a weekend in the country

Living here on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa has made me very much a city girl. It was not until I took a weekend trip to visit the western part of Honduras that I realized just how very 'urban' my Honduran experience is, compared to the very 'rural' experience of my friend Alison.

5 of us left Teguc on Friday morning to roadtrip to La Campa. Here's a little map to show you...we went from Teguc to a village about 15 km beyond Gracias. It took about 6 hours.

I was struck again and again by how beautiful Honduras is, and what a mix of contrasting regions it contains. I said to someone once that you could be dropped in one part of Honduras for a day, thinking all of Honduras is like that, and have no idea what else you're missing. There are mountainous regions like Tegucigalpa, very dry, deserty regions like Choluteca; very agricultural areas like Gracias and Olancho, beautiful lakes, and of course the tropical northern coast with sandy beaches. (to set up your personalized visit, contact Honduras Tours: charissazehr (at) gmail (dot) com :) But I digress...

We met up with Alison, our fellow MCCer, as she was translating for a medical team from the U.S. We are all so proud of her, as she really didn't speak much Spanish at all before coming 6 months ago--and now she's a certifiable translator! She rocks. From that little town, we drove to her house in La Campa and had a walking tour of town. The town has one main paved boulevard, one catholic church, 2 little hotels, and an awesome setting in a little valley. Alison works for CASM which provides a lot of food security training and agricultural development to the surrounding area of La Campa.

We had a fun time together, being a group of gringos and attracting a lot of attention (yes, way more than in Teguc!)...eating good food and thick, yellow tortillas (very different from our city-fied tortillas)...exploring some small towns, visiting microenterprises, buying some local-made souveniers like hand-made paper and red pottery...visiting a Lenca history museum, checking out the hot springs tourist stop, and generally enjoying the quiet, rural village.

Since the whole town goes to bed around 9pm, we did too :) Also, it was very safe to walk around at night, which was a great change from our neighborhood of Nueva Suyapa. We kept asking "are you sure it's safe here? Should we be walking here right now?" Alison seemed a little confused why we kept asking...but we are just used to having to be paranoid.

Another highlight of the trip for me was attending a catholic service in La Campa. It is where most people in the pueblo attend, and very different from an evangelical church experience in Honduras. As many evangelical families here are fiercely opposed to catholicism, I don't have much opportunity to learn more. I expected the service to be stiff and formal, with lots of rituals and prayers. It did have some really neat rituals, and meaningful prayers, but there was also some more 'contemporary' congregational singing, and a rather comedic sermon from the friendly priest. We enjoyed his anecdotes and humor, and I think he enjoyed having some foreigners in the audience laughing at his jokes.

Instead of boring you with much more description, I think I'll just post some photos, which hopefully show some of the fun we had together. It was great to get out of the city and explore a new part of the country. It was also great to see where Alison is living and working and understand her SALT experience a bit better. We love you Alison and thank you so much for planning a great weekend for us :)

they really wanted to see inside the church

fellow MCCers

me and allison enjoying the view. and the wall.

a yummy lunch. for only $2.50. and a lovely baby picture up on the wall...can you see it?

a view of La Campa with the main boulevard

rabbits at the demonstration garden/farm...for my dad :) 

the catholic church of La Campa...can you see the welcome sign painted on the mountain behind?

we stopped to see sugar cane being processed. a press operated by 2 men + 2 oxen. really cool.

the coffee bean harvest is wrapping up. the dried beans are then stored in these large sacs, ready to be shipped.