Catracho Culture Shock "En Mi Propio Pais!"

It’s 1pm on Thursday. I just got off the phone with Michelle. She wants us to be completely ready to leave by 2. Hmmm, better call Omar and make sure he’s ready.

“Hey vos? Michelle called, she’s gonna be here at 2, and she wants us to be totally ready to go, so we’ll swing by your house and you jump in.”

“2pm gringa time, or 2pm catracho time?” Omar joked.

“Ya sabes! GRINGA time! Be ready ok?!”

“Cheque pues.”

Michelle shows up at 2 and Suyapa has more instructions for her, so me, Jess, and Franklin load everything into the back of the truck. I call Omar again to make sure he’ll be ready in like 5 minutes.

“Sip, I’m ready, I just need to pack.” Hijole.

After picking up Melvina in Altos de Toncontin, and stopping at the Dippsa station in Las Brisas, we were finally on the way to Siguatepeque to set up for the youth camp the next day.

Two and a half hours later, Michelle, Jess, Melvina, Omar, and I pull into the O’Connor’s’ driveway. We are greeted with hugs.

Patrick and Debbie are still making final preparations for the meal, so the rest of us sit in the living room.

“Yessica, this is what gringa living rooms look like?” Omar whispers.

“Yep.”

Melvina proceeds to tell Omar exactly what gringo houses are like…in her opinion.

Patrick begins to pray for the food, in Spanish.
“Sin-your Hay-soos……”

I get an elbow to my side and look over to Omar who threw that. He’s peeking at me trying to hold back laughter but not so much succeeding. Awww, I hate it when I start to laugh during prayer!

We proceeded to the help-yourself NorthAmerican taco set-up at the table. Yum, Gingo food! As I scooped up the canned refried beans, Omar asked me, “Are those beans? They look like they came out of a can!” he whispered agast. “They did!” I replied to an appalled look on the face of my catracho friend.

Dinner was good, and setting up for camp went late into the night. After our wonderful pancake breakfast at the O’Connors’, we headed out to buy some supplies for the camp that we still needed. One of those necessities was mass quantities of toilet paper, as that was not provided by the camp facilities.

So, we parked at the Dispensa Familiar, and us four girls went into the store after trying unsuccessfully to convince Omar to come with us. We emerged laughing like maniacs. Why? Because here we were – three gringas and Melvina carrying about 70 rolls of toilet paper, and wearing black t-shirts with a huge white question mark on them (so the campers would know that they could ask us questions if they had any when camp started). You should’ve seen the looks we received as we exited the store looking like that and trying not to pee our pants from laughing so hard!

As we rounded the corner to the truck, Omar slinked down to the floor of the truck. We then realized why he didn’t want to come with us into the store! Hahaha!

One last cultural adjustment for my catracho friend – the reality of canned vegetables. At lunch at the O’Connors’, one of the things that we could help ourselves to was canned corn. Omar didn’t recognize it, but took some and asked me what it was. Upon learning that it was corn, he shoveled a spoonful into his mouth and took about two chews… then stopped chewing and looked at me with wide eyes, mouth still full of not-quite-chewed corn. I just laughed. “You don’t have to eat it, they won’t be offended,” I assured him.

It was quite an experience teaching a Honduran about northamerican culture in his own country! A funny experience though!



Omar - my catracho friend who now knows a little more about my culture!

Originally written by Jessica - May 2005, about August 5&6 2004. Hey! That was exactly a year ago!