Visit to Santa Rosa de Copán

Chabe and Reca

After couple of weeks working we made a trip to a beautiful town Santa Rosa de Copán near Guatemalan border. Most importantly we saw Chabe and Reca, two wonderful persons who have dedicated their life and knowledge to social justice issues. We had some valuable guidance from them professionally and best of all, we finally had time to enjoy their company shared with a good glass of wine. A very relaxing and fun weekend.

Copan ruinas

Near the Guatemalan border lies Copán Mayan ruins. Honduras is not yet spoiled with excessive tourism and this was something that we truly enjoyed. We let our imagination fly free as we wondered among the impressive mayan architecture. As impressive as the ruins were the Ceiba's, Mayan holy tree. The mixture between nature, silence and the architecture of a civilization which lived in harmony with surrounding environment made the place almost sacred and quite romantic.

FSAR

We feel very priviledged to work in a place like FSAR. It is an NGO where people are motivated and supportive. We think we will learn loads of the reality of Honduras this year from them. The house itself is built only from local materials like adobe and the view is just beautiful. What a great place to concentrate to our work...and also take breaks with our collegues and friends.

Manuel Jiménez and Pauliina Sarvilahti-Jiménez experiencing Honduras, the land of the great indigenous warrior Lempira

Arrival to Honduras

After a long journey from Madrid to San Pedro Sula, that lasted more than one day, we were greeted by the happy face of Juan. As Juan had had a long day driving, Manu offered to help and so he got his first experience of honduran roads at night. Manu truly had to concentrate not to hit the people, cows, dogs, hens and holes that constantly appeared on the way.


Tegucigalpa

We hardly had time to leave our bags to our temporary housing in Tocoa when we were sent to Tegucigalpa with the lawyer of our foundation and a group of leaders of the local peasant organizations. Once there our eyes were rapidly opened to the complex social problems of this country. We had the chance to meet the State Attourney General, the President of the Supreme Court of Justice and the Director of the National Institute of Agriculture. While we were waiting for the meetings to start, the peasants one by one told their stories. Most of them had been illegally removed from their lands, they had faced police harrasment, even torture. Suprisingly for us many of the leaders had received death threats. We had already studied about these human rights violations and now we had faces to them. Many of these peasants live in inhumane living conditions with their families without a posibility for income. Yet the peasant's knowledge about their rights, the determination and the high rate of organisation impacted us.