One day I employed Delmer, one of the street kids that followed me around, to help out with the project. At the time he was 12, not going to school, and scruffily running around the streets of Talanga barefoot. I'm sure he or his mom could have used the money, and I needed the help so everyone was happy with the arrangement. I told him to round up a pair of shoes because he would be using a shovel, and the next day I saw him walking in shoes for the first time. To get to Jalaca you drive about 10 minutes down the main highway from Talanga towards the capital, then take the dirt road about 20 minutes by car through the pine forests to Jalaca. The one bus to Jalaca only passes twice a day, but there are usually rides that come by every so often. While rides are common enough you can count on them so once Javier and I made it to the dirt road with the strips of wood we were carrying to the project we began walking. After 15 minutes or so he asked to stop so he could take off his shoes and walk barefoot – it was more comfortable to him. It was a funny sight to see his shoes tied together and hung across wood we had hoisted on our shoulders with his happily bare feet further ahead.
It was so great to see Delmer again in Talanga; he actually heard I was in town and came looking for me. I was going to go to Jalaca anyway so I invited him along to go and see our project. A few days later we jumped in the back of a pickup truck heading out of Talanga and towards Teguc, then stopped the truck to get out at the dirt road leading to Jalaca. It is a long hike all the way to Jalaca, but the scenery is beautiful and the life along the way is colorful. We walked for more than an hour, before a ride passed and gave us a lift the remaining distance to Jalaca. It was a beautiful hike with lots of great scenes of rural Honduras along the way.
In Jalaca the one thing that you can always count on is a bunch of guys sitting around doing a whole lot of nothing. There are some hard workers and the women generally have their hands full with kids and domestic chores, but the guys don’t generally do a whole lot. Sure enough, as Delmer and I drove up a group of guys were lined up in the shade.
Beyond the park was Lorena's house that also doubled as a small grocery store or “pulperia.” She was there tending to the store, and her daughter Yorleni was visiting from Teguc. They were one of my favorite families in Jalaca, and made me great lunches too. I asked about “Maestro” Muncho, the foreman of the project in Jalaca, and he conveniently and fittingly was hard at work on Lorena's new, two-story house right next door in front of the park. Apparently Lorena was renting her current place, and now had the money to build her own house. We went to say hello to Muncho and I almost gave him a heart attack surprising him like that. We visited for awhile while he was working on the septic system. Lorena also invited me in to show me the place and I took some photos from the second story, but unfortunately none of the house. It was great to see all of them.
The rain came and went the whole day and while Muncho had a break we went check out the recreation center at the high school. It was an ugly, muddy road to get to the edge of Jalaca where the high school was. I wasn't sure what to expect, but my hopes weren't too high. Projects have a way of rapidly deteriorating in Honduras and the idea of maintenance is nonexistent. On the way to Jalaca I made a bet with Delmer that one of the two basketball hoops would be missing or destroyed. The court looked pretty good, but unfortunately I was right about the hoops – one was completely ripped of and the other was bent but functioning.
The court was meant to be open to the whole community but it was built on the property of the high school which neither did a great job to maintain the court or open it to the public. when school was out of session the court was closed. When school was in session the court was off limits for the high school. The court itself was to be used for community events with a stage and shelter on one side with seating all around the actual court which could accommodate basketball or futbalito (miniature soccer) which was more popular anyway. The court looked OK after six years, of course it was mostly built of concrete, steel, and good quality wood so there wasn't much that could really happen to it.
After we had a look at the court we all went back to Lorena's and she had a great lunch waiting for us. After we ate Muncho went back to work and Delmer and I went to visit Muncho's family at his in-laws. His kids were great and had helped out with the project when they were fairly young. Muncho's wife and mother-in-law had another meal waiting for Delmer and me so we stuffed as we sat around hanging out with the family. It was an odd house by modern standards. The outside kitchen and outhouse were pretty standard. Chickens roaming the backyard with clothes hanging on the line seemed about right. What was a little out of place was the cow and two bulls that came walking through the kitchen to the backyard. It was a fun peak into life in Jalaca.
To get back Talanga Delmer and I had an hour and a half walk ahead of us, or, if we were lucky, we would find a ride. We were lucky and caught a ride with the coke truck that was heading back to the distributor in Talanga. It was fun ride standing up between the cases of returned, empty glass bottles and whizzing by the pine trees.
Empty soda bottles
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