Betting on Chickens

Closer...
Closer...
yes, yes...

Let me start this of with saying yes I know I am going to hell.

Sundays afternoons are the only free time I have -but because it is Honduras I usually have no clue on what I am doing till that day.

This past Sunday was of a similar story, then at about 10:00 a cousin of esposo comes and tells him about a cock fight they are having at their house, and apparently you just can’t pass up a good cock fight. So after we closed- off we go to a cock fight passing up two perfectly good birthday party offers in the process.

The entrance fee for the cock fight is one hundred lmp (about five dollars) luckily cousin lets us in for free. The people bring the roosters in cages; they are weighed before each fight to make sure it is a fair fight. The bets are taken, and the fight begins.

There are two types of hooks that they attach to one foot of each rooster, a big hook or a little hook. The big hook fights last no more than a minute and it seems to me luck has more to do with who wins than anything. The little hook fights last longer but it seems the better fighter of the two who wins.

To win the fight one of the roosters must die, but if both the roosters are injured and can’t really fight it is a tie. I am unsure where all the roosters come from- I did meet one man from El Salvador but I don’t know if he had any roosters there. They say that you have to train them to fight- and that the gringo chickens are the best (yes, I managed to get a few good jokes out of that statement.) The people who were betting did not bet small change one of the fights had 20,000lmp in the pot- betting on chickens.

I am not a fan, I suppose in the end they do end up eating the chicken and having chicken soup, but the killing process is a bit too gruesome for me. Needless to say next Sunday you won’t find me at a cock fight

Feuding Families

People in Olancho hold grudges, for a very long time. While the grudge might not be obvious every day of the year, or every year don't let that fool you, the grudge is still there. In Juticalpa there are two families the Garcia family, and the Ramirez family that have decided that they needed to do something about that grunge the Olancho way-with weapons.
The first spark started with with an attempted hit on the main man of the Garcia family using AK-47`s and grenades. They only managed to kill two body guards- but the feud was restarted. The main man Jose Garcia was interviewed by the main newspaper in Honduras, in this interview he named one of the people who took the hit out on him. A politician in Juticalpa.
The next hit was equally impressive, but this hit killed the head man of the Ramirez family. Killing the main man has caused his family to re-gather in Juti. People that left because they had to, and now they are back. The families are feuding and the job market for bodyguards is improving, but these jobs have a quick turnover rate.

*Please note I have changed all names, but all events are true.

The Day of the Dead

The Day of the Dead in Honduras is a day, not of parades and parties- but a day to visit the graves of families to clean the graves, and remember. Graveyards as you can see above are a little less organized, but not limited to those without money. The gravestones vary from nothing, to small house with locked doors. The rich lay next to the poor, but no one seems to mind. In a country thats culture surrounds its self with family, I always wonder what the the people deep inside the ground did, not to have flowers put on their graves.

The People of Mel

Today is a day that shows what the people of Mel are like.
This morning the husband of a Congress woman was kidnapped- she supports Micheletti. They just found the husbands car and blood in it.
Then just now at 8:15p.m. the news man of Olancho (anchor and the whole show) was shot. He supports Micheletti.
How do I know that it is Mel supporters? Because it is Olancho and in Olancho, and specifically Juticalpa everyone knows everyone.

Ironic

There is a pharmacy in town that name translates to "The Immaculate Conception Pharmacy." They sell birth control.
Does anyone find that ironic, besides me?

La Sarca

The people here in Olancho have different ways of approaching me, or referring to me. The most obvious one of course is the gringa, or gringita. I do occasionally get asked if I am Honduran, which I think more because the accent of my Spanish- not so much the grammar.
The one that always gets a good laugh out of my husbands family and the employees here at the store is when people call me sarca. Sarca translates to clear eyes, mostly referring albinos. There is a lady that always comes by and when she leaves, she calls out to me "adios, sarca!" the employees always chuckle at her. By calling me sarca she is saying I am Honduran, the idea is just plain silly to them. I just smile back "adios!"

Collecting the Loot

Here at the store we have a fenced off area of the parking lot that is the designated garbage area. This area fills up in about a week and a half with the help of the market owners, and the neighbors. The men at the store have the wonderful task of loading up this garbage and taking it to the dump out of town. As you can imagine this is not a pleasant task.
So yesterday as normal they took the garbage to the every so pleasant smelling dump- but this time they came back with stuff. It seems that someone had dumped perfectly good things at the dump. They brought back wall clocks, calculators, and a few toys.
Let me take a quick side trip...
In Honduras people will buy pretty much anything, I have sold toys that are more that just broken, people sell clothes with holes in them, buckets that are broken- It is only sold for a few lempiras, but still it sells.
The stuff the employees brought back was good. The calculators were in the little boxes, and worked, the wall clock were not broken, and worked the toy even had a battery and worked! I was confused, almost as much as they were. The stuff was not from the store, so they did not steal it, but why would someone throw away good stuff?

My husband thought about it, and the only thing he could come up with that made sense- the Zelayist. When the people for Zelaya and broke into all those stores and stole everything, well we think they dumped the stuff they did not want, or did not want to be caught with at the dump outside of Juticalpa. Just a guess, but lets be honest here- who throws away anything that is not really garbage in Honduras?

Protest for Mel

In Juticalpa today we had a pro- Zelaya protest today. While the march was not overall impressive it did different in one distinct way. There were people WALKING!! The people walking may not seem such a big deal, but all the previous protest have just involved people in only cars going up the street honking their horns with the red liberal flags (Mel's political party) waiving. To me this represented people that are most likely going to loose a lot if Mel comes back, they have cars and money, and seem the most upset about the situation. They are feeding out of Mel's proverbial trough. This time around though people were walking- which concerned me, do they really think Mel is for the people? I am not sure if they were really there to protest, or if they were being paid to be there but they were there.
The protest was overall pretty calm- they say they wont destroy things here in Juticalpa, because here everyone knows everyone. We shall see, and hope this is the case.
Public school here still has not started up, the people that Mel supposedly supports are missing school and falling behind.

Olancho, Juticalpa, and Honduras

The question is often asked to me "what is it like?" Well it is first Olancho and second it is Juticalpa and thirdly it is Honduras.
Olancho can be best described as the wild west, the idea of Texas. People here generally speaking are very nice, and friendly- but don't mess with an Olanchano. My best example for this is here at the store people steal ALL the time, only once have we taken someone to the police station. Why? We don't know their family. We don't know if they come from a bad family. The one person we did take to the police was an employee that had work for three days and had already stolen a few pairs of shoes and pants, impressive really. So we don't take them to the police, but we charge them double and make a show, as they say in Spanish. In Olancho people say they are from "The Republic of Olancho" only half joking.
Juticalpa is the "metropolitan area" of Olancho. I say that in quotes because, yes it is the largest city in Olancho- but not a whole lot metropolitan about it. Juticalpa is full of people shopping but this is Olancho, most people are farmers they live in areas with out electricity, these people need only the basics. The stores are simple square cement, the streets are mostly dirt, the electricity and water are often absent with out reason. Danger generally comes from making one of the 'families' mad, having too much money, or being stupid.
Honduras is well Honduras, if we are doing the politically incorrect ranking it is third world. Living here is frustrating some days, and other days are simply wonderful. Sometimes these two seem to balance out, other times not even close. One good thing is you can bribe the police; one bad thing is you can bribe the police. As a foreigner I am often frustrated because of that- I am a foreigner. I cannot blend in and I will almost always be charged more, for anything. At the same time people remember who I am and are anxious to talk to me. I will not say Honduras and I have a love hate relationship. Honduras and I have a relationship, and that changes day by day.