Past, Present and Future

Over my past nearly-seven months as an MCC SALTer, I have been thinking a lot about the past and future, while trying to live in the present. This is not necessarily the best thing, with thoughts diverging with daily life. Several things have happened recently to make me think a bit more about the future: I was accepted to the University of Waterloo to study in the Masters of Environmental Studies program; my family visited, and my sister and I continued scheming of sharing an apartment when I get back; and thirdly, MCC purchased my airplane ticket to return to Akron in July!

At the beginning of my time here, it was too easy to think of the past, and now it's too easy to think about the future. Meanwhile, time is passing incredibly rapidly. Let me give you a few "present" updates:

• I have begun teaching English at the local elementary school. I was rather skeptical about this at first (me... teach?!?!?!?!?!?!?), but I have finished my first classes, and quite enjoyed them. The school director approached my CASM supervisor to ask if I could teach. As my time was/is still remarkably un-busy, I accepted as a way to fill my time. I am teaching students in grades 4, 5, and 6, and as there are 50 of them in total, this is becoming a wonderful way to be more connected in the local community.

• Last week we had four major rainstorms, and it's been thundering ominously for the past two afternoons. We are supposed to be in the midst of the dry season. There should be NO rain. Last year the bean and corn harvests were damaged by unseasonal rain (right now, bean prices are twice what they should be; the poorer farmers in the mountains don't have the ready money to purchase these staples, as they generally rely on their own harvest. There is worry about significant hunger over the next several months.) Unfortunately, this unseasonable rain is an impact of climate change in this region, and will likely continue to be a problem. CASM is trying to figure out what are the appropriate responses and adaptations.

• Yesterday was Ash Wednesday. I went to mass, and the church was packed. I, along with most people, do not receive communion, but everybody was welcomed to receive a cross of ashes on the forehead. I continue to enjoy the sense of community at church through liturgy and song and prayer.

• Last Saturday, as I was cleaning my room, a chicken entered, and decided that her favourite place was under my bed. It took a long time to get her out. Oh the challenges!

Fun Firsts with the Family

Just after I passed the halfway point of my SALT year, my wonderful family decided to come visit for a week. Mom came a bit early to do some MCC visits, and I got to tag along with her until the rest came. Family, for this week, consisted of Mom and Dad, Jennifer and Cynthia.

Although my family has experience travelling in the global South, I persuaded them to experience a number of “firsts.” I restricted them to pack one backpack each, and no more. Then I forbade renting a car for the entire week, and said that buses and taxis would work fine. This caused a bit of consternation for some, but they came ready to experience my experiences.

I have had a number of interesting bus experiences so farm, but luckily the buses all behaved for my family. No chickens, no accidents, and only one vomiting neighbour. The best part was counting the number of passengers on each bus. The two records were about 100 people in a school bus, and 27 people on a 16-person van. I say that the 27 were on the van, not in it, because at the peak, four young men were holding on tight and hanging out the door, flirting with the young women standing just inside. Talk about a captive audience!

A few Spanish words characterized our experiences: tranquila/tranquilo (relax, don’t worry, take a chill pill), pena (embarrassment, particularly on my part, at the activities of tourists), and licuados (fresh fruit milkshakes or smoothies). We were all very tranquilo when the bus was late to arrive in Gracias, making us miss the last bus of the day to La Campa. I won’t list the pena J And as soon as we had access to licuados, we had at least one or two per day.

We visited La Campa first. Unfortunately my family couldn’t experience La Campa in its normally tranquila state, as the town was preparing for the major religious festival the following week. The town was bustling with vendors and visitors. We visited my Honduran families, my supervisor, my church, the cemetery, the river canyon, and a pottery artisan.

We then moved on to Copán Ruinas, site of Mayan ruins dating to the 800s. Our guide at the ruins realized that we were keen on learning as much as possible, and so he taught us the base 20 mathematical system of the Mayans, how to read a few hieroglyphs, and much more. We also explored the town a bit, having licuados, and climbing the impossibly steep roads.

Our final stop was Tela, on the north coast. We took a boat trip out to a national park, the majority of which is only accessible by boat, we swam, we drank licuados, we visited the largest botanical garden in Central America, and we read on the porch enjoying the sea breeze.

Each of the three places we visited was very distinct. Charissa, a fellow SALTer, says that you could be dropped down in one place in Honduras and think you know the country, but as soon as you travel a short distance, the country changes entirely. La Campa is a Lenca town, the Lenca being one of the few remaining indigenous groups in Honduras. It is high in the mountains, and so is colder and characterized by pine forest. Right now it is dry, as there hasn’t been a proper rain since December. Copán Ruinas has the Mayan ruins, of course, but is still surrounded by Mayan communities. It is at a lower elevation, receives much more rain, and so is somewhat green right now. Tela is on the coast, is flat, with tonnes of rain, a Garifuna culture, and is being surrounded by kilometers of palm plantations. About 25 km of the highway approaching the city is lined by palm plantations, with nothing else to break the biological monotony.

