A House in the Woods

After my sojourn in Honduras, which I thoroughly enjoyed after an absence of more than 2 years, I spent several days in W Va. with my son Jonathan, my only family member living within driving distance (2 1/2 hours each way). It’s so very peaceful out there, such a contrast with city living. Jon resides in a rustic house deep in the woods belonging to his employer, Coolfont Resort. The resort is now making a comeback under new ownership after years of neglect. Jon works at the front desk, mostly evenings and on weekends when occupancy is highest. Sometimes I hear animal noises when I’m out alone in the house, located about a mile from the main complex that includes the lodge, restaurant, tennis courts, pool, and gym. All alone out there without a phone, internet, radio, or TV—or any neighbors--I spent time reading back issues of the New Yorker passed along by a friend. The most frequent late afternoon and evening visitor was a doe calmly munching grass, passing close enough outside that I could reach out to touch her. She got used to seeing me and was not afraid.

 

Certainly, the US cultural divide is evident in W Va. 

Some local sights are more benign.  

                                   

                                             Below is a house in neighboring Winchester.

After a big storm, my son reminded me of my close call with lightning in Honduras. That happened back in 2002, in El Triunfo in the south, when lightning bolted through a hole in the ceiling, brushing by my right ear, with the thunderclap right behind. Ash was left on the floor beside me. At first, I was totally deaf in that ear, then my hearing recovered somewhat, but never completely. 

Just now, when my son was driving me home, he asked Alexa or Siri or whoever to direct him to Eastern Market in Washington, DC. The voice gave directions, adding, “Eastern Market will probably be closed by the time you get there.” Wow! How did she/it know about that? Very eerie.

Back Again in DC

I invited Alba, a guest from Spain and the girlfriend of Alex, my Costa Rican visitor, to a farewell dinner at a local Hispanic restaurant on her last night here. Below is Alba in NYC during her US visit.

                                                        We enjoyed a leisurely dinner. 

An estimated 40 migrant children bused here from Texas and Arizona are expected to be enrolled in D.C. Public Schools, Chancellor Lewis D. Ferebee said at a press conference.

WUSA9, Father arrested for accidental shooting death of 1-year-old, police say Police say the child died from an "accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound."

If parents feel the need for a gun, then they must double-down to keep it secure and away from children. More often, their gun kills a family member rather than an intruder. As said before on this platform, I’m grateful that a gun found at a parents’ bedside, that discharged after another boy dropped it, ended up only wounding my then-11-year-old son in the foot. He could’ve easily been killed. Any lingering foot pain he now feels in his 40s reminds us of that scary event. It is very unlikely that the gun was ever needed to ward off an intruder. Even Breonna Taylor would not have been killed if her boyfriend had not first fired at police. The excess of firearms in this country, now with more guns than people, is a risk to us all. These guns should all be collected and melted down into something useful.

Again, we just celebrated the anniversary of MLKing’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, which my late ex-husband and I strained to hear as we stood at the edge of that giant crowd after coming to DC from California for another meeting.

Daily Beast, Trump Demands Either New Election ‘Immediately’ or Make Him ‘Rightful’ President Now

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Sunday in a Fox News interview, “If they try to prosecute President Trump for mishandling classified information...there literally will be riots in the street.” Is that a warning or a threat?

LA Times, Nicholas Goldberg: Remember when we thought George W. Bush was the worst president ever?  I certainly remember coming back to the US from the Peace Corps and being flabbergasted that American voters would be so foolish as to allow George W. Bush a second term in the presidency. It almost made me want to return to Honduras. Former President Bush is now doing better as an amateur painter than he ever did as president. But little did we know then that Donald Trump would come to occupy the White House, making GW Bush look almost normal by comparison.

While Donald Trump was playing golf up north, the FBI was looking for documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.  

Former radio host and comic Garrison Keillor, once of Prairie Home Companion fame, now, at age 80, is attempting a comeback after his fall from grace in 2017 due to “inappropriate behavior.” He has a Washington, DC, appearance scheduled for October.

I just attended an outdoor farewell party for my next-door neighbors who are moving to the suburbs, seeking more benefits for their 10-year-old daughter, whose birth seems to have happened only yesterday. The family has sold their house to a retired couple. Now only one family with children remains on this block, unlike in the old days when my kids were growing up here among many friends their own age. If families with children keep moving out, that makes our neighborhood less kid friendly, creating a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Baby Bust

Capitol Hill is not the only place seeing a dearth of children. A nation’s average birthrate must reach 2.1 births per woman to just stay even, given that a few children will unfortunately die before reaching reproductive age. A steady state, not a population increase or decrease, is optimal. India and some African countries are now surpassing that desirable average, while the current US birthrate is less than 1.7. As older folks like me survive longer, not enough younger working folks are coming along here in the US to support us as we age. More immigrants would help.

