Gathering Storms

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGG!!!!!!!

That about sums up classes at the moment. The “students” have pretty much checked out for the rest of the year, and I’m half expecting to look in the mirror one morning and not have any hair left. Maki has taken mercy on us all by electing to end school a week early, so our finals will be next week instead of in another week’s time. Maybe I’ll make it out with just a bald spot.

In the meantime, the rainy season is now in full swing, which is probably the only reason I am able to sleep at night. The sound of the pouring rain on the tin roof of our house, and the cool breeze it brings is such a beautiful sound that last week (when the first rain hit) I almost cried. Of course, nothing here comes without a down side; in this instance the reliability of the electricity (and subsequently the internet) has dropped to almost zero. There is at least one hour each day in which there is no power. This has left us all in a precarious situation, as our lifelines to the outside world are severed just when our sanity needs them the most.

And speaking of lifelines, there might be reason to worry concerning the length of mine. Apparently the current president of Honduras has seen fit to allow the ex-president (the one that was forcibly removed a year ago) to return to the country. He’s getting back on Saturday, and there is talk of a national curfew being enforced that day. I intend to stock up on supplies Friday and make like a nerd on the release date of a new MMORPG (online videogame), by which I mean not leave the house for ANYTHING.

Compounding the situation (because as I said, there is ALWAYS something else making things worse) the Peace Corp. has decided to evacuate their people from the neighboring city of Catacamas due to the surge in violence in that area. Just last week 8 people were shot, and I have heard that one volunteer was actually in a store that was shot up. He was unhurt (I think) but enough is enough. Catacamas (a short 40 minute drive from here) is now a “No Go” area for the Peace Corp. and after their currently stationed personnel finish their current tour, they won’t be sending anyone new to Juticalpa either.

This leaves me wondering what the OAF is going to do. They have previously said that if the Peace Corp. pulls out, so will they, so does this mean no more volunteers after next year, or no more after this one? Will they stop at all? I mean don’t get me wrong, you have to be careful here, but any violence only seems to happen on the outskirts of the city…places that we NEVER go to. On the other hand there was an incident last week when a boy, only 13 years old, was shot opposite the turn off from the main road which heads towards the elementary school. That is too close for comfort.

This has been a truly sobering experience. Some days I can’t help but wonder how this country holds itself together. The police do nothing. The government does nothing useful. The people are all out for themselves first and foremost, and follow a very intense “eye-for-an-eye” ethic which is really the cause of most of the problems.

Looking at my students I want to cry. I see their futures already, as if etched in stone. The violence in the streets, between gangs, cartels, and families is echoed in my classroom. “She said something, so I pushed her; he took me pencil so I hit him.” Half the time the other person didn’t even do anything intentional. At what point does it become “…so I killed him.”

There are good people down here, but the odds they face are astronomical. Not least of all because the problems are not just rooted here. There wouldn’t be drug cartels if there wasn’t a market in the United States. People wouldn’t join them if they could make a living elsewhere. But they can’t. There are no opportunities here. It doesn’t matter what sort of education you have if there is nowhere to use it.

And so they go to the US. I have students whose parents have said “goodbye” and left forever to try and make a living in the States. They send money home to support their kids, but the children will never see their mothers and fathers again. It’s a life threatening journey just to get to the US (I know a guy whose brother lost both his legs attempting the trip), and once there if you leave you are never going to get back. One of the other volunteers had a kindergartener ask her for a visa so she could go see her mommy. A KINTERGARDENER!

What ends it? What stops the cycle? We in the US just try to keep Central America out of the States, and so they come to the US illegally (the only way they can) or they join the drug cartels to survive. And the cartels bring violence. Violence brings instability and fear. Fear leads to hate, hate leads to suffering, and suffering leads to the Dark Side.

…somehow that wasn’t quite as funny as I had hoped.