So last Saturday was “El Día de Los Niños” (National Children’s Day) here in Honduras. To celebrate I went out to one of the most distant and least developed caserios, Los Trapiches, with some of my friends from the casco urbano, who are teachers out there. I have been working out there a few times a month recently, enacting a Project Colgate initiative, teaching the children how to brush their teeth.
(As a side not: They are definitely in need of this program, since none of the kids, ages 4-12, had ever brushed their teeth before I got there. This lack of brushing, coupled with a high soda intake, and no access to dentists, means that many of these kids have baby teeth that are literally rotting out of their mouths. Some have teeth that would rival those of Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movie, no exaggeration. )
Overall the children’s day celebrations were very cute, and the kids seemed to have a blast. They got to eat candy (again with the sugar), do various races, play musical chairs, do some scavenger hunt like activities, compete in soda chugging races (seriously, with the sugar), and of course bust open piñatas (filled with… you guessed it more sugary candy). After a few hours of this the kids were burnt out from all the running around (and finally coming down off of their sugar highs) and we were exhausted from setting up all of the events and trying to keep 45 screaming monsters… I mean adorable children, in order (This is how I know I am not ready to have kids of my own yet). After saying goodbye to the parents and students we climbed into the two pickups we came in to head back to the casco, a trip that should take about 45 mins on a good day.
Two hours later we were still only about a 5 min walk from the school. This happened because in order to get out of the village, you have to drive up a ridiculous incline (think like Everest, with less snow and more dudes in cowboy hats). One of the pick ups (an early 90s Toyota) made it up just fine, the other (an early 90s Nissan) got half way up the slope then started sliding uncontrollably backwards and rammed into the ditch on the side of the road (Guess which one I was in?). So after we got out of the cabin and assessed the damage (thankfully none, since the embankment was made of dirt), we called the other truck back and tied them together with some rope we had. After a few minutes of dragging with the Toyota and pushing from behind, we were able to dislodge the Nissan from the embankment. We then tried again to drive it up the incline, with similar results (and similar dragging and pushing afterwards). I’ll save you the details but we basically were at this for about two hours trying various techniques to get the car up the hill (My least favorite of which involved all of us piling in the back of the pickup truck to add weight for traction. Thankfully we just stalled that time rather than sliding back down the incline.). Success finally came when we borrowed some heavy duty cable from the village and used the Toyota to haul the Nissan up the hill, and even this took two tries, as the cable snapped the first time and rubber banded itself into the front of the Nissan (I was really glad that it snapped that way and not the other, since I was again being used as ballast, this time in the bed of the Toyota). So I guess everything worked out in the end since we eventually got home safe and sound (and I came away with another solid Honduras story). I guess the take away lesson from this experience is that old Toyota pickups seriously kick ass (old Nissans, not so much).
