit fare.  Informal business like pulperias make it possible to make people feel welcome on short notice ans build up the economy and relations of the community.  We have also had the pleasure ro be received with strong, sweet coffee and little cookies or bread (rosquillas, quesadillas, etc).  Alternatively we have also shared tiny plates of lunch and dinner with folks which we accept graciously knowing that we are probably stretching what little there is to go around.  Most families have a stack of inexpensive plastic chairs or stools to set out at a moment's notice to accommodate extra guests.  It's these little ways that people share that make Hondurans, despite all that goes on around them, generous and hopeful.

Independence

Without moral and intellectual independence, there is no anchor for national independence. --David Ben-Gurion

Once a week, I share a (hopefully inspirational) quote with my students and ask them to share their thoughts, opinions, reactions, and reflections. Last week, because of the Honduran Independence Day holiday, I chose the above quote to get students to reflect. I asked students what they were celebrating Independence from, and they, of course, said Spain. I asked them if Honduras was independent today. The immediate answer from a couple of boys was, "Yes, of course!" but a girl in the front said quietly, "No." Then more people spoke up and we talked about how Honduras depends on international aid, among other things. Then we talked about what national independence really meant to them.

To my students, as teenagers, moral independence meant not going along with the crowd, or doing what you know is best for you. Intellectual indepence meant not discriminating against lower income people just because of the reputation of the school or university they attended. To them, it meant making objective, unbiased decisions.

To me, moral independence means standing up to corruption, in or outside of positions of power. It means being responsible for good parenting decisions and not perpetuating cycles of abuse and neglect just because it is common. Intellectual independence to me means preventing "brain drain" as Hondurans decide to study in Mexico, Spain, or the United States and stay there because of better opportunities. It means a greater focus on education for Hondurans at all levels in order to have a prosperous, responsible, and conscientious nation. It also means coming up with solutions to Honduras´s problems that work for and are tailored to the Honduran people... not just trying to be a carbon copy of other countries.

In the end, we focused on how they as the future leaders of Honduras could work on making this country a better place, starting with themselves.

Thinking about Socioeconomic Status

Here is another reflection from my grad school program in which we were asked to consider our socioeconomic status (SES) compared to that of our students, and how an outsider visitor would be able to tell the SES just by observing the school. Based on the reaction from one of my classmates, I thought it would be useful to share it in this setting. She was shocked at how few resources we have at our school when compared to even her low-income school in the United States. Read on...

I think that my socioeconomic status is in some cases the same as and in some cases lower than that of my students. As I have mentioned this week in my reflections, I identify solidly as middle class, but the material comforts that a middle class American is used to usually fall into the upper class category in Honduras. Home air conditioners, full-sized ovens, washing machines, and dishwashers are all a thing of the past for my life here in Honduras. Those families who have these items are considered in the upper tier here. I also don´t have a housekeeper like many of the families of my students.

I do not think that this difference affects the way I deliver my lessons, or my teaching style, but it does affect the way I approach certain topics. For example, in my biology classes we discuss the effects of consumerism on the environment by watching the Story of Stuff. The short film discusses the exploitation of “Third World” resources and labor for “First World” consumer goods. There are problems with those terms as well, but I ask students which lifestyle they most identify with, and how they can observe the effects in their own country. We also talk about the role of money and SES in topics like environmental destruction and health, and I try to emphasize that even though my students may not be in precarious situations, there are plenty of people around them who are.

If a visitor who had a familiarity with schools in Honduras were to visit our school, he would probably recognize that it was a school for higher income students. This would be based on the fact that our classrooms have air conditioning, an energy expense that is not feasible for most of the general population of Honduras. We also have an up-to-date computer lab, and by viewing the trophies on the wall there, the visitor would assume that we also had the money to travel to various technology competitions in order to win them. Although cell phones are technically not allowed at school, if a visitor were to see one of the students pull this contraband out, they would have a better guess at the SES of the student. Blackberries and iPhones are the norm, and one of my students last year had a cell phone that was worth more than I make in a month. I buy the cheapest cell phone possible, and based on this measure, a visitor might assume that my SES was lower than that of my students.

Compared to many schools in the United States, we do not have as many resources. There is no career center, no academic advising, no reading support, no special education, no sports fields, and the library does not serve the same function as it would in the US. I am in charge of the science lab, but our lab is very small and does not have basic safety considerations for handling chemicals, such as a fume hood, eye wash, etc. Our website, however, claims that it is “fully equipped,” a fact that the other science teachers and I often lament. There is only one television/DVD player, two “data show” projectors, and two sets of speakers for the whole school that we must all share. The school recently purchased one smart board (also to be shared) but it has not trained any of the staff on how to use it, nor opened it up for use, and it has been over a year! However, many schools in Honduras do not have even these materials, so compared to those around us, we are very fortunate.