Now in my 80’s, I am fully retired. I’d been working part-time as a Spanish interpreter until the pandemic made public transportation more problematic for me without a car. But, so far, I’ve not become bored or lonely since giving up work in 2020. I’m still able to engage in what we in the occupational therapy association called “purposeful activity,” as subjectively defined. For one thing, everything takes me longer now.

Young couples of my acquaintance either have 2, 1, or no children at all. I don’t know any even with 3. My 4 children, or 5 counting my Cuban foster son, have certainly not reproduced themselves. My older son Andrew and foster son Alex both died young and had no descendants. My surviving son, Jonathan, has 2 sons. Melanie, my older daughter, has a daughter with one son. Stephanie, my other daughter, has no children. Our family’s average is well below replacement.

What does billionaire Elon Musk have to say about our anemic national birth rate? Musk, who personally has fathered at least 10 children with several different women, tweeted about doing “my best to help the underpopulation crisis,” opining that “a collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far.” He further tweeted: “Population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming," then adding: "Mark these words.”

Mr. Putin foresees the perils of the current baby bust, now occurring in Russia, as well as in China, Japan, South Korea, and the whole western world, as well as here the United States. So now Russia is bringing back its Soviet-era “Mother Heroine” award to fight that country's demographic crisis. Russian President Vladimir Putin has earmarked 1 million rubles, or nearly $17,000, for each woman who has given birth to at least 10 children, provided all of them are still alive. Would it be worth giving birth to 10 children to earn $17,000?

Abortion, now being touted under the banner of “reproductive rights,” is not helping overcome the shrinking population problem. Abortion has almost become a secular sacrament for some folks as a symbol of female equality. If men cannot have babies, then women don’t need to have them either. So, then what?

Wash. Post, Seven personal stories about abortion

Now, let’s see equal coverage with 7 stories about women unexpectedly pregnant, as is so often the case, and how they went ahead to give birth and to cope with and even come to enjoy motherhood.

Abortion rights’ marchers hold up signs of clothes hangers, which quite correctly declare “Never Again,” since most abortions now are done at home with pills, not clothes hangers. Pill abortions are relatively easy and private. And a very early abortion probably does not inflict pain on the fetus, as inflicting pain is to be avoided, even with animals. But once a child is actually born, parental neglect can suddenly be punished by imprisonment, while before the birth, sometimes only days earlier, the mother’s right to terminate the pregnancy may be upheld, as her right over her own body may supersede the unborn’s right to life according to some commentators.

As said before, I do side with Democrats’ official positions on most issues, but abortion is a major exception. There are many ways to prevent a pregnancy, including simply by sexual abstinence. As a birth mother, I know that pregnancy and childbirth can sometimes be difficult, and as an adoptive mother, I am well aware that raising a child is not always easy. But I also know that there are plenty of would-be parents out there willing and eager to raise a child as their own if given a chance. Whether via adoption or giving birth, despite the many challenges of parenthood, that relationship—like any human connection—usually proves worthwhile for both parties. At least, I have found it so. The untimely deaths of my older son and Cuban foster son still leave a huge void. After all, who are we apart from our relationships? If everyone were a hermit, humankind would become extinct.

More Gender Issues

Monkeypox was spreading fast among gay men until they got the message about having fewer sexual partners and less frequent sex. Now their more abstinent lifestyle has reduced new Monkeypox cases, which are unpleasant but usually not fatal. However, one reportedly “severely immunocompromised” adult in Texas has actually died of the illness.

“Maternal Instinct is a Myth that Men created” is the title of an article in the NYTimes. I haven’t read the article, but not all maternal feelings are imaginary or simply socially inspired, especially after a woman has just given birth and is nursing her baby. Nursing releases Oxytocin, often dubbed the “love hormone.” (I’ve experienced that feeling, which came as a surprise.) Even though women have moved toward greater parity with men, some innate biological gender differences still remain.

In all human cultures, men are much more physically aggressive than women and prisons everywhere are top-heavy with male inmates, often accused of violent crimes. In the US, over 90% of prison inmates are male. Female inmates have more often committed non-violent offenses, such as prostitution, embezzlement, and shoplifting. These differences are not all cultural. Male primates and mammals, not subject to human cultural conditioning, are also more aggressive than females, probably because of higher levels of testosterone. Males, both human and animal, become less combative with age as testosterone wanes. Many murders are committed by males under age 21. A youthful murderer may be identified decades later through DNA evidence, after he has become a law-abiding husband, a father, and an established citizen.

Latin America

Wall St. Jour., Cuban Migrants Head to the U.S. in Record Numbers Economic hardship, political repression drive tens of thousands to leave the Communist-led island

NBC News, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega goes after the Catholic Church in his latest effort to stop criticism of the government

I’ve heard from Honduran friends that their 4-year-old has started school and simply loves it.

War Crimes

War crimes evidence is being collected for both Syria and Ukraine, but why isn’t war itself a crime?

