Divertirse+Solidarity

Is it cheating if I use a Spanish verb? Divertirse = to have fun, or enjoy oneself. This is something that I have definitely been doing in Honduras, whether with CASM, the communities, or with my host family during weekend adventures.

A smaller turnout

I have mostly been working with CASM´s women´s project in the past few weeks; we have had three more organizational meetings with the women since I last wrote, successfully involving approximately 100 more women in the movement! My counterpart, Delmis, says that she would love to see the face of the municipality when all of these women we are helping to organize come in mass to Trascerros to elect a women´s coordinator! The coordinator will be both nominated  and elected by the women in a democratic proceeding. Right now, in addition to organizing the women, we are requesting nominations from the communities. The coordinator must not only have the professional skills to work in the municipality, but, more importantly, a passion for the campesino women and an empathetic understanding of the challenges they face. In these meetings the women have emphasized that the coordinator elected must visit the communities and continue training women, not just simply sit in the municipality office. I hope that whoever is elected will be able to truly fulfill all of these qualifications!

"If we don´t defend our rights, no one will!"

During one of these meetings, one of the community women mentioned that she was grateful that CASM was helping to organize them, but more importantly she wanted to continue receiving training in women´s rights, because “if we don´t defend our rights, no one will!” Honestly, sometimes working with the women feels like I´ve gone back in time to the suffrage movement. Not that the women here don´t have the right to vote (they do) but as I´ve written before, their social status lacks the autonomy and liberties that many women, including myself, may take for granted. Poverty also plays a large role in this situation, as lack of resources and education make it difficult for someone to even be aware of their rights or potential for political participation. History also plays a part. This past weekend I had the opportunity to visit the colonial town of Gracias, Lempira (more on this later!) and while in a cultural museum I came across this informative plaque that read,

The role of women has hardly evolved in Coloscua. In colonial society, the center of the family and the person who exercised authority was the man. Women were supposedly inferior and remained under the command of a man for their entire life. Much later, in the fourteenth century, women of upper class were considered decorative items, and learned different arts in order to make their environment more delightful. You may not notice, but the situation of rural women is practically unchanged: they are in charge of the care of the family, of the small animals, and the land closest to their home. They won their right to vote in 1954, thanks to Laura Vigil, wife of President Julio Lozano Diaz.

In short, despite having suffrage since the 1950´s, the situation of women has hardly changed!

Okay, so maybe the status of women in Honduras isn´t such a fun or uplifting subject, but it doesn´t stop the women from enjoying themselves! I think humor is one of the Honduran people´s best qualities. Delmis is especially good at cracking jokes with the community women, and I´ve shared many laughs in our meetings as a result. It´s hard to capture smiles with a camera here (most people prefer to appear serious, especially the men) but I was able to catch a few from our meeting in the Terreritos community….

In other news...I´ve been thinking a lot recently about the DWYL concept that has been trending lately (for you hipsters who are too cool for trendy lingo, DWYL = Do What You Love). To preface, my thoughts have been influenced a lot by this fabulous article about why DWYL is problematic… https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/01/in-the-name-of-love/

DWYL expresses the idea that what you do for work should be what you love, and that you´ll find happiness and satisfaction in that. It´s something that every recent college graduate sets out to do as they try to find work in their dream job. And it´s something I partially set out to do when I came to Honduras, to find out if community development work would be something I would love and want to pursue as a future career. And since my arrival I have had so many thoughts about what I would do when I get back to the States.

I´m not sure exactly when I had the realization, but now a month into my Honduras experience, I eventually came to the conclusion that my work, be it DWYL or otherwise, is not what is going to bring me ultimate happiness. Maybe it was from being around the people in the communities, whose work is certainly not something that they necessarily love but more a means to survive and provide for themselves. And yet, even despite poverty and insecurity, they seem happy! I think a lot of that happiness comes from their faith…they can rejoice even when they are struggling.