Homemade Tajadas... the obsession continues!

After trying to explain to my friend, Yoli, why I love eating at the pollo place in my barrio so much (see last blog entry on Pollo con Tajadas), she told me she would be happy to show me how to make tajadas on my own, including all the special sauces! I learned a lot in the process, including that my favorite kind of tajadas are not actually made out of plantains at all, but rather very green bananas! Wow! For your Honduran cooking enjoyment, I present....

How to Make Homemade Tajadas!

Step one--Gather some friends around and start peeling the green bananas. Slice a slit in the skin lengthwise and ¨unwrap¨ the peel. Don´t peel it from the top--the bananas are almost brittle and might break, and you want them nice and long for the best tajadas. If your hands turn black and sticky, that is normal :)



Step two--Chop the peeled green bananas up lengthwise into long strips. Toss the strips with lime juice and a liberal amount of salt.



Step three--Fry it up in vegetable shortening



Step four--Remove from oil and drain. Prepare sauces and toppings for tajadas (recipes at the end of the post).



Step five--Pile on the toppings and enjoy your tajadas!! Toppings include a tomato-based sauce, mayonnaise or a cream sauce, shredded cabbage and carrots, chismol (chopped tomatoes, onions, and bell peppers), shredded hard cheese. Fantastic!



Recipes for Sauces:

Yoli´s Salsita para Tajadas
(Red Sauce)

1 small red onion, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
2 tbsp cilantro, chopped
3 chicken boullion cubes
4 oz tomato paste
1-2 tbsp olive oil or vegetable shortening

Sautee the onion, pepper, and cilantro in the oil until softened. Add the crumbled boullion cubes. Dilute the tomato paste with an equal amount of water in a separate bowl, and then add to the pan. Allow to simmer until slightly boiled down. To serve, strain out pieces of onion and pepper, or simply blend everything together for a smooth texture. Serve over tajadas.

Emilia´s Spicy Dressing

1 cup mayonnaise
1 jalapeno pepper
a few tablespoons milk, to taste
1 chicken boullion cube

Place all ingredients in a blender, adding a tablespoon or two of water or milk as desired to thin out the dressing. Blend until smooth. Serve over tajadas.

Honduran Values Education… and Tutti Frutti!

The first course that I just completed this week for my M.Ed. (online!) is called ¨Developing Character through the Curriculum,¨ and I wanted to share an excerpt from one of my essays for the class. Hopefully this will give you a glimpse of values/character education in Honduras.

At my school, a K-12 institution, students are required to take a ¨values¨ class throughout elementary school that meets once a week and consists mostly of doing workbook pages and watching videos. Most elementary school students complain that they think the class is boring, but most teachers would argue that students need more, not less, values education. At the high school level, where I teach, lack of values reinforcement appears all the time through behavior problems and academic dishonesty. It would seem, as Lickona (1991) puts forth, that the problem is not whether we should teach values, but which ones, and especially how they will be taught. Based on my observations at school, and the readings in this course, I feel that artificially isolated character education should be included, but minimized, and that character education integration into core academic subjects should be maximized.

Exercising personal virtue can be likened to speaking a foreign language. As in a language, a grammar point or an agreed-upon virtue can be easily practiced in controlled isolation—it is modeled, and eventually everyone ¨knows¨ what the right answer is. However, out in the real world, the language of moral values needs to be spoken—truly practiced—in spontaneous, often troublesome situations. Can students live out ethical behavior, or are they only able to do the workbook exercise? Moral knowing is not enough—students must demonstrate their embodiment of good character by turning that knowledge into genuine moral feelings and moral actions (Lickona, 1991). Students must face situations in which they must use moral courage, and those situations can never truly be simulated by staged classroom role-play. A contrived, isolated, serial approach to values education does not allow students to see how seamlessly many values are integrated (Kohn, 1997), nor does it allow them to see how they are related to outside subjects or situations.

Even though in my above essay excerpt I berated our school´s values education program as being too workbook focused, there is one activity that the elementary students do every year in values class that I think is really sweet. The students get together and make Tutti Frutti, or the Honduran version of fruit salad. The difference is that it the fruit is soaked in fruit punch to keep the fruit from turning brown, plus a little dollop of condensed milk on top. Each student must bring in their assigned ingredient (the value of responsibility, and being an integral part of a group), help chop and prepare the salad (the value of hard work), and then they distribute the fruit salad to the teachers, administrators, and support staff (values of sharing and gratitude). The students usually don´t get to eat any of the salad themselves—it is purely a practical exercise of values. Now that´s the way character education should be!

