Songs at Christmas

I have now celebrated my "first Christmas away from home." Home is quite relative, as Honduras is now the fifth country where I have celebrated Christmas.  Home for Christmas has always been wherever my immediate family has been, wherever that has happened to be.  So although I call La Campa home these days, it's not quite "home for Christmas".  Yes, we are "in the bleak midwinter," but not "walking in a winter wonderland."  A Honduran midwinter still involves enough sunny days where I can sit outside in a t-shirt and enjoy a guava or two.  And it is pointless to be "dreaming of a white Christmas" given that the temperature has not dropped below 10.5C (although a respected man in the community told me a few weeks ago that the drizzle was not water, but ice; the air temperature was a steady, but chilly, 15C!).  

Thanks to the waning moon and the dry season, the "midnight clear" allows for plenty of "wondrous stars" to "lend thy light."  Orion, Cassiopeia, and the Milky Way shine clear and bright, not obscured by any light pollution.  And when the power goes out, the light they lend is both beautiful and necessary.

Firecrackers and noisemakers are popular, so on Christmas Eve their noise echoed off the surrounding cliffs and mountains: "Go tell it on the mountain!!!"  

Every night for the eight nights before Christmas, Mary and Joseph and members of the community have gone to different houses, and singing, ask to be let in.  Through song, the residents decline at first, but then relent, and "welcome the traveler home."  Then with about 40 people present, there is an hour long service based on the rosary.  I can now say the Hail Mary in Spanish, can almost say the Lord's Prayer, but am still working on the Creed.  I only went two nights, plus Christmas Eve, but Doña Tona helped lead, and so went every night.

On Christmas Eve, every family makes tamales.  What a commotion of preparation!  Huge quantities of corn was boiled and ground, banana leaves wrapped, delivered, and steamed.  The chickens killed (I missed the death of Doña Tona's chicken, but saw its dismemberment.  Which chicken was it? The one that let all 10 of her chicks die within 2 days of hatching? The one that pooped on my clean towel as it was drying on the line?  Not Maurice Aureliano, as he still wakes me up every morning with his vigorous crowing.)

In between firecrackers, Christmas Eve was calm, but not bright.  Apparently, too many people put up Christmas lights at this time of year, needing more electricity than is available.  So all week, La Campa had rolling blackouts for about 45 minutes sometime between 6 and 7 pm to allow the city dwellers to enjoy their colourful lights.  On Christmas Eve, the power was out for over 2 hours, so the final rosary service was a true candlelight service, which was beautiful.  Mass was held at 8:30, and went until 11.  I made it until 10:30, at which point I went to bed.  

Christmas Eve is the important day here, not Christmas Day.  Besides having tamales for breakfast, and going to mass again in the morning, I would not have realized it was Christmas.  Tamales for breakfast, by the way, feels a bit weird.

All in all, Christmas was very tranquila.  A very relaxing time, not at all like the hustle and bustle that seems to be inherent in a North American Christmas.  No gifts were exchanged, families made tamales together, church was the central focus.  Different, but good.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

Language

Ever since I was accepted to SALT and knew I was going to Honduras, I have been preoccupied with language. I studied Spanish, dreamed about Spanish, worried about Spanish... After all, I studied French from grade 5 through to university (9 years!), and was still only at an 'intermediate' level. Well, there is something to be said for immersion. Yes, I studied Spanish before coming to Honduras, but that really meant very little in the grand scheme of things. I have now been in Honduras for 4 months (and 1 day!), and am further ahead in Spanish than I ever was in French. My host family and coworkers have commented that I have improved in Spanish, which makes me feel quite happy.

To confess, I never used to like the Spanish language. It felt weird to my ears, and I didn't feel any inclination to learn it. Luckily, this has passed! There are a number of words that I really like, or am fascinated by, including:

1) Ojalá - I think this is my favourite word of all, partly due to its etymology. Many centuries ago, people that spoke Arabic and people that spoke Spanish both lived in the same location (current-day Spain). And so, of course, the languages mingled a bit, and there are many words in Spanish that have Arabic origins. If you remember that in Spanish, 'j' is pronounced like an English 'h', and that you emphasize the vowel with the accent, it is easy to hear 'Allah' in Ojalá. Ojalá means "I hope that" or "I wish that", but it comes from the idea of "God willing that". Ojalá que mañana no hace frio! (Ojalá, tomorrow will not be cold!)

2) Esperanza - This word has two meanings in English: hope and wait. And in this time of Advent, I love thinking of how hoping and waiting are so integrated that only one word is needed.

3) Historia - Similarly, historia means history and story. And really, history is a story, which changes depending on the interpreter.

4) Divertido(a) - This word just makes me chuckle, since I have read too much Jane Austen. Divertido means fun. Jane Austen's heroines have a tendency to say things like, "I am excessively diverted!"

5) Madrugar - This verb means to get up earlier than everybody else. I like that an entire phrase can be condensed into one word!

