The Dogs Eat Well

Honduras is having another cold front pass through it right now. A couple nights ago it supposedly got down to 7 C, 45 F. The days before and after weren´t quite that cold, but they were pretty windy and definitely uncomfortable. It wouldn´t be that bad in the US, but we have heated buildings and good insulation. You get really cold when you have no escape to warmth and you don´t have well-insulated clothes. Cristina at the office (boss-lady) said that she had never been so cold at night. The news said the cold is supposed to last for another 5 days and then hopefully we´ll be back to our really nice weather. ....Sorry if your cold weather isn´t going to end for a few months.

This morning as I was eating breakfast (milk, oat meal, some granola, a chopped banana, and a Honduran portion of sugar) and drinking coffee (with its own generous portion of sugar), I noticed that the dog bowls were full of a familiar mix of rice. A few weeks ago the mountain of clothes that showed up came with 5 pretty big boxes labelled ´Kids Against Hunger.´ The boxes were full of one pound bags of pre-mixed rice and spices complete with cooking instructions and nutrition information (in English). The boxes have been slowly disappearing. Recently when I was coming home from CASM I saw an unusually large pile of something burning outside of my house. I didn´t think too much of it because that is where they usually burn their trash. As un-cool as burning trash is, I´ve half-ways accepted it as a compromise when the only other option (and where plenty of trash ends up) is spread out on the road, in the river, or on some gorgeous field. Ellen, my Peace Corps neighbor, informed me that they were burning the pile of clothes that had come in a few weeks before. The clothes had come in to the mayor´s house and since there was a massive excess (read: too much for the mayor and his family to wear) he decided to give a truck load to the church, which my host-dad happens to be the pastor of. After my family had sorted through a fraction of the clothes, the 30ish church members came over and each took as much as they could carry home. Of the mountain that was left, they burned a significant amount. I was going to try to rescue some, but when I asked they said that they had burned the clothes with stains (I hadn´t previously noticed any stains) and they were saving the good clothes. Saving for what? I don´t know, but I do know there are plenty of very poor villagers within 15 km of La Campa whose clothes are much more stained than whatever was burnt.

Its sad to see that kind of waste. Being Mennonite, I think about the blankets that could have been made with the ´stained´ clothes. I think about the kids who raised money to send those boxes of rice, doubtless with the best of intentions. And I think about how similar some things are here and in the US, with our ridiculous amount of resources that routinely go to waste. Kinda like the untouched 20+ pound trays of pork loin, chicken, spagetti sauce, or anything else that Purdue dumps every day. It just hits me harder here because I see the need so clearly every day.

That being said, my family is very nice and they treat me very well. They buy me food that they think white people eat, like apples, peanut butter, and this factory-made toast that really is just a huge waste of energy. Haha I think they also maintain their fruit abundance for my benefit, and I really appreciate it. The current massive surplus is of bananas, so I´m doing my part in eating at least 4 (or ...6?) every day. Will we get to the bottom of the box?!??!?! Find out next time!