My school is a private, bilingual school, so I asked a friend, Nohelia, who is currently doing her teaching practicum in a public school, how values education works there. She told me that there is a weekly, nationally-decided-upon value that teachers must at least mention but hopefully also weave into their class. The idea is that students should get the same value reinforced across the board from all teachers, and see how it fits into their curriculum (there are some problems with this plan, but at least in theory, it´s a good thing!).

All graduating high school seniors in Honduras, public and private schools alike, are required to complete what is known as TES—Trabajo Educativo Social, or Educational Social Work. This is one of my favorite things about my senior students. They have organized toy drives at Christmas, tutored low-income students in English, and planted trees, among other things. Recently, and through the leadership of a parent involved with the Lions Club International, seniors and even students from lower grades have been participating more and more with medical brigades. They interpret Spanish and English for visiting US doctors and low-income patients who receive free medical care. Students even help with organizational tasks such as setting up a makeshift pharmacy for the week that the brigades are in town. The other cool thing is that you can always spot the TES groups from the different high schools around town as most of them get special t-shirts printed for when they participate in TES service activities. I think it´s wonderful that Honduras has asked its young people to give back before they are given their diploma.
_____________________________________
PS—Here are the references from the essay (in case you´re interested!). I highly recommend the second one to ALL teachers and school administrators!
Kohn, A. (1997). How not to teach values: A critical look at character education. Phi Beta Kappan, February 1997.
Lickona, T. (1991). Educating for character: How our schools can teach respect and responsibility. New York: Bantam Books.

What´s a party without food??

A little cultural note. So there´s this weird thing about parties in Honduras... I have noticed this at the Senior Graduation party last year, baby showers, at pretty much every work-related party and even at kids´ birthday parties at church. Any party in Honduras that is not hosted by Americans will be this way...

They don´t serve food until the VERY END.

At first I thought maybe coming fashionably late to a party was, well, fashionable. Now I think it´s a survival technique. You see, when you get to an American party there are usually hors d´oevres or some kind of buffet table. In fact, this may be the only food at the party, but it keeps getting replenished as the night goes on. When you arrive at a Honduran party, there is NOTHING. Maybe soda. Maybe one bag of chips for 50 people. People warned me when I first got to Honduras especially before work events that I should eat something before I went. I was like oh no, I shouldn´t eat too much because they will serve the food soon and then I won´t be hungry or I´ll eat too much. Now I eat a full dinner and then go to the party where I will *maybe* eat another dinner 6 hours later. I say this because I actually left one party because I was so hungry and thought I would be able to eat within an hour of arriving. I simply couldn´t take it anymore and went to fix dinner at home (the hosts were kind of mad at me, but hey, lesson learned)!!!

So the big question is... why?? There is a common saying here in Honduras that something like ¨Indio comido, indio ido.¨ ¨Indio¨ here is more used to insult oneself than to actually insult other people (that I´ve noticed) and it´s kinda like hillbilly. So Hillbilly eats, hillbilly leaves. Based on general bad manners of wanting a free meal, people serve the food at the VERY END, like midnight if the party starts at 6 or 7, because they want people to stay and keep them company. They think everyone will leave if they serve the food too early. I think it´s kind of a vicious cycle... the longer you wait to serve the food because you want people to stay, the more they just want to leave!!! So next time you are invited to a Honduran party, enjoy the company, the games, etc., but please, do yourself a favor and EAT before you go :)

Moon Rocks!

Ok, so it's been about six months since my last post and a LOT has happened!! One small update--I am back for another school year here in Honduras and this year I am also teaching an Earth Science class. I'm really excited about it since I was a geology major in college and it's one of my favorite subjects. One downside is that there don't seem to be many rock or mineral samples available to see in a museum or to purchase (hobby shops apparently aren't big in a country where most people are trying to just get by!). While looking for museum displays or places to take the kids to see mineral samples, I found out about a case of a stolen moon rock that has now been returned to Honduras. Check out this little interesting clip from Wikipedia!! :)

Honduras' Goodwill Moon Rock & Operation Lunar Eclipse

In 1998, a unique Federal law enforcement undercover operation was created to identify and arrest individuals selling bogus Moon rocks. This sting operation was known as Operation Lunar Eclipse. Originally two undercover agents were involved in this sting, Senior Special Agent Joseph Gutheinz of NASA's Office of Inspector General, posing as Tony Coriasso, and Inspector Bob Cregger of the United States Postal Inspection Service, posing as John Marta. This sting operation was later expanded to include Agents from the United States Customs Service. Agents posted a quarter page advertisement in USA Today asking for Moon rocks. The Agents were targeting individuals selling bogus moon rocks, which con-artists sell to the elderly and to space enthusiasts. What they received was a solicitation to buy what turned out to be a gift President Richard Nixon gave to the people of Honduras in 1973, the Honduras Goodwill Moon Rock, one of 135 Apollo 17 moon rocks given to the nations of the world. The seller of this moon rock offered it to the undercover Agents for 5 million dollars, a huge amount for something that weighed only 1.142 grams.

