Teaching and Reaching the World

 

Santiago and Tezla teaching and learning bird identification 

There are many teachers
in conservation and environmental justice. During our review of macaw nests in
Honduras we each took our turn teaching one another.  Hector Portillo Reyes, leader in conservation
education in Honduras and of this trip, chose students to accompany us and
taught them as we went from nest to nest. 

Hector and Maria Eugenia 

Maria Eugenia Mondragon Hung, professor of
English at Universidad Pedagogica Nacional Francisco Morazan (UPNFM) taught me
Spanish when I got stuck and spent her late evenings teaching and practicing
English with Hector. The people of La Mosquitia, such as Gerzon Sanchez, taught us their language as we
danced between us the trilingual waltz.

 

Gerzon and Mary  Eugenia

Hermes Vega, our botantist, taught us about plants, Santiago
and Pascacio taught us about roads and pathways on their lands, I taught about
nest and chick health, and Tomas taught us of pain and loss.  In reality, I suppose we all helped one
another learn of loss through our stories of the relentless habitat destruction
in our lives.  These stories gave us
purpose as we walked through grass and creeks, grazing only the surface into the
beauty that flows with us into the one great ocean of being.

 

Hermes hiking with his plant press

In
Tegucigalpa I was the “featured” teacher for a talk on avian conservation at
the University and later the presenter for a 2 day symposium at the zoo on
rescue, rehabilitation, and liberation of parrots. In my mind I was the one who
learned the most, such as from the dedicated zoo veterinarian, Dr. Diana
Echeverria.  She shared with me her
veterinary practice among the realities of Honduras politics and
resources.  The zoo workers, the
biologists, the professors, and the students taught me of their precious
passion that urges me on to ever greater admiration of these people, and
greater commitments on my part. 

Dr. Diana Escheveria, middle left, with students, biologists, and workers and administrators of the zoo

Behind the human drama,
in fact above, beneath, in front of, and all around flies those that teach us
the most.  Our eyes lift up from our
daily concerns and burdens to see liberating wings as our hope.  For as we liberate those with wings, they
will set us free.

 

But we must do our
part, and there is no script for this. 
Currently there are plans to build a Center of Investigation within the
UPNFM that will center on teaching practically in the field among the
indigenous communities as we learn over and over again our place in the family
of things. Another plan is for a research station and parrot  rescue center in the Rus Rus area, initiated by INCEBIOH (Instituto para la Ciencia y la Conservcion de la Biodiversidad en Honduras).  Such a
structure will allow for teaching, research, income for the indigenous people
while they preserve their way of life, and let me be direct here, international
witness and protection by our presence, using our own precious bodies for all
the precious bodies of the world as a shield to reduce harm in the midst of
conflict.

The people of La
Mosquitia told me that they would give their lives for the beauty of their land,
and their commitment teaches me that I too hear this calling.  I am gathering names for those who wish to
accompany me in the near future on a mission of witness, protection, and peace
in Honduras (email me at amoloros@juno.com). Come, take my hand and the hands,
wings, and hearts of others so that we may learn together and in turn teach the
world.  Let us together in our diversity be
bright rainbow shields and witnesses for peace, parrots and people as Seres
Unidos, Beings United

 

 Tomas hiking under the protection of a rainbow umbrella

Examination

Weighing wild chicks in La Mosquita - Photo by Hector Portillo Reyes

Being in La Mosquitia,
Honduras one cannot but help examine the state of one’s inner life and the
state of the world. As biologists, conservationists, and people of the land
(Los Misquitos) much of our time is spent examining the ecology around us which
centers on the Guara (Macaw) nests and chicks. 
We seek to know the health of this species by collecting all the data we
can and then looking at the relationships within the whole.

What we found, with
only a handful of nests active with chicks, is that the chicks are thin, many
of the nests still have eggs (which appears late in the season to those who
know the land), and much human activity around the nests showing how they chop
into the trees to extract the chicks.