On an unrelated note, my three weeks of Christmas holidays have begun. I am currently awaiting the visit of two fellow MCC yearlings. Ojalá, their trip from Tegucigalpa will not be anything like my trip there!

Church

In La Campa there are four church buildings and three congregations. Or should I say there are four meeting houses and three churches? Two are Catholic, and two are Evangelical – the two main denominational distinctions in Honduras as far as I can tell. We have two active Evangelical congregations and one active Catholic congregation in La Campa, although the Catholic congregation is more than double the size of the two Evangelical congregations put together. The fourth meeting house is Catholic, but has been vacant for years and is being slowly weathered away in a beautiful manner.

When I arrived in La Campa, I determined that I would attend an Evangelical church, although my host family is Catholic. The previous SALTer in my position lived with the pastor of one of these churches, so I figured that would be a good one to attend. I was very challenged by the experience there, and the other Evangelical church is not much different. The walls were mostly bare, except for a quote from Proverbs, a quote from the pastor, a letter endorsing the pastor, and the schedule of worship which included a quote from Hebrews 13:17, which said “Obey your pastors and submit to them.” I also felt awkward jumping up and down at the beginning of the service to demonstrate our joy of worship, and meandering songs which each had the same three chords from an electric bass guitar and one drum rhythm. I have been spoiled by the wonderful musical gifts at BMC! Although I was not able to feel comfortable worshiping God in that context, it is obvious that many do. So take my comments with a grain of salt.

So in mid-November, I decided I would try attending the Catholic church with my host family. Most of my exposure to Catholicism has been through the Martyr’s Mirror and through news reports, neither of which is very positive. So I’ve set about trying to remedy this lack in my education. I read a fascinating book called “Why be Catholic?” by Richard Rohr, which covered some of the basics of the good and bad of Catholic history, as well as its relevance in modern American society. And through attending mass for the past several weeks, I have come to appreciate a lot more about Catholicism. Let me try and describe my experiences here:

The service begins with the priest and 12 young people (about half boys and half girls) processing in carrying the cross, bible, candles and sometimes incense. The young people help during the service, and wear white robes. The priest also has a white robe, but he also has a coloured over-robe – right now it is purple, for Advent. After a welcome, the priest shares joys and concerns of the community. We then confess our sins as a community (including what we have said, what we have done, what we have left undone). Then comes three scripture readings: two by congregants, but the Gospel is read by the priest, who then preaches. His sermons are always very wide-ranging, from what I can understand, and sometimes I wonder why he brought a particular point. But I think that the purpose of his sermons is not only to comment on the scriptures, but also to bring in a bit more of a broader perspective from outside of La Campa. He has a very important job, in that it is through him that most people understand what is happening around them. Most adults here have had a very limited education, and in a sense, the priest provides a form of adult education through his sermons. This is conjecture, as I have not yet understood an entire sermon, but is based on several weeks of partial understanding.

After the sermon comes the offering, which is in several parts. Various congregants bring candles, flowers, fruit, bible, bread and wine to the altar, as our offering to God. Then the rest of the congregation has the opportunity to tithe our money. Then we share the peace of Christ, which is one of my favourite parts of the service. While singing, everybody hugs or shakes the hand of their neighbour. All the children go up to the front for a hug and blessing from the priest, and a number of adults go too. We confess our belief through the Apostle’s Creed, and pray as Jesus taught us (“Padre nuestro, que estás en el cielo”). With a final blessing from the priest, and a final song (other songs are scattered throughout the ser vice), the service ends.

I have been struck by the emphasis on community that I see at church, and that I read in Rohr’s book. In this context, it is as strong an emphasis as I have experienced in the Mennonite church. Musically, there is less emphasis on instruments as on the lifted voices of the people.

I enjoy looking around the church (building and people). The front couple of rows are always filled with little old ladies (my host grandmother among them; sadly, the abuela can’t come to church anymore). Most of them bring a candle to light during the service, as well as a black lace shawl to cover their heads. If they don’t have a shawl, they bring a towel for the same purpose. At the front of the sanctuary are three statues of Jesus, including one on the cross, two statues of San Matías, the patron saint of the parish, and a picture of the Virgin Mary. Along the side walls are the Stations of the Cross, two statues of Mary, one of Jesus, one of San Matías, and a large painting showing (I presume) heaven and hell. It sounds like an overwhelming amount of images, especially compared to the relative plainness of a Mennonite church. But it all somehow fits together.

PS As I write this, I am wearing two pairs of pants, two sweaters, one jacket and a scarf around my head. El norte has returned with a vengeance!

Photos

As per request, I have posted a number of pictures below. They are in reverse chronological order, although that doesn't really matter.

Christmas is coming! So in our house we have a molded plastic picture of Saint Nicholas and his cows.

My house! The new house is to the left, and you can just see the abuela sitting on the porch. The old house is to the right of the new, and two more houses are hidden behind the two mango trees at the right of the picture. The mango trees are starting to flower, and I'm told they are very fruitful trees!

The road outside my house. The burning garbage pile is a frequent sight, as garbage disposal services are not present in La Campa.

