here a page for all those who speak spanish and wanna understand caliche (name of the honduras slang)
http://www.tubabel.com/pais/HN?filter=words
my personal version is about to come
Montag, 24. November 2008
Analysis of the Situation
I have promised some updates from Honduras (am doing my voluntary year in Tegucigalpa with street children/orphans in a place called Casa Alianza). What I am doing right now here is that I give English, Math, Accounting and Spanish lessons (yes all in Spanish, dont ask me how I am doing it, it is extremely hard at times... but one makes the best of every and each situation in life I guess) and I have to express my respect to all of my old teachers. I had no idea how difficult it is to bring up the motivation every day. To motivate the little kids to sit down and listen because in the end education is the key to success and a successful life... especially, eversince I am here I have realized how important education is after all. Of how some kids on the other hand are trapped in the vicious circle of society because of the stupidity and the incapability of the 
government to support them. Public education is unaccaptable. One course lasts only 25 minutes. And most of them hand out Work Sheets and let the kids fill it out. No explanation. Nothing. It is simply unaccaptable of how the teachers here treat the children. Let them study everything alone with helping. Public education might be free of charge but is not worth anything the way it is used. I have met so many children (from age 12 to even 20) that were incapable of reading and writing. Still they are able to survive in a society that is based on understand and communicating. I keep asking myself how it is possible. Yes, back in Vienna and school we kept learning about Illiteracy but it is one thing to learn about it in theory. Maybe feel sorry for people who cant read and be blessed of how lucky we are. But working with people with this incapability is something so different. You see life so diffrently. I do at least eversince I am here. It made me realize so many things. For example education.
Another thing is the problem with public hospital.... one of my friends... isaac ... 24... had a stroke... that is not the only thing I am shocked about, but as well the estado del hospital. Today when I passed by to visit my friend Izaac, I found him in a room with more than 5 people. This room was supposed to be for the people who freshly came out of brain surgery. It was full with peolpe...too many visitors... how are you supposed to relax with all the noise?... impossible!... constantly someone entereing. I couldnt stay for long, because they had to take him to another hospital. This hospital, as it turned out, didnt have all the required equipment for his kind of brain surgery and check ups, so they took him to another one. (Ah and of course everything has to be paid instantly after the treatment- this I know because I have been to a hospital last week (a private one thank god) . What do people do, if they dont have the required means? Die in front of the hospital? How is this system supposed to work or be accepted by society?
The hospital seemed like one from 50 years ago... old doors... bad equipment... overly filled... patients waiting on the floor because there where not enough beds available.. i dont know what to say.... nor what to do....
This is not he only thing that shocks me these days... the kids stories are getting really hard for me to digest... i hear more and more stories ... and the only thing i feel is helpless... i dont know what to do ... how to help them... and that makes me sick..one of my kids... his name is jesus ....
government to support them. Public education is unaccaptable. One course lasts only 25 minutes. And most of them hand out Work Sheets and let the kids fill it out. No explanation. Nothing. It is simply unaccaptable of how the teachers here treat the children. Let them study everything alone with helping. Public education might be free of charge but is not worth anything the way it is used. I have met so many children (from age 12 to even 20) that were incapable of reading and writing. Still they are able to survive in a society that is based on understand and communicating. I keep asking myself how it is possible. Yes, back in Vienna and school we kept learning about Illiteracy but it is one thing to learn about it in theory. Maybe feel sorry for people who cant read and be blessed of how lucky we are. But working with people with this incapability is something so different. You see life so diffrently. I do at least eversince I am here. It made me realize so many things. For example education.Another thing is the problem with public hospital.... one of my friends... isaac ... 24... had a stroke... that is not the only thing I am shocked about, but as well the estado del hospital. Today when I passed by to visit my friend Izaac, I found him in a room with more than 5 people. This room was supposed to be for the people who freshly came out of brain surgery. It was full with peolpe...too many visitors... how are you supposed to relax with all the noise?... impossible!... constantly someone entereing. I couldnt stay for long, because they had to take him to another hospital. This hospital, as it turned out, didnt have all the required equipment for his kind of brain surgery and check ups, so they took him to another one. (Ah and of course everything has to be paid instantly after the treatment- this I know because I have been to a hospital last week (a private one thank god) . What do people do, if they dont have the required means? Die in front of the hospital? How is this system supposed to work or be accepted by society?
The hospital seemed like one from 50 years ago... old doors... bad equipment... overly filled... patients waiting on the floor because there where not enough beds available.. i dont know what to say.... nor what to do....
This is not he only thing that shocks me these days... the kids stories are getting really hard for me to digest... i hear more and more stories ... and the only thing i feel is helpless... i dont know what to do ... how to help them... and that makes me sick..one of my kids... his name is jesus ....