I think the whole idea of "finding happiness" "pursuing happiness" etc. is a myth. You don´t go on the search for happiness and find it somewhere waiting for you. You don´t find it in the perfect job.  You INVITE it into your life, be it through your faith, your daily attitude, through the people that you choose to spend time with, in the appreciation for the small daily things that make you smile. Maybe if we'd stop trying so hard to find happiness we'd see that it was actually there all the time but we were blind to it! 

All that being said, here are some snapshots of the fun I´ve managed to have in Honduras so far...

My little host brother and I dancing in the rain

Weeding in a coffee nursery

Checking out a colonial fortress. Gracias, Lempira

Horse riding in the Barranco community

A visit to the botanical gardens. Gracias, Lempira

Admiring living statues. Gracias, Lempira

Getting to love on community babies like Dalila

Learning how to grind corn for tortillas

"Bridging" the divide between cultures

Meeting inspiring people like Melissa Elvir, a craftswoman. She studied to become a secretary but didn´t like working in an office. Now, in addition to making beautiful crafts with her husband, she teaches art workshops to people with disabilities and children, because art was her refuge when she had trouble walking as a child.
"We don´t use machines. We want to preserve this art tradition, so everything is done by hand." 
- Gracias, Lempira

And, of course, there´s never a dull moment with my zanquero friends! I never could have imagined them as being a part of my Solidarity Worker experience, but I´m really glad that they are! 

It´s hard to believe that a month has already passed since I came to Honduras! Every day I continue to learn something new, and likewise the language barrier continues to crumble as I become more adjusted to catratcho (thats slang for Honduran haha!) slang and idioms. I am getting to know the communities better, and love being able to recognize and greet the people that I have met. I cant wait to see what the next month has in store!

Finally, I have some very exciting news....there is a rat in the CASM office! In fact, I am terrified that it is going to come and get me as I sit here writing this post! Haha just kidding, that´s not actually the exciting news...the exciting news is that tomorrow we are getting a kitten for the office to rid ourselves of the rat and its smelly sinisterness! I am really looking forward to not only be ratless, but also to have a pet to play with and love in the future! Expect pictures soon....

In Solidarity,

Malinda

Organize+Solidarity

(From the Right): Me, Maximina, and Marli!

Hello! I realize it was only just a few days ago that I last posted, but I am so energized by today’s events that I had to write again! Today we had our first organizational meeting with the women in Zapotales….

Getting there was quite the adventure! We waited about half an hour before we could get a mototaxi (a golfcart like mobile) to carry us to Zapotales. Unfortunately, two other Trascerros women who were supposed to accompany us were unable to attend after all, but me, Marli, and Maximina pressed onward!

About 5 minutes into the trip, the little mototaxi was unable to make it up a big hill. So we proceeded on foot to Zapotales, which probably took about another 25 minutes. I personally loved the chance to walk, although I was worried about our late arrival….

The mototaxi that didn't quite make it....

Two women were waiting for us when we came to the school where we were supposed to meet that afternoon, but the teacher with whom we had spoken earlier had forgotten that this week there were no classes, so no one had left us a key to the building. I can imagine that this would have been a big source of frustration/stress if I had been in the United States….but not in Honduras! Everyone is so flexible, and no one was upset or even slightly irritated at the mix-up…we simply decided to meet somewhere else, and as it turned out, one of the women had a key to the church which worked out perfectly!

For those of you who haven’t visited Latin America, life moves at a much slower pace. We arrived late (45 minutes or so), and there were two women waiting patiently for us in the shade. Thirty minutes later, and we had a total of fifteen women present for the meeting! Although punctuality certainly has its virtues, I thoroughly enjoy how laidback everyone is here. It makes me think about all the times back in the US when I’ve been pressed for time, stressed out about not making it to this or that appointment, etc. But in Honduras, time is rarely “of the essence”…instead, people are! There is always time to visit and to share a conversation before we continue on our way.

