Rain Rain Go Away/The Wheels on the Bus

Part one of this post is about rain…a lot of rain.  Rainy season is in full swing here in Honduras.  As I am writing this, I am currently sitting in my room listening to the rain pounding on my tin roof (I am finding it hard to hear myself think).   I will admit, that I have a tendency to exaggerate things, but I have seriously not seen the sun for two weeks.  I have never experienced this much rain in my life and that is including the 6 years I spent in Indonesia, where rainy season was sure to produce epic downpours every afternoon.  All in all, this rain is starting to dive me nuts.    

Normally I wouldn’t complain so much about some rain, but it has really started to mess with my day-to-day life here.  I can’t do any laundry right now because I can’t get any of my clothes to dry.  I have tried washing a few things and hanging them under cover to dry, but no luck.  I have had a pair of jeans on the line 4 days now and they are still damp (and starting to smell like mildew).  If we don’t see some sunshine soon, I am going to be in big trouble!   

The next problem I am facing is the mud!  With no paved roads within 20 miles of my town, our dirt roads have turned into rivers or swamps.  Try as I might, I can’t leave my house with out getting covered in mud.  I can’t even wash my muddy shoes/clothes because I have no sun to dry them with!  My overall lack of coordination has not been helpful as I try to navigate the muddy streets by stepping in right places…one false step and you are likely to be ankle deep in mud or fall into a lake sized puddle. 

A river, I mean road, in my town.

The rain has also prevented me from accomplishing much work these past two weeks.  All my classes, meetings and other activities have more or less been put on hold.  Many of the students at the high school live up to an hour walk from the school.  With the rain and horrible roads, many of them have not been showing up for school (or at least not on time).  The rain has also lowered the temperature here in my town and has caused half the town to catch gripe (more or less a word that encompasses all cold/flu like symptoms).  Everyone is walking around in winter coats and hats, sniffling and sneezing.  I should add, that while it is chilly here, I have not needed to wear more than a sweater or long sleeve shirt.

Finally, the heavy rain has also been messing with the power as well as my cell phone and internet signals.  The power has been going out regularly, sometimes for a few hours and sometimes for up to 15 hours.  My cell phone signal has also been cutting out and my already temperamental internet has been worse than ever before.  The worst of it is when all three of these things happen at once, leaving me sitting in the dark with nothing to do but listen to the rain pounding on my roof.   The upside to this is that I have been catching up on sleep and reading/watching movies on my computer (at least whenever we have power).     

Some tress that fell down during a storm. Another reason rainy season needs to end now!

Part two of this post is about buses and ties into all the rain we have been having.  If you were to ask any of my PC friends what I complain about most, I think they would all say it is my bus ride from La Florida into Marcala (my nearest big city).  I know I have mentioned this before, but I only live about 20 miles from Marcala (although 95% of the trip is on unpaved, mountain roads).  Before this week, the bus ride has taken me anywhere from 1 ½ hours to 2 ½ hours.  The increase in time it takes is directly related to the amount of rain we have been having.  

This past weekend, I was in Marcala for an event promoting women’s role in food security and increasing income for families.  A women’s group I have been working with attended the event to sell the orange wine they have been producing.  Monday was a holiday, so I decided to spend Sunday night in Marcala and visit with some other volunteers that were in town.  Monday, I decided to catch the noon bus back to Florida and I assumed I would get back around 2 pm.  

Orange wine for sale in Marcala!

That was not the case.  The heavy rain we have been having really did a number of the road.  About 30 minutes into the trip, the bus stopped and the driver said everyone had to get off the bus and walk up a particularly muddy and steep part of the road.  I grabbed my raincoat as it was raining and jumped off the bus.  I should mention that the black flats I was wearing, were the wrong choice of footwear for the day.  I started the trek up the hill only to almost fall with every step.  A man walking up the hill behind me took pity on me and tried to help me by more or less pushing me up the hill.  At one point I used a rusty barbed wire fence on the side of road for balance but ended up cutting my hand (don’t worry, I have recently had a tetanus shot) and ripping my raincoat when it caught on the fence.  I then proceeded to wait at the top of the hill for about half an hour while some of the men on the bus used some rope to bull the bus up the muddiest part of the hill.  

Some men trying to bull our bus up the hill.

Not the best choice of footwear for climbing up muddy hill.

