I Hope

December 31^st, 2011

            Every new year people around the world are filled with the hope that they will be able to kick that bad habit or shed those few extra pounds, because as the calendar page flips to a new year they also hope to turn a page in their own lives. I myself could possibly be at a turning point in my life as my loyal blog readers know concerning the recent events in Honduras. For those of you who have made a new years resolution to visit my blog more often (great resolution!) here is a quick update… There is a lot of insecurity here in Honduras right now due to a corrupt police/government in cahoots with powerful drug trafficking gangs. This current situation has led to much violence throughout the country however most is focused in the two main cities of San Pedro Sula and the capital of Tegucigalpa. With all of this violence Peace Corps here in Honduras has decided to pull out all of its volunteers for at least a month while they reevaluate things here in Honduras, meaning that my time here in Honduras as a PCV could be over. That is of course if I did not have hope to return, which as Andy from the movie The Shawshank Redemption reminds us, “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” Hope is an interesting thing, just as light works best to illuminate the darkness; hope works best in times of great need.

            There is a time of great need right now in Honduras and for many of its citizens there seems to be little or no hope, their government is corrupt, their police are corrupt, their army is corrupt, and the drug running gangs rule with guns and an organized crime mindset and all of the people know it. The situation seems to have no solution in sight, especially with midterm elections coming up in this year which are sure to be ugly. Yet everyday throughout my interactions with these Hondurans, they still have smiles on their faces and an optimistic outlook. Why? Because they have hope, they must have seen/heard the following exchange from Shawshank:

Andy: There's something inside... that they can't get to, that they can't touch. That's yours.
Red: What're you talking about?
Andy: Hope.

The people here know that without the hope that they carry with them they will literally have nothing and they also know that hope for a better future is their best weapon against fighting drugs, gangs, and corruption.

            A few weeks before Christmas, as I was walking around town one day I noticed up on the highest point that overlooks the town a medal structure being erected. I wondered what it was as it seemed like a large medal pole (festivus maybe?), I eventually wandered over there and found out that it was in fact a large medal Christmas tree set up with lights overlooking the town. I enquired as to why the tree was being put up here in this spot and was told the reason was the night before, the retiring Bishop of Santa Rosa (a man who has always spoken up for the poor and hopeless), had given a sermon in which he told the people that they needed a large Christmas tree that overlooks the town for one reason. That one reason being so that people can look up to it and find hope in its light and its message of the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ coming for us.

Tree of Hope as I like to call it.

            I am not sure if I will be able to come back here to Honduras to continue to work with, learn from, and help these people but I do know that I have hope that I can return. I have been won over by the people of my town and the people in Honduras in general; they have opened their arms, their doors, and their hearts to me and have accepted me as one of their own. It does not feel good that we have to leave during a time when these people need us most but as Red says towards the end of the movie (quote is only slightly altered to reflex my situation…), “I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend[s], and shake [their] hand[s]. I hope the [Atlantic] is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.” Just as Red makes it to see his friend I hope that I can return as well. I hope.

Top Ten RPF

December 30^th, 2011

            Again I am slacking on the Random Post Friday, but I mean give me a break it is the holiday season. In the spirit of the holiday season and the New Year and all of those great top ten lists that seem to appear around this time of the year I think I am going to give you all a top ten list. The big issue of making a top ten list however is that:

A) you have to come up with a topic

B) you have to come up with 10 things in this list

C) you have to put them in an order that makes sense

So I have gained a lot of respect for the writers on Dave Letterman who do this every night (I think…?). I have literally been thinking about what my topic should be for at least a week, ever since I decided that I was going to write a top ten, and I still have no good ideas. My first idea was that I could go through my blogs and repost my top ten blogs, that idea then transformed into I could make a list of my top ten RPF’s however I do not have ten RPF’s (only at 9, this would be number 10) to choose from. Which leads me to the current predicament being that I have not gotten past the first step of the “how to make a top ten list.” Finally, I went to my last resort and started asking other people and I got in a conversation with Michael Wille (yes from washing duty fame). I threw a few ideas off of him and finally came up with the idea of doing a top ten list of things that I miss about the United States. So without further ado, here it is:

11. Drying Machine (BONUS): Just because I am sick of having to time my laundry around when there is going to be enough time for my clothes to dry in the sun as well as around a time when my host family is not using the washing machine or the clotheslines. And yes this is on here because I have been having trouble getting this perfect storm to work lately, how long you ask? I am currently around 3 weeks without doing the wash, don’t judge me please.

10. Flushing toilet paper down the toilet: Now this is not really a big deal or anything I just think after six months it is going to be cool to be able to flush toilet paper down the toilet instead of placing it in a garbage can next to the toilet.

9. Punctuality: I believe I have previously discussed the lack of punctuality here in Honduras and being from the Dave Stephens school of thought that if you are not 5 minutes early you are late (for me it is more like 20 minutes early in most cases) obviously Hondurans concept of time bugs me sometimes. For example, I was walking home past the local postal office the other day at noon. The lady who works there stopped me to tell me that I had a package and that if I came back in the afternoon she could give it to me because she was about to eat lunch. I of course did not have a problem with that as I was also going to eat. I showed up that afternoon two hours later at a little bit after 2 in the afternoon only to be told that I needed to come back in the afternoon because the lady had still not eaten. Now what she was doing for those 2 hours is anyones guess but to finish the story, I came back another 2 hours later at 4 and was finally able to pick up my packages. So needless to say it is going to be cool to be in the States when 2 o’clock means 2 o’clock.

