Por fin, fotos!

This site isn´t so photo-upload friendly as far as I can tell so I made an album on facebook that you can check out. It has pictures of Copan, the Ruins, local flora, coffee, friends....and probably some other stuff :) Enjoy, and you´re more than welcome to comment on here!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001074&l=f933b&id=1161480074

And these are pictures from the week of orientation in Akron, Pennsylvania.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001075&l=4f84c&id=1161480074

Another student we met at the language school in Copan, Megan, said that she is going to set up a webshots account that we can all load pictures onto if you ever want to look at a whole ton of pictures. Once that link comes I´ll post it, then repost it whenever I add stuff to it.

Arte Acción

This morning we were walking around Copan and we walked into a little store that looked like it had cards and maybe little gifts we could get for our families here. The guy working there told us that the place was started to help local Copaneco kids experience Mayan culture and essentially build community with each other through art and sports. They had all kinds of really cool illustrated stories about animals with a passion for social action. I was pretty excited :D so I got two of them, one is about Bobo Basura (a creature made from trash, hence the last name) who was abused as a child and who doesn´t want people to fight because it only makes everyone sad. Another is called the Trash Fighting Frog. I haven´t read that one yet, but I´m looking forward to sharing them with the kids in La Campa.

If you want to check out their site, it is www.arteaccionhonduras.org

La Vista

I´m in the town of Copan Ruinas in western Honduras. It is named for the nearby Mayan ruins that date to around 2000 yrs ago. The town is on a hill surrounded by densely forested small mountains. I love the bright and joyful community that I see all around. People look at me when I walk down the street, so I smile and say buenos and they always respond with a smile and their own buenos. People often hang out in groups on the side of the street talking and laughing until around 9, when most people go to bed.

I´m amazed every time I walk around the town because of the incredible view of the mountains that the streets offer. Everything here is so colorful! Liz noticed that the amazing patters and colors of flowers and plants that we see everywhere are replicated by the culture. You can look at necklaces and bracelets on a table on the street then look up and see the same color and shape about 100 times the size. Its so beautiful how Hondurans embrace the nature around them.

At the same time, I see a lot of American influence. Apparently a TV store opened up recently and everyone went and bought one. Or three in the case of my host family. They have a lot of TV channels showing a lot of American programming. It made me pretty uneasy to see the Simpsons in Spanish playing during dinner. At least it wasn´t South Park, but its still pretty scary. My family generally sits around and watches TV when they´re at home and all I can do is hope that they aren´t taking too much away from the experience.

En-theos

This summer I've learned and been able to practice something life-changing. At camp we would always encourage our kids to choose to be positive and enthusiastic. When kids would make that choice, we would have great weeks and a cabin full of brothers. Sometimes you have to be a little crazy to get your kids to smile and have a good time, but its always worth it, especially when you refuse to be embarrassed. :)

Here at orientation we have some really enthusiastic people, like Passionate from Zimbabwe. Smiling ear to ear, he taught all of us a song at devotions one day that had some awesome running, spinning, and searching actions to it. It made me really miss church in Africa, where everyone dances around for at least 15 minutes every week. I think if I went back now I would really really appreciate that kind of church. Right now Passionate is sitting one row in front of me talking and laughing, doubled over most of the time.

Reading Jesus for President, they wrote that the root of enthusiasm is en-theos, which means 'in God'. So when someone in enthusiastic, that is God showing through them. Maybe it is hysterical laughing, like my friend Passionate. It could also look like passion for a cause, compassion for people, or sheer joy in life. Many people lack enthusiasm in any of its forms, a tragedy of a magnitude that I can't bear to imagine.

This summer I've been able to live with a lot of enthusiasm. Not just breathe, eat, drink, work, and sleep, but really live! Its a wonderful thing, and I'm looking forward to a life full of living. :)

Multicultural Mingling

This week I'm at SALT/IVEP/YAMEN! orientation in Akron, PA. The last week of camp and the week at home were really good. It was great to be able to hang out a little bit with the Jubilee house folks. They had their communal dinner one night and 41 people showed up! Normally turnout was more in the 2-5 range. It was awesome to see that they've connected with a fair group of people during their year. A bunch of us helped Jason advertise for an event at the Roosevelt Community Center. We walked around and talked to a bunch of people and told them about the event and I was really surprised, most people seemed interested and really friendly and said they would come. Camp got me more used to being friendly with strangers and walking around really made me think about doing a year at the VS house because I could get to work with all of that potential in the community.

Anyway at orientation here we have 50 American/Canadian SALTers and about the same number of IVEP/YAMEN people who come from all over the world. The cultural mix is fascinating. On the first day I felt badly when I would see an African brother or sister because I knew that they wanted to sit and have long talks to get to know people, but I was really tired and I didn't have enough energy to talk with more than a couple of them. That night, I saw one woman from Jordan getting some cake. I commented something worthless like "Oh, you have cake!" and she right away asked if I wanted any. I said no, I didn't, to which she asked again. I said no again then she said, here, I'll get you a piece of cake. I was so confused, I thought she hadn't understood me but her english was good and I was sure I had spoken clearly. Then it dawned on me that the norm in Arab culture is to decline offers of hospitality until the host does it anyway. I knew this because MCC had sent me a little book about cultures before I came. Realizing that resistance was indeed futile, I accepted when she offered me juice, forgetting that accepting an offer immediately is perceived as being forward. Oops. We ended up having a nice chat while we slowly ate our cake and drank our juice.

These last two days have been full of this kind of confusion, all around, I'm sure. The awkwardness is quickly wearing off and everyone seems to be quite comfortable with each other.