A tour of an integrated farm, showing the visitors from a neighbouring village admiring the fish pond.

120 chickens create a lot of noise and a huge smell! This was part of a chicken distribution day: each family got 20 hens and 1 rooster.

CASM colleagues, high school interns and a few children celebrating the successful graduation of the interns and my birthday. Luckily, they didn't push my face in the cake as per tradition!

Welcome to La Campa!

Aerial view of La Campa. My house can just barely be seen at the left of the picture. It is the most upper-left house, nearly blocked by the tree. The CASM office is just off the right hand side of the photo.

One view of my room.

Another view of my room.

A view of the gorge from my room one October afternoon.

"Teach me Lord, teach me Lord, to wait"

The other day while waiting, a song started going through my head:

“They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength

They shall mount up with wings as eagles

They shall run and not be weary

They shall walk and not faint

Teach me Lord; teach me Lord, to wait”

Although the song uses one definition of waiting, the last line rung true for me using the more common definition of waiting. “Teach me Lord, to wait.” I spend a good deal of time waiting (example: meeting was supposed to start at 8:00; we arrived at 9:15; the other attendees didn’t arrive until after 10:30, and the meeting began at 11:00), and sometimes get impatient and bored. I have made a list of things I have enjoyed doing while waiting:

1. Making lists. I have already posted a couple of lists (things in Honduras that make me look twice; things I am learning), and I am in the process of making more (7 underway!). I daresay I will post more lists before I return to Canada.

2. Watching old women scold men. This is particularly fun if the scoldee has a sense of humour and cowers under his scolding.

3. Finding out how much of something fits in the back of a truck. In this case, “something” can be cows, bags of cement (which tell you not to do drugs), people, sacks of recyclables three times taller than the truck itself, furniture, sand, manure, trees…

4. Watching my thermometer. I thoroughly enjoy this. Watching the temperature change as we go up a mountain, or as we move from sun to shade, or night to day. I am keeping track of the maximum and minimum temperature each day. The lowest was 11.9C, and the highest was 23.7C.

5. Watching animal/human interactions. Chickens casually stroll into the kitchen when the door is open, only to be shoed out again with the bottom half of the door closed behind them. So the chicken flies back in! Dogs happily lie in the sun in the road, and refuse to move until a vehicle is practically upon them. Goats don’t like going for walks; they prefer to go where they please. Lassoing a cow is a challenge for a learner, and a pasture full of 12 cows with their new owners who are learning how to lasso them is a picture of chaos.

6. Identifying which animals have passed based on what they have left behind. Since the rainy season has ended, the streets are getting full of animal droppings. I am able to identify 6 animals based on their excrement (dog, cat, cow, horse, goat, chicken).

7. Making family trees. Families here are generally large and well inter-connected. To help me keep track of people, I have two main family trees underway (my host family, and the family with whom I eat). And yes, the two families are related by marriage!

8. Finding the second tallest person in the room. It’s never hard to identify the tallest person – in La Campa, it´s always me. The second tallest person is harder to spot, especially if the men are wearing their hats, which adds an inch or two to their height.

9. Catching glimpses of telenovelas. Telenovelas are soap operas, and are always intensely dramatic, romantic, and ridiculous. My favourite so far is named “Sea of Love.” I have never watched an entire episode, and I don’t think I want to.

10. Naming our rooster. I was lying awake one morning, waiting for the rooster to calm down enough that I could sleep, and decided that he deserved a name. This rooster likes to roost in the tree just outside my door, so that whenever he wakes up, I do too. I have named him Maurice Aureliano. I’m not sure where I got the name Maurice from, but Aureliano comes from “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Aureliano is a character in the book that has 17 sons by 17 different women, and each woman names her son Aureliano. I can see distinct similarities between Aureliano and the rooster…!

Learning and Serving

SALT is Serving and Learning Together. In theory, this year in Honduras I am both serving and learning. I know that I have already learned lots; the serving aspect is harder to see at this point. In orientation we were told that they initially wanted to name the program Learning and Serving Together, to put the emphasis on the learning aspect. However, SALT was a better acronym than LAST. This might just be anecdotal, but has some real elements of truth. I often find myself with periods of waiting, so I´ve started making a list of things I am learning. So, at the beginning of my fourth month as an MCCer, here is a list of some of what I have learned thus far:

