a brief pause

Tomorrow I'm leaving for La Esperanza, a small village in the mountains in northwestern Honduras. I'll be there for about a week on a medical trip with students from Duke's med school. I think I'll mostly be helping with translating. The students will be running an outpatient clinic. Then we'll head to Copan for a few days for more doctoring.

In Esperanza, we'll be living in the community. No electricity, no water, no internet. So no blog updates for awhile. But (hopefully) lots of good stuff to come. Stay tuned.

Roadside politics

More painted political posters. I can't get enough of these. And they're everywhere. I haven't been able to snag a photo of my favorite one. It's on the side of the highway coming into Tegus and says "Fidel Castro". Giant white letters on a maroon background. Starting to fade (it's really evocative).

The neighborhood

So this is where the Heifer office is. It's the regional office for Meso-America (basically Central America and Haiti). Tim works here and I read The New York Times online and blog. We're in a residential section of Tegucigalpa. A little quieter than other parts of the city. 

Street signs, pt. 2

Street signs, pt. 1

Not easy to find in the city. There are only a few stop signs and almost no posted speed limits. That says a lot about driving here in Tegus.

The mod squad eats lunch, pt. 2

The mod squad eats lunch, pt. 1

Lunch today at the Heifer Honduras office. Here's who I spend all my time with.

Gloria

Tim

Nehemias

From the bottom up

So apparently liberation theology is still controversial. Last week, the Wheelers hosted a meeting of the Honduran Presbytery at their retreat space, Villa Gracia. A few American Presbyterians, too. I got to sit in on some of the conversations as the token atheist. Pretty interesting. One of the Honduran pastors condemned liberation theology as communism. A lot of them weren't interested in using the Church as in instrument for social change. Not separation of Church and State, but separation of Church and social activism. The Americans seemed to be a lot more interested in getting involved in community development. 

I remember walking through some of the stations of the cross in Nueva San Ysidro. The people there read from the Bible, and also from a book that related scripture, poverty, food sovereignty and human rights. I'm pretty sure they weren't communists. Just an impoverished group of spiritual people working hard to change their situation. Liberation theology.

La Tigra

Visited Parque Nacional La Tigra on Friday afternoon, about 45 minutes outside the city. Took a guided hike to the top of a mountain. La Tigra is a cloud forest, and there were a few cool native plants. Giant ferns and fairy tale-sized trees. Tropical vines and thick layers of moss. There were also a bunch of avocado trees, which attract quetzals (who eat the unripe avocados). We heard them, but didn't see any. Also, despite the park's promising name, no tigers.

Another fast food nation

All of the usual suspects are here in Tegucigalpa. McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut, Dunkin Donuts, Baskin Robbins. Also, I was pretty surprised to see a Church's Chicken and a Bojangle's. The sign outside of Tegus' Ruby Tuesday says "Simple fresh American dining." Good to know we're only exporting our finest cuisine....

for athena

"Who loves orange soda? Kel loves orange soda."

Remember "Kenan & Kel"? I always felt bad for Kel. Kenan's on SNL, hanging out with famous people and probably making lots of money. But where's Kel? I guess drinking all of that orange soda didn't work out so well. 

Here's the Honduran version of Kel's beloved beverage. I'm pretty sure orange soda tastes the same everywhere.

And your bird can sing

So I think I finally know more Spanish than the bird. Which is good. 

Lately in the morning, instead of just saying "buenos dias" and imitating the coffee pot bubbling, the bird has been singing. "Amazing Grace." He's off key and doesn't know all the words, but I give him points for effort. He's very enthusiastic.  And loud.

Iguanas

Besides fruit and tortillas, you can also buy iguanas on the side of the road. For cheap. People buy them and make them into soup. Gloria bought these guys and set them free near the house. They come with their hands and feet tied together and their jaws sewn shut. 

On the road

I spent the ride back from Nacaome to Tegucigalpa leaning out of the window, trying to take some decent photos.

Southern scenery.

A roadside fruit stand.

Painted political posters on the side of a cliff. 

So a few posts ago I mentioned how there are all these tenacious street vendors, mostly kids, who run along the side of the highway hocking fresh fruit and tortillas. On the way back from Nacaome, the bus pulled over and a group of kids mobbed us. They were impressively aggressive, running right up to the bus and sticking their hands in the open windows.

En la iglesia

The new church was simple and small. The service was pretty standard, although it felt like we did a lot of standing. Hymns, prayers, a sermon. A keyboard and a guitar. The Bible sounds a lot more interesting in Spanish.

Nacaome

I forgot how brutal the sun is in Southern Honduras. Here's Nacaome, the town where the newly minted church is. Small, dusty, dry. The whole place felt tired, like the sun had drained all the energy out of the buildings and the people. 

Town and country

On Wednesday, I went with Tim, Gloria and a bunch of Presbyterian pastors to Southern Honduras for the opening of a new church. The drive in the Heifer bus took us past some really dramatic scenery, from crowded hills in Tegucigalpa to empty ones in Nacaome.

drama

Who remembers their Modern European History class? The Catholic church selling indulgences? Well it's Martin Luther time in Honduras. Here's the newspaper in Tegucigalpa, which just ran a  three part series on the current church drama in the country. The headlines read, "Crude auction with Christian faith" and "The business of faith." A new church is gaining popularity in Tegucigalpa, a Brazilian import. It offers people the chance to buy their way into Heaven, just like the Catholic church did through the selling of indulgences pre-Reformation. A lot of poor people in the articles sold their homes and land to give tons of money to the church. And, of course, the people behind this scheme are getting rich exploiting poor Hondurans' faith. These articles are causing a big stir and some people are calling on the government to intervene. Pretty interesting stuff.

breakfast

If you ordered el desayuno tipico in Honduras, this is exactly what you'd get. This was breakfast at the hotel in Copan. Scrambled eggs, refried beans, fried plantains, a chunk of cheese, warm tortillas and melted butter to pour over it all.

Synecdoche, bus

 

The long and winding road

The bus ride from Copan to Tegucigalpa is a long 7 hours on one of Honduras' main highways, CA- 5. Just one lane in each direction, and lots of road blocks where police check for drivers' licenses and drugs. We stopped in San Pedro Sula to drop off the group at the airport. The parking lot was full of buses painted with church and NGO logos.

Here's a typical rest stop. Bathrooms, restaurant, souvenir shop.

The best part about driving on the highway in Honduras is construction. Since there's only one lane in each direction, you have to take turns driving over a section of road that's being worked on. Traffic backs up for kilometers waiting to drive through a construction zone. Little kids weave in and out of the backed-up lane, selling fresh cut fruit in baggies and hot tortillas.