Hen Soup – Nov. 26

Yesterday we travelled to visit some more botiquines. There were enough people that I was part of the truck box passenger section. Fortunately it did not rain during the day. Even though the people I was with are not well off, they had collected some clothing for a village en route that had been washed out by flooding a few weeks ago. It is energizing to be with people who are giving out of their own little stores without comment or braggadocio.

The scenery is gorgeous wherever I travel and there are scores of spots each day that I just want to stop and build a home at. The rains have everything growing at top speed so there are hardly any spots that have less than a dozen colours of green.

At one of the homes we stopped at, the lady talked to us about making healthy drinks from the Noni tree. This is a new tree to me but it grows quickly. She had a ten month old tree that was fruiting heavily already. It is not a tall tree and it fruits, evidently, year round. The drink is in high demand here in Honduras and fetches a very high price. The one tree had over $30.00 of fruit on it. Not sure what that translates into for juice and income potential that way.

For lunch we stopped at a home where the lady had built her own Lorena stove a year ago. She built it inside her kitchen and it is right beside her sink. She can now prepare food and cook it without having to go outside, especially in the rain. The stove cost her about $30.00 to build and she is saving 50% firewood now. As well, her eyes and lungs are in better shape. She has tiled the edges and it looks very nice. The smoke goes outside and up a brick chimney.

Rosara, the lady in question, was able to cook soup, coffee and tortillas on the stove at one time. Very user friendly. We talked about setting up a way to heat water for washing using the chimney. That is on my ‘to do’ list sometime. It wouldn’t heat the water to pasteurization levels but would be nice for bathing or washing clothes and dishes. An added bonus on cold days.

The lunch was a hen soup with local vegetables – ayote (like a hard light green squash), baby corn and potatoes. There was rice to add into the soup and then some pickled onions and peppers. The peppers were fairly strong. Fortunately, I was able to swallow the second, smaller and hotter one, almost whole after the first bite. I knew that if I chewed it, I would be in serious trouble. Chicken soup is made from a young broiler and, according to my friends, doesn’t compare to a soup made from an older, layer type bird. The quality of soup we had for lunch was such that I wasn’t about to argue.

On the way home we stopped at an aunt’s place to pick up a birthday cake for a little girl. There was some sample cake from somewhere so we all got a small piece of chocolate cake.

One of our afternoon stops was at a home with walls and floor of adobe. It was doing very well and looked very nice. The community must be fairly proficient in adobe work as there are a number of very nice homes built that way. The floor was a bit rough but not bad for fourteen years of wear and tear. Surprisingly good condition considering the traffic and time. As we visited, several of the yard fowl cruised through checking up on kernels of maize that were dropped by the little girl who was shelling a cob for entertainment. I confess having chickens amble through the living room is still not in my comfort zone. I do like to walk barefoot inside my house and not sure about Oil of Oh Lay Sole Cream. The yard also featured several large rabbits amongst the large flock of colourful chickens and ducks. The home owner said that they hadn’t eaten any rabbits yet because they were too cute. Easter Bunny wins again.

Bryan