While I know that there were other women we had visited last week who were not in attendance today, I was pleased with the overall turnout. Not only were the women there, but many also brought their children. I found myself hoping that the younger teenage girls in attendance, although timid, would really soak up the experience, and benefit from seeing their mothers and grandmothers organizing together.

(I might also add that a husband was in attendance with us as well. While his presence did not deter the other women from sharing and talking with one another, the wife of this man remained silent during the meeting...)

To begin the meeting we had a brief prayer, followed by a small devotional….Genesis 1:27-8 and Galatians 3:26-8. This was an easy way to start out the conversation, by talking about how we are all created equal in God’s eyes. Likewise, while people may not necessarily go to church, everyone I have met so far in Honduras believes in God and looks to their faith for strength in the day to day, so the Bible seems to be a good tool that people respect.

This was followed by some conversational exercises about la autestima, in which the women were able to share what they liked/did not like about themselves. We concluded that even with our imperfections (as everyone has some) we all have a value and a purpose in life, and sometimes our imperfections are even actually our own unique gifts! (Romans 12:4-8)

A small story was also used to help visualize this idea …the story of the man with two pails. The story goes that a man with two pails walked to the river every day to fetch water for his master’s house. Every day he would go, back and forth, but you see one of his pails, the one he always carried in his left hand, had a hole in it and so by the time he would arrive at the house the pail would be less than half full. His neighbors laughed at him for this, and the man became very disheartened, and came to his master saying that he was extremely sorry for not completing his job. But the master told him, “Next time you go to fetch water, take notice of where you walk, and when you come back, tell me what you saw.” So the next day the man goes to fetch the water, and as he returns to the house, he sees the grass and the flowers growing to the left side of the road, whereas to the right, the ground is dry and dusty. When he arrives at the house, he understands – although his pail with the hole did not carry water, it still served a purpose, and brought beauty to the otherwise barren path.

Isn't that a great story??

Finally, the meeting concluded with a conversation about how the women would organize themselves…leading to the election of a president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer. But we also talked about how despite having these representatives, everyone in the group was of equal value and in order for the organization to be successful everyone would need to help support and contribute to its work.

The first meeting of the Zapotales women (and company)!

I was really inspired by the energy that these women brought to the meeting! I can only hope that organizing in other communities proves to be this rewarding. I have heard the Trascerros women talk before about apathy in communities, so while optimistic I know that I could easily experience this problem next week somewhere else. And as I said before, I know that there were women who we visited last week that didn’t make it today to the meeting. But that is not to say that it was a result of apathy. It is really difficult for women to take the time to leave their housework, costly even. During the Zapotales meeting this was also discussed as women were elected to be representatives…several women were nominated but declined as they could not feasibly commit due to their workload. This was especially true for women caring for their younger children.

In reality, this is not that much different from the experiences of women in America. We pick and choose what we can or cannot commit to (sometimes overcommitting at the risk of our own personal health). For the working woman, her responsibilities are often twofold…after her day job, she comes home to a whole other set of responsibilities, aka the “second shift”. This isn’t true of all families (for instance, I had a stay at home dad for most of my childhood years, and to this day I think my parents still do a pretty good job of distributing the house chores fairly amongst themselves), but it is for some.

I am sure I will be writing more as the women’s project progresses, so stay tuned! I will say that our work is under a bit of pressure now…we have been told in other communities that it is important to organize the other women as quickly as possible, before the municipality has the chance to take notice of our efforts and revokes its contract with the Women’s Municipality Office, in which the 7.5% in designated funds for women’s projects would be lost.  Please be praying for these women and our work in the coming months.  

In Solidarity,

Malinda

Share+Solidarity

These past two weeks I have had the opportunity to be involved in CASM’s women’s project. Essentially we are trying to organize women in each community we work with, train them in issues such as human rights and local development, and ultimately empower them to be leaders and a voice for positive change in their communities. CASM is working in partnership with the OMM (Women’s Municipal Office), and the idea is that although CASM does not have funds to support development projects for these women, we can offer training/organization assistance, which will empower women to be able to better petition for and access the funds allotted to them by the municipality (most communities do not even know that these funds exist for their benefit).

