As you cross the bridge connecting Roatan proper to Fantasy Island, two bags of sliced Coleman Bakery sandwich loaves sit on the passenger seat of your pickup truck, a white motor dory is approaching from the West. A single figure is on board, and you give a friendly honk of the truck horn. This he returns with a casual wave as the motor dory goes beneath the bridge. The wake spreads evenly behind him in the calm water; the dory soon slows as it approaches a wall of mangroves just beyond the key where Coco View is situated.

Suddenly the engine is cut, and the figure stands. With a hand-made paddle he eases the now quiet and gliding dory to the smallest clearing at the base of the mangroves, with your eyes squinted, you can distinguish a small and unpainted wharf.

Depending on which islander you might ask, this man was going to tend his “planting grounds”, or “plantation”, or “grounds”, which was located “up in the bush”. While it is anyone’s guess exactly what he was tending, it could have been a selection of any of the following: rows of sucker trees of plantains, bananas or apple bananas, patches of watermelons or pumpkins, cassava (yuca), sweet or Irish potatoes, taroo (malanga), or mutton peppers. He might also own a good number of cattle, which he would butcher periodically and sell in town.

Wake spreads evenly behind him in the calm water.

As to which islanders farmed their property, the answer would vary according to when the question was asked. “Back in the day, it seemed almost everyone had a piece of land up in the bush that they planted. Some had big grounds, and others small grounds.” A snapshot from French Harbour in the 1970s would include those who accessed their property either by paddle or motor dory, as well as by truck or motorcycle, if you owned one then there were those who would walk from town, an empty crocus sack and a machete across their shoulder, accessing their planting grounds from an entrance to the barbed wire fences along the dirt highway.

Many a time while traveling the highway one would come across a truck or motorcycle parked along the side, abandoned while its owner worked his property. I can still picture Banegas going down the road on his motorcycle, headed to his ground, his eight or nine-year old son sitting behind him with one hand firmly around Banegas’ stomach and the other holding a green and white can of Baygon insect repellent.

There was also the islander who owned no property to tend, with Mr. Cleveland Tennyson of Pandy Town in Oak Ridge coming to mind. “Uncle Cle”, who weighed in the palms of his hands the tomatoes he sold from his paddle dory, leased a large piece of property up behind Oak Ridge Point know as Reynolds Flat. Challenges that this resourceful gentleman dealt with included salt spray coming in from the reef during windy and rough weather. The spray one year killed a considerable part of his crop that was planted too close to the shoreline. And being near town, Uncle Cle’s watermelon patch would often be raided. Having had enough of these raids, he began holding nighttime watches with a borrowed shotgun until the night the watermelon thieves again showed up. He emerged from his hiding place as the thieves, mere teenage boys, settled in to enjoy themselves. “Don’t kill us, Uncle Cle!” Far be it from him to have hurt anyone, but Uncle Cle made each of the boys eat an entire watermelon selected from the very largest in the patch. Rind, skin, seeds and all.

The Melancholic Oak Ridge Cay has almost Two centuries of History

Indeed, Oak Ridge Cay is unlike any other place on Roatan. Here, people don’t lock their front doors. It is a sizable cay with around 40 houses and no bridge connecting it to the main island. Most people like it that way. “Here it’s quiet. I have the loveliest neighbors,” says Debra Sellers, one of the cays half a dozen foreign residents.

Most everyone here understands the intricacies of living on a flat, limited space, exposed to the elements. As the sea tide comes up, things get tricky, and people typically don’t mind if someone uses their dock to access their property.

“September tides” are the year’s highest tides, which periodically flood the cay, especially its eastern portion. Once called Curtis Point, this area is now referred to as Mission Point by the locals. “Now, in October and November, you still get the tides,” says Mr. Miguel. The end of the year is when the eastern wind brings in plenty of heavy logs, plastics, and other floating debris, depositing them all over the cay.

