North Coast Road Trip

Destination: The North Coast
Budget: $200
Plans: none, avoid tourists
People: Elena, Phanie, and me

We decided against going to the tourist trap Roatan and instead decided to tour the North Coast with basically no plans. I was in charge of the budget and keeping track of who owes who, calling the hotels, making reservations, and finding the bus routes. Phanie was in charge of contacting an ONG to get a school project out of the way, and Elena was in charge of....bring a phone charger.

We randomly met a lot of very unique and fun people along the way, and got a lot of connections and free lunches :)

Saturday: Left at 6:15am and arrived in Tela before noon. Found our hotel Mango, did a short photo shoot on the beach, and headed off to the central park to people watch. This is where we got our first phone number from a random guy...no worries, Phanie had her pepper spray in hand.

Sunday: Spent the day at the beach, and looked for a restaurant on top of a large hill for dinner. On the way there, we got a little lost and ran into Roberto, a local Garifuna artist. He showed us where to go and invited us to his gallery the next day. We ate at a gorgeous restaurant with a beatiful look out, but didn{t realize that taxes were not included in the final price, and didnt have enough money to pay. Thankfully, we realized on the bill that the tip is optional, so we left the money and Phanie explained that we weren{t leaving the full bill because we honestly didnt have enough money.

Monday: Walked 30 minutes to Roberto and his brother Cruz art studio. Cruz talked to us for about 2 hours about his philosophies of life, beliefs, and culture. It was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. We then took a bus to La Ceiba.

Monday afternoon: Arrived at Hotel Olas del Mar (ocean waves resort) and got a bit dissapointed. Although I was told twice on the phone that the price included breakfast, the cafeteria was under construction. And it was raining, so we were all a bit depressed that day.

Tuesday: We woke up early and got in a mini bus to head off to Sambo Creek to take a small boat to the Cayos Cochinos Islands. We were a bit confused as 2 older men got in and started arguing and making a big fus with our driver. There names were Bud and Grover, 2 old men who own a house on the island. Just our luck! They chatted away with us and explained that they had been waiting for 4 days to get to their island but it has been raining so they couldnt leave. Grover sells large garage doors, and Bud is a retired mountain hiker guide. Talk about 2 funny weird old men. Needless to say, they lent us a plastic bag so we wouldnt get our stuff drenched on the boat ride, and offered to let us eat lunch with them in their island house. We dropped them off on their island, and took our own tour. Our tour guides name is Exon, and he is a Garifuna man who knows everything. We snorkled in the second best barrier reef in the world, and I cannot even begin to describe the ocean floor. Vibrant colors, huge fish, Baracudas, all kinds of incredible animals. The pictures will describe more than words.

For lunch we met up with our two new friends, where we laughed histerically at their stories and ideas. They served us tuna salad with red wine. They offered us to stay there the whole week, but we didnt bring anything with us so we turned it down. The last part of our tour was on an island called Chachauate with a Garifuna community, where Phanie got 2 marriage proposals. We were offered a hotel room for the night as well. We also saw pink boas, which only exist on 2 of the Cayos islands in the whole world. Pretty sweet.

Wednesday: We visited a Garifuna Justice ONG that fights for Garifuna rights in Honduras in the afternoon, and then we spent 3 hours at the bank trying to figure out Elena{s bad credit habits. :)

Thursday: We arrived at the Quinta Real hotel for our last night. We spent the day lounging at the pool and ocean, and went out for fresh fish at night. We slept so good that night in huge comfy beds without ants or other insects or wierd smells.

Friday: Woke up to a bit of a rainy day, but had a huge free breakfast (finally). We walked the beach in the light rain and Elena and I had a big ping pong match. We met a man named John from New Mexico who just built a resort in Roatan, and he offered us a free weekend trip there. So many connections! We took the bus home friday afternoon and arrived home about 9pm.

All in all, we got to see 3 cities and visit different communities in the Cayos Cochinos Islands. We met a lot of interesting people and got to see a lot of incredible things, wihtout falling into tourist traps and english speaking people.

