True Stories

By Eddy Barillas

The sky is dark gray and a cold and wet breeze is blowing as dusk sets over the dark jungle hills. 8 year old Juan is chopping away at a small wet branch with his small machete as his little 4 year old sister Rachael, holding a handful of wet branches, shivers from the wet dew and stares at the city lights of La Ceiba that whistle in and out of the clouds beneath her. They have gathered enough wood sticks to keep them and their nine other family members warm throughout the night.

She hopes that there will a hot tortilla waiting for them when they arrive back home and she will make sure to drink an extra cup of water to fill her belly to at least make her feel full for a while.

As Rachael and her brother walk back down the slippery mud path she daydreams about getting up in the predawn and walking the two cold hours to the Jungle School where classes start at 7 am. There, she gets to play with the tall white skin young teacher who always has a warm smile and a yummy stick of gum for her as she arrives in the classroom. She will get to draw in her very own coloring book that has her name in bright pink letters and then get to sing happy songs with the other children. She is also anticipating the hot plate of beans, rice and chicken that she will receive along with the other kids at lunchtime. She often hides a small dirty plastic bag underneath her shirt to put half of her meal in so she can share it with her other brothers and sister back home for dinner.

It is always a competition for her and the other 5 year old kindergarten kids to see who can take the most of their lunch home, also in small dirty bags or old newspaper. For them, this will be the only meal that they will eat all day. She savers the moment that she will get the first handful of cold rice and beans that she has stuck in her back pocket into her mouth.

She is brought back to reality as she steps into a deep puddle and sinks knee deep. She struggles to stand up as her brother steadies her from behind and tells her that it is going to be ok. As they approach their small wood shack they quickly hear the onslaught of another screaming match between her mother and father coming from within. They freeze in their tracks and instinctively search for their other brothers and sister that surely have hid in the bushes. The sounds of fists hitting skin is heard along with the gargle screams of their mother begging not to be hit again emit from the shack.

Out of shear fear they scramble to the dark and large tree where they hope to find their other siblings hiding as this has become a regular goings on. Sooner or later the drunken father will stumble away and vanish into the dark and leave her mommy bleeding and crying in the candlelit shack. Tonight Rachael promises herself to give her entire small bag of rice and beans to her mommy to cheer her up and make her stop crying.

This is the story of Rachael. This is a true story and although the name has been changed, "Rachael" is one of many children who must go through ordeals like this and worse every night of the year.