September 25, 2009
Marco, the man who 'is' Project Honduras
It was hard to believe but the conference is a success. Even though many of the participants and a few of the speakers couldn’t get here, it went ahead. People made no end of effort to change their plans and flights to make sure that they arrived. I think that much of the credit goes to Marco Caceres who asked the group yesterday to think of this trip to Copan and the Project Honduras conference as a yearly pilgrimage. It does feel a little like that.
Many of the same people from last year are here again and it is quite fun to see familiar faces who work all over Honduras
The keynote speaker gave what I thought was a clear picture of youth in Honduras. He said that so many young people here don’t know how to “dream”. And, for those that do, the “dream” is centered around what life in the States is like. 60% of migrants from Honduras are 20-24 years of age. Pretty much a “youth drain”.
Robert with Brayan (one of Honduras' youth)
The other thing that sticks with me is when Marco spoke about people “dialoguing” when in reality what they mean is that two people have monologues and nobody really listens. He talked about the Project Honduras conference being a place where people really dialogue.
One of the ongoing threads through conversations is “how to have sustainable goals” with the ultimate objective being to have Honduras one day need no outside support. Volunteerism in Honduras is not a common thing so when I think of the participation of the local community in El Malcote in building the school, I am even more pleased.
I feel like I have so much to do in these next three days……..
The airports are open again so I think I will wait till Monday to see where it will be best to fly home from.
The beautiful park in Copán Ruinas