Back at the end of March, I went to Honduras. I took 11 days of vacation to do, of all other possible things, work. I was invited by a Jesuit from the Detroit province to help translate for a medical mission they were going to do. There were medical doctors (One on the trip has decided to enter in the society of the Jesuits this year in September I think. The general age cutoff for joining is 50; he turns 50 a couple weeks after he enters), eye doctors, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, construction workers, and vets. I got about the whole gamut working with just about everyone. The new experience for me was working with the vets and the large animals waiting for the rabies and vitamin shots and their de-wormer drink. The group paired up with a foundation started by a nun. This foundation is impressive. It is taking care of orphaned children and other children separated from their parents by the government, giving classes to the children as well as to teens and adults who would never have the opportunity (people like prostitutes or the other extremely poor of the streets), and has created a whole village for entire families, broken or whole, where they can live in exchange for paying a modest rent. The village is called New Paradise, and rightly so it is. It has schools, water and electricity (which the nun fought to bring in), a brick-making foundry, a hospital, a farm with animals, plants, and fish to eat. Trades are being learned and jobs are being created. All the administrative costs they have are paid by the government leaving all the donated moneys to be used for the peoples in need. Like I said, I was impressed.
After all that work and a show and dance that the kids of New Paradise put on for us, I actually did take 2 real days of vacation. I went to the North Coast of Honduras, which was absolutely beautiful. The 2nd largest coral reef in the world is there, which I did not get a chance to see but hopefully will before leaving. I went to a botanical garden, also the 2nd largest in the world, founded by the United Fruit Company way back when and went to a Garifuna village. The Garifunas are the indigenous Caribbean that live along the coast that speak Garifuna. I guess they look like, for instance, what most people think the people of Jamaica look like. Most importantly though, at the beach I relaxed, played Frisbee with some kids, and swam. It was so hot and the water was calm. The most enjoyable swim I had though probably was in the river of the botanical garden because the river was made of fresh water and was cool, unlike the warm, semi-salty Caribbean. I think traveling by myself really opened me up to the community and meeting new people. I sat and chated with many people, some that I met on the beachside, others from the inn where I stayed, and others from the Palm Sunday mass that I went to. A widow I met there wants me to work for her on her land teaching her how to grow her crops organically. In exchange, she would take care of room and board and we would share any profits made. Living in a tropical paradise is tempting, but it certainly would not be the most secure thing and it is just one of many things that I am looking into because, alas, I am nearly 6 months away from my official close of service date, November 15, 2009.
Some other things I am considering when my PC service gets done are:
I could extend til May 2010 in Guatemala where I would transfer to China teaching English to university students while living in a major Chinese city. In between my move, I would get a paid 30 day vacation with flight to my home of record. It would still be with the Peace Corps which is why it would be considered a transfer.
I could extend for a full year taking up a leadership position among all the other people in my program. I would have to work in a different community part time and the other time I would be involved in training and site visits of my fellow Peace Corps volunteers. My boss has mentioned several times he wants me to do it, which is humbling, but I just want to make sure that I want to do it.
I could work for an NGO down here that helps bring medical missions to remote, poor communities in the north of Guatemala. It would involve organizing the wheres, whos, and hows of getting a medical mission to a community utilizing the local health community promoters. It also involves getting people who need more than just some medicine to their destination so that they can receive they surgery or whatever else in the city in which they need it. This job would probably be the hardest to get and I may have to go to Washington DC for an interview. The guy currently doing the job is a good PC friend of mine who happened to have worked in San Carlos Alzatate. I am hoping to job shadow him soon. If I got the job, I would sign 1-year contracts.
Grad school Fall 2010? Still would have to take the GRE though.
So that is where I am along with considering a Fulbright or Teach for All Network job in which I would be teaching English abroad, possibly in Lithuania. And of course I could come home, right?
Let me know what you think or if you have any other suggestions.
