Abe and Wilmer: The Music Video

Want to know how strawberry Abe and Wilmer really are at playing the guitar?

Then check out this video!



If this player doesn't work, try watching on Google Video at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7970042353025977228

—Abe

Ladies Aid Society

So, guess what! I am officially (or maybe just unofficially) co-chair of the Ladies Aid Society of the Christian Reformed church of Nueva Suyapa. My church.

Now, if you know me, you may be snickering a bit right now. It is a little bewildering. But you might feel better if you know that Yolanda, the co-chair, is the same woman who teaches Abe caliche phrases like "Let's eat, cool dude, this soup came out savage!" So, maybe we make a good team after all.

Here's how it happened (in case you're naively assuming I won my seat in a democratic election). One morning in adult Sunday school, our pastor, Moncho, looked at Yolanda and I and said, "I think you two should do the women's group." We must have nodded or something because next Sunday it was announced in church.

Now, you need to understand that I really don't know anything about leading a women's group. I've never gone to one. And the other minor detail that seems rather important to me is: I'm not Honduran. Some of you may be thinking that I'm just as good as Honduran since we've lived here for 18 years. But the truth is that despite how much I love this place, and love my church, I'm pretty clueless when it comes to understanding what life is like for lots of women up here.

For example these are some of the things we talked about at our first meeting. Yesterday. (We won't count last week when only three women showed up.) Yolanda read out of Phillipians (we chose it because it talks a lot about joy) and she mentioned how Paul works hard to see the positive in his suffering. So, I asked if anyone wanted to share that kind of experience. These are the responses we got:

Karina, a bouncy, 30 something single mom shared how she was the oldest of seven children and since her Mom worked all day ever since she could remember, she was in charge of all the kids. All day, every day. From the time she was about 10. "I think that's why I like to teach Sunday school now—because I got so used to being with little kids all the time."

Then Suyapa shared that a few weeks ago, her abusive husband and teenage son both moved out of the house after many years of conflict. Her son decided to try to immigrate to the US a few days later. She cried as she told us how he had called her all along the way through Guatemala and Mexico, telling her to pray hard because he was scared and it was dangerous and he didn't know if he could make it. She sent him money for shoes when his wore out. But just yesterday, she heard from her brother in Houston that her son had made it and was going to live with him. She cried as she told us how hard she had prayed that God would be faithful and how God had answered those prayers.

Yolanda shared how sometimes her depression is so acute that she can't even move. Her children have to walk her to her bedroom. They tell her about it later.

I'm not sure. But I don't think this is what Ladies Aid is usually like in the US. But you know what. It was really cool. Some people shared stories of their life that made me cry. But what was cool is that we were all there together. 16 of us. Feeling it together.

And we spent an awful lot of time laughing too. These women just love a good game. We had stare-down contests (I almost won!) and drop-the-blanket-guess-the-name game (you'll have to write me for a description of that one). And then we prayed together and that felt really good.

So, for now, I guess I'll keep at this being in charge thing. And hope that God gives me understanding and grace to respond the way I should. One thing I've already figured out is that I'm really going to look forward to Mondays and hanging out more with these tough, funny, faith-filled-despite-all-the-facts women. Or maybe they're faith-filled because of all the facts. I'm looking forward to finding out.

—Jo Ann

The Watchy-Man (Caliche: Part 2)

So one more thing I really like about caliche but forgot to mention in my last post is the way Nueva Suyapans (and other Hondurans) have appropriated English words and made them part of their own vocabulary. For example, if you are talking about a security guard, you could use the Spanish word, vigilante, but the streetwise talker might say "watchy-man." That clock that you wear on your wrist? you guessed it, it's a "watcho." If sometime you're telling a friend about a time you got really frightened or surprised, you can tell them "casi me paró el watcho"—"my watch almost stopped"—meaning, "my heart almost stopped beating."

Also, while there are of course traditional Spanish words to refer to a "person" or "guy" or what have you, my friends in Suyapa prefer to use the word "man" or "men." In Spanish either word is singular and unisex. For example, one might say, "I saw Juanita today—wow that men is pretty."

If you eat a lot and are really full, you can say just that: "¡estoy ful!" Also you can tell the gas station attendant, "fuleame el tanque"— "full me up the gas tank."

English swear words also make their occasional appearance, and are used pretty much the same way they are in the U.S.

Finally, I have heard some of my female, teenage aquaintances using a quintessential valley-girl phrase with an irony and aplomb that would put to shame the valley-est valley girl: "Hel-loooooo?" As in, "I mean, who would wear those pants. Helloooo?"

How could anyone think caliche isn't cool? I mean, hellooo?

—Abe

What Wave, Crazy? (Why I love caliche)

One of the things I like best about Nueva Suyapans is the way they use language. When I moved here two years ago I had trouble understanding a lot of conversations despite having majored in Spanish in college. Now I realize that a lot of people from right here in Tegucigalpa wouldn’t understand parts of many of my conversations with friends in Suyapa.

That’s because my Nueva Suyapan friends are consummate users of caliche, Honduran slang. (Calicheros, we call them.) Some Hondurans turn up their noses at caliche: It’s vulgar. It’s gang-banger language. It’s uneducated.

Personally, I think it’s a blast. I mean, why say “how are you, friend?” when you can say “what wave, crazy?” or “what fart, gangsta’?” or “what pepsi, kiddo?” Or why say “you are a good fellow,” when you could say, “you’re the real cheese”?

