Feria San Matias

The San Matias Fair

So here in Honduras, most towns have a yearly fair celebrating the saint that guards the area. The belief is that there are specific saints in charge of certain regions. During Field-based training in Morocelí, the saint that was celebrated was “El Señor De Las Aguas de Morocelí”. The story goes that years ago, “El Señor” appeared to the people of Morocelí at the river where they bathe and blessed the water. When the people then took the water home and drank it, they realized it had healing powers and cured the sick. So, the people continue to keep their faith in their Saint and celebrate him at the same time every year during the fair. Here in La Campa, our fair is in February and we celebrate San Matias, or Saint Mathias.



In the last half of February, the first signs that the fair is coming is when fussball (“futbolito”) tables and other games start to appear. (Vendors trying to make some early fair money). The big weekend though is February 22-24 which I am going to write about now.


The booths at the fair from up top

It’s a weekend of utter chaos! There were thousands (and I mean THOUSANDS!) of people here selling, buying, exploring, gambling, praying, dancing, and experiencing an event that was a lot crazier than I could have ever imagined. There may not have been ferris wheels or even as many people at the county fairs in the states, but the number of people per square meter of this little town was definitely about five times more.



When moving on the narrow paths between the booths, there is no sense of personal space and on the last day, you seriously couldn’t move it was so packed. At one point, I was trying to get out of the mob headed down a narrow row of booths and almost started panicking because I was having trouble breathing from the hot air and bad body odors floating around. But we were packed so tight that I had absolutely no control of where I was going. I just had to endure and go with the flow.




Some tourists I met buying alfareria

The fair in La Campa is one of the most famous and biggest in the west of Honduras. People come from all over the department of Lempira to make offerings to San Matias because they either owe him for a prayer that was answered or to ask him for a miracle. I asked the mayor about this and he told me that if, for example, your son is sick, you can pray to San Matias and tell him that if he cures your child, you will give an offering to him during the fair. Or, you can come during the fair and ask him for anything that you need. So, everyday of the fair, there was a line wrapping around the courtyard of the church of people waiting to get inside to see the statue of San Matias. There were two lines: one line for the women and one line for the men. The separate lines were to keep order and also to protect the women because sometimes the men will push the women out of the way to cut in line.


Inside the church


Inside the church, San Matias on the left

Thousands of people had come to give their offerings. . . obviously San Matias is doing a good job taking care of his people! There were other religious events such as processions of the virgin Mary and various masses in which I didn’t participate.


Agapito with large guitar to play for a procession


Praying to the virgin


The virgin arrives

However, I did partake in some of the other cultural events that come during the fair such as the “Carrera de Cinta” (tape races) and a “Pelenque” (cock fight). (As far as the cock fight, the one I saw will be my first and last that I ever want to see again. It’s very brutal, and I hope it stays illegal in the states forever. That’s all I have to say on that.)










The “Carrera de Cinta”, however, is an enjoyable tradition. Men on their horses sprint under a line of rings (smaller than a keychain ring) taped to a rope and try to poke a stick through the tiny hole (smaller than a keychain ring). When they get their stick through the hole, it rips the ring off and each ring is attached to a flag that has a number. This number corresponds to a certain girl who then goes and pins a handkerchief to the shirt of the man who ripped the flag down. (I was number 17.) Whoever has the most hankerchiefs at the end wins.


Ellen´s boyfriend ended u winning with 12 handkerchiefs

At first, I thought that the fair would be something fun for my family to experience when they come visit me. And since we haven’t planned a date when they’re gonna come down here, I figured February, in time for the fair, would be perfect. That is, until I realized what thousands of people in one place can do to a small community. First, I couldn’t sleep more than 2 hours every night because of the neverending noise of fireworks, firecrackers, a band (that was playing until 5 in the morning! I seriously was about to run outside in my pajamas and throw rocks at the horn players), and large crowds. Also, because people come from such remote places, they can’t just pack up at the end of the day and go home. So they all just sleep out in the grass! Imagine a town of about 300 in the “urban center” just multiplied its population about 100 times and all of those people are sleeping on the road, in the grass, under their booths, by the river . . . everywhere!


Bed under a booth


Buses came full of people from all over


Woman making tortillas for her food booth

Well, the sight might be something worth seeing, but my other sensory organs like my nose (the smell of thousands of people that don’t have access to a proper latrine) and ears (thousands of people shouting, fireworks, firecrackers, and bands all night) told me that there are definitely other activites that I would enjoy more while my parents are here.


