Children’s Day in Honduras

Yesterday morning I woke up with the feeling that I forgot something really important. Right! Children’s Day!

For years, when I was still director of art NGO for children, it was one of the most important days of the year. Preparations started weeks before because we always organized a major event for the kids of Copán. Not in the traditional way with piñatas and lots of candy, because we figured the kids would be sugared-up more than enough and the piñata thing, as beautiful as they look and as much as I’m in favour of keeping cultural traditions, they’re also quite scary. Seriously, having a blindfolded overactive zealous kid swinging a bat around??? I’m always amazed the newspapers don’t report a few smashed-in little children’s brain the next day.

So what we usually did was rounding up a bunch of volunteers and organize game stations: tug-of-war, carrying a tray with cups of water over a balancing beam, sack-race, (Velcro) darts, bowling and of course some art activities such as face painting or mask making. Each child would receive a “passport” and had to pass through all the activities spread over our colourfully decorated playground before receiving, at the end of the event, juice, some cookies (whole wheat of course) and a little gift bag, generally containing some crayons and a notebook. The kids were always super happy and not once did we get a complaint about the lack of candy and piñatas.

Afterwards, the adults were always completely drained. While the kids would run out the gate, gift bag ain their hands and looking for maybe another Children’s’ Day celebration elsewhere in town, our team would barely have the energy to take down the decorations and pick up the trash before surrendering to some much deserved cold beers.

Lots of work for just a few hours of fun, but time well spent. Children’s Day is for most kids more important than their birthdays which are only celebrated by the (upper) middle class. Christmas is important too, although the majority of the children is lucky enough to receive new clothes to wear on Christmas Eve. Children’s Day, however, is just about fun. And getting your hands on as many sweets as possible, of course.

In my home country Holland we don’t celebrate Children’s Day. We have Animal Day though, on October 4^th, when children are allowed to take our pets to school (which can actually lead to situations as dangerous as bursting a piñata.) You can’t miss something you’ve never known, but now that I do, I think it’s a great idea to celebrate Children’s Day, even it would be nice to focus a bit more on the reason for celebrating: It was recommended in 1954 by the United Nations that each country should pick one day a year to promote children’s welfare and their universal rights.

Children’s Day in Honduras has little to do with Human Rights, or children’s welfare for that matter. It has turned into a commercial and even political circus, especially now that the elections are coming up. Yesterday the kids of Copán had a field day, running from one piñata to the other, offered by the municipality and some of the new chain companies in town. I doubt their strategy will be successful. Counting conquered candy is much more important than the person who actually bought the stuff.

So yesterday afternoon, while I was quietly and happily finishing up a sign on a local café, teachers and volunteers of the local day care centre started arriving with that exhausted look I know all too well. I couldn’t suppress a satisfied smile. As much as I have enjoyed celebrating Children’s Day over the last sixteen years, it is absolute great for once not to have anything to do with it.

But nonetheless, happy Children’s Day!

Ten Golden Rules to Make a Kick-Ass Power Point Presentation

As a follow-up on my Golden Rules to a Kick-ass Presentation and with the upcoming Conference on Honduras in mind, here some tips on how to make that Power Point Presentation a mind blowing visual instead of a pain in the butt…




Those of you who remember working with slideshows and overhead projectors probably agree that Power Point Presentations (PPT) are quite an improvement. They’re easy to make even with a minimum of computer skills; the technical possibilities are endless; and it all fits on a memory stick or even in an email attachment. 

But…  Who hasn’t attended a conference with PPTs that just went on and on, hundreds of pictures tumbling over each other thanks to the use of every animation feature in the program? Or worse even, a PPT existing of text only, often so big that it falls of the screen, read out loud by the speaker?

A PPT can be an incredible powerful tool. It can lighten up your presentation; highlight the main points; and the combination of visuals with your spoken presentation make it easier to process and remember. Just make sure your PPT doesn’t undermine your message by presenting a badly composed collection of random text and images. Here a few tips:

1. It’s a visual AID!
Unless your images are the subject of your presentation (such as a presentation about Religious Paintings in the Middle Ages), realize that your PPT is supposed to support your presentation, not to overwhelm or repeat it. Use a limited amount of good images that illustrate your words, or better, give additional visual value or information, rather than a downpour of pictures you happened to have anyway.  Try not to be patronizing with your images (or text): if you write about you’re a water project, use a picture of the actual project rather than one of just a faucet. We all know what a faucet looks like. Avoid repetition and redundancy.

As for text, use only a few keywords that link your spoken text to the images and that help the audience to keep track of the main points. Realize that if you put text in a PPT, people will read it. And if they read, they won’t listen to what you have to say. 

2. Quality over quantity
A picture can tell a thousand words. That’s great, that’s why we use visuals in the first place. However, a bad picture also tells a thousand words! There is no need to use professional photos only, just make sure the image is to the point, in focus and of a reasonable resolution. Images taken from the internet are often too grainy to put in a PPT and are often subject to copyright (more about that in the next paragraph). For PPTs, “less is more” is usually a good guideline to keep. You don’t want to visually over-impose your audience. Quality over quantity, always!

3. Respect author’s rights
It’s so easy these days to find a picture of just anything through Google or Bing, but be careful… It’s not only that these pictures might be subject to copyright (but who would find out anyway?), it is often obvious that the pictures are not originals and that might harm your own integrity. You might think that if you talk about building schools in the dessert, it might be fun to illustrate it with a picture of some random people laying bricks, but keep in mind that your audience will assume the photo is of your specific project. Besides, it often doesn’t look professional. Avoid misunderstandings: For the good of your own project’s transparency and reputation, use your own pictures only. (And if you use other people’s pictures, just be nice and ask permission and/or give credit if desired by writing their name in small letters on the picture). 