1. Spanish. This was a major worry of mine before coming to Honduras, and it has certainly been my biggest achievement. I can participate in conversations (with fewer than 4 or 5 people), give a training on soil analysis (somewhat haltingly, but the people could understand me), pray and sing (although understanding sermons is still beyond me), and relate the story of my bus trip to Tegucigalpa.
2. How to sit. I often have to wait for somebody or something. For example, last Wednesday we were supposed to leave at 7am, and didn´t depart until 8:15. This involves a lot of patience, which I am also learning. However, since I like to be doing things, I generally need to find something to do when I find I can´t admire the mountains any more. So, I am learning:
3. How to play Sudoku. My cell phone has one game on it: Sudoku. Before coming to Honduras, I did not like this game. Now I have progressed through the beginner and intermediate levels, and can complete the advanced level in 15 minutes.
4. To greet people. When you arrive somewhere, everybody must be greeted individually, and not collectively. I can shake everybody´s hand (but not in a firm grip like we do in Canada). Women can be kissed on the cheek. When walking down the road, some kind of greeting is given to everybody you pass, but this greeting can be hello, good day/afternoon/evening, or goodbye. I haven´t yet figured out if there is a reason to give one of these greetings instead of the other to each passerby.
5. To drink coffee. I don´t like coffee. But here most people grow it, and everybody always has a pot on the stove. So when you drop by, they automatically offer you a cup of coffee. I don´t like to refuse hospitality, so I am gradually able to drink it without grimacing. It helps that they pour in lots of sugar!
6. New units of measurement. Not only have I adjusted to the lempira (L18 is about $1US), but also to manzanas (1 manzana = 7000 m²), tareas (17 tareas = 1 manzana), garrafas (1 garrafa = 5 litres), and quintales (1 quintal = 100lbs). Manzana is also the word for apple, so at first I wondered why we kept asking, “How many apples do you have?”
7. How to hand wash clothes. I enjoy washing my clothes. Each house has a pila, which is a large concrete water storage container (probably 1 cubic meter). Attached to the pila is a concrete washboard. Every Saturday morning I stoop over our pila (because I´m too tall for it, of course), and scrub out my clothes. Normally the MCC host family agreement has the host family wash the clothes, but here in La Campa something must be wrong if a young woman can´t wash her own clothes! Even the blind abuela washes her own clothes.
8. How to make tortillas. I´ve already discussed the extensive tortilla-making process, but haven´t made any more progress since then.
9. How to deal with ´el norte.´ In the rural areas, summer is defined as when it doesn´t rain, and winter is when it does rain. So although the temperatures are approaching the lowest of the year, we are certainly in summer. El norte is the cold wind that blows from the north (norte) at times during October, November and December. When el norte is present, the doors rattle, cold drafts find their way in through the cracks, and nobody is warm. So I have a towel wedged around my window, a plank across the crack at the bottom of my door, and a large stone to keep the door from rattling. And I have five covers on my bed (each cover is about as thick as denim).
10. What goes down must go up. This applies to walking on mountain roads. I´ve decided that in Honduras the glass half empty/full approach is not as good as my down/up approach. An optimist says that what goes up must go down, and looks forward to the downhill segment of the road while slogging uphill. A pessimist says that what goes down must go up, and dreads the uphill segment that must follow the downhill. Ive been both an optimist and a pessimist.
11. Animal care. I know about the breeding cycle of rabbits, how to vaccinate cows and rabbits, a variety of herbal cures for chickens, and what to feed chickens and rabbits. I am also familiar with the methods for killing chickens and rabbits, although I have not been called upon to participate (yet)!
12. A bit about bravery. A number of people have called me brave, which makes me feel proud but perplexed, as I certainly don´t feel brave. Looking back over the past several months, I think that the bravest thing I´ve done was take the leap of faith to come to Honduras. And when I made that decision, it didn´t feel brave at all – it just seemed like the natural next step for me. I guess it comes down to how you define bravery.
13. How to get by without a daily weather forecast. Normally I like knowing what the weather forecast is for the day and for the week. With limited contact with weather bulletins, and a limited understanding of Honduras weather, each day is a surprise.

I am positive I will continue to learn more as the year progresses, and will have a whole new level of education when I return to Canada in July (next winter!).

Our truck couldn't cross this river, as there were too many rocks! So we unloaded all the material, and it got carried across to the other side on a pedestrian bridge.

My accomplishment one Saturday morning!

My first training session! I led a workshop on soil analyis for 31 adults, plus children.

Life in the Campo

Greetings from a chilly La Campa! "El norte" is here in full force, with strong winds and low temperatures. This morning my room was 14.2C, and it was a big challenge to get out of my warm bed. I can really recognize the privilege of central heat in Canada, which so many people cannot even fathom.

Let me try to give you an idea of life in the campo (rural life). Don´t be confused by campo and La Campa - there is no relation between the words (like invierno meaning winter, and infierno meaning hell). According to Wikipedia, the name La Campa came from miners working in the area in the late 1800s. When it was about to rain, they would say "Vamos a acampar!" and go and rest somewhere out of the rain.

The chickens wake up first, and are always excited about that fact, making as much noise as possible. Gradually, the human population gets up between 4am and 7am. I get to sleep in all the way to 7, but my 15 year old neighbour gets up at 5 to prepare breakfast and lunch for herself and her father before going to school. I get up at 7, and have an extremely fast shower. I compare my shower to diving into Lake Huron on a cold May long weekend - invigorating but terrifying!