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/08/mr-blinken-dont-abandon-afghan-religious-minorities/ Afghanistan’s religious minorities — Christians, Hazara Shiites, Hindus, Sikhs, Ahmadis, Bahais, and Jews — face veritable genocide as “infidels” and “apostates” under Taliban Islamic law, yet these groups were all excluded from U.S. priority refugee admissions status. Many if those evacuated still remain in limbo in the UAE.

Is Age Just a Number?

On the Greek island of Crete, there is a purported 4000-year-old tree still producing olives. How is its age determined if there is so little record of that time, back when ancient humans were just starting to make metal tools? At the very least, it is said to be 2000 years old. Did our distant ancestors enjoy eating olives from this very tree? 

 

Here's another long-lived tree, this one in Japan, estimated to be at least 200 years old and still blossoming. Thanks to neighbor Susan for photos of both of these amazing venerable trees.

 

Wash. Post, His emotional support animal is an alligator. They sleep in the same bed.

 

//////////////////////////////////

[Online Spanish language ads]

 

 Crédito promocional 

Teléfonos móviles

 

¿Por qué Verizon?

 

Back Home Again

 

Coming back just now from Honduras, I underwent a mild case of the reverse culture shock I felt more keenly when returning from Peace Corps service there. Not much had changed in my recent 2 ½ year absence from that country, but I myself do feel changed after my short visit.

USA Today, Meet 'Lucky Blue': 1-in-2-million bright blue lobster caught by father and son in Maine Now on display now at a Maine family restaurant, this rare lobster is due shortly to be returned to the ocean.

 The following happened at 4 am early one morning after my return.

AP, Police: Man killed himself after ramming US Capitol barrier

Both New York City and DC are accommodating migrants being sent north by the Texas governor. A worker shortage means they will probably find jobs.  

https://nypost.com/2022/08/15/row-nyc-hotel-being-turned-into-migrant-shelter/

https://dcist.com/story/22/08/11/dc-attorney-general-grants-migrants/ DC Attorney General Will Offer Grants To Support Bused Migrants

Accu Weather, Mom charged with leaving her 6-month-old baby in hot car for 5 hours The infant’s death and that of a child in Arkansas Tuesday who was found unresponsive in a closed vehicle brings the total number of hot car deaths among youngsters to 18 this year. [This happens every summer. In winter, babies die in freezing cars. Not only does the child die, but the negligent parent suffers life-long repercussions.]

My sister and her husband had both been vaccinated and boosted, always wore masks in public, and limited their contacts. Both still came down with Covid, though did not become severely ill. Perhaps they had the more transmissible but less virulent Omicron strain. The virus keeps evolving. Will we never get rid of it?  

USA Today, ‘I don’t know if I will be deported’: Young immigrants prepare for DACA to end

Ukraine has actually been holding out better than expected against Russia, but not without controversy.

Wash. Post, What Amnesty got wrong in Ukraine and why I had to resign, Opinion by Oksana Pokalchuk

https://bylinetimes.com/2022/08/08/why-did-amnesty-international-ignore-my-warnings-about-their-ukraine-investigation/

Amnesty International’s apparently fluctuating Ukraine policy has led to high-profile resignations worldwide, though having been in Honduras, I had not been not been following the controversy closely. Some have objected to any criticism of Ukraine’s forces, which they consider to have been acting defensively. Civilians have been injured and killed by both sides, but have casualties by Ukrainian forces been merely unintended “collateral damage?” I’ve been an Amnesty member and activist since 1981, but focused on the Caribbean, and after being out of the loop just now in Honduras, I don’t have a firm opinion.

Here is one member’s comment.

Amnesty International has been criticized for its wavering Ukraine policy. As one activist comments: The only question that should be asked is 'Are the Ukrainian forces endangering civilians?' or 'Are Ukrainian forces violating international humanitarian and human rights law?'.

I've seen these concerns and the blowback for decades in relation to our reporting on Israel and armed Palestinian groups, including Hamas.  When is it appropriate to report that armed Palestinian groups are committing a war crime(s)?  When and if it's actually happening.  Same for Ukrainian forces.  Of course, Russia will use this reporting - just like Israel uses our reporting to bash Palestinians when we hold THEM accountable, but this shouldn't stop us from doing it. This is not a new song.  Just a new setting.

There is a whole debate within the international human rights community about IHL and if it was created by colonial powers and thus is inherently unfair to the oppressed who are fighting for their freedom or against the oppressor - and those discussions are legitimate and need to take place.  But for Amnesty International - at this moment - as a non-political, global human rights movement - our concern should only be about the facts and the laws/standards, and making sure we hold all parties accountable.  Otherwise, we become a political animal like everyone else and not the steadfast leader that everyone knows they can trust in ANY situation.

Death in Slow Motion. Is the title of an Amnesty International report about Afghanistan.

