So it’s been awhile since we’ve written and a lot has happened in the past month. There are four support groups in Peace Corps Honduras and we have been to the meetings for three of them in the past month! First we went to COLORS which is to promote racial equality and understanding. For this meeting we did a talk at a local school which went really well as the people here don’t really know much about racial equality and often call people “negrito” (blacky) and other racial slurs that most people do not appreciate. We then spent the night at our friend Ellie’s site which is where we did the talk. She lives right on the outskirts of a large protected area and her site is beautiful! We swam in her lagoon and enjoyed the coolness. Then Shannon went to a VOS (Volunteers Offering Support) meeting near Tegucigalpa in the protected area of La Tigra while Kevin went on home. People were chosen for these positions and trained to take calls from volunteers in need of support. She was also voted the communications officer for this group and is now in charge of a monthly newsletter as well as various other duties. It was a great training in the cool mountains and she felt refreshed and ready to tackle another year in Honduras. The next weekend we visited some volunteers in Olancho so Shannon could do her Emergency Zone visits and went to a cave north of where we live.
Two weeks ago we went to the town of Gracias in the department of Lempira way out on the west side of Honduras for the REF (Religious Equality Forum) meeting. It was very interesting to learn about everyone’s different religious beliefs as well as the pressures from Hondurans to attend their churches and adopt their religions. Most Hondurans are either Catholic or Evangelical and are not very understanding or accepting of other religions which can be frustrating for many volunteers. Next, we climbed Celaque, the tallest mountain in Honduras at 2,849 meters. It was not a very long hike but VERY steep and strenuous. At parts we had to hold on to roots to pull ourselves up. It was a fabulous hike and very interesting to see all of the different plants and changing ecosystems as we climbed in elevation. On the way up we took a different trail and climbed another mountain (we did not realize this ahead of time) that was about 2,300 meters! It was an awesome hike but we were a little sad when we realized that we were going down instead of up and that there loomed another mountain in front of us! But we did see our first Honduran deer, Honduras’ national symbol of their fauna, since we have been here. People always tell us there are deer in Honduras but for the most part they have been hunted to near extinction now we finally believe that they exist! We camped a little below the top at a basic campsite that had a little covered space for a tent and a primitive latrine. There was a tarantula but Shannon is getting much better and only freaked out a little. It was really cold at night and we nearly froze to death! It was much too wet to start a fire so we went to bed at 6:30! The next day we hiked the hour and a half to the top. The view was not great as there were lots of trees and clouds but it was worthwhile.
After conquering Celaque, we went to the quaint town of Santa Rosa de Copan. It is probably the nicest town we have been to in Honduras. The central park looked like it could be in the U.S. and we ate at a great Mexican restaurant and had delicious margaritas! It was nice to feel like we were back in civilization for a little while. Then we went a couple of hours farther to our friend Justin’s site. He used to live close to us in Olancho but was moved for security reasons. His site is tiny with less than 200 people and you have to hike up a mountain from the road to get there. It was very relaxing. We went from there about 30 minutes away to another site where the volunteer has done a bee project. Kevin is interested in starting one here so we looked at the hives and talked to the owner about the steps needed to start such a project. It was very interesting and the honey was delicious! It was nice and cool in the mountains and nice to be in smaller sites for a change.
We then went back to Gracias for the MARV (Married Volunteers) meeting. We are in charge of this group so we had set everything up. It was good to meet the new married couples and talk about things that affect us that other volunteers do not deal with. We went to the quaint little town of La Campa about an hour away where they make a lot of Lencan (an Indian tribe) pottery common to the region. We also took advantage of the hot springs in Gracias and enjoyed a night there. It was a nice vacation/break from the unbearable heat and humidity of Catacamas. It left us feeling refreshed and ready to get back to work.
Things are relatively back to normal here in Catacamas. The university where Kevin works started back up about two weeks ago and the schools now have classes three days a week which is better than none. Thursdays and Fridays are still reserved for strikes and marches. A couple of days before we left on our trek a march passed by our house at about 8:00 PM. It was peaceful, pro-Mel with lots of motorcycles, cars honking, and people carrying candles. It lasted about 20 minutes and we were invited numerous times to join in (we of course said no). The schools in all of Honduras usually have large parades to celebrate Independence Day but this year none of the public schools in Catacamas are going to participate because they do not believe that they have independence right now. This is a big deal because Independence Day is huge here and the students spend months before preparing and practicing.
Campaigning for the upcoming elections began last Sunday and there are now trucks driving around playing Shannon’s least favorite song “El Chofer” with the words changed to the appropriate party (“viva el partido liberal/nacional/etc”). It’s quite annoying and we have two and a half months to enjoy it. The elections should be interesting as people are still upset about the coup. It will be an experience!
3 comments:
Hola!
I am enjoying reading your blog especially the T-shirt sightings! Keep up the good work. I am gathering up some post cards to send from the Great Smoky Mtns here in Tennessee. God Bless You both.
My god, your belittling comments about race and your ignorance about how terms of endearment such as 'negrita' are used in Latin America really points up the 'ugly American' that lurks just below the surface of your psyches.
And, please, your comments about the Honduran disposition toward different religions is also quite wacked. Suffice it to say, that religion, like politics, is exclusivist in nature--just like here in the US.
And, please, the coming elections aren't merely 'interesting'--unless your anti-democratic tendencies allow you to see that the exclusion *(through a coup) of the entire left-progressive tendency in Honduras is in any way 'democratic' or legit.
The Peace Corps, for people that have taken the time to study the organization, is an extension of empire. The racialized fanaticism of the US government, and the support for the rape of the world's ecological systems is quite well known.
More, the US support for genocide and terrorism in the Americas is quite well understood by the people of the region.
In most cases, people such as yourselves are good-intentioned, but you can't quite see past your ideological indoctrination.
Please refrain from even making reference to race, religion, or anything having to do with politics in Honduras. Really, you are apt to align with the most rapacious and repressive forces that function to disempower the people you condescendingly see yourselves as helping.
Missionaries in the Americas have had a net impact that is horrendous. Your ideology is diseased, and you don't have the intellectual curiosity or the will to heal the tremendous damage that your economic system and culture have created.
Transcending your pathologies would entail questioning your indoctrination and learning about the history of your country, as well as that of the Americas.
Eduardo Galeano and Noam Chomsky would be thinkers I would recommend you consult first.
Your university education, by and large, should be understood as rubbish. People in the US are trained, not educated. Being educated entails not internalizing the facil, undemocratic root-assumptions that result in wholesale imperial pillage and the generalized ecocide that mark this historical juncture.
(And, please, as one of the most racist groups of humans on earth today, understand your own deeply internalized racism before you look down on darker-skinned Hondurans as coming up wanting in that area. Your comments are vile and lack insight.)
My gosh, some people are quite the experts on just about everything. Sorry your comments led to such a response as the last one. I hope everyone has the right to their opinion, and can view situations in their own terms. I have enjoyed your updates, and have not seen your negativity. I shall continue to read of your adventures and appreciate your service.
Hope you are both well,
Barbara Ellissaluenni
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