Day-to-Day

We often went to the local, dirty maze that was the city's main market to buy supplies. We'd walk through the dark and stinking tunnels to find a good deal on food. It was usually served in plastic bags with a fork; the pop coming in a baggie with a straw poking out. One of my favorites was a mix of rice, cabbage, with some sort of meat chunks and a salty, white sauce doused on everything. At the time, I didn't know what the locals called this, and unfortunately, I still don't.

I would often visit Hondutel to call home to talk to my parents. It took forever to connect a call. It required standing in line for a very long time, then giving your number to an operator and having her connect the call, at which time you were told to run into one of the 'sound-proof' booths to pick up the receiver that was your call. It could take a couple of hours. 

The city often encountered flash floods. Locals told me that these floods originated in the surrounding mountains after a hard rain - which was often. I was caught in them a few times and had to wade through the sewage back my hotel room or the little house. In doing this I once contracted ring worm on my eyelids. It was the weirdest thing. A local gringo from the US diagnosed me standing in line at the bank one day. I learned that ringworm is actually a fungus and not a worm at all. The pharmacist confirmed this and I was sold cream for it. It is still common today to have a pharmacist diagnose and suggest a medication.

The kids and I spent a lot of time walking around the town talking to other street kids - many of them older. The older kids received a lot less sympathy from the town and often kept quietly to themselves. They stuck to hanging out in certain areas that offered some sort of protection, mainly the front steps of a little church down by the coast. 

Speaking of the coastline, or what should have been a beach, it was not swimmable. I never found out why. It was most likely due to sewage. I remember that there was an incredibly long rickety pier that you could walk out on. To find a place to swim, you had to travel either towards Tela, or to Sambo Creek. Both places were considered dangerous, but one day we decided to visit Trujillo (past Sambo Creek). A girl from The Netherlands was visiting us. She was from Utrecht, I believe. I had met her in Guatemala. I can't recall how we kept in touch in order for her to visit me, as there was no internet or FB or anything but letters back then. Any letters I received was sent to general mail (poste resente) to whatever town I was in. Anyway, she came to visit and ended up going with us to Trujillo. Only two of the kids wanted to make the long, bumpy bus ride to this town. Alberto was one of the kids who wanted to go for a day trip.

La Vida Catracha!

Trying to get settled in that little cement house was no easy task. There was really nothing in the way of furniture. I had purchased a two-element, electric stove top and had a few pots. We found a old table and put a plastic sheet on it. We had water jugs, as then (as today), you could not drink the water. We also had a tape machine and played Selena's "Como la Flor" album incessantly. It had come out just prior to my travels in Central America and was incredibly popular. Her songs still bring back Honduran memories from 25 years ago. 

As for furnishing the house, things that are quite common today - fairly cheap and easy to obtain - like mattresses, covers, pillows or sheets were almost non-existent then, and cost an arm and a leg to buy. Colchones were definitely out of my price range. So, we went to the local wood mill to see if we could buy a few slabs of wood and blocks of concrete to lay on for beds. I didn't know how to haggle properly and ended up getting ripped off on the price. But, we now had bare slabs of wood to lay on. Our ambitious plan was to build bunk beds, but that was never to be.

One of my most vivid memories was when we contracted hair lice. I had gotten it from one the kids. In order to get rid of this plague, we all needed to be treated at the same time with de-licer and a haircut. This was much easier said than done. However, Giovanni stepped up and offered to cut everyone's hair after it was shampooed.  He was very confident about his styling skills. It was hilarious to watch the boy's looks of horror when he held a mirror up to their faces after he was finished. I snickered to myself; which I shouldn't have, because five minutes later I stepped on a nest of fire ants in the backyard. For anyone who has done this, they are sticky and hard to scrape off your skin. It was incredibly painful and the kids laughed as I ran around screaming knocking things over in the backyard.

The first few weeks were relatively calm, but there were still mishaps with the kids and some locals. My treasured radio was stolen one day and none of the kids would admit it. Later, Alberto was high on shoe glue and angry about something I don't remember and tried to spill boiling water on me. That incident scared the living daylights out of me. Some days, a local guy would stop by and knock on the door and tell me to leave town - usually this related to the shoe glue trade, which I did not tolerate.

Video of  Selena Quintanilla singing "Como la Flor"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwZTgDjRLM0