Daniel's Blog: Semana Santa 2011 part 1

Hello,

It has been a little over a month since my last blog and life is anything but dull, and for that I am grateful. The big thing that happened recently was Semana Santa (Holy Week) vacation. It is incredible how time passes because if you look through the archives of these blogs you will find a Semana Santa post from one year ago. Actually another tidbit of history repeating itself is that I went to Tapachula, Mexico, just like last year's Semana Santa, this time, however, for a very different reason.

Last year, myself and three other volunteers went to Tapachula because the second highest volcano in Central America, Tacaná, is just outside of it. You might remember us getting lost while hiking up it and finding ourselves in Guatemala...good times. This year's trip to Tapachula actually developed its roots back in August of 2010.

The new Santa Clara Escolar directora, Peggy, asked all of volunteers to read the book Enrique's Journey over the summer, well during June, July and August, before we started the new school year. This book is about a boy from Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, whose mother leaves him with his grandmother to go and work in the States. She leaves him because they live in poverty and by going al norte she hopes to find a job and send money back to support him. This is a real and common story of people here in Honduras. The book is about Enrique, the boy, growing up without a mother present and finally his decision to illegal travel to the USA to find her, via traintop through Mexico, an incredibly dangerous journey. Children making this journey to the States to find parents that have left them is also not uncommon. In fact, annually, at least 48,000 children enter the States illegally without parents with them. Enrique's Journey is an incredible book and I highly recommend it to anyone. This book especially hit me though because it really gave me perspective on why I am here in Honduras, to try to help improve this country so that families don't have to separate due to poverty. How does this relate to Semana Santa though?

Well, it turns out that a major artery that illegal immigrants take on their way to the States is through Tapachula, Mexico. This is because the trains that they ride begin there and then travel north. When I read this I couldn't believe it. I had been in the very same city where Enrique, his mom, and thousands of other immigrants have passed through on their way to, ironically, where I have chosen to take leave from for the last two years, California and other US states. The book mentions one place in particular that immigrants might visit while in Tapachula. It is an immigrant shelter called Albergue Jesus, El Buen Pastor de Pobre y el Migrante and it provides help to immigrants who have been injured on their journey al norte, like I said, these immigrants travel on the rooftops of trains, which often results in injury or death.

So, after reading this book, I thought to myself that it would really add to my Honduran experience if I went to this albergue (shelter) and see what was going on there. As the year continued and Semana Santa drew closer no other plans took me away from this idea and so Mario, who seems to be able to put up with my crazy ideas, and bought our tickets.

Mario wasn't the only one I shared my idea with though. I think I have mentioned that in addition to teaching math, I am teaching geography (and pe for that matter). One of the benefits of teaching in a developing country where there are not a lot of administrators on your back about educational standards (the required material), is that you have a lot of liberty to teach what you want. So I decided to take the entire 3rd quarter of geography and dedicate to looking at immigration between Central America and the USA.

Here are some of my 7th grade geography students. Now, I like math because it really comes alive for me, but this topic REALLY came alive. I had students telling me, " Yea, my mom made that journey." I felt like I was preaching to the choir half the time, in fact it was their stories that made the class interesting.

Sometime during that 3rd quarter, we decided to do a "solidarity walk" with the immigrants, sort of like a Relay for Life, for cancer patients. We decided to "walk" from Tegucigalpa to Nuevo Loredo, Texas. We planned to split up the distance, roughly 2,850 kilometers, between students and teachers and try to cummulatively reach Nueve Loredo before Cinco de Mayo (May 5). Above, the students are standing next to some of the posters they made for the the walk, that we posted in the school's hallway.

our route

our distances

Sadly, we only completed about half the distance from Tegus to Nuevo Loredo.

Well, shortly after the 3rd quarter ended, Semana Santa arrived and it was time to head to Tapacula to see the real thing.

As soon as school got out on Friday, Mario, myself and a number of other volunteers, starting their own spring break vacations, jumped on a bus and headed to Tegus.

We stayed with Mario's cousin's and aunt. Here Mario's niece, Katy, a vaquerita (a little cowgirl).

Mario's cousin's had a friend also staying with them from El Salvador and so she taught us to make papusas, El Salvador's trademark food meal.

The next day we go up early, jumped on the bus and headed toward Mexico, first passing through El Salvador.

Next we went through Guatemala. Here is Mario on the Guatemala, Mexico border, major landmark that Central American immigrants must pass through on their way to the states.

and how do they do it??? notice the wood/inner tube rafts

Finally, after two and a half days on bus we arrived at the Albergue in Tapachula. The staff were super friendly.

We immediately started meeting the people at the shelter, which we found out not only offers assistance to injured immigrants, but also acts as a sort of nursing home for elderly who have no where else to go. This is Luis, who was always asking for a cafecito (a little cup of coffee). He was one of Mario's and my favorites.

They had lots of things that needed to be done there. Here I am sorting boxes with an immigrant/shelter worker who, ironically, is from Juticalpa, Honduras.

Mario organizing

They also make manualidades (handicrafts) at the shelter which they sell to help support themselves.

Here is an El Salvadorian who had been making his way north but had fallen off the train and lost his leg. One of the major services that the shelter provides is obtaining prosthetic limbs for this sadly common case.

There were some other immigrants there with sad stories too. Here is a lady from Guatemala who chose not to talk to anyone. No on really knows why.

This man was an interesting case. He was a Chinese man, who everyone called Chino, and hald been at the shelter for over a year. He only spoke English. Upon asking how he ended up in this albergue in Southern Mexico, the staff said they knew very little bit about him because he had had a stroke and couldn't remember anything. He wasn't able to remember names or contact information of friends or family members. The albergue said they knew he was originally from Canada and they were in contact with the Canadian embassy trying to locate people who knew him. More than this, Mario I and were the only ones at the shelter who spoke English. I couldn't imagine how lost and alone this man must have felt and is still feeling! I tried to have a chat with him as often as I could because it was the only conversation he would have all day.

Upon further conversation with some workers at shelter they said he had been living in Tapachula before his stroke with a group of Chinese people, that may have been related to drugs. We speculated that he possibly was rejected by his group because of bad decision and so they have left him at the shelter in his incapacitated state. Really though, who this man is and what he is doing the albergue is a mystery to me.

Some of the other volunteers told me I was crazy to go the shelter for spring break instead of going somewhere like the sandy beaches of Costa Rica, but Mario and I got out and had some fun too. We helped at the shelfter in the day and at night we went out to enjoy ourselves. Here is downtown Tapachula when a cultural festival came to town.

Helping at the shelter also had its fun moments. Here I am learning how to make bread in the shelter's panadería (bakery), which is another means of income.

I think they liked Mario better as a worker than me, because I kept asking if I could eat the bread,

but do you blame me!

Here's Mario with a shipment of bread ready to go out to be sold. Behind him was an immigrant/worker, who also was our roommate. We stayed in a little house about a mile from the shelter with her. She told us that she was from El Salvador, but was trying to make her way to Los Angeles, CA, where she has a daughter.

On the last day we said thanks to the directora, Olga Sanchez, and said goodbye.

After that, it was time to start heading back to Honduras. Like last year though we had a day layover in San Salvador,