.: Week 9 Report

It’s currently Semana Santa (Holy Week) and Tegucigalpa is slowly shutting down in preparation for Easter.  Businesses started closing yesterday and today the public transportaion stops running.  Everybody who works in the city hightails it for the coast during this week so the city could qualify as ghost-town status.  It’s kind of nice to experience a quieter Tegucigalpa… not so many car horns, yelling, people in general.  Some of us left the city for Semana Santa and others didn’t.  We just arrived back in Tegucigalpa on Friday night after our 2 weeks in Cofradia and our week of Spring Break.  Cofradia was a challenging and tiring experience for most of us, but we learned a lot.  We had the opportunity to visit a lot of places and talk to many interesting people.  Plus, we had the chance to get to know another family in Honduras!  While in Cofradia, we had to choose one of the 6 topics that we covered during the 2 weeks and prepare a group presentation.  We had the option of : Land, Maquilas, Banana Plantations, Gangs, Immigration, and the Role of the Church.  We gave those presentations on Tuesday of this week and had a good, long day of discussion and learning.  Our presentations wrapped up our 3rd class (except for the 15 page paper we have due next week!) and so we start our 4th and final class on Monday. 

With only 5 weeks left on the clock, many of us are starting to think about going home and what kind of challenges we will be facing.  We are considering what we can do to make this experience in Honduras a lifechanging one, not just a good memory.  We struggle with the knowledge we have gained from this experience and how to apply it to our own lives.  Some of us will go home to graduate and make plans for “life after college.” What if we thought we knew what we wanted to do but because of our experience here, now we don’t know?  Where do we go from here?  Even if we can’t quite articulate them, or don’t want to try, all of us are asking big questions and sometimes it’s hard to admit that we don’t know the answers.  Please pray for us in these last weeks as we struggle and grow and learn together.  Pray that God would give us patience and love for each other, and the self-control to keep our hearts and minds here as we anticipate heading home.  Thank you for your support and prayers!  Despite whatever challenges or difficulties we will have transitioning home, we are excited to be there when the time comes!

Until next time…

.: an origional title here.

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Well, we are still in Honduras and it is spring-time(ish) in Los Estados Unidos, but here in Honduras it is HOT! we are currently in San Pedro Sula, a department of Honduras about four hours from Tegucigalpa. We are all staying in groups of 4-5 students with different families throughout the community.  This visit will be for this week and also for the week after next (next week is spring break for us).  Here we are studying maquillas, gangs, and land rights (among other things the week after next). 

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One of the highlights for me has been digging into the deep pros and cons of the maquilla (factories here which provide thousands of jobs but also export the jobs from the States). As we are studying NAFTA and CAFTA we are beginning to wrestle through what are better and best development theories and how they directly affect maquilla workers here. 

One cool thing about this semester has been living with three different families (and experiencing the different life styles of people living throughout the country).  For the majority of the semester we live in Tegucigalpa, but for about a week and a half total we live in Olancho and we will be here in San Pedro for two weeks.  I am living with four other girls in a small house which seems to be bursting with energy most of the time. Our mom feeds us loads of rice, beans and eggs (traditional Honduran cuisine) which I惴 sure we will never get sick of.

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.: 、ienvenidos a Honduras!

So, this is the first update for the 2007 spring development class.  We have been in Honduras now for almost two weeks and I think we are all starting to get the hang of things down here.  For those of you reading this from the Great North (almost everything is north of here, even California) we have been experiencing daily highs of 83 degrees and nightly lows of around 60.  While some of us have been suffering the effects of sunburns, none of us miss the snow you are all experiencing.

an overview of Tegucigalpa:

There have been plenty of new experiences to enjoy such as living with a Honduran family, trying all sorts of food, celebrating birthdays Honduran style, taking a trip to the mountains, meeting our tutors, and getting to know our fellow students in the group.  Our first few days were spent getting to know each other, our families, and our new city, Tegucigalpa.  Our first weekend here we went to La Tigre--a National Park in Honduras located in the mountains.  After getting out to push the van up the last few hills, we made it to the retreat center where we spent the better part of two days talking, eating good food, going for a hike, and singing around a campfire.

our group in La Tigre:

La Tigre es muy bonita!

Last week was our first full week of class.  We all have Spanish class in the morning for three hours and then development class in the afternoon. Most of us are struggling along with Spanish class although every day it gets easier.  Last Wednesday was our first visit to Nueva Suyapa, the neighborhood where Kurt and Joanne live.  Our tutors also live in this neighborhood. 

This past weekend we went to Agafam with our tutors.  Agafam is a fair-carnival that runs for a week every year near the neighborhood our tutors live in.  NOt only did we get to learn the Spanish names for all the animals, we also got to know our tutors a bit more.  In the afternoon we went to Picacho, a giant statue of Jesus which overlooks the city of Tegucigalpa.  The view from there was amazing!

some of our students and tutors at AGAFAM:

Picacho:

Although some of us have been struggling with colds, adjusting to Honduran food, hearing Spanish all the time, waking up early (sometimes to roosters, babies, or dogs) we are having a lot of fun and learning many many things.  This coming weekend is open for us to travel or hang around the city.  Many of us are planning on traveling to places in the area and looking forward to exploring!