Amnesty International USA has put out a call for mentors to help with refugee casework also to create model asylum support letters.

The Hill, Liz Cheney defeated in Wyoming primary

This was totally expected. Trump and his supporters still hold sway in the Republican Party.

While Donald Trump’s retains a tight grip on the Republican Party, he himself is squirming now that his lifelong lies are catching up with him. Lying and cheating have been his habitual modus operandi, beginning with his phony draft deferment, next with sending substitutes to take his college entrance exams, then moving on to cheating on his wives and in business, on taxes, and even as president. He’s always gotten away with it, so why not keep on doing it? Trump has been reported to have told more than 30,000 lies during his 4 years in the presidency. And he’s not done yet, but has been keeping his mouth shut lately. He reportedly took the Fifth Amendment some 450 times during recent questioning by New York’s Attorney General. In 2016, he told an Iowa rally: “The mob takes the Fifth Amendment. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?”

                                                                   Mar-a- Lago

Trump’s Honduran pal, former president Juan Orlando Hernández, is now in US custody. 

Operation Smile is back in business once again, asking for contributions for cleft palate and harelip surgical brigades, efforts I’ve always supported by bringing Honduran patients for surgery and volunteering as an interpreter and assistant in the operating room. However, Operation Smile might do more to promote adequate nutritional supplementation for pregnant mothers, especially of folic acid, to diminish the prevalence of such birth defects to begin with.  

AP, 187 Cuban migrants arrested after landing in Florida [in 10 boats]

One of my correspondents asks:

As mentioned in the WSJ, Castro's former son-in-law Luis Alfonso, was the shaker and mover in the Armed Forces as head of GAESA, owner 70% of Cuba's best hotels and infrastructure. As he just passed away and Raul is on his last legs, what raison d'etre remains to the 'revolution'?

Reuters, Nicaragua’s Catholic Church says priest detained as crackdown intensifies

 

AP, Nicaraguan police prohibit religious procession in capital

Reuters, Nicaragua's government shutters one of last opposition radio stations

Los Angeles has a high homeless population, in part, because the weather there is mild all year round.  

Arizona doesn’t get cold either and has a long border with Mexico.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/arizona-gov-begins-sealing-gaps-border-wall-shipping-containers-topped-razor-wire

Back now to the abortion wars. Some women, who might have initially felt unwilling or unable to raise a child, have found that they are actually pretty good at it and have become devoted parents. Hormones triggered by pregnancy and later by nursing help many mothers bond with their babies. Watching and helping kids grow and develop is really pretty interesting. But a minority of women are never able to forge a strong or healthy connection with their offspring.

Now, in the wake of Roe vs. Wade and its aftermath, abortion for some women has become not just a right, but a secular sacrament, a symbol of female liberty, sexual autonomy, and equality with men. Thus “the right to choose” has become for them a matter of almost religious devotion. In the mainstream press, abortion is referred to with euphemisms such as “reproductive rights” or “abortion care,” not simply as “abortion.” And online abortion postings typically highlight cases of fetal anomaly or extreme maternal conditions. These are cases where even pro-life folks would not oppose the practice. However, the vast majority of abortions do not fall into that category, rather, are done to prevent a birth by a woman who simply doesn’t want a child. And there is still a strong divide on the issue. I find myself continuing to waver “in between”, though tending to feel that by the time a woman actually notices she is pregnant, an individual human life is already underway. Now abortion has become an issue in the upcoming midterms.

AP, Planned Parenthood to spend record $50M in midterm elections

Planned Parenthood, the nation's leading reproductive health care provider and abortion rights advocacy organization, plans to spend a record $50 million ahead of November's midterm elections, pouring money into contests where access to abortion will be on the ballot.

NBC News, Florida court says teen is not 'mature' enough to have an abortion

A 16-year-old teen was denied an abortion without parental consent because she was deemed by an appeals court to be insufficiently mature to make such a decision without parental consent, though she apparently was mature enough to become pregnant without such consent in the first place.

Earlier in my own life here in the US, most unwanted or unexpected pregnancies simply went forward to a live birth, as they still do almost everywhere, Honduras included. A nation needs an average of about 2.1 births per woman of childbearing age to keep overall population distribution optimal. The US is not producing that many babies right now. Will our country go the way of Europe and Japan with an aging and potentially shrinking population? In China, abortion is being discouraged to increase birthrates. Might similar concerns underlie some anti-abortion sentiments in our own country?

In Russia, Putin is rewarding fecund women.

Putin revives Soviet ‘Mother Heroine’ award for women who have 10 children

If the government now intends to force women to produce human capital, shifting motherhood from a voluntary act to a compulsory one, the government must pay women for this service. And they must pay mothers well beyond the going welfare rate. Women forced to produce the economy’s most valuable asset deserve at least the salary of the average American worker. So says Tennessee columnist Ren Brabenec.

