Environment and weather

Hearing of flooding in south Asia, hurricanes in Puerto Rico and the United States, and earthquakes in Mexico, it seems a little whiney to be writing about our weather here.

Rain, rain, rain – as well as heat. But mostly rain.

Water flowing over a concrete bridge, 8 October 2017

October to February is the part of the rainy season that is also quite cool. But we’ve been having heavy rains for weeks in September – more than I remember in any previous year. In many places the earth is almost completely saturated.

The results can be disastrous.

One section of the major international highway that goes between the Caribbean port of Puerto Cortez and El Salvador and Guatemala collapsed and cut off traffic for weeks. The breach in the road is between Santa Rosa de Copán and Cucyagua in a stretch of the highway that was recently repaired. The authorities are saying it is on a geological fault, which is probably partly true because up to sixty nearby houses were severely damaged and hundred displaced. But there also was a 4.3 earthquake not very far from there that may have exaggerated the fault line.

But the rains also have wreaked havoc here in our area. It is not yet as bad as it was in June and July but it could get significantly problematic.

Landslides abound. Even the retention wall below my house fell after a fierce rainfall. It’s now being rebuilt. But this is not merely a question of saturated soil. The former neighbor had excavated soil that had been keeping the wall up. This weakened the wall.

Sunday, October 1, I went to one of the most remote villages, San Marcos Las Pavas, for a Celebration of the Word with Communion. As I approached the church, I was stopped by a landslide that had left only a small muddy path for people to cross. Needless to say, I turned the car around and got out and walked through the mud and water to the church.

The people told me that there was another landslide the other side of the church. More than half of a road had fallen into the ravine below. 

This Sunday I went back with two of the missionaries who are visiting the villages of the parish this week. Part of the path had been cleared from the landslide, but I didn’t trust crossing it with a car. (I was told that the clearing was done by members of the community.)

 I then went to see the other landslide – which had gotten significantly worse.

There are also some very slippery patches of the roads. Last week I approached a curve (where I had slid into the side of the road in August) and saw a bus stuck on the side of the road. I passed with trepidation, but made it.

We also have an increases of deep holes and ditches running across the road in various places but most often down the middle or side of the road. It becomes very tricky negotiating these, mostly trying to avoid them, since they can be between six and twelve inches deep.

I also am seeing several places where the road is sinking. In one place there were deep spots a few months ago, it looks as if the earth will fall again.

 Why?

Climate change can be a major cause. People here say they haven’t seen such damage from rain since Hurricane Mitch in 1998. I haven’t seen such rain in the ten years I’ve been here.

But there is the problem of neglect.

In some places there has not been up-keep of the roads for a long time. So in a few places almost nothing has been done, even after previous damage. In the curve where the bus slid over to the side of the road, this has been a problem recently because some repair work was done and, in my estimation, not enough gravel was put down.

In this one municipality, people have gone out and done some minor repairs, mostly filling in deep holes with earth. But the municipal government seems to have done little.

In another municipality, the situation has been significantly better since they have put gravel on many roads which helps prevent slippery roads, since a lot of the earth here is clay.

In addition, when there’s a landslide, it is often left at the side of the road, waiting for the municipality to do something. In one case, nothing was done for about a month and so large fissures may driving on the road below the landslide very tricky. But in this case, some people took up shovels and picks and removed the landslide and filled part of the fissures.

In addition, these are narrow roads that often have a lot of traffic. There are busses that pass several times a day, but during the year there are often many truck carrying coffee.

Also, some land owners plant coffee and make roads into their fields without any concern for environmental effects or for possible landslides. There is at least one place where there have been more than four landslides this year. Luckily they have not blocked the whole road.

As for environmental laws or regulations for building, these are virtually non-existent. People build wherever they can. I can understand this when people in poverty build wherever they can. There is often no land available to buy and the large landowners keep grabbing more land and raising prices. But in at least one place a coffee purchasing warehouse and drying area was built where there have been serious problems of flooding of the highway. I doubt if anyone analyzed the environmental effects of the building.

