After Two Weeks

I'm completely over Sunday's dehydration problems now. It was 40 degrees here that day and even all the locals were complaining. It actually took me a couple of days to sort myself out. How folks in poor countries live in refugee camp tents without much water or trees for protection is beyond me.

I'm in a new place with a view, but a small room without. I'm trying to negociate a room change and will keep at it because I'm tripping over myself in this school rented accomodation. I guess my young years of flexibility have long changed.

Over the last two weeks, I've been asking myself, 'How Did this Country Get to Be in Such a Muddle?' Why is it so poor? What makes one country more poor than another? Why are San Salvador, Guatemala and Costa Rica much better off than Honduras? They have the same earth.

An American woman who came here five years ago to build schools and infrastructure in various mountain villages where infant mortality and starvation is high, education and medical care non existent, is asking herself now, "At what point are we enabling people to simply accept handouts?"

Tons of non profit organizations, missions and church groups as well as do-gooders come here. They build schools, water systems, clinics and so forth and they leave Hondurans with a plan in place. Then not so long after the orgs have left, things fall apart, either because people here are accustomed to hand outs, or because they lack the education and intelligence to know that there is a better life out there.

The American woman is now building a clinic in Guatamala (very close to here) where the people are involved and working hard to help. So from what I'm hearing, there are fundamental differences in Central American mentalities.

I'm in a restaurant now sitting across from a group of Vanvouver high school students from "Urban Promise," a missionary group that is helping with after school programs here. The academy's goal is twofold: to help build infrastructure and to promote the ministry. There are lots of opportunties for a "legs up" here. Many have strings attached.

Tonight I had dinner with an educated Honduran couple. The husband said that Hondurans are lazy, that in the 70s people immigrated here from the Middle East, did well for themselves and gradually became involved with governing. That's when the corruption began, he said. Later the mafia arrived and for sure there are no taxes coming from that direction. There are smart, educated people here. But there is also a cultural mentality for maintaining the status quo.

At some point in the past, the media began to tell people that they were lazy and so they believed it. This "blue" rightest government has been in for three years. External research shows a recent slippage in all areas -- health, education, jobs, production, human rights, female secondary school education and an increase in violence. In fact, an American organization The Millennium Challenge Corporation, has withdraw assitance for Honduras four times in a row for lack of good governance, transparency, evaluation and accountability. So things are truly in a mess here. There are a lot of wonderful Hondurans. There are also a lot who don't care.

The government: the judiciary, the legislative and executive branches, the military and the police, both national and local, are in the pay of the country's capitalists. During elections, the capitalists also purchase votes from poor Guatemalans who are happy to comply.

Narcos get whatever services they want. The middle class and poor don't. And if you don't belong to the Blue party, you don't receive anything for sure. But, there are improvements and things are gradually changing. People here are starting to open their eyes and march with their feet.

view from the balcony

 

 

El Sapo

 

 

 

Back to the Ruins

I know I promised no more gore and this isn't gore. But do you remember The Sapos, The Frogs, that this frog area was one of fertility? Well I just found out that it was much more than that. It was a birthing centre. And guess where the babies were born? Right on top of the stone frogs. Geez.

Aged One

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copan Ruinas uses this stone head in its promotional material. It's in good shape, despite the years. Inside the ruin grounds, there are several of these incredible Ceiba Trees. Because they can grow to 230 feet, the Maya believed that they connected the underworld with the sky.

connecting the terrestial with the celestial

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cieba Tree

 

 

 

We all want to know why civilizations crash. Not all of Copán's rulers provided strong leadership for the people. The Maya had no sense of sustainable growth: as the city grew in size and population, they cut away deeper and deeper into the jungle, with a slash-and-burn agricultural methods resulting in poorer crops each year. I've been watching this same sort of thing happening south of us Brampton Ontario for thirty years.

The Maya aristocrats here didn't use their land efficiently either. They chose to build their homes on land near the Copán River and in doing so eliminated use of the best land for farming. By 850AD the population of Copán had risen to 20,000 and the valley could hardly provide for so many. This happened not only in Copán, but in other Maya city-states. The Maya were victims of their own success.

Towards the last part of the Classical Era around 850 AD or so, the people had cut down most of the trees to make lime for temple stuccoing. Eventually, having no lime, they added mud to the concrete material they had been using for construction. But rains quickly eroded this inferior material, allowing tree roots to take hold. Deforestation led to drought and drought to starvation, two major factors in Maya downfall.

trees and temples all ajumble -- just as in Anchor Wat

 

 

 

 

in genuflection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's amazing how Forensic scientists are able to discover diseases in people who lived more than a thousand years ago. A great percentage of bodies analyzed in the burial site below were children under age two. The adults had many medical conditions, among them, Osteoporosis and Hepatitis. That latter was caused by tattooing. In Maya times, the skin was cut in a decorative way, the cut was filled with earth and pressed upon by the tattooer's hands. It's believed that this was how Hepatitis spread.

burial area

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The elite played and watched in the Ball Court. Here Maya warriors played a sacred and fierce ball game filled with religious symbolism. In and archeological museum last year in Mexico City, I read that that winner was sacrificed. Not much of an inducement to win, you wouldn't think. But my guide this year said it was probably the loser who was the victim.

 

Ball Court

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a look at the next blog for stelae and why people died from eating the bread nut.

A peek ahead to the stelae. Archaeologists have discovered and translated many of these monolithic monuments . But their purpose is still not known. They might have been funerary monuments or have been used to mark the end of a time period, or to pay tribute to the gods that reigned over that time period.

Bye for now. I'm having a horrible time with Blogsy. See you soon. Be well and good night.

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