Across from the canal, the increasingly busy Pandy Town is intersected by a road frequented by vehicles navigating its dead-end street. Many people from Oak Ridge Cay prefer to keep things quiet and simple. It’s Roatan’s most populated cay, but it doesn’t have a bridge connecting it to the main island. The cay acts as a natural barrier, which has turned the cay into a sort of time capsule.

The history of Oak Ridge Cay began with the first settlers around 170 years ago. The first inhabitant was Thomas Alexander Cooper, born in Belize in 1834. “He had his home on the cay and all his descendants lived on the Cay,” says Keila Thompson, native islander and history researcher.

Cooper’s older brother John purchased 354 Acres from the British Crown sometime in 1850s -a surviving document refers to having the property re-measured in 1859. Thompson said that John Cooper most likely gave Oak Ridge Cay, the Point, and Pandy Town to his younger brother as a gift.

Over the last 170 years, properties on the cay have been sold and resold numerous times. Today, approximately 40 houses stand on the cay. There are about half a dozen Americans living there, and the presence of fences is increasing, with many being tall, chain-link, and strong. “Everybody didn’t used have fences,” said Keila Thompson Gaugh. “Everybody was family.” Wooden and chain-link fences divide the cay into increasingly smaller portions – the largest open area is just north of the Reef House. On the cay, everything is private property, except for the road, which is a common asset used by all cay residents.

The cay once had a population of agoutis but Mr. Miguel suspects they were hunted to extinction by the locals… Now, there are none. However, there are quite a few domesticated animals: dogs, cats, and some cay residents keep chickens and pigs for food. The cay never had any cows, sheep, or goats. There were also iguanas and Roatan island agoutis. “The dogs learned how to live with them. The people got them,” said Mr. Miguel.

First inhabitant was Thomas Alexander Cooper.

The Cay is dotted with old, wooden homes, weathered by time, wind, and use. Several of these older homes date back to the 1960s and 70s. The stilts of these old homes are made out of sunwood, dogwood, iron dogwood, and craboo wood. “They last a long time,” says Mr. Miguel.

A few years back, a public wharf at the east end of the cay served the community, but it has since weathered and disintegrated over time. Now, the only public spaces accessible to and shared by all are the road and the sea. Couple bicycles can be spotted on what the Caytons refer to as “the road,” but motorcycles are not welcome. The cay features many boats and plenty of private docks. There are two concrete wharfs jetting south, built over shallow coral, projecting into the sea.

Oak Ridge Cay is not as bustling and full of life as it was just a couple of decades ago. There were a couple of stores on the island in the 1980s and 90s, and maybe a school or two. “The last store that operated on the Cay was the Unicorn… but that burned down,” said Mr. De la Cruz. His mother, America Bodden de la Cruz, had the last small store on the Cay until it closed 2005.

Two “old heads” reside on the island: Mr. Miguel De La Cruz, 100, and Mrs. Lita Bodden, 84. De La Cruz was born in Mexico and has lived in Roatan since 1958. He is the Cay’s oldest resident, and lives in a modest wooden house on the far eastern side of the Cay, where he is taken care of by his son and daughter-in-law. Bodden is the Cay’s second oldest resident and came to Oak Ridge Cay form Guanaja when she was 12.

In 1960s and 70s, Oak Ridge Cay was a hive of activity. The heart of the Cay centered around the sand volleyball court, complete with two bleachers. “A lot of tournaments went on here,” remembers Mr. Miguel. The volleyball court, also the highest point of the cay, is located on Oak Ridge Cay’s western end.

In late 1960s, several Americans moved to the Cay. Gene Isbel, from Tampa, founded the Oak Ridge Chapel sometime in the late 1960s. “She was in the process of building a school when [hurricane] Francelia came and knocked it down,” says Mr. Miguel.

Several houses were swept across the channel to Pandy Town. A category 3 hurricane, Francelia passed south of Bay Islands in the early days of September 1969. A majority of the houses in Oak Ridge, French Harbour, and Coxen Hole were damaged and destroyed by the high tide. Several hundred families were made homeless.

