Yahoo Groups - La Migra

Although this blog entry is labeled "Honduras Living - The Yahoo Group", this post isn't about Honduras Living. It's about another Honduran related Yahoo group. One that doesn't (how do I say this without offending people?) . Judging by the fact that I was temporarily blocked from it for posting my opinions about foreigners and their employers abusing the Honduran labor laws in the tourism industry, they don't like me or my point of view much either. I have met cool people that frequently contribute to that group, but it is the right wing polar opposite to HL. The following set of posting are about the "migra", in Honduras, raiding an area dominated by foreigners and dive shops. The thread started with people looking to confirm or inquire about the raid.
The thread took a wrong turn when I responded to:
"Let's not forget that there are 500,000 illegal Hondurans living and working
in the US and double that in Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador."

with:
Let's not forget that those Hondurans working in the counties you mentioned get
paid peanuts for work no one else will do, while all the foreign dive
instructors are here doing something they love and getting paid well for it. So
illegals in the States sing slave songs, while illegals in Honduras whistle
while they work.

Does this qualify as culture shock? I never imagined I'd hear about N. Americans
and Europeans hiding from raids. This is hilarious to me, to a certain degree.
My personal opinion is that immigration is a human right, but you have to adhere
to laws no matter what.

This was funny to me because when I left L.A., "La Migra" and police were raiding Latin communities and businesses to weed out the illegals. In the process of doing so, they were beating and harassing even US born Latinos. Old ladies, handicapped, they were all complaining about the unnecessary force used during those raids. I didn't hear any similar complaints from the Gringos "harassed" in that town. If those same cops were raiding Honduran criminals, someone would have shed blood for sure. So don't whine next Semana Santa.

Obviously offended, the same guy responded with:
Let's not forget that any Honduran can walk into any dive shop in Roatan or
Utila and get their certification to become a PADI Instructor for FREE, but
99.99% of them cannot pass the written exam sections of the PADI course.

I wanted to tell him that if businesses like his actually paid taxes like they are supposed to instead of keeping two sets of books, one to tell him what his business is actually doing and one to tell Tio Sam only what he thinks he should know, our educational system may not be doing so poorly. That would have resulted in a childish volley of jabs so I ignored it, but it did sting having him insult 99.99% of Hondurans like that. His statement is completely false. I think maybe one dive shop actually sponsors people for free. I'm considering doing a bookkeeping trade for certification, and that still doesn't cover the entire cost. Dive shops aren't exactly comfortable places to be in if you're a Spaniard (the Honduran kind). As soon as you walk in all the people there pause, stare, then proceed to slowly gather their cigarettes, cell phones, wallets and other personal belongings they are usually comfortable littering around a dive shop setting.

Becoming a dive instructor is officially on my list of immediate goals. I overcame my fear of swimming and now I hope to work illegally in other countries! As another group member posted in the same thread:
"there is NO better job then a PADI instructor! especially on a caribbean island."
Why wouldn't I want to do that myself? Because then I'll only eat beans and rice for a while. Hmmmmmmm?!?!?!

I did get a job offer from the following request in that thread, but that person's last name is Gonzales, so no points for that group.
Can you send me your resume off group please
Resort Manager

This group isn't all bad, just mostly.

Gringos

Gringos hanging at Klein Bohemia in SPS - Carlos Melgar image

"I resent you people using that word! That's our word for making fun of you! We NEED it!" - Homer Simpson

Someone should have taken a stand long ago, this has gone too far. I'm taking it back. It's origins aren't even clear to me, but I want it anyway. I'd also like to clarify to all Canadians, Europeans, and yes - Australians that you are Gringos too. Even Asians when considering people from Israel, Russia, Armenia, and Turkey. Argentinians, Spaniards (the real ones, not the "Mainlanders"), you're also in the club. Sorry, I have to do it. It would not be fair to the Asian Gringos for you to be excluded from the label.

No one is certain of it's origin or exact definition. I've read countless possible references connecting the initial use of the word to Irish for wearing green uniforms while fighting in the Mexican America War, American soldiers singing a song with the words "Green" and "Grow" in the title, and even claims that the phrase "That's Greek to me!" gave roots to the term.

The use of the word isn't supposed to be humorous to you, you've taken all the fun out of it. It's supposed to be a racial connotation. Play fair! This word has been irresponsibly tossed around for long enough!

La Gringa: You get a Gringo Card, so you can keep the name.

Revision: I have to add that Gringo is not the same as the term "Yankee", Gringo is a milder offense.

Photo used by permission La Gringa's Blogicito

Shout out to Honduras_Living

"Honduras Living is an unbiased (noncommercial) forum where people can find up to date information about immigrating to Honduras, residency procedures, hotels, restaurants, sites to visit, experiences, crime/safety, places to avoid, and life in Honduras in general. Additionally, the group's files and links sections will be very helpful to anyone wishing to learn more about living in Honduras." I had writer's block trying to express how helpful and informative HL is so I copied that from the welcome message on the group's homepage. Most of the members are originating from N. America or a few European and South Americans countries. The Honduran members seem to have lived outside of the country part of their lives. If this group were a tangible place on earth, it would be your favorite bar.