Organizational meeting with the women of Trascerros

A committee of women from the community of Trascerros (where our CASM regional office is located), has already been formed and they have volunteered to visit the surrounding communities. These women are the true strength behind this project. Last Wednesday I accompanied a team of the Trascerros women to make house visits and speak with women in the community of Zapotales. The purpose of these visits was to motivate the women to participate in the proposed organized women’s group, and to invite them to participate in the first meeting the following week. If possible, we also sought to speak speak with the women about the topic of autoestima, or self-esteem. 

Self-esteem may seem like a basic idea and perhaps not the most pressing or important one to raise with the women (at least, this was my first reaction to the plan). But in further discussing with Dinora (the CASM technical staff coordinating this project) it appears that the majority of women in these communities have very low self-esteem.

How would you define self-esteem?

At CASM we consider self-esteem as something more than just an opinion about ourselves. Self-esteem is a vital force that allows us to develop the capacity to appreciate ourselves and our self-worth, to have self-respect, to protect ourselves, and defend our rights. It is manifest in all spaces and spheres of our life, allowing us to accept who we are, what we do and feel, motivating certain behaviors, determining our relationships with others, and influencing our appreciation of life in general. So you see self-esteem is more than what we see in the mirror (which actually seems somewhat of a commodity in Honduras…I have noticed that many bathrooms here do not have mirrors). Our self-esteem is not just our appearance, but also our self-perception of our abilities, and how that makes us feel about ourselves in general. But we don’t always have as much control over self-esteem as we may like to think, due to outside influences. Self-esteem also encompasses what value society gives us according to our social class, ethnicity, culture, age, sexual orientation, and gender. It is the worth that our family gives us since our birth and throughout our childhood and adolescence. It is evident in the relationships that we establish with others and in the possibilities that we have available to develop our abilities and potential as human beings.

Talking about self-esteem and feminine identity is an entry point for countering the machismo (aggressive/exaggerated display of masculinity) evident in these communities and Honduran society. During several house visits, women responded to our organized group proposal by saying that they would need to ask their husbands for permission first! Many women are at the beck and call of their spouse, with minimal, if any, autonomy. It is a harsh reality to encounter as a person who grew up with so many strong, independent female mentors.

There were also a couple houses in which we met with the husbands, and had a discussion with both man and woman present. In these cases, I found the discussion with the husband to be very positive…he was supportive of the women’s group idea, agreed with the idea of self-esteem, and happy for his spouse to participate. Yet what I found concerning in these situations was that as unmachismo the husband may have seemed, during these conversations the woman remained completely silent. Later, I asked the Trascerros women what they made of that situation, and their response was that some men have already received training regarding machismo/women’s rights. However, just because a man has been trained, does not mean that a woman has as well, which makes these organized women groups all the more important! Admittedly, I found it very disappointing that a man’s training in this area would not subsequently empower his spouse...doesn’t seem like a very effective result, right? But I must also consider that I am only just scraping the surface of what these domestic relationships are like, and how cultural tradition and historical power structures have reinforced those relationships – in short, there is still a lot for me to learn and to understand! For now I am finding that the current task at hand is to first simply create a space for women to share with one another about themselves and their experiences. To give them the opportunity to reflect and to have an opinion…and eventually act as a result!