Breakfast is normally tortillas, beans and eggs, with fried plantain on occasion. I then head off to work, which has a marvelous schedule: 8-12, and 2-5. Lunch is tortillas, beans and vegetables; supper is tortillas, beans and eggs. Women here spend much of their time preparing for making tortillas. First the dried corn must be removed from the cob, then it boils for several hours on the wood stove. Once it is soft, it must be ground twice to get it to the right texture. Then water is added to make a dough, and the tortillas are hand-made. I´ve tried the last step twice, and it is hard to get it the right! Every tortilla that I eat is perfectly round, the same size, and the same thickness. Mine are somewhat oblong and uneven. But I will get there!

In the evenings I sit in the kitchen with my host grandmothers and cross-stitch until 8pm, when I get ready for bed. Early hours are the norm here! My weekends are filled with church (I am attending both the evangelical and Catholic churches, although I feel more comfortable with the Catholic service), washing clothes (a long process by hand, but one which fills me with pride when I see the clothes-line full of clothes), studying Spanish, reading, hiking, cross-stitching and visiting. There is a wonderful verb: pasear. Anybody can go paseando, which means go up to a neighbour´s house and visit for a half hour or so over coffee, a fresh orange and conversation. No invitation necessary. It contributes to a real sense of community.

At work, I am still figuring out exactly what I´m doing, although one of my projects have begun. I gave a training last week on soil analysis, and will be sending five soil samples to a laboratory this afternoon. Last week I helped deliver 120 chickens as part of another CASM project. 120 chickens create a huge smell, but people were so happy to receive these birds. Food security is one of the main aims of CASM, and chickens are an important aspect of food security.

I learned last week that I am known as "La Gringita" by people in La Campa. So, best wishes to you all from La Gringita!

Comforters

On Friday morning as I left to get on the series of buses to take me to Tegucigalpa for an MCC retreat for the weekend, my host mom said to me ¨Que Dios le bendiga.¨ ¨May God bless you.¨

My initial plan was to take a bus from La Campa to Gracias, then to La Esperanza, then to Tegucigalpa (if you look at a map, this route makes the most sense). This was the route that I had been told to take. Upon arriving at the central bus station in Gracias, I learned that the station is not so central and that the buses to La Esperanza leave from elsewhere. I took a taxi to elsewhere, and was informed that there were no more buses running that day, and that I´d have to wait until tomorrow...! I returned to the central station to decide what to do. I thought I´d try going to Santa Rosa de Copán, a larger city an hour north (the wrong direction!) to see if there´d be a bus there to get to Tegucigalpa.

Lo and behold, there was! I happily got on the comfortable bus (no chickens on this one!) and prepared to arrive in Tegucigalpa in a couple of hours. As the bus went along, I began to realize that this bus went to San Pedro Sula first before going to Tegucigalpa. Your map will show you that this is significantly out of the way! I settled back in my seat, and realized that I would be arriving a good deal later than expected, but still before dark.

Around noon, the bus stopped. This is not abnormal, as there are constantly people getting on an off the bus. This time was different, because the bus did not start again. Every 10 minutes or so, the bus would inch forward a couple of meters. But for 4.5 hours, we did not make any significant progress. When there is only one highway, and this highway gets blocked by a transport truck slipping off the road, traffic just stops.

I called my MCC team members in Tegucigalpa to make plans as to what to do. We decided that there was a bus leaving SPS at 6 that would stop closer to their house than the bus I was on. Their neighbour, who is a taxi driver, would pick me up and bring me to their house. As the bus got moving again, a woman got on and sat next to me. Her destination was also Tegucigalpa, and we talked about being uncomfortable about arriving after dark. When we were 15 minutes away from SPS, the bus stopped again. A collective groan arose from the entire bus. ¨Not again!"

Yes again. This time, we were stopped for 6 hours. I missed the 6pm bus to Tegucigalpa, and thought that it would be best for me to stay in SPS for the night, and then take an early bus the next morning. At this point, the woman next to me offered me a bed in her house in Teguc for the night, since it was unsafe for me to go join the MCCers at night. I felt a bit uncomfortable with this option, but figured I could call the MCCers and see what they thought. For whatever reason, I was unable to reach them, so my neighbour woman tried. When she saw the name and phone number, she exclaimed ¨Virgilio! Yo lo conozco!¨ ¨I know him!¨ I still felt a bit unconvinced, but she gave me all kinds of information about them and I figured that she really did know them! So it was decided that I would stay on the current bus with her, sleep at her house, and in the morning take a taxi to meet up with the MCCers.

My bus did not have a bathroom. I got on the bus at 9:30am, and by 8pm at night, you can imagine how most people on the bus were feeling. The men had no problem - they can just hop off the bus, stand in a particular stance, and be comfortable. Women have it a bit more difficult! At 8, we had had enough. One woman stood up, and announced to the whole bus ¨The women need the toilet.¨ We all marched outside, formed a protective circle, and took turns squatting in the centre while the other woman scolded any man that got close. Talk about a community that forms when in need!

The bus arrived in SPS at 10:30, and in Tegucigalpa at 2:30. I went to my new friend´s house, where she showed me a bed. On the bed was spread an MCC knotted comforter. I slept under that comforter feeling very blessed by God, as my host mom had prayed that morning.

