La Esperanza: Festival Nacional de la Papa

The disclaimer – it’s a formality: The content of this website is entirely my own and does not in any way reflect the attitudes or opinions of the United States Government or The Peace Corps.

Now for the real reason you are visiting this site…
Some people spend a lot of money traveling around the world in search of Carnevales such as the one I experienced last week in La Esperanza: The National Festival of the Potato. If you ever find need a reason to celebrate, come to La Esperanza, where you will see that anything, even the potato, can be turned into a grand occasion!
My training group arrived in Sunday the 30th, just in time for the procession and coronation of La Reina de la Papa – “The Potato Queen.” We are in La Esperanza for 4 weeks of Field Based Training - practical experience after the initial technical and language training. Each of us is working with a local municipality, NGO, community organization, or local school to realize small development projects.
We arrived here after a long bus ride from and a farewell in Santa Lucia the night before. (i.e. little or no sleep) Needless to say, I was tired when we arrived and I was looking forward to a good night’s rest before starting the week. There was to be a fiesta that night, as there is every night during Festival week, and ironically, it was located in the neighborhood where I was staying. How great, I thought – a cultural experience! I went out for a walk with my “family” as the town was preparing for the The fiesta started some light music and dancing. Then the fireworks started. Around 9:00, as I was getting ready for the bed, the real party got started with Reggaeton. (Latin hip-hop) I don’t know that I have ever felt a house shake like it did that night – and it continued until 3:30 am. Continuing through the week the daily festivities started every morning between 4 and 6:00 am, so, at 5:00 am that same morning, I awoke to a marching band and the next round of fireworks until I finally got out of bed at 6:00 am to get ready for training. Let’s just say I wasn’t a very friendly person that Monday morning.
It was a long week but I am learning to appreciate the festivals in Honduras. My training group went out a couple nights to dance and try the wide varieties of potatoes offered in the festival. I passed on the potato wine. The most exciting part of the week for me was a 10K run on Saturday evening before the Gran Carneval which ended the week of celebration. The run started and ended in the central park, but extended out to the countryside of La Esperanza. When I signed up Saturday afternoon, I was the first woman to register. In all, there were 8 women who ran amongst approximately 75 runners I total. All the women were Peace Corps trainees and volunteers. There was even a former volunteer who had served in Honduras from 1988-90. The finish line was pretty exciting especially with the Hondurans cheering us on! It is my hope that the next race I run will include some Honduran women.
Festival week is over now and life is slowly returning to “normal.” I don’t think I’ll ever be able to compete with the energy of the Honduran people during the Festivals but I will be prepared next time and get my sleep in advance!!!
Now, with all my sarcasm aside, I will say that these first two weeks here have been pretty challenging for me – in ways that I hadn’t expected. It has been a hard adjustment for me here, dealing with everything from unwanted attention from Honduran men to a 13 year old girl who works in my family’s house cleaning, doing laundry, cooking all the meals, etc. It is difficult knowing that there are certain things, that with all good intentions in the world, you just cannot change.
I have also encountered men here who are eager to get to the United States and look at me as a blonde-haired blue-eyed ticket to a better life. It is not easy to hear the stories of people’s hard journeys up through Mexico to the United States only to be sent back when reaching Tijuana. And it is not easy, in Spanish or in English, to tell those same people that life may not be any better as an illegal immigrant in the United States.
I knew that I would have challenges here in Honduras and I knew that I needed to prepare myself for situations that I couldn’t foresee…These past two weeks were something I had not expected and have had me searching again inside myself to remember why I am here. With all that said, I made the decision to modify my family situation and am now in a home that is better suited for me. I am living with an older woman, her 2 daughters, and 3 grandchildren, and they are really wonderful!!! Thanks to everyone who has kept me in their thoughts and prayers during that first week here…

Okay, I’ll end on a happier note to lighten things up before I sign off…I have a funny story: One night this week a few of us went out for drinks and dessert in town. I was in the mood for ice cream and the banana split on the menu was beckoning me… After all, here I am in “The Banana Republic” – what better place to enjoy a banana split than Honduras. Minutes later, my banana split arrived, but to my dismay, the banana split was missing the bananas. Picture this - 2 scoops of ice cream gently nestled between vanilla wafers and adorned with strawberry jam. Not quite what I had in mind when I envisioned this banana split moments earlier. So, I politely asked the waiter, “Donde esta las bananas?” Oh, well…such is life. So, I now refer to this experience as “The night that Honduras ran out of bananas,” but I also learned an important lesson: That as unpredictable as life can be in Honduras, even when you order a banana split, you never know what you are going to get…

A little history on La Esperanza: The pueblo, whose name means “Hope,” is a colonial settlement 3 hours west of Tegucigalpa, in the department of Intibuca. Its population is part Mestiza and part Lenca, one of the 9 indigenous groups remaining in Honduras. Though their language has largely been lost, many Lencas still exist in the surrounding communities of La Esperanza, and their artesinal pottery is very common in Honduras, especially in the south near El Salvador. PRONEEAAH, an organization whose goal is to revive the languages and traditions of the indigenous populations, is working with the Lencan community, empowering them through Bilingual/Intercultural education.

11 vaccinations down, 2 more to go…
Hope all is well!
Estefany in Honduras