After two months of negotiations, this sting operation ended up in a Bank of America vault where the Moon rock was seized. The Moon rock was then subject to a 5 year civil case known as: "United States of America v. One Lucite Ball containing Lunar Material (one Moon Rock) and One Ten Inch by Fourteen Inch Wooden Plaque". This case resulted in the forfeiture of the Moon rock to the Federal Government on March 24, 2003.

After the Moon rock was officially handed back to the American Government it was sent back to Johnson Space Center where it was refurbished so that it could be once again presented to the people of Honduras, which happened on September 22, 2003 in a ceremony at NASA's Headquarters in Washington, D.C. where NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe presented the Moon rock to Ambassador Mario M. Canahuati, of Honduras. Also in attendance at this ceremony was Joseph Gutheinz, the leader of the sting operation, who gave a first hand account of the sting operation to Ambassador Canahuati. Finally on February 28, 2004, NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe flew to Honduras where he formally presented the Moon rock to Honduran president Ricardo Maduro. In 2007, Gutheinz, a past recipient of the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, was featured in the BBC Two documentary Moon for Sale talking about the Honduras Goodwill Moon Rock and this unique case. Today the Honduras Goodwill Moon Rock is on display at the Centro Interactivo Chiminike an education center in Tegucigalpa that receives hundreds of young student visitors per day."

Link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_rock#Honduras.27_Goodwill_Moon_Rock_.26_Operation_Lunar_Eclipse

Dia de las Madres

Mothers' Day is apparently a BIG FREAKING DEAL here in Honduras. Every grade was required to put together some kind of drama, song, act, dance, etc. There was a show after school for all the parents and there was even a "parent of honor" for each grade who got to sit at a special table up front. Mothers' Day is on the same day in Honduras as it is in the United States (2nd Sunday in May), but Fathers' Day comes earlier here--in March instead of June.

One big discrepancy I noticed was the sentiment shown at the two events. Our school is big on decorations (sometimes I think they are more important to some folks than academics, but that is another blog entry...), and our Principal is big on the virtues of motherhood. The meticulously cut letters pasted above the stage for Mothers' Day read something like "Nothing comes closer to showing God's love on Earth than the love of a Mother." WOW, that's a pretty big statement. I don't disagree when you have a loving mother, but not everyone might feel that way. In contrast, the message for Fathers' Day was something like "The best legacy a father can leave his child is a little of his time every day." Like, smack me upside the head, spend some time with your dang KIDS, you idiot!!! Hmmmm... I don't know any concrete statistics on Honduras regarding single moms or "deadbeat" dads, but the chosen sentiments of the two holidays said a lot to me about familial attitudes.

Homage to Dona Azucena from Abroad

Today, my new friend Dona Sonia is going to help teach me how to make pupusas. I will blog on this hopefully later today. Sonia is my friend Elisa's new "host mom," even though we're not on study abroad or anyhing, but Sonia and her two sons have been exceedingly welcoming and friendly to me and to Elisa, who rents a room just off their back patio. Sonia runs a little Mexican restaurant out of her house (her late husband was Mexican, so she's quite authentic!), and has already opened up her kitchen and home to me on more than one occasion. I love having cooking/cultural exchanges as I think food is one of the best ways to get to know the heart and soul of people (but then again, I just really like food). In return, I will be teaching Sonia and her kids how to make Peanut Butter Blossoms in the coming weeks!

But before I go on my pupusa making adventure, I just wanted to set the record straight about one thng. I am still convinced (much to the chagrin of all the Central Americans to whom I mention this...) that the best pupusas in the WORLD--yes, the WORLD--are served at Dona Azucena's on Glebe Rd in Arlington, VA. This seems to be confirmed by the interwebs ;) (See reviews below) Why? I find them to be the cheesiest and most delectible pupusas I have ever had. Extra cheese makes everything better. So when I make my pupusas today, I will have all the good folks in the kitchen at Dona Azucena's in mind. I only hope I can pat out a pupusa like them someday ;)

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"...when you try to open the door to Dona Azucena, you are up against a wall of people trying to get in. All the tables are full, and there's a line three deep waiting to order at the counter."
--http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/172559

"When you are starving and the rent is due, yes you can afford to eat out. It is called... the Pupusa.

I don't know how I would have made it through college at the Univ. of Maryland without this handy standby at the Flower Avenue location. Plus, I know of no other pupuseria in town that offers the bean/cheese combo as does Dona Azucena's. To me Dona Azucena's is an unofficial Washington area landmark, it introduced the pupusa to many a gringo such as myself and it was and remains cheap.

Viva Dona Azucena's!!!"
--Shahnaz S.