Now its a few weeks of class, a week trip to Guatemala, and then I{ll be home!
I hope to post pictures on facebook before Monday!

Cute story

Jimena was sitting on my bed with me, her sandals kicked off just like me, her legs crossed just like me, and studying hard just like me. She occasionally looked over at me just to check what I was doing, and about every 5 minutes when she heard a good song on her cartoon show, she would run out, sing to it, and then run back, jump on my bed, ruffle everything up, make a mess, and smile sweetly at me as she tried to copy my homework. About every 3 minutes she says "te quiero" or "I love you" and gives me a kiss on my hand or my cheek.

A few nights ago as this was all happening (as it does every night) I asked her if she was going to miss me when I left. She thought hard for a minute and said "No, not that much because you told me that I get to visit your little house in Michigan when I'm bigger, and I am very big right now." I said "Yes thats true, someday you will get to visit me in my little house, but not until you are bigger than your brother." She said "Well I'm not that sad because you are going to call me right?" And I said "of course!".

Then about 10 minutes later she looked up at me with tear filled eyes and said "But hermanita (my little sister) I AM scared because you have to fly all by yourself in an airplane, and I am scared of airplanes!" I gave her a little hug and said "Guess what?! I get to fly with Phanie, I don't have to fly all by myself." She asked "And Elena too?" And I said "Yep! I get to fly with my friends the whole way!" She got a big grin on her face and said "OK I'm not scared anymore, and skipped off to watch her cartoons".

Now she asks me almost every morning if she is big enough to visit my little house in Michigan, especially because she is big enough to go to Kindergarden next year..... :)

The picture is of her "studying" with me on my bed :)

44

There are 44 days left of my semester in Honduras, part of me is ready to go back and part of me never wants to go back. There are things I miss about both sides, and now that I am used to my life here it will be hard to adjust back to my other life.

This week is a normal week (if normal exists) and we are finishing up some projects and preparing to leave Saturday for our vacation! Phanie, Elena and I are planning on touring the entire North coast. Tela, Ceiba, Cayos Cochinos, maybe Utila, and maybe Trujillo. We are all ready for some serious relaxing time and time with just the three of us. We are going to play it by ear and stay at places we like and move on from places we don't like.

I have a cold this week and feel like it should be cold outside to accompany it, but it continues to be warm and sunny almost every day. The temperatures have cooled down a bit compared to when we arrived, and supposedly December is a cool month. I am very ready for cooler temperatures.

I am sitting on the windowsill with my computer looking a beautiful sunset over the little mountain next to my house. There are 2 dogs in the street that were nuzzling each other but it broke out into a fight. 3 of my cousins are here making a ruckus downstairs playing soccer and tennis. My little sister Jimena is watching cartoons upstairs by me and about every 5 minutes she runs to check what I am doing :) My host mom Yaqui is cooking a scrumptious Honduran dinner and is probably still concocting some sort of medicine for me because my nose is continually running and my voice sounds a bit bad. She has encouraged me to skip class for the past 2 days and couldn't believe that I actually though I was well enough to go.

And I just received the dinner call, so Im off to eat some beans, rice, and tortillas!
Que Dios les bendiga!

Fotos: My brother Andre had a school presentation, and one of the fotos shows his school project. Then there were soldiers that came and did a little show, and shot off VERY loud guns which sent my sister screaming and crying. The other picture is of my host mom, my Aunt, and Jimena at my brothers school.

Novio!

I had the privilege of having my boyfriend Isaac come visit me in Honduras, and we had a wonderful time. We spent the weekend at Lago Yojoa with another Calvin student and her boyfriend who flew with Isaac, which is the biggest (maybe the only?) lake in Honduras. After finding out our reservations didn't quite go through as planned, we found another hotelish place that was directly on the lake. It was beautiful. The next morning we took busses to the waterfall. We decided to pay a guide to take us behind the waterfalls, which was the best decision we could have ever made. We actually walked directly underneath the waterfall, jumped 24 feet off the waterfall, and entered a cave directly underneath the waterfall. It was one of the most dangerous and most exciting things I have ever done! At some points you had to put your head down and breath through your mouth so that water wouldn't enter, and you couldn't see anything because water was pouring down all around you. We also walked some parts all holding hands because we couldn't see anything. I didn't think it was possible to actually go under a waterfall so big, especially without signing anything before hand! Although it was really really scary, it was probably one of the top 5 things I have done in my life and I would do it again in a heartbeat!

