Change of plans...

We made it to Limón and were planning to only stay there with the Pérez family for two days, but Richie got sick on Saturday night, which prolonged our stay. Today we are in La Entrada to get him tested, get more money, and use the internet. Other than that, there's not much to tell. The family continues to take care of us, feed us well, and occasionally laugh at our Spanish. I feel more comfortable here the second time around - all the previous novelties like using a latrine and bucket showers now seem ordinary.

One of the most impressive things about this place is the variety of foods they have access to just around their house. I've already said that the family grows and eats beans, coffee, bananas and corn, but they also have milk, tomatoes, coconuts, sugarcane, lemons, oranges, and a few plants that I've never seen before. The lemons here are gigantic. An average sized lemon is a little smaller than a canteloupe and definitely bigger than a grapefruit. A couple days ago I was outside with the grandpa and the 14-year-old son cutting banana leaves to use for tamales when the son started hacking at this snake-like plant with his machete. It was sugarcane, and it tasted really good! In fact, this family is a pretty good model of the "green" movement - they live simply and eat almost entirely organic, locally-grown food. They also share food, labor, and other supplies with others in their community. They also reuse old items long beyond how long they would be used in the US. The only aspect that doesn't fit the model is that they throw away trash (usually plastic bags and bottles) on the ground or in the fields, but this might be in part because there is no trash pick-up in the countryside.

Sometimes I am amazed at how different life is here compared to life in the US. For example, yesterday I watched two little kids, six or seven years old, walk with machetes in their hands, leading two horses down a dirt road. It seems odd to give a kid that age a machete, but it makes sense here. Javier (the 14-year-old son) started picking coffee when he was five. I've also thought, however, that someone who grew up on a farm in the US might actually feel pretty comfortable here. The language and the crops are different, but I imagine there are a lot of similarities between the lives of rural families in North and Central America, or anywhere in the world, for that matter. You still work hard, get dirty, take bucket showers, and have to milk the cow in the morning.

Because we stayed here longer than we expected, we decided not to go to the Caribbean coast. Instead, we'll just pass three more days in Limón before heading to Guatemala City on the 29th to spend the night. The following morning we fly to Los Angeles!

Elections

On Sunday Richie and I visited four different voting centers in San Martín, near the city of San Salvador, as international election observers. Each voting center had lines of people outside of it waiting to get in and trying to find their names on the electoral register. Inside was just as hectic, with anywhere between 20-60 voting tables, each with five official members and around five "vigilantes" or "watchers" of various parties to make sure things went all right. You can see some pictures of the event here.

We didn't see anything that looked like obvious fraud, and I'm pretty sure the vigilantes would have caught anything before we did, anyway. However, we did look pretty official with our white vests and hats that said "Observador Internacional" and at least I hope we helped the voters feel a little more confident in the election. The next day, though, we heard reports from other observers of Hondurans being bussed in to El Salvador to vote illegally, and other reports of people being bribed to vote. In light of those reports, I am thankful for the fair democratic process and smooth transitions of power that the US provides.

The day after the elections I became nauseous, and went to a nearby clinical lab to get tested. It turns out I was infected with Entamoeba histolytica. Getting tested at the lab (which was common practice during Richie's trip to Central America) was a smart move, because I was able to get treatment within a few hours, and my stomach pain was completely gone the next day. Yesterday I mostly sat around the hostel recuperating and watching the coverage of the inauguration. If you weren't able to see it, you can watch Obama's speech here. It was a historic day.

Now that the elections are over, Richie and I have decided to return to his homestay in Honduras for a few days, and then visit Honduran's north coast. We leave tomorrow. This means I won't have internet access for the next few days. I hope you're all doing well!

San Salvador

On Tuesday Richie and I bus-hopped from our village paradise to the capital of the most densely populated country in Central America, San Salvador. We have since been staying at La Estancia, one of the cheapest hostels we could find ($7 a night). They just changed management right before we left, and so things are a little disorganized, but it´s not a bad place. We met quite a few Peace Corps volunteers the first couple of nights we were there, and picked their thoughts about their experiences.
A few nights ago we were able to meet up with the 15 or so other Whitworth students that are also going to be monitoring the upcoming election. Two of them are here with an NGO, and the rest on a Whitworth business trip, receiving training from a different NGO. Richie and I, however, are receiving our training from one of the political parties, the FMLN (Farabundo Martí Front for National Liberation). I know it sounds strange to receive training to be an impartial election observer from a political party, but they expressed clearly that we are here to help the Salvadoran people have a free and fair election, not to support their party. However, we have only been hearing one side of the story. It sounds like the FMLN people are convinced that fraud will only occur from the other parties. The election is on Sunday.

Yefrín

Last Wednesday Richie and I took several buses from Antigua over to the town of Chalmeca, in the department of Copán, in Honduras. From Chalmeca we rented a three-wheeled mototaxi to transport us, our luggage, and a five-gallon jug of purified water up a bumpy road to the house of the Pérez family in the village of Limón, where Richie had stayed for three weeks during his study program in Central America last year. During our five days there we picked coffee and beans, rode a horse, milked a cow and drank the milk fresh, drank the milk of a fresh coconut, tried to make tortillas, played in a river, washed our own clothes, bathed by moonlight, played soccer, learned some songs and card games, and talked a lot in Spanish. The family was so welcoming and hospitable - we were almost always fed first, and a young couple slept on the floor in another building so that we could have our own room. Every time I walked into the kitchen the grandfather would get up from his chair and say ¨sit, sit!¨ We also laughed a lot. Our last night there we played games with a group of little kids from the town, that, as Richie put it, were way better than duck, duck, goose. The kids were really cute, and would keep asking us if we knew more games. It was a great way to learn about rural Latin American culture, and get some good Spanish practice. Oh, and when one of the older boys asked for my phone number, he put my name into his phone as Yefrín.

Antigua

After three plane rides and a taxi/van ride, through all of which Richie suffered a bad headache, he and I arrived in Antigua, Guatemala, about an hour and a half outside of Guatemala City. We decided to stay here for at least a day and recuperate from the travels before heading to Honduras. I hope Richie can beat his cold.

Antigua is known for its Spanish-language schools and therefore has a large population of foreigners. The local economy (hostels, restaurants, internet shops) have responded to the large tourist population, and now Antigua is a favorite tourist destination in Guatemala. They even have a designated "Tourist Police"; security officials who specifically assist tourists. It´s a beautiful little city with cobblestone streets, brightly painted walls, and it´s surrounded by lush green mountains (three of which are volcanoes). Oddly, walking around it last night also reminded me of the Disneyland ride "Pirates of the Caribbean." Can´t really explain why, but it did.

Thanks for your comments - I do enjoy hearing about what´s going on at home.

Welcome

Hi friends and family!

As this is my first blog, I'm learning about how it all works. Reading my updates here will be a good way for you to hear about how my trip is going. In the column of text to the right you can see where I am currently at in my travels (thanks to Kyle N., since I directly copied his format). Also, don't think that because I'm away I won't want to hear what's going on in your lives. Please, feel free to send me an email if you want. Sending physical mail is rather infeasible since I'll be gone less than a month and I'm not entirely sure yet where I'll be staying.

Warmly,
Jeff