Rainy Season Affairs and Fairs

August in Santa Rosa de Copan and Honduras generally, is when the rainy season starts in earnest.  Daily afternoon downpours that cause the streets to turn into steams and people to run for cover.  My Sources: Water and Youth Leadership project has had several fieldtrips, that invariably include the "field" part up in the mountains, in the great outdoors, in the afternoon.  Hondurans don't tend to think about or fret about weather in quite the same way that Canadians do.  So, we've been trapped in downpours in more than one situation, and one time in particular the side of the truck that I was driving (down clay, slick hills) suffered terribly for it.  As did my ego, admittedly.  "Have you been driving for long?".  Grrrr.  In Canada we have snowtires and chains for these kinds of conditions, and we'd probably plan the goddess-blessed fieldtrip to be in the MORNING.  Polite smile.

Town counsellor and helpful village guy helping me to get out of this muddy jam after a mid-afternoon downpour.

Marie-Helene, coming gingerly up the muddy hill to check the damage and to console me with "Guess you're not Honduran yet". Hardy har har.

Mere days after this little adventure, the truck miraculously had four new tires with deep treads.  Ready for our next downpour!



August is also the month of the "Fall Fair" here in Santa Rosa de Copan.  A whole month of classic fair grounds, vendors, agricultural exhibits, music...etc.  Everyone here knows that it's a great time to dance out in the rain, because, well...it's the rainy season.  Me, the ever pragmatic (ethno-centric) Canadian is thinking...gee...if it rains in copious amounts EVERY YEAR...why not change the date?  I just clued in yesterday, with my first taste of fresh roasted elote (corn on the cob) with limejuice and salt.  The corn harvest is the reason for the season of course!  Harvest time in Canada and in Honduras.  That's why we're celebrating.  Goddess...and I call myself an agronomist (and aspiring pagan).

Corn on the cob here is not the sweet yellow Tabor corn that we're accustomed to.  The corn here is white, has a lower sugar content, and is the stuff we feed to livestock.  Roasted, with a little limejuice and salt, it's yummy.  Also,  here they keep one little leaf of the corn to hold the cob in.  Doesn't that make just too much sense?  Like, imagine rolling our corn in butter in the leaf that's shaped like the corn instead of smearing and wasting the butter on a whole big flat plate, or worse, buying a special 99 cent plastic dish from China, from Walmart, that's shaped like the corn leaf.   Man, Latin American innovation.  They should patent this stuff!