Share+Solidarity is the theme for this post. Along with the women in these communities, I too am learning to share more about myself. This sharing is an important part of solidarity work, because it opens up our minds to new possibilities, of different ways of viewing the world. For instance, in addition to my work with the women this past week, I have encountered another gender inequality issue…that of homophobia. If you can imagine how difficult it is for a woman here because of machismo, you can imagine how difficult it would be for someone who is homosexual, being completely countercultural to machismo. There have been a couple instances recently where I have had the opportunity to share with others in Honduras my thoughts on homosexuality, and I think my liberal perspective has been somewhat of a shocker to others at times. While fighting for LGBQT rights is not my purpose for being here, I hope that simply being able to share a different mindset (just as I would in the United States) will contribute to the overall progress being made for human equality. As a wise friend of mine recently advised, progress takes a long time, and may never even be realized in our lifetime. Whether with women’s empowerment, gay rights, poverty, or any other social problem, we can’t judge our success by the problems that remain, but rather by the people who we know we’ve touched. While I know that the results of my current work may not be visible until much later (and this will continue to frustrate me nonetheless!), I look forward to the small daily triumphs during my time here that I will be able to look back on and say, YES, I did make a difference.

Enjoying the beach in Tela with my adopted family

In turn, I cannot express enough how much others have shared with me since my arrival in Honduras! I am continually amazed and grateful for the warmth and hospitality of the people in the communities and my counterparts at CASM. Most memorable was my second weekend in the country, when I visited Tela with Delmis, and met her extended family. It was a wonderful weekend, getting to know the grandmother, brothers, sisters, cousins, and friends of the family.  We played soccer, spent the day at the beach, ate delicious food, talked about movies, swapped stories….it was such an honor to be able to share in their family life. On the other hand, so many things I experienced with them paralleled with what I could easily have been doing in the United States with my own family. So this was also a bittersweet experience, making me homesick and longing for the family trips, the reunions, and the life events that I would be missing while away. Sometimes by sharing we discover not only our differences, but also how similar we really are at the core!

So far I have not been very good at remembering stories to share with you all, and I promise I will try to do better in the future! For now, I’ll leave you with a short story my counterpart Orfelina shared with me this morning.

Alberto with his old biodigestor (bottom left)

First, some background information - The other day, my coworker Orfelina and I went to the home of a man named Alberto where we were going to install a new biodigestor (he was having problems with his old one). While there, I was served coffee and cooked plantain, which I enjoyed while we chatted with Alberto family. Unfortunately, we were not able to install the biodigestor that day, as it seems that the plastic nylon that had been cut for the project was too short (this was the largest biodigestor I had seen so far…approximately 11 meters).

While disappointed that our visit was in vain, we simply agreed to return another day to install it, and Alberto wasn’t fazed one bit by the delay (this patience is something I am definitely going to miss when I return to the States!!). However, last week I was unable to return to the site for installation, due to other commitments with the women’s project.

This morning, before our Monday devotional, Orfelina told me that Alberto had missed me when she returned to install the biodigestor. When I asked her why, she said that he was so pleased when I had accepted and eaten all that his family had offered, as apparently they had received visitors before who had declined such gifts. At the time I didn’t realize it, but finishing that cup of coffee and plantain meant a lot to Alberto and his family that day. The ability to give, especially despite poverty, is a great source of happiness.

Sometimes, it is in the simplest things that we share that make the biggest impressions, and demonstrate the most solidarity. Day by day, I am learning to notice and appreciate these things more, and I hope you will too!

In Solidarity,

Malinda

Listen+Solidarity

                When I started to create this blog I really wrestled with its naming. Since my next six months would be spent as a “Solidarity Worker” in Honduras (click the tab above to learn more!), I wanted to somehow express the idea of solidarity in the name. “Walking in Solidarity” was my first thought, but then I began to think of all the ways in which solidarity could be shown. Walking is just one phrase… I could also say that we “live in solidarity” or “work in solidarity”. Yet, all of these phrases are somewhat vague, and do not fully convey what we are doing specifically that promotes a sense of solidarity. My assumption is it that it is what we do on a day to day basis, the little actions that contribute to the overall demonstration that truly makes up solidarity. So, I've decided to call the blog [verb]+Solidarity, and each post I will select a different action that reflects my experience at the time. Is it cheesy? Maybe. Brilliant? Barely. Honest? Absolutely.