A Miscellany

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! Despite having had a very challenging week, I have much to be thankful for:

• I have five fresh, juicy oranges sitting on my table. I´ve already enjoyed three.


• There is a gorgeous sunset outside (red sky at night, sailor´s delight!).


• People at work are friendly, as are the people in La Campa and the surrounding communities.


• I was just able to talk with family via the wonders of the internet. So different from when my great-aunt Ann went to Paraguay 40 or 50 years ago, and even when my family went to Lesotho 20 years ago.


• I am learning Spanish; although it feels slow, each day I learn something new.


• I am healthy! Only two bouts of digestion problems so far, and no other issues.


• I have very interesting work prospects.


• The rainy season is ending, and the sun is showing its face with greater frequency. I especially appreciate the sun when I take my outdoor cold-water shower.

This morning I took a bus into San Pedro Sula for the weekend. This was my most eventful bus ride yet! Most of the buses here are old school buses from the US. Each bus has two workers: the driver and the conductor. The driver drives (a challenging feat in narrow, pot-holed roads), and the conductor has a myriad of tasks. He leans out the door loudly advertising the destination of the bus; he collects the fare; he carries heavy packages for the passengers; he brings a plastic bag in response to somebody´s urgent cry of ¨bolsa!¨

My bus this morning was of the school bus variety, which means that my legs do not fit in the limited space between the seats. Its seat configuration meant that 5 people sat across the bus instead of 4 like I grew up with. So imagine a very squashed Alison against the window (my debate is always whether to sit by the window so I don´t get motion sick, or whether to sit in the aisle where I have more leg space; this morning I opted for the window). Unfortunately, the young woman sitting next to me got very motion sick, and her shout for a bag came too late. I gave her my stash of toilet paper to help clean up, but throughout the 4 hour ride I would occasionally see her emptying her stomach in her fresh plastic bag. I must have appeared to be a very comfortable person, because when she wasn´t vomiting, she was asleep on my shoulder!

The bus ride is also not complete unless somebody has brought a chicken on board. The chicken on my bus happened to be in a cardboard box just above me. Sometime during the ride, the chicken laid an egg, which promptly broke. I looked up to see egg mixed with chicken feces dripping onto the seat back in front of me. While my neighbour slept on my shoulder I watched the egg slowly drip down the seat until it finally dried and crisped up.

Can you identify me in this picture? Even if I wasn´t blond and white, I stand out everywhere by being so tall. I have to duck to go into all the doorways in La Campa and the surrounding communities. At church on Sunday, the woman behind me moved to the aisle when I stood up so she could see.

This picture shows me, a couple of colleagues, some student interns, and the guys that hitched a ride in the back of the truck and wanted in on the photo with the gringa. The woman standing next to me is my supervisor.

A view from the office. La Campa sort of spreads out to the right.

How many people does it take to vaccinate a cow? One to hold the rope around the legs, one to actually complete the injection, three to stand around and give advice, and many more to stand around and watch!

A school futbol field does double duty as a horse pasture next to a hillside of coffee.

The view from the top of the mountains is spectacular! But first I had to hike up slick roads and paths that were as tricky to navigate as a hill covered in ice and slush.

A ´friend´ that I found in my bedroom this morning. It had evidently fallen on its back, and couldn´t right itself so it just lay there struggling. 10 minutes later it was happily crawling back up the wall. Cockroaches make too much of a crunch for me to step on them.

Finally in La Campa!

Greetings from La Campa! I arrived on Monday and moved in with my host family on Tuesday. And now I´m in the process of adjusting and settling in and meeting people and figuring out what I´m supposed to be doing and trying to remember people´s names (hard to do when they don´t enunciate and I only catch half the name).

My host family is composed of two women plus the extended family that lives in the neighbouring houses. The abuela (grandmother) is 95 years old - the oldest person in La Campa! She is blind, but has the sweetest toothless smile. Petronia is the abuela´s daughter. In the two neighbouring houses live some of Petronia´s children and grandchildren. I am getting to know two little girls (age 3 and 5), and Marta, who is about 15. This Saturday Marta is going to take me on a tour of La Campa! We live in a small house, a bit smaller than a 2 car garage. I have a room of my own with a bed, a table and a bench. So I am still technically living out of a suitcase, but at least the suitcase is not moving anywhere!

I think my hypothalamus started adjusting to the heat in San Pedro, because I am finding it cold here! It has been rainy and windy every day, all day, and the temperature has been below 20, I think. I had been feeling nostalgic for a Canadian autumn, and I am now getting the two worst parts of it - the cold and the rain - without the crisp sunny days and changing leaves.

My role here is very unclear. Besides the language challenges, my other challenge will be figuring out what I´m doing. Your prayers as I navigate these challenges are much appreciated. It is also very challenging to be outgoing all the time - a problem I have in English, let alone Spanish!