"I've never eaten better pupusas, not even in El Salvador!

This place is 100% authentic, from the way they're served to the curtido and salsa. It will be a huge culture shock if you've never had it before, but just pile on the curtido (cabbage) and red sauce on top of your pupusas and dig in. My favorites are the Revuelta (Cheese, Pork and Beans) and the queso pupusas. If you want to try something really different go for the queso con loroco (loroco is an edible flower from Central America).

If you are feeling adventurous for something different, or nostalgic for something Salvadorean this is a great place."
--Ana O.

Both quotes from http://www.yelp.com/biz/pupuseria-dona-azucena-arlington

Encurtido

In keeping with the recipe theme, here is another way to use up pineapple skins.. homemade vinegar for encurtido! I did this back in... october? november? And my batches are only just now turning vinegar-y. I'll continue to check on them and hopefully be able to make my own encurtido. These pickled vegetables are one of my favorite parts of Honduran cuisine :) Enjoy the article (reposted from an English-language Honduras weekly news site)!

Here are my personal batches of vinegar-to-be bubbling on the stove :)



Prepare your own 'encurtido' at home

By WENDY GRIFFIN

On the table of many restaurants are large glass jars of pickled vegetables, generally called chile or encurtido, which are placed on bland dishes like scrambled eggs and pupusas to add some zest.

In preparing encurtido, many cooks prefer to use pineapple peel vinegar that can be made according to this recipe contributed by Miriam Herrera:

2 liters of water|
2 tablespoons salt
1/2 block of rapadura de dulce (raw sugar cane, available in markets)
pineapple peels

At least 1 teaspoon of ginger, spices (especies), oregano, allspice (pimienta gorda), cloves, cinnamon, 5 bay leaves, a little bit of hot pepper.

Boil the water with all these ingredients. Let them ferment for one month, then bottle it.

There are a number of vegetables that can be added to make chili or encurtido. To begin you could try these and then vary according to your tastes.

2 medium carrots
10 green beans
1/2 medium cauliflower
3 small onions
1/2 red chili
1/2 green pepper
3 baby corn (jilote)
1/2 broccoli
hot peppers

Wash all the vegetables. Peel and cut them up. Scald each vegetable the time it needs. Place the mixed vegetables in previously sterilized jars. Add vinegar to cover. Remove the air by moving a kitchen knife around the glass. Seal the jars.

Apply the final sterilization by boiling in a little water for 15 minutes as if for canning. Open, let the air out after 24 hours, then close again immediately.

Other vegetables that can be added are pataste (chayote), small cucumbers, green mangos, and radishes.

Different vegetables need to cook different times, which is why many people prefer to make encurtido with only a few vegetables. Cauliflower (1 minute), carrots (3 minutes), green beans (3 minutes), green mangos (2 minutes), pataste (2 minutes), cucumbers (1 minute), baby corn (2 minutes), cabbage (3 minutes), broccoli (2 minutes), chiles and green peppers (30 seconds).

If you do not want to do all this work, there may be a woman in your neighborhood who makes good encuritdo. You can usually encargar or order some.

It is also possible to buy commercially prepared encurtido. But no one makes it commercially in Honduras. The bottled encurtido sold in stores is usually made in Guatemala.

Gloria Ferrera, a native of El Paraiso, explains one possible reason why this is true. "My mother made excellent encurtido. As children, we used to help her deliver it to the neighbors. Between all of us, we could have gotten together enough money to help her start a small factory to produce encurtido commercially. But we did not think big. She just sold to the neighbors. Now she is too old, and my children have to eat encurtido from Guatemala."

There are dozens of homemade foods, like traditional candies, jams and jellies, pickled foods and homemade wines that could be produced commercially. Often it is small problems like where to get jars in significant quantities, how to price the product, how to get a label to stick to glass, lack of clarity if the jars are really sterilized, how to apply for a health department registration approval number, how to apply for a small business license, what taxes need to be paid, and a complete lack of access to credit, that prevent many women from starting these kinds of businesses.

Although millions of dollars are donated annually to help Honduras support small business, Honduras has no Small Business Administration where people could go for help, information, advice or loans. There are all kinds of incentives to bring foreign businesses here, and no help for local people who want to start local business such as producing encurtidos, jams or jellies that could replace Honduran dependence on imports.

Source: http://www.marrder.com/htw/mar98/cultural.htm

Hondureñismos, aka fun Honduran slang!

For all you Spanish speakers out there, I thought you might enjoy some fun Honduran-isms... little slang words or phrases that tend to pepper Honduran Spanish. One of the big things I had to get accustomed to was the VOS form in Spanish which is not taught in US schools... For a long time I thought everyone was simply speaking Spanish like a bunch of uneducated people, but it really is a whole separate form of address with its own verb conjugations. NO ONE uses tú, and they all think it sounds very Mexican... HMMPH! I´ve noticed that Hondurans don´t like Mexicans very much...