This wonderful week flew by much too fast, and saying goodbye was hard, of course. But I received a warm welcome back home in La Campa, and am about ready to dive into my final five months.

Now is the winter of our discontent

I like observing things. Some of the things I have observed lately make me feel sad, uncomfortable or discontented:

It is so easy to identify the mayor’s house in La Campa. It’s the house with the swimming pool (the only one in La Campa) and three gigantic satellite dishes. Recently, the mayor inaugurated several projects, including a housing project. The houses in this project are made of the cheapest materials possible, lack pilas (outdoor water basin, used for everything by everybody) and showers, and seem designed to reduce self respect by the paint and prison numbering system.

I recently spent four days translating for a brigade that was handing out glasses. Through this group, I observed a lot:

• The group worked with evangelical pastors in the surrounding communities. They assumed that the pastors would contact the entire community. Instead, they only contacted their own church members. So anybody outside their church was excluded.

• It is challenging to be the bridge between two cultures. Before entering this four-day experience, I had assumed that being a translator simply meant translating words. But there is more to it than that. I’m not fully entrenched in the Honduran culture nor the US culture, but have rootlets in each. Each has its own perceptions about the other, some of which are spoken, and some of which are unspoken. And I was in between them, trying to bridge the language and cultural gaps, blushing in awkwardness at some of the activities of the gringos.

• I like see myself as different from groups of people who come to give things for two weeks. I’m here for nearly a year, working for a local organization, building up relationships, and recognizing the importance of learning. But really, I’m a gringa myself, in a foreign culture, making cultural mistakes, photographing, barely becoming accustomed to things and then leaving.
  

• However, I do feel offended when I watch fellow foreigners grabbing small children for a photo, just because they are cute. Ditto for grandmothers. They are beautiful people, but what is the point of taking children onto your lap, photographing them, and then releasing them without finding out their names, or becoming somewhat acquainted.
  

• Giving candy out indiscriminately does not help either. Yes, the children will enjoy the candy, but they come to see gringos only as people who hand things out for them to receive. And that makes things more challenging down the road.

I frequently listen to my supervisor talk about all the evils of corruption and backroom agreements that are here in Honduras. In fact, one of CASM’s projects supports transparency commissions, whose duty is to monitor and audit local governments to make sure the money goes where it should. But then I watch my supervisor use connections to get her son into university and to get her daughter a North American sponsor (through a child sponsor program), and use CASM vaccines for her family’s cows.

The president of Honduras, the US ambassador, the head of USAID Honduras, the president of congress, and others visited La Campa on Friday. They inaugurated a USAID project that will bring $82 million into the region over the next five years This short event highlighted many things:

• CASM La Campa wants some of that money, as it is specifically designated to food security, a main focus of our work. So my colleagues wrote a letter to each of the dignitaries, introducing CASM to them. Well and good. But they decided that my fellow international volunteer and I were the best ones to hand the letter to the US ambassador. My nationality didn’t matter; our whiteness did. I’m used to being stared at for being white. I get catcalls regularly. But this made me feel more uncomfortable than these events.

• The Hondurans in the audience stayed well back from the stage, except for when the president arrived. There was a brief surge forward to greet him, and then they all moved back. On the other hand, every white person who lives in the vicinity came and stood at the front, and interacted with the dignitaries. Smiling photos were taken of the Peace Corps volunteers with the US ambassador. I got to meet most of the dignitaries, except the president. There was a distinct white privilege here. Even when people were making speeches, they greeted and thanked the dignitaries first, the Peace Corps volunteers second, and the community members last. Once I realized the invisible barrier, I did my best to move back and stand with the Hondurans, and not with the expats.

I watch, and try to understand, and form conclusions. Who knows if I'm actually right with these observations? There could be things I don't understand. Take them with a grain of salt.

Pictures!

As I am in SPS with a fast internet connection, let me post a number of pictures for you. Enjoy!

Working hard! My colleagues and I putting up chicken wire around our demonstration garden. We were only demonstrating how not to have a garden, especially as the chickens like to eat seeds, ripe strawberries, etc.










A spectacular sunset over La Campa, looking from the office.













Dust.














The Church of San Manuel. This is a church in the neighbouring municipality. It is rumoured to be the oldest in Central America, but also one of the most decorated. I was able to see inside at a different visit, but not take pictures. The inside is stencilled all over with mud-based paints, and the Jesus on the crucifix is black. A gorgeous church.