There is internet at the office, but it is a little thing from the phone company that you plug into a computer, so only one person can use the internet at a time. So I will keep trying to check emails, but I don´t know how often I´ll be able to respond. But know that I appreciate each email that you send (and if you can send a tidbit of Canadian/international news now and then, that would be awesome!)

Alison

Some Notes

I have been jotting down observations over the past couple of weeks, and have generated a rather sizeable list of things that have made me look twice or think again (in no particular order):

1) Armed guards - all the banks have them, and many stores that have a large enough income

2) Campesinos with machetes - men from the country casually carry their machete through their belt loop

3) Children with machetes - boys younger than 10!

4) Tear gas on Independence Day - a group of people in resistance to the government held a protest in downtown San Pedro Sula (they support Mel Zelaya, who was ousted from presidency last year). I was at the Mennonite church several blocks away at a chicken barbeque when we heard a tear gas canister go off and saw a small crowd of people running down the street. Things calmed down quickly, and I didn´t see anybody injured.

5) Gecko poop under my pillow.

6) A cockroach leg in my bed - There was something prickly on my arm one night, so I slapped at it. In the morning I found a leg in my bed, and saw my cockroach friend running around with only 5 legs!

7) Participatory amens during a church sermon - when the pastor wanted to make a point, he said ´Amen?´ and the congregation responded with ´Amen!´

8) A scorpion in the bathroom (scorpions can´t swim, for future reference!)

9) Having to pour water from 5 gallon jugs to my 500mL water bottle - this takes steady hands even though there is a water stand!

10) Not knowing what language a word is in (was that English, French or Spanish...?).

11) Hearing a fellow MCCer say ¨y´all¨

12) An extremely wealthy church with tall fences and manicured lawn, surrounded by impoverished houses.

13) Receiving a 30 minute sermon on the public bus - every bus has vendors hopping on and off; this bus had a preacher!

14) Having a cell phone - weird!

15) Feeling surprised to see another blond person.

16) Guys in cars honking or staring.

17) Being head and shoulders taller than many groups of people!

18) Funeral homes open 24 hours

19) Bus taking a detour onto the sidewalk when the street was too busy

20) Entering the supermarket and finding that absolutely everything is packaged and bordering on junk food

21) Learning from a 9 year old that this year´s SALTers and YAMENers are a ¨good group of young people¨

22) Not feeling (overly) anxious about things - this is/was a surprise, as I fully expected much anxiety (hence my use of Julian of Norwich´s quote above)

Independence Day

Happy Independence Day! If I recall correctly, today Honduras is celebrating 189 years of independence. It's a big deal; many schools and businesses are closed for all or most of the week.

My visit to La Campa last week was great, although exhausting! The bus we were supposed to take broke down before it even reached the bus terminal, so we got to wait 3 hours for the next bus. We reached Gracias shortly after dark and were met by the husband of the CASM director who drove us into La Campa (16km = 1/2 hour). Before going to bed I had to overcome a bit of exoskeleton anxiety (one scorpion and five cockroaches can cause that).

La Campa is beautiful! Megan told me that I have won the placement lottery. It's a small town (120 houses) in a valley surrounded by mountains. Megan and I each tried to photograph it, but a camera lens doesn't do justice to the beauty. Clearly, you'll just have to come and see for yourselves :)

I met my supervisor, Cristina, saw the office and demonstration farm, and learned a bit about what I could be doing there. Based on my skill set (which I hesitatingly described in Spanish) she said there were three projects that might work for me:

1) Coffee processing creates a lot of agua miel, or sweet water, that contains a lot of organic matter and is generally released into the surface water to the detriment of the water. I can start a project to help mitigate this.

2) If there are available funds to do soil testing, I can test some soil samples to see what nutrients/other chemicals are present, and figure out what additives might be useful to increase crop production.

3) People are using more agro-chemicals on their farms since coffee production has been good in recent years and incomes are higher. However, when the first rains come everybody in the villages gets skin problems from the chemical runoff. I can start a project to help mitigate this.

Needless to say, I'm excited and terrified by these projects! At first I will likely just be accompanying other workers and building relationships with people. But then I can start my own work. Option 3 interests me the most, but it is probably the most complicated of them all!

I've been in SPS since coming back from La Campa, staying with a lovely family. This afternoon Megan, Noel and I are heading out to the farm until the weekend, as nothing is really open in the city for the next couple of days. Then on Sunday I go to Copan Ruinas for one more week of language study before heading to La Campa to start work on Sept. 27.

Happy September!

I am back in San Pedro Sula for a couple of days after spending a week and a half studying Spanish and then a weekend participating in an MCC Honduras team retreat. The most recent plan was for me to go to La Campa tomorrow to settle in with my host family, and then to start work! Well, plans have changed again! As I understand it, the people at CASM La Campa are in the midst of trying to meet some paperwork deadlines. My arrival would not make that paperwork go any faster, and I would probably just get in people's way as I try to figure out what to do.

So I will still head off to La Campa tomorrow with one of the country reps and the connecting people's coordinator. I'll get to meet my colleagues, and they can meet me. Maybe I'll meet my host family? Then next week, I will likely go back to Copan Ruinas for more language study. One thing that I am learning here is that I can expect that whatever I expect to happen will happen in a way I didn't expect!