Pensacola News Journal How can I still not know if I'm anti-abortion or support abortion rights? I'm not alone. This is the question that Dick Rizzo, now retired from public broadcasting, asks himself. He ends up remaining uncertain, neither supporting nor opposing “abortion rights.” He cites divided polls, “Abortion should be legal in most cases (36%) or in all cases with some exceptions (6%). Abortion should be illegal in most cases (27%) or in all cases with some exceptions (2%). That leaves 2% who, like me, have ‘no answer.’ Beyond the political and personal, what about the ethical and moral elements connected to anti-abortion and abortion rights? Again, a PRC survey finds small bookends. Just 7% of U.S. adults say abortion is morally acceptable in all cases and 13% say it's morally wrong in all cases. The majority are again in the middle: abortion is either morally wrong in most cases (33%) or it's morally acceptable in most cases (24%).”

For nearly all of human history, biological motherhood just happened, as most women lived sexually partnered with men. As a result, people were simply born, lived, and died, ad infinitum. Parents may not have been ready to welcome another baby, another mouth to feed, but they accepted their fate and most cope the best they could. As mentioned before, my paternal great-grandparents living on a Canadian wheat farm had 12 children. Countless humans still continue to be born and to die every day. But now producing offspring might be considered a voluntary act, as there are many ways to prevent births, through both birth control and sterilization, as well as sexual abstinence, which has always been a way. 

There is also abortion, which ends an unborn human life, though disagreement persists about whether that unborn human has as yet become a person, therefore deserving of protection. While we might agree that a fertilized ovum, which can be held indefinitely in a suspended frozen state, is not yet an actual person, I now find myself tending to advocate for protecting a newly developing potential person at the early point when a woman first realizes she is pregnant, that is, when that potential person is already starting to become an actual person living among us. The only way that particular life will stop developing is if the fetus dies or is killed. And, at what point does a fetus begin to feel pain? After all, we protect dogs and cats from pain.  

I tend to believe that all human lives, for better or worse, have value and that none should be deliberately killed or terminated, even by the death penalty for a convicted murderer. So I find myself advocating for protection of that early invisible fetal life. The developing fetus, that eventual baby, toddler, child, teen, adult, seems as entitled as any of us to have a chance to live a full lifespan, even though he or she might not become someone we personally would admire, and might even turn out to do us harm. Obviously, not everyone would agree with me, which is why the matter is now subject to such bitter debate.

When a woman realizes she is pregnant, is her life the only one that matters, or are 2 lives involved? I do tend toward the latter position, influenced by my own personal experience as both a birth and adoptive mother--of children adopted before abortion became legal on the US and of a child from Colombia, where abortion was still illegal. But now American women in the early stages can simply take a pill in the privacy of their own home to end a pregnancy without ever knowing the person who would have been born and many will continue to do so, despite local laws or religious edicts.  

Dog catches monkeypox after sharing owners’ bed  A dog sharing a bed with 2 gay men ill with monkeypox also came down with the disease.

Gay men have complained about CDC guidance suggesting that they might have fewer sexual partners to reduce Monkeypox contagion. Some women and some gay men seem to tout the “right” to have sex as often as and with whomever they like with no consequences whatsoever, calling on the government to guarantee that right and alleging discrimination otherwise. Gay men want to be free to seek out a variety of sexual partners without fear of getting sick. Women also want to have sex freely without risking either illness or pregnancy. Does the government or the universe owe everyone a guaranteed right to sexual pleasure and sexual freedom without any repercussions?

Wash. Post, Carolyn Hax: Their marriage is ‘a B.’ Do they stay in it for the kids? A married women with kids rates her marriage as a “B” and wonders if she should stay in it? Given the normal ups and downs of human existence, she is lucky to have a “B” relationship. Just as some folks feel that life owes them sexual pleasure without any strings attached, some may also expect too much of marriage. Marriage, parenthood, or any human relationship is never a guarantee of perpetual happiness, only of continuing challenges and responses. Sometimes those challenges can be overwhelming, but often they are a spur to productive action. Life is always a series highs, lows, and in-betweens. Your honeymoon won’t last forever. Sorry about that. 

I once went out (only once) with a middle-aged man who said he was looking for “the one.” I was not “the one” for him nor vice versa. Some people seem to have fixated on the idea that there is a single romantic partner “out there” destined by fate just for them, if only they can find him or her. I don’t know how this notion ever got started, but this guy was not the only person who has believed it. It’s nice to imagine a perfect relationship where all our desires are fulfilled, filling in all the gaps our mother missed when we were a child.

Real life simply has no guarantees, often throwing us curve balls, and then, to mix metaphors, we may either sink or swim. In my own life, I could not have imagined being able to survive the death of a child, but I did survive my older son’s death at age 27 after a 1994 work accident, as well as my Cuban foster son’s death from AIDS one year later, though without stoicism or calm acceptance. I fully realize they are gone forever, but still can’t help considering their deaths unfair to them, as well as to me, that each deserved to live a full, normal life. I recognize that this did not happen and is a useless feeling, but am unable to totally shake it. Perhaps if I lived somewhere where premature deaths were more common, I would be more resigned.

