Hard-Working Hondurans

When arriving at the Tegucigalpa airport, you disembark into a modern airport.  And then, see Church's, Burger King, and Pizza Hut across the street.  The feeling is similar to any city in the United States.  But travel just a few short kilometers out of the city and the scenery changes rapidly.  No longer do you see American fast food restaurants and malls and Marriotts.  There are hovels which people call home and hard working people.  I mean hard working.  This society is still a manual one.  And in many ways that is good.  There is 30% unemployment here.  If things were automated, that number would soar to 50% or higher.

Concrete is mixed by hand and hauled in buckets.  The trucks that bring the sand to mix that concrete are loaded and unloaded by hand.  All farming is done by hand, both the sowing and the harvesting.  Grass is cut with a machetti.  That makes my aging knees hurt just to think about.  Most cooking is done on a wood burning stove and wood is hauled on heads or backs.  Clothes are washed by hand on a pila.  That water has to be hauled as well.

Oh yes, I have had to haul a water a few times here at Casa, but not often and not far.  What I see here is a way of life I cannot imagine.  My grandparents, yes and maybe my parents, but my generation has never had to do anything like this.  Here in Honduras, everyone has to, including children and aging adults.  One reason they have aged beyond their years is because they have to do all this manual labor. 

I know people that might die, if they worked that hard.  I include myself in that group.  But most people in Honduras that have a job cutting grass with a machetti or harvesting are glad to have it.  It puts food on the table.  These jobs are hard, but the people I know and have seen hard workers and take pride in a job well done.

Terri