Another something to keep in mind if you use pictures of people: make sure they’re dignified. If you wouldn’t like to be publicly pictured in a miserable position, half starved or sick, then don’t do that to others…

4. Don’t explain what you see
The whole idea of using images to illustrate your words is that they support what you say or put it in a context, so don’t explain what you see, that’s often redundant and patronizing. Unless you provide some additional information about the image, for example how difficult it was to take that specific picture, or under what special circumstances it was taken.
 
5. Keep it short and to the point
A PPT is not the same as a yearly report, a novel or a project proposal!!! Yet again, it is a visual aid to illustrate your words. So keep it short and to the point! Think out a scheme you’d like to use, for example:

• Introduction (geographical and cultural context)
• Explanation of the problem
• Solution to the problem
• Results
• Conclusion

Don’t be too specific. A lot of people might not be interested in all your details, but by spiking the interest of your audience, people who are will contact you anyway (provided you give them the information needed to do so, see point 10.)

6. No tricks please!
It’s all too tempting to use all those great features provided by PPT: flying text blocks, flickering images, funky clipart, artsy transitions… But usually they just turn out to be annoying and delay the message you want to transmit. Not that a PPT can’t be artistic or fancy. Just keep a few ground rules in mind:

• If you use a template, pick one that fits your theme and that isn’t too overpowering. Pink roses while talking about violence in Honduras? Maybe not.
• It’s easy to make your own template, and often much nicer. For a background you can use a picture of your own, maybe editing it a bit in PPT or any other photo program. Just make sure there is enough contrast with the text (dark text on light, even background or the other way around). Once you’ve designed a template you like (background plus text blocks), just copy/paste the slide (in the left-hand panel) before adding text and images to the rest of the slides. 
• Use (if any) the same slide and/or photo transitions throughout your whole presentation. It’s calmer than having different transitions and it avoids problems while going from one slide to the other.
• If you use colored text on a colored background, keep in mind that some combinations just don’t work. Green letters on red start “swimming” and besides, they are hard to read for people who are colorblind.
• If you use a lot of color, be aware that each color has its own meaning. Even people who know nothing about the psychology of colors tend to perceive bright red as aggressive, black as depressive or serious, yellow as happy and playful. Blues and greens are calm colors, whereas shades of terracotta and orange give a warmer impression. Use a color that underlines your theme.

7. Watch out with fonts and features
In the first place, always use a font that is easy on the eyes and easy to read. If you use an uncommon font, be aware that if you use your presentation on somebody else’s computer, it might change the font and actually the whole design of your PPT. If you insist on using a specific font, save your text (in your PPT) as an image (GIF) and insert it. This way you won’t be able to change the text anymore, but neither can anybody else(‘s computer).
The same thing goes for features such as transitions: what works right on your own computer at home might do something altogether different on someone else’s computer. 

8. Check you PTT before your presentation
It might sound like kicking in an open door, but please do check your PPT before you give your presentation! Just make sure it is lined up the way you want it and that you have all you need (pointer, remote control) at hand. Nothing is more unnerving than starting your presentation with a PPT that is at fault.

9. Spelling-spelling-spelling
A PPT can easily look very professional. But not so if your spelling sucks. That’s unprofessional, unnecessary and it looks like you don’t care. PPT has a spell check function, but even better is to write out your text first in Word. Make sure you spell foreign names correctly too. That’s just being respectful. And if you make a bilingual PPT without speaking the language (very considerate at conferences with simultaneous translation), don’t bet all your horses on Google Translate, but ask some to look it over. Also, be consistent in your spelling. ‘Copán Ruinas’ is spelled with an accent on the ‘a’, although in English it is often written without. If you do so, make sure you do so throughout the whole document.

10. Contact info
Often a presentation ends with time for questions and answers, and usually your last slide stays on during that period. So use that slide to repeat the name of your presentation, your own name or company and contact info, to give your audience the chance to write it down.

Good luck!!!

Ten Golden Rules to Give a Kick-Ass Presentation at Conferences

This post is a bit different from my usual wandering thoughts on living in Honduras, but the Conference on Honduras is coming up (Sept 26-28) and I thought this might be helpful...

There wouldn’t be any conferences if networking and personal presentations weren’t as powerful as they are. It’s one thing to get a brochure in the mail asking for donations for an orphanage in a faraway country, a whole different story to have someone in front of you telling passionately about his or her own experience. A good presentation is more powerful than the fanciest business card or website. However, a bad presentation can also ruin any interest people might initially have for your topic.
Here a few tips to make your presentation funky, interesting and entertaining!

1. Know what you’re talking about
Duh… you might say. But seriously, you need to know a whole lot more about your topic than the essence you’re going to present. Most people who present are professionals in their field, and for a reason. If it was that easy to give a presentation, we could just hire somebody, anybody, hand over a Power Point Presentation and a list of things to say, and that would be it. But it doesn’t work that way. It’s impossible to present all the details of years of experience, but only someone with that experience can resume it to the bare core.  Your audience will know whether you’re knowledgeable or not, so have all you facts ready and be prepared.