(i know... i keep laughing about his name every time i hear it...:)) .... he is 13 ... a very cute little boy... who told me that his brother got killed in front of his eyes.... (his brother was a member of Mara 18- the biggest problematic of central America --> these are youth gangs who are the biggest challegnge for each government because their high unemployment rate, violence rate and willignness to integrate into society. The average rate of people being in this gangs are approximately 3 years. After that they either get killed, violated and then killed or can escape, which only rarely happens)... and I feel so lucky to see how well he s doing.. and of how he is still able to live another day after all that he has been through... i admire him... sincercly...and thats just one of the many stories.. i dont know what to do or how to help.. i really just wanna take away their burden but i know i cant.. and i m here... getting to know them all.. but right now .. i feel like its not enough... how to help them... and what more I could do?...?????... what???... it s so unfair... why do some have so much and others nothing... why do some live in luxery and others eat food from the trash in the hope to survive another day?...
Why do some receive the best surgical treatment and others have to see people dying on the street because they didnt know better which other way to go?... why?... and i know the only answer is money... because we live in a materialistic world... where equality doesnt matter.. where the equal distribution of material is not the way people select but the accumulation of personal wealth... and being here in Honduras... living the difference i feel after all I have learned in school, trapped with my knowlede... being able to analyize the situation is one thing but not able to change it, the other... and that is the problem that you kept praying me in school... and naive as i was i thought i understood what they were talking about... but i was so wrong... living the difference and KNOWING that your help is limited or in other cases not availble because of egoism... that is what makes me depressed, helpless and it is simply so wrong.
Why do some receive the best surgical treatment and others have to see people dying on the street because they didnt know better which other way to go?... why?... and i know the only answer is money... because we live in a materialistic world... where equality doesnt matter.. where the equal distribution of material is not the way people select but the accumulation of personal wealth... and being here in Honduras... living the difference i feel after all I have learned in school, trapped with my knowlede... being able to analyize the situation is one thing but not able to change it, the other... and that is the problem that you kept praying me in school... and naive as i was i thought i understood what they were talking about... but i was so wrong... living the difference and KNOWING that your help is limited or in other cases not availble because of egoism... that is what makes me depressed, helpless and it is simply so wrong.
Montag, 17. November 2008
Lago Yojoa (lake Yojoa)
One weekend outside of Tegucigalpa with two fabolous ladies... Federica from Italy and Mati from Spain.
We left on Saturday... supposably at 8:30.... but travelling with 2 girls who come from the South of Europe... well I guess you will understand that timing simply doesnt run in their blood.. so we finally left at 11.30... haha... yes... it was pretty funny... but when we started to hit the road the real fun started.... after only 3 hours with the bus... with was stuffed with people and heat.... we arrived in a little town at the lake called Guama... .from there we took a rapitito... which is a small bus which drives from one town to the other.... then when we arrived in la Naraja... we took a Microtaxi...( looks like a bicycle only with an engine and can carry exactly 3 people).... and we went to our fablolous bed and breakfast hotel .... when we entered .... well we didnt see the cabañas... that we were supposed to sleep in... because everything was covered with plants .... and basically what happened was that the hotel
was in the middle of a little forest.... our cabaña was pretty luxurious ... we had an amak on our porch... and it was fabolous... no noise.... no car... only we, the nature and the house made beer that the owner produced... image our luck.... :)
in the night we went out... wanted to explore the surrounding.. but given the fact that when it gets dark, practically nothing goes anymore (bus, taxi ....nada)... we wanted to walk to the lake to have dinner.. (the lake was 8 km from our hotel)... so as we walk a car passes by with 4 young guys (who in the end nos daban aventon -> gave us a ride) to a very nice restaurant at the sea side... where we had super delicious fish from the lake and enjoyed a couple of bottles of white wine from Chile... jummy.... one moment I will definitly never forget for the rest of my life. it was so beautiful.... and we had such a great time with mati and fede).... billiard... and the last challenge this night came when we didnt know again how to get home.. but luckily enough we found the boys who brought as... and they took as home again....
the next morning we went to the cascadas (waterfalls) approximately 17 km from the hotel.... was beautiful.. eventough not as expected because it was too touristy... anyhow... beautiful reunion with nature... no doubts about that.... if you watch the picutres... i guess they say more than my words could possibly describe them....
