From the highest of highs to the depths of the seas

After the highlight of football, we had Monday to look forward to – it was a national day off. But what started off as a day of relaxation with friends turned into a huge and sad tragedy.

After having lunch with Lorena and Jaime on Monday I went off home and immediately got a phone call to get back with my car. Zuko’s dad had had an accident in the river up in the village and the current had swept him away and they needed help to search for him - i.e Jaime and Adelson. So we piled in my car and set off for the village – about 30 minutes away. It was perhaps the most beautiful road I have ever driven on – simply beautiful, but this was not the time to appreciate it!

Don Antonio (Zuko and Carina etc’s dad) had gone fishing near the village he grew up in, with Anael (his son) and Kristian(14) and Caleb (12) his grandchildren. He had the net out and the current was so strong and the water so deep it pulled him under and his hand got caught up in the net. Poor, poor Anael could do nothing to save him, he tried but the current was too strong (Anael feels so guilty because of this). So Antonio drowned but they couldn’t find the body. Anael called Fredi for help who called around all the men in church to go and help search. We all turned up and the men all went in against the strong current. Eventually, after they took turns to dive down one of them touched his body. However, they couldn’t lift it out. Jaime went down and said it was so freaky touching the body that he was scared and went to the side to help with the ropes instead! After about an hour they managed to drag his body out with ropes. He’d been under the water on the river bed for 2 hours. Now this is the family that I spent Christmas and New Year with, who invite me to all their family functions. Dina – the youngest daughter is getting married and I’m taking all her photos and having her hen party at my house etc. Carina is a really good friend of mine. (Dina, Zuko, Carina, Anael and Belquis are all really good friends – Belquis painted my face at the football!) All I could do as we watched was to stand and hug the 2 boys who were just watching the whole thing they had seen him drown and were still watching as they pulled their grandfather out. They had somehow been left alone in the upset. Then when Fredi had to go and help with carrying the body I took his place to comfort his wife Belquis.

They pulled the body out, laid him on the beach and untied his hand from the netting. He was swollen and blue. Zuko was amazing and closed his dad’s eyes, gave all the info to the police and was very together. He was so strong. Jaime and Zuko did everything – put the man back out of his swimming trunks into his pants (the police said they had to!?) I had thought to take along towels and blankets and so I ran to get them so there was something to cover the body with. The boys sorted it all out with amazing strength, whilst the girls just watched and wailed in pain. It was simply awful. Poor Carina had been for a day at the lake and so didn’t make it to the river to watch all this and was waiting at home. They put the body in the back of Fredi’s car and Zuko and Jaime climbed in the back with him to stop him rolling around etc. They went to the village hospital to prepare the body – when they got there, there was no one in the hospital so they went straight back to Sigua to the house. I took Kristian and Caleb back in my car with me.

Now in Honduras you have the funeral straight away – I guess because there is nowhere to store the bodies and because of the heat. Poor Carina just watched as her dad was bought into her house, dead. We got to the river by 2.30, pulled the man out by 3.30, were back at the house by 4.30 and by 6pm we were in the church and Antonio was prepared and lying in the coffin! Tradition here is that everyone comes to the church to see the body and be with the family and then family and close friends stay all night in the church with the body. The coffin is open so everyone can see. A man who has suffocated and drowned is very purple. They made him look very dignified in his suit. However, due to how he died he kept bleeding out of his nose, and so the women dutifully kept opening it all up to mop him up and spray his aftershave. Apparently it was fairly unusual the amount of times they opened up the coffin completely. He was such the loveliest of men and very much the family man, sometimes in his own way. 2 of Zuko’s brothers live in the States and wanted to watch the service and so my job was to find a web cam and computer so they could watch. By the time I set it all up, the poor men just couldn’t do it – they couldn’t watch their dad in a coffin over a web cam! Understandably.

So, I stayed at the church with the family and a few other close friends the entire night!! Chatting and comforting – and drinking coffee – pure organic coffee..10 cups kept me awake the whole night. By 6.30am I had to leave to go home and change for work! I went to school, gave my English class and then went back to the church for 9.30am for the funeral itself! There were hundreds of people there this time. After the service, about 20 cars and a bus followed the pick up with the coffin and the men in the back and went off to the memorial garden. It was so awful, watching the girls sobbing and screaming, hugging the coffin. Not 24 hours before, he was at home with them preparing to go fishing – his favourite pastime. Such a shocking tragedy.

They lowered the coffin and then put wooden planks over it, then a wire mesh and then covered it with cement which was smoothed out. When the cement dries they will cover it with the earth again.

I’ve definitely experienced all areas of life here now. But, this family are so close to me. Lorena’s family and Carina’s family both completely welcomed me as one of their own (the 2 families are like one!) I joined in the crying – how could anyone not?! I was grateful I could be there to help out with all the small details for them. Each one came separately and thanked me for my support and care for them, which made me feel I had been there for a reason.

So, now I am looking forward to a good night’s sleep. Finally. Please pray for this family as they come to terms with this horrible tragedy.