I have not even begun to try to analyze the effect of large scale burning of the fields and the ensuing deforestation. This is most often the practice of large landowners, sometimes looking for a cheap way to clear an area so that they can plant coffee. 

Now one of these landowners did burn a significant area a few years ago, but he has planted hundreds of madreado trees in his fields; this will positively help the environment. But in other places I have seen scorched earth with trees deliberately cut down.

There is much more to write about, but I’ll wait and see how the rains in these next four months affects our lives here.

After the pre-ordination retreat

Back from a retreat last week with deacon candidates in the Newark Archdiocese, I find myself in the middle of ministry, in the middle of my diakonia.

A big surprise at my house in Plan Grande has been the presence of beautiful birds around the house – including oropendolas (chorchas)  and a humming bird – as well as the clarinero who has been here since I arrived. The birds may be attracted by the flowers that are blooming in abundance.

But more than nature welcomed me back.

Sunday was Corpus Christi and I participated in the procession and Mass in Dulce Nombre. I wrote about this in a previous post but what still strikes me is the importance of carrying Christ with us in the streets of the towns and cities.

Monday, I had some errands in Santa Rosa de Copán.

I stopped and talked with the Franciscan Sisters of La Imaculada – a group of mostly Spaniard sisters whom I’ve known since I came here in June 2007. They are like a family to me, especially since I lived on their street for more than six years. They, of course, insisted I eat lunch with them. It was simple – but the food and the conversations were nourishing.

Afterwards, I went to the doctor. I had picked up a terrible cough and congestion going to the US and felt terrible. Well, the diagnosis was bronchitis and the doctor prescribed four different medicines!

Tuesday I facilitated a workshop on the Bible for the catechists of Zone 1 in Dulce Nombre.  These workshops are fun and challenging, since they call on me to find sources of creativity in myself and pull me out of my introversion.

Wednesday, my birthday, I was invited to spend the day with the Dubuque Franciscan sisters. I met them in La Entrada where three of them minister in the parish. They, two from the house in Gracias, and I went to a nearby small archeological park El Puente.

Parking under a tree I got out of the truck and I hear a voice, “Hola, Juancito”. I look and see a young soldier from Candelaria, the town next to Plan Grande. Then, around the corner comes another soldier, also from Candelaria. Both of them had worked on my house and we spoke a bit. I wonder if I can go anywhere without someone recognizing me.

After looking at the museum, we went to the site where we had a short period of prayer together. Erica, the Honduran member of their community, celebrates her birthday on Sunday and so we both got prayed for!

These sisters are my community of support, those who help me be human, faithful, and God-loving here. They are family for me.

We left the park, stopped for vegetables, and I had to have a tire looked at. No problem, the llantero said. 

With the tire inflated, we went and had a great lunch together. After great conversations and a short rest I left for home.

Thursday I had another catechist workshop. But I was a bit worried. The tire was going flat. But, trusting in God (or being totally stupid) I left. The workshop went well though there were fewer catechists than usual. I mentioned this to Padre German today and he told me I need to go out and see what’s happening.

After the workshop I went to a tire repair place in Dulce Nombre. But I had to stop in El Zapote since José, of the coffee association, had some coffee for me.

The llantero found a screw in the tire and repaired it. As he was finishing, he and a young man there (who had spent six years working in turkey farms in Minnesota) started talking with me. What surprised me was how critical he was of government, some religious leaders, and others. But what really impressed me was his sense that one of the problems is that people are seeking money above all. He said this in a very measured way; it was obviously something that he had thought about. His faith had somehow helped him to see beyond the pursuit of riches.

Returning home, I found e-mails about the exportation process for the association of coffee farmers in El Zapote. I arranged to visit El Zapote early and get the document signed to take to the Beneficio (coffee processing plant) in Santa Rosa.

