Tales from the road

I spent three days in the aldeas last week and the following was originally written in my notebook.

I did not want to wake up Wednesday morning due to all night nightmares. I was leaving for Buena Vista (an aldea) at 7:00am, and had to drag myself up. It was funny because the day before Walter and I kind of argued about the time we should leave, and I lost, so the time was set for 7am, but don’t you know he shows up at 7:30am, the time I wanted! I should just learn to not be ready on time, because it is very rare for things to start on time here.

Anyways, we drive to the community with Walter’s brother who provides non-stop commentary on world politics. Ok, so American newspapers normally have a political stance, but are normally at least kind of subtle about it; Honduran newspapers are not subtle at all. So how do you call yourself an expert when that is all you have to go on? Maybe its just that I don’t like know-it-alls.

So, the interesting thing about the ride was the fact that we gave a few teachers a jalon (ride) to their schools. These women live in my town and every morning they have to hitch-hike to get to work. Needless to say, their classes don’t always start on time because they don’t have reliable transportation. Later we picked up more teachers trying to get to work. One got a 20 minute ride and then had to walk an additional hour to get to the school. Welcome to life in the aldeas! Another thing, I saw a well-groomed dog today. Very, very rarely you might see one in town or in a city like that, but in an aldea, I didn’t know it was possible!

We get to town, and start talking to the community contacts, and then Walter and his brother leave. At one point I yawned and wiped my eyes because I was still tired, and he asked me if I was going to cry because I was being dropped off in the aldeas by myself. I felt like reminding him that I live in Honduras right now, and my family in the states. Comparatively, this is easy. I then walked some of the distribution system and realize that whatever has been bugging my stomach lately does not like climbing hills, as I almost threw up. We walk for a while, and well before the end I told them that was enough, I had an idea what kind of terrain we were going to pass. This system already exists, but they have some problems so I am going to try to give them a design to improve the system.

So, I return back to the house that will be my home for the next few days, and was falling asleep in my plastic chair. I felt really bad because I could see the Grandma and daughter or daughter-in-law were making fish, and I told them I don’t like fish. Hey, I am willing to eat pieces of fish, but whole fried fish, scales included, no thank you. She then makes me a huge amount of spaghetti. Now, the thing about the Honduran spaghetti, is that is a mixture of ketchup and Crisco. Not joking, if you want to know the pain I was experiencing trying to eat that, well, just mix yourself up a batch of that. I did try to eat as much as possible, although to be honest I ate more of the rice under the spaghetti than the spaghetti itself.

I feel the need to explain rural Honduran stoves. They are wood stoves, without chimneys which traps most of the smoke in the house. This house is actually rather nicely set-up as it has two large “windows” that are right above the stove. But if the wind blows in the wrong direction, it all goes back into the house. I am sitting here writing this in my notebook and every once in a while I get a huge puff of smoke in my face. This is a large health concern in rural areas. The smoke is awful and tends to affect women more than men because they are the ones that spend more time over the stoves. The stoves are also very inefficient. Watching the stove today, I could see that part of the fire was escaping from under the stove to the side, which is not heating anything, and is a waste of energy. This stove also has 2 or 3 large holes on top to set pots and pans in. When you are not using one hole it is just a giant escape vent for the heat energy. These people have to forage for wood to use and then end up wasting a lot of it through inefficiency. You may remember me talking about making stoves during training, those stoves had several advantages: better insulation to prevent loss of heat through the sides and bottom, a small/more closed off area to put wood in (which eliminated the fire coming back out that way)and one large piece of metal to pots and pans on, versus empty holes when not being used. The most important part of those stoves was probably the chimney though, which forces almost all of the smoke out of the house, and since it escapes over the roof, very little would be blown back into the house. I just don’t know if I am willing to bring up the subject and have to organize everything, even if they like the idea of building new stoves. I doubt that they would like the idea of destroying their working stove just to make another one. It would be funny though if someone brought up the subject of heat transfer which would be the disadvantage of the stoves we made in training.

