Crisis in Honduras

The rain which has bothered us since our arrival in Honduras last week became more than a nuisance. A tropical depression (number 16 apparently) dumped massive amounts of rain across Honduras and, as could be predicted in a heavily deforested country, has resulted in devastating landslides and widespread flooding, The damage has been compared to Hurricane Mitch, although with the death toll somewhere around 30 the mortality rate certainly doesn’t compare.

Here is some of the news-

Floods, landslides imperil thousands of families in Honduras

Flooding in Honduras Forces Mass Evacuation

Video of floods (You Tube)- in Spanish but the pictures say all.

We have been safe and (mostly) dry through all of this. It did give us some concern last week due to road damage, and will likely again as more rain is forecast this week and we need to travel to San Pedro Sula later in the week in order to do some interviews and then fly home.  However the hardest thing is knowing this is going on, it’s heartbreaking to hear daily of people loosing homes, and worrying to think about all the crops lost and infrastructural damage that will plague this country for months (if not years) after the international community forgets.

Collapsed hotel on the road Danli-Tegucigalpa road. We travelled past here last Thursday. On spotting the collapsed building we heard several people on the bus saying "Amen" and "Thank the Lord". We later found out it was a by-the-hour hotel. (photo from Reuters).

Just a few ants…

We have just engaged in battle with the biggest ant invasion I have ever seen.  Driven out of their nest by unusually large amounts of rain, they had clearly decided our room was the perfect warm, dry place to make a new one, or at least to evacuate to.  Luckily I came back to the room after dinner and caught them before they started climbing onto walls, tables and the beds, but the floor was swarming with thousands of determined little ants. Half an hour of strong detergent and wet mopping, and a towel jammed under the door to prevent re-invasion, and hopefully we can sleep in peace, but truth be told, I’m a little nervous.

We are currently in El Jicarito, staying with friends.  Things here are a little more basic than we are used to in NZ- a simple concrete room, outdoor toilet and cold shower, but the friendship is warm and the price is right (given the bombing of the NZ dollar since we arrived here) and until the ant invasion I was quite ok with it all.  We have been here nearly a week, and are planning to leave tomorrow for Danli to visit Luis family.  I have encountered significant numbers of ants there in the past but all outside (concentrated underneath the bird cage!) so not too much of a worry!

We had a good four weeks in Copan Ruinas.  I had a wonderful Spanish teacher and enjoyed taking some time out to do something a little different to thesis work, and to get a feel for Copan.  I think I made some good progress, although for some reason on this trip I seem to be having some difficultly “tuning in”.  Maybe it’s the accent, maybe it’s just that I need to practice more, but I am still finding it a challenge to move beyond basic conversation.  Maya is also quickly picking up some Spanish, learning new words every day- and she is much less shy than her mother at using them (maybe I could learn something there).  She was able to join a local preschool (kinder) for a couple of weeks and quickly made lots of new friends.  She absolutely loved it, and in turn they loved her.

The conference went really well and I made lots of contacts both personal and for research.  I guess that’s one of the advantages of doing research at a networking conference! It was exhausting however, and I was very happy we had decided to stay on in Copan for a few more days after the rest of the conferees left, both to relax for a bit and to be able to do good interviews with some local conference participants.

During our stay in Copan we were also able to take advantage of some of the tourist attractions, visiting a butterfly farm and a bird park, and a horse ride to a Chorti village, and Luis and Maya joined a kinder field trip to the Mayan ruins (I had an interview scheduled that day so had to give it a miss, but have visited them in the past).  Maya really enjoyed these adventures, particularly the horse ride!

We left Copan just over a week ago, staying a couple of days in San Pedro to break the trip and to sort out an internet connection- a wireless modem and 3G cellular chip that is allowing me internet access here in Jicarito.  We did have some problems getting the account activated and the connection is a little on the slow side but it is pretty amazing to be connected here.

It is now getting late.  I am trying very hard to put the visions of a swarm of ants in my bed out of head and am going to get some sleep.  Really I am.