The Runner

I saw two things today that I have only seen in Honduras.

The first is the boy who runs in rush hour traffic.  I think he runs every morning since I see him often.  I think he runs the same route because I see him within a half mile strip of the same street every time.  I think he is mentally ill.  There are two reasons I think this - one is that no person in their right mind would run down the middle of the passing lane of traffic as fast as they can run during rush hour traffic in Honduras.  The second reason is more about the look on his face.

He is really, really fast and always runs at full speed.  He wears pants cut off at the calf and bare feet.  He is dirty and unkempt.  I have never seen a car beep at him or swerve to go around him.  He is fast enough to keep  up with traffic.  I don't know what he does at stoplights.  I can't imagine him slowing down or stopping.  I picture him zooming through the light at full speed with confidence that everyone else will move out of his way.

I wonder why he runs in the middle of the street during rush hour.  Does he think he's a car?  Does he wish he had a car?  Does he believe that because he can run as fast as a car he shouldn't have to use the sidewalk?  I also wonder what he does during the rest of his day.  Does he run at top speed all over the city all day?  I think any other person would get tired quickly at the speed he runs.  However, for some reason I think that he could run like that all day.

The first time I ever saw him I gasped out loud and was terrified for him.  Now he makes me smile.  Passing him by (he runs in the opposite direction) has become a normal part of my commute.  Someday I hope to get a picture but it will be difficult because he is very fast.

The second thing I saw today that I have only seen in Honduras was my neighbors piling onto their motorcyle.  I did get a picture, but I don't have a way to post it right now and you can't see all of the details.  I learned in my driver's ed class last week that the law in Honduras (though it doesn't make sense to me and NOBODY follows it) is that if a man is on a motorcycle, he must be alone.  If a woman is on a motorcycle, she can have one female passenger.  I double checked with Walter to make sure I understood the law correctly.  Maybe the reason nobody abides by the law is because it doesn't make sense.

Anyway, you all know I am kind of obsessed with machetes.  So today as I was going home my next door neighbors were parked on the side of the street.  Driving the motorcycle was a man.  Behind him was a child who appeared to be about two years old.  And balancing on one leg with an orange and white bag the size of a big garbage bag in his left hand and a machete in his right hand was a man trying to swing his left leg over the back of the motorcycle.  He was trying to get on without falling down, knocking over the bike, pushing the child off, or chopping anyone with his machete.  It was quite an act.

I passed by and pulled up to my gate.  Then I sat and got my camera ready, dying for a good shot of the three people on the bike with a machete and a bag the size of Santa Claus's.  I thought I could get a good shot from inside my car and they would never know the difference.  But after a while I figured they must have gone in the other direction.  I got out of the car and started to unlock the gate, camera in hand just in case, and there they were.  The guy on the back was balancing successfully with no hands on our horrible, rutted road.  He gave me a big grin as if to say, "Look!  I did it!"   I smiled and waved.  Haha!  Life in Honduras is anything but boring.

Now if we can just beat the US in soccer tonight!  I hate going to the Breakfast Program the day after Honduras loses to the US.  It is painful.