Tierra Blanca

On Saturday afternoon, I went with Omar, Xiomara, and Karla to Tierra Blanca.  I wouldn't call it a town, but it is a place about 30 minutes away, up a different mountain, where people live.  There is one main dirt road that has houses along it for miles, as well as a one-room school.  We went expressly to visit one family.  This family lives in a mud/stick one-room house that has no latrine, and the "kitchen" is outside.  I'm not sure what the father's work is, but the mother stays at home with her 4 children.  Karla was supposed to talk with this family and take pictures for a friend who works in a hospital in Boston.  This friend is trying to gather information about the family because their 5 year old son needs help.  When Karla was talking about it in Spanish, I am pretty sure she said cerebral palsy, but I do not know enough about this condition to be sure if that is what I witnessed.

When we arrived, the two older boys were playing outside with an old ball, and the little toddler was running around with one shoe.  The mother was outside cooking, and inside was the other 5 year old son, in a big crib of sorts.  The room had two other beds, nothing else.  We talked for a while, asked questions, and observed the little boy.  He is the size of a 2 year old and cannot walk or crawl or talk, or eat on his own.  The mother said she carries him outside in the mornings for a little while because he loves the sunshine and the air, as we found out when Karla carried him outside.  The mother also said that if she has to go anywhere, she just leaves him in his padded bed because she doesn't think anything bad will happen to him since he can't walk or crawl away.  When I say go anywhere, I mean the closest neighbor is a mile and half away, and the closest pulperia (little stores in people's houses that sell food/necessities) is two miles away, and of course she has to walk everywhere.  It was a really sad situation, and a lot different than how most people live in my town.

The older boys seemed happy enough, and were very respectful when they talked to us.  The little girl started crying right before we left and we all thought it was because she hurt her bare foot on the rocks or something. But she was just hungry, so her mother started breast-feeding her.  It takes me by surprise every time, but most children breast-feed until about age 2 here, because it is more affordable.  They also breast-feed where ever they happen to be; in their house, in the park, walking in the street, even in church.  When we left, we gave the mother a lot of money, which she quietly accepted.  It was difficult to watch her accept that money because her expression was not happy.  But she knows it is more useful to her family than her pride.

A moto-taxi full of boys who all waved and shouted at the cameras.

The better looking houses on the road through Tierra Blanca.

This little boy didn't want to look at the camera.  I was trying to capture how old and sad the horse looked.

Our destination.  The kitchen counters are wooden tables and planks on top of metal bins outside.  They have a fogon to cook with.  There is no latrine outside, they just use the wide open land.  The house is one room, essentially a bedroom, and it has a door and tin roof.

The little five year old boy in his padded bed.  He could fling himself from side to side and briefly land on his arms.

The other corner of the room.  Notice two sides of the house do not have walls, just tarps hanging over sticks.

Karla talking to the little boy who sometimes appeared to hear us, but mostly he tossed his head from side to side.

A random chicken that ran out from underneath the bed...  These are the conditions.

The little puppy was drinking out of a tiny, dirty puddle.

The two older boys playing soccer :)

The puppy loved Karla.  She was the only one who pet it because it smelled strongly of cow manure.

The back of the house.

Most of the family, the 5 year old boy was inside the house in his bed.

A line of cows meandering up the road.

Perfect picture.

My host-parents :)  Xiomara and Omar

Me and Karla

Me, Karla, and Xiomara

Omar, Xiomara, and Karla

Excited about the view....

Karla holding the mountain between her fingers.

The end of Karla's visit :(

Karla's time here was really special for me, because she is American.  I understood her Spanish better, even with her thick Boston accent.  For the first time in a while, I wasn't the only person who didn't fully understand the jokes of Honduras (they stand around and tell a lot of jokes all day).  And the best part, we cooked American meals every day!  As American as they could be with Honduran ingredients.  For example, on Friday night we prepared spaghetti and garlic bread.  In America we could have made the pasta sauce from scratch, but here we settled for Ragu sauce that we found in the giant grocery store, and we added our own ingredients like onion and pepper.  Also here, they don't really eat bread the way we do.  They don't have loaves of garlic bread, or french bread; my town doesn't even sell regular wheat bread for sandwiches.  In Honduras, people eat all different kinds of sweet breads and cookies with their coffee, and they eat corn tortillas three times a day with every meal.  So my family was really confused when Karla and I served spaghetti and sauce with garlic bread, and no tortillas....

