San Pedro hasta Nueva Suyapa

I thought I would quit being obscure and actually write something more direct, though I am working on more creative writing type pieces about my experiences; explanations are good too. But, you can look forward to those as they come.

I am finally in Nueva Suyapa, the neighborhood in Tegucigalpa where I am working and living and it feels very good. I am living very close to some friends from Calvin as well, which is nice. I guess, as reuniting with a place that I loved and haven't been in 4+ years would do to me. I'm sure I will write more about what I specifically like about it in many different forms. What I really love is the random disorganized organization of the houses here, they seem to be built with whatever is available wherever there is space, responding either to already existing streets or paths, or creating new ones, based on their location. I guess it, (man the words in English are not coming so easy... I guess when i add a couple spanish ones a few english ones drop out or something) I guess it signifies what I love so much about many developing countries, but about Honduras specifically, the organic creation of something that people contribute to little by little, without having as much of a specific plan, making the most of the opportunities they have and the things they have around them. Now, there are good and bad aspects to this quality, as a small conversation with a coworker indicated, but for now, I choose to enjoy it.

Getting to Nueva Suyapa, the colonia up on a hill where I am living and working, has been a long time coming. I would like to talk a bit to the experiences I had in the past week, as we went to many places, and learned about the work of many good organizations, most of which are partnering with MCC.

After our stay in Copan we went to San Pedro Sula for training. Us three SALTers made good use of the office, having dance parties and watching movies. We were told that we managed to turn it into a college dorm. While there we visited the organization/project called the Mama project which is the partner organization that MCC Honduras spends a good amount of their time, volunteers and money on. MAMA stands for Mujeres Amigas Miles Apart. They are a very diverse organization that does many things in San Pedro Sula and surrounding areas, but what they started for was to help and support children and youth, specifically marginalized youth. I was impressed to hear the headway they had made in a dangerous, gang controlled neighborhood called Seis de Mayo. The gang activity is still very present, as every business, taxi bus that enters has t0o pay them a certain amount to be there...and there is more...but they have managed to reduce the violence quite a bit. A story that indicates their presence in the community is that a group of guys from the gang stole something from their van, before they saw the logo, later someone noticed the logo, and they brought the item back to the organization.

We were able to see an after school program for children with learning disabilities that encouraged tactile and experience based learning, and a pretty sweet language learning lab where the kids get to learn via Rosetta Stone and a US tutor via skype. I was impressed.

We also went to a farm of the Mama Project, where a couple with MCC is doing a 3 year volunteer stint. It is very refreshing to be out there after being in a smoggy city. The original focus was tilapia, which they take care of and sell; they have about four tilapia ponds, with quite a few tilapia, I decided I was going to shed my vegetarianism at that moment to eat it, and it was good. They also have many fruit trees, quite a few animals and some vegetables. While there, there was quite a storm during the night, and it felt like a pre-apocalyptic experience...not really, but I definitely felt like worse things were going to happen than did. The lightning seemed so close, and the tin roof made it so loud.

After this experience...we were on the road again to La Campa, where another individual from our group, Micheal will be working. The ride was OK but the arrival better. La Campa is beautiful, amidst an amazing mountain range where the highest mountain in Honduras, Celaque is. The town is very quaint, surrounded by cliffs and mountains, quite an up and coming vacation spot, I think. That area is where the indigenous tribe, Lenca originated. Typical to the Lenca is a beautiful hand made pottery; which we were able to see made very quickly as if it was super easy, before our eyes. She was able to create an anafre, out of just a block of clay in about ten minutes, I was super super impressed. Anafre is a Honduran version of fondu, I would say, beans and cheese, the most mild and well liked Honduran cheese quesillo and refried beans, and sometimes chorizo burning over a flame, sometimes a candle in this dish called an anafre, which is made specifically for this type of appetizer; it is eaten with tortilla chips. I love it, but love the anfre even more, and think, I love watching someone make an anafre dish even more. She also made a couple small vases, about one minute each. I am writing something about that, and so hope to have that ready some time when I find time to write about all these things I want to.

I will add to this blog more, or mabe just have a blog about my trip to Teguc., actually, just read about that part in nice things, and I just wanted to say a bit about my time in the orphanage -- It is an orphanage for children with AIDS and affected by AIDS, and is a well run, joyful place amongst much heartbreak, and much potential heartbreak. These children are well loved though they have to deal with their fair share of suffering --- one particular child, Hector, who was very could at making friends immediately and who I connected with, has very low platelets, which is a constant problem, currently has pneumonia, sores in a few places on his face and can eat casi nada (almost nothing). A hard life, and it did make me sad to wonder how long this beautiful child had to live. I will post a picture of me and him and his favorite Tia, because we took them to the hospital in Teguc when Andrew and Amanda were bringing me to Nueva Suyapa. I did love that place, even though I was there less than 24 hours, and imagine I will be visiting often; it is on a little mountain and has a beautiful view, and is a little away from all the noise of city life, and is only 45 minutes or so away. I don't know how often I will just go down describing events like this, but I figured it would be good to know the specifics, things I am not good at and don't usually connect to people on, but other people do, so I thought I'd include them. I might add more to this about La Campa too.