The Aldeas

November 9^th, 2011

            So this week I have been visiting the aldeas (neighboring communities that are smaller but are all a part of the municipality of Dulce Nombre, we have 6) to get to know them and also to tag along with my site mate and counterpart as they give charlas (little chats/presentations) to the women of the communities about basic health information. The aldeas are where you find people that are much less accustomed to dealing with Gringos as well as just people in general. Many of the people living in the aldeas have lived there their entire life and do not travel outside of the aldea very much, at the most, maybe a trip every week to Dulce Nombre but nothing more than that. It is very much like going back into time and what I imagine the early nineteen hundreds to be like in the rural areas of the States. In fact, I am reading a book right now called, “Growing Up” by Russel Baker and he is recounting the life of his mother, the following passage basically describes an aldea, “to find jobs she traveled…into primitive backwaters where mountain children came barefoot to school and dropped out after fourth grade to take dollar-a-week work in the fields.” That was in 1917 in the States, obviously things have improved themselves greatly in almost one hundred years. Here in Honduras however, that is still the reality.

            While things may not be as primitive here as they were back in the early nineteen hundreds, things are still fairly underdeveloped. I have seen many children people who look as though they have not bathed in a month or two and are walking around barefoot. I think that the thing that surprises me the most however is the lack of education and the lack an importance placed on education. During the past 3 days, I have encountered more women who cannot read and write than I ever thought possible (we are only working with women, there are plenty of men who cannot read or write either). It is sad that there are people out there in the world who do not have this basic knowledge in which they can improve their lives but I will say that the tide is changing, slowly (very slowly), but surly. The youth here can all read and write (with the exception of those with special needs who are not allowed in the school system, but that is another blog post), and I am certain that with time they will continue to improve upon themselves and past generations thanks to the hard work of many Honduras who are helping their fellow countrymen.  

            Another thing that has struck me is the seemingly randomness of life, what I mean by this is that so much is determined simply by where you are born and to who you are born. This is such a random thing but it has everything to do with who we are and who we turn out to be. I was fortunate enough to be born in the United States to an amazing family who I love very much, but at the same time I very easily could have been born to a family who lived here in an aldea of Dulce Nombre. I cannot fully imagine how much my life would change but I am certain that it would change a lot. I would guess that I would probably only have around a 6^th grade education (if I was lucky) and most likely I would be working in the fields picking coffee beans. After a hard day’s work of picking coffee beans all day and picking 4 gallons worth of beans I would be paid 160 lempiras (the going rate is 40 lemps per gallon or 2 dollars per gallon) and then return to my house where I most likely already would have 2 or 3 children. That would be my life, and that is the reality of it. Sad but true, so please be thankful for what you have and what you have been blessed with because no everyone had/has the same opportunities that we do.