                Interestingly, I began this blog thinking very much like the typical American. Action! I arrived at the airport in San Pedro Sula, Honduras fully ready to dive in and get involved in the work at CASM, my partner organization here. My friends will attest to my “workaholic” ways, and my Go Go Go! mentality. In fact, it’s probably that part of my personality that led me to jump on a plane and spend six months in Central America after only three weeks of preparation. I couldn't stand the thought of not doing something after my graduation, and accepting the Solidarity Worker position did not take much convincing!

                But since my arrival six days ago, I have been quickly humbled. Life here is not as fast-paced as it is in the United States, and rather than diving straight into the culture of Honduras and the work of CASM, I find myself slowly immersing myself into it all, step by step. For instance, although I consider myself to have a good handle on the Spanish language, even claiming professional fluency, being in Honduras has been a real linguistic challenge so far! Hondurans talk much faster than I am accustomed to and there are also many new regional phrases that I am learning as well. As a result, I have found myself listening much more than conversing while in Honduras, as I am absorbing not only information, but also the language itself.

 Being forced to listen like this has made me realize how much I talk in the U.S., and I am starting to wonder how much we are missing by not listening more! I also wonder, in a global context, if we, as Americans, ever give other people around the world a word in edgewise? The United States government does not have a good track record in Central America, that’s for sure! But many people don’t even realize what negative influences we as a country have around the world, and it’s probably because we don’t bother to listen to our global neighbors in the first place. Even with the Latin American studies I have taken in college, I don't think I fully grasped the ways in which our government has used other countries to its advantage like pieces on a chessboard. If anyone is interested in a really eye-opening book that touches on this subject, look no further than Don’t Be Afraid, Gringo by Elvia Alvarado. This compilation of interviews with a Honduran community organizer gives a very honest perspective regarding the United States’ involvement in Honduras (and Central America) historically. I probably never would have heard of this book if it weren’t recommended to me by Don Tatlock of CWS prior to leaving for my trip, so hopefully now that you know about it you’ll read it too! (Clarification: While Elvia’s work is important, it is not the same work that I am doing in Honduras with CASM).

Delmis giving me an overview on CASM

But even aid organizations with good intentions can do damage by imposing their charity and planned projects on people without having listened to their needs first. Listening could help us to actually get to the root of the problem, instead of nursing the symptoms. This is one of the reasons that I applaud the New Community Project (NCP) in their work, because through their learning tours they actually meet with their community partners around the world, and listen to what the true needs are of each. On the learning tour to Nepal this past January, I vividly remember the director of a fair trade workshop being so impressed that our group actually took the time to come spend time with them, and to learn about their work and overall situation. Although they had partners in the United States with whom they sold their fair trade products, they had never been visited by these groups in person! This is how I know that the work of NCP is actually helping people around the world, because it takes the time to LISTEN. (My understanding is that CWS also visits Honduras regularly as well, although I have not accompanied them on a trip.) And now, in Honduras, I am reminded of how imperative listening will be for my contribution to CASM to be successful.

Karen, Maira, and Belkin (3 women closest to me in the photo)
invited me to enjoy a delicious almuerzo (lunch) in their home
today while I was working in the community. 

I know that in these blog posts I will be expected to report on the progress and activity of CASM as it works to improve life in Honduras (which I will), but I want to emphasize from the start that it is not the projects that we should be here for, but the people. Just because a row of plantains is planted, or a latrine is built, does not mean that progress is being made if these projects are not actually helping to empower and enable the people they were built for in the first place! It is my intention that through this blog you will get to know some of the people who live here, their stories, and how these projects affect their lives (and if the projects are not helping, how they think we can improve them!).

These women are also participating in a fish husbandry
project, as seen here in these three tiered fish ponds.

Yesterday was my first visit to a community called El Nuevo Pueblo, where I accompanied Orfelina, a CASM technician, to install a biodigestor in a family’s home. A biodigestor is a really cool piece of technology, that essentially works like a stomach to produce methane gas for an energy resource. Biodigestors greatly reduce the amount of wood used in traditional ovens.