Anyway, here are some examples comparing the tú and the vos forms:

tú command -- ven
vos command -- vení
tú command -- siéntate
vos command -- sentate (stem doesn´t change, accent on the second syllable)
for normal conjugations, it seems to take after the vosotros form from Spain
tú present -- tú sabes
vos present -- vos sabés

Greetings
Que pedo = What's up? literally, "What's fartin'?" kind of vulgar, used usually by men who know each other REALLY well.
Oye, loco

Goodbyes, conversation wrapper-uppers
Va, pues
Vaya, pues
Cheque
Cheque-leque Panqueque

¨Cool¨
maciso
macanudo
máquina
tieso
pesado
de miedo (like awesome, powerful)

Random words
guirros (imagine there are two dots over the u)
cipotes

expressions that make me laugh although they are totally normal
some of you enjoyed my separate blog entry on ¨andar + noun¨ which still seems weird to me... Do you have a pencil sounds more like are you walking a pencil?
Ocupar here means like to use something... like ¨ocupas ese vaso?¨ Are you using that glass? To me it sounds like ¨are you occupying that glass?¨ Well, no, I don´t think I can fit inside :P

Book Club part 2 :)

Don't Be Afraid, Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks From The Heart: The Story of Elvia Alvarado by Medea Benjamin


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I absolutely tore through this book due to its conversational style as an oral biography. While the themes and topics addressed are definitely worthy of additional thought and reflection, the language was like an IV instead of digesting a pill. That said, although this book was ¨easy¨ to read, it certainly doesn´t let the reader off the hook. Everyone kept asking me why it was called ¨Don´t be afraid, Gringo¨ when the story was clearly about some Honduran lady... and why should we be afraid of her? The last few pages of the book are a powerful call to action to readers in the US--to influence changes in US foreign policy and military intervention to help Hondurans more than any type of charity ever could... and don´t be afraid of your government, Gringo! Fear only inhibits action.

That aside, I was constantly comparing this book to the last book I read about Honduras... ¨Working Hard, Drinking Hard: On Violence and Survival in Honduras¨ Being that Don´t be Afraid (DBA) was published in the mid-late 80s, and the other book (WHDH) about 20 years later, certainly a lot has changed. For one thing, DBA mentioned that there really aren´t many oligarchic-style families in power running Honduras as there are in many other central american countries... Well, WHDH points out many of them and which maquiladoras and media outlets they own. Both book have similar arguments in that they say that delinquency, alcoholism, poverty, and violence aren´t the fault of the people... WHDH argues that more egalitarian economic deveopment is needed to provide jobs to all (the book definitely is more urban-industrially focused) and DBA argues that the same problems could be solved by giving campesinos enough land to farm that would actually feed their families. Elvia Alvarado argues that campesinos aren´t afraid of hard work--those who do have enough land to farm are too busy to waste time drinking!

There are lots of great messages in this book for organizers and activitists (don´t be afraid, pep talks, education and training is KEY, and don´t organize around projects--organize for the sake of organizing and let the projects develop organically), for people who want to know about women and machismo and Honduran culture in general (through the first few chapters about Elvia´s pre-organizing life), for those who want to know about really rural Honduras (while I´ve done lots of travelling here, I haven´t gone places with no roads, so largely I haven´t seen the ¨real¨ campesinos she Elvia is working to organize). It also is good for those who would like to see some analysis of how policy (both US and Hondurans) affects everyday people without the ¨filter¨ of academic language--coming straight from the people who are affected by it. While I was excited to read a book ¨by¨ Medea Benjamin, as I respect her activism and work with the peace group Code Pink, I was also thankful that she stepped back and let Elvia tell her own story.

I hope more people who are ¨on the ground¨ doing aid work and development work in other countries read this book and get some major insight into the people that they´re working with... and HOW they should work with them. An excellent read.

View all my reviews >>

Saying goodbye to an "old friend"... and helping out some new ones.

Today I gave away my little brown vinyl suitcase that I've had since I was five years old. This thing went on family trips to the beach at Lewes, Delaware with me... it went to Puerto Rico... Mexico... Honduras... pretty much everywhere. It has absolutely no modern features such as wheels, etc, but it was a nice little size and perfect for pretty much everything. My parents got me a new set of (bright RED!!) luggage for Christmas... Thanks Mom and Dad!!! Anyway, I no longer "need" my old friend the little brown suitcase.