Reef House dive resort has been catering to visitors on the cay since late 1960s. Bill Kepper came to the island in 1968 and built the resort as a fishing and diving destination. Kepper was Reef House’s original owner. Today, Reef House has a 10 rooms. Expats from the east of the island gather there for drinks and live music on Fridays.

Ms. Sissy James arrived with a Christian Pentecostal mission and built a school. Another American named Mrs. Gale Hutton started a health clinic that provided services in the late 1960s and 70s. Writer and map maker Ann Jennings lived on the Cay in 1970s as well.

For a very long time, Oak Ridge Cay was home to a busy school called Joseph L. Gough school, until 1978. “It served both Cay and Pandy Town,” says Mr. Miguel. The María Aurelio Soto School in Pandy town replaced it.

Is dotted with old, wooden homes, weathered by time.

“When Francelia hit in September 1969, a two story school building was swept across to the other side [Pandy Town],” says Miguel de la Cruz. Hurricane Greta in 1978 was also not kind to the cay. In nine years, Roatan and Oak Ridge Cay suffered three major hurricanes.

The hurricanes had a dramatic impact not only on the way people lived, but also on the flora of the cay. “This place used to have a lot of sage bush when I was a kid,” remembered Mr. Miguel. “Hurricanes took them out.”

Until the 1990s, the Cay was dotted with coconut trees until the lethal yellowing disease reached Roatan. More than 90 percent of Roatan’s coconut palms (Cocos nucifera L.) were affected and died gradually. This saddened the local community a great deal. Affected trees would prematurely lose their coconuts, followed by yellowing leaves and, eventually, the death of the palm.

The original coconut palms were tall, skinny, and often bent with plenty of personality. These palms also produced a superior coconut, characterized by more white meat, which made them ideal for producing coconut oil. Only a few of the original big coconut trees survived. They are much taller than the coconuts that are now grown on the cay and around the island. “I’m talking about tall, real tall,” says Mr. Miguel. They are much better to use in making coconut oil.

As coconut palms and sage disappeared over the last thirty years, the Oak Ridge Cay also eroded into the sea. The erosion was worse on the southern side, where the cay lost about 1/3 acre, and on its eastern side, where it lost a quarter acre. The cay is now a bit lower, making it more susceptible to flooding and exposed to strong eastern winds and tides. With the decline of the king coconuts, wind-borne seedlings of the Australian Pine (Casuarina) took root and are now prolific on the Cay. This tree species is invasive and often destructive, but according to Helen Murphy, island expat and professional gardener, it does help with soil stabilization.

In 1960s and 70s, Oak Ridge Cay was a hive of activity.

In the salty air and poor sandy soil of the Cay, not many trees thrive. Still, there are many new coconuts, almond trees, sea grape tree, and cocoplums. The cay also hosts a mango tree and, incredibly, two date palms situated right on the water’s edge on its southern side. According to Mr. Miguel, the date palm seedlings were brought by one of the islanders who worked on boats in the Middle East.

Physical remnants – or at least lingering memories – of buildings and businesses that thrived on Oak Ridge Cay decades ago still remain. One such establishment was the Unicorn store, run by Mrs. Lurlene Cooper de McNab from the early 1970s until 1993, when it caught fire and burned down. More recently, the San José Motel, located on the channel facing Pandy Town, was demolished. This motel, with six rooms, served as lodging for salespeople coming to Oak Ridge. It was knocked down in 2022.

Crossing the sea to get to class

By crossing from one side of the island to the other, those children risked falling in the sea and losing their books and, in a worst case scenario, their lives: and because of these risks, some parents were reluctant to send their children to school, choosing instead to keep them at home, and as a result, a generation of children of Pandy Town did not learn to properly read or write in Spanish, the Honduras official language.

“Though most the children of Pandy Town learn to swim at an early age, some of the parents were afraid of sending their children to school because they had to cross the sea in dories to get to the school house” says Virginia Hernandez, a local business woman whose parent sent her to la Ceiba to complete her primary studies.