Conserva de coco (a really good treat made from coconut and sugar)

Photos from February

Little Diana grinding corn


Mucho maiz!


Cueva Taistado


My friend David in the Cave Taistado


A parrot at Villa de Ada (a touristy place in Gracias)


Lago de Yojoa, the only lake in Honduras (this is actually a picture from the end of January)


The national (and endangered) animal of Honduras, the white-tailed deer


Ellen and me


It was Ellen´s birthday on the 15th! We went to Villa de Ada, swimming in the river, and then had a bonfire and showed the kids what s´mores are.


Tilapia with tajaditas at Villa de Ada


We went swimming in the river
Finally, the irrigation project is over in Nueva Esperanza! These are photos of the inauguration. An eleven year project, two years of laying tubes from 12 km away on the mountain all the way to the community. Men would leave at 3 am to walk to the mountain and begin laying tubes.


Me with the Mendez family at the inauguration of the irrigation project


Selling alfareria at the inaurugation


Kids performing traditional dance for the inauguration


The performers


Me with the beautiful dancers


Making carne ensalsado for like 300 people

Quick Update

So, here’s a quick update about what has happened since the last time I wrote, which I know has been a while. Sorry! I split it up by good news and not so good news (cause really there’s nothing that’s really bad) so you can decide what you want to read first.

Good News:

1) I am working closely with a woman named Midaevis Lopez who works for PRONADEL (Promoción Nacional del Desarrollo Lenca, or National Promotion of Lencan Development) the NGO that is going to fund my improved stoves project. So far, we are just working out the kinks in the project before sending the grant proposal to Tegucigalpa. Midaevis told me that at this point it should take about a month, depending on how fast Tegucigalpa decides to support us. It’s nice to finally have someone helping me with this project that has done this type of work before. The stress level is definitely a lot lower since Midaevis and I started working together.
2) I have a house! I finally have found housing in Nueva Esperanza. The only thing about this house is that it is not completely built yet. It still is missing floor, finishing on the walls, a bathroom, a pila, water, electricity, doors, and windows. That sounds like a lot . . . because it is I guess, but hopefully it will be done by mid-March. I told the woman I’m going to rent from to tell me when they are going to begin construction because I want to go help do whatever it takes to keep the process moving along.


My house!





3) My friends from the University of Puget Sound are coming to visit! Sam and Chanel are coming March 29th and staying until April 6. I can’t wait to see them, but I also hope that my house is done by then so that we have a place to stay!
4) My former host mom’s baby was finally born on February 6th! We all have been waiting for this baby boy for months. Idania, my host mom, had to have a Caesarian but out came a healthy 8 pound baby GIRL!! I guess the doctor was wrong about the gender and so to all of our surprise, there is a new baby sister. They still have not picked out a name yet and luckily a lot of the clothes they bought for the baby boy are unisex colors like green and yellow.


The newest member of the Lopez Mejia family. Although unnamed so far.

5) I made tortillas and my friend, Genara, couldn’t distinguish mine from the others that were made by the Honduran women. Woohoo!
6) My computer is fixed and in my hands! It was actually fixed almost two months ago but I could only just get it from Tegucigalpa in the end of February.
7) I bought a guitar and am slowly teaching myself how to play.

Not So Good News:

1) I have scabies . . . again (for the fourth time!), but really at this point I’m so used to them that it’s not that big of a deal. I just put my cream on and wash my clothes in hot water. Truthfully, the worst part about it is that I’m not used to washing my clothes in hot water and so I accidentally have mixed colored clothes with my white clothes twice and have stained my white clothes red the first time and blue the second time.
2) My friend, Martin, here from Nueva Esperanza lost his grandmother on Thursday, February 28th to a sudden heart attack. Martin is always smiling and in a good mood so it was hard to see him sad.
3) I have acquired a bad cough which either is left over from the last time I was sick or from all the dust that is in the air since it’s so dry here. (The dust is inches thick on the road. In some parts, I feel like I’m walking through snow. I wear my sunglasses everyday not to protect my eyes from the sun but from the cloud of dust that engulfs me when the cars go whizzing by.)
4) Well, I got my computer from Tegucigalpa. But I accidentally left my cell phone there. So for a few weeks at least I will be without that.

