Life and death in Honduras

Man with a living pig tied to a bicycle

The line between life and death is thin and there is not much that needs to go wrong for that line to snap. Even though life is good most of the time it is not always fair to every body. This is what we experienced last week in Honduras.

The boy in Yoro

We met a boy in Yoro who is an orphan and works by selling snacks on the street. His english, a bit americanish, was fluent and he was very well informed about what was going on in different parts of the world as well of the political situation of his country as well as others. He amazed us with his knowledge and told us he did read as much as he could. He took us to the best place in Yoro for lunch and entertained us for a while. Bright kid and I hope he has a future.

Young orphan in Yoro selling snack

His world is a harsh world and he travels from one part of the country to the other. He had been in Yoro for 8 months and already attended the funeral of 18 young men. Some where killed in gang rival others by corrupt police. He said that this was not very good town, but we would be safe as the gang members where mostly killing each others.
We where shocked to learn how bad the situation was, far away from every thing, in a small mountain town.
He dressed him self in between the dress code of both gangs in order to survive. Still he had seen it all. Stabbed, beaten and shot at. But on he kept in hope that one day his country would become better.

Morning glow on Lago de Yojoa in Honduras

Sad day

Many other young men in this country stay healthy and away from trouble but that is not enough. Life is not always fair as I said and we witnessed that.
When we where at the Pulhapazak waterfalls and I just had gotten back from trying to get a decent image of the waterfalls but failed because of the water spray fogging up my camera lens, Guðný came running and told me the devastating news that they had just pulled a young man unconscious out of the water.

Pulhapazak waterfalls in Honduras

We ran to the scene and as nobody was doing anything to save him, Guðný took charge of the scene and we started CPR. We tried to get information on how long he had been in the water but nobody really knew. We tried far longer than should be possible but nothing worked. The young boy was gone. We later learnt that he was the oldest of three brothers, had no father and was the man of the house helping his mother raising his other two brothers. Fine boy involved in the sport of karate and very fit. One slip and life just vanished.
Witnessing this makes you wonder how fragile the humans really are and how little it takes for you to leave this life.

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