Its new home is the same place where I donated some of my clothes before I came home for Christmas break. My friend Cecilia (another teacher at my school) volunteers at a home for HIV+ women and children, many of whom are orphans or whose parents can't afford to take care of them or meet their medical needs. The folks there don't have much, so it works out quite well to have them receive donations. Cecilia says that she usually takes over clothes in a suitcase and leaves the suitcase, so I was working within her little system without even knowing it! I hope I can visit someday and check out the place and meet the people there.

I was also inspired back in October 2009 when I visited Horizontes, an "orphanage" for boys in Comayagua. My friends Lovisa and Leigh Ann, with whom I traveled to the North Coast, work there and invited Elisa and me to visit. Once again, many of the boys there are not true orphans, but rather come from extremely large and extremely poor families who simply can't afford to feed them and take them to school on a regular basis. This is why I was rather confused when they told us that some of the "orphan" boys had "gone home" for Christmas to celebrate with their families. For others, however, it's Horizontes or life in the streets.

Here are some pics of the Horizontes boys and the facilities:




By the way, if you ever need any inspiration to give away your stuff, you should come visit Honduras and see how the average Honduran lives... or you can watch this show.
http://www.aetv.com/hoarders/
It's like a trainwreck... so awful but you can't tear your eyes away... :P Thanks to Susan (my ex-roomie, life coach, and declutterer extraordinnaire) for introducing it to me!!

Book Club

A while ago, my friend Elisa and I ordered several books on Honduran history, sociology, economics, etc, in order to understand our "new home" and I finally finished one of them!! Here is my review on Goodreads. Enjoy!

Working Hard, Drinking Hard: On Violence and Survival in Honduras by http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1152902.Adrienne_Pine">Adrienne Pine

My rating: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78226625">4 of 5 starsAs someone who is currently living in Honduras, this book definitely confirmed a lot of things that I observe everyday, and also gave me some needed historical context/anthropological perspective on Honduras and its people. I must say that I have never formally studied anthropology before so some of the terms were confusing at first, but I found it to be a fascinating perspective on human behavior and the outside forces that lead to "embodied fear," etc.
The most relevant and fascinating chapter for me was the first one, on violence. This one, more than maquiladoras and alcohol, is the most relevant to me and the people that I know in Honduras. There are religiously-inspired bumper stickers on more than a few cars here that say "No mataras" (Thou shalt not kill). At first, I thought these stickers were laughable... "yeah, DUH!" As time went on and I realized how much of a problem (perceived or real) this is to everyday Hondurans who have lost family members to street violence and economically-motivated murders, I have started to have a slighty more somber reaction when I see the now.
I think the concept of embodied fear and resultant habitus made a lot of sense in the way that my roommates here in Honduras (who are Irani-Hondurans) behave and react to threats (real and perceived). They also would probably approve of the "mano dura"-style punishment policies and are currently calling on Pepe Lobo, the new president, to implement the death penalty to create "real consequences" for committing crimes. I often think their way of thinking is a little too harsh or overreacting, just as the author did occasionally when talking with people who approved of the "death squads" to rid the streets of gangs. And, like the author, I often get the response, "you would understand this if you lived here long enough to have seen and felt the same things we do."
After reading the book, I have become more sensitive to the subtle and not-so-subtle messages in media and through general conversations confirming the theme "Honduras is violent." The day I got back to Honduras after going home to the States for Christmas, a paperboy hawking papers on my bus read the headlines (which included gory pictures of a car crash on the front page, just as the author noted in her book). At one point he even said, after announcing an increase in gang-related crime in San Pedro Sula, "asi es Honduras, no?" That's Honduras for you, isn't it?" If you heard that every day of your life, you'd feel a little different about your homeland, wouldn't you?
Another thing from my observations down here that the book confirmed was the general Honduran inferiority complex... not only in relation to the United States, but also relative to other Central American countries (and especially Costa Rica). Unlike my brief travels in Bolivia, where being American was decidedly UNcool at times, American clothes, domestic products, etc are definitely considered status symbols and highly desired. The American flag really does appear everywhere to sell just about anything. "It must be better than Honduran goods..."
I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5 mostly because I felt that some of the arguments presented in the book were a bit of a stretch, and the fact that I would have preferred a stronger conclusion for each of the three "chapters." All in all, a fascinating and extremely helpful read.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/255850-diana">View all my reviews >>

a little taste of fall...

Right now, we are in the "cold season" here in Honduras. This means that it gets down to about 60 degrees and all the Hondurans bust out down coats and ski hats. :) I think it's rather refreshing--slightly overcast days, finally pulling out more than just a flat sheet to sleep with at night, and enjoying not being covered in sweat on the walk into school. Everyone thinks I'm crazy because I still walk around in short sleeves, enjoying the cool breezes! There have only been a few cold spells of 60 degrees over the last two months, so mostly we enjoy it being ~80. I personally love it because it's my favorite in-between weather. I absolutely love fall and am sad when i miss it, so any kind of fall-like weather is more than welcome in my book!!