Decades before my boys’ deaths, I never imagined that my very ambitious and politically strategic husband of 24 years, whom I’d married at age 21 against my parents’ wishes, a man who was totally blind and had never held a job before our marriage, would ever leave me. In an era when men were expected to support their wives and families, I was, at first, the only breadwinner. I utterly believed in my husband’s potential and devoted myself to helping him realize it, all the while staying quietly in the background. He always depended on my assistance in both his work and home life and he became a high achiever. Yet he did leave me when he found another helpmate not encumbered by 4 kids.

My ex-husband, a lifelong chain-smoker, died of lung cancer at age 63 in 1999. Until he left our home, the children and I had been breathing secondhand smoke for a number of years. I still live in the house we bought together in 1969 and no longer allow smoking in my house.

My ex’s abrupt departure in 1980, 11 years after we had moved to Washington, DC, and 22 years into our marriage, then after our final divorce after 24 years, actually turned out not to be a total calamity for me, though I’d resisted until the very end. Afterwards, I had another serious marriage offer, but was reluctant to make that commitment ever again.

Having my husband file for divorce against me certainly was a shock and felt like a betrayal, but it freed me to revive my Latin American side. It also enabled me to embark on a new career in occupational therapy and to join the Peace Corps in Honduras in 2000 at age 62, and, thereafter, to become a part-time Spanish interpreter, which I continued doing for 20 years until the pandemic.

Post-Peace Corps, I also started making annual medical/humanitarian trips to Honduras, except in 2021, forging an ongoing connection that was revived with my recent Honduras trip just now. I find I really have missed folks there and they seem to have missed me! None of all that would have happened had I stayed married to my late former husband. He and I had been a productive team for quite a number of years and I had been totally devoted to him and his success and to the furtherance of disability rights. So it was admittedly very hurtful when he turned against me as if to punish me and our children and he spoke with me only once (by phone in 1984) after leaving. But after being my husband’s unseen sidekick for so many years, it was also satisfying to be able to forge ahead on my own and to revive the Latin America side I’d abandoned after getting married. While it was hard to be rejected at the time, in retrospect, I now feel that I actually benefited from our split. And I’m not done living yet.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Relojes inteligentes, “intelligent watches” is how “smart watches” appear in Spanish-language ads. Some phrases really have no good translation.

 

Honduras 2022

My last humanitarian mission to Honduras in Feb./March 2020 was reported on this blog. Then the pandemic interrupted my annual visits. Finally, after almost 2 1/2 years, I decided to go back once more with the encouragement of another former Peace Corps volunteer, Art Thomas, met there years ago. Art, now retired to the northern city of San Pedro Sula owns a car and offered to drive me from his home to the capital, Tegucigalpa, and then on to various points south, which sounded much easier and less stressful than my usual travels on commercial buses while juggling extra luggage and a folded-up wheelchair, all to be given away along the way. Going with Art would also lessen the chances of catching Covid from other passengers as well as of being robbed en route. Excited, I purchase a new wheelchair to replace one I had already given away locally. Because I have so much to report this time, I'm using a smaller font. 

My digital camera is not reliable, so all photos on this posting were taken by others.

As before, I tucked hundreds of US dollars of different denominations into a money belt to be worn around my waist under clothing and kept under my pillow at night.

However, my 2 failed efforts to depart on Spirit Airlines obliged Art and his traveling companion to finally start out without me because of a reservation at an Air B&B in the capital. 

The airport I was planning to leave from was BWI, near Baltimore, just north of my home in Washington, DC, and each time, I arrived there early, at 4 pm for a 7:20 pm flight on Spirit Airlines. The first time was on a Monday, July 18, when I had boarding passes already in hand at the gate when my luggage was suddenly offloaded after a delay that meant I'd miss my connecting flight to Honduras. Rescheduled now for 3 days later, I had to call my son, who had dropped me off and was already headed back to his home in W. Va., asking him to return to pick me up. Then on Thurs., July 21, I again waited at the airport with a neighbor until being told only minutes before boarding that I needed to submit health documents and a lengthy health questionnaire required of all American travelers to Honduras and there wasn't enough time for that. My flight was rescheduled once again for Sunday, although my traveling companions would no longer be in San Pedro to meet me then.

Wash. Post, RIP, Spirit — America’s most hated airline

So, I cancelled my reservation with Spirit going into San Pedro Sula and still hope to recoup credit there (advice about doing that would be most welcome) and bought a new ticket on American Airlines.

