Mountain Folk in Honduras

The mountains of Honduras are very majestic with flowing hillsides of plush greenery. Crops of coffee, sugar cane and vegetables dot the countryside as if to suggest a booming economy. Horse drawn carts move the products down the steep hillsides to the market place. Men with machetes holstered on their side move from place to place harvesting their next products destined for the cities below. These hard-working families labor to purchase the necessities to exist, not usually for profit.

Mountain streams amplify a sound that will catch the ear from miles away. The streams hide the fact that they are deadly because they have no life in them. There are no fish, they have been fished out. The water has been contaminated with E-coli from animal and human feces. Streams are flow-regulated by the amount of rain, sometimes very placid, sometimes a torrent of flooding water. Either way, they deliver death and sickness when the rainy season is the worst. Belen Gualcho had a very serious outbreak of hepatitis just before we arrived.  They believed the cause was from the water. In these remote areas, sanitation is not understood, nor practiced.  Soap is a luxury, not a necessity.

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