Now in San Miguel, El Salvador, I will be crossing into Honduras from El Salvador November 30, 2009! Polls have just closed in the Honduran presidential election, an election set up to bring back some normalcy to a government and country that has seen many months of limbo since the coup ousting former president Manuel Zelaya last spring.
While after some initial hemhawing and what seems to have been a complete policy about face, the United Statues has agreed to officially recognize the results provided there was a significant turnout, polling was regular, and there was no significant violence, all conditions which seem to have been met.
Ousted President Manuel Zelaya
Argentina and Brazil, notebly, are refusing (for now) to recognize the results saying that the election will serve nothing more than to legitimize an illegal coup, setting dangerous precident.
It is always an interesting process for me, crossing borders, uncertainty on the other side. In Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and now in Honduras, each border has taken a certain leap of faith, not knowing what I will find on the other side, having only the information that I have read from media outlets and the US Department of State travel advisories.
I am glad I am learning not to listen to those things, though in the absence of information about an area, you sometime have no choice. Today, I was told it would be better to swim to Nicaragua rather than to pass through Honduras with the violence that was sure to ensue.
I have found that people are often fearful of what lies beyond. Beyond their neighborhoods, their cities, their coutnries, someplace else it is dangerous, but not here. I will never forget the conversation I had with a friend and her family in Culican, Mexico, where at the heart of the narco war, she was telling me how dangerous it was every place else.
I look forward to stepping across the next like in the sand. Each time I do, I feel closer and closer to Brazil. I feel a renewed sense of optimism and ethusiasm for what lies here and ahead. I am deeply grateful to God for showing me how to take these steps of faith, both in life, and on my spiritual path.
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Route (Note: if the route doesn´t apprear, please click on the map to see the route from Bing.com)
