Honduras & Semana Santa in Antigua

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

Independcia y La Gallinera

As usual, we had one day at the training center, but on Wednesday, September 12, we began constructing our gallinera for our 80 pollitos (baby chicks) and this would be quite the task not only because we are all independent and have different ideas but because we cannot spend any money of our own, the gallinera was to be 80 square feet (8 by 10 feet), we have to try to use any materials that the family has, and if necessary, the family can purchase something if they want. Well, needless to say, we reused/recycled countless things:
-we pounded out tacks and nails from skids and machine boxes to use them
-we used machine boxes and skids for wood
-we used giant thick plastic bags used at a factory as insulation
-we took apart an old rabbit cage to get only half of the 80 square feet of caging that we needed for the floor
Another hard part, now that I think about it, was the lack of tools… How did we cut all the wood to size?...using saws or machetes. How did we put in the majority of the tacks … well a hammer. Really though, it was not bad and we were more fortunate than others. We had hammers and a screw driver and even an electric drill.
The four of us volunteers plus Freddy when he returned from his job worked all evening, and then all evening Friday. Saturday, September 15 was Independence Day and unfortunately it was not quite a holiday… we spent the majority of the morning, waking up early, working on the gallinera. Thankfully, we took some time to watch the town parade… For a town of 7000, it was quite the surprise to see such a big parade. The mayor, minister of education for the department of Sacatepequez, and other figures including the towns Reina (Queen) led the parade. Following them were students from every school in the town, and probably schools from the outskirts too. Each school had their Reina too, and most schools had a few students in indigenous dress with the rest being in uniform, had a band, and had dancers. The parade ended in the center where the municipal building and band shell and stage were. There, there were be presentation and dances and other activities throughout the day.
Luckily too, in the evening I got to go to Antigua to see a little bit of the parade there, which is the capital of the department of Sacatepequez (thus meaning the parade is bigger and better) and then got to celebrate a birthday of Doña Victoria´s sister.
On Sunday, the priest again was a half hour late for the mass I came 20 minutes early too. After mass finished though, it was perfect timing because the town was finishing their Independence day festivities from where they left off Saturday. Laura and I entered in the potato sack races which were divided into 3 groups: older men, older women, and children. Both of us got 2nd place and my prize, surprisingly was 6 shot glasses and a candle. I found it funny to get that since there was not legal bar in the town and the fact that my family is Evangelical (they do not believe in many worldly things including drinking and dancing). After the race, instead of working, Abi and I convinced Freddy to play in the basketball tournament for men. We joined about 5 or 6 more random men from the town to face another team who had a uniform and played and practiced together for years. Since we did not have numbers, I was labeled el canche (the blond). Those guys played a bit rough and we got a bit hurt, but we were in the game the whole time and the ref called the game quite well… To tell you the truth, I thought we were winning the whole game but apparently not since we did not get the trophy. Still it was fun and definitely wore me out since we are up in altitude. The only other strange thing was the teams did not line up at the end of the game to congratulate each other. This confused me so much that I thought it was half time when the game was done. Apparently, congratulating the opposite team is not done here. Abi and I though, still went over to congratulate the team.
On Thursday after working each night on the gallinera, we finally finished and we received the 80 pollitos. I just hope that they last the first nights since we are not that sure how warm it will be inside. (As I am posting this since it is Friday ... I now know that all the chicks survived the first night and today we gave all 80 chicks vacines against New Castle by putting a drop of live virus in their eye -- dont worry, people cannot get this virus supposedly)

I think now I´ll explain the 10 people of the family I live with
Doña Victoria – is the head of the house and who is technically taking care of me
Mimi - daughter of Doña Victoria
Toque – husband of Mimi
Eric – son of Mimi and Toque
Doña Gloria – sister of Doña Victoria
Don Freddy – husband of Gloria
Freddy – son of Gloria and Freddy
Don Rosalio – brother of Doña Victoria
Doña Anita – wife of Rosalio
Madeline – daughter of Rosalio and Anita

Finally on a more important note, Rosalio is quite sick. He went into the hospital as scheduled on Monday to remove a substantial mass (I believe he has cystic fibroma) from his leg. However, cancer was discovered in his lungs as well as in the mass. His right leg with mass was removed today, but it is unknown what can be done after that. I am sure your prayers will be appreaciated.

My shower which has slightly electrocuted me.

Constructing the gallinera frame... Freddy, Laura, Pablo from R to L

Even earlier on when we had no frame for the gallinera ... Pablo, Eric, Laura, Freddy Jr, Abi, me, and Freddy from R to L

Cathedral in Antigua... I did not get to go inside which I´ll save for another day.... The front part of the property is where all the presentations were held for the parade in Antigua on Independence Day.

This is the parade in Antigua.... The crowds were huge

The parade in my city with a young girl dressed in one type of typical indigenous dress.

The gallinera with the pollitos.

Another view of the complete gallinera inside the small outdoor building along side the house.