The In-Between Time: People of few words

Sandra and Me

This past weekend, I went to the house of another girl in Corquin 2 hours from Santa Rosa. This stay was much different than the past house I visited. Instead of a house with dirt floors full of children like the last house I visited, her parents were in their late seventies. Her father had worked as a farmer for 70 years to earn money to build and sustain the house, and it was relatively modern with tile floors, electricity, a refrigerator, and an indoor bathroom! However, don't think that its like your house, it is still very much a Honduran house-- meaning the wood stove kitchen away from the house, the same water pila to wash your laundry by hand, very simple and small indoors, and a ton of chickens! same profession, . When you worked that long outside, and you see the way things are, you don't speak much. I've found that this is also very Honduran, many people just pass time in silence. There isn't a pressing need to speak for them, "there's always tomorrow if God allows us" as they say. It's an interesting way to look at things, and definitely more reflective than an American go get it and Just do it now type of attitude. This is cool and nice for a while, but I realized as much as it is good, neither does silence really solve problems, it kinda just pushes them away and makes family life difficult if you don't speak much.

The house looks very modern!

The Dad always wears his working hat during the day so that if he has to leave to work, he has it, even though he is retired. hehe.

Fittingly, you can imagine, I had a relaxing time this weekend away from the girls of the school, and the talkative Hermanas. My friend showed me around her town and introduces me to her also very silent sisters and cousins and told me about her life. I'll just say she is 28, and in her second year (10th grade) studying Bachillerato in Admnisitration, and she has had to overcome some amazingly difficult obstacles to go to school and to move forward in life. Its pretty amazing that she now has this chance to study here, and I'm very blessed to know her.

A lot of Chickens= Fresh eggs, mmmmmm

A normal Honduran stove

The Kitchen where we spent most of our time,
making tortillas and the food for the family

"modern" houses still wash clothes by hand, in the pila on the left. Bottom Right
next to the Plantains, note that its the ONLY trash basket the house!

On the subject of how campesinos talk, I just thought I'd share with you what one man told us just randomly as we were on our trip home from Corquin to Santa Rosa. Its a 2 hour trip but we went the first hour leg of the trip with some random policeman who offered us a ride. For an hour, we didn't speak a word, until we said goodbye, take care, and God bless as he dropped us off at a bus stop to finish our trip, and he said "You too" smiled, and waved goodbye. We waited half an hour with a handful of people, and no one spoke, one was a middle aged campesino, he was still in his work clothes from working in the fields, and after a while, He asked us if we knew the man who dropped us off, we said "No, he was just a policeman kind enough to drive us half way to Santa Rosa." Then we all waited in silence, after a while he says "Yeah, God does take care of us. Look at the beautiful dresses the trees are wearing right now- how they are all nice and festive with flowers for Easter coming, and how the mango trees look so burdened with the sweet fruits for us to eat, but soon when the first storm comes it will all be gone, the leaves and the fruit and the trees will be barren looking. It doesn't look so nice for us, but the trees like it because God knows they need the water, and sends us the storms anyways, the storms undress and unburden the trees, but only so that he can redress them even more beautifully. See what I mean, God takes care of us with the flowers and the fruit, and then he sends us the water for the trees." Then we didn't really talk and as we were getting on the bus, he added that he was friends with uncle of the policeman who took us. Honduras is a small but beautiful country, and I'm glad I had a little retreat from the city, but also glad to be back in the hubaloo of the school day!