A Small Bit of Good News

After four months into site, all project groups get together for more training and to meet the other volunteers in the respective projects that have been in-country for over a year. This is called the Reconnect Workshop and ours was at Los Pinos National Park near Lake Yojoa. We learned a bit about the Riecken Foundation (builds libraries all over the country), how to write grant proposals (info that would have been good to have about two months EARLIER), Peace Corps funding options, making a hydro (how to use for example, a waterfall, to produce energy), insect collection and mounting, trail interpretation, etc.

To help the women in my community out, I took some of the alfarería to see if I could sell it to the other volunteers. Not only did I sell everything that I brought, but the woman in charge of the cabins where we stayed wants to buy some of the stuff to sell at her place! I’m really excited that Alba, the woman from Los Pinos, is interested in selling the pottery at her place because Los Pinos is a very developed National Park and gets many tourists from all over Honduras and the world. It’s a great opportunity to get greater exposure of the artwork outside of the west and to increase sales. Also, Alba has worked closely with Peace Corps volunteers before and she is more interested in helping the women out in my site than making a profit. Right now, Alba and I are keeping in contact through e-mail to decide what she is interested in buying. I took photos of practically everything we have in Nueva Esperanza and she is deciding what she can afford to buy and then sell. Although I am taking care of everything for the women as of now, I eventually plan on helping them get in contact with Alba directly (either by phone or helping the women set up an email account and show them how to manage it) and figuring out a plan to get the artwork sent out there on their own so they won’t have to depend on me to do it.

Some of the alfareria that the women make:







¨Anafre¨ - you put coals in the bottom and can serve hot beans and cheese with chips

I have also started to talk with the women about making brochures that tell about the history of the Lenca and explains the traditional process of making the pottery. Although I wrote earlier only about the firing method, the whole process from collecting the sand and making the clay to how they sell the product is very unique and interesting. There is a cooperative in a community nearby that makes recycled paper and so I also have thought about talking to them to make little tags to attach to each piece of artwork that says something simple about how the alfarería is unique only to this area and how everything is made by hand.


Some of the women are experimenting with making black pottery (the color is just from smoking the pottery)




tools used to make the alfareria



Doña Feliciana making large pots

Shade visits

I would like to give a shout out to Shade and say thanks so much for coming to visit me! Even though the visit was short (three days) it was great getting to see you and to show you around my site. I’m glad you passed by while traveling through Central America and I hope you didn’t get scabies and that your scorpion sting is better. (As a side note, the scorpion sting did not happen here in Nueva Esperanza).

So to update the rest of you, Shade is a friend from California who I met in Australia. We haven’t seen each other since Australia which means we never have actually met up in the states, I just realized. After being a little stressed out with graduating from USC and not knowing what that next step in life was going to be, she decided to take a trip and visit people throughout Central America. And her last stop was here in Honduras.

Having Shade here was a nice change and also a wake up call for me that I have lived alone and without having to entertain anyone straight from the US in a long, long time. Before her arrival, I hadn’t planned anything for us to do besides visit a few people in my site because my idea was that we could just chill and hang out. When she came though, I suddenly shot into panic mode. I thought about our lifestyle differences at this point and started to worry that I hadn’t prepared properly. We were going to have to wait for a ride to my site which can take anywhere from ten minutes to three hours, was that cool? There’s only a curtain to my bathroom, is that not enough privacy? There’s not much to do as far as entertainment in Nueva Esperanza, should we stay in Gracias where there’s more to do? I don’t have a refrigerator so nothing is cold, and eggs don’t have to be refrigerated, is that gross? I realized I hadn’t even prepared my apartment for two people. I only own two bowls and when I dropped one, I was so scared that it had broken because that would mean we would have to take turns eating! Everything worked out fine though and it was great seeing someone familiar for a change.

Working a Medical Brigade

Cololaca, Lempira: where the Brigade came

So, at the end of January, I got a chance to help translate for a medical brigade that came to a small aldea near Nueva Esperanza. At first, I was hesitant to go because my friend, Shade, was coming to visit me right after and then I would be headed into Tegucigalpa for almost a week to meet with all the other PAMers for a Reconnect Workshop. (The workshop was only three days long, but including travel, that meant I was going to be gone for at least 5 days).