This morning, before leaving Plan Grande I came upon the school kids getting ready for an environmental march, complete with signs and kids dressed up as trees!

I got José to sign the papers in El Zapote and gave a ride to a woman and her husband to Dulce Nombre. On the way she talked to me about a phone call they had that said they had won a car, but had to go wire money to get it out of customs. It sounded like a scheme to defraud the poor. Rosa had her doubts but her husband seemed very hopeful that it was true. I talked it over with her during the thirty or so minute drive. I hope they don’t waste their money on this. But people are so desperate for anything that will help them get out of the poverty they are in that they are sometime gullible. But we talked and I mentioned a few things to ask about before spending their hard-earned money.

I got to Dulce Nombre and participated in the Mass for the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus – a symbol of God’s love and mercy. (See my post on this, here on Walk the Way.)

After Mass I went to Santa Rosa, had lunch at Weekend’s Pizza, bought some vegetables and groceries, and dropped the signed document off at the Beneficio.

I’m now home – hoping to have a few hours of rest. The weekend promises a Sunday morning meeting with leaders of the youth groups in the parish.

So is my life these days – full of opportunities to be with people, to find ways to listen to them, to help them learn more about their faith and their lives, and to try to find ways of serving.

It’s a blessing to be here.

Turning mourning into hope-filled struggle

After midnight on Thursday, March 3, indigenous environmental advocate Berta Cáceres was killed in Esperanza, in the department of Intibucá, Honduras.

She has long been active with the struggles for justice of the Lenca people. She has been outspoken in her opposition to environmental projects and policies that affect the lands and lives of indigenous people. She was also outspoken against the US-back 2009 coup.

I never met her. I have read about her. My sense is that she was a radical, one going to the roots of the problems.

But I know that the political, social, and economic elites (and some religious elites) that supported the coup to keep their power were very much in opposition to her and her accompanying the struggles of the indigenous in one of the poorest departments of the country.

Her most recent struggle was against a proposed dam that would affect a river that many Lenca hold sacred.  Accompanying the people who were not consulted, she led them in their efforts to stop the project; it has not been stopped but one major investor withdrew.

The struggle for land, the struggle of the indigenous, the struggle for Mother Earth are sadly needed these days.

As Pope Francis wrote in Laudato Si’,  2:

This sister [Sister Earth] now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she “groans in travail” (Rom 8:22).

He also rightly sees that the concern for the earth must include concern for the poor (Laudato Si’, 49):

Today, however, we have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a so­cial approach; it must integrate questions of jus­tice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. 

Though he was writing primarily about water for drinking and human use, what Pope Francis wrote about multinationals is, I believe, relevant to the killing of Berta Cáceres, who was fighting against the concession of the River Gualcarque to a corporation:

it is also conceivable that the control of water by large multinational business­es may become a major source of conflict in this century. (Laudato Si’, 31)

In the face of this, it is important to recall the words of Pope Francis in Bolivia at the World Meeting of Popular Movements, word which Berta Cáceres may have heard or read: 

In conclusion, I would like to repeat: the future of humanity does not lie solely in the hands of great leaders, the great powers and the elites. It is fundamentally in the hands of peoples and in their ability to organize. It is in their hands, which can guide with humility and conviction this process of change. I am with you. Let us together say from the heart: no family without lodging, no rural worker without land, no laborer without rights, no people without sovereignty, no individual without dignity, no child without childhood, no young person without a future, no elderly person without a venerable old age. Keep up your struggle and, please, take great care of Mother Earth. I pray for you and with you, and I ask God our Father to accompany you and to bless you, to fill you with his love and defend you on your way by granting you in abundance that strength which keeps us on our feet: that strength is hope, the hope which does not disappoint….

That’s what Berta Cáceres fought for. May our mourning for her be turned into a joyful and hope-filled solidarity, where we struggle together for the earth and for the poor.

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The photo from the wake of Berta Cáceres is from the Facebook page of Radio Progreso.