In El Naranjo, the women on our team were blessed with an opportunity to meet with the village women. To help them speak honestly about their lives, we constructed a hypothetical woman who would live the life of a typical woman in the village. This is the story they told about that woman. Maria is 18 years old. She is single. She is pregnant. The father of her unborn child was only passing through the village. He left the village when he found out she was pregnant. When she became pregnant, she told her mother first. Her mom was not upset with her. Maria's father, on the other hand, was irrate with both his daughter and his wife. Maria was worried. During her pregnancy, Maria continued to live at home. She hoped for a boy because a boy can eventually work and make money. If she could choose, she would have her baby boy born in March because the holiday San Jose (Father's day) is in March.

Maria did have a boy and because she birthed a boy, and not a girl, the midwife fed her chicken soup. If the baby had been a girl, she would have been deprived of this comfort. There was a celebration when the boy was born. Maria's aunts and other family members rejoiced. If it had been a girl, they would have been angry with her. Because Maria birthed a boy, she must pay 100 Lempiras. If she had birthed a baby girl, she would have paid 50 Lempiras (because girls are only worth half as much as boys). Maria named her baby boy Jose. Jose cannot be baptized becasue he does not have two parents in the community.

Jose didn't go to school because, as a single mom, Maria didn't have the money to pay for the uniforms and books required to go to school. Maria continues to live at home with her parents and work in the fields. One year later, Maria became pregnant again. This time she had a little girl, Isabel. Maria co-habitates with the father of Isabel, Mario, who is 5 years older than her. He is always drunk - wasting the family food budget on booze. Mario takes care of Maria and her two children (note - if Maria's first child had been a girl, Mario would not have adopted her into his family - the little girl would have had to stay with her grandparents). Isabel is able to go to school because Maria now has money to send her to school. She only attends school till the 3rd grade. That is when girls stop going to school and begin helping at home. At 10 years of age, Isabel helps to sweep the floors, make the tortillas, wash the clothes, and care for her siblings. The babies must always be held - there is no cradle or pin to set them in. If she has free time, she plays in the house.

At 10 years of age, Jose has his first sexual experience. His father or his brothers take him to another community to find a woman. At 12 years of age, Jose works in the fields and collects firewood. When Jose has free time he plays soccer.

At 14 years of age, Isabel begins menstruating and she thinks she is hemmoraging. She doesn't tell her mother. She is too scared. Menstration is not something that mothers and daughters discuss. Some women know so little biology that they get pregnant and don't understand how or why. She marries at age 15. She is pregnant almost every year until she is 45 (when she can no longer get pregnant). She must have 7-10 children survive. She does not want so many children because her health begins to fail after so many pregnancies. But, the priests tell her she must as many as she can. Two of her children die in childhood due to pneumonia or diarrhea. Isabel, like Maria, has no knowledge of family planning. She knows the Catholic Church allows the rhythm method, but she doesn't know what it entails (and besides, she has no access to thermometers and she cannot deny her husband pleasure). Frequently women die in childbirth.

Isabel goes to bed every night at 9pm and wakes at 3am to start the fire. She never has free time. Rest is defined as work that can be done sitting down. She loves church because that is her time to rest and socialize with other women. Isabel can't read, but Mario can. She wishes that she could read.

Maria, like her daughter, Isabel dies at age 55.

Isabel hopes for three things. She hopes her daughters will wait till they are 18 to marry. She hopes for a library for the community. She hopes for better nutrition for her children.