2. Know your audience
Design your presentation towards your audience. If you talk about a water project in Kenya to a group of preschoolers, you might want to start pointing out Kenya on the map and use metaphors the children can relate to. Talking to a group engineers requires of course a totally different talk. This might sound as yet another point to take for granted, but speakers often come over as unprofessional or patronizing by providing their audience with too much or too little information. To play it on the safe side, give a very short general introduction (you can say for example: “As we all know, Honduras is a very poor country in Central America”) and then get into the specifics. Walking that fine line between giving too much or too little information isn’t easy, so the more you know about your audience before hand, the better. In the case of Conference in Honduras, we’re all pretty much in the same boat. However, keep in mind that the audience exists of both foreigners and Hondurans, and that certain statements might be offending for one group or the other. “Nobody ever helps Honduras” stated by a local might be a bit insulting to all those gringos trying to help out, whereas remarks from outsiders about how corrupt the country is, might offend Hondurans whom not all are corrupt.

3. Keep it personal
The reason you’re giving a presentation instead of handing out an information sheet, is because it is your presentation. Even if the topic is serious and formal, keep it personal. Start your presentation with a personal experience or anecdote. It will spark the interest but also give people an insight in your topic. The bare facts can be taken off the website of brochure. What you personally have to add to it, can’t.
If the topic calls for it, use humor in your presentation. It keeps people alert and it opens up your audience for the information you have to share. However, if you’re not a natural joker, then don’t play the clown. Nothing is worse than a joke nobody laughs at!

4. Tell your story, don’t read it out loud!
Even if you decide to write out the whole text of your presentation, don’t read it out loud! When you read, your voice is more monotone and the information sounds not half as interesting. If necessary, write out your text and start practicing by retelling each paragraph in your own words until you feel comfortable enough to do it without a the text. But keep your text nearby, even if you won’t need it. It will give you confidence and something to fall back on.

5. Use visuals
The more senses you stimulate, the more likely it is for the information to come across. Photos or illustrations are great and a Power Point Presentation can be of great help, as long as it is a good one (see: Ten Golden Rules to Make a Kick-Ass Power Point Presentation). Also consider sound (the rumble of a horrifying earthquake?) or video (kids playing and laughing?). Or smell! When talking about coffee producing, why not brining some freshly ground beans?

6. Don’t hide behind the lectern
If there’s a lectern or reading desk, avoid it! Instead, step in front of it and use the whole space available. If you walk from one side to the other, people are forced to look at you and will pay more attention. It makes the whole presentation livelier and more interesting.

7. Make eye contact
You are a human being, talking to other human beings, so make sure people won’t forget that! Make eye contact, so people feel involved. It also works miraculously if someone isn’t paying attention or twittering. Just look at that person, make eye contact, give a sly smile and you’ll have his or her attention for the rest of your presentation.

8. NEVER SHOUT!
If you start speaking, open your chest, slightly raise your chin, and focus the reach of your voice at a point in the very back of the room.  Speak from your belly while keeping your shoulders back. Speak out loud, but without forcing your voice. Let your whole body transmit confidence and it will give you yourself more confidence.
 If there’s a lot of noise and people keep on talking, don’t raise your voice, but instead lower it. People will be trying to hear what you’re saying and even hush the others. Success guaranteed.

9. Make sure you’re ready
Make sure you’re on time, if not early for your presentation, so you won’t have to rush. Make sure you have all you need: microphone, pointer, Power Point Presentation, remote control and a glass of water. Even if you’re not thirsty, a glass of water is a great object to use to stall an answer or thought.

10. Be prepared for Q&A
Be as prepared as possible for the questions. If you don’t know an answer, don’t lie, but say that the question is really interesting and you’ll get back to that person shortly. Make sure you really answer the questions instead of starting another mini-speech. 

Break a leg!!!

One of those parties…

A couple of weeks ago I ran into an old acquaintance who reminded me of a terrific party we once had in my house, years and years ago. Now, I’ve had many good parties in my house, back in the time when it seemed we all didn’t do much more than partying anyway, but this one was truly memorable.

I have no idea how it all started and what the occasion was, but there was some sort of cultural event in town that had ended way to early to our likes and somehow a whole bunch of people ended up in my house. There was Nury from San Pedro Sula, celebrating her birthday and dying to get rid of the huge birthday cake she was carrying around all over town. Guillermo Anderson, Honduras’ most famous musician was there too, as well as a bunch of people from Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Looking at pictures, I also know there were some tour guides and even Nelson, a local teacher who won’t miss the opportunity to go for a swing. Also present were some close friends, an employee of mine even, but mostly people I met there and then for the first time.

The cake, that nobody was much interested in, disappeared into the kitchen and a little later disappeared quite literally when my dog Monster took advantage of the fact that we were all dancing the night away in the living room. There was little left but a huge moustache of icing around his nose. But nobody cared: we listened to live music, danced to the few salsa CD’s I had while more and more people arrived, filling every corner of my tiny house. There must have been booze, obviously, but apparently not enough. While going over the damage the next morning I realised someone had gotten into my decorative bottles of coloured water. The clear glass bottles that I had filled with tainted water to match the glass bottle stops were now half empty. Someone must have had quite a hangover that day… Well, we probably all did, but the party was well worth it…

A year or two later I visited the cultural centre Casa de los Tres Mundos in Granada, Nicaragua, were I met the Minister of Culture. When he heard I was from Copán, he told me about his last trip there, where he had had the greatest time. He told me his that his friend Angela, who happens to be one of my best friends too, even took him to some private home where they danced till the early morning. That’s when I realised why the guy looked so familiar! He had been one of my guests!

“Aha!” the Minister of Culture said. “So it was your dog that ate the cake!”

