HONDURAS.

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind, and I wish I would´ve taken the time to write about it all! More to come on my final full week at Long Way Home, but this week I decided to take some time to travel to Honduras to visit Sam and Morgan in El Progreso and check out their work. My time here has been SO DIFFERENT from Guatemala, and I can´t help but compare the two places constantly. I´ve speaking far more spanish here than I was in Comalap because everyone that they work with speaks Spanish. It´s been great though because I´ve already been able to expand my vocabulary just from being here for several days! El Progreso is very urban and fairly western to an extent but still with the normalities of a Central American town (markets, town square, street food). Surviving in the sweltering heat has been my biggest challenge considering the temperature is moderate in Comalapa and we only wear pants and tshirts there as well. My one pair of shorts hasn´t gotten me very far this week thus far! There were two volunteers here from the US, and while obnoxious, at least they opened up the opportunity for Sam and Morgan to not be stuck in the office all week. We´ve been working on painting murals in their new office space, mostly. Outside of that work, they had planned for us to visit some of the local public and private schools. This fascinated me the most because after working with a school and learning about the lack of long term compulsory education in Guatemala, I was eager to be able to compare the systerms. Interestingly, the most of the teachers throughout the country have been on strike because the government has been refusing to pay them appropriately, and students have not been in school for several days now. We still had the chance to drive around and at least see the buildings and learn a bit about the structure. The number of students attending each school is so unreal that they are split into 4 attendance sessions, morning, midday, evening, and weekends. I just couldn´t imagine having my child walk these dangerous streets coming home from school at night because that´s when they were required to attend. However, one seemingly positive difference is that there are public colegios, and while I am not sure if or what fees families are required to pay for attendance, that is better than most students ending school after 6th grade. We also visited an orphanage, which for me was a first. Playing with the kids was fun but it was sad to see the true reality of the situation, considering they probably see people come and go all the time and know that they can´t establish any worthwhile connections with anyone, really. There were also some behavioral issues that went completely unaddressed by the staff there. I´m not sure I would ever be able to handle working in an orphanage, but still it was great to hear that these children were still being provided with the same educational opportunities as others.
While my time here has been short and has gone by extremely fast, I have learned so much from just observing and from the many long conversations I´ve had with Sam and Morgan about, well, pretty much everything. The golpe, the government here and the outrageous US influence in the country, and the social issues that have come from "a nation of followers", as it has been put to me from several people. I will journey back to Guatemala on Sunday to pick up some stuff in Comalapa and get in one more day of work before heading back to DC on Tuesday! I´m definitely not ready to return. Or if I am, I am ready to take everything that I´ve learned this summer and let it have a lasting impact on my decisions to come.