Stirring the Ragu sauce...

This is Honduran garlic bread.  A bunch of slices come in a bag and no one really knows from where or how old they are.

Supper is almost ready!

On Saturday morning, I went into Santa Barbara with Karla and my host-brother Edwin to run a few errands.  Because Edwin goes to the university in the capital, he was not home the first few days of Karla's visit and got to request a last American meal.  Of course he requested steak, so we had to go buy the food.  We ended up eating lunch in town and each ate a Baleada Especial.  Baleadas are big flour tortillas, the kind we are used to in America, and they are filled with egg, refried beans, avocado, and mantequilla (a dairy product halfway in between butter and sour cream).  So they aren't very healthy and I won't be eating another for months.

Bigger than the plate!

Karla and Edwin

That afternoon I went out to Tierra Blanca with Karla, Omar, and Xiomara, but I will write a whole different post for that.  It was a very interesting adventure...  When we got back, my three brothers hopped in the truck and we went to Santa Barbara for a family dinner.  It is funny how different going out to dinner is in Honduras than in America.  Normally people think of going to a restaurant and sitting down.  We sat on cement steps by a lady who makes tortillas at her stand on the side of the road.  But it was really fun, and we knew her tortillas would be good because she catered my host-grandfather's birthday party.  I didn't think to take pictures during dinner, but we took a nice walk around the park after we ate.  On the drive home, Karla and I sat in the paila with the boys even though there was room for us in the truck.  It was freezing, but we just huddled together, told jokes, and looked at the stars.

My family: Edwin, David, me, Omar, Xiomara, Manuel

At the fountain

:)

We couldn't get a picture of everyone in the back of the truck...

Me and my brothers!

On Sunday, we cooked all morning in order to have a big steak lunch before Edwin returned to the university.  But in the afternoon, we had a graduation and a birthday party to attend.  The graduation was for the kinder, which is a school just for kindergarten.  My little host-cousin was graduating, and I was assigned the job of doing her hair at 1 before the mass at 2.  I don't know how many of you have specially done the hair of a six year old, but it is not easy.  Mirita moved a lot and kept touching her hair which made it fall, but in the end she loved it!  We went to the church at 2 because there was a mass before the ceremony, but of course it did not begin until 3pm and even then not everyone had arrived.  That made the ceremony in the town salon begin late, which made us late to the birthday party that began at 5.  In Honduran culture, everyone has god-parents, and at graduations (of all ages) the god-parents are recognized with the child and give a gift to their god-child.  For this reason, we had to stay for the whole ceremony because my host-parents had two god-children at the graduation.  When we finally made it to my host-cousin Cleisy's 9th birthday party, everyone had already eaten and the pinata was broken open, but we were in time for cake.  Since it was Karla's last night, everyone hung around talking until late.  I really felt like part of the whole extended family that night, especially when playing with the kids, because they just accept me freely and treat me like all of their other cousins.  I'm glad I have a big family here, since I'm used to my big family back at home!

The town salon during kinder graduation.

Haha this little boy was throwing a grand fit for the entire first half of the graduation. 

Karla, Leti, Xiomara, Karla (my host-aunt) and me

Manuel climbing trees before he was yelled at to get down.  It is really different here because when I was little, we were practically encouraged to climb trees and get out our energy, but here they are yelled at for climbing trees because it is rude....

Most of the children at the party.  Haha the boy walking in front is Roger, my little-cousin, who always has a lot to say and did not feel like standing still for one photograph, as he loudly told us all.

My host-dad Omar playing a game with the kids.

