A day in the life

 If I leave my windows open at night, there is a breeze that comes off of the highest hill in the city, which is nice, but it also means my neighbour’s rooster is going to wake me up at 3am.  These city roosters don’t have a good concept of time, it seems. Luckily, my windows have screens, which keep those pesky zika/dengue/chikungunya-carrying mosquitos away.  (The past week has been really cold however, it actually snowed in Honduras!!!!)

I walk to work in the mornings, about 15 minutes away from my apartment up a slight hill.  I have to cross the street before I get to the American Embassy however, because if  I don´t I have to squeeze through the crowd of people waiting outside in hopes of getting a visa.  People wait for hours each day, and have to pay upwards of $200 US for an interview in the Embassy, regardless of whether their visa gets approved or not.

There is an art to walking in Tegucigalpa as a single woman.  I have to be aware of my surroundings, but at the same time, must avoid eye contact with any men I cross paths with.  If I accidently lock eyes, I guess it means I’m inviting them to start wooing me.  It´s common for men to shout ‘piropos’ at women here, anything from ‘you’re beautiful’ to ‘I love you, let’s get married’ to a lot more vulgar things.  Sometimes what they say catches me off guard, and again, it’s imperative that I don’t react, because if they see a reaction, it’s an encouragement for more.  Welcome to Machismo 101.

In the office where I work, save for 2 men, we are women, mostly over 50.  Because of that, certain things happen differently.  The gallon of drinking water, for example, when it gets delivered full, stays on the floor until it is about half way gone, and it can be lifted easily to the counter.  No one thinks it is strange to have to squat down to tip over the gallon bottle carefully and fill one’s water bottle.  This being an NGO, there isn´t a lot of extra money for repairs.  The doorbell hasn’t worked properly in ages, and instead of getting it fixed, the doors are left open during most of the day. Most of the computers are battling against a load of unused programs and viruses, but there is no one in charge of IT or computer maintenance, so people get used to chatting while they wait for their computers to load, or to open a program.

Lunch time is a shared affair, with people portioning out parts of their lunches, warming tortillas on the hot plate, pouring coca cola, and gossiping. The topics range from whose father/mother/relative is ill, who died recently, the water shortages, the weather, zika virus, and finding out more about the Canadian volunteer (am I single, do I want children, do I like to cook etc).

Coffee is made twice a day, in the morning and after lunch, strong dark Honduran coffee that tastes more like espresso – it’s made on the stove top with a cloth coffee filter. Often, in the afternoon people come in off the street selling sweet breads or dulce de leche candies – a nice snack to have with coffee (they have good timing, like they can smell the coffee from outside).

I have a desk and a computer in a shared office space with two other women – plus I am right next to a window – a first for me! No more cave offices for me! After work I generally walk to the gym that is in a shopping center about 5 minutes away.  Then I carpool back home in a taxi with some of the other Cuso volunteers that go to the same gym. 

It gets dark around 6:30pm here all year long, and after 7pm, the only people walking the streets seem to be prostitutes.  The police don’t even walk; they drive around in pick ups with their lights flashing continuously.  People who have grown up here don´t even think about walking at night; it simply isn´t done.

For the most part, life is starting to take on some routine – I’ve started giving English classes on Tuesdays, I go to the gym around 3 times a week, I’m starting guitar classes,  and shopping and laundry gets done on the weekends.  At times, I almost forget I’m in a country that in fact I have yet to see.  I truly only know a portion of the city in which I live, and nothing of the rest of the country. 

At the end of this month, I will be going to the Copan Ruins, and I´m looking forward to seeing   what´s outside the boundaries of Tegucigalpa!