Turn Girls and a First Movie – Jan. 15

Equal opportunity is knocking here in Honduras. The job of shouting for, loading and collecting money from passengers is traditionally the domain of young men. In the past week I have seen two young women handling the job. They seemed to be doing a capable job although it is hard to imagine them hanging out the bus doors by one hand and shouting and whistling as the vehicle hurtles down the road.

The last two days were spent on yet another trip to Tegucigalpa. This time, though, we went by bus. We had originally thought that none of the buses stopped at our junction because of fear of armed robbery and so forth. Well, that is only for the high end companies. For the ordinary country travellers, there are still two (at least) companies that do the stop and go bit. One of them uses old, retired school buses and the other uses retired passenger buses. We caught the passenger bus and, fortunately, were able to find seats for the whole trip. It was a much faster trip because we didn’t have to go into San Pedro Sula to rent a car. By 5:45 p.m. we were in a hotel (Joseph and Mary Inn – but definitely several steps up from a stable) in Tegucigulpa.

Since we were into the city early, I suggested going to a movie. Manuel hadn’t been to a movie in years and Chepe had never been to one. We caught a taxi to a mall that had a cinema and checked out the night’s offerings. We had scant time to wolf down a Wendy’s burger combo (if you are going to go to a movie, don’t mess with wholesome food) and get back into the theatre. Everyone enjoyed the movie very much. It turned out to be half-price Tuesday as well so the cost for the three of us was $4.00. Not too hard on the pocket.

On our ride home we passed by several young women on corners waiting for customers. I was struck by how terrifying and lonely such a position must be. There is no “best case scenario” option for them. The best they can hope for is to be alive, reasonably unhurt, another day free from disease and having to be ready to do it all the next night. What incredibly awful circumstances dictate that prostitution is the only option left for survival.

The next morning we headed for our meeting. One of the first things we spotted was an Amish family with gleaming straw hats and dark bonnets and backpacks heading to a bus depot. Were they tourists, residents, aid workers. Don’t know. Fun to see though.

Chepe wanted to walk part of the way to our meeting so as to make the taxi ride shorter. We had lots of time so like small town boys in the big city we headed out eyes agape. Stopped to check out the trees in a small park, watched a man fixing his shop’s electrical connection with a big butcher knife and then admired a new three wheeled motorcycle with a small truck bed. The motorcycle even has a reverse gear and the box can hold 900 lbs. Too cool. Not too bad a price either so will keep it in mind for future agriculture projects.

One of the strangest things I have encountered here is the seemingly total lack of knowledge the taxi drivers have of their city. Granted, the city is convoluted and filled with narrow, twisting streets but ... still ... it is their living, right? Fortunately, Chepe knew the way and gave directions to the driver so we arrived in short order.

The meeting went fairly well and our proposal was taken by messenger (after detailed instructions from the boss) to a meeting where budgeting was taking place. The administrative assistant spent thirty minutes with us talking about the project and writing down the high points, etc. A much improved meeting over the one last week so we left with some hope.

A quick trip to the Canadian Embassy to see the lady in charge of projects like ours (she wasn’t in of course) and back to the bus station. We were an hour early for the next bus but people began lining up with forty minutes to go. Fortunately, we noticed and got in line, despite orders from the ticket office to wait until ten minutes to go. We loaded the bus thirty minutes early and were able to find seats in the second last row. The last few passengers had to stand in the aisle (for a five to six hour ride). We left five minutes early as we were definitely full. Even so, we stopped en route to pick up some more people. At one of the first stops, a man got on and promptly draped himself over the back of one of the seats and fell asleep. Four hours later and he was still standing in the same position and still asleep. That was definitely, for me, in the strange category.

We were home before dark and I was able to buy some stuff for making supper. We will definitely use the bus method again.

Bryan