Saturday, September 13, 2008

How's This for Weird?

Okay, even in Honduras I've not heard this one before. Kirstin was driving home this afternoon from Santa Rosa de Copan, when she spotted, on the side of the road just outside of Gracias, a naked woman. The woman was walking unconcernedly along. Traffic was flowing normally past this unusual sight.

Kirstin was uncertain how to deal with this. She concientiously wants to be of help to people in distress, but handling situations in Honduras is often remarkably different than in the US. Plus, there is the fact that this woman did not appear to be distressed. She simply walked along, even stopping to pick something up along the path.

So, Kirstin came on home, feeling, somehow, that she might have done something differently, but not sure what she might have done. I think I would have been similarly confused, and likely would have gone on by, as well.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

As a Honduran, I can tell you, public nudity is very rare there. I think someone must have taken her clothes, or that she is mentally challenged.

Unknown said...

I am not a native, but I agree wtih Aaron. I know that in Comayagua there are a few mentally ill people that everyone treated with a lot of patience. Let's hope that she has someone looking out for her. Or Someone greater who can protect her.

Beth said...

Hi Trish
What kind of facilities/helps are available for the mentally ill? Is it mostly dependent on their families or the churches?

Trish said...

Yes, my thought was also that the woman had some sort of mental illness.

Beth, I honestly don't know what resources are available to help the mentally ill. I would guess that there are few, if any.

From our work with the special needs families, I know that the villages tend to take on the task of caring for mentally retarded adults, when those people no longer have parents to care for them. We have one man, about 40 years old (with a mental age of about 6), in our special needs program. The mothers of other children in the program store his food and cook it for him. They also take care of him when he gets sick. He goes around staying in different homes in the village, and they find small jobs he can do (like chopping wood)to sort of support himself. It's really quite a blessing to see how this works.

I'd hope that people would similarly care for those with mental illness, but I know that sometimes that is more difficult (and dangerous) than caring for those with mental retardation.