In 1982, I spent the summer touring Central America with a group of students from Whitworth College. On one leg of the journey, each of us spent a month in a separate Honduran village. My stay was in Namasigue, a small community ravaged by recent flooding. The idea was for us to learn from the Hondurans about their way of life and to work along side them in some way.
I was struck by the Namasiguans' strength and ingenuity, and humbled by their generosity.
Earlier in the trip I had lost my camera, so sketching was the way to record what I saw. I drew this scene and years later rendered a woodcut version.
This scene is of the kitchen, where beans, rice, tortillas and an occasional egg were served. I recall how Doña Guadalupe would rearrange the wood in the stove with flames enveloping her leathered hands. In the late afternoon, Don Chepe would lay in the hammock after a strenuous day in the fields.