We left on Saturday... supposably at 8:30.... but travelling with 2 girls who come from the South of Europe... well I guess you will understand that timing simply doesnt run in their blood.. so we finally left at 11.30... haha... yes... it was pretty funny... but when we started to hit the road the real fun started.... after only 3 hours with the bus... with was stuffed with people and heat.... we arrived in a little town at the lake called Guama... .from there we took a rapitito... which is a small bus which drives from one town to the other.... then when we arrived in la Naraja... we took a Microtaxi...( looks like a bicycle only with an engine and can carry exactly 3 people).... and we went to our fablolous bed and breakfast hotel .... when we entered .... well we didnt see the cabañas... that we were supposed to sleep in... because everything was covered with plants .... and basically what happened was that the hotel
was in the middle of a little forest.... our cabaña was pretty luxurious ... we had an amak on our porch... and it was fabolous... no noise.... no car... only we, the nature and the house made beer that the owner produced... image our luck.... :)in the night we went out... wanted to explore the surrounding.. but given the fact that when it gets dark, practically nothing goes anymore (bus, taxi ....nada)... we wanted to walk to the lake to have dinner.. (the lake was 8 km from our hotel)... so as we walk a car passes by with 4 young guys (who in the end nos daban aventon -> gave us a ride) to a very nice restaurant at the sea side... where we had super delicious fish from the lake and enjoyed a couple of bottles of white wine from Chile... jummy.... one moment I will definitly never forget for the rest of my life. it was so beautiful.... and we had such a great time with mati and fede).... billiard... and the last challenge this night came when we didnt know again how to get home.. but luckily enough we found the boys who brought as... and they took as home again....
the next morning we went to the cascadas (waterfalls) approximately 17 km from the hotel.... was beautiful.. eventough not as expected because it was too touristy... anyhow... beautiful reunion with nature... no doubts about that.... if you watch the picutres... i guess they say more than my words could possibly describe them....
Sonntag, 2. November 2008
culture differences
culture differences
1. i seriously miss walking on the street by night.. here its simply not possible... after its dark ... better with taxi.. i dont even use the bus when its dark.. so thats how extrem it is here...
2. talking on the street with the phone is a no go as well... why? cus they most probablly would rob me once i do....
3. going out is very interessting... well... the clubs all close at 2 a.m. and then you simply look for an after party....
4. when you enter a club, people actually can move... not just from one side to the other... but here its like ... when you observe people dancing, they are dancing like there is not tomorrow... with passion for the music.. .which is mostly reggeton.. but the movement is pretty sexy i have to admit...
5. you can buy only one cigarrete... only costs 2 lempira ... which is like less than 5 cent...
6. people drink their drinks out of plastic bags.... not of glasses.. .like when you buy a juice on the street .. you ll get it in a plastic bag.... with a straw...
7. people spit on the floor without hesitation.. no matter if it s inside a house or not...
8. the traffic on the street has no order... the fastest and strongest wins... which is never the pedestrian
9. there is one pedestrian area in entire tegucigalpa.... so no rights for people without a car
10. people here eat everything with tortilla.. whether its soup or.... meat.. doesnt matter ... there is no life without tortilla...
11. sunday is family day here.. .in almost every family.... eating, travelling.. doesnt matter.. as long as the family does it together...
12. people live in their families until they get married, so if this means 27 or 30... thats ok too... well ..not for me... given the fact that things and liberties are simply different.. but its mostly an economic thing.... too expensive to move out
13. man are not allowed in the rooms of girls... if boyfriend would visit, door has to be open or you have to be somewhere, where people can see that you re not doing anything that the catholic curch wouldnt allow before marriage...
1. i seriously miss walking on the street by night.. here its simply not possible... after its dark ... better with taxi.. i dont even use the bus when its dark.. so thats how extrem it is here...
2. talking on the street with the phone is a no go as well... why? cus they most probablly would rob me once i do....
3. going out is very interessting... well... the clubs all close at 2 a.m. and then you simply look for an after party....
4. when you enter a club, people actually can move... not just from one side to the other... but here its like ... when you observe people dancing, they are dancing like there is not tomorrow... with passion for the music.. .which is mostly reggeton.. but the movement is pretty sexy i have to admit...
5. you can buy only one cigarrete... only costs 2 lempira ... which is like less than 5 cent...
6. people drink their drinks out of plastic bags.... not of glasses.. .like when you buy a juice on the street .. you ll get it in a plastic bag.... with a straw...
7. people spit on the floor without hesitation.. no matter if it s inside a house or not...
8. the traffic on the street has no order... the fastest and strongest wins... which is never the pedestrian
9. there is one pedestrian area in entire tegucigalpa.... so no rights for people without a car
10. people here eat everything with tortilla.. whether its soup or.... meat.. doesnt matter ... there is no life without tortilla...
11. sunday is family day here.. .in almost every family.... eating, travelling.. doesnt matter.. as long as the family does it together...
12. people live in their families until they get married, so if this means 27 or 30... thats ok too... well ..not for me... given the fact that things and liberties are simply different.. but its mostly an economic thing.... too expensive to move out
13. man are not allowed in the rooms of girls... if boyfriend would visit, door has to be open or you have to be somewhere, where people can see that you re not doing anything that the catholic curch wouldnt allow before marriage...
Abonnieren
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