Wednesday afternoon I had to take a nap I was so exhausted. I woke up and felt like I was in an oven, with hot air not moving at all, even with an open window just over my head. I sat there debating what to do for a while, I could get up and be social outside with the people that I could hear there (not my specialty) or I could get up and read. I did try to be social, but it didn’t work so well, and I read. Now, the house confused me for a while because it was wired for electricity, but I had yet to see one on. This meant that I was trying to read by the little light that was left, and had to go search for areas that were in the right angle with the setting sun to still have light, but the rain overhead made this difficult.

Dinner. However did I skip dinner? So, the Grandma asked me if I like some food (didn’t know what it was), and I said yes I did. Then she asked me if I liked eggs, and again I said yes. Keep in mind here that I went on a 15 year period that I didn’t eat eggs, which ended a year ago. So, later I was called into the kitchen to eat, not knowing what was on the menu. Eggs and beans, and had the portion been a lot smaller, I would have been happy. I start eating, and find out the tortillas were pretty gross, how do you mess up a tortilla? After eating half the beans, I start the eggs, and my first thought was what is this? Well, it was salt, a lot of it, but covered with oil which had to be licked off before you got to the salt, and that funness wrapped in a bad tortilla. I was so happy that I brought gum with me to cancel out the bad taste in my mouth.

When I was done with dinner, and writing the above in my notebook, the grandma told me I could go to bed if I wanted to. Now, although I don’t know the exact time this happened, I estimate it was between 5 and 6pm, because it was still light out and the sun goes down pretty early around these parts (my cell phone was missing in the darkness of the house at that point). At that point, even if I was able to go to sleep, I would have woken up in the middle of the night with nothing to do. I haven’t been able to fall asleep before 11pm for the past few weeks, so that was kind of out of the question, although I didn’t know what else to do in the continuously fading light.

Like I said, the house was wired for electricity and even had a tv and dvd player, but for the longest time there was no electricity, which confused me. They then threw on the one light over the pulperia (very small convenience store) and I read in there for a while. Then they threw on the generator (didn’t see that before) to prep to watch to Hondurans vs USA soccer match. I then force my way in, because hey, it was something to do, and I was the only woman in there with between 15 and 20 guys trying to scramble for a chair or a good wall-leaning space. My highlights of the game: The US had a lot of chances, and going into half-time the teams were tied at 0. I was starting to get mad thinking, “how many chances do you need before you score?! And how about a little teamwork, this is not an individual sport!” Then, in a marvelous act of teamwork, four US players worked together to score. I wanted to celebrate, but kept it in because I was way outnumbered by Hondurans who weren’t looking too pleased. One thing you may not know is that Spanish fútbol announcers normally scream “GOOOOOOLLLLL” for about 60 second after a goal. This time though, they had managed to get out “the united states scored,” before I realized the ball had gone in the net.

Interesting thing about half-time, the room was invaded by the women, who were all pushing to watch the novellas (soap-operas). Then they left when the game was turned back on. One little girl stayed for a bit and somehow was sitting in an adult chair while adult men were sitting on kid chairs. When she left it took a few minutes for someone to take her seat, which was in prime location in front of the tv. This would not have happened in my house. First of all, the girl would have been forced into a kid seat (because adults would not have been balancing on kid seats) or been sitting on someone;s lap; then when she got up (assuming she did land the adult seat), it would have been a flat out race to get to the seat from everyone else in the room.

After the game, the power went back out, and I finally went to bed. What I didn’t know was that it gets cold in the mountains at night. In my house in town I sleep in a tank top and shorts almost all the time, with only a sheet over me if anything; in the mountains I was in the lonely long sleeve shirt I had there, which was only packed as an emergency measure, and under a fake fleece blanket. I don’t think all of me was warm at one time that night.

I woke up and had no idea what time it was, but could hear other people up outside, and still went back to bed. Eventually I did get up and there were a ton of people outside (I have no idea how many people live here, there is always a lot of people around), and they were all ready to go. I was still up, fed, and ready to go at 7am. That’s quite a feat for me; I miss the days when I was a morning person.