In the mid to late 70s, there were plans to build a bridge between Pandy Town and Oak Ridge Cay that are separated by approximately 20 feet at its closest point and 40 to 50 at its longest, but the mostly white residents of the cay, who were considered well off, refused the building of the bridge that would have connected the two community, thus making it easier for the kids of Pandy Town to get to the school house.

There were plans to build a bridge between Pandy Town and Oak Ridge Cay.

“They were going to build a bridge, but the people on the cay didn’t want it” said Edith Dilbert, a former student of the Marco Aurelio School that was located on the Oak Ridge Cay.

In addition to traveling across the sea to get to school, the children of Pandy Town also had to face the issue of language barrier; English was spoken at home and Spanish at school and most of the teachers that taught at the school did not speak the language of the students, who were fumbling and failing their classes, but being sent to the next grade in spite of the fact that they were not prepared to move to the next level.

“I made it to the third grade and am still not sure how I got there” said Joonel Solórzano, “We would copy whatever was on the black board, but we did not understand it because we did not speak Spanish and our teacher did not speak our language.”

Building of the Marco Aurelio Soto School

In the early 80´s a more appropriate school building was to be constructed in Pandy Town, but because there we no land on which to build, the new school building was diverted to downtown Oak Ridge. The two-story building would have, in addition to offices, six different class room that would house each grade separately, instead of cramming everyone in the same room as it was done in the previous school.

“Because most of the children attending Marco Aurelio school was from our community, when they decided to build a bigger school, is was to be placed in Pandy Town, but no one wanted to give land to build the school”, said Mrs. Thelma Almendarez, a community activist and a former council member of the municipal corporation of Santos Guardiola, “And some of the elders argued that it was best to put the school on the other side so the black children could mix with the white”.

The bad news, however, was that this new and much needed school would be built in Down Town Oak Ridge, an area known to locals living in Pandy Town as (the other side). The children of Pandy Town would have to travel even further to get to the school house and some parents were even more reluctant to send their children to this new school, but there was no other option.

The new school named “Escuela Marco Aurelio Soto” built on the other side was to provide the children of Oak Ridge, mostly of Pandy Town, as most of the kids from down town oak Ridge attended a nearby private school) with a more appropriate learning environment; however this was a difficult task because, even though the national language in Honduras is Spanish, the primary language throughout the Bay Islands back then was English.

Children who were not sent to Spanish school (the educational system in Honduras provided a Spanish only curriculum was instead sent to English school at the home of local teacher who wanted to keep the English language alive.

One such teacher was Mrs. Rose Pouchie McKenzie for whom the school in Pandy Town would eventually be named. “Aunt Rose would even teach some of the children for free” said Elda Pouchie.

The teachers working at the Marco Aurelio School, who were assigned the task of educating the children of Oak Ridge, were brought from the mainland and they spoke no English. The students spoke little to no Spanish making teaching and learning a difficult task for both the teachers and the students, and again, some of the students were being sent to grades that they were not ready to attend.

Extensions of the Marco Aurelio Soto in Pandy Town

Throughout the 80`s, there were extensions of the Marco Aurelio school proving classes to the generation of citizen who were not able to attend the school house on Oak Ridge Cay for one reason or another, but the school age children of Pandy Town continued hustling their way to class in dories and speed boats to the school in Down Town Oak Ridge.

In the mid 80`s Mr. Brimley, a resident of Pandy Town fitted a large boat with a small engine and offered to transport the kids of Pandy Town to the school building on the other side, as Downtown Oak is referred to by the resident of Pandy Town. Mr. Brimley did this for a few years and did not get back support and eventually he stopped and for the children of one of the oldest communities in Santos Guardiola, and back then, the community with the largest number of children attending public school, back to hustling their way to school.

As if the Marco Aurelio Primary school was not far enough, once completing the 6th grade, the children of Pandy Town had to travel to Jonesville to attend middle school or Plan Básico, again, traveling in dories or speed boats; and even longer ride compare to the travel from Pandy Town to Down town Oak Ridge.

