¿Y cómo?

Let me tell you a little bit about the phrase "y cómo." Y cómo literally means “and how,” but it’s not at all used in the same manner as it’s sometimes used in English (which is more of an upbeat exclamation). Y cómo is the question people ask after talking about a bad or hopeless situation, and I find it quite representative of the resigned mentality of many people who live here. Example: a woman tells me she has an awful pain in her knees, but ¿y cómo? i.e. what can I do? I can’t afford going to the health center, and even if I could they’d probably just misdiagnose me and send me off with a bag full of expired medicine. Another example: the bus fare to Taulabé has risen from 13Lps to a whopping 20Lps in only 6 months. But ¿y cómo? i.e. nobody’s going to say anything about it, and the community certainly won’t organize to meet with the bus owner, so we’ll just have to deal with the higher price.

Last example: when I came back to San José on the bus I was shocked to find the condition of the main road has been rendered nearly impassible. We’re in the beginning of the rainy season, which means a lot of rain especially for us in the Lake area. Added to this the widespread deforestation and you’ve got soil that easily erodes. Rivers crest, rocks tumble, trees and power lines fall. Add the fact that repairs to roads take an incredibly long time to happen, if at all, and you’ve got some terrible road conditions that will likely remain for the long-term. We passed about 3 points in the road where I really didn’t think we’d make it without blowing a tire or breaking down. I sat there as we crawled at a snail’s pace, fording streams and driving over logs and branches, and my natural American inclination to get upset started to rise up in me. I’ve been here over 18 months so you’d think this wouldn’t happen anymore, but I don’t know, it’s always been programmed in me to be bothered by delays, or bad road conditions, or I guess fording rivers in a minibus. I started to think of standard phrases that I would here so often in D.C. during my hellish commute if ever there were a delay: “You’ve got to be kidding me,” “For the love of God,” “Unbelievable,” “Oh COME OOOOOOOOONNNNN.” Then the “y cómo” phrase popped in my head and I immediately calmed down. I can see why Hondurans can seem so complacent. It really is a huge weight off your mind when you just shrug your shoulders about everything. I mean, it would’ve been such a waste of energy had I actually gotten mad about a bus ride I had to be on. What would my other options have been? It’s the only road into San José and the only bus that goes there. Yeah, the ride was slow, and irritating, and a little dangerous, but what could I do? ¿Y cómo? I can see why the phrase is so popular.

So I turned to the old man sitting next to me and we both said the other incredibly popular Honduran phrase, “Qué barbaridad, (what barbarity!!!)” then sat back and took a snooze. I dreamed of the beautifully paved streets of the States, and potholes that are quickly filled… and of sitting in traffic on the beltway with thousands of angry motorists honking their horns and trying to vie for a spot to drive in the emergency lane. In the end, as great as it´d be to live in a country where things are efficient and make sense, I think there is something to be said for y cómo.