"With this oven I would have to use two loads of wood
every week." - Soliapa, biodigestor owner, Nuevo Pueblo

Fredy aligning the plastic nylon pieces from the inside

The biodigestor we installed was actually the repairing of an older biodigestor’s components that had stopped working after two years, according to Magdaleno. When I asked Magdaleno if he liked his biodigestor, he said yes, and for this reason he is investing in another, which he hopes will last longer as he has built a cement encasing and roof for the new one. (Without protection, biodigestors are more susceptible to being punctured by rocks, branches, and animals.) According to Orfelina, the stove is the most expensive part of the project, costing approximately 800 lempiras (~40 USD). A basic, new biodigestor (including the stove) in total would cost 1200-1300 lempiras (~55-60 USD).

Luckily, Magdaleno and his wife Josefa already have the stove component that connected to their first biodigestor, and so this repair will not be as costly. While I do not know how much the roof and cement work cost them, it seems that the new biodigestor will cost less than $10! This is likely because of the recycled materials used in the project. For example, tire tubes from motorcycles, cars, and bikes, are used to wrap around the PVC pipe and plastic bag. Likewise, PVC pipe can be reused for a variety of purposes so long as they do not have any leaks.

Orfelina and Magdaleno cutting recycled tire tubes

Magdaleno cutting PVC pipe for the biodigestor

The fuel for the biodigestor consists of animal
excrement, water, and other organic material,
which is more economic for the family.

A biodigestor, depending on its size and the number of stoves, can provide as much as 2-3 hours of energy.  CASM hopes to install more biodigestors in its various communities in the future.

Orfelina and the family of Magdaleno preparing
the biodigestor

Afterwards, I visited El Barranco with Orfelina and Delmis, to deliver plantain seeds to the community members. The seeds are huge! They will be planted later in the “microcuencas” (individual family’s parceled gardens) this week, and eventually diversified with other crops such as coffee.

Community members unloading plantain seeds. 

You may notice in these pictures that many hands make light work here in Honduras. This is very true, and it seems that whenever a project needs to be done, at least half a dozen or more people emerge to help out!

The theater group members are called "zanqueros"
because they do all of their acting on stilts!

            
 To end this post, I leave you with the word "guancasco" (pronounced “wahn-kahsko”).This past weekend I had the opportunity to accompany my host father and his dramaturge troupe to San Pedro Sula, where they performed at a FNRP political festival (I can honestly say that this was never what I imagined myself doing my first weekend in Honduras!). FNRP stands for the Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular (National Front of Popular Resistance). While I am still learning more about the political situation in Honduras, and can’t say that I have much of an opinion of any of the political parties here as of yet, the experience did allow me to encounter a Honduran rock band! Yes, I did “listen” to the group and enjoyed their variety of music, but what I loved was what one of their fans told me at the concert….he said that the group’s name was “Café Guancasco” and that guancasco meant the intermixing and exchange of culture, which he demonstrated by interlacing his fingers together. True, the music group did an excellent job of mixing all sorts of kinds of music genres with Honduran passion and flair, but they also provided me a new way to express what I am doing here. My work is solidarity, but so much of this involves guancasco. Guancasco is in every word and phrase that I integrate into my speech. Guancasco is the impromptu English lessons I have with the CASM staff, as some of them prepare to visit the United States in October to share their stories in person. Guancasco is in the new foods I try each day, and in the homemade strawberry jam I brought for my host family to experience. Guancasco is the stories I tell Orfelina about permaculture I learned as a volunteer at NCP in Harrisonburg, and in her teaching me about the construction and process of a biodigestor.Guancascos is what I hope will be my current life in Honduras, as well as later, when I return to the United States. And Guancascos is what I hope you feel every time you read this blog, and that it compels you to think about the ways in which we can [verb]+Solidarity across cultural difference and social circumstance.