Machismo

This update is long over due. I sure many of you think that I have fallen of the planet but that just isn’t true. Life here in Honduras is not the fast paced rush here rush there get this done while doing something else. This is even more so true in Yoro. As an American somedays this frustrates me but other days I absolutely love it. I lived the last 5 years running around trying to accomplish the most that I could when in reality I maybe should have taken the time to relax and enjoy life a little bit more. So, what have I been up to is the question?

This last weekend I had my first first-hand experience with machismo here in Honduras. SANNA, a government water organization united with USAID, invited me and my counterpart COMASY to a 2 day taller or workshop on sustainable water boards and projects. 5 Honduran women from the water board associations attended the taller; in total, there were 8 of us. The woman attending spoke very little. This is normally not their role to speak and inform a group about what has happened or are facing in their own communities.

When I first arrived the tecnicos from SANAA began joking around because one of them thought I was hot. At first I just let it go but they began to get carried away. On the second day each association of water boards gave a report to the group about their experiences success and failures. None of the other Peace Corps volunteer had gone up with their associated group so when it was my group’s turn I just stayed where I was until my counterpart asked me to join them. I did willingly, but one of the tecnicos as a joke mentioned that I should come up front so that Franco, the tecnico who that I was hot, could look at me. At that moment I had had enough and during the next break, I informed them that what he had said was very rude and a lack of respect for women. He asked why and I explained that I wasn’t laughing and didn’t find their joke very funny. It may have different but this man is married and told his compañeros that he was going to conquest me. (Sorry it doesn’t translate well but those are his words).

After I basically scolded them the joking stop, but the machismo continued. A leader of a dynamica asked for 3 men. Two came up front and he then asked for one more person so I offered to go up front. The leader then said that he needed a man for the dynamica because it was a dynamica of force. The engineer from SANAA said that I could participate and I did. The three of us were tied inside of one rope and formed a triangle. I was named the cemetery and the other two were the community and a chlorination bank. The object was for each of us to pull to show the force of each place. Well you will be happy to know that I did pull both of the men proving that women too are just as strong.

Having proved that women too are strong, I felt that I shouldn’t have had to prove that as a woman I have strength. Being here yes I have seen machismo but never experienced it first hand. Claro que si men and women have different roles but it is the attitude that only women cook, wash and clean that bothers me. Women can do what men do and men can do what women do….work is work. Women here are beginning to have a voice. It is a slow process but I pray that equality will be achieved. I will continue to be a role model for women involving them in subtle ways such as asking for their opinions during a meeting or talking about my work. Little by little we can change our world.