8. Snow/seasons: I have always been a lover of snow and I do not think I am surprising anyone when I say that Honduras is lacking snow so I miss the snow. I also miss seasons, you know the changing of the weather. I have been in Honduras for almost half a year and the weather has basically been all the same usually about 70 degrees and sunny or rainy. It is nice weather don’t get me wrong but I like seeing the leaves change and snow fall.

7. Lack of different cultures: I think as Americans we really take for granted just how many cultures we have in the States and just how cool that is. Here in Honduras everyone is Honduran, that may sound like an obvious statement and that is because it is. What that means is that everyone looks the same, talks the same way, and does the same things it can get a little boring and repetitive after a while. I am really excited to just be able to see an international airport with so many different types of people.

6. American movies and TV: So it is possible to stay up on American movies and TV while down here in Honduras but it is really hard, we were able to see the new Harry Potter movie that came out during our training but other than that I have no idea what movies have come out during the past year. On the same note, I have no idea what is going on in American TV. As a huge Office fan it has been a little tough not being able to follow the series as closely as I have in the past.

5. American food: While I really do enjoy the food down here in Honduras there just is not much variety and everyone knows that variety is the spice of life (same exact issue as the lack of more than one culture). I am really excited to each all of the typical American foods while I am back. I dropped about 25 pound off my survival pouch (aka weight I put on before leaving because I had an excuse to eat) and lost 4 belt loops in my time here in Honduras so I am excited to see how fast that balloons up once I am back in the States.

4. Chicago sports: It has not really been a banner year in Chicago this year and has mostly been filled with disappointment since I left. Still I have missed those Sunday afternoons screaming at the television about why the Bears just ran a screen pass on 3^rd and 20. Luckily for me I did not have to miss much Bulls games so far because of the NBA lockout (I might have been one of the few people who was kind of rooting for the lockout…).

3. Being able to speak English with basically everyone/being able to communicate myself really well: Living in a community where you do not speak the native tongue and are still learning the language can pretty much be described by one word, exhausting. It is really cool that I have been able to learn the language well enough that I do not have to think about what I am going to say before I say it (most of the time) and I can actually  have real conversations with people. None the less it is going to be really cool to be able to speak English with basically everyone. I am not sure if this point can be adequately expressed to anyone who has not lived in a culture where they are speaking a second language; simply put speaking your native language is awesome.

2. Friends: During college you learn (among many other things) to live away from your friends and realize that you can make new friends while still keeping close ties to your old friends. You realize that you can go months without talking to your true friends and then pick up without missing a beat, as if those last few months did not actually happen. You also realize that you true friends will always be around and will make the effort to continue that friendship. During my time in Honduras my friends have done exactly that, they have always kept up with everything that is going on and they have been a true comfort and help to me and I cannot wait to see them soon.

1. Family: Being away from your family, especially during the holidays, makes you realize just how much you actually miss and love them. This whole experience has really showed me first-hand how much I love my family and how much they love me; it has really been a beautiful experience if only for that. They are my everything, they are my support system, they are my family and I love and miss them very much!

Christmas fireworks

December 29^th, 2011

            So now that Christmas has passed by I just wanted to take some time to discuss some of the Christmas/Holiday traditions here in Honduras. So it seemed to me that the real Christmas down here is actually Christmas Eve, the 24^th. On Christmas Eve, all of the parties seemed to take place as opposed to on Christmas day. Now I know that in the States there always does seem to be parties all throughout the week leading up to and week after, however, it just seemed to me that the 25^th (actual Christmas) just did not seem like Christmas. That may have been because I was away from my family for the first time in my life (hard to do, but glad I had this experience) and that there was no snow to put me in the Christmas spirit. With that being said, I celebrated Christmas by working an event with RBC in which we gave some presents to over 100 kids with disabilities as well as provided their families with a bag of food and a meal. It was a good time and a great way to spend a Christmas day.

            Now as far as I witnessed there was no stocking handed out or no waking up on Christmas morning to presents from Santa. I believe what happens is that usually the presents are just given out at random times, at least that is how I handed out my presents to the various people. The big Christmas food here is nacatomales which I am not exactly sure how to explain to everyone but it is basically like a bunch of vegetables, meat, and other stuff put inside some dough. They are delicious. The other real big Christmas food is roasted pigs which are also really good. My host dad’s mom cooked 6 pigs and had to stay up all night watching the stove, so yea they take the roasting of the Christmas pig pretty serious.

            The last big Christmas and also New Year’s thing from what I have been told is the setting off of fireworks. Now when you hear fireworks, you most likely like I did, think of fireworks like our 4^th of July fireworks. However, here in Honduras most of the fireworks that I have seen heard are literally just loud noises (I DON’T KNOW WHAT WE ARE YELLING ABOUT!) plus smoke. Usually fireworks like these are set off on a normal day and it is totally not uncommon to hear at basically all hours of the day, on Christmas though, the fireworks were taken to another level. Basically all day on the 24^th fireworks were being shot off, and lots of them and they all came to a crescendo at midnight on the 24^th (or should I say the 25^th?). The amount of fireworks that were set off at midnight really was amazing and made me feel as though I was in a war zone… and no thankfully I have never been in a warzone.

Great Article

Great article from the Washington Post that really gives a clear picture about what is really happening here in Honduras.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/americas/grim-toll-as-cocaine-trade-expands-in-honduras/2011/11/08/gIQAYVvOJP_story.html

Merry Christmas/Feliz Navidad

Merry Christmas to all/Feliz Navidad a todos!