The 30%

So I'm sitting here on my balcony in Jutiapa just watching the grass grow, and of course throwing a handful of rocks at the occasional chicken unfortunate enough to try and eat the seeds of our six months of hard work (English is so great). Watching the grass grow has its benefits. There's a breeze off the Atlantic, and I'm listening to music after an early dinner of sopa de pescado with some neighbors. I'm lucky, believe me I know that. 

This morning I was launching biologists and students off the beach to Cayos Cochinos in boats of local fisherman from Río Esteban, Colon. I helped do logistics, and then accompanied a group of 76 students and biologists from all over the world, including Canada, England, USA, and a variety of other European countries, for a night in Río Esteban. I even got to play the conch shell for the Garifuna drummers as we put on a show for them (thank you very much eight years of playing the trumpet). I'll probably have to play it next time as this is something that I'm doing for seven weeks this summer.  The work I do with Operation Wallecea and Grupo de Apoyo al Desarollo (GAD) is really interesting, but for another post. 

Kid in the chair is probably thinking WTF? 

Anyway, groups like these make me think about people who haven't yet had the chance to experience another country like Honduras, or anywhere else in the world for that matter (it's kind of a big place). For PC Volunteers, relating our experiences, positive and negative, about the countries we live in for two years, to groups like this and everyone back in the states, is an important part of what we do. Ironically, it constitutes 1/3 of our overall mission here, the same percentage of Americans who currently have a passport. We're no China, whose 20 million passport holders are roughly 1.5% of the population, but as a developed world power we're definitely on the bottom part of the list.

Obviously arguments can be made that holding a passport in the US, and traveling abroad is an expensive venture, and it can be argued that there is plenty of diversity and culture in the United States, enough to fill a person's lifetime. There's also fewer vacation days in the states and two gigantic oceans to cross to go anywhere other than south, but on the other hand, Americans have one of the lowest visa restriction rates to travel abroad in the world, and a currency that is basically good anywhere.  I completely, and wholeheartedly agree with the counter arguments though. I'll probably never be fortunate enough to set foot in all 50 states. That doesn't mean, however, traveling abroad doesn't have its benefits, especially as the world becomes a more globalized place (blah blah blah)...

So I can't bring the warm Caribbean breeze back with me, just like I won't be bringing back any machismo culture or a propensity to litter, but there is still something valuable to be shared about Honduras, and there are conversations to be had about what's beyond America's borders. I don't know exactly how to express something like this, but just conveying how lucky we are as Americans should do the trick. Only 300 million people are lucky enough to even have the opportunity to hold a US passport and see the world. I guess its partly the responsibility of volunteers to bring the world to the other 200 billion, and share with them what the rest of world has to offer and say. 

PS: If you want to dive into state by state statistics of passport holders, and look at correlation and causation through scatter plots:               http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/03/americas-great-passport-divide/72399/