Daylight Savings Time

Honduras doesn't participate in Daylight Savings Time, usually. In the years we have lived here (almost seven years now) we have only switched the clocks once. That was last year, 2006.

By order of the president, generally known by the nickname 'Mel,' we had a couple of months of adjusted time. Of course, we didn't hear anything about it in advance. This was at least partly our own fault, as we don't get cable, don't listen to the local radio much, and don't get a newspaper. Plus, in 2006, we were new in town, and didn't know many people. However, a lot of other people were surprised, as well. We found out about it by showing up for church at the wrong time.

What was interesting here in Gracias, was that many people refused to switch their clocks. Most of the non-participants were the very poor people living outside the city. I don't know their reason for not switching to the new time, but it wasn't ignorance of the situation. For several months, every time a soccer game or church service was scheduled, the time had to be announced with reference to whether it had been set according to 'old-time,' or 'Mel-time.'

Some of the businesses in town decided to split the difference. Instead of maintaining old-time, or instituting Mel-time, they changed their opening and closing times to fall exactly between the two. It was pretty confusing around here for a while!

I think we were all relieved when the time came to switch the clocks back again!