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| Tied in a hammock strung from the ceiling. This is normal. |
The month of November has a notorious reputation here at the Finca del
Niño. Whenever I came in the front door of the volunteer house this past month,
complaining about something, the replies normally sounded something like,
“Well, it is November after all...” For one reason or another, that month seems
have a corner on the market of exciting events here. Not all of them
necessarily bad (although some definitely are), just things that get your heart
pumping and your blood flowing. So for this blog entry, we’re gonna do a quick rundown
of some of the more notable events that got the adrenaline flowing in November.
Number one. Honduran presidential elections. Back in 2009, Honduras
decided to make its most recent big break into the world spotlight by staging a
coup d’ etat, ousting then current president Mel Zelaya, letting the military
control for a while, having an interim president, and eventually choosing the
conservative Porfirio Lobo Sosa, or Pepe Lobo for short. Lobo, by the way,
means “wolf,” in Spanish, so electing him was for sure a good choice. It would
be like if our president was named Obama Sabertooth-Tiger. Legit. Finally, we
might get some respect from North Korea... Anyways, in the past few years, most
people would probably say Honduras has steadily gone downhill. Not to say that
life was rosy before, or that it’s the president’s fault that Honduras is
struggling, but I haven’t heard anyone lavishing praise on the current
government. Unemployment is raging, petty crime is high, and it can now claim
to have the highest murder rate in the world. Beautiful. So everyone’s been
pretty invested in these elections. The problem is that this “everyone“ includes
the gangs, the drug traffickers, and every sort of low life looking for money and
power. There were eight political parties with a presidential candidate this
year, and five of them newly formed this year. One of these candidates also
happened to be the wife of the president who was ousted in the coup a few years
ago. Surely she just happened to have her own political ambitions, right? Every
week in the newspapers there was some new ridiculous story. One drug
trafficking gang says they will kill one of the candidates if they don’t pull
out of the race. The daughter of the ex-interim president (that took power
after the coup) had her car shot multiple times as she’s driving down the
street. A candidate vowing to make a huge military police and claiming, “I will
do whatever needs to be done to return the peace to the people of Honduras.”
That doesn’t sound like Hitler or Mussolini at all. One candidate claiming the
supporters of another are going to vote early on election day, then take to the
streets and harass and threaten the people so that they won’t go to the polls.
One candidate claiming that if they
don’t win, they won’t accept the results, and take to the streets rioting.
Candidates for mayor or department representative have gone into hiding or have
fled the country after threats on their lives. You know, just normal, everyday stuff. So on
November 24th, the day of the elections, we were all listening to
the radio to see what would happen. And by a miracle of God, things went rather
smoothly. There were no full out riots, no huge claims of fraud (although there
were definitely a few floating around), and at least for now, no murdering of
presidential candidates. The conservative candidate received the most votes,
and barring something crazy, will be taking office at the beginning of this
next year. So with that being said, here’s to change, and to the next four
years being better than the last.
Number two. La Gran Inundacion de
2013, or the Great Flood of 2013. Rainy season in coastal Honduras is
supposed to be three months of semi constant rain, starting around mid October
and lasting through the winter. But this year it didn’t start off so strong. A
few clouds, a little bit of rain, but nothing worth writing home about. And by
the end of November, we were starting to wonder if this “rainy season” would
ever come. Well it did, and it came with a vengeance. The Tuesday night before
Thanksgiving, around 9:00, it started raining. And it rained pretty good. It
then continued to rain Wednesday, accompanied by heavy, heavy winds. It also
rained Wednesday night. And Thursday. Thursday night. Friday. Friday night…
Catch my drift? For more than 72 straight hours it never stopped raining.