Almost 40 years after the Marco Aurelio School was built, in Downtown Oak Ridge, the children of Pandy Town were still facing educational disadvantages and waiting for a school to be built in their community, which would affect their learning and their opportunity for a better life.

In the early 2000, an extension of the Marco Aurelio Soto institution was once again installed in Pandy Town, offering first grade only in space rented private home. Later that same year 2nd and 3rd grade was added to the program and the school was translated to the Methodist church in Pandy Town.

“An extension of the Marco Aurelio was placed in Pandy Town and the municipal helped us by providing and paying for two school teachers” said Vicky Leticia Sanchez Pandy, the first director of the Rosabella McKenzie Bilingual School.

Fighting to Establish a School in P. Town

In 2002, a group of local women, including Mrs. Rosabella McKenzie, decided that it was time for the school in Pandy Town to become independent and severe it connection from the Marco Aurelio School, they form a commission, got organized, presented a request to the Department of Education in Coxen Hole, Roatan, thus their long journey of established and school in Pandy Town begun, but not without difficulties and opposition.

The opposition came from the direction of the Marco Aurelio School and the director of the Dionisio Herrera School in oak Ridge Bight; they feared that their matriculation number would drop. “The director of the Marco Aurelio School and the Dionisio was against Pandy Town getting a school. He was fearful of his matriculation dropping, since most of the student attending that public school was from Pandy Town” said Elda Martinez a local teacher and community activist.

The request for a school in Pandy Town sat in the school district office in Roatan for years, going from the top of the heap to the bottom and back again. “Each time it reached the bottom, I would take it back to the top”, said Leticia Pandy, and (EIB) Intercultural Bilingual Education Teacher.

One of the problems with getting the school built in Pandy Town was that each time after election, the district employees would be replaced, based on the winning party, and this bureaucracy prevented the request for a school in Pandy Town to be noticed.

In 2007, a new school district director, seeing the need, and having the assistance of Leticia Pandy, an Intercultural Bilingual teacher from Pandy Town, who was back then a secretary at the school district office, decided to look at the request.

The Rosabella McKenzie Bilingual public school was finally approved in 2008 and that same years in June, Vicky Leticia Sanchez Pandy, who had previously worked in the educational district office and was instrumental in getting the school approved, become the teacher and first director of the school, giving classes to all 6 grade-1-3 in the morning and 4-6 in the evening, but that was only part of the journey.

According to Vicky Leticia Sanchez Pandy “It was hard teaching all six grades, three in the morning and three in the evening, but I had support of at least two of the parent who was always there with me, bringing food and offering support”

The following year, the municipality office of Santos Guardiola provided the school with two teachers, the matriculation increased and the fight to get a building began.

Building a School in Pandy Town

Between 2009 and 2017, there were offers from public and private institutions to build a school for the children of Pandy Town, but for different reasons, including the lack of land on which to build along with some political issues, the school was never built.

Mrs. Charles Sutherland, from Canada, raised funds to build a school for the student of the Rosabella McKenzie, and for years he tried, along with some community activists to make this happen, but because of the lack of land on which to build, some political issues and other factors, the building was never constructed.

Besides Mr. Sutherland, there were other philanthropist, organizations and institutions that attempted to purchase properties and build a school in the community of Pandy Town, however, finding adequate property on which to build had always been a problem.

Ten years after the Rosabella McKenzie school, named for a local English teacher who was a proponent of education and one of the local women who fought so that the children of Pandy Town would have their own school was established, and approximately 8 years of being housed in an old building rented from the Methodist church, a building was to be constructed for the children of Pandy Town.

In the early months of 2018, School the world was contacted by a member of the community of Pandy Town about the need for a new school and they responded almost immediately. After meeting with the mayor of Santos Guardiola, who was responsible for part of the building, and the community, who had to also be part of this three-way partnership, it was agreed upon to that the building of the Rosabella McKenzie school building.

In June of 2018, after much struggle and obstacle, the first building of three class rooms was completed, in a combined effort between School the World, the municipality of Santos Guardiola and the community of Pandy Town providing the labor, the children of Pandy Town had its first school building.

