Staying home here in Honduras

For the last thirteen years, I’ve visited Iowa in the fall as a way to keep up connections between our parish and the parish of St. Thomas Aquinas in Ames and as a way to reconnect with friends. This year I’m staying home, here in Honduras. 

COVID-19 has changed our lives throughout the world. What do I see? These reflections are anecdotal, but you can find various sources that may help corroborate my observations.

COVID 19 

 Even as the country is opening up there continue to be hundreds of persons identified as COVID-19 positive every day and there have been more than 2500 deaths. 

Most of the cases are in the major cities, the north coast, and in certain municipalities. A friend told me that there is a special cemetery for COVID deaths in La Entrada, with about thirty interred there. La Entrada is a crossroads for transportation and so it has been more in peril than some other large towns.

There have been a number of cases in towns and villages in the parish, though it hasn’t affected Plan Grande where I live. I have heard of two who died with possible complications of COVID, as well as cases of people quarantined and even one young person has been intubated. This is not only in two municipal centers but also in some villages. 

A major problem, as I see it, is the failure of people to take even simple precautions here in the countryside. It’s troubling. I can understand why members of a family don’t wear masks, but I am troubled by the gatherings of people in towns for church services or other events with little concern for preventive measures, such a mask and distancing. 

Another problem, that I’ve mentioned before, is that people don’t want to let others know that they have been tested positive, for fear of being stigmatized. Thus, the number of cases may be undercounted. 

Yet, in the face of this, I have seen photos and reports of political meetings with little concern for health and safety. This may get more problematic as Honduras approaches the internal elections next March to choose the candidates for next November’s elections. (The internal elections are like the party primaries in the US.)

A few weeks ago, I came into Plan Grande and saw a large number of cars parked on the road. I stopped and asked a young man who is my godchild. He told me that is was a political meeting and added that many were without masks. Sure enough. I passed the patio of the house where the meeting was being held. There were more than sixty people there, seated close to each other in rows, with very few masks. Even the political authorities are not taking this seriously. (I wonder where they learned that.)  

Violence 

 There have been a number of cases of violence in the parish in the past two months. 

I am helping bring psychological help from our diocesan Caritas office to one extended family affected by a brutal death of a young woman. 

In at least one case, alcohol abuse seems to have had a role in the killings. Depression, mental illnesses, and drug and alcohol abuse are ills that are not being addressed. I wonder if we really need more regular psychological assistance to people in the countryside. 

In addition, I am sure that there is continuing domestic violence though this is hard to document since there is so often a veil of silence around domestic violence and intra-familiar abuse. 

Rains

We are in the rainy season, which begins in May and goes until early February. 

I feel as if there has been more rain this year than earlier. It also has been very hot during the days and the rains have been heavy. I have heard of several landslides, including at least one that destroyed a home (but, thanks be to God, the family escaped and the community is working together to help them.) 

Partly as a result of the rains and partly as the result of continuing maintenance the roads in our parish are worse than I have seen in three or more years. No wonder that I have had major repairs on the pick-up.

Harvests

The corn harvest is upon us. It seems to be pretty good which is a blessing. If there is sufficient corn, the people will at least have tortillas.

For a few months, the parish has been helping distribute corn and beans from the reserves in the parish. The custom here is for the parish to accept donations of corn and beans, especially for our parish training programs. Since there have been no major meetings in the parish since March, there is sufficient corn and beans to share with those in need.

The coffee harvest season is beginning. I have seen pickers out in a few fields, picking the first ripe berries, most of which are not very good. Later the fields will be ripe with higher quality berries. This will continue until February. A concern is whether there will be sufficient coffee-pickers, due to the corona virus. In our area a number of large coffee growers bring in Guatemalans to pick in their plantations. I wonder if this will be possible this year.

I'll be going down to the parish coffee field this week to take a few photos.

Pastoral life 

I’ll address these issues in a later post.