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.

How some artists deal with the tension in the country...

"In the battalion, they teach us about democracy from behind."



Instruments of repression. "Always have been the same shit"


THESE CARICATURES ARE NOT MEANT TO BE ANY OFFENSE -
- THEY ONLY REFLECT PERSONAL CATHARSIS OF THE ARTIST!

One month or Two

Finally I find the muse to write some lines again. First of all, I wanted to share some pictures – the last time I wrote too much text. So see below for some impressions of our last visit in San Rafael, which was in July.

And about the past month or two, what do I have to tell you?

Although the situation in Honduras keeps tense and the democratic orden has not been reestablished yet, we try to live our lives as usual...

We attended some concerts of resistance - where lots of artists, national and international, sing, act, play, present poetry or other works – to animate the people and to give a good example of how to peacefully defeat and defend ourselves against the military- / elite- regime that is ruling this country. You can see some impressions of the last cultural events with a clear message: “Voces contra el golpe” (Voices against the Coup)

Right at this moment, the military is celebrating on one side of the city – while the resistant folks is manifesting on the other side. Since yesterday we hear bombs going off every once in awhile. The military seems to be very proud of some old cannons they have – they fired them even in the middle of the night, I woke up by their sounds. It's supposed to be tradition... There's constant helicopter-sound in the air and a little while ago some war-jets circled above the city, showing off their speed and irritating with their deafening noise.

Today, the fifteenth of september, is Honduran “independence day” - usually the military is accompanied by many curious spectators, today they seem to be rather by themselves, most of the people attend the anti-military-manifestation in the center of the city. Arte Acción and its Batucada (Brazilian Drums) is taking position with the people today.

Arte Acción is trying to make this city at least a little more colourful by stimulating the youth to create beautiful arts – and to create themselves in a different way.

Regarding my work, I feel that the ongoing therapeutic activities have a profound effect by now and that my position within Arte Acción is being appreciated more and more. For example, I am given more space and time for various actions – to work with a bigger group of young people, to acquire a better working place with more privacy etc.

Above you see some girls during a latest group activity. Beneath you see some of the girls at their final exposition to reflect on a succesfull art therapy proces:

I am happy about another change in my working atmosphere: Finally we found a Honduran psychologist who works as my direct counterpart since the first of september. Together we will develop groupactivities to treat basic human values and behavior. We'll explain the human development from a psychosocial point of view, making use of creative activities in order to experiment the meaning and importance of having a self-concept and self-confidence; of real communication and reconciliation among other topics...

The psychologist is a motivated young, yet experienced, woman whom I really like to work with. She complements my practical ideas with theoretical, psychological background information and gives the final “Honduran” touch to our common activities, so its content is really understandable for the young people we work with.

I was surprised and happy how well our first activity went last wednesday. Her way of presenting theoretical information is cited by lots of daily-life examples – spoken out in a spontaneous way – she is ready to put herself in the shoes of the youth, using their way of speaking and interacting constantly with them.

I hope Maria Elena, that is her name, will stay with Arte Acción for a good period of time. She seems to be a perfect candidate for carrying out some seriously necessary psychosocial work within the organization.

Visiting San Rafael - July 2010

The Silent Storm or The Stormy Silence

Hello everyone.

