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Back with more tales of life in Honduras, here’s an interesting one about bananas, international commerce, peasant farmers, a rich governor, disputed land, an election, ear nose and throat doctors, a boy named Arturo, machetes and big cement sewer pipes.

You all probably read in my last email about Arturo who was scheduled to have surgery this week to implant an artificial ear drum so he could be a normal kid again. He had the surgery in his left ear last February and has been traveling the 3 hours back and forth to Ceiba this whole year for checkups and prep work. Tuesday was the big day so at 4am he went to the bus stop with Kristel our nurse to catch the bus to Ceiba, but something was amiss. There were no buses.

Strike. And no the buses weren’t on strike, the community of Guadelupe Carne was on strike. Guadelupe Carne is about 25 minutes from Trujillo and straddles the only decent road into and out of Trujillo that connects us (and more importantly the major shipping port of Puerto Castilla) with the rest of the country. Guadelupe Carne is a long contested area between the campesinos (what in the history books would be called landless peasants) and a rich landowner who happens to be the governor. In truth everything I know about the situation is hearsay and half-understood conjecture, but suffice to say there’s an argument over who owns the land and what can be done to bring justice for both parties.

And so with a primary election scheduled for this Sunday for the first time since we’ve been here they did what they have done every few months since the conflict began. They shut down the road. In the middle of the night they rolled huge concrete tubes that look like sewer tubes 8 feet tall into the road, strung barbed wire across the road and proceeded to stand in the road with machetes and shotguns. The strike zone is about a quarter mile long and in the middle of this several cars, trucks, taxis and two gas tankers got stuck when the strike went up. Most significant in terms of the aim of the strike was that a Dole fruit ship that sailed into Puerto Castilla was stuck without the bananas and pineapples that were on trucks on the other side of the strike. By shutting down our road the campesinos were able to cut off the flow of bananas to your grocery store if only for a short time.

And so enters our poor scared Arturo who has traveled so often to Ceiba and has endured the waiting only to see a roadblock literally placed in front of him. Kristel and Arturo walked across the quarter mile strike zone (the campesinos were allowing people to cross on foot but not in vehicles) to find busses waiting to take them to Ceiba on the other side. They got to Ceiba at 10:30am for an 8:30am appointment but mercifully the medical brigade from the states was able to work him into the surgery schedule later that afternoon (the surgery was successful and as long as nothing goes wrong in the next month he should be swimming by Easter). The next challenge was to get home and they were scheduled to bring the brigade with them to visit the farm, do hearing screenings and bring a whole bunch of donations to the farm.

Knowing the risks they set out on Wednesday morning for Trujillo and got to the strike only to find that now the campesinos were blocking all foot traffic as well as vehicles. Kristel talked with the strike organizers explaining they were from the Finca, were missionaries, doctors and were here to help the people of Honduras. The strikers were very organized and actually pretty accommodating. Not only did they give the brigade permission to cross but even wrote out a pass so they could return later that night and cross back to the other side and a pass so that on Thursday morning Andrea (a vol) could cross with Alex (a kid) to take him to San Pedro for medical tests. It was by no means a dangerous situation and once they knew who we were and what we do they were more than helpful. The brigade unloaded the 15 boxes of donations and their medical equipment from the busses and the striking campesinos helped carry it to some of the taxis that were stuck who drove it to the other side of the strike zone where more strikers helped load it into the landcruiser.

In the end the brigade made it to the Finca and tested the ears of all the kids on the farm, left us lots of donations and a promise to come back and spend more time next year and get to enjoy the Finca and the kids. After all that they were only on the farm for 1 ½ hours and worked the entire time.

In the meantime Patrick and Rafael arrived at the strike in our other landcruiser after driving the 5 hours from San Pedro Sula finished with a 2 day maintenance shopping trip. They found a back road that took them an extra 2 hours but had been recently repaired enough to be drivable but got stuck there too because the military had shut it down to let the Dole trucks through. They too eventually made it home last night.

Right now it’s Thursday and we’re waiting to see what will happen especially since the election on Sunday is rapidly approaching. The word on Tuesday was that it was a three day strike so it might just end on schedule tonight. We’ve heard rumors that a) the military is coming in to break the strike today (hard to believe since the last thing you want is pictures of violence hitting the papers just as people are heading to the polls) and b) that president of Honduras is in Trujillo to find a solution which is a lot more believable.

Life isn’t too much effected for us other than our landcruisers are running low on diesel since the gas trucks haven’t been able to get through and there are no eggs in town since food trucks haven’t been getting through either. We’re supposed to be going on retreat tomorrow in near Ceiba so we might have to change plans if that happens. But with any luck the strike will end by the time we’re scheduled to leave.

Anyhow, that’s my current tale of life here in Honduras. Never a boring moment. When you eat a banana think of Guadelupe Carne

Love you all.

Michael-John

Friday am update- here{s the update from this morning?We took the 5th, 6th and high school kids to the strike zone this morning (perfectly safe, mom) to see what was going on and listen to some people talk. We talked to some gentlemen who are directing the efforts and they said they are waiting for some governmental officials to come talk to them at 10am and sign some accords that will help (hopefully) them get the legal titles to their land, which they feel they deserve after being there for 22 years (supposedly there are squatter{s rights after 11 years). We{ll see. We{re selfishly hoping to go to Ceiba on retreat this weekend, which also necessitates crossing the strike zone, so hopefully things will pass nicely and we{ll be able to get away. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Erika

ps – for anyone who cares, michael has 3 new molars and is now 33 inches and 24 lbs…