We started at the water tank, and I felt much better than I had the day before. I kind of felt bad though because Walter told them I need to of the same size barras, which can mean planks of wood, or just sticks. So, two people brought up these ten foot 2X4s. and then I had to be like, nope, I need branches cut to my eye level. They actually came out perfectly sized too, I was impressed. How the abney level works is you put the level over the stick, look through it to the top of the other stick (which is the same height as your stick) and then take the reading of the degree change between the two, so there would be a lot of bending down uncomfortably if they were too small. I later learned though that they used a very dense wood and therefore the guys were carrying around a very heavy sticks all day.

I then proceeded to get all confused very quickly. I was told how the branches worked the first day, and then got a completely different story the next day. The guys all learned their jobs quickly though, which helped a lot.

One of my first few days here, S told me that the people at the JAM would probably treat me like a princess, because they had always been so helpful to her whenever she went by. Well, they have been outdone with the people in this community. Some guy carried around my backpack all day; when it was time to leave, I grabbed my bag and they all seemed bewildered that I was planning on carrying it, so before I had even left the house-area, the backpack was gone. This did lead to some funny times though, like a relay race of people trying to get my cell phone to me before it stopped ringing. Other times they would make the easiest route between point a and point b very clear for me. I wonder if Walter told them I have a slight tendency to slide and fall down. There were times where they pointed me around the barbed wire fences, which was a pain because I have a barbed wire fences crossings count going on. I wonder what their reaction would be to knowing that I have that count going, I think they would just be surprised that someone would do something so stupid, they do it all the time.

Back on track, sometimes I get mad at this whole Princess thing, I have always been more the tom-boy than the princess-type. But, hey, I am lazy and have developed a penchant for slipping and sliding. The feminist side does come out every once in a while, but not often and only when it’s assumed I can’t do something.

About food, the women here somehow thinks I am a six foot tall, 250 pound guy. Finally, before dinner, I told her I can’t eat that much. She is also keyed in on my love of cola drinks. Like I said, they have a small store, which includes Pepsi. Go me! I’m surprised though, it’s been two days without chocolate and I am not going into withdrawal.

There are several dogs around here, and while before I thought that they were cute, they have just lost that title. Before: these dogs seemed mild-mannered, and spend most of the time trying to get into the kitchen. One puppy has even tried to start fights with the chickens, which is very cute. Sitting here writing this, the dogs just went nuts when these two horses (2 horses, 0 humans) came walking down the street. If you are wondering why horses would just walk down the street, you obviously don’t know Honduras. Anyways, the dogs just went nuts. I wanted the horses to kick them, but they just ran back to where they came from.

Talking to T and S, it has been noticed that the people right on the edge of town seem poorer than those in the aldeas. Here is my thinking: looking around, I have seen pigs and chickens (=food), and you can walk in the hills and find all kinds of fruits. Firewood is also easier to come by, and you don’t buy coffee, you just reserve enough for yourself when you pick it each year. Theoretically, medical access is easier closer to town, as is education. Side note: Aldeas have Centros Basicos which are schools from first grade to sixth. Depending on the size, they may only have one room with one teacher for everybody. The high schools are in larger towns only. There is also another program though, it is a government radio show, where you listen in to learn, and eventually take the test to get your diploma.

Potty mouth: Ok, so interesting subject about doing topo studies: using the bathroom. In all seriousness, this is something you need to consider. While it is great to drink all kinds of water, and be well hydrated, this has a consequence; you have to use the bathroom. Sometimes you pass by houses where you can ask to use their latrines, and sometimes there is nothing there. I was never adverse to going in the woods in the States, but all those hiking trips didn’t come with guys serenading you and telling you that they love you, and so I was worried I was going to have an audience.

It feels good to be tired after a hard day’s work. To be honest, my eyes are very tired. All day long of looking through the abney level and reading it’s tiny little numbers. I normally wear a hat and sunglasses a lot because I don’t like to squint, so doing it all day hurt my eyes, then coming home the smoke of the stove in my eyes isn’t helping mattes. That’s why I let us stop at 4pm. Yeah right! I’m not sure that they would have continued. Hey, don’t call me lazy, we started at 7am and had a ten minute lunch break from walking all day long.