I haven't written anything for almost two months now. The critical situation in the country had to sink in first, before I dared to talk about the happenings publically... now I do not want to keep silent anymore.
What happened here is terrible and it is still happening. I feel, it is the perfect example for what is going on in the whole world on different scales. A small group of very powerful and rich people control the poor, the uninformed and the uneducated ones in order to receive more power or at least lose none of it - and to benefit themselves personally by repression, creation of hate and stimulation of fear through mediatic propaganda and the use of weapons.
Here in Honduras the example is an extreme one. There is extreme poverty and extreme wealth: The country itself is not poor - only that its rich recources are benefitting a very small group of people.
This group of people, stimulated by and in eager exchange with the shiny capitalism of North America, did obviously not agree with the socialist tendencies of the last and still official president Zelaya. As the caricature below shows, president Zelaya promoted the change of the constitution, which would have given a voice to the poor majority of the country's population, giving them a voice: indigenous groups, farmers, youth, women, teachers, workers in the health sector etc.
But as this could have taken away a little crumb of the mega-super-cake that the elite of this country keeps consuming, action was taken against this socialist president.
By military force -one early morning at the end of june - he was made to leave the country. Some hours later, the parliament had already sworn in Mr. Micheletti as de facto president. This man and his powerful mates are ruling the country still, more than one month after the coup.
Many people are actively resisting and protesting against this new government. There has been much violation of their rights to express themselves. They are limited evento manifest peacefully, to call for the reinstallation of a real democracy. People with a critical opinion towards the new "president" and his followers, asking for respect of the human rights and freedom of expression and movement, have been arrested, beaten, threatened and even murdered.
The local media, owned by the same powerful, rich people - are very manipulative. It reminds me of the Nazi-propaganda before the second world war, that we studied about in school. There's lots of lies and false information in the press. Hate and fear is delibirately created. The local media are denying the coup d'état that took place. The little, critical media have been taken off the air. The big newspapers assure how much peace and democracy there is right now. In the meantime, the military is repressing the resistant people with guns and sticks.
Naturally, the local press confirms that military is only active to maintain order and tranquility. And that the activists are the violent ones, creating terror and chaos.

This is what worries me most. There is a scary polarisation between the people, stimulated by the press. The news only talk about "white" and "red" people. The white ones are the supposed supporters of Micheletti: "democratic and peaceful" - in reality, their leaders are acting like dictators, using military forces to maintain the power. On the other hand there are the red ones, the social activists, by the media known as dangerous "communists and terrorists."

Of course, in the local news they say that there is more people, supporting the new president than the old one. But intern, alternative information states the opposite! The resistence is powerful - there is many people, especially in the rural, poor areas of the country that do not accept this self-named government. They ask for new rules and regulations - written by the people themselves and respected by the powerful. They also ask the actual powerful to leave the country. All these persons of the elite / the so called "bourgeoisie" are known for having exploted the country's recources only for their own benefit during the past decennias. Some little groups of upper/media class people - a minority in this country - without much background information, convinced by the lying media, may be supporting this new government.

Personally, I find it difficult to see a solution to this problem. I admire the peaceful resistence, the movement in favor of respecting human rights and turning into a real democracy. There have been taken many actions - marching, singing, playing concerts...

An extended armed conflict between the people would be the worst. Of course, there must be some who would profit from a little war - otherwise there wasn't so much creation of division and hate between the people.

In the end, I think it is mostly a conflict between rich and poor, once again, dressed into the robes of a "political crisis, socialist / communist movement, democratic approach." In the end, it is as it is always: The rich are benefitting from any conflict of the poor. The more weapons there are sold, the more money is made!

I would love to convince myself that there will be no more violence. There has been enough in only one month of instability. I notice that there is fear. As the activists are feared, also the soldiers are scared. This is what disturbs a lot. Supposedly the military is controling the folks sometimes keeping them quiet, sometimes hitting them brutally - but the military is the same poor folk! I saw the faces of some of them - many are not even 18 years old, they came to the military because there was no other chance to feed the family: parents, grandparents, siblings, uncles... who knows for whose benefit these guys are actually working . I am sure they give little about the fact that they really protect the richest of the rich in this country - they just want to earn money to be able to survive.

Let's hope for the people of Honduras - lower, middle, even upper class - uniformed or not, educated or not - that in the end they stick together: promoting a peaceful, social identity. Not letting themselves destroy by a greedy national or international elite that stimulate the confrontation between everybody.

