Eduardo describes life in the Mesa Grande refugee camp in Honduras and the resettlement of Arcatao.
- Chapter:
- Chapter 4: Refugee Experiences
- Interviewee:
- Eduardo
Transcription
We left [the refugee camps], after we were there, because when we first arrived we slept on the ground. They hadn’t dealt with it well, the organizations, I mean the institutions. Like the UNHCR, the Salvadoran church, the Honduran church, because there were so many people there. At first we slept on the ground. We were thirsty, because there was no water. They gave us tents but it rained and insects bit you. So there was a process, later, in ’88, ’89, they organized and built a church. And then the UNCHR and the leaders of the guerrilla as well, came to an agreement to move the people out of [the camps]. The people were suffering so badly, and they had asked for it over and over. We were determined to come here and work in our own country. To work the land, because they said, “We have a great desire to work, to cultivate corn and beans.” That’s what the people were accustomed to. There was no means there, all we had were the things they brought us. Sometimes the time came for supplies to arrive and they didn’t come. There was a checkpoint that wouldn’t let supply trucks come into the refugee camps. They sent them back! So seeing that, the people tried to come back here, over time we got out of there. Each month a group left: Guarjila left first, in October. We left in August, August 13. The people from Cabañas too, they left at other times. Not everyone left at once. We had everything arranged for when we came back. A big caravan accompanied by the Hondurans who worked with the refugees, they came with us as far as El Poy. The teachers came too. They assigned the primary teacher to me. He came. He was a good friend. He accompanied us in the bus that I was in. He went as far as El Poy. He said he was going to come visit us but he wasn’t able to. So when we got there they were waiting for us in Guarjila, in August. They prepared food for us and had slaughtered some cattle. They had food for us. It rained so hard that night! We were there for three days. Then we came here. Once we were here we started to build huts. They brought us black tarp, truckloads of tarp. They gave it to the people to make their huts, because it was raining. We got branches and tied the tarps to them so that the water wouldn’t fall on us. We slept on the ground. But the worst thing was, that after four or five days the soldiers came…