Hello, I'm back. Most people don't know that I was gone, but I had to leave the country for 3 days. If you have been reading this blog for over 2 years, then you may recall all the problems I went through in 2007 to get my residency visa to live here. Many problems, lots of paperwork, money, and months of waiting. Seems they don't like foreigners coming to their country to stay, regardless if they are here to help out or not. Kind of "its impossible for our people to go to your country legally so we're going to make it hard for your people to come to ours too." In the end, I was given a visa with a maximum stay of 2 years from the date it was approved, Oct. 29th, 2007, no more. This expired on Thursday. So in order for me to stay any longer, I have to do it the tourist way. Each time a tourist enters the country, they are given a 90 visa. The original 5 Central American countries (Panama and Belize excluded) are in a pact to make the borders open for all here, thus entry in one country is considered entry into all and they can cross the border freely. The down side of that is you have to leave all of Central America to get a new 90 day visa. In the past you would just cross the border to Guatemala, get a new stamp for a new 90 days. Inconvenient, but cheap. I was planning to go to Belize to spend 3 days on vacation and return with my new 90 days. The cost of getting to Belize is outrageous now. The airline ticket from San Pedro Sula to Miami was almost half the price of going to Belize and 1/3 of going to Panama. So I went to the US, Miami, for 3 days and got back here on Thursday, legal again to stay up to 90 days as a tourist. I stayed in a cheap hotel in North Miami but it was a very nice, relaxing 3 days.
I got back to the good news of a supposed agreement to resolve the political problems here. The news here is not as positive as I have seen and heard it was put out in the US. They are still saying there is no deal here, but the interim president, Micheletti, agreed to the San Jose Accord, which would return the ousted president, Mel, to power, with limitations and restrictions, until his term ends in Jan. The former pres., Mel, supposedly agreed to this as well. The international media has reported problems resolved. However, the not so fast part, is Micheletti says it is the Congress and Supreme Court who both must approve the agreement for it to be effective, not only him. I thought that would be like a rubber stamp thing and it was a sure thing, but lots of people here are saying the Congress may vote no. Maybe Micheletti wants them to vote no but take the heat off him, who knows. I am more hopeful and think they will go along because he has been the leader and voice of the "coup" all along so when he agreed to the accord, I think they will follow. We should know soon. I think the Congress is to meet on Monday. The head of the Congress said he wants the Supreme Court first to say if the agreement is constitutional or not. The military deported the president which the supreme court said was unconstitutional and he is worried that returning him to power may not be constitutional??? Big head scratch on that one. However, the paper said they are talking about the interim unity government being set up as early as Nov. 5th if approved so hopefully they are thinking it will be approved and it will be soon.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
New Baby
This is Kimberly. She is 13 months old and arrived at the casa today. I don't know her story yet other than her mother brought her here so she is alive. The kids are all very interested in her as they always are with a new one. It has been over a year and a half since we had a new baby in the casa, Misael, who as of today is no longer the youngest child here.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Holiday
Yes, I was right in my prediction last night. The president did declare today a holiday and cancelled all classes in all schools, public and private. Now you know the priorities here. Today was supposed to be the last day of school for the kids in public school, but since classes were cancelled, the school year is now over for them.
Last week the government decided to just count the days the kids went this year as a full school year, not extend the year. They set Nov. 17 as the last day of classes. The teachers were angry and wanted to work until the elections the end of Nov. They then asked to work to the end of Oct. but again were rejected. The supposition is the government does not have money to pay them so they don't want them teaching anymore. The teachers decided they were going to have meetings on Friday so today was to be the last day of school, until Soccer intervened and the celebration took priority. I went to the meeting with the kids teacher on Tuesday and she gave out their grades from last month, said there would not be any more exams and the grades they already had were the final grades.
Last week the government decided to just count the days the kids went this year as a full school year, not extend the year. They set Nov. 17 as the last day of classes. The teachers were angry and wanted to work until the elections the end of Nov. They then asked to work to the end of Oct. but again were rejected. The supposition is the government does not have money to pay them so they don't want them teaching anymore. The teachers decided they were going to have meetings on Friday so today was to be the last day of school, until Soccer intervened and the celebration took priority. I went to the meeting with the kids teacher on Tuesday and she gave out their grades from last month, said there would not be any more exams and the grades they already had were the final grades.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
World Cup
Honduras is going to the World Cup, South Africa 2010!
Huge deal here. Honduras beat El Salvador tonight 2-1 and moments later the US scored a goal to tie Costa Rica, sending Honduras to the World Cup next year for the first time in 28 years and only the 2nd time ever. It will probably be declared a national holiday tomorrow!
Huge deal here. Honduras beat El Salvador tonight 2-1 and moments later the US scored a goal to tie Costa Rica, sending Honduras to the World Cup next year for the first time in 28 years and only the 2nd time ever. It will probably be declared a national holiday tomorrow!
Monday, October 12, 2009
Columbus Day
Today is Columbus Day in Honduras too and most of the kids are out of school. Unlike the US where it is pretty much known that the Vikings discovered North America before Columbus, it is still believed that Columbus was the first foreigner to actually come to Honduras. Also unlike the US where the colonists lived separately from the indengineous people, in Honduras the Spaniards who came after Columbus intermarried with the indengineous people and most of the population has both Spanish and indengineous relatives in their family trees.