If anyonelikes more intern information on this topic, look at these sites or articles:

Alternative, informative Blog about plausible background of the Coup:
http://machetera.wordpress.com/

Blogs by resistent folks of Honduras, created in Spanish:
http://honduras-en-resistencia.over-blog.es
http://honduraslaboral.org/leer.php

Artikel und vieeel Hintergrundinformation auf Deutsch:
http://www.neues-deutschland.de/artikel/153741.verhaertete-fronten-in-honduras.html
http://womblog.de/2009/08/08/otto-reich-und-der-staatsstreich-in-honduras/

Sunny Rain

A time of various thunderstorms, earthquakes and heavy rain falls have refreshened the city and nature around here - yet there's tension in the air. Not only on a climatic level - also politically and even within the same Arte Acción, things seem to be changing... I am not going to dig into the political atmosphere - for anybody interested, please look at http://www.hondurasthisweek.com/national/1131-where-is-the-fourth-box-taking-us

On Arte Acción's level, we are trying to make a plan for the next months, including an official art therapy programme - that so far exists on paper, but only parts of it have begon to be implemented into practice. As you know I started with collective therapy a few weeks ago. Luckily the girls keep coming each week - with enthousiasm and openness to share and experience their personal, creative development process. Now, the reflections go a little deeper. The girls start to talk about personal needs and wishes, about negative feelings, pain, confusion . The last time, two of them made a painting that they did not even want to reflect on.
In another situation I had an individual confrontation with one of my clients, where she suddenly told me all about her past, her difficult relationship towards her mother who never protected her, even not when she was abused by her stepfather. A story, that is not the first of its kind. What caught my attention especially, was that she said that she would like very much to "leave behind" the role of the insecure child. She said she would like to feel stronger and with more confidence towards herself and others.Within the short future, we'll have teambuilding activities, with the youth such as with the adult team of Arte Acción. I am looking forward to work with Sija - a Dutch dancer (and soon to be dancetherapist) who will come to Tegucigalpa at the end of july in order to share some of her abilities within Arte Acción. I hope we will arrange some nice, creative exercises together - to stimulate the personal and social formation of all team-members.
Yes. There are lots of activities planned - ready to evolve in practice.
Me myself, I am reading much and trying to establish my place of peace and rest. This city - especially these days, with much humidity, mosquitos and tension in the air - has quite some tiring effect on me. Often, I have to go running or at least moving a lot - to get rid of the accumulated stress - or hang in front of a ventilator, to keep the mind cool.

El Salvador - Suchitoto

Last weekend we visited our friends Onix and Cristina. Onix used to be my neigbour in Honduras. Him and Cristina, his Spanish girlfriend are some of our beautiful capoeira mates and friends.

Cristina works in Suchitoto - a sleepy, old village in the middle of El Salvador. With much touristic potential for its colonial style little houses, and a big lake to its side. From Cristina's place you have this beautiful lakeview.

All kinds of animals gave us company : During night huge toads, big bats and giant insects. During the day frogs (in Onix' head), toad-eating snakes, insect-eating lizards and chanting blue/yellow/red feathered birds.

We took long walks around the lake, visiting an amazing waterfall with incredible stonestructures.

We found three wild turtles in their natural habit: Between a little water, plants and mostly mud.

Driving around with one of Cristina's colleagues, we visited wide grassfields and a big hacienda. We heard some stories about El Salvador's heavy history (as war has taken place until 1992).

We also saw some of the present problems: The big lake being conteminated with waste - every day a little more - without any consideration for nature.

At least, in Suchitoto you are able to drink the water from the well - that is a big exception in El Salvador and in Central America in general. My Honduran friend tells me about the times before they started selling "purified water" - everyone drank the water from the tab. Then, in the nineties, there was a cholera epidemic, supposedly caused by conteminated water. Ready, for the purified water business to start!

Ok. For now you have enough to read and I better do not go on about any conspiracy theories, that seem to become more practic each time and less theoretic. What a world! I hope you enjoy the pictures of the beautiful side of humanity and nature!

Best wishes to everyone!