So, yes, that was a good one! But far from the only one. We seem to be pretty good at partying here in Copán. At least, we used to be, because now we’re of course much more serious and mature and go to bed a ten every night…

(Hahaha!)

Not (yet) leaving Copán after all…

In August of 2010 I decided to leave Copán. Now three years have passed and I’m still here. To stay. Well, maybe…

When I arrived in Honduras in March of 1997, I had no intention to stay very long. But a two month visit turned in to six months, then a year and before I knew it, Copán had become my home and I no longer had a return ticket. Copán is a fun place to live and I loved my work as director of the cultural NGO I had founded. But whether it was a midlife crisis, frustration with the downfall of the country or just being burned out, halfway through the year 2010, I’d had it.

So bottom-line, I wrapped up my organization, got rid of a bunch of stuff, gave up my house and moved –temporarily- into my previous office for the few months I planned to hang around in Copán. I started working independently and fulltime as an artist and designer and I must say it was a delight not to have a whole organization and number of employees to worry about, but instead doing what I like most: painting, writing, hiking and lots of yoga… I had no specific plan of what I wanted to do, but was thinking of going to Spain. It seemed a good place to go: not as Wild West as Honduras but not as over organized and chilly as my home country Holland. But then Spain’s economy went patas arriba and it didn’t look like such a good idea anymore… Not that Honduras is doing that great, or my own economic situation for that matter, but at least I have a reasonably comfortable and enjoyable life here. To give that up to go elsewhere without the back-up of a savings account??? Nah…

But… Tourism is at an all-time low, Honduras is far from being the favourite destination at the moment and the economic crisis affects everyone. And since art is not considered a primary necessity (although I don’t know why, for me it is!), it hurts my purse deeply. But worse than that, in the last few months there were moments I hadn’t much to do. Me and not having anything to do is a lethal combination, so there were only two options and one of them is not an option, so I picked the other one: keeping myself busy! So that’s why I decided to open, against all odds, a business. I didn’t have any money to invest, but I figured that with just my time and a bunch of left over paint I’d come a long way. After all, the good thing of having nothing is that there’s nothing to lose…. That was about a month ago, and I did it: Luminosa Café Gallery is now open for business!!!

This last month I had great fun turning the ugly patio and run-down living room into a colourful place where I exhibit my art and products. The courtyard is open as a small café where I sell my own favourite tapas and mixes of herbal tea. And coffee, wine and beer, of course. At night I can transform the place into a yoga studio and I even decided to take people along on my daily hikes. Not that I’m that fond of chattering my way through the mountains at dawn, but I found a perfect solution: I’m selling “silent yoga hikes”. For a fee I’m happy to take you along, but sssshhhhhh……. J

So, here I am, still in Copán! There’s still a lot to do, which only makes me very happy. I don’t see myself leave anytime soon.

And who knows, I even might make a bit of money…

Before...

....And after....(Although not yet finished)

The Lesser Side of Tourism

It’s high season in Copán Ruinas and although the number of tourists isn’t nearly as high as a few years back, everybody is happy to be doing some business after months of misery. Yes, we’re all happy to see the streets crowded again, the restaurants full and hotels bursting out of the seams with college kids on excursion. Everybody somehow depends on tourism in this town, directly or indirectly, so we’re glad, but that doesn’t mean that high season doesn’t bring along its nuisances too.

My number 1 irritation this year is people skyping in public places. I think there should be a set on international rules for the use of skyping, with fierce fines and punishment for abuse, because really, it’s getting completely out of hand…

Cell phones were bad enough. In Copán Ruinas, the fad started pretty late, because for the longest time we had no cell phone towers here, so only a happy few carried the thing around, for when they were travelling “abroad” (=outside Copán or the Grand City of San Pedro Sula). When we finally got connected, you couldn’t have a decent meeting with more people than just yourself, since everybody always had the phone glued to their ears. I suspect it was much more a “hey, look at me, I’m cool – I have a cell phone” thing than an actual need to communicate. I even have my suspicions that people specifically requested calls during their meetings, just to show off. But now that everybody has a cell phone (or two), even the poorest campesino, the novelty has worn of and people no longer shout in their phone while in a restaurant, meeting or bank. Or maybe it’s just that phones are barely used for talking these days, but for chatting, gaming, posting, tweeting, taking pictures or baking pizza.

Skyping though, is a whole different story. If you want to spend your whole vacation on your IPad, fine, I have no problem with that, although I don’t always understand what’s there to post on Facebook if you spend so many hours on your tablet instead of actually experimenting the place you’re at. If you really need to share every tortilla, every taxi ride and each and every souvenir you buy directly with the loved ones at home, fine. But please do so by chat, whatsapp, tweets, facetime, messenger or texting, not by skyping in the middle of a reatsaurant!!!!

Yesterday afternoon I went for a quiet beer to the restaurant across the street only to find the place invaded by a whole army of teenagers on a mission. Actually, there were just six of them, but they occupied three tables and one was pacing around with an iPhone, so the restaurant felt like it was completely overtaken. Each and one of them were skyping. Some by themselves, others in pairs, and they were all yelling on top of their voices to be heard. At least most of them had earplugs in, but being able to listen to only half of the conversation doesn’t make things much better.

“No, I said we’re in Honduras… Yes, HONDURAS!”

“Hi dad! Look! I’m in a restaurant!”

“Is aunt Jane back yet?”

“Yes, it’s pretty hot here too!”

“So, after grocery shopping, what did you do? … The hairdresser? Ah, cool…”

Worse is when they pick up their iPhone/tablet/iPad or other device and start walking around showing off the place.

