This past
week, Cuso had its annual volunteer’s meeting in Copan. We set out on Wednesday
morning, excited for the journey, 11 optimistic people in a bus. 13 hours
later, when we still haven’t arrived, we are all silent, our behinds numb,
wondering if we had entered some twilight zone and that we would be on the bus
for eternity. In actual fact, the
distance between Tegucigalpa and Copan is only about 400 km, but the
combination of an overly cautious driver, a few stops that included a tour of a
colonial town and a huge lunch, plus the roads and traffic made the trip
stretch on forever. It was after 10pm
before we checked into our hotel, exhausted but happy to have arrived.
As soon as
we arrived, a cold front hit, so the next day as we met in the hotel for our
day long workshop, I wasn’t too disappointed to be stuck inside, as it was grey
and cold outside. In the afternoon, to
break up the workshop, we visited a bird sanctuary tucked up in the hills above
the town. They rescue birds that were
pets and have been abandoned, or have been injured and need
rehabilitation. Many of the birds were
happy to greet us with a shrill “hola!”, which was endlessly thrilling. We got a chance to hold some of the birds, 3
named Buffy, Missy and JLo. :)
The following
morning we set out on a guided tour of the Copan ruins. The city at its peak
had over 30 000 residents, and was ruled by kings thought to be gods by the
common people. Our tour guide informed
us that magic mushrooms were used by the rich on a regular basis. The wealthy
Mayans would paint their children’s noses with bright colours starting from a
young age to distinguish them from the poor children, which resulted with the
children going cross eyed from constantly seeing their own brightly coloured
noses. They would also modify the shape
of their heads with boards, which created a kind of cone head, and purposely
pushed their teeth out, so they could imbed the teeth with jade. So, the most handsome Mayans were cross-eyed,
buck-toothed, and cone-headed.
There were
16 kings in the dynasty, who ruled over a period of 400 years. All of those rulers died of old age, except
for the last one, who was captured by a nearby city and beheaded. This resulted in the people losing faith in
their leaders, as it was obvious that they weren’t actually gods, and the city
started to disintegrate soon after that. In their skeletal remains, it appears
that there was a lack of resources, and overpopulation may have played a role
in their demise.
In the
afternoon, we went to some hot springs about an hour into the mountains above
the town. It was a paradise, with a
series of pools running down the mountain side. I could have spent the entire
day bathing there, and the cool temperatures were perfect for the activity.
The next
day we all piled back into the bus for another long haul back to
Tegucigalpa. We made a quick stop at the
PulhaPanzak (Mayan for white water) waterfalls, which were breathtaking, clear
water falling over green moss covered rocks.
Back in the
city, I am back at work at the NGO I work at, the Centre for Human Development
(Centro de Desarrollo Humano). The goal
for my year of work here is to do all the initial research and investigation of
the current labour market, in order to convince the municipal government to
give us a space to start a Youth Employment Centre. I will be holding a series of participative
workshops in order to get the youth involved in the initial stages, with the
hope that this will be a youth-run Centre.
Unemployment is extremely high in Tegucigalpa, and the highest numbers
of unemployed are between the ages of 16-30.
There are few universities, and the costs of higher education keep many
from continuing past ninth grade. Many companies
and businesses have a distrust of young people, as they tend to be the ones
involved in gang activity, and are unwilling to give work contracts to people
with little experience. Some companies
even require women to undergo a pregnancy test to prove they are not pregnant before
they will hire them.
Hopefully,
at the end of this year, we will be ready to open the doors to a Youth
Employment Centre that will offer job search assistance, entrepreneurship
support and links to vocational training.
So, here’s
where you come in! Cuso needs your help
to fund this project! I have raised
around $700 of the $2000 I promised to raise when I signed up as a Cuso
volunteer, and I’m hoping I can get to $1000 before the end of this fiscal
year. Any donations over $10 receive a
tax receipt, and it will be matched 10 times by DFATD (now Global Affairs
Canada), so your $10 donation actually equals $100 for Cuso! Please go to the following link to make your
donation, and I promise to keep you updated about my progress!
What a wonderful writer you are I can see everything you write about,I am going to follow your wonderful stories, be safe and happy trails!!
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