The US soccer team was here Thur. to Sun. and beat Honduras 3-2 Sat. night about a mile from the casa at the stadium. Unfortunately for Honduras, it makes the road to the world cup very difficult now. They need to beat El Salvador on Wed. and hope that the US beats Costa Rica the same night. If not they will have a very difficult playoff against a strong team from South America, possibly Argintina. Soccer is HUGE here and the build up to the game on Sat. was more that you see in the US before the Superbowl, front page of the papers for days before and 20+ pages of coverage the day after, hours of TV coverage before and after. The game is of so little interest in the US it was not even on TV, and you really had to look hard on the internet sports pages to find coverage in the soccer sections, burried after the NCAA, NFL, Baseball, Golf, Tennis, etc. on the front pages.
The US soccer team was here Thur. to Sun. and beat Honduras 3-2 Sat. night about a mile from the casa at the stadium. Unfortunately for Honduras, it makes the road to the world cup very difficult now. They need to beat El Salvador on Wed. and hope that the US beats Costa Rica the same night. If not they will have a very difficult playoff against a strong team from South America, possibly Argintina. Soccer is HUGE here and the build up to the game on Sat. was more that you see in the US before the Superbowl, front page of the papers for days before and 20+ pages of coverage the day after, hours of TV coverage before and after. The game is of so little interest in the US it was not even on TV, and you really had to look hard on the internet sports pages to find coverage in the soccer sections, burried after the NCAA, NFL, Baseball, Golf, Tennis, etc. on the front pages.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Happy Birthday Darwin
Yesterday, Oct. 7th was Darwin Euceda's 20th birthday. This is an awesome milestone for a young guy who was born HIV+. When Darwin was born in 1989 there probably were not many people who would have given him a 20 year life expectancy at that time. Thanks to the wonderful advancements in the medicines that they take, today he probably has a normal life expectancy like any other 20 year old. Praise God!
Darwin always reminds me that his birthday is also the anniversary of the day that Jorge Gomez died in 2003. Jorge was one of the two first boys who I became godfather to, both of whom died within 3 months of each other, Junior in Jan. 2004. I arrived in San Pedro Sula 2 days before Jorge died and was able to visit with him in the hospital the day before he died. The photo on the right was taken in the hospital during our visit, Oct. 6, 2003. Jorge was 2 years younger than Darwin. Darwin said even though he is no longer at Amor y Vida for them to remind him every year about Jorge on his birthday, he will remember him on his birthday the rest of his life.
Darwin lived at Hogar Amor y Vida for all of his teenage years until last year when all the older kids were forced to leave. He now lives in a town about 2 hours from here with an aunt and cousin. He comes to the hospital in San Pedro Sula every other month for his exam and to receive his medicines and we always go out to lunch together when he is here before taking the bus home. The photo on the left is of him at his graduation from nursing school a year ago, along with his aunt and me, his family representatives since his parents are deceased.
Darwin always reminds me that his birthday is also the anniversary of the day that Jorge Gomez died in 2003. Jorge was one of the two first boys who I became godfather to, both of whom died within 3 months of each other, Junior in Jan. 2004. I arrived in San Pedro Sula 2 days before Jorge died and was able to visit with him in the hospital the day before he died. The photo on the right was taken in the hospital during our visit, Oct. 6, 2003. Jorge was 2 years younger than Darwin. Darwin said even though he is no longer at Amor y Vida for them to remind him every year about Jorge on his birthday, he will remember him on his birthday the rest of his life.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Most rights finally restored
UPDATE 10/8: NOT SO FAST! I got an e-mail from the US Embassy that Micheletti's promise to restore the rights yesterday did not go into effect and they don't know when it will. It basically says, watch out, you still don't have those rights.
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After having nothing but condemnation from outside and within Honduras, including most of his own congress, the acting president has modified his order and restored most of the rights here. It is still illegal to meet in groups of 20 or more without prior government approval. Technically that prohibits churches from holding services without approval, but from the beginning the law was imposed for selective enforcement. It was really only enforced to stop the resisitance people from meeting, talking, putting out information, broadcasting on TV and radio, etc. People meeting in large groups for church are technically breaking the law but they are not enforcing the law that way.
Representatives from numerous outside countries are here today to continue talking, negotiating with both sides to try and resolve the problems. The reports have been more optimistic lately, but I am not sure why because one side demands the return of the former president and the other says absolutely no way he will return. But they are optimistic so lets hope and pray for the best.
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After having nothing but condemnation from outside and within Honduras, including most of his own congress, the acting president has modified his order and restored most of the rights here. It is still illegal to meet in groups of 20 or more without prior government approval. Technically that prohibits churches from holding services without approval, but from the beginning the law was imposed for selective enforcement. It was really only enforced to stop the resisitance people from meeting, talking, putting out information, broadcasting on TV and radio, etc. People meeting in large groups for church are technically breaking the law but they are not enforcing the law that way.
Representatives from numerous outside countries are here today to continue talking, negotiating with both sides to try and resolve the problems. The reports have been more optimistic lately, but I am not sure why because one side demands the return of the former president and the other says absolutely no way he will return. But they are optimistic so lets hope and pray for the best.
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