The Honduran Shrine

            The focal point of most of the Honduran and Nicaraguan homes I have entered is the entertainment center. It is a shrine to modernization. The backbone usually consists of a three-tiered wooden bookcase with turned columns, stained a shade of brown. The bookcase is not the most important part, but is necessary to give a good home to the two prized possessions, la tele y el equipo (the TV and the stereo). La tele  is usually 20-some inches, often a flat screen. El equipo is either a glorified boombox, often Sony, or a DVD-equipped entertainment center. Sometimes an old TV, perhaps black and white, sits on the bottom shelf, not used anymore but still deserving of enough respect to rest on the wooden throne.

The entertainment center in Reina´s house. Although it fits in pretty well in her house, in some houses the entertainment center is much more luxurious than the rest of the furnishings.

            A month ago, I visited the city of Guimaca with Leonel, a friend from Tamara. We stopped by to see his sister, who just gave birth to her first child. Her and her boyfriend live in pretty humble quarters, a 10-foot by 12-foot room that contains the kitchen (a two burner stove, pans and utensils hanging on the wall, and a stack of dishes–no refrigerator), the bed, a small table, a few chairs and their belongings. I assume they had an adequate bathroom and pila outside. Out of place, covering over half of one of the four walls, was the entertainment center: a 20″ color TV and a shiny stereo on a formidable bookcase. To me, this is a case of skewed priorities.

            The American poor have some of the same skewed priorities as Hondurans. My mom taught countless kids in school that had cable but were on free lunch and breakfast. However, in Honduras the situation is more extreme. People are much poorer–minimum wage is 6 dollars a day instead of 6 dollars an hour–but televisions and stereos still cost the same as they do in the United States. Cell phones (10 U.S. cents a minute), cable ($10 a month) and Coca Cola ($1.10 for a 2-liter) make up a significant part of many Hondurans’ expenses; surely more than their $1.75-a-month water bill. These skewed priorities are the result of living in a poor country that is bombarded with the media, technology and excesses of the United States.

A Visit to Aguacatal

Last weekend, I finally made a visit to Ojojona´s largest aldea, Aguacatal. When the roads are good, Aguacatal is about 40 minutes from Ojojona and about two hours from Tegucigalpa by bus. Although the roads are almost always passable, the trip is longer during the rainy season.

Although small, Aguacatal looked like an attactive place to live. I ran into the mayor of Ojojona, who said he drives out there every Sunday afternoon to play pool and relax.  Although a pretty place, Aguacatal offers few options for employment other than agriculture. The guy I sat next to on the bus proved Arturo and Tita´s point about people leaving the aldeas to work in Tegucigalpa (see previous entry). He said he travels to Tegucigalpa daily to work as a residential security guard.

The ¨downtown¨ of Aguacatal.

After talking to Arturo and Tita about all the people who travel from Aguacatal to Tegucigalpa to work (see previous entry), I had the impression people were leaving Aguacatal even though there was plenty of good agricultural work to do there. After visiting, my perspective is different. One man I ran into and talked with for a while, Jose Diaz, works as an agricultural laborer. He does not have his own land, so has to work for others by the day. He said he usually earns about 50 lempiras ($2.65 and less than half of Honduran minimum wage) per day and has to provide his own lunch. This may be on the low end of the pay scale. Jose was pretty tipsy when I ran into him and perhaps this carries over into the work week too. Nevertheless, one of the guys I got a ride back with said that good workers earn 80 lempiras ($4.40 and still well under minimum wage) per day. Hearing this, I understand why people leave.

One of the buses that many people ride two hours each way from Agucatal to Ojojona to Tegucigalpa.