The week that I got back from Honduras was Holy Week, which meant a 4-day weekend and a trip to Antigua to see the world famous rugs made from flowers, colored sawdust, and fruits. I got to Antigua Thursday afternoon and thankfully stayed with a doctor friend from the UK. I say thankfully because Antigua was packed with people; I can’t imagine what it would have been like to stay in my normal 3-dollar-a-night place. Good Friday, the next day, we woke up at 2:30am. There were already tons of people out including tourists, people making the rugs in the streets under lights, and people getting ready for the first procession of Jesus carrying the cross that would leave one of the churches at 3:30am. The processions were huge and included the participation of up to thousands of people. They began with Romans in chariots and with drums and others on foot announcing the sentencing of Jesus to death. I am pretty sure the group included Pontius Pilate and King Herod. Then came the processions of people in purple, who carried various statues, some of which were of Jesus being scourged or of Mary or John. The biggest statue and largest platform was of Jesus carrying the cross. I think it took 100 people to carry this massive wooden structure. Behind this was the band and behind them were women dressed in black carrying the mourning Mary flanked by another band. Finally after that came the dump truck and street cleaners which cleaned up the rugs that were made (The rugs were made for the processions to go over and were destroyed when they did so.) so that more rugs could be made for more processions. Processions went on throughout the day throughout the city all the way into the night. After all the processions of Jesus carrying the cross, there were the processions of the dead Jesus with the thousands of participants now dressed in black instead of purple and there were the processions of the buried Jesus. The procession of the buried Jesus that I saw was spectacular since it was at night and the casket they used was elevated on a huge platform, was made of glass, and was lit from inside. I still made time to get away from all the hoopla, though; it got to be a bit much for me considering how I normally spend Good Fridays. I took videos and pictures, some of which are below.
Then on Saturday, I went to spend Easter with the nuns I am friends with. We went to the Easter Vigil and had a dinner afterward, which included the carrot cake I made for them.
People making rugs at 3:00am...talk about being motivated.
This rug is made out of flowers, pine needles, and other plant parts.
These butterflies and the bread basket are made of actual bread (the wings and the rest of the rug are made of sawdust).
The following 5 pictures and the one above are of the procession of Jesus carrying the cross. Above, you can see a few of the hundreds of Romans that paraded the street. These few were at the beginning announcing the sentencing to death of Jesus. Below you can see Pontius Pilate amindst the people in their purple garb. These purple people are people who at one point carry the huge wooden platform which has Jesus carrying the cross. Each church has distinguishing garb that each of its particpants wear so while all particpants will be wearing purple, people in different processions from different churches will have slightly different outfits.
I am guessing the above statues are of St. John and other women friends of Jesus.
As soon as the procession goes over the rugs, the street cleaners and dump truck are right behind to get everything off the road for the next procession. If you look in the picture, you can still see the end of the procession in the top center.
Below are 3 videos of the processions.
This was the start of the of the procession at 3:30am leaving the church.
Here you can see the huge platform with Jesus carrying the cross.
This video is of the Romans in the procession; they start out the procession.
The sawdust rug and I... notice anything different with my hair.
Above is the most intricate rug I saw.
More pictures of rugs below:
This rug above boasted having St. Peter's Basilica of the Vatican City
Time for some rest in the park after all the work making the rugs and helping carrying the platforms in the processions. Just to let you know, each particpant that carries the platform that has Jesus carrying the cross pays to do so.
This was part of a "Stations of the Cross on wheels." There were larger than life platforms that moved around on wheels throughout the city.
A veneration of the cross of Jesus while in one of the churches in Antigua
Above you can see from far away that the oxen are pulling around in circles a large log which cranks around the sugar cane juice extractor.
These 2 pictures, above and below, show much closer how the sugar cane is shoved in and how it comes out completely flattened and drained of its sugary juices. If you look close at the picture below, under the extractor between the log legs of the platform you can see the bucket catching the juice.
Above is where all the juice ends of up: in a giant vat. I think they filled about 28 stardard-size white pails in all. This stuff is cooked and cooked for hours and needs to be continuously stirred so that it does not boil over. After many hours, something like 8 hours of boiling, all the juice fits in the vat and the juice reaches a thickness and consistency where it does not need to be stirred. Soon after, the product can start to be cooled.
Pure gold
Finally, after having woken up at 1am and having started the fire, extracted the juices, and cooked and stirred continuosly the juices, the vat can be removed to start cooling the sugar and start making all kinds of goodies. In the bottom part of the picture, you can see 3 squashes that were put in the vat to cook...ummm, were they good.
One of these goodies involves sticking sugar cane in the hot cooked sugar and having it cool on the sugar cane. Once semi-hardened, the sugar is removed from the cane and then worked in the hands for about 20 or 30 minutes to develop a sweet that is somewhat soft and that is not so sticky that it rips out your teeth.
Working the sugar product into a delicious treat.
Here the last job, is to make the blocks of panela, which are basically like hardened bricks of brown sugar. They load the goopy cooked sugar cane juice while still hot into the wooden containers where they harden. Below you can see about 50 hardening. The last job got done about 4pm. (That would bring the total work hours spent to about 15.)
Even this guy got in on the sugar-licking fun.
The women of the farm where the sugar cane was extracted.
