Travels Via Sambo Creek

On the way home on Sunday, we returned via Sambo Creek, and as we walked toward the highway a van full of smiling women waved at us. I thought they must be very friendly people to do that.

By Christina Taylor
I finally arrived in La Ceiba after 44 long hours of travel. The three other volunteers and I awoke around 5:30 am on Friday and walked down to school on the highway and I spent the day meeting the kids, drawing, doing some math and writing stories. The volunteers are always called ‘tía’ or ‘tío’ (aunty and uncle) and I think I had the only name they could easily pronounce “Tía Christinaaaa”. It seemed like half of the kids had rotting teeth and at some point in their lives they’d been severely malnourished because many were amazingly tiny for their respective ages. I wholeheartedly believed one of the smallest girls was around 2 and a half or 3. Wrong. She was just 5, and the top of her head came a little past my knees -- not high on someone who’s only 5' 4".

Throughout the day many of what are literally their horror stories began to emerge. One has to make all attempts to arrive prepared to encounter these all too common cases of abuse and neglect, but it is hard to take when the stories are coming straight from the faces of the victims: bright-eyed and bright-minded, innocent children. I clearly remember playing with one of the more boisterous girls and in-between sentences she casually mentioned the different members of her family that had died.

One group of siblings had recently learned their father had been decapitated. I found it discombobulating to see children so candid about these disastrous events and take it in their stride. After the school day ended the other volunteers and I hitched a ride to The Jungle River Lodge which sits on the Cangrejal river. We sat by the waterfall and relaxed after an intense day at the orphanage.

Early Saturday morning we got up and caught the bus to Sambo Creek -- a Garifuna village about 15-20 minutes from Ceiba. Many of the houses were painted different colors, almost as if each one were trying to outdo the next. There was music everywhere, kids playing football on the streets, old men and young boys were sitting out on their porches watching people pass by… and this was all at 7 am.

We had a bumpy one-hour boat ride to Cayos Cochinos -- a group of two spectacular islands and around 12 cays. We went to Cayo Chachahuate. It was incredible. It is tiny. You could casually walk around the entire island in 10 minutes. The local children were so beautiful and spent all afternoon calling my name because.... well, because they could, I guess. I began talking with a young woman named Evelyn, who was half Garifuna and half Native Indian. I had a wonderful time talking with her family and two young kids while she braided my hair.

We spent about 10 minutes trying to hitch a ride to Ceiba and, by chance, the friendly ladies in the van came by and we piled in. We were all laughing and singing to the pumping reggaeton music, but when we got out two of the other volunteers were a a little unsettled. It turns out most of the women were lesbians and had tried to let their hands wander. What are the chances of catching a ride in a random van full of lesbians in Sambo Creek, Honduras?

On the way home, we hitched a ride and as it had just started raining we opened the door to the big black truck to get inside rather than go in the back. The entire back seat was full of guns. The first thing the driver told us was that he was in the military and that we shouldn’t worry. We managed to work our way in and position ourselves amongst his collection of uniforms and impressive selection of arms and make it home safely.

Tomorrow will be my first full working day and we will be taking the younger kids to another volunteer project so they can spend time with children from outside the orphanage. The kids from the other project are those who cannot or do not go to school. I am looking forward to spending some time with them and observing the day-to-day operations of a different organization. I am excited to begin my time here, but already I feel like that time will not be long enough. (3/9/10) (photo of Sambo Creek courtesy Internet)