Part one of the Festival of San Matìas, the patron saint of La Campa. Altar assistants robed in white came from all over the four municipalities to help out, and mass was said outside the church, as we couldn't all fit inside.










My neighbours, granddaughters of my host family, celebrating Haydee's third birthday!













Last Friday the president of Honduras, the US ambassador, the head of USAID Honduras and several other dignitaries came to La Campa to celebrate $82million from USAID that will be coming to the region over the next five years. See my post on discontent for more.









Security was tight-ish for the president's visit. Most noticeable were the soldiers in the bell tower of the church. I think I took more pictures of them than of the president!
















One of the byproducts of coffee production is "aguas mieles" or "honey water." The coffee beans ferment in water for a while, and this water is very acidic and very full of organic matter, promoting bacterial growth. It is a significant form of contamination in the area.









This is a biodigestor, and the coolest one I've seen yet. Beneath the central concrete circle is a large underground chamber. A mixture of manure and water gets put in the biodigestor from the right hand pipe. Bacteria break down the manure, creating biogas (methane, primarily). The gas will leave the central chamber through the small tube which will be connected to a gas stove for cooking. A high quality fertilizer comes out at the far left. Marvelous!




Although we have an inch or two of dust in La Campa, up in the mountains it's a bit damper. The truck slid into the ditch on a clay mud road. We all attached ourselves to ropes and pulled it out!















We visited a group of sugar producers. They used to use wood for their fires as the cooking stoves were really inefficient. Now they just need a bit of wood to start up the fire, and then they can use the crushed sugar cane for the rest. In this picture you can see the cane juice boiling down, and the fire burning brightly below.

To ship or not to ship

(This post was typed on February 1, but not posted until now.)

I have had a four-day adventure in Honduran shipping practices. In order to send 5 pounds of soil in a box to a laboratory in order to be analyzed, it is best not to use the mail, but the shipping company Expreco. They lost my samples the first time I sent them in November, which I previously mentioned. Last Wednesday, the replacement samples arrived from their respective farms, and on Thursday I was all set to send them. Here is what happened:

Day 1: I was dropped off in Gracias by a colleague, who said that the Expreco truck comes down this road around 1pm. As a Canadian, I was expecting a large-ish truck with the name of the company. After waiting for two hours without seeing this expected truck, I left. Naïveté: too high.

Day 2: With fresh info that it is a red pick-up truck, I waited from 10:30 until 2:30, without encountering it. I still expected some kind of identifier; maybe a uniformed man getting out of the truck? Naïveté: still high.

Day 3: There is a bank on the street where the Expreco truck apparently comes, and there are always 3 or 4 guards standing outside it. At 1pm I approached one guard to ask if the truck had come yet. He said no, and affably gave me more information: it is a red Toyota with a single cab. So I asked the driver of each red Toyota with a single cab if they were with Expreco. No luck. At 3 I asked the guard again, who said that Expreco had arrived shortly after 1. Naïveté: middling.

Day 4: My supervisor had to come into Gracias as well today, but first we went together to talk to an acquaintance of hers who has connections to Expreco. He agreed to call me when the truck arrived. Feeling skeptical, I went at 1pm to the location where I had waited the previous three days, to make sure of things. And, lo and behold, there it was! The red Toyota pickup with one cab; no uniform, no identifier. And my contact who was supposed to call me was still on his lunch break. Naïveté: reasonable.

I think I’ve learned a lesson, but I’m not sure what that lesson is. Be patient? Persistent? Don’t have too much pride to loiter on a street corner for 4 hours? (It’s quite odd for a gringa to do that, although pretty normal to see a Honduran man relaxing on the corner.) It’s funny to feel such a sense of victory over sending 3 soil samples to a laboratory, but I guess that’s all part of life here in Honduras.

¡Que barbaridad!

This is a fun phrase to use - ¡que barbaridad! It looks like "what barbarity!" although my dictionary translates it as, "what nonsense!" or "what an atrocity!" Let me share a few barbaridades with you:

1. Cold - People keep telling me that since I'm Canadian, I ought to have no problem with the cold fronts that come through La Campa during the colder months. It's true that Canadian winters are significantly colder than Honduran winters, but there we have indoor heating systems, and houses that seal (more or less). Although the temperature here has not dropped below 10C, I believe that I have been colder here in La Campa than I have been in most Canadian winters since there is no way to warm up unless you go to bed. However, I don't have the language to explain how cold it actually gets in Canada. On the coldest days, I get asked, "Is it this cold in Canada?" And I say yes, but can't describe it, because they've already appropriated the coldest words for the weather here: helado, hielo. Both words are related to ice. As a noun, helado means ice cream!