 

Piscacio high in pine tree examining macaw nest with machete/hatchet cuts

We also spent time
learning about the health of the human communities.  What are the forces causing the violent
conflicts and death threats, land stolen, forests leveled, and people and
parrots displaced? The list of causes is long. 
Thinking of the powerful influences here, including international
petroleum extraction companies and narco drug lords, we cannot fathom what stratagies will
best work together to keep parrots and people in their homes, but we can
witness, testify, and stand in solidarity with those who have been  torn from their way of life.

Interviewing Tomas Manzanares under a macaw nest - photo by Hector Portillo Reyes

Last year´s confiscated birds now permanantely housed at zoo in Tegucigalpa

How exactly does one
stand or fly with other beings as one? 
For my part it comes from examining my own life in relationship to the
whole, in concrete situations such as here in Honduras.  I find my identity and way of life slipping
away into the flow of such beauty and tragedy, and then I listen to the call of
my wild heart, and listen to the call to union with others.   As we
hold one another, and lift one another up on wings of hopes, I hear the
whispered dream and cry to freedom - we are Seres Unidos – Beings United.  Is it such a wild dream to think that we can welcome all beings home to this planet?

 

This year´s surviving confiscated birds, babies who will never know a wild home

Sunday Morning Coming Down (from Rus Rus, La Mosqutia, Honduras)

(Scarlet Macaw Flying By A Carribean Pine in La Mosquitia)

 

On Sunday, April 18, we
came down the long road out of Rus Rus into Puerto Lempira. We had been staying
overnight in the abandoned home of Tomas Manzanares and Alicia Lacuth  for the last several days  as we journeyed out each day to study wild
Scarlet Macaws. 

(Road out of Rus Rus - my feet showing my comfortable position riding in the pick up truck with the soldier)

 Rus Rus is a small
pueblo in the area known as La Mosquitia and has indigenous people, los Misquitos, who have their own language and their own culture.  Their lands and way of life is severely
threatened, as are their very lives. 
Tomas, as the leader of his community, tried to stop some “invaders” from
taking over their land.  These men waited
in ambush for him one day in December, 2009 and he was shot 4 times.  

(Tomas showing me the scars of his 4 bullet wounds) 

Today he has mostly recovered and his biggest
regret seems to be that his camera was broken during the shooting.  Against advice, Tomas journeyed with us back
to his town of Rus Rus, where most of the people had to flee for fear of their
lives after the incident with Tomas.  He
told me, as did several of the Misquitos, that they are willing to risk their
lives to keep their wondrous pine savannah and forests from further
destruction, and to protect their Guara Rojas (Scarlet Macaws). But already the
rivers are beginning to dry up and most macaw nests that we saw have evidence
of chicks being poached.

Half way back to Puerto
Lempira we stopped at the army base to return the soldiers we had hired to
protect us while we researched macaws. 
There the commander of the base gathered his men and then I was invited
to give a talk to the soliders.  Before I
began, a prayer was said, asking God to help the men listen to me so that we
could all work together for the people and the parrots.  With such honor and respect, offered to me, I
thought that I could only return the same to them.   I told them  of how I had been moved by their people, the
Misquitos, who had courage, strength, passion, and heart to love their land and
to protect it.  I told them of the power
they had in their relationship with the land and with each other.  I told them that it would take everything
they’ve got to keep their land and Guaras from being “ desaparecidos” (disappeared).
I then asked them how I could stand in solidarity with them and what they might
say to the world. One solider stood up and told you, my one wild and precious world,
to help them do what they must do to keep their land safe, and to keep it
beautiful.

(Talking with the Soldiers at the Base) 

Though I was not back
in my home congregation on this Sunday morning, I got to preach and in turn, am
being saved by the gathered. My deepest thanks to these Hondurans who are
helping me savor and save the world.

 

(Field Research Group Showing Their "Fly Free" Macaw Wrist Bands)