You can bet that when I get home from work and my neighbors and good friends Wilmer and Dennis are playing soccer on the street or sitting on the front step of my house waiting for me, we don’t say, “hello my friend, how goes it with you?” We say, “Qué hondas loco?” (what wave, crazy?).

Wilmer and I like listening to 80s rock songs on my laptop (by Cinderella, REM, Phil Collins, Tracy Chapman, Guns and Roses…there are lots of radio stations in Honduras dedicated exclusively to this genre of music!) and then figuring out how to play them on our guitars. If Wilmer hears a song he really likes, he might say to me, “wow, that song is really strawberry.” Then if Wilmer figures out how to play it, I might say, “wow Wilmer you’re stiff at playing the guitar.” Then maybe Yolanda, the mom of the Honduran family I live with, will come into the room tell me she’s made me a real good soup for dinner. “Come eat, cool dude, this soup came out savage!”

Wilmer is strawberry at playing the guitar, crazy.

Not all of the colorful language I enjoy so much in Nueva Suyapa fits under the category of urban caliche—a lot of it is also country bumpkin language, a vestige of many Nueva Suyapans’ not-too-distant past. Nueva Suyapa, like many of the sprawling, poor communities surrounding Tegucigalpa’s more developed urban center, was settled just thirty years ago, and many of its settlers came from the countryside. Many, or even most people in Nueva Suyapa older than 30 were born and spent part of their childhoods in pueblos in the countryside.

So when I say, “I’m ready to shuck the corn,” people here know I mean I’m about to leave; when I say “My tiger is roaring,” they know I’m hungry; and when I say, “I’m going to put away the bedpan,” they know I’m ready for bed.

Nueva Suyapans use many every-day words in new and imaginative ways, but they also use plenty of words that exist only in caliche. Macizo, tumbado, and tuanis are all simply more streetwise synonyms of “very good.” Carpiar means the same as comer, “to eat,” but if you say comer you’re not going to impress anyone—whereas if you say carpiar, Nueva Suyapans will know you’re the real cheese.

—Abe

The Vibrant Community of Nueva Suyapa

Yesterday I was reminded of the thing that I love most about living in Nueva Suyapa. It was 5:00 o' clock and I had just left work. As the bus I was riding wound its way down the hill, the streets were filled with people: playing soccer in the street, chatting with neighbors, vendors selling fruit and vegetables to passersby, others walking and talking—perhaps on their way home from work or on their way to the pulperia (corner store). The thing that popped into my head is that Nueva Suyapa, despite the difficulties that exist here, is a vibrant community unlike any other I have ever lived in. The people here talk to each other in the street, buy food and services from one another, worship together, and play together. Had I been walking down the street, rather than riding the bus, I probably would have passed a few hundred people on my way down. Life fills the streets and emanates from the houses, which are often just a few feet off the road.
This vibrancy and life is not something I’ve experienced before in the neighborhoods I have lived in. Perhaps that is one of the reasons I love it. But I’m pretty sure the vibrancy and feeling of community is the thing that most Honduran inhabitants of Nueva Suyapa love about it as well. I think this is visible in many of the Nueva Suyapans who have been able to increase their income and living situation, because most don’t move out of the community. Most of them just improve their home and their lives right here, sticking around for the community they have here.
I love the fact that on my way to work in the morning, I see and say hi to our neighbor Doña Nubia (pictured with her husband Don Luis), who lets me know she has been up since 4:30 and tells me whether she is grinding corn and making tortillas that day. Then I usually pass Don Jorge (pictured below), who is 83 years old and a woodworker. If he doesn’t have any work that day, he generally makes his way to the plaza in front of Genesis and chats it up with anyone else who is around. On my way from lunch back home, I start up the long and steep hill up to our house and see a young woman trying to carry her 5 month old, an umbrella to shade the child, and a heavy bag of food up the hill. I relieve her of the bag and find out she’s going to visit her Dad, who lives a few blocks up. Turning the corner, I walk past a house that is blaring Ranchera music (Honduran Country) and is filled with laughter. Just then, their dog starts barking viciously at me and I almost have to run to get around the corner (the dogs are one part of Nueva Suyapa I’m not as enamored with).
These interactions, as well as the deeper ones when neighbors share about their lives, their joys and struggles, are what make living here such a wonderful blessing. Other North Americans and Hondurans often comment to us, “Wow, what a sacrifice you’re making by living here.” I can truthfully and sincerely say that that really isn’t true. There are certain things that look like sacrifices. But living in a community like this one certainly makes up for any of those things.

—Kevin

New commercial center in Nueva Suyapa

We have refurbished and opened a new commercial center here in Nueva Suyapa. Right now there is an internet cafe, Pizza restaurant, and office space that are all open to the public. Soon we hope to have a dry goods store renting space in the building and a pharmacy. The building has taken almost one year to refurbish and get into shape to host the new businesses and services for the community. So far the project has created 10 new jobs, which has a direct impact on families and how people live. The most recent business that started up this week offers the following services for the schools and individual: photocopies, graphic design work, computer class and general typing.

Here is a photo of our first pizza customer. The pizza here is all made by hand by Valentin who throws the dough in the air and all the sauce is slow cooked and seasoned to perfection. I will post more photos and info as things develop.

Welcome to La Vida Suyapeña

Welcome to "La Vida Suyapeña: Life in a Central America barrio." We plan to update this site several times a week with stories and photos of the gringos and catrachos (Hondurans) who live in Nueva Suyapa, a poor but in many ways beautiful community of 35,000 people set on a mountainside overlooking Tegucigalpa, Honduras' capital.