A few months later, another nonprofit organization, specifically (CEPUDO), via the municipality approved another three classrooms building for the children of Pandy Town, again with the land being acquired in part by the mayor of Santos Guardiola and in part by the community, the second building was completed in August of the same year and in September, the children was in their new building.

The future of the children of Pandy Town

Thanks to School the World, mayor Carson Dilbert and the municipal corporation of Santos Guardiola, CEPUDO and members of the local patronato and of the community members and the former and present directors of the Rosabella McKenzie School, for the first time in history, Pandy Town, one of the oldest communities on the east side of Roatan, has its own school. The children of Pandy no longer have to travel outside their community to receive classes, the disadvantages are less, and their future looks a little brighter.

Roatan’s East Side Looks Towards Brighter Future

Santos Guardiola, is the largest in area of the four municipalities on the Bay Islands. It did not always exist in the obscurity it finds itself now, but was once a thriving fishing community with more fishing vessels than any other municipality in Honduras.

“I remember Oak Ridge harbor being busy with fishing and cargo boats in and out all day long,” said Joonel Solórzano, whose stepfather owned the popular Blue Bayou restaurant overlooking Oak Ridge Harbor.

Established in 1960 and named for one of Honduras former president, S.G. boasted a dry dock that kept local fishing fleet in top shape and a seafood factory that exported its goods to the US and employed hundreds of workers from all over the island.

Santos Guardiola has lived in the shadow of its little sister.

Decades ago, Santos Guardiola was also the center of entertainment. “Back then, we were able to party for days with no problem and there were no crimes to worry about,” said Zelda Nixon, a resident of Pandy Town. Santos Guardiola was also home to several popular bars and restaurant including the famous and now defunct, Casa Grande in Pandy Town. There was also Happy Landing on Oak Ridge Point and Blue Bay restaurant on Lawrence Hill, Oak Ridge.

Compared to its sister municipality on the west, Santos Guardiola has been struggling when it comes to growth, development and finding its own identity. Santos Guardiola has lived in the shadow of its little sister to the west for years, however, S.G is slowly moving out of obscurity and back into its own light.

Created in 1960, the youngest municipality in the Bay Islands has seen a resurgence of old businesses and the upsurge of new ones. Super Economico, a supermarket in Oak Ridge, near the bus stop, opened its doors in January of 2017. “My father liked the area because of the land and sea proximity,” said Claudia Ramirez who helps run her family business.

With steady growth and construction taking place on the Roatan’s east, the building supply and hardware chain, Madeyso, inaugurated a store in Pandy Town, in June of 2017. The store employs 10 workers from the area. “We opened a store in Santos Guardiola because we had more clients on the east of Roatan than anywhere else,” said Jolanie Romero, a sales adviser working with the company since 2013. “It was difficult to cover all the [eastern] communities requesting material such as Diamond Rock, Pandy Town, and Camp Bay, in one day.”

In 2015 the petroleum company Texaco opened its first gas station in S.G. at the entrance of Oak Ridge. In summer of 2019 BIP (Bay Islands Petroleum) and Circle K convenient store opened facilities in Jonesville.

In the last five years the municipality has been paving and improving roads all over the area, as small businesses continue to hit the economic trail on the east. “I was motivated to open my restaurant because of the changes taking place”, said Kislen Dilbert, owner of Island flavor restaurant in Politilly Bight. “The roads are better, which allow people to come to the east without wrecking their cars,” pointed out the former Justice of Peace for the municipality of Santos Guardiola. Happy Landing bar, on Oak Ridge Point and Henry’s Cove Resort and restaurant, in Punta Gorda, both re-penned after years of hibernation.

The growth and development have reached as far as Saint Helena, a once forgotten Santos Guardiola outpost.
This sleepy island was recently the recipient of one of the largest educational centers on the east end, it acquired community wide electricity for the first time provided by RECO, and it’s now home to the first concrete built municipal community dock in Santos Guardiola.

