I had left the house at 7:30am (truly a far too early start to the day for me!) and joined up with the Helping Honduras Kids volunteer group for a full day of visiting the campensino village of “Solares Nuevo” east of La Ceiba, which was then followed by a drive out the Rio Cangrejal to visit with the kids and teachers at the Jungle School.
Both these programs are sponsored by HHK, and since I’m trying to do my bit to publicize their good works I spend a lot of time taking photos and interviewing folks, which with my limited Spanish can be tiring. I won’t even discuss the 150 steps and tires that lead from the road to the actual school!
So by the time I finally made it home at 5 pm, I was too tired to bother cooking dinner and decided to head over to Mowra’s “El Buen Amigos” for her wonderful fried chicken and maderas dinner plate. It’s only 50 Lp and honestly, I can’t cook something like that as well or as cheaply.
So I changed into blue jeans and a t shirt (mosquito proofing) and on my way out of the house, stopped to visit with Dona Luc, telling her of my plans and that I wouldn’t be late. You need to keep in mind that I was assaulted and had my purse stolen right outside the apartment in late January, and though I’m fine and got everything but the money back, I have been under a house curfew ever since. Yep, at the age of 50 I am now expected to be home by 8 - 8:30 pm at the latest, as Dona Lucy not only read me the riot act but actually waits up for me to come home.
Well, one thing lead to another what with visiting with Mowra, the family and various folks that came into the caseta and I finally made my way home just a couple minutes after 8 pm. Unlocked the main gate at the street entrance, slid it open and closed again, relocking the big padlock and made my way through the pulperia and up the stairs to my apartment.
Unlocked my door and due to the place being rather warm, left the main door wide open while I went into the bedroom and changed into a loose shift and put various bits away. I had forgotten to put the doorstopper in place, so within a minute or so the wind slammed the door shut with a horrendously big “Boom”! Certainly startled me but I knew what had happened and finished doing what I was doing.
The next thing I knew, I could hear Dona Lucy’s voice calling my name from the bedroom window (she had come up the back stairs from her place) and I turned around to see her standing in the shadows just outside my window.
Standing there, in her night dress, packing the biggest damned pistol I have ever seen!!!
I think I must have gone into shock at the sight of this tiny, respectable, church going grandmother packing a pistol big enough to put John Wayne to shame! She’s babbling in Spanish about making sure I’m safe because that there are too many thieves in the neighbourhood and I’m babbling (in Spanish!) that I’m safe, it was the wind that slammed the door, I’m sorry I scared her, and on and on… I did note that she held the gun pointing up and away from both of our heads and that the hammer wasn’t cocked, so it seems that she does know what she’s doing with the weapon!
Both of us finally calmed down and stopped babbling; she went downstairs and I collapsed in my chair shaking my head at what I had just witnessed. So I’ve learned a couple very important things – one, that there is unbelievable security within my house and apartment and two, appearances are terribly deceiving!
By the way, I won’t forget to use the doorstopper ever again……
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