On Sunday we headed back and made our way to Nueva Suyapa where Isaac met my "Second" family. We talked and sipped delicious coffee for 4 hours! I translated for Isaac as the Dad told us his opinions about the coo, the government, and poverty. It was such a fun experience for both of us. We laughed a lot, especially when they got out the measuring stick to measure how tall Isaac really is.

We spent a lot of time with my host family, playing soccer, jenga, and watching good old Honduran TV (actually Isaac slept through that). Jimena talked non stop to Isaac and never quite understood that he doesn't understand Spanish. Isaac finally started replying to her in English to confuse her, which made my host brother (who speaks English) into giggles. We also went to classes together, ate Honduran food, and talked a lot. Im so thankful he got to experience a little bit of my life here.

Needless to say, with a whole Honduran family in love with me and then with my boyfriend, and with Phanie living next door, I have a Honduran wedding being planned as we speak :)

Nicaragua

P.S. Visit betterworldshopper.com for more information about shopping responsibly. There is also a book you can buy for advice.
Pictures:
1. At a National Park on top of a Volcano
2. Doing the high ropes course in the jungle
3. Pablo (Program Director) and me at a Cathedral
4. The 3 boys I mention near the end with Trent in the Capital City
5. Some girls in the Capital
6. The old Cathedral that is now deserted in the Capital
7. Ruben Darío's Grave!!! Super exciting!
8. A typical street in Nicaragua
Video:
1. Of the volcano (it reminded me of the Bad Lands

We just got back from a 5 day trip to Nicaragua! It was a good trip and we did a lot of fun things: We climbed a volcano, went into a big cave with flashlights, did a high ropes course in a jungle, went to the capital city, did some shopping, and played lots of games. Although Nicaragua has a sad history with the United States, it is a beautiful country that is looking for restoration. It is fighting to eliminate poverty, drugs, and the history of revolution. These are some random pictures from the trip.

A little side story, we were in the old capital which was destroyed by an earthquake so now it is empty and the new capital is on the other side of the town, and I met 3 boys. They chatted with me about their lives and even did a foot race for me :) All three were around 11 years old, and only one went to school. When I asked why the other boys didn't go to school, they told me that they had to drop out to collect pop bottles to bring money and food to their families. They each had about a half of a trash bag of pop bottles, and I asked how much they would would get for each bag. They told me that they sell them to a man every day, and for a full bag they get 1 cordoba (21 Cordobas=$1, so 1 cordoba is pocket change). To buy almost any kind of food costs at least 20 Cordobas. They told me that today was an unlucky day because they each only had about half a bag and that the man would get mad at them tonight.

That sure puts things into perspective huh? Each Calvin student did the ropes course (part of the program), which cost around $40 US dollars. It seems like such a good deal, especially because the course lasted at least 3 hours......
Some Math: $40=840 Cordobas
This means that it would take 840 days (more than 2 years) of collecting pop bottles to earn what one student payed for a high ropes course. If only it was easier to define the line between giving away everything you have and being created to enjoy creation and life....we need a combination of both in our lives. Easier said than done.

En Español
Acabamos de regresar de un viaje de 5 días en Nicaragua. Fue un viaje muy bueno y hacemos muchos cosas divertidos! Subimos un volcano, entramos en una cueva con focos, hacemos una canopía aventura en una selva, fuimos al capital, fuimos de compras, y jugamos muchos juegos. Aunque Nicaragua tiene una historia muy triste con los EEUU, es un país linda que está buscando por restauración. Está luchando para eliminar la pobreza, drogas, y la historia de revolución. Esos son varios fotos del viaje.