Dental work: A lot of people here don’t have all their teeth. I’ve met some people without any teeth. In Pespire, a kid asked a friend of mine if we all had our teeth replaced with real looking ones, because he didn’t understand we still have our original teeth. In the house now, the grandmother has quite a lot of gold in her mouth, even gold stars on her front teeth. I know that in the states, you can get that kind of thing done to have more bling, but is there a real purpose for this, because she doesn’t run in the same crowd as those people.

The church has started. Music can be heard, although all I hear is hallelujah a lot. Later it changed to what I would call ho-down music.

So the thing about bathing was that I didn’t want a million people to know that I would be in the shower (stall outside the house), so I waited until most people had left. This also meant the sun was almost completely down, and there wasn’t a lot of light in the stall. Cold bucket baths are so much fun. True story: a while ago, I read an article in Backpacker magazine with tips from a woman who has done a lot of mountaineering and crossed one of the poles, and she said the best way to stay warm is to take a bath every night to rinse off the sweat and grime, even if it is only a handful of water. It works wonders. I was much warmer afterwards, even though I had used cold water. I just wanted to pass on that wisdom.

I stayed warm well into the movie. What movie you ask? One of the Rambo movies. Not joking. Kind of funny how many people cleared out after a little while, although to be honest they also had to contend with subtitles which ruins all but the best of movies. When it became time for bed I found out I wasn’t going to be sleeping in the same bed as the night before, which was fine, I am flexible. The Grandma made it sound like I would be sharing a bed with her and her husband, which would not be acceptable. A little while later a spare mattress comes along and I sleep in the living room.

The next morning was a little harder, and we got off to a 7:30am start because I was slower. With only one returning guy from the day before, I was worried how long it would take us to get in the groove. I didn’t have any problems though, although the guy who offered to hold my notebook while I wrote wasn’t there, so I felt kind of overworked (not). At one point pretty early on it starts to rain, so I get my raincoat out and put it over the notebook, which left me high and wet. No one else had rain coats, so we were freezing together. I had to pass over the notebook and raincoat as a package deal, which was interesting, because it always managed to get wrapped around itself and I had to fight to get to the notebook.

We finished early that day (before noon) and we headed back to the house. I was a little confused on how I was getting back to town, and I was given an expression that was new to me as an answer, so I sat around for a while and wrote a lot of the above.

In the street (think dirt logging road) a bunch of girls are playing, ones that are like ring around the rosey and London bridge is falling down. Oh, now we have switched to tug-of-war. The little girls won, but were rewarded by falling down when the older girls let go. It’s such a Peace Corps moment, you can see the little girls are the same as little girls anywhere, but in a different atmosphere. I wish I brought my camera.

Wasn’t that a nice ending statement?! The adventure continues. I was summoned into the kitchen, apparently what I thought was my lunch turned out to be my mid-morning snack and I got fed again. She asked me if I like milk. I said yes (when will I learn) and got a huge glass of piping hot milk. I also got some really good pancakes. They had a lot of butter in them, and after the milk and them, I couldn’t handle anything sweet, I would have even turned down chocolate.

Let me talk a little more about one of the kids here. He is about 1.5 years old. I guess this because he is bigger than Walter’s daughter, but still only has Mama in his vocabulary. Most of the time someone is walking this boy around my his armpits, and most of the time it is one of the little girls who really aren’t much bigger (he is a chubby little one). He always has a bunch of food in his tiny little hands. He is really cute, and really confused by me. Adults understand that there are differences in people, but he is too young to get how someone can be so different and still be human. Its cute. Ok, bathing process just started, and he is squirming to dive into the water while his mother is trying to get his clothes off, and now he is trying to eat the soap.

Back in town:

I ended up getting my ride home and was in town by 4pm. I was tired, but knew that I should wait to sleep. I slept for 12 hours, and have been tired all day. I am hoping for another 12 hours tonight. I haven’t done much today, a lot of time has been devoted to writing this.

Take care,

Jill