Quick Notes

On Friday I head to Tegucigalpa for our program's midterm medical reviews, which will consist of the following:

• Pooping in a cup
• The dentist telling me my teeth are rotting away, and me retorting, "Have you seen how Hondurans use sugar?!"
• Enjoying a hot shower. 
• Trying not to get ripped off by some cab driver in Teguz.
  
• Suffering through a 7 hour bus ride. 

An interesting opinion piece was published about Tegucigalpa this past week by Honduras Weekly, which discusses the city's need for better urban planning and decisive action. I couldn't agree more by the way. Although, I feel that better governance, public (NOT PRIVATIZED) transportation, and a more cohesive long term planning strategy incorporating inevitable future development are more important than the suggestions the author makes. He does, however, make some good points, especially about the need for green space in the city, and cites good examples from other Latin American cities. Although, I have to say at times it is hard to see the connections between Honouduras and some of it's South American brethren.  Tegucigalpa: A City Stuck in First Gear

Tegucigalpa at night looks a ton better than Tegucigalpa during the day

I got new neighbors last week. It's a small family with a newborn. (So much for the raucous parties I've been throwing with me, myself and I).  I've tried to introduce myself numerous times, but the wife is painfully shy. I am not surprised, since married Honduran woman, as a general rule, are very quiet, but still the situation is somewhat depressing. I was hoping to make some new friends, or at least find someone to watch Norte, my junkyard cat, haha, since we're the only two people living in our building. On the positive side, since they are living in the apartment sencillo (simple) I was given the fridge and the gas oven from the other apartment (Awesome). 

A close family friend and handyman, Kelvin, was shot dead outside of my apartment the past week at 6:30 in the morning on Sunday. I knew him pretty well, since he had helped me fix up numerous things in my apartment. He was a really talented guy when it came to metal work, and he had designed new bars for my windows, along with a new iron door for my balcony. Perhaps the most depressing aspect about the entire event was the ambivalence that people, even my host family,  held towards his death. When I asked people, "Do you know who did this?" "Who would want to do this?" "Why at 6:30 AM?" People responded with an answer I've become all to familiar with, "No sé, pero eso es Honduras. No hay orden."/"I don't know, but this is Honduras. There is no order." It is a sad, but true statement, and after being down here for a year I've begun to appreciate their fatalistic attitude, since they have no way to control what is happening.  In Honduras, most practically all crimes go unpunished. I've heard that something along the order of only 2% of crimes are successfully prosecuted here. 2%!! In the US, even bad police departments have a solve rate of about 80%.

Our soccer field project remains on schedule, but at times getting small things done feels like pulling teeth. Setting up meetings and making sure people follow through on their work are perhaps the most frustrating things I do in Honduras. There have been some positives though. In a few weeks we will receive a shipment of 115 pounds of sports equipment to be given to at risk youth in the community. Working with multiple organizations including Sports Gift, Casa de Roc Orphanage, NaviVan, and the Orange County Peace Corps Association we were able to take a simple question from a counterpart about getting soccer jerseys for the kids into a reality. It was complicated, but we are in the home stretch now. Gracias a dios.