Volunteer visit - Olancho 3/13 – 3/17

We went to visit a Municipal Development Volunteer - C -in Juticalpa, Olancho. Olancho is known as the Texas of Honduras – everyone has guns, a very cowboy feel, cattle, etc. Oh, and drugs. There are lots f drugs. Juticalpa is the capital of Olancho. There are about 50,000 people in Juticalpa, making it one of the bigger cities. Because of this there are lots of other Americans in the city – most of them here to teach English at a bilingual school. Most Hondurans that can afford it send their children to private schools because the public school teachers are always on strike. By law, a child should be in school 200 days a year, but in actuality public school students attend about 100 days. Last year, because of the coup, they only attended 70 days of school. A growing number of private schools are becoming bilingual schools where they teach both English and Spanish.
In Juticalpa, the best (and most expensive) bilingual school is Daystar, and not surprisingly, lots of the students are the children of the drug dealers. But the night we arrived, it was the birthday of one of the teachers, and it was an 80’s themed party. All the gringos know each other, so C took us to the party. It was a fun time and we got to meet lots of other teachers. What is interesting is that there were lots of women who were dating locally. C told me that there are two types of people – those that date locally and those who choose not to. It appears lots of people here choose to (who else do they have)? But then again you see some romance blossom amongst gringos….
The next day we went to a catholic orphanage. A big Nationalista Convention was being held next doors, and we were told the president of Honduras, Pepe Lobo, would be stopping by the orphanage and we would be able to meet him.
Side note – in Honduras nicknames are very popular. Presidents will go by them and they will always be referred by it. Nicknames given to regular people are not always the nicest – if someone is fat, their nickname will be “gordo.” Not too creative and it can be mean. Most Americans will be known as gringo and I was warned to expect to be called chino. It’s not done maliciously, but is just part of the nickname culture. Interestingly I’ve been called gringo more than chino.
While waiting for the president, we spoke with the Catholic father whom our volunteer gets along with and works occasionally with as well. He is from Malta, and he epitomizes humanitarian aid in Honduras. He says that lots of the children in the orphanage are the result of incestuous relationships. He doctors the birth certificates of lots of the children (that result from incestuous relationships) because he does not want them to know the situation which they came from. Illegal? Yes. But his concern is the welfare of the children – knowledge like that will be a shame for the rest of their lives. Other things he does is steal supplies to get construction done, for the orphanage, for the old person’s home, etc. Corruption is rampant in Honduras, and many times materials for building will disappear. Promises of material from government officials never show up, and the only way to get anything done is to do it yourself. When trying to get a prison built, he was told it would cost 70 million Lempiras. He found someone and had it done for 20 million. The 70 million he was told? It was because someone would keep passing the work down to someone else and keep a portion of the money. The Catholic father is a realist, and he does whatever he needs to make sure the people that need help get help. Unfortunately you can’t always play by the rules when doing good – the people that need the help just won’t get it.
While waiting for the President, we got to meet one of the ex-presidents – Malduro. He was very well educated and spoke English perfectly. He studied in New Jersey and then went to Stanford. Highly revered, he led Honduras out of a budget crisis and onto a path of recovery until Hurricane Mitch came and ruined everything, plunging Honduras back into poverty. Unfortunately Honduras has a one term limit for presidents – I’m sure he would be able to help Honduras right now. Fortunately he is working with the current president as an advisor. After we got to meet Pepe, took a picture, then we left.
While in Olancho, we got some other work done as well. But of note was a trip out to try ‘vino de coyol.’ A coyol tree grows out here in Olancho, and is famous because the sap ferments inside the tree. People cut down the tree, lay it down, then cut a hole into the tree. The fermented liquid fills the hole and people collect this. A tree can be ‘milked’ like this for 26 days, and can provide up to 50 liters of the vino de coyol. An interesting note is that people used to drink out of the tree, but legend has it that if a woman on her period drinks from the tree and some of her saliva gets into the tree (via backwash), the tree would stop producing the vino. Thus this is not allowed anymore.
It was fascinating to hear about the drug trade in Juticalpa. Honduras is a waypoint for the drug trade – small planes will land in the streets at night, drop off some drugs, refuel and then fly on to the United States. These pilots are not always the best trained, so there are lots of small planes crashing. In the burning wreckages people would find bags and bags of cocaine.
Despite the heavy presence of drug gangs, it is relatively safe for normal citizens. The violence is mainly limited between the drug gangs, drug gangs and police, and family vendettas (lots of times between the two). Several weeks ago there was a giant shoot out between police and a drug gang; one of the policemen was caught. The drug gang then used a chainsaw to decapitate the policeman. We actually drove by the house of the drug dealer that did it.