Here is a small selection of photos for you:

This is a 200-300 year old ceiba tree at the Mayan ruins near Copan Ruinas. I feel so short!

















Noel, Johanna and Elise overlooking the Copan valley.













Four of the five yearlings!













A bridge that was washed out in Hurricane Mitch. I was on the new bridge downstream.












The garden of my host family in Copan Ruinas.


















MCC doesn't only help people! Chickens also benefit!

Roosters, however, are the bane of my existence. Whoever started the myth that they only crow at dawn never had to live with three of them in the courtyard. These roosters start their conversations between 2-4am. They calmly discuss the state of affairs, and then hear the neighbouring roosters conversing. So of course, they have to join in. And before you know it, the entire rooster population of the neighbourhood is having a heated discussion over all the important events of the previous 24 hours. And I lie there in bed, wondering why I left my earplugs behind.







I got to visit the CASM office today in San Pedro Sula.













Enjoy the approaching autumn if you can. I'm sweltering here in San Pedro, and can't wait to move to higher elevations!

Vaya pues!

Geckos chirp

My group of SALTers and YAMENers were the first to arrive at our destination, mid-afternoon on Thursday. We've had a whirlwind couple of days of in-country orientation after a week of orientation in Akron. Some of my first impressions: yes, it is hot! and humid! The MCC office in San Pedro Sula has air conditioning, so it's been an immense relief to step inside. I've seen and heard some local wildlife, including geckos (which chirp like birds), snail kites (Ellen, I'm watching birds for you!), a black widow spider, and of course, dogs and chickens.

We spent the last two days at the MCC farm for our in-country orientation. It was lovely there! It's the rainy season right now, and rain on a tin roof is just as loud as I remember it!

My major news is that I am no longer going to Azacualpa. Instead, I will be going to La Campa, which is near Gracias. I know you can find Gracias on most maps; La Campa is a bit smaller.... or a lot smaller! I will still be with CASM, just at a different location. I'm excited for this change, especially since the response most people here have is that "La Campa is cold!" I can cope with that very happily.

We're now on our way to Copan Ruinas for language study for the next week and a half. I am understanding more Spanish than I expected, although I need the speaker to speak very slowly. When I try to speak I butcher the grammar and speak with a French accent. I wonder what my French will sound like in a year...!

Love
Alison

The beginning!

All of my goodbyes, save two, have been said. My suitcase is packed, and I am here in Pennsylvania. My SALT orientation begins this afternoon at the MCC offices in Akron, PA. I'll be spending the next week here with 130 other young adults who are coming from all over the world and going all over the world. This will be a very interesting week!

My circuitous journey to Honduras begins (very!) bright and early next Thursday (Aug. 19), and I will arrive in San Pedro Sula in the mid-afternoon, local time. Luckily there is only a 2 hour time difference, so I won't feel the effects of jet lag as much as some other SALTers will. Once I arrive, I will spend about 2 weeks in intensive language training before heading to Azacualpa, the town where I will be living for the next year.

Here is the short description that I have received that details what I might be doing while in Honduras:

Assignment Description:

The SALT/YAMENer participant would be seconded to The Mennonite Social Action Commission (CASM). CASM is a historic partner of MCC Honduras. MCC Honduras was instrumental in the founding of CASM as a result of MCC and the Mennonite Church's work with the Salvadoran refugees in the early 1980's. CASM traditionally has worked in rural community development with a focus on community organization and agriculture. More recently CASM has been more involved at the municipal level in order to promote locally-initiated projects. CASM promotes Anabaptist values and ecumenism through their pastoral accompaniment program. CASM is very involved in issue of trade and globalization, and the effects of first world policy on the third world. CASM is also well-prepared and well-equipped to manage disaster relief projects.

Duties:
The SALT/YAMENer will spend time orienting to CASM's work in the region of Azacualpa and will work alongside CASM staff in some or all of the following areas according to the abilities and interests of the worker:

• Work alongside CASM personnel and members of local communities to promote the management of local water sources for better food security in the region
• Work to promote crop diversification and the implementation of organic agriculture within eight different communities of Azacualpa, Santa Barbara
• Work with already established CASM efforts to promote ecotourism within the region
• Work to organize and carry out environmental education in local schools among various age levels
• Work together with local citizens, CASM, and municipal government to promote better environmental policies in the region
• Participate actively in the life of a local congregation
• Participate in MCC team meetings/retreats, and provide plans and reports to MCC

I do not know what kind of internet access I will have when I get to Azacualpa. I will try my best to keep in contact, whether it be internet-based or snail-mail-based. I have been warned, however, not to neglect making relationships in Honduras by being too closely connected with people "back home." I will be working to find some kind of balance, as I want to be fully involved in my community.

Thank you for your prayers, your love, and your financial support. I have been greatly blessed with all three, and I leave for Honduras certain that this is where I am called to be.

Much love,

Alison