Posted 10 years ago
ho2cultcha
(5051 items)
back in the 80s, i spent many months amongst a very isolated group of Indigenous people in the Mosquitia of Honduras. [it often took 2 wks to get there from Tegucigalpa]. This was my one plate which i ate out of 2-3 times per day.
sometimes you see these carved, painted, decorated elaborately, but this plain, strong and polished one will always be my favorite. it's made from this large fruit which grows on these small and twisted trees along the edges of the villages and high banks of the big rivers.
where i lived, very few people [three-to-seven middle-aged men and 5-6 young guys] in the villages had seen an electric lightbulb or a car before i lived there. but they had such a comprehensive understanding of community, psychology of individuals, respect for many, varied, individual roles in a community. many of my favorite memories from there is when we would travel to different communities and all sling our hammocks in a schoolroom or in a bamboo hut somewhere and always an elder would tell these really fantastic, out-of-this-world, LONG, animated, stories. i would always fall asleep, but it would send me into these wild dreams all night long.
that was the transmission of their culture. i could never translate it adequately though. it can't be done. their language is what makes it what it is. the sounds they make are like music, or sometimes like the gurgling of the river, or the sounds of the ever-present, often raucous, tropical birdsong.
Season Greetings ! ho2cultcha :)
Very interesting!
thank you mikelv85 and walksoftly. i hope you are enjoying your day today.
Ah, Tegucigalpa, the tourist Mecca of Central Amer..LMAO!! A 1 hr. lay-over is too much! LOL! Got the immigration officer to believe that the red stamped "CANCELLED" in my passport meant CONSUL. True story & had trouble not laughing before I got outside!! LMAO!!
Utila! and Bar "Bucket of Blood"! and Big Mama's!! I had good times in Honduras! San Pedro Sula, Tela, La Ceiba, and Tegucigalpa! Tegucigalpa is NOT a rare tropical disease! It is largest city but with many diseases! haha, joking! sort of!
Saw that the military & police were searching the terminal when I went thru that trip. Papers id Guat. City the next day said they found enough explosives to probably level the terminal. Never a dull moment!
i just read your comment toracat and you gave me a great laugh! i'm still laughing!
yes, blunder - never a dull moment!
my experience in Honduras was very unique. i got to see a side of the country which probably barely exists now - if at all. that poor country has gone through major changes since Hurricane Mitch, and a coup d'etat sanctioned by the good ole u.s. of a! it now sadly holds the title of 'murder capital of the world'.
Cool story, they had never seen a light bulb or car? Did you show them pictures?
Seeing this wonderful bowl and reading the stories causes me to want to ask a question which I may be sorry for.
What did you eat out of this bowl?
thanks Trey and fhrjr2! yes, i showed them photos of my family. the one which always garnered the most interest was one of my dad on his bright orange tractor. people always asked me if that was his automobile!
everytime i went down river, i'd load up on food supplies like spaghetti and tomato paste - to add variety to my diet. mostly, i ate 'wabul' out of this. that's a horrid 'soup' of boiled and mashed green plantains. that is eaten everyday for every meal. we had rice about 3 times per wk and once per wk, i'd get one egg. then we would all share some meat about once or twice per month. and sometimes we'd get game which was hunted - javelin [a little wild pig], monkey, toucan, guan, or tapir. my favorite meat from there was 'tipisquintli' or agouti.
Great memories!
Well, in my case, just memories. LOL!
I didn't think you were eating happy meals. I have eaten and seen others eat things I have no idea what it was. I lived through it and obviously you did. I sometimes hate to ask but I am always curious. The bowl is a treasure I would never part with if it were me.
When in those kind of places, I learned early not to ask what we are eating or would starve to death. I don't even like to think about what I may have been served & eaten over the yrs.
my problem w/ the food there was not so much the unusual things we ate, but the monotony of the same bland thing every single day. just the thought of eating mashed up, boiled green bananas makes me retch! otoh, there was this other food we ate at a certain time of year called 'supah' which i did really like. it was made from the boiled husks of a small coconut. it looked like mashed winter squash and tasted pretty good. harvesting them was difficult though, because the small palm trees was covered in 10 inch spines. i also loved the homemade cottage cheese [couajada] i would occasionally be able to get from a farmer who lived a short ways downriver. and agouti [tipisquintli] is still one of the tastiest meats i've ever tried.