The Christmas tree :)

Thanksgiving in Honduras

I give thanks that Karla (my host-mom's cousin) came to visit from Boston during this week of Thanksgiving.  She told Xiomara on the phone ahead of time that she would like to prepare a big Thanksgiving meal with me for the family.  This was happy news for me because I had just been expecting a normal work week.  So on Tuesday I went with my family to pick Karla up from the airport in San Pedro Sula.  After having a huge lunch at Pizza Hut (which is like a fancy restaurant here), we went to the biggest grocery store (not really that big) to buy all the American food we could find that is not sold in smaller cities and towns.  It was actually a really exciting experience for me because I saw things that I haven't seen in months, like Cheese-Its, celery, Special K, and cheddar cheese.  I didn't buy any of these things though because they are incredibly expensive, and half the time it is not the real item inside the box.  They replace it with a cheaper version and sell it for the same price.  Pretty terrible.

Our plan was to have a big supper on Thursday night at 6:30 with all the extended family and close family friends.  Since Thanksgiving is not a holiday here, I still had work all week but decided to take Thursday morning off to cook.  I baked pumpkin pies in the morning and made a fruit jelled salad (traditional dish in my family) so they both had time to chill.  After work in the afternoon, I came home to help Karla cook dinner.  There are no turkeys in Honduras, so we prepared 8 chickens.  We made green salad, rice pilaf, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pasta salad, and mashed plantains.  (Had to have a Honduran dish.)  It was not like a typical Thanksgiving dinner in my family, but it was way more American than I thought I was going to have, so I felt very lucky.  The food is a different here though; the milk is different which made the mashed potatoes different.  And the spices are all fresh so they are a lot stronger.  I literally pulled ginger root from the ground and toasted it along with cinnamon and cloves, and then ground them all to make pumpkin pie.  A different, but fun, way to prepare Thanksgiving dinner.

We weren't actually even done cooking by 6:30 and still had to carry all of the food over to my host-grandparent's house.  They have a big porch where we set up tables and chairs for everyone.  Karla and I started the evening by thanking everyone for coming because this is an important American holiday for us.  It was really strange looking around at everyone that night, and being the only white person.  Haha, but really, it was a very surreal kind of night.  I felt so happy seeing everyone smiling at me, caring about me.  But then I had moments where I felt incredibly sad because it is all so different and I really miss everyone and everything about America.  But I am thankful to have a such a loving, supportive host-family here!  The night consisted of eating, talking, laughing, and sharing stories.  But it ended in a private little concert!  We were standing outside talking, after saying good-bye to all of the guests, when we heard terrible trumpet playing coming from next door.  The house connected to my host-grandparents is owned by their son Elder, and since he is part of the band New Combo '75, they use it to store all of their instruments and to practice.  Well, Elder found an ancient trumpet and wants to play it, and apparently Luis, a band member, also wanted to try playing.  We went in to listen to him and the next hour turned into a singing fest for Karla.  She has a lot of energy and wanted to hear Elder play and Luis sing, and then she wanted to join in.  It was a really fun, amusing night because she kept requesting songs and then lip-singing along with them.  It was nice to end the night with laughter.

They have Life cereal!!

Almost done cooking!

Me and my host-grandfather Orlando

Some of the family crowded around, waiting....

Listening to Karla give thanks

A Honduran thanks

Look at all that food!

And dessert!  Seriously lacking in chocolate...

Me and my host-dad's mother.

Me and my little brother :)

Me and one of my other brothers, David

The Americans!

Me and my host-parents

I was excited to see Christmas decorations....

They are peeking through the screen door, watching Luis try  to play the old trumpet.

Karla laughing at how awful it sounds, not because Luis lacks skill but because the trumpet is older than we can count.

Luis, lead singer of New Combo '75, adding trumpet to his skills.

Elder, my host-mom's brother who is in the band and can play just about every instrument.

Luis singing and Elder playing for us.  Karla has not been here since Luis joined the band and wanted to hear him sing since people gush over his talent.

We were all laughing at the show they put on for us...

Manuel playing trumpet

Karla can't actually sing or play, but she can act!  It turned into an hour long show!

Dancing merengue

What a trio, the real New Combo!

Playing away....