One week after my original departure date, my American flight finally landed at Palmerola, a brand new airport outside the capital of Tegucigalpa, formerly part of the adjacent US army base there. This time, I was met by Gustavo Escoto, a judge in Choluteca, a city in the south. Before moving on, we ventured briefly into Tegucigalpa. At one point, in a series of parking lots under commercial buildings, Gustavo and I became separated and I waited for over an hour for him to return with the car, imagining that all sorts of terrible things had happened to him. We had simply lost each other in that big underground labyrinth.

Here below is the interior of a church in Tegucigalpa and other city scenes. Many thanks to Art for these photos and to both him and Gustavo for most of the other photos appearing on this posting. 

Below, I am seen handing over a cash donation in US dollars to Luis Knight of the Honduran Red Cross at its headquarters in the capital later that evening after my arrival. 

Luis had been my colleague in La Esperanza, my second Peace Corps site. Luis  then narrated a video of the donation handover, saying the money would be used for a project in La Esperanza, where he owns a home and travels on weekends to be with his family. I had worked with Luis for more than a year in La Esperanza in 2002-2003, after extending my Peace Corps term. He and I then video-chatted with his family there, as I didn't have time to make a trip over the mountains to actually visit them in person. (Hondurans have taken cyber communication far beyond my own feeble efforts.)  

For 3 more hours late into the evening, Gustavo and I traveled along a sparsely trafficked brand new highway, winding around lush green mountains, so different from the dusty drab dry-season vistas seen during previous visits in Feb. and March. We finally arrived at his palatial 2-story home on the outskirts of Choluteca, all lit up, with its protective walls, razor wire, and electric fences, being first greeted by the family dog, an adolescent female German Shepard named Puppe with unclipped ears and tail. In Honduras, dogs live outside all year round, never coming inside the house. Their job is mainly to stand guard. Gustavo’s family home, which he had designed and monitored during its building, is filled with traditional furniture and many replicas of well-known paintings and statuary. In the center of the house is an outdoor atrium with comfortable furniture and filled with plants.  

The next morning, I reconnected with Gustavo's wife Nely and son, Oliver, now 4 years old, and their live-in servant, Marta, age 25, who had been there when I’d visited 2 ½ years before. Gustavo is a judge in the Choluteca court and his wife works full-time at a bank, including on Saturday mornings. Son Oliver, whose name is even more uncommon in Honduras than in the US, is named for Oliver Cromwell. His parents plan to enroll him in a bilingual school. I brought Oliver some picture books and toy cars, though he hardly needed any more.

By daylight, the many charms of the house were on full view. The 4-year-old son and dog looked out at passing vehicles and pedestrians on the road beyond. 

A gardener comes by bicycle every weekend to tend the yard.

Above, the son plays with a ball. Windows look out on the interior atrium, also appearing below.

 Here I point out a Renoir 

 replica. Gustavo has collected

 these art works from his travels all over

 the world.

                                      Above is a Van Gogh replica. 

Above the dining room china cabinet is a Dominican-Haitian original. 

And here is some classical statuary.

From the start, I observed the same rules here as when I was a Peace Corps volunteer: never put toilet paper in the toilet, never drink tap water, and never eat raw vegetables, however tempting.

Marta, the maid, the youngest of 9 children, grew up in El Triunfo, my first Peace Corps site, where her widowed mother still lives. She has Sundays off and takes a bus to visit her mother one Sunday a month. Marta lives in a small separate cottage behind the main house. Since she was said to be religious, I’d brought her a religious-themed calendar, rosaries, and other devotional items.

Sometimes while the parents were at work, Marta would ask me to watch Oliver while she went up to the 2^nd floor to do cleanup and make the bed in the parental suite. Oliver, a very active, inquisitive, and imaginative child entertained me by demonstrating the special quirks of his many toys and by building very tall Lego towers. He often tried to trick me about what his toys could do and I pretended to be tricked, then to be amazed at the outcome.

I was assigned the same room as before, a very large first-floor bedroom with private bath, a TV set. and its own remote-control A/C unit. The bathroom shower and faucets have no hot water, just water at room temperature, all that is needed in that year-round hot climate. 

        I washed my clothes out at the pila, but found that some strange holes had appeared in my                     irreplaceable Peace Corps t-shirt. 

                                                                     Below is a bar-be-que dinner.

                Nely, Gustavo's wife, stands behind their live-in maid, Marta. 

While the parents were away at work, I tuned into local TV programs, where fast-food ads often appeared in the background or at the bottom of the screen during news broadcasts. The country’s economic growth was reported to have stalled. I learned that the euro had fallen almost to a par with the dollar. Ex-President Porfirio Lobo came on-screen thanking the US government for trying to help find the murderers of his son, an American citizen, shot and killed along with 3 others by MS-13 suspects while exiting a Teguc nightclub. Gustavo opined that the new president Xiomara, whose inauguration Kamala Harris had attended earlier in the year, has less control of the gangs than did disgraced former president Juan Orlando Hernández, now in US custody on drug charges, whose brother is already serving time in the US. 

