Collectivos

Last week Fany told me that her best friend, Cynthia, called and said that she was almost killed.  I asked what happened, but Cynthia hadn't given any details, just that she almost was killed in a cab.  Last night when I was talking with Fany she told me what happened to Cynthia.

I know Cynthia pretty well because she lives up in the mountains but she goes to school and works down in the city, so she frequently spends the night with Fany and we all hang out together.  She made a special point to be here for my birthday, and gave me a pretty necklace with matching earrings, so I guess I could say she is one of my friends.

In Honduras there are two kinds of taxis.  One is the kind you are accustomed to.  But there is also a collectivo, which means that the driver starts at one main point and goes to another designated point.  It costs less because it "collects" people along the way until the cab is full.  You can get dropped off anywhere along the way between the two points.  It's faster than a bus and cheaper than a private taxi, but I know a LOT of people who have been robbed in collectivos.  I know two people who have been robbed more than once.

Cynthia got into the collectivo with a chicken and her purse crossed over her shoulder.  She sat in the front seat, thinking that was safest.  Later a man got in behind her.  When they came to the place where Cynthia wanted to get out she asked the driver to let her out there.  The driver stopped, and Cynthia reached out the window to open the cab door from the outside, as is common here.  But the man in the back told the driver to keep going, nobody is getting out here.  The man in the back reached around in front of Cynthia and tried to smash something into her nose.  We are assuming it was a chemical to make her unconscious.

The guy kept yelling at the driver to drive and they kept going another 5 minutes with this man trapping Cynthia's arms and trying to shove his hand (which held something in it) toward her nose.  Cynthia kept trying to get out.  Finally when they got to Hospital Escuela the traffic slowed and there were people on the street.  Cynthia was screaming but nobody came to help.  She knew that was her best opportunity to get out, so she tried one more time, reaching out through the half open window.  The driver slammed on his brakes harder than ever and the guy in the back lost his grip of Cynthia.  She dove out of the cab and the driver took off.  But then she saw the cab stop again and the man come running for her, so she ran into the crowd of people and escaped on a bus.

That is so scary!  She could have been kidnapped and never seen again.

Instead she landed on the chicken and it exploded all over the road but she got away safe and with all of her possessions.  She was pretty banged up from the struggle with the man and from landing on the road, but she is alive.  Cynthia has always been an independent person who kind of does her own thing, but Fany said this experience really changed her.  She only takes buses now.  (Which aren't much safer, except you are in a crowd.)

I am blessed to have received good advice in all of my time in Honduras.  I rode in collectivos in 2009, when it was a little safer.  But when I moved here Jairo said that I am not allowed to ride in public transportation (buses, taxis or collectivos) and I have kept that as a personal rule for myself even though Jairo moved to the US more than a year ago.  Now that I have more North American friends I see them doing things that I would never do, and they are fine.  Sometimes they ask why I am so cautious.  I just tell them it was the way I was taught to live here and I don't want to change it.