“Yes, I’m in this restaurant. Look, isn’t it cool!”

Yes, you’re in a restaurant, you idiot, a place where people come to eat and relax. Not to be shown off to your uncle’s neighbours’ grandfather! And I don’t appreciate to have your tiny camera lens directed at me, so I give you the finger. So you have actually something to talk about: the place is really cool, but the people are so rude!!!

So please people, can we do the same thing we do with cell phones nowadays? Have you noticed that when in company or in a restaurant and people receive a call, they actually get up and go outside to answer? Can’t we do something similar with skyping? Please??? What about the privacy of your hotel room? The reception area? The bathroom maybe? The top of a mountain???

Anywhere but public places where you’re surrounded by people not interested in your private conversations???

Please!!!

Thanks…

My Wonderwalls

 I think I’m in love…

Sleepless nights and an accelerated heartbeat in anticipation… My senses are sharpened, colours brighter then ever, right in my face, sense of smell heightened… The enormous dimensions of it all, the physical effort, touch, texture under my fingertips…

Yes, I’m deeply, head over heels in love with mural painting…

Not that there’s anything wrong with painting in my studio. Or on my living room floor in front of the TV, where I usually end up. But nothing compares to paint a big, fat mural. The sheer dimensions, the transformation, the outdoors…

I’ll never forget the first mural I ever painted. It was 1998 or so and there was a guy in town called Mitch, just hanging around, painting stuff here and there in exchange for a beer or a meal. Not everybody enjoyed his art. The three gigantic devilish masks he painted on the wall that surrounds the soccer field where covered up in a matter of hours. A better assignment was to paint a scene in a bar owned by friends of mine, Macanudo. And since I was a painter too, he asked me to help.

My stupid answer was to say no, that I couldn’t, that I’d never painted a mural before. Mitch just laughed and said that that was his first thought too when someone asked him to do his first mural, but that you just have to do it. An advice that I took and that stuck with me. (I was glad I had the chance to tell him so, years later, when I ran into him in Antigua Guatemala).

So we painted a bunch of sympathetic drunks in simple black lines on a yellow wall, surrounding a main figure. Seen from behind the bar, it looked like they were actually sitting at it. Alas, this mural didn’t last long either. For some reason, people thought it offensive because it represented Jesus and his 12 disciples. It didn’t, and except for the number of guys, I didn’t see the connection, but it was painted over anyway.

From there on I started painted more on walls. I didn’t even consider it mural painting, just a little thing here and there. Commercial ones too, and I’m not exactly proud to admit that I’ve covered whole facades with the Pollo Rey logo. But it was good exercise and paid the rent.

I began to take mural painting seriously when I was invited in 2004 to participate in Art for All, a mural and sculpture project in Tegucigalpa, organized by Peter Claesson, then the coordinator of the UN Volunteer Program. It was a great experience, just the fact that I stayed in a fancy hotel for two weeks with forty fellow artists from all over the world, but I also learned a lot, from painting my own mural as much as from watching others. 

The Mural I painted for Art for All 2010, Seville, Spain

During my time as director of the Cultural Association Arte Acción Copán Ruinas, I painted many murals with kids. Sometimes we let the children develop the theme and scene, other times I prepared the sketch and let the kids fill it in. The results were always overwhelming and it gives the kids an enormous sense of pride and achievement.

It’s not easy to explain what’s so great about mural painting. I think part is the challenge of having to deal with a surface that can not be bent, moved or manipulated. There’s the outdoor factor, having to endure blazing sun, wind or rain. The physical effort too, because mural painting is hard work! And of course the exchange with the community, the ever present audience, the comments of kids and neighbours. It’s great to transform a drab wall of a school or clinic into something that the community feels proud of, sometimes even gives them identity.

For the last few years, I’ve been trying to make a living out of mural painting. Not easy, since there’s not much money laying around for art in this part of the world, but every once in a while, I manage to find a sponsor who’s willing to pay me to paint a school or community centre. Other times I paint for free, as long as paint and transportation is provided for. My biggest dream right now is to paint the whole wall around the soccer field. All 120 meters of it!

Thing is, I just can’t stop painting murals. It’s an addiction…

So far, it has been 18 days since my last mural. My fingers are itching… Designs are already made… I’m suffering from severe withdrawal symptoms… Gotta paint one soon…

Canine Celebrities

I guess each town has its own Gallery of Fame of Extraordinary Characters and Copán Ruinas is no exception. There’s the guy who sells corn on the cop on a corner of the central park; the legless beggar; the panhandling nasty old lady who hits you with her stick if you refuse to give her some money; that one particular drunk, amazingly still alive after years of guaro; and Doña Mena whose diner is called “El Pijazo” (The Punch) because she’s famous for hitting her customers. But in Copán Ruinas we also have celebrities of the canine variety.

For those who’ve been to Copán, Bombero hardly needs introduction. You’ll probably see him hanging around at the park, the market or even more likely, at Café Via Via. Not that Bombero doesn’t have an owner: he actually belongs to a vegetable salesman at the market and his real name is Manchas (spots), because he’s a Dalmatian and all Dalmatians in Honduras are called Manchas.

But because he likes to hang around with gringos, he got his own gringo name too, Bombero of Fireman, again because of his appearances, of course, Dalmatians being a firehouse mascot in the US.

Bombero has his routine down to a tee. In the early morning he runs along the moto-taxi that brings his official owner to the market. He flirts a bit with the neighbour who besides selling veggies and fruit also preaches over a portable sound system. Then he lies down in front of the market’s entrance to see the world go by or to wait for me to accompany me to Café Via Via for a yoga class. Bombero is great at Downward Dog, does a good Happy Baby and gladly joins you on the mat for Sabasanah.

