We are cooking catrachas in the house tonight. Catracho is colloquial/slang meaning Honduran … kind of like Yankee for a Northerner (but without any negative connotations) … and is also the name for a delicious Honduran dish of deep-fried tortilla topped with refried beans and two kinds of home-made cheese. Catrachas notwithstanding, health (read: fresh) food is a lot cheaper than processed food in Honduras (why is it often the opposite in the States?) and now that I’ve learned how to enter the market without being completely overwhelmed, I can usually can make it out with bundles and bundles of vegetables (enough for the whole house) for under $5.
Cooking is more labor-intensive, for example the beans we eat almost every day first need to be sorted (a.k.a. pick out the rocks and rinse off the dirt) and then boiled for 2 + hours. Dishes are something else entirely, but cooking is fun and the process also reassures me that I can survive in a post-microwave world. About once a month, we go to Tegus to do immigration paperwork and we also have the chance to go to the big capitalist grocery store(owned by Sam’s Club) to buy American staples like peanut butter and wheat bread.
Tomorrow Andrew and I head to Casa Pasionista, a home for persons living with HIV/AIDS. While Casa is considered a hospice, a lot of the patients recuperate enough over the course of their stay to return home to live with their families. USAID reports that Honduras has the highest HIV infection rate in all of Central America ... Honduras accounts for 17% of the population in Central America, but 60% of the reported HIV infections in the region.
Casa began about ten years ago through the sponsorship of the Passionists and currently about ten people are living and receiving free medical care at Casa. We volunteers are not involved in the treatment aspect, but just take the day to spend time with the people living there. The house is beautiful … the rooms are built in a rectangle surrounding a little garden in the center so a breeze is always flowing. Casa was originally located in Tegus but was moved a number of years ago after some encounters with hostile neighbors to its current location on the grounds of Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos. NPH is a network of orphanages throughout Latin America andNPH in Honduras is on a huge ranch where about 400 children from birth to mid-twenties (kids can stay until they finish college if they want) live. It´s amazing because the farm on the ranch produces almost all of the food needed.
Over the weekend, we all drove up to Majada Verde, where the water project will be. I’ve nabbed some photos from Jean and added them to the page on the project. Sending lots of love as always!
Cooking is more labor-intensive, for example the beans we eat almost every day first need to be sorted (a.k.a. pick out the rocks and rinse off the dirt) and then boiled for 2 + hours. Dishes are something else entirely, but cooking is fun and the process also reassures me that I can survive in a post-microwave world. About once a month, we go to Tegus to do immigration paperwork and we also have the chance to go to the big capitalist grocery store(owned by Sam’s Club) to buy American staples like peanut butter and wheat bread.
Tomorrow Andrew and I head to Casa Pasionista, a home for persons living with HIV/AIDS. While Casa is considered a hospice, a lot of the patients recuperate enough over the course of their stay to return home to live with their families. USAID reports that Honduras has the highest HIV infection rate in all of Central America ... Honduras accounts for 17% of the population in Central America, but 60% of the reported HIV infections in the region.
Casa began about ten years ago through the sponsorship of the Passionists and currently about ten people are living and receiving free medical care at Casa. We volunteers are not involved in the treatment aspect, but just take the day to spend time with the people living there. The house is beautiful … the rooms are built in a rectangle surrounding a little garden in the center so a breeze is always flowing. Casa was originally located in Tegus but was moved a number of years ago after some encounters with hostile neighbors to its current location on the grounds of Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos. NPH is a network of orphanages throughout Latin America andNPH in Honduras is on a huge ranch where about 400 children from birth to mid-twenties (kids can stay until they finish college if they want) live. It´s amazing because the farm on the ranch produces almost all of the food needed.
Over the weekend, we all drove up to Majada Verde, where the water project will be. I’ve nabbed some photos from Jean and added them to the page on the project. Sending lots of love as always!