With all the development taking place and plans to build the first cruise ship dock on the east, the municipality of Santos Guardiola seems to be coming into its own fifth year. “If we prepare ourselves, tourism could have a huge effect on our community,” says Alex Avila, councilman for tourism and owner of Mamery Garinagu Center in Punta Gorda. “There are negative aspects of tourism, but if we are creative, make use of our natural resources, it could make the tourism industry on this end sustainable, we should be Ok”

The closing of the municipalities’ only banking 2018, had some negative effect on businesses. “The closing of Banco Atlántida has affected our business, but we are still here thanks to the support of some loyal clients that appreciates our services. To provide even more convenience to them, we convinced Ficohsa bank to open a stall in our building,” said Claudia Ramirez.

Wendy Gale, president of the patronato of Camp Bay, believes that with the building of the new cruise ship dock, banks will return and so will other businesses.

Councilwomen, Genie Hernandez says that “tourism is going to be good for S.G., but it’s important to have control so it doesn’t get out of hand; with development comes responsibility.”

The municipal office has also benefited from the changes; it helped increase; its tax revenue. It increased from 32 million Lempiras yearly to 52 million Lempiras in 2017, which has allowed for more municipal funded projects to be completed. The latest of which is the renovation of the old lighthouse in Oak Ridge, a reminder of Santos Guardiola’s prosperous past.

With things looking up for the east end of Roatan, it seems that the municipality might be regaining its place in the economical realm of the Bay Islands and finally moving out of the shadow of its little sister, and back where it once was.

“Rebecca’s Table was started because I saw the need in the community” says Mrs. Betty Mesa, head of the program since its inception in 2004. “Everyone that comes to Roatan sees the paradise, no one sees behind the scenes where there’s much need”, she says. “When we first moved to the Bight no one wanted to be here because there were no roads and no resources, now it’s a great place to live” she explains.

The idea to start the children’s meal program came from Pastor Harriet of the Oak Ridge Chapel Church on Oak Ridge Cay. “Back in 2004 Pastor Harriet asked me to start a feeding program that would provide food for the children once a month, I agreed, and with L.400 lempira we embarked on the journey of feeding the children”, says the leader of Crusadas del Evangelio Church in Oak Ridge Bight.

For the first two years of the program, Mrs. Mesa and a couple of volunteers from the church cooked the meals at her home in Pandy Town, they would then hire a taxi dory to take them to the Bight where, on the street, they would feed the children that came looking for a meal.

In 2005, a young man from the US by the name of Howard Lee Rey who was teaching English at an institution connected to Oak Ridge Chapel befriended one of Mrs. Mesa’s two daughters and offered to help by providing L.1, 500 lempiras monthly so that more children could receive food and so that they could be served once a week instead of once a month.

“The hardest thing for me is to see a hungry child,” says Mrs. Mesa. “After the amount of children we were feeding increased, I would sometimes spend the money for the electricity to buy more food.” Seeing the need for additional provision to meet the needs, Howard Lee offered enough money to feed an additional 50 children; breakfast on Wednesdays and lunch on Fridays. Before going back to the US, the young man asked if building a dining area would enable the program to continue to expand. “I told him: ‘If someone could build a kitchen I could start cooking in the neighborhood and not have to travel with pots and pans from my home in Pandy Town.”

In 2005, with a donation of $20,000 dollars from Mr. Lee’s parents back in the US, 5,000 Lempiras of their own, and the help of 17 members of a Methodist church in Alabama, Mrs. Betty Mesa along with her late husband, Mr. Jesus Mesa, started to built the kitchen and dining room that would serve the children eating at the newly christened, Rebecca’s Table, named in memory Rebecca Neal Norvell, Mr. Howard Lees best friend, who died in an accident in 2002. Rebecca loved children and in her honor, her parent provide $400 dollars monthly to help keep the meal program going and they try to visit the center each year. At a cost of Lps. 2,000-3,000 weekly, Rebeccas Table feeds from 100 to 150 kids every Wednesday afternoon. On special occasions such as Children’s Day and Christmas Day, and during the first week of school when breakfast is served instead of lunch, the cost of the program can run well over Lps. 5,000 for the week.