Breakfast is daily served at the Via Via for Bombero and his friend Bambi, also a regular at this restaurant. The rest of the day Bombero likes to hang around at the Via Via, trying to sneak on the couch, getting petted by tourists or just to sit on the porch and bark at any man passing by with a hat or machete. His charm and good looks make every human melt down, except those guys with hats and machetes, maybe. In the afternoon he takes a walk through town, but is never late for dinner, again at the Via Via. Then it’s bedtime, somewhere up the hill, just to start his routine all over again the next morning.

Many dogs in Copán are in a pretty miserable state because there’s not much of a “pet culture”. But Bombero sure is one of the lucky ones…

What you want your friends NOT to do when in Honduras...

If you live in a remote village in a far away country, it is logical that friends who come through that remote village in that far away country on their vacation or business trip, pay you a visit. They also send their friends, and even friends of their friends who happen to be in the neighbourhood over to say hello. That’s all fine, nice to see some new faces and especially when they buy some of my art, no complains from my side…

Over the years I’ve had hundreds of visits of friends, family members, acquaintances and friends of friends, not to speak of the many volunteers who worked with my art organization and stayed here for weeks or sometimes even years. Some of those stays were more successful than others, but there is one that is quite outstanding and, after all these years, quite funny.

When I was fourteen or so, I was “difficult”. So “difficult” in fact, that my parents thought it a good idea to ship me off for a while to this couple of artist friends they had. It was a great idea, and it just proved I wasn’t “difficult” at all, I just happened to be bored out of my mind at home and thought everything there was “stupid”.

So I had a great time, not knowing back then that one day I would pay the price…

A couple of years ago, that same artist couple contacted me and said they had a little “problem”. The son of one of their best friends was being “difficult”, being in his late teens without knowing what to do with himself, so the solution was to ship him off to Honduras for a few months so he could straighten himself out.

Okay, no problem. I’d give him a room in my office and keep an eye on him, but with no intention of any interventions, because I know from experience what one needs when being “difficult”.

So the day this kid arrived, let’s call him Pedro, I had him picked up at the airport by a friend who would put him on the bus to Copán early the next morning.

The first bus arrived from San Pedro Sula, but no Pedro. The second one… still no Pedro. So I called my friend in the city and it turned out all was well, they were “just chilling” and Pedro would arrive with the last bus heading out.

Indeed, at 6pm or so, Pedro got off the bus, a charming, well behaved and friendly kid. Thing is, he was not alone. He had in his wake an eight or nine year old boy that followed him around like a puppy. I asked Pedro where the kid came from and he really couldn’t say, just that he had been on the bus with him from San Pedro Sula and that he called him “papi”. Oh crap! I told Pedro that under NO circumstances the kid was allowed into my office, which from now on was Pedro’s home. Pedro looked at me as if I was the cruellest bitch on earth so I had to explain him that the kid, despite being just a kid, probably already was a professional criminal and that he’s better watch out for his belongings. (I am actually not that heartless and made sure the boy had, in return for cleaning the bus of the company next door, to eat and a place to sleep, but I was right: a few weeks later there was a raid by the local FBI in the hotel next door, the kid dragged along by the agents: it turned out he was a scout for a gang in the city and responsible for a whole string of break-ins in town…)

Anyway, back to Pedro’s first night in Copán. There was a party that night in town, a goodbye party for a friend who worked as a manager in a big hotel just out of town. I figured it would be a good idea to take Pedro along and introduce him to the local crowd. It was indeed a fun night, but around midnight I was ready to go home. Pedro wanted to party on, but I told him it would be better if I dropped him off at his room since he didn’t even know the layout of the town yet and not to worry, there would be undoubtedly many more parties to come. Pedro was wise enough to agree, so I left him in his room and went to my own apartment next door to write Pedro’s dad that his son was sound and safe in bed…

Little did I know that he wasn’t… Neither did I know the next morning, because Pedro never told me, but Copán is a small place, so I found out anyway…

That night, as soon as I had turned around, Pedro sneaked out of his room and went back to the bar. When the bar closed, Pedro didn’t go to sleep, but instead joined a brand new best friend, also from out of town, to the string of cantinas and lowlifes, the one place I had told him not to go. They were standing outside a cantina, drinking a beer, when the police drove by and before they knew it, they were thrown in jail. Drinking in a public place (they were standing on the street) is against the law and although that law is never enforced when it concerns local drunks, it’s a lot more profitable to pick up strangers who break the law.

So within twelve hours of his stay in Copán, Pedro already found himself in the drunk tank, without belt or shoelaces, and getting quite anxious. It was a good thing his new best friend worked for a big international organization and was able to talk them out of jail in a matter of hours. The police insisted on driving them back home, just to make sure they were indeed who they said they were. Problem was, Pedro had no idea where his room was, so he went with his buddy to his hotel, the big one just outside of town whose manager’s goodbye we had celebrated just hours before. In the end, they had to knock on my friend the manger’s door and yes, he remembered Pedro and was so kind to drive him back to town, finally to bed… At 6am….

When I finally heard about this episode weeks later (many more Pedro adventures happened in the mean time) I also learned it hadn’t been his first encounter with Honduran police! The night he arrived in San Pedro Sula, my friend took him clubbing and unfortunately that was the night the police decided to raid the club. At the exact moment of the raid, Pedro was in a bathroom stall emptying his bowels, when the police, heavily armed, hooded and dressed in bullet proof vests stormed in. Since Pedro didn’t speak a word of Spanish, he couldn’t follow their instructions and was dragged outside. My friend came to his rescue and in the end, nothing happened, but it was quite a welcome to Honduras.

