For Mom, Love Steve

I didn´t want to go to the islands. Sorry again, but that feeling I got with the rocks is just multiplied when I have to spend a shitload of money to see something that I have done too many time before. Now, it is always better once I get there and I always feel better to have done it, but to have to travel half way across Honduras, spending a lot of money on transport, and not caring about the main draw which takes people there, diving, and hanging out in an environment which I don´t particularly care for, exclusive tourist places, it just feels worse thinking about it. Again, Honduras has two major tourist draws, the Ruins and the Bay islands. It´s not like there are tons of highlights so it would seem a waste to miss one of them. But then, God/Allah/Buddha/Big person in the sky, shone down on me and brought forth thy answer to my dilemma. Orphans. What a great excuse. Perfect.

After the ruins, I needed some decompression time so I figured I would bypass my normal little fried chicken shack and have a sit down meal at a mamas place. Most of the places in Copan were the tourist variety set up to make the visiting foreigner feel comfortable. Not what I wanted. I wanted a little place in some local grandmas house with no frills just good old mama cooking. I wandered around town but couldn´t find one. Finally on the way back to my chicken shack which was next to the bus stand, I saw a dark entry way with a couple of plastic tables and chairs with one of the tables having a small bottle of hot sauce sitting by itself. I figured what the heck and went in and asked the Senora if she made food. She said sure and offered up an almuerzo (lunch). As usual it was massive, hearty, and perfect. While I was eating, a asian guy came in and he gave me a bit of a sideways glance. He chatted with the mama for a bit and then came by and said hello. He asked the usual if I was Japanese or Korean getting out the usual introductions. He was very confused at how and why I was eating there and I explained to him what I like and how I travel. He was very interested and he had a seat and we ended up talking for a bit. His name was Chin (Shwen) and he was from Taiwan. He was an art major who dropped out of University instead wanting to donate his time volunteering in Honduras. He was staying a year and the place where I was eating, the lady was the person running the orphanage where he was volunteering. Usually when I hear the volunteer part I start biting my tongue as I am a pretty disenchanted NGO person. I have had my fill of people who had the best intentions bit were really basically getting more benefit than the people who they were presumably trying to help. Chin was a bit different and I was really impressed.

His story is kind of common, but with a slant that I felt was refreshing. Back in Taiwan he knew that he wanted to do volunteer work to try and be “helpful”. He did the normal internet research and found an organization that fit the bill. It was a German organization that placed volunteers all over the world. For their service he had to pay $7000 plus the cost for the flight @$1000. That is one of my huge problems, but like everything else, NGO´s are a business and they only survive by creating income. For me I think it is crap, but if you web search volunteering, you will see that it is fairly standard and no different than if you were looking for information about buying a car. Your results are basically the same with all the front pages being “on sale now” “low price” “budget”, etc. Volunteering is not cheap. Now imagine how much of that money actually gets to the people who need it. But hey, just my perspective. Anyways, he got set up and they placed him in San Pedro one of Honduras biggest towns. He was placed in a homestay, basically living with a host family. His work was what he wanted which was in the arts as he taught handicapped people to create sellable art. The problem that arose with him was that he was placed with a very well off family in a well off enclave and rarely had the chance to see the people whom he thought he was there to help. He stayed in a large house with all the amenities including housekeepers and with a family who were westernized to the point where just going a few blocks to the store involved a car ride. He wasn´t happy and felt like he wasn´t accomplishing anything. After a month he requested that he be moved to somewhere that was a bit closer to something where he felt he could be more beneficial, so the company had him come to Copan. There, he was put in an orphanage with 22 kids and 6 babies. Now he had his hands full and was getting his ass handed to him. He was having a blast, but he was also filling a bit frazzled. He originally didn´t speak spanish and no one spoke English. He was the only volunteer so there was nobody else to hang out with and the other people at the house were four single moms and a 18 year old guy who spent a lot of time with the single moms “wink, wink”. As you can imagine, his helpfulness turned into getting taken advantage of and he was finding that a bit of a challenge and with 28 kids vying for his attention, he had his hands already full. Even then, he was pretty happy and I was very impressed. While we ate, some of the kids came in and he had them do some homework as he usually did this until mid-afternoon when he would then walk them back to the orphanage for night duties. I got to spend the afternoon helping with the homework and then he took me back to the house to check it out and meet the kids. Like usual it was fun chaos as you are pulled in all directions with all the kids wanting your attention. I left exhausted after only an hour. I definitely had respect for Chin after that and I think he felt a lot better getting to talk to another foreigner and especially about the whole organization thing.

Now, for me, it was great fun to hang out with the kids and basically play, but something important also came out of the experience. I didn´t want to go to the islands but I would have felt bad missing out on something that is rated so high as a must do. With the kids, came a perfect excuse. I could hang out a bit more and help out, but more importantly what if I took the money that I would have spent going to the islands and give it to the kids. So later when people hear that I had been to Honduras and they ask how the Bay Islands were, instead of getting that crazy expression because I didn´t feel like going, I could tell them that I felt it was more important to help out some orphans rather than sitting on a beach somewhere. Also, giving to help out orphans definitely is worth a God point so it helps out my future endeavors as well. And so that is what I did. I spent my island budget on buying a bunch of arts and crafts stuff which would hopefully help Chin with his orphan juggling, and later on a bunch of school supplies for the local school which was just about to start classes (one of the ladies at the restaurant explained to me that there is a lot of money to be had in Copan but it strictly is for the tourists and that they see very little of it). So in the end, I got to have some fun, I felt better for helping out, the kids got some fun stuff to play with (all arts and educational stuff with the exception of a big ass bag of balloons), Chin got some distraction help, the school got some much needed supplies, and not one penny went to some piece of shit who makes money on the backs of orphans. Oh yea, God points and I could bypass the islands without a touch of guilt (don´t worry though as my next stop is the Cayes in Belize and I heard from a dive instructor they are by far better than the Bay Islands).

Chen with the usual array of little kids strapped to him.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 11th, 2010 at 1:37 pm and is filed under Honduras. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.