Most days, this is my reality. I work, just as I had most wanted to, with some of the poorest people living in Honduras. Life in the mountains can be both a living hell as well as heaven on earth. It would be tempting to find this remote area quaint, filled with a living history of how things "once" were. Recently, a representative from UNICEF declared that Honduras' most vulnerable were indigenous, illiterate women with large families...in essence, the majority of the people we deal with every day at the Fellow Man Project. For most women, the day is filled with things to do. There is corn to be ground for tortillas, wood to be cut for the fire, clothes to be washed by hand and children to be raised. But even with all of these things to do, life seems less complicated than that of these women's urban counterparts. Certainly, to live without the luxury of electricity has its drawbacks and yet, I almost envy the families who sit in the peace and quiet of the darkness of this mountain at night, sharing their thoughts to the rhythm of swinging hammocks.
I have struggled and worried and wrung my hands over the recent political events in Honduras. I couldn't help but wonder as I watched this woman disappear into the mist, how aware she might or might not be that her country is in crisis. I wondered if it really mattered. The only news most people receive in this area is that via radio and because of their proximity to the Guatemalan border it is generally not Honduran news. How concerned could the people here be about democratic order or the threat of Hugo Chavez to stability in the area? Do they understand the meaning of Capitalism, Socialism or Chavism for that matter? I doubt it very much. I would argue the monsters these people face are much more personal and well known. Hunger, illness, illiteracy and desperation, I would guess, concern these people more than any political ideology.
Meanwhile, in the other reality of Honduras, there were massive marches yesterday against Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela. The event was coordinated with many other countries in protest of the spread of Chavez' political agenda. Some have alleged Chavez is attempting to unify Latin America in what has been deemed a return of the Cold War era for this hemisphere. It is estimated that thirty thousand people marched in Tegucigalpa alone. And while all of these people, dressed in white in the name of peace marched for what they would consider an important, pressing issue...life in the mountain and all of the struggles that life represents...went on as usual.
Most days, this is my reality. I work, just as I had most wanted to, with some of the poorest people living in Honduras. Life in the mountains can be both a living hell as well as heaven on earth. It would be tempting to find this remote area quaint, filled with a living history of how things "once" were. Recently, a representative from UNICEF declared that Honduras' most vulnerable were indigenous, illiterate women with large families...in essence, the majority of the people we deal with every day at the Fellow Man Project. For most women, the day is filled with things to do. There is corn to be ground for tortillas, wood to be cut for the fire, clothes to be washed by hand and children to be raised. But even with all of these things to do, life seems less complicated than that of these women's urban counterparts. Certainly, to live without the luxury of electricity has its drawbacks and yet, I almost envy the families who sit in the peace and quiet of the darkness of this mountain at night, sharing their thoughts to the rhythm of swinging hammocks. 
I have struggled and worried and wrung my hands over the recent political events in Honduras. I couldn't help but wonder as I watched this woman disappear into the mist, how aware she might or might not be that her country is in crisis. I wondered if it really mattered. The only news most people receive in this area is that via radio and because of their proximity to the Guatemalan border it is generally not Honduran news. How concerned could the people here be about democratic order or the threat of Hugo Chavez to stability in the area? Do they understand the meaning of Capitalism, Socialism or Chavism for that matter? I doubt it very much. I would argue the monsters these people face are much more personal and well known. Hunger, illness, illiteracy and desperation, I would guess, concern these people more than any political ideology.
Meanwhile, in the other reality of Honduras, there were massive marches yesterday against Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela. The event was coordinated with many other countries in protest of the spread of Chavez' political agenda. Some have alleged Chavez is attempting to unify Latin America in what has been deemed a return of the Cold War era for this hemisphere. It is estimated that thirty thousand people marched in Tegucigalpa alone. And while all of these people, dressed in white in the name of peace marched for what they would consider an important, pressing issue...life in the mountain and all of the struggles that life represents...went on as usual.
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