Rivers that normally only have a few inches of water going over them at the
crossings, rose up to three feet or more. The ocean was muy enojado or “very angry,” as they say down here, and rose up to
where the waves were lapping up into the walls of our chain link fence. Three
of the older children that work in town got stuck there because they couldn’t
cross the rivers, and ended up staying at the house of one of the Finca school
teachers until the rivers went down. A Mitsubishi truck tried to be brave and
cross one of the rivers, but underestimated it’s power, and got swept several
hundred yards downstream before running up on the shore, giving the people
inside a chance to escape out the back window mostly unharmed. Full grown,
gigantic trees got blown over. The first of which just happened to come down as
I and another volunteer were directly under it… Wednesday morning we were
walking back from the beach back to our house when suddenly we hear the
cracking of limbs behind us. We look up to see a huge Nansi tree slowly coming down right on top of us. We take off
running for our lives and jump on the front porch of our house as the tree
crashed to the ground, not fifteen feet behind us. I think I might have
accidently taught the kids some new words that day, as I was screaming
expletives at the top of my lungs. Trees weren’t the only things falling
either, as many of ours and the neighbors crops got blown to the ground and
ruined. I planted a few plantain trees next to our house about a year ago, and
I have religiously water and fertilized them as if they were my own children
since that time. In the matter of a few hours of wind, the tallest, most
beautiful one, which was just starting to put off a great cluster of plantains,
was broken in half like a matchstick. Honestly though, I have little to
complain about, as some of our neighbors had entire fields of crops destroyed.
By the end of Friday, large portions of the Farm were underwater, and we even
had to put sandbags around the door of the food storage room. The school, the
front gate, the storage building, one of the houses, and the yucca crop all had
several inches (in some places six or eight) of standing water. Tree limbs
everywhere. All kinds of trash washed up on the shore. I believe the Farm has
never been dirtier in my time here. But I must say, it was a really impressive
storm. Driving rain, howing winds, crashing trees, threats of flooding, swept
away cars, and running for your life. I must say, I’ve been waiting a year and
a half for one like that.
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| Lots and lots of water... |
Number three. La despedida,
or the leaving of the old class of volunteers. Every year around this time the
oldest class of volunteers returns to their respective homelands. As I decided
to extend and do a third year, the class that left was the class that I came into
the Finca with. Some will be looking for work, some heading to graduate school,
and Kevin just plans to sit on his couch and watch TV for a couple months. But
when they left a couple weeks ago, it definitely left an empty feeling around
the house and around the Farm. We’ve had 19 volunteers in total for the last
couple months, and now we have 11. It’s a big change. For me personally, my
best friends and closest confidants here at the Farm were in that class. One
story I’d like to share, that I will always remember from my time with them,
was one night about a month back. It was a Monday night, and we had just
recently done our annual volunteer house talent show, which normally includes,
singing, disco, interpretive dance, and bilingual rapping. Most of us were
sitting around in the living room afterwards, still playing a few songs on the
guitar. Throughout the past year, another volunteer, Erin Lucia, and I would
often play together. Since I can play guitar but sing like a frog, and she can
sing like an angel but not play guitar, we made a good combo. With Erin leading
the vocals, me on guitar, and the rest of the community forming the chorus, we
laid down some great renditions of Hootie and the Blowfish and Jack Johnson. Then,
as we were doing a real inspiring version of American Pie, the electricity goes out. Pretty normal down here, so
all that really meant was that the night just got more romantic as we lit up
some candles and kept singing. Eventually we moved on to some praise and
worship songs. As we played How He Loves
by David Crowder, something special could be felt in the air. I closed my eyes
and listened as the voices flowed together with the guitar, just like old dance
partners, each one knowing exactly the others next step. I felt surrounded by
the music. Enveloped by it. It was coming forth from me, joining with the other
voices, and wrapping all around me. We were in the presence of intense beauty.
In the presence of God. In 6am morning prayer every day or Tuesday night
rosary, I often don’t feel the presence of God. But that night, surrounded by
some of the finest people I know, being part of some of the most beautiful
music I’ve ever heard, I felt closer to God than I have in quite some time. As
the song finished, we all sat in silence for a while. The only noise was the
sound of the strong ocean waves pounding against the shore. Even nature joined
in the chorus.
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| David, Haydee, and I watching a parade in the Finca. |
So with that though fresh on my mind and heart, I bid adieu to the
class of 2013, and wish all of you the best of luck in the future. And if you
get the urge to come back to your old stomping grounds this next year, we’ll be
here waiting for ya. With a poorly functioning government and life threatening
rain storms, but also with a lot of good times to share.
One last note, not related to anything above in any way, but something
worth sharing. By the end of 6th grade English class this year, we
were getting a little bored with new vocabulary and practicing the “to be”
verbs, so we decided to make a Bob Marley music video. We haven’t signed with
any record labels yet, so I’m still free to show the video for free. Click on
the link below and check it out.
