11 April 2005 11:42
la dia segunda16 mar 05, La Ceiba
for bfast we breezed into a cafe at the hotel next door. we ate there two or three times because it was convenient, but they were definately in no great rush to get you your food. i had "french toast". it was the first time in my life that i've had liquid french toast. hopefully it'll be the last.
a little later we stopped a bank to get some more local cash. since they frisked you at the door, and most of us were armed in some fashion or another, K J and i loitered around outside, looking as suspicious as possible. in good mennonite fashion we discussed how easy it would be to get a group of armed robbers into the bank, despite the three guards with shotguns outside. we were interrupted at this task by a short balding whitey in a jars of clay (if i left the zoo) tshirt who asked us where we were from. k and i let jerrel handle most of hte conversation, one-sided tho it were.
this gentleman was late of new york, entrepenuer up on the roatan chain of islands about 20miles off the coast. he was rather bitter about life in general, though he thanked us profusely for encouraging him to be a bit more sincere in his Christian walk (he a nominal catholic). he was busy berating granddad for having us spend $120 on a taxi when $6 would have worked for a bus trip when granddad himself walked out of the bank. he petered out a bit then, and left on what was obviously "important business". i saw him no less than three more times that day here and there, he managed to get around a fair bit. but hten, so did we.
we tracked down the mennonite church, asking directions here and there to supplement granddad's memory from last year. the pastor was not in, but a member who happened to be passing through took us around the corner to the peace and justice center run in part by the church. the director graciously spent ten minutes telling us about the work they're doing there, but unfortunately our level of spanish comprehension was not very high. we did however, set an appointement for two that afternoon to meet hte pastor.
before two rolled around, kyle and i killed a couple hours by walking around. tracked down a map of honduras (free too!), breezed through the market area (which starred for the most part namebrand clothing from US companies. san pedro sula (two hours away) apparently contains over twenty manufacturing plants for US companies). on the west side, we found a rather nice park, apparently maintianed by the standard fruit company. standard fruit and dole own a lot of land in this area of c.amer.
back to the menonita iglesia at two, we met the pastor of the church, Miguel. also present was Marion, the mcc regional asst director who did an excellent job of translating for us. we grilled the pastor for an hour, and tried to get him to ask some questions as well (without much luck). then we went back aroudn the corner to have marion translate for the p&j director. afterwards we waited a bit on the possibility of visiting a half-way house they run for ex-gang members, which fell through, we had the evening to ourselves.
we took the scenic route in return, passing from nice houses (invisible behind fences ten foot block walls topped with broken glass and another four feet of either razor wire or electric fence) to not so nice houses (standard tin and plywood shacks), we reached the main river. we followed the western dike along the edge, all the way down to the ocean, then followed the beach back to the part of town in which we were staying.
supper was in the same cafe we'd breakfasted in. but this time we were joined by a 10+ member medical team of united methodists from the states, who were also having supper. at almost every point of our journey, there were norteamericanos on hand. off the top of my head i can only think of one place there weren't any at some point during our stay, but even then our host had lived in miami and LA at various points. it's a small world.
=email excerpt=
hola! we ended up taking a taxi for $120US. the only cars for rent one way were 140 and itsybitsy. i much rathered sitting in the back looking instead of driving anyway.
today got up bright and early at seven (snicker). of course, my bioligic clock had me waking up from 0430, but ah well. i´m sure i´ll get over that with a little practice. breakfast, then wandered around looking for the menonite church. found it after asking directions three times and getting sidetracked a time or two more htan that. found some machetes in a hardware store for three fifty US, pero they were longish.
at the menonite church we talked for a while to a member that was wandering through, visited the peace and justice center next door and didn´t understand much. arranged to meet the pastor at two, walked back to the motel. kyle and i dried off (sorry bout them flurries Dad, i had to change undershirts three times today because they were soaked each time), and headed back out to get a map. we found one, and walked by a hundred different clothing stalls along the streets all selling the same thing. then we wandered over to the west side and found a pretty nice park decorated with train cars.
at two we showed up at the church, where we met the pastor. the regional mcc asst director showed up a couple minutes lator and she acted as translator for us for the remainder of the afternoon (of course a tremendous help). we grilled the pastor for well over an hour, then went over to the peace and justice center for another half hour to learn what we missed in the morning.
then we decided to go for a little stretch of the legs. kyle and i had seen a river on the map we picked up, so we headed east in search. after passing some ver nice pads (what with the razor wire and electric fence over 12ft high), we passed into a squatter community along the river. we followed the dike north to the coast then walked back along the beach. that put us back after sundown, where we just finished engolfing supper (rice and beefsteak... mmmm goot).
gots to run. buenas noches
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