Thursday, February 17, 2011
So, I am back in Tegucigalpa for
more medical work. Apparently, I am
broken and need to be fixed. When I
entered the Peace Corps, I thought it was a good thing, that I would have
access to health care and epilepsy medicine that was costing me $200 a month
that I bought from Canada, since it was $2,000 a month to purchase from the US
drug companies. Now, I not only receive
my epilepsy drugs, but also bacteria infections, sinus infections, more
headaches, eye irritations, and any other random assortments that can be thrown
at me.
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| Parque Leon |
The first time I came to Teguz I was really excited and
overwhelmed by the city. It was large,
had a movie theater, a real mall, and lots of cool restaurants. I was blown away and had some culture
shock. The second time I came to Teguz I
got to know the city a little bit more, had made some friends in the big city
and they showed me around a bit more.
Now that I have been here several times it is just another big
city. Except it is dangerous, so I can’t
walk around, and it lacks the culture of Barcelona, and the seaside of San
Diego.
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| View of Teguz |
Therefore, what am I to do all day long after my physical
therapy appointments? Each time I come I
try to mark one more thing off the “Top 10” list from Teguz, so this past week
I headed up to Parque Leon and then the Museo de Arte to see what they had to
offer. I heard about Parque Leon from
another friend and he suggested we walk there from the Centro…walk straight up
a hill through a neighborhood I had never heard of. This is like a robbery story waiting to
happen. But, it turned out we just
followed the “paved path” all the way up and had an amazing view of Teguz. The park was well put together and there were
kids skateboarding, bike riding, and couples being all in love. It was very peaceful, right in the middle of
all the craziness that is Tegucigalpa.
If it wasn’t so far away from the Peace Corps office, I would consider
going back and reading a book there more often.
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| View of Teguz |
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| Museo de Arte, Teguz |
Later on in the week, I visited the art museum. It’s located right by the Congressional
building, and while the outside could use a scrub brush and soap (from all the
graffiti artist that have found their way), the inside was very beautiful. After the guard let me in and I signed the
book, the lady let me pase adelante for only 20 Lempiras after I told her I was
Cuerpo de Paz. I’m not really sure how
“money-making” this art museum is as I noticed that yesterday they only raked
in L295, or a whole $15, and they seem to be paying for two guards and three
empleadas. Anyway, as I normally do, I
had the whole museum to myself and I began to casually stroll through all the
rooms, where I found a strong collection of Mayan ruins, along with lots of
gold headbands used during wars. I also
found a box housing the 50th anniversary L20 bill, which I thought
was interesting, since it’s not the bill worth the most amount of money. That would be the L500, the L20 is only worth
about $1, but there was a large plaque for it and everything.
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| The most important $$$ Lempiras ever in Honduras |
As I was on the second floor in a room devoted to Francisco
Morazan, who was the President of all of Central America from 1827-1842 (and
from Honduras). While casually strolling
through, I heard a lot of turmoil outside, where I looked down and saw hundreds
of students demonstrating in front of the Congressional building. They were students from the public university
UNAH here in Tegucigalpa and were protesting because of recent reforms to the
constitution that would aim would aim to give
independence to private universities.
Here is a link to the article in English http://www.elheraldo.hn/Ediciones/2011/02/17/Noticias/Protesta-estudiantil-en-centro-de-Tegucigalpa
And here is a video of the demonstration from where I was in the art museum
As I headed back down the street, I came across another
protest, from other students supporting no smoking laws. Honduras recently passed a no smoking law
effective this summer for restaurants, bars, and other public places. You can watch the peaceful demonstration here
So, anyway, my time in Teguz this week has turned out to be
very cultural!
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