October 17, 2010
Today was a good day for us and was mostly uneventful. We rode 173 miles on wonderful mountain roads between Coban Guatemala and Copan Honduras. The roads had plenty of twisties which are motorcyclists’ dreams. Our border crossing into Honduras was so easy that we both thought something was amiss compared to the hassle we went through in 2002 at the same border crossing. We were charged $4.00 each for a tourist visa and $35.00 each for customs on the motorcycles.
Copan Honduras is the site of one of the significant Mayan ruins dating back a thousand years. We are not visiting the ruins this time as our goal is to get to South America.
We have four, different elementary school grades following this blog. I would like to dedicate this entry to the classes of Ms. McCollum and Ms. Harwell at Elkmont elementary and Ms. Coulter at West Limestone in Alabama, and Mr. Wood in Smynra, Georgia. In so doing, I am including photographs of children from Mexico and Guatemala and will try to describe what we have observed of these third world children.
You have to understand that Roger and I ride in full protective gear with full face helmets. At best we look like Power Rangers. In saying that I am sure we intimidate most of the children and their parents, in particularly in the regions off-the-beaten-paths of Guatemala we have traveled.
I have found an almost foolproof way to gain the confidence of the children and their parents. I ask the parents if is okay to give the children the dulce (sweets.) Without fail permission is given and the parents also want a piece of the candy. Then I ask if is okay to photograph the children.
Children of the third world are expected to earn their keep. On this trip we have observed children as young as eight or nine on the road laden with back breaking loads of corn or fire wood. The corn will be ground into meal and used in making tortillas which are a staple of
Today was a good day for us and was mostly uneventful. We rode 173 miles on wonderful mountain roads between Coban Guatemala and Copan Honduras. The roads had plenty of twisties which are motorcyclists’ dreams. Our border crossing into Honduras was so easy that we both thought something was amiss compared to the hassle we went through in 2002 at the same border crossing. We were charged $4.00 each for a tourist visa and $35.00 each for customs on the motorcycles.
Copan Honduras is the site of one of the significant Mayan ruins dating back a thousand years. We are not visiting the ruins this time as our goal is to get to South America.
We have four, different elementary school grades following this blog. I would like to dedicate this entry to the classes of Ms. McCollum and Ms. Harwell at Elkmont elementary and Ms. Coulter at West Limestone in Alabama, and Mr. Wood in Smynra, Georgia. In so doing, I am including photographs of children from Mexico and Guatemala and will try to describe what we have observed of these third world children.
You have to understand that Roger and I ride in full protective gear with full face helmets. At best we look like Power Rangers. In saying that I am sure we intimidate most of the children and their parents, in particularly in the regions off-the-beaten-paths of Guatemala we have traveled.
I have found an almost foolproof way to gain the confidence of the children and their parents. I ask the parents if is okay to give the children the dulce (sweets.) Without fail permission is given and the parents also want a piece of the candy. Then I ask if is okay to photograph the children.
Children of the third world are expected to earn their keep. On this trip we have observed children as young as eight or nine on the road laden with back breaking loads of corn or fire wood. The corn will be ground into meal and used in making tortillas which are a staple of
every meal. The wood will be used to cook the meals or burned to provide heat in their homes. Other children are observed ma
nning vendor stands in which fruit, clothing, canned goods, etc. are sold. Other children are busy acting as shepherds.Several years ago when I traveled through Southern Africa, I observed similar activities of the children.
All this being said, children around the world are very similar and will respond to kindness with kindness. The key is to remember that no one can chose where they were born, what sex they are, what race they are, what day they were born, nor what they were named. We can all chose the character we develop.
I would like to encourage our American children to learn more about the children of the world. They can do this by turning off their televisions and laying aside their video games and reading or having their parents read to them about other regions of the world.
The world would be a much better place if we all understood one another a little better, and this can be done by traveling or at least reading about other cultures.
As a side light to today, we washed our clothes last night in the shower at the hotel. They did not finish drying so we tied them onto the rear of the motorcycles today and tonight they are hanging around the room drying. This does not seem too bad considering we saw several women washing their clothes in the steams and on the rocks.
No comments:
Post a Comment