Pedro stayed for a few months and we had a great time, since he’s adorable and cute, one of those people you can’t stay angry with long. I could write many more posts on  Pedro’s Adventures in Copán, because everything always seemed to happen when he was right there. I mean, how many times do moto-taxis actually just topple over? Never, as far as I know, except when Pedro was inside one…

So, yes, it was sad to see Pedro leave. But it also a relief…

By the way, it seemed to have worked: Pedro has straightened out quite well. Although he’ll always be Pedro of course…

Maya Connections

Sorry, but this post is not about relationships with indigenous peoples. It’s about shopping. Or one shop in particular, actually.

One of the good things (as well as the bad!) of living in a small town, is that everybody knows you. Shopping, for example, is a totally different experience here than in the big city. No need to, completely embarrassed, having to put an item back in the super market just because you’re a few cents short of cash. Heck no, in Copán Ruinas I can probably go by a whole month without paying anywhere! I rather pay cash, but funnily enough, shop owners are all to keen to write up a tab. Up to a certain point. There is this one clothing store that each January puts up a huge list in the window with all the names (including surnames and nicknames) of the people who owe. With the amount of the debt, of course. One of Copán’s main sources of entertainment for the local population.

Shopping is a social event that goes well beyond the purchase of a product. More than money it’s gossip that goes over the counter and stores are a great place to run into people. That’s one of the reason I boycott the new supermarket in town. That and the fact that at Doña Berta’s I can just grab whatever I need and tell her I’ll pay tomorrow, without even the need to write it down!

One store I’ve had a long personal relationship with is Maya Connections. It is owned by my friend Sandra and opened, if I remember correctly, in 1997, as a small internet café in one of the rooms of her mother’s hotel, Los Gemelos. This was durin the years that I was lucky enough to have a huge and heavy laptop (with a black and white screen!), but of course no modem or wifi. Not even a printer for that matter. So I used to write my emails at home or work, save it on something called a floppy disk (holding up to 1,4MB of information!!!) and bring that along to send off my emails at Maya Connections where four computers each had their own dial-up modem. No way of answering emails directly on line, that was way to expensive for 2,50 ($0,13) Lempiras per minute!

Of course the connection was interrupted frequently, so I spend a lot of time at that store, munching on chocolates (imported from the big city and nowhere else available in Copán) or drinking a soda. Sometimes beer even, if connecting to the universe took too long. It was also the place in town for photocopies, office supplies, laminating and binding. Maya Connections even had a paper guillotine, one I used very often, although there was hardly a surface available to put the thing down. 

The already limited space of Maya Connections became even more cramped when Sandra decided to start selling souvenirs too. It was a little uncomfortable to sort hundreds of photocopies between bracelets, coffee mugs, teaspoons and car stickers, but business is business, and business was blooming. Even so that Sandra commissioned me and fellow painter Edgar Zelaya to paint a mural on the outside wall, one of the best we ever did in my opinion, but unfortunately painted over my Sandra’s mom when she moved out to a bigger venue. Because with a laundry service, the sale of shuttle tickets to Guatemala and a growing demand for computers, a much bigger space was required.

So Maya Connections moved to a corner building a block south of the Central Park. Sandra asked me to do the interior design and gave me the free hand to “go nuts”, which I did. What a great time was that!

A couple of years later, in 2010, Maya Connections had grown out of its seams yet again and besides, the property it was housed in was falling apart. So when the newly restored colonial building across the street became available, Maya Connections hopped over. Again I was asked to do the interior design, and this time we decided on a different look, sort of “recycled chic” with old pallets, wooden crates from the market and huge cable spools. There was an internet café of course, but since more and more locals now had internet at home and travellers carried iPhones or smartphones, the main space was filled with souvenirs. And business was still booming. 

Design Sketch Maya Connections

Booming so much that Sandra decided to expand in 2011 by renting the space behind the store as well, and turn it into an art gallery. Yet again it was my pleasure to decorate the place, this time using a Mexican folklore theme. We painted the outside of the building too, in the same colours as Frida Kahlo’s house in Coyoacán. Providing internet was by no longer a profitable business (the price had even lowered to 30 Lempiras an hour, making it five times cheaper than in 1997!), so the focus was now on art and souvenirs. 

Alas, not every story has a happy ending, and this is one of them. This month, sixteen years after opening its doors, Maya Connections closed down. Business is too low, tourism has dropped substantially, competition has grown, so there is just no more space for Maya Connections. It’s a pity because, at least for me, Maya Connections has been part of Copán’s history. 

But then again, I wouldn’t be surprised of Maya Connections submerges again somewhere in the future…

No Mother’s Day for me this year…

Dear Mothers…

This post goes out to all the women in my life who are mothers, including my own. It’s for my closest friends who are mothers; but also for my neighbours; acquaintances; ex-students; future mothers, new mothers, old mothers, grandmothers, adoptive mothers; mothers I‘ve worked with; and all those other amazing women with children who have passed through my life at some point or another. I even dedicate this to those rare fathers here and there who are actually more of a mom than a dad most of the time…

What I want to tell you is… I’m sorry, but this year I’m not going to wish you a Happy Mother’s Day.

