My neighbor Isabel opened her new store this last Saturday. She has always been known for her great cakes and other sweets so she decided that she would like a place to make and sell them outside of the house. It's a small restaurant built on property her mother gave her next to her house farther in town. It has 4 tables and serves great fried chicken with fried platanos and baleadas. She has done such a great job. She and her husband have been saving up for a long time in order to create this business. They bought all the materials and equipment outright with cash which is unheard of without any need for a loan. The restaurant has been worked on since I arrived here a little under 6 months ago and I would always stop by to see how she was doing and look at the progress that was made.
When I first got here I was surprised that there was no place to eat out. It was kind of a downer because I knew I had to cook everything myself or rely on Norma, my host mom. I couldn't believe that no one thought it would be a good idea to have a restaurant in town. Now, Isabel is the only restaurant with a captive population of 2,000 plus another 4,000 in the smaller towns around ours.
One thing that I think was important was how she and her husband did it together and wanted to keep it their own. I asked her several times, since I am a business volunteer, if she wanted any help with a business plan, advertising or anything. She consistently turned me down for advice. The invisible hand of the market is working. She knew there was a niche here in town and that the demand was great enough to invest the family's savings into this business. Her business has been so successful that she is not able to keep her cakes in stock. She told me the other day that it has been a great surprise.
Sometimes there is a feeling of helplessness among the people in Honduras. There is good reason for this feeling. For example, the majority of people in rural areas are subsistence farmers. These guys live poor but reasonable. Unlike other regions of the world, many of these farmers have access to fertilizers and high yield seeds, markets to sell their produce when there is extra, and basic state programs (when there are funds) which extend grants or credit to these individuals to get basic farm items, fertilizer, etc.. That is how it has been a long time, much of the time without the states help. What is going on now is that the kids of some of these farmers are going to college and getting degrees, which hopefully and usually, gets them a more middle-class existence. This middle class is not the type I would be familiar with back in St. Louis or Denver but you can tell the difference because they are not on the brink. They are able to afford a motorcycle and sometimes a car. They eat better, they're healthier, they dress better, and have electricity and cable tv.
That general feeling of helplessness has turned into actionable progress for Isabel. It also is no surprise that the opertunites to go to school and better health services have allowed Isabel to live this type of middle-class lifestyle that her parents and many other older individuals never had when growing up. Her father was a farmer. Now, her husband works in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, which is two and a half hours from here. He leaves every Sunday for work and comes back to be with the family every Friday. The money he makes and the little Isabel makes from selling cakes out of her house have allowed them to start this new business. They also are making sure their kids go to school and later to college.
It is this generational progress which is amazing. The generation now which is just coming out of the grade schools and the high schools has had a fuller set of opportunities which their parents did not enjoy when they grew up. Fifteen years ago Ojos de Agua did not of electricity. It has that and also cable TV. My little sister, a part of the generation that parents like Isabel are raising, has grown up on MTV like programing and wants more things her parents could never have had. If you go into the larger towns with markets or grocery stores you will find many imported products from places like China or America. The town also got a sewer system within the last 3 years. Before every house had their own latrine. Many of these kids in school now see themselves going to college instead of becoming farmers. That's great news. Hopefully in a generation or two this trend will help lead many more out of their poverty.
But breaking that cycle of poverty begins with people like Isabel who have received an education and kept themselves healthy and are now investing in the town by opening their store. Like I said before, I'm very excited for them and I wish them the best.
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