When leaving the house, facemasks were required at all times, even when entering restaurants, though not while actually eating, of course. I noticed the young son was not belted in on short drives. When I questioned this, I was told that on longer drives, he uses a seatbelt with a special car seat. One evening, I went out with Gustavo to pick up a prescription. The pharmacy and its adjacent stores were all lit up, powered by a generator, but nearby court offices and other buildings were all plunged into pitch darkness.

I finally caught up with Art in El Triunfo, my first Peace Corps site, at the local health center, after first making a modest donation in Honduran currency to a woman living across the road. She had lost her daughter to spina bifida back when I’d lived there in 2000-2002. At that time, I’d helped the daughter obtain a wheelchair and water mattress, but she still developed a pressure sore that led to her death. Both spina bifida and cleft palate/harelip have become less common now that pregnant Honduran women are being given folic acid by local health centers, since the corn tortillas that are a dietary staple don’t contain folic acid, mostly found in wheat flour and some other grains. The sign says "Welcome, Barbara".

Everyone at the Triunfo health center greeted me effusively with hugs. I left some Rx meds there, along with toys, sterile bandages, and extra clothing for child and adult patients. 

Here above is Doctora Jeanette at the health center with a patient before her recent retirement. Below, she stands in the town square. 

                                         

                                               Again below, Jeanette peers out from foliage.

Then Art and I went with Dra. Jeanette, now retired, to take the wheelchair I'd brought to a lady who had suffered a stroke. The woman lives with her extended family in a tiny house (2 rooms), but now will be able to go outside and travel around town. I've already heard from Jeanette that the family has been taking her out and about.

                            Below is Art with a family he has befriended in El Triunfo.

                           

                                    Here below are more of Art's friends in El Triunfo. 

                               Art and I take a break and then I visit with an old friend below. 

                     Elsewhere, soup is cooking and, below that, more pots hang at the ready.

I also distributed some clothes, toys, medications, and other items from a suitcase that had been checked with the airline and gave the suitcase itself to musician and welder Pedro Joaquín, who, along with his boys, entertained us with music and song. I well remember when his twin daughters, now college age, were born. I had given his wife calcium tablets from my own Peace Corps medical kit as she was then nursing a baby on each breast. Now the girls, looking tall and heathy, attend classes in Choluteca, traveling there by bus.

The family had just moved to a vacant lot near the former family home and were in the process of constructing a new 2-story residence with their own labor. Pedro Joaquín said they had completely abandoned the old house; just walked away. This new one will have a flush toilet rather than the outdoor latrine at the old house. But the new house was still a work-in-progress. I sat with the family on the stairs of their brand new 2-story home.

 Pedro J. is also a musician who, with his sons, plays at gigs in town and surrounding communities.

                                  One son, above, plays drums. Another below plays sax. 

In El Triunfo, in the Peace Corps in 2000-2002, I had befriended a little girl named Neris, appearing with me on the lower righthand corner of my Honduras book, Triumph & Hope. She now has 3 children and spells her name Nerys. Below is my photo with her back then and below that, she appears caring for her baby brother, a task that often fell to young girls then (and maybe still does).

Art and his traveling companion helped me track down Nerys now, as she was not at home. We found her attending a day-long evangelical meeting with her youngest child.

                           Below is a still from Art's video of cattle moving past us on the road. 

After making other rounds in town, we returned to Choluteca, where I had invited everyone out to dinner at a restaurant. We were only allowed to remove our masks while actually eating. Masking requirements are very strict in Honduras. 

Above is my only photo of Gustavo, in glasses, at the restaurant with his mask off, and with his young son on the right. Below, I face a huge order that others helped me eat. Later, we brought food home to Marta, who does not socialize with the family outside the home.

Art and his companion needed to return to San Pedo Sula, but I stayed on, twice visiting Reina, formerly of El Triunfo, who now lives in Choluteca after undergoing a stroke. At one of my visits, her 5-year-old granddaughter was there and I gave her some books, and also gave Reina some Honduran cash. The little girl was born in California, which may prove advantageous later in life. I was never able to see her mother, Solei, one of the secret twins depicted in my book Triumph & Hope.

Finally, I visited the Castro family who sell fried chicken, other foods, and also bottled water every day of the year, even on Christmas, at their market stall. 

                                                              Below I am at the family shop.

Photos were also taken at the Castros' home in Choluteca, but I only received them much later by way of their sister, Lesly, now living in NH with her former Peace Corps volunteer husband, Sam, and their 2 daughters. Lesly, a doctor with whom I'd worked at the Triunfo health center when I was a Peace Corps volunteer, now works in the US as a nurse practitioner, speaking Spanish with Spanish-speaking patients. She visited her family in Honduras last December with her younger daughter. I always stayed with her very hospitable family during my post-Peace Corps humanitarian visits, often sharing a bed, until Gustavo built his house and invited me there.