To help celebrate fall, my roommates put on a Halloween party at our house and we had a lot of fun with the makeshift costumes we came up with. I was waffling about whether or not I would even have a costume, because I couldn't think of anything good and just wanted to bake stuff and be done with it. I remember going clothes shopping with my friend Elisa a few weeks before Halloween and seeing a black and yellow striped dress. At the time, I was like, hahaha, that dress looks like a BEE!! Who would buy that??? Later, finding myself in a pinch for a Halloween costume, it looked like one of the least-heinous options. I bought the dress and made some antenna out of a headband, pompoms, and pipe cleaners :) Elisa ended up going as a flower, so our favorite party trick was "pollination." These costumes also helped us get into one of the discotecas with no cover the next night. AWESOME!! There is also a classic picture of our fellow teacher, Matt, dressed as the sterotypical American tourist. That's a Spanish dictionary in his hands, and not pictured are his black socks and sandals :)

Our school has been "funny" about celebrating fall holidays as well. All the doors were decked out with fall-colored leaves (even though those are never seen here in Central America) because most of our workbooks and decorations come from US sources. Our conservative-Christian principal outlawed the celebration of Halloween at our school, even though it is not a Christian school. As it turns out, and was explained by another member of the administration, Hondurans don't really have an accurate picture of what Halloween is like in the US. The way he put it, "if you ask an American kid to draw a picture of Halloween, he would probably draw a pumpkin, a happy-looking witch, and candy. If you ask a Honduran kid to draw a picture of Halloween, he'll draw what he has seen on TV--chainsaws, murder, etc." Because there is a lot of petty crime in Honduras, trick-or-treating would pretty much never fly here. It's such big part of the American holiday and what makes it "nice" and "wholesome" for kids, but people hardly have a concept of that here. Anyway, we tried to celebrate it as best we could on our own time, and even brought facepaint for those who didn't dress up.

oh, that language barrier :P

I would like to think that I'm pretty good at Spanish, but one thing that always throws a curve ball at you are the regional expressions and meanings of words. One of my favorite examples that my friend Lily and I laugh about it that in Cuba, "coger la guagua" means to take the bus. Pronounced exactly the same, but with a dangerously different meaning in Bolivia is "coger la wawa" which means to f*ck the little girl. Ooops. I also was VERY glad that before I went to the Dominican Republic, I read in my guidebook that when asking for a bag for one's purchases, you should always use the word "funda" instead of the elsewhere-commonly-used "bolsa," because otherwise you would be asking for a scrotum. Also highly awkward.

I had a funny moment like that here in Honduras the other day, but it wasn't quite as bad. Locally, people will often use the verb "andar" (to walk) in place of "tener" (to have) such as "Andas lapiz?" (Do you have a pencil?) or "No ando pisto" (meaning, I don't have any money, another fun Honduran slang word). The situation is as follows: I was in a cab and, for whatever reason, it is notororiously hard to be able to get any large amount of change from any sort of vendor here. Since I only had a 100 lempira bill (about $5), and a taxi ride only costs 20, I generally try to make sure folks have change on them. Also, instead of using the word "cambio" (change) for small bills here, people often say "suelto" (like "loose" bills). So, thinking I would finally start trying out the more Honduran grammatical constructions... instead of saying "Tiene cambio?" (Do you have change?) I said, "Anda suelto?" The guy was one of these older, good-natured chatty guys, so his immediate response was "A veces, pero creo que a mi mujer no le gusta." (Sometimes, but I don't think my wife likes it very much) HA! Oh man, that'll teach me for trying something new :P It was just funny how "Do you have change?" could also be taken as "Do you run around like a bachelor?" (soltero, meaning "single," or suelto essentially means loose or released) HA!

Anyway, hopefully I will begin to incorporate more hondurenismos a little more seamlessly into my speech in the coming months :P

Feria Turistica de Comayagua

Today in the central plaza of Comayagua, the first annual "Tourism Fair" took place. It wasn't huge, but it was fun to see different expos, many from hotels in the area, and several artesans from around the country. I spoke with one man from Santa Rosa de Copán who had never been to Comayagua before, so he got his own tourist experience as he sold souveniers from his town. We also were treated to some traditional dances from Honduras (I've seen several of these at school so far, and we still have the school-wide "folk festival" coming up in November!). Enjoy the photos of the plaza and the artesanía!

Ladies and gents in their traditional folk-dance costumes

Beautifully colored basketry :)














Marimba-shaped souveniers, commemorating traditional Honduran instruments :)

Pics from Independence Day, as promised

Costa Rica's Pabellón Nacional















The French teacher shows off her Catracha pride!











National symbols and leaders of Honduras














The final tableau from the civic assembly

The El Salvador display