This group has helped my fiancee and I with the move to Honduras in numerous ways. We've posted countless inquiries that we wouldn't know where else to impose. This group has proved to be the most reliable source for accurate information in comparison to a consulate or embassy in the U.S. or locally. Members post about their hardships and remind you that it can always get worse, they also share the highlights of their lives here and remind you that Honduras is filled with beauty despite being one of the poorest countries in the Americas. The archives provide an extensive library of previous threads that may answer any of your Honduran born curiosities. You'll find cooking recipies, gardening tips, legal info, twitter like news updates, restaurant and hotel reviews and tons more. My only other sources for info before HL were this link to Canal 6's live streaming http://www.noti6.com/ and my mother. I did eventually begin reading the national newspapers but they are filled with inaccuracies. The latter wasn't so helpful considering she'd been back to Honduras in nearly 23 years and the former scared the life out of me with daily reports of kidnappings and violent crimes. This group is also well moderated to keep the folks in control and enable ease of browsing on terribly slow internet connections.

Since I don't contribute as much as I think I should, I've decided to give props with a label on my blog. I'll turn some of my HL posts into blog entries because I'm a lazy blogger like that. At some point, I'll also post some of my blogs in the group to give the Returning Catracho Report of things because I'm a lazy group member like that. I'm not really lazy, my HL post frequency is directly correlated to my work, no employment = lots of posts, employment = very little posts.

The first entry into this label will be a post questioning the cleaning and bathing procedures when you have doo doo water. I still don't know wxactly what was going on with the water, but named the condition after that came along with it. This incident occurred while residing on Tela, Atlantida. It's a nice place... To visit.

This is my post.
I thought I would just let the water run and it would clear up in a minute or two, but it's been nasty all day. Does this always happen after rainy days? How do people shower or wash clothes? Carlos M - Had to walk down the street for another 5 gallon


Response #1 It happens in a lot of places after a good rain. It can take 3-4 days to clear up. While it is like this you don't wash clothes and you either don't bathe or you get a large bottle of water and take a sponge bath. You can set up a rain barrel to catch clean water for hand washing some things. This is one of the trade-offs for living in paradise.

Response #2
I always imagined paradise haveing clean water.

Response #3
Or at least some water. We have none today. I knew I should have done the laundry yesterday. XX, at least the weather is paradisal today La Ceiba

This is what I meant about reminders that things can always get worse.

Response #4
Due to the rain, we went the entire month of October without running water. Wait thats a lie. They fixed the pipes once, on a Monday afternoon, (It had stopped raining for 2 or 3 days) and then Tuesday morning it began to rain again and we lost water by 9AM Tuesday morning. I think the entire month of October we had rain every day BUT those couple of days and a day or so at the beginning of the month. We didn't get running water back until November 3. At least I had a way to collect rain water for washing dishes and taking showers (ok bucket baths is probably a better term). The kids took showers in the rain, LOL. They loved it. The adventures of living in a 3rd world paradise, LOL.

Response #5
Build two pilas approx. chest high (as long as your over 5'5") first with a sloping bottom 4 feet at the bottom to 4 inches at the top (water level) go to a rocky stream and get 2" to 4" rocks with green slime on them. Keep them wet during transport. Put a drain in the bottom of the first pila for back flushing. Cruddy water goes into the deep end very slow (a diffuser would be nice) and Slowly moves to the shallow end through the rocks. Then into your second pila which is a slow sand bio-filter. then to your cistern. during really bad water times may need to clean the slow sand filter a couple of times a week but you will get water that is very low in turbidity...

Response #6 A simple little 5 micron filter takes care of that. It will be overwhelmed, then when the rain stops you change the filter the next day and it starts doing the job. Tela usually cuts off the water supply when it overflows the cistern filters on the mountain. When the water goes off, I usually cut all water to my house and leave the tap on for the garden (which is pre-filter) until I see it is working. When the brown gets to just a dirty tan, I start it back to the house. Usually no more than half a day without water.

Montuca Sound System

"WELCOME TO SAN PEDRO! OOOooOOO" That's from a Montuca Sound System song. They're a ska/reggae/funk/rock/jazz band from San Pedro Sula. If you're in SPS, check them out for an appropriate welcome to San Pedro Sula. I can see these dudes reaching that Banda Blanca status and gaining international notoriety.

The crowd at a Montuca show is usually a good mix of foreigners and locals. I've seen them play alongside other Honduran greats like Polache and Guillermo Anderson. They also volunteer to play at many benefit concerts for worthy causes like HIV awareness.

When that CD hits the shelves, I'm getting TWO! One to bump and another to save and sell on Ebay 20 years from now.

These dudes are real chill too. A good example of that is the following video I posted of them on Youtube. In this vid they imitate recognized Honduran soccer broadcastors.


Montuca - Welcome to San Pedro (acoustic)


Montuca Playing Live

Latarian Milton Remix - THANK YOU INTERNET!!!!

Posts labeled as THANK YOU INTERNET will highlight my appreciation for the internet making this world flat


Read this first!
http://returningcatrachoreport.blogspot.com/2009/06/latarian-milton-thank-you-internet.html

I hate people who spread emails with viral videos, but I love the internet for exposing the world to things like this. Maybe I shouldn't think that the video on the link above is funny, I realize I have a twisted sense of humor. This video though, is freakin hilarious even if you didn't see the first. Again, this was remixed from his first of four encounters with the authorities and the media. They even chopped and screwed this at the end, classic.