2. Young men - Young men, and occasionally older men as well can be a real nuisance. Although I am now a (mostly) normal appearance in La Campa, many young man still like to stare at me as I walk past, or make comments to each other, or make the sound that is the equivalent of a whistle, or practice a few phrases of English ("hey baby" is popular). And last week I got a text from an unknown asking me to be his girlfriend. I ignored the text, so he phoned me the next day, saying he was my admirer. So I hung up. Luckily, I've had no other propositions.

3. Dust - It's dry. No proper rain since December 1. The roads are made of dirt. Cars drive on them regularly. The roads are rarely flat, so the cars sometimes spin their wheels while trying to climb the hill. These are perfect conditions for the formation of dust. The dust outside my house is probably close to an inch thick in places, but I've walked through two inches of it. I've never understood why dusting a house daily is necessary in many old books that I've read, but now I can understand the purpose. Items that I used in the morning feel grainy by night.

4. Insects - I'm normally not bothered by insects. At university, I was the one to get rid of any unwanted little friend. I'm still not bothered, exactly. A disgusted fascination is more accurate. Large flat spiders who run really fast, and whose legs detach remarkably easily if you don't aim the boot right. The odd cockroach or two. Or a long, narrow unknown bug, approximately the size and shape of a highlighter, with pincers. The little girls next door called it an animal, not an insect.

5. Disappearance of soil samples - Back in November, five people from a nearby village collected soil samples to be sent to a laboratory for a nutrient analysis. They were boxed up properly, taked to the shipping company in Gracias, and shipped. Fast forward to January, when I called the laboratory to ask why I hadn't received the results yet. They told me they never received them. So I called the shipping company, and asked if they could track where the package had gone. No help from them. So now these samples need to be taken another time.

¡Que barbaridad!

Country Mouse Visits the City

The country mouse lives in La Campa, a tranquil rural town with about 400 to 500 people well dispersed throughout a lovely valley. However, most of the country mouse's fellow MCC workers live in the cities. After Christmas, the country mouse ventured out of her comfort zone to visit some of these city friends. Her experiences were rich and exciting, and completely outside of the zone of comfort that she had developed over the previous months in the campo.

The country mouse met up with a city mouse friend in front of the main church in Tegucigalpa. While waiting for her friend, the country mouse looked around the bustling plaza, and estimated that there were more people in that small area than people who live in the entire town of La Campa. The two mice boarded a rapidito (a 16 person van/bus) to go to the colonia (neighbourhood) where the city mouse lives. The roads were full of vehicles going in all directions, with no care about pedestrians. The country mouse is accustomed to the streets of La Campa, where she can stroll down the centre of the road without a care. She felt overwhelmed by the noise and bustle and was relieved to arrive in the colonia, which had a more rural atmosphere.

The country mouse is accustomed to going to bed at 8:30, or 9pm at the latest. In the city, this is prime evening fun time. The young mice from the colonia like to get together and watch movies in the evening, or perhaps head out to a fair, not going to bed until 11pm. When the group of young mice went out to the fair, the country mouse couldn't help remembering all the warnings she had received about the dangers of venturing through Tegucigalpa after dark. But all the other mice had no qualms, so along she went. The country mouse had lots of fun, but was quite ready to go to bed by the time they all got back to the colonia.

The country mouse eats tortillas three times a day, and beans and eggs at least twice a day. Her fast metabolism likes this diet. In the city, she ate toast for breakfast, and the tortillas at supper were paper thin, instead of 1/4 inch thick - not filling at all!

The country mouse admits to having cravings for food that she enjoys from living in Canada. Recently she dreamed of baking powder biscuits with cream of tomato soup. Since there is only one or two ovens in La Campa, the country mouse could not fulfil this dream. So when she was at the MCC office in San Pedro Sula, she took advantage of the oven, and enjoyed big, fluffy biscuits.

There are not many young adult mice in the country, as the country mouse has found out. There are limited work and study opportunities, so the young mice go to the city. The country mouse spends her free time with grandmothers, young children, and a couple of teenagers. She was rather surprised at the vibrant social life with other young people that her city mouse friend enjoys.

The country mouse returned to her small town yesterday afternoon. She was happy to go to bed at 8:30, and to get up and eat 4 thick, hot tortillas with beans for breakfast. Only roosters disturbed her sleep, as normal. She thoroughly enjoyed her time in the city, realizing, however, that her experiences were only from one perspective. She had a wonderful time with her other MCC workers. Despite the differences between the city and the country, she enjoyed being with other people experiencing many of the same difficulties that she is.