After that was over, all the passengers got back on the bus.  As if the bus ride was not turning out to be bad enough, a bolo (a bolo is a drunk and yes it was 1:00 pm on a Monday) noticed me and spent the rest of the trip trying to get my attention by shouting things at me in broken English.  I chose to ignore him, but as time passed he was getting more and more obnoxious.  Luckily, he passed out at some point and I figured it was smooth sailing from that point forward, but as you should know by now, Honduras always wins.

About 15 minutes outside my town, the bus stopped again.  A portion of the road had been washed away (I guess it was a small mud slide) and the bus could not pass any further.  This meat I had to once again get off the bus and into the rain.  I walked the remainder of the way home and arrived wet, muddy and cold, four hours after I had left Marcala.  As I stumbled into my room wanting nothing more than to take a hot shower, I realized the power was out...no power means no hot water.  Thankfully the power came back a few hours later, so there was a bright spot in my otherwise disaster of a day.

The bus did not make it past this point.  Thankfully we were almost in Florida and  I only had a 20 minute walk back to my house from here.

At least this duck seemed to be enjoying all the rain!

Honduras DOESN’T Always Win

My faith has been restored in Honduras.  This past weekend, I took a trip to my nearest big city to visit some PC friends, hit up the only ATM with 3 hours of my site and to take a well needed break from life in site.  I had a great time hanging out with 4 other volunteers from my training group and catching up with what everyone had been up to.  We also made some homemade pizza for dinner and had banana pecan pancakes for breakfast the next day!  It is always great to have some non-Honduran foods every once in a while.  

I was headed home the following afternoon and was walking to my bus.  I should preface this by saying that I have acquired a new habit when traveling in Honduras.  I now spread my money, credit cards and ID cards out all over my body and any bags that I am carrying.  I put some money in my back pack, some in my different pants packets, I keep a secret stash under the insert of my shoe and depending on how much I am carrying, I might find a few more hiding spots.  I do this, so if I ever were to be robbed/mugged (I guess I should say if I ever get robbed/mugged again, I already lost a phone to some muggers a few months back in another large city I was visiting) I could hopefully just loose some of my money and not all of it.  The thing I hate most about not having a bank in my site is that I have to travel with larger amounts of money at least once a month.  Half of Hondurans live on less than  $1USD a day.  My rent  alone is around $80.  It always makes me a little nervous to travel with this much money, even though, I feel very safe traveling from my site to the “big city”.  The bus driver and I are friends now and he always keep an eye out for me and sometimes even gives me a reduced fair.  On top of this, I usually know ¾ of the people riding the bus, many of whom are work colleagues or neighbors.  

 

Anyways, back to the story.  I was walking to my bus and reached into my back pocket to grab my phone.  I must have also had put some money in this back pocket, and it fell out onto the street.  A man, sitting on the side of the street called me as I walked past to return the money I had dropped.  I have to admit that I was shocked.  I dropped one bill the equivalent of about $5.  I had no clue I had dropped it and this man could have easily pocketed the money. You can buy around 3 meals, 25 bags of chips, 10 beers or even a bus ticket to Teguz with that money, just to name a few things.   It really made me so happy to know that someone would go out of his way to return the money I had dropped! It was exactly what I needed after being frustrated with how things tend to work in Honduras!

I should mention that Honduras still does always find a way to win.  A few minutes later I was sitting on my bus waiting for it to leave (if you want a seat you have to show up at least an hour early) and a bolo (the Honduran word for a really drunk guy) came staggering up to our bus.  The ayudante (the guy that collects money on the bus and helps people with their bags) shut and locked the door to the bus.  The bolo proceeded to yell slurred profanities and attempt to kick the bus (he was having some balance issues that prevented him from making contact).  I was a little nervous, but everyone else locked in the bus with me crowded around the windows and laughed at the bolo as he eventually was dragged away by a group of men.  After packing upwards of 100 people on the bus (this bus is a yellow school bus, it safely and comfortably sits around 40-50 people), we were off.  I got to spend the next 2 and half hours sweating to death as I was tossed around my seat, knocking into the man sitting next to me and the people standing in the aisle.  I should also mention that it is only a 20 mile trip to my site, but it usually takes well over two hours due to a number of factors.  When you combine an aging yellow school bus, unpaved mountain roads and plenty of stops, you get a very long and uncomfortable bus ride. 

Anyways, life is good!  You win some and you loose some.  I guess I just have to keep working hard and perservering, knowing that in the end, I will have gained some amazing life experiences!