However, I did finally decide to go after considering the following:
1) I recently submitted the grant proposal for the improved stoves project to an NGO and on the spot they told me they were going to support the group. WOOHOO!
2) It has been years since I have done any translating and it would be nice to be able to gauge how much my Spanish has improved since then (and learn some new medical terms).
3) I could use a break from ´´A Typical Day in Nueva Esperanza´´ which if was a tv show would essentially be the same episode over and over again.
4) I have barely applied my Biology major since arriving into country so a refresher would be nice.


The room where us women slept.

The brigade was a group of doctors, nurses, a veterinarian, construction workers, electricians, a bricklayer, and friends from church in Arkansas. Some of them have worked this brigade before, but many met for the first time in the airport in Little Rock the day they flew to Honduras. The great thing about this brigade was that not only did they offer medical care, but the crew included people with other skills as well. So while the doctors were busy with the patients, there were others playing and coloring with the kids, installing lights in the quarters where we slept, helping to build walls, painting the buildings, and making an ecological oven. It was fun being able to change the activity up and do translating in the morning and oven construction after lunch. Also, the ecological oven that was being made was the type that Peace Corps volunteers build, so it was nice to learn a little bit about them.


Tommy painting


George laying the bricks for the ecological oven


The completed ecological oven

The medical brigade was set up at a center that has hosted other large groups like Heifer International. It turns out I had met the man in charge of getting the brigade organized at this center one day in La Campa. I admitted to him that I ¨maybe think I vaguely remember briefly meeting him¨, but he seemed to recognize me immediately and knew of the other volunteer in La Campa as well. I guess in an area where there´s only about 4 gringos and like 4,500 Hondurans, people remember us easier than we remember them.


Patients waiting to see the three doctors.

As far as hoping to learn some medical terms in Spanish, it turns out that I learned more ´´campesino´´ slang words and sayings than anything else. Depending on the doctor that I was with, I heard a lot of ´´I have pain in my bones´´ and, my favorite, ´´Me siento bolina´´ which literally means I feel like a drunk, or I feel dizzy.


Becky translating for Doctor Chris

The hard part of working the brigade was seeing the true adversity of poverty. Most of the people that came to the brigade needed things as basic as Ibuprofen, vitamins, and reading glasses. There were countless cases of adults and children with diarrhea and stomach pains, probably from worms or parasites and a few children with lice.


Mary Ann trying to find a pair of reading glasses for a patient


Doctor Mary Ann, Doctor Chris, and Veterinarian Cathy

Others came in with more serious problems. One woman had a blood pressure that was so high that the doctor told me that if we were in the states, she would be hospitalized. She lives about an hour away from where we were by foot, but luckily that day she had gotten a ride. There were a few patients with cancer, one child with muscular dystrophy, and one girl no more than 4 years old that was cross-eyed and had to be led around by sister who we had to turn away because there was nothing we could do for her. Sometimes I just can´t believe what people have to endure in these countries where words such as ´´opportunity´´ or ´´access´´ are only understood when describing the life of someone far from here. I rant about having to sit in line for two hours to see the doctor, but if she prescribes me a medicine I need, there´s no question on if I can afford it or not or if I have to sacrifice something else in order to purchase it. Here, people are thankful for each day they get through and just accept what life throws at them. One woman came into the clinic limping because she had recently stepped on a rusty nail that had gone completely through her heel, but her reason for the visit was for something minor like stomach aches. Another man who previously had been diagnosed and treated for stomach cancer came in and, to his dismay, found out that it appears the cancer has spread to his legs and maybe his lungs. He told me that before, another doctor had given him two weeks to live, but he has survived two years; and the reason he is still alive is because someone up above is watching over him.


Peter and Betsy playing with the kids while they waited for their appointments


Pastor George, Rachel, and me

I´m really glad I decided to work the medical brigade for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s distressing to be able to see up close the effects of poverty and to not feel like you are making a difference in fighting it. In the first few months in my site, there were various times when I felt overwhelmed by the need here and how little I felt I could offer. Being able to translate though gave me a sense of accomplishment. By translating for the patients, I felt instant gratification with each person that I helped communicate with the doctors. Also, more and more, my eyes are being opened to the other kind of life that people live and I find again and again I am forced to think about what values I have in my life and how they are changing after seeing this other side of the spectrum.


A group of us hanging out after dinner