Un cuentito, fuimos en el capital viejo que fue destruida por un terremoto y ahora es vacío y el capital nueva es en el otro lado del pueblo, y conocí 3 niños. Ellos charlaron conmigo sobre sus vidas y hicieron un correo de pie para mi ☺. Todos tenían mas o menos 11 años, pero solo uno fue a la escuela. Cuando pregunté porque los otros 2 no asistan la escuela, me dijeron que tienen que buscar jarros de refrescos para traer dinero y comida a sus familias. Tenían como un mitad de una bolsa de jarros, y pregunté cuantas valen cada bolsa. Me dijeron que los venden a un hombre cada día, y para una bolsa llena reciben 1 Córdoba. (21 Córdobas=$1, 1 Córdoba es casi nada). Para comprar casi cualquier comida, cuesta a lo menos 20 Córdobas. Me dijeron que hoy fue un día mala porque solo tenían la mitad de una bolsa y que el hombre va a ser enojado con ellos.

Se pone cosas en perspectiva verdad? Cada estudiante de Calvin hicieron la canopía aventura (parte del programa), que costó casi $40. Aparece como barato, especialmente porque la canopía fue por casi 3 horas…..

Un poco de matemáticas: $40=840 Córdobas
Este significa que tomaría 840 días (más de 2 años) de colectar jarros de refrescos para ganar que un estudiante pagó por una canopía aventura. Si solamente fue más fácil a definir la línea entre dar todo que se tiene y estar creado para disfrutar la vida y creación….necesitamos una combinación de ambos. Más fácil decirlo que hacerlo.

Maquilas/Sweat shops (This is a long one but worth reading!)

Before visiting a sweatshop in Honduras, I had an image in my head of a dusty big warehouse building with a bad environment and hundreds of people working hard all day. However, the sweatshop I visited was a newer building with a fairly clean environment, actually cleaner than the book factory I worked at in Michigan. Basically, I knew nothing about sweatshops.

In Honduras, there are 2 kinds of factories. The majority are those that make clothes, and a few make a type of band for cars. The number one country with the most factories is China, and Honduras is number ten on the list. In Honduran factories, there are 100,000 employees, with another 300,000 support employees (drivers, airlines, lunch lines, housekeeping, etc.). These jobs are very important to the country.

The minimum wage in Honduras is $225/month, or $7/day, but the minimum wage in factories in Honduras is $180/month, or $5.60/day. In Bangladesh, it is $3.00/day. Before Mel Zelaya was president in Honduras, the minimum wage for normal jobs and for factories was equal, but he decided to raise minimum wage for everyone except those in factories.

If tomorrow Lobo, the President of Honduras decided to raise minimum wage for factories in Honduras, the factory owners would pack up and move to Nicaragua, or any other country where minimum wage was lower, leaving 400,000 Honduran workers without jobs.

Of all the importations of the US, Honduras makes up only 2.5%, meaning that 97.5% of US importations come from other countries. This is an unequal relationship. If tomorrow Honduras decided to go on strike and not send the US any materials, the US would shrug its shoulders and say, “Eh” as if they just flicked a tick off their shoulder. But, if tomorrow the US decided to shut down all the factories in Honduras, many Hondurans would be without jobs and the Honduran economy would drop drastically, as if you were the tick that just got flicked and stomped on. This is to say that the power is in the hands of the US.

There are very bad factories in the world with horrible conditions that produce dollar store materials and knock off brands, but generally speaking (at least in Honduras), the factory jobs are stable and good jobs for many people, and are better than many alternative jobs. So, the principle problem is the salary. It is almost impossible to live off of $5.60 a day for one person, and many workers are supporting families of 4 or 5 people. Bus fares, food, clothes, uniforms, pencils for your children to do homework, house payments, all with $5.60/day. Also, they are working very hard for very little money. This summer I sat behind a desk for my job and made more money an hour than they make in a day for doing almost nothing. Our Professor, who has lived in Honduras for 20 years, said, “I honestly don’t know how they live off of so little.”

