Misty morning on Lago de Yojoa

Another cross-posting from the gratitude challenge :)

"Take a picture of one thing, person, place, or specific moment that makes you feel grateful. Share it with your social network."

Well, my camera doesn't work anymore (at least, i'm pretty sure it doesn't), so I couldn't take a picture specifically for today's challenge. More on that in a moment... I'm going to include one from a recent trip instead.



This picture was taken at about 7 in the morning on the edge of a river emptying in to el Lago de Yojoa. I was just setting out for a birdwatching tour of the lake with two of my best friends here in Honduras (Elisa and Shirley). I was excited to be out at that time of day... it reminded me of all the times I went up to watch the sun rise at Pretty Place in South Carolina... there's something so quiet and intimate about the mist rising up off the world when the sun first comes out. As we would say watching the sun rise, God puts on a different and amazing show every day. You just have to take the time to be still, be present and watch it. I'm thankful for anytime I can roust myself out of bed to experience this recurrent moment on the Earth. It truly is one of the most beautiful things that can be seen.

I was also thankful for learning about an amazing ecosystem during my day on the lake, and learning how different birds fill different niches on the lake. It was good to come to know Honduras a little more and feel like I could relate some of what I learned to the kids I'm teaching (out of North American biology textbooks that often seem very out of context). I learned so many fascinating things.

I was extremely thankful that day for the company of my friends and of our guides. I was especially thankful to have this picture at all, since I dropped my camera and it sank to the bottom of the (thankfully shallow and clear) lake. The oarsman got out and retrieved my camera (I was able to salvage the pictures from the card), so I would not even be able to have shown you all this picture if it weren't for his act of kindness.

So this picture represents a lot of things for me, and I hope that you enjoyed hearing about it. :) I AM SO THANKFUL for the people, places, and forces that brought it to me in the first place and also that got it back to me!

Taulabe Caves

A couple of weeks ago, Elisa and I went to check out the caves of Taulabe and had a nice time! We were scheming on the way back from our personal trip of ways to take our classes to the caves and to also plan the trip together. Well, after quite a bit of planning, we all made it back in one piece from the caves today! I was glad we both got to draw on our outdoor education experiences and incorporate some of the activities we had done at our outdoor schools into our program for the kids. We even baked them all cookies!!! A triple recipe = 6 stick of butter = really good sugar cookies :P

Anyway, I'm kind of "cross-posting" again on this block since I wrote about what I am grateful for on the trip through the "Gratitude Challenge" that I'm doing for the first part of Lent. Enjoy!

"Write about something you feel grateful for in your life today."

Well, I dunno about life in general, but I can definitely talk about today! We went to the Taulabe caves today with 5th and 11th grade, and I was grateful to know that the students can have this kind of experience with their friends and with their school. I'm not sure if any of them is nearly as excited about geology as I am, but I think it's important for people to come in contact with nature and I'm glad we did it.

I'm also grateful for the way my students took care of each other today--the 11th graders helping th 5th graders and even helping each other out when the cave darkness gets scary. Seeing Juan Carlos give Graciela a hug when she needed it was cool. Seeing Graciela be "mom" to the 5th graders was cool. Seeing the 5th graders be the first to step up and thank us for organizing the field trip was also pretty inspiring. I'm grateful that somebody's grateful for me/my efforts!

I also was grateful for a moment alone in the dark cave when I was picking up the little candles we had left and making sure everything was cleaned up. The group was far ahead of me and I walked back alone in the dark (or relatively so since I had a flashlight). After a day of lots of people, it was a beautiful thing to have a moment alone in the cave... it's a powerful place and it's nice to experience that without distractions sometimes.

So thanks to all the people and places that made today special!!

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 >>

Phone Business

Last night after dinner, the topic came up of how cheap phones are in Honduras and how ridiculously and unnecessarily expensive they are in the States. Keep in mind that this is mostly comparing a pay as you go plan, vs a contract plan, but in the States, pay as you go is not particularly economical if you talk more than... 20 minutes a month. Contracts are available here in Honduras, but most people don't have them--they work best for people who also pay for cellular modems to go with their computers and monthly internet access in addition to their mobile phones.

Comparison #1: Actual cost of basic phone
-in Honduras: 450 lempiras ($24)
-in the US: $79 dollars assuming renewal of 2 year contract, $200 and up w/o the contract renewal


Comparison #2: Cost per minute to call US-Honduras or Honduras-US
-in Honduras:15 minutes for 10 lempiras ($0.04/minute
-in the US: $5 phone card used from a land line gets you about 24 minutes of talking time to Honduras... or approximately $0.20/min
-in the US: My cell phone company's international calling plan was $1.25 a minute to any country.

Comparison #3: Switching/activating phones
-in Honduras: almost all phones are used with a chip, so changing phones is as easy as pulling out the battery and changing the chip. If you want to switch numbers, it's ok. You can save all your phone book information to your SIM card (chip) so that it is there when you put it in the new phone. Phones are not tied to a particular number, nor phone company.
-in the US: If your phone is from AT&T, it is only "licensed" to be used with that network... with much difficulty you can "unlock" the phone or activate it with a different network, but this usually doesn't happen. So instead of saving money and using the same phone when you switch networks, you have to buy the new phone from your new phone company and probably get stuck in some contract deal like in #1 just to supposedly save a little money on the phone itself.

Comparison #4: Who pays for the call?
-in Honduras: the person making the call is charged per minute, the person receiving the call gets it for free
-in the US: Both parties pay for the call because they are charged by "airtime."

Most of the things that are true about how phones work in Honduras were also true during my time in the UK. Why does the US allow itself to be SCREWED by powerful phone companies who really don't need to charge that much? Is government regulation the solution? Is public outcry the solution? If you think that getting overcharged for phone service is just a way of life, IT ISN'T everywhere else in the world!! My North American brothers and sisters, UNITE AGAINST THE (PHONE) MAN!!! :P