La ofrenda a Yaxché

I have not written anything in a long time. But better late than never, I'll try to update you on my and Arte Acción's actual activities a little bit.

The art therapy manual is handed in to the co-direction of Arte Acción for a last revision, before sending it to the editor. It was quite some work to write such a thing, with theoretical and practical information about art therapy, especially the description of the activities that will be carried out by complete unexperienced people in the area of art therapy, but also by interested psychologists or social workers. Now there's about 90 pages that have to be proven to be understandable and applicable for anyone.

The process of validation will take us maybe 4 weeks of hard work with a group of around 8 persons. I am a little nervous about how and when we will realize this process, as my working contract is finishing at the end of February next year. With the Christmas vacation, this means we have only about 2 and a half months left to work here. Our journey back to Europe is planned for the end of march.

I feel that only a part of the goals originally established can be reached upon that date. “Ni modo.” here they say, like “This is the way it is, there's no way back and we have to accept it.”

Right now I am still busy with accompanying a collective therapy for young women, also I have some young men attending an art therapy process. Finally.

On top of that, the co-direction of Arte Acción is receiving some art therapeutic attention. I prefer not to call it therapy itself, it would be more like a coaching or orientation for them. We talk about (and experience creatively) how to discharge certain energies, exploring some interior feelings and how to communicate these.

The 3 members of the co-direction are charged with too much work and preoccupation. They are investing all their time and energy into benefiting the youth that is being supported by the organization, up to the point of being very tired and not spending time with their families. Even the communication between themselves is not flowing well. Sometimes I ask myself how the youth is going to learn, grow and develop within an organization, where the co-direction is exhausted as an example.

All this has to do with different circumstances. They are trying to do the best they can to maintain their work functional and ideal. The main circumstance that hinders an even flow within the organization, is that they must constantly fight to be able to “survive” as an institution. The Honduran government does not support with even one cent, as there's almost no money for any non profit cultural or artistic movement that would benefit only the population. So our organization, as many others in this sector, depend on donations or products that can be sold for a good price. In order to obtain either donations or quality products, as for artistic presentations and community activities, the organization has to work hard and creatively.

This week they presented a spectacular new drama, called La ofrenda a Yaxché. It counts with gigantic puppets, amazing costumes and a profound story, as an adaption of the Popol Vuh, the Mayan Quiché book of creation. The drama reflects the creation of animals, spirits and humans - and finally tells us about the corruption of men, making the topic fit well into the context of the country and its situation.

Here are some pictures, taken during and after their last presentation.

Some art therapy impressions

Here's some artwork that clients made during individual and group's therapy. I gladly received the permission to publish these images on my blog.

1. A flower of emotions. Each petal represents a different emotion. The opposite petal represents the opposite emotion. Here's to say that there's no standard opposite. For some people love opposites hate, for other's love contrasts with indifference, the third makes love and hardheartedness a pair. So everyone's flower (star or circle) of emotion, is a very personal one:

2. Another circle of emotions:

3. Here's what somebody had on his mind, thinking about his personal dreams (left) and his day to day reality (right):

3. This is the reflection of a non-verbal communication between two people. One person painted brown and the other orange. Afterwards they painted light and dark green to create the frame:

4. The following three images for a triptych - the artist gave it the name: Cosas de la vida (Things of life):

5. This is one of the results of monotyping - an introduction activity for art therapy.

6. Here's how somebody expresses her fury:

7. Mi corazón de rencor (My heart full of anger):8. Some wishes for the future:

Campamento

Here are some pictures of our weekend action at the beginning of august. We organized a camp in order to stimulate and strengthen Arte Acción's teamwork. There were about 40 participants. Mostly, they enjoyed the pool and the place in nature - everyone relaxed and played all they could between the activities. All the activities, in order to enhance self- and group's reflection, were based on art therapy methods - or a general training methods, learned at ICCO's preperation course last year.

More Inauguration impressions

Santos juggling with appleballs...

Practicing and showing Batucada know-how...

Circus activities waiting to be executed!

My new colleague Sharon during the inauguration.

Arte Acción's new location

Yesterday was the inauguration of the new working space. There were interactive demonstrations of all creativity taking place in Arte Acción... Visitors could learn how to recycle bottles and other material that usually ends up as garbage. They could paint, drum and join the radio group. They could take home their own puppet, made of a paper-bag. Also, juggling techniques were introduced and people could experience how to walk on stilts. I offered a short session, presenting a common art-therapy method: painting on music.

It was a nice, colourful day - with not as many visitors as expected - yet we had a successful inauguration of the new space and a enjoyable meeting with friends and family of Arte Acción. The day was closed by a short but impressive parade in front of the office, followed by a nice acoustic concert, given by nationally well-known musicians. I think, thanks to this beautiful, refreshing day, next week, we'll work even more motivated and as a strong team.
Of course I hope the energy at work stays positive for longer! Maybe I can contribute to that by a retreat that we will soon organize to strengthen team-spirit and -function. I hope we can stay a night close to a national park, near the capital city, to breathe some fresh air and experience our team's abilities and weaknesses - outside our usual working location.
I will try to make a plan for this retreat together with my new colleague: Sharon. She's psychologist and will work as my direct counterpart. I am sure she will attribute lots of important actions to Arte Acción. For a long time, they've been looking for psychological support - for the target group and the team. Now she is finally there! Right now we are still in introduction phase, but I already feel relieved to finally find personal support in establishing the psychosocial component of Arte Acción.

Back in Honduras

We came back to Honduras as a family on april 23rd. Finally.

Now we are getting used to our old, new space - in new constellation, with new challenges, new hopes and motivation.
Arte Acción has also moved to a new place. Now there is a special room for art therapy only, providing space to work and privacy - at last!
My contract for ICCO has been prolonged another 6 months. I am preparing for 10 months of intensive work, as it is not so much time to complete all the aims that were sat up in the beginning of my contract.
This week, I will finish the installation of our new local. I will discuss my schedule with my colleagues and our target group... I'm looking forward to attend therapeutic processes again. Some of my old "clients" already expressed their need to go on with the experience that was never concluded last year, due to our evacuation.

Politically, the situation seems to have calmed down superficially. But in the end there are still many people who ask for a reform, who finally want their human rights to be respected. Repression and violence is also still going on. Especially where people are actively fighting for their rights, police and private security forces fight back violently. Several people, active in resistant groups, have been persecuted, tortured and even murdered.

Here are some links (alternative to the mainstream media) to follow the actual situation in the country, all in Spanish:
http://www.tercerainformacion.es
http://voselsoberano.com
http://ellibertador.hn/Nacional/3895.html

I hope to soon write more about my personal/professional advance with Arte Acción!

Evacuation & Maternity leave

Me and my little family (My husband Omar and a big belly by now) came back to Europe in october 2009.
At the end of december, my maternity-leave started officially. Now I am round, waiting for my first child to be born! We will hopefully be back in Honduras around the beginning of april, catching up with work and life on the other side of the big ocean. I am looking forward to carry on with my work as an art therapist. I think the young people who Arte Acción are working with, deserve more attention than ever in nower days. Things in Honduras seem to go on as usual, although last year has been an exceptional one - looking at the political situation. I am not sure if the political crisis is solved now... I'd hope that people get the chance to participate more actively in the democracy, in order to escape the deep poverty most of them live in. I hope there will not be any ongoing violence from any side - neither from the powerful militair nor from the poor rebels. We'll see.