Thing is, it’s only the Friday before, and I’m already sick and tired of the whole thing. I could do without the noise pollution that seems to go hand-in-hand with commercial success, in this case the commerce in unnecessary and cheap products that for some reason people think are related with Mothers Day. I’m not very excited to see the stores fill up with the cheapest of the cheapest and mostly useless objects, primarily in the colour red and for that reason somehow related to Mother’s Day.

I would be happier not to find a bunch of invitations to special Mother’s Day dinners at local restaurants in my inbox; and I’m seriously considering to boycott Facebook until Monday.

I have nothing against Mother’s Day in itself. But I think that celebrating Mother’s Day once a year with a plastic rose, a cheap lunch package and a handmade gift by son or daughter (likely the same as last year) is just not enough.

I don’t have kids and am very happy about it. It’s not that I don’t like kids, actually I do, a lot, I just don’t like them all the time!!! Not being a mother has been a conscious decision, one that I’ve never regretted. But that doesn’t mean I tremendously admire women who are mothers, especially the ones that have managed not to kill their offspring!!! Seriously, how do you do it??? I can barely manage a job and a household, so how to deal with a partner and a bunch of kids on top???? I find it truly amazing how women manage to deal with it all, especially the women in Honduras, who do not have the same resources and opportunities as women have in my home country. I’ve seen incredible women single-handedly raise a dozen or so while making the world go round. What I’m talking about here is women cultivating their own land, hauling water at the creek, grinding corn every day and still manage to send her kids to school. Amazing and admirable.

So, no Happy Mother’s Day from me, this Sunday. But instead, I promise to honour, respect and admire you every single day for the rest of the year and the years to come. For every day you get up; for every night you go to bed exhausted; for every day you feed and educate your children; for every day you give them love, even though you’re not always loved the way back as you should be. For every day you worry and wish them well… I respect and honour you for doing what needs to be done, and doing it so well, even if you didn’t ask for it. Mothers of the world, but especially those from Honduras: you’re truly amazing. Always. 365 Days a year!

PS: For my gals who happen not to be mothers, wanna go out and get drunk on Sunday??? J

Plastic Terror

Doña Berta's shopping bag

I know, it’s a world wide problem. But as with a lot of things, in Honduras it seems to be worse. It might be a nuisance in other places, but here it’s epidemic. It’s everywhere. It haunts me. There is no escape.

I’m talking about The Plastic Bag.

It’s not just the fact that with each and every purchase you get a plastic bag. You often get multiple bags! And there is no way refusing them! Apparently there’s this unwritten but sacred etiquette to the use of plastic bags. It must be something like this:

            -Any business shall hand out as many plastic bags to the customer as possible. Be stingy with anything, but with plastic bags.

-The customer shall receive as many plastic bags as he or she can, and preferably ask for more.

-If the purchased products are several, in stead of using one bag, try to put the different products in as many separate bags as possible.

-Do not ever put cleaning materials (albeit already wrapped in plastic) in the same bag with edible products (often also packed in plastic) in the unlikely case the food might take on the smell of the cleaning products on the short trip home.

-Do not pack food products meant for humans in the same back with product for animals. (Imagine a can of dog Chow and a can of condensed milk in the same bag! Gross!)

-At the market, even if the customer brings her own shopping bag, put every single vegetable or fruit in a separate bag before depositing it in the shopping bag.

-In case the customer needs immediate use of his/her purchase, the plastic back is immediately discarded outside the store. (And not in the garbage can, of course).

-Since plastic bags are so common and so abundant, there is no reason for reuse whatsoever.

-Plastic bags make great flying objects on the streets and therefore need not to be recycled.

-Plastic bags also add a nice fragrance to home-burned garbage, yet another reason not to be recycled.

I started my War against the Plastic Bag many years ago, and am still fighting it. It’s a lost, case, I know, but I won’t give up. While I was the director of an NGO, we had this rule that no plastic bags were allowed into the office. We had big shopping bags for everybody’s use and accepting a plastic bag was punished with a 5 Lempira fine. The first months after implying this rule there was quite bit of money in the kitty, but my colleagues eventually got used to the No Plastic Bag Policy. So it is possible…

Doña Berta, the owner of one of my favourite stores in the world (see a previous post on her store here) liked our policy too and it inspired her to have canvas shopping bags made for her regular customers. After all, as a shop owner, she’s sick and tired of having to pay for all those plastic bags!

It’s an honour to be an inspiration, so I carry Doña Berta’s bag proudly. It has more value to me than a Louis Vuitton bag, and probably holds more too.  Unfortunately, I’m the only one. I don’t know what it is, but people in town rather die than be seen with a shopping bag on the street…

The Plastic Bag Situation is bad enough as it is, but it is even worse if they are imposed on you. Even without accepting any plastic bags, I admit I have hundreds of them, with no clear clue of how they got into my possession! Really, there is no escape of the Plastic Bag… Not even here in the small town of Copán Ruinas, where everybody knows me. True, in a lot of stores the bag boy gets hissed at before he can trap my purchases: Stop! She doesn’t want a bag!!! But all too often I have to literally beg not to give me a bag.

Instead of asking whether you want a bag, the cashier starts shoving your stuff in a bag anyway. I usually say:

“I don’t want a bag.”

Nothing happens.

“I don’t want a bag!”

The bagging continues.

“I don’t want a bag!!!”

Nothing. So after I’ve paid and receiving several plastic bags, I start to unpack it all. That’s when the cashier finally wakes up from his or her preconditioned state of oblivion and looks at me like I’m the craziest person on earth.

Maybe I am.

But I still don't want that plastic bag.