Another problem is that many of the sweatshop owners are Gringos (Americans) and a small part are Asian or of other races. They are making a lot of money while giving low salaries to factories in other countries in order to make more profits. However, if we called up these clothing line owners and persuaded them to pay out of their pocket to double the salaries of the employees, the stockholders would go mad and fights would break out.

So what’s the answer? To me, there seems like there are 2 options. One is to change the hearts of the owners to create fair businesses in the first place. The other is to change the consumers (you and me) who are creating the demand for these products.

Fair Trade coffee took a step in changing consumers. They created a stamp to put on coffee that says that it was made with fair wages. In order to get this stamp, companies have to meet certain requirements to become certified. Although this fair trade coffee is more expensive, the money you spend to buy it goes towards higher employee wages. The alternative is to buy cheap coffee that was made in a factory with unfair wages. The more and more people that buy products with this stamp and stop buying products without the stamp, the more pressure companies will receive to re-do their companies in order to meet the requirements to get the stamp of fair trade because they will have to compete with the fair trade companies. For example, if tomorrow everyone decided to only buy Fair trade coffee for the rest of their life, eventually all companies would become Fair trade to rise to the competition.

This same thing needs to happen with clothing. Buying cheap clothing at Kohl’s or cheap food at Aldi seems like a good deal, (and I have always chosen good deals) but it is actually supporting giving low wages to employees working in sweatshops. Spending more money on a product that was made in a better place with fairer wages is a better idea. Picture this. Tomorrow you meet a woman and can choose to pay her $5/hr or $7/hr, knowing that she is supporting a family of 5. I would tell myself that to me $2 is nothing, but for her an extra $2/hr means she can afford a uniform to send her son to school. Now, picture that when you but a cup of coffee and have the option of paying more for Fair trade.

What would be ideal is if tomorrow, a huge group of people decided to only buy fair trade products. This would pressure companies to restructure their factories in order to receive the consumer’s desire to buy products produced at fair wages. Unfortunately, this is a lot easier to do with coffee than with clothes, but it can be done with the unity of the people. My question is why isn’t there an organization for Fair trade clothing, and who wants to start one (or support one that I don’t know of) with me? As Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Although our Dutch minds may tell us otherwise, we should choose to spend more money knowing it is giving well-earned food to a family.

(The two pictures are of my university and a project that I am doing in Sculpture class).

Nueva Suyapa

We spent 2 days and 1 night in Nueva Suyapa, a poorer town near my house. I stayed with a wonderful family who was very excited to have students in their house. We spent the day talking, playing soccer next to the house, and cooking with the family. I taught the older boy how to play some songs on an itty bitty keyboard, and when the Dad came home he was very proud. At night, the boys pulled their mattress next to ours (Katherine stayed with me too, another Calvin student) and we played games into the night. The youngest boy (3 yrs) fell asleep in my arms, and I lay awake all night listening to the roosters crowing and the dogs barking. We came, slept, and left in the same clothes. Their house did not have running water, just water in jugs and an outhouse.

I learned more about a simple life that night. The family did not have a nice house or bathroom, and some walls were made of cardboard. But inside the house were crafts, a tv, and food for the family. I saw a humble family that I hadn't seen before in Honduras, one where the Dad helped cook and clean instead of expecting his wife to do it for him (Machismo). The Dad is a construction worker but is taking classes to become something similar to an Engineer, and was thrilled to know that my Dad is an Engineer. He pulled out perspective drawings and showed me how to draw angles. We chatted about the US, about poverty, about trash, about houses, about school, about everything.

The video is of the youngest boy, Jared (3 yrs) doing a pop-a-wheely (Caballito, or little horse in spanish) for us. He was like a little monkey and got into trouble while we were there and he experienced the harsh side of a belt. I left with a sad heart, and the older boy (Mario) cried because he was sad. I assured them I would return to give more piano lessons and so they can meet my Mom when she comes to visit me on Thursday. Part of me wishes I could live in that humble town every day.

For some reason my internet was fast enough today to upload 2 videos! The second video is of my little sister singing to me. She sings those songs about 20 times a day.






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