The walls of Rebecca’s Kitchen are lined with decorative paintings created by Rebecca’s mother, and there’s a picture of Rebecca, age 22, on one of the walls. She would, no doubt, have been proud of the work being done in her name.

Pandy Town is a Gold Mine of Talented Athletes

At 15 years of age, Quinn was spotted by a recruiter and taken to San Pedro Sula as a third division reserve player. He remained with Real España for two years before moving back to Pandy Town where he received the best advice from then coach, Orlando Lopez. “If you learn to manage your temper, it will make you a better player, if you play angry, anyone can beat you,” said Pinnace. Quinn says that his father has also warned him about his temper and about the importance of “air”. “My father said that ‘if you don’t have air, a child could beat you in soccer’”, so he tries to stay healthy to keep up with his game. There is no doubt that for Quinn, as for most young men in Pandy Town, around the island, and all over Honduras, sports, especially soccer, are a big deal. Participating in sports also helps these young men better control their tempers. Pinnace also plays basketball, a game at which he is very proficient, but confesses that soccer is his first love when it comes to sports.

Besides being born in a town where most everyone plays soccer, Quinn was also born to a family of accomplished soccer players. His father Alexander Pinnace, was once one of the best players in Santos Guardiola, and was also recruited to play with España at one point in his career. He also happens to be the grandson of one of the best goalies who ever played in Pandy Town back in the 70s and 80s. As fate and genes would have it, and despite the limited resources and opportunities available to island players, it was almost impossible for Quinn to not become a great player himself. Currently the center-forward player for the Oak Ridge Strikers, Quinn has also played with the Warriors, a Pandy Town team that was sold and now plays out of Juticalpa, and with the under seventeen national team when it was required.

“When you talk about high level players, you have many including Quinn Pinnace”, says Luis Alvarado, one of Quinn’s first coaches. “Pandy Town is a mine of talented players that you will not find in any other part of Honduras, but they have the tendency to ignore the rules.”

Quinn understands that following one’s dream and being up there with the best takes preparation, commitment, and sacrifice. “Love, dedication, and passion for the game makes a good player” says the young man from Pandy Town who still has hopes of making his dreams of playing in a major league a reality.

Miss Vornie Pandy on the stairs leading to her home.

88 Years of Pandy Town Memories

At 89 she is strong and gets by easily without a cane or a chair. Her short term memory seems to be fading, but her long term memory is as sharp as a razor. She recalls some of her most vivid childhood memories of when she was growing up in Pandy Town: “Growing up was fun,” she says. “We didn’t have running water or electricity, but we made do. I remember the whole town gathering at Bill Pandy’s place to listen to the Joe Louis fight on the only box radio in town.”

As a teenager, Miss Vornie used to travel around the island by boat helping her father Mac Evans Pandy, who worked for the Standard Fruit Company. He graded and purchased coconut and fruits for shipment to the mainland and US. “When my father could not make it, I would drive from one end of the island to the other end buying the best coconuts and fruits” she said.

As a young woman, Vornie launched her own little shop. “I would travel to Belize every November to buy Christmas things to bring to the island to sell,” she said. “On one of my trips I met the [Belizean] prime minister and he had my visa extended from one month to a year.”

I try to live right, clean life. I made mistakes, but I asked God for forgiveness

Miss Vornie was married to Percy Bennett, but never had any children “I would have loved to have children, but it never happened,” she says in a melancholic voice. “But, I raised and helped raise at least 15 children.” She mentions the names of each one of her raised children, including a granddaughter she is currently raising. Some of them were nieces and nephews and grandchildren and she says she would do it all over again if she could.

She taught English school for many years and was one of a handful of educators who taught English to the local kids of Pandy Town and adjacent communities. As a manual she used the royal reader series of lesson books from Belize. “I had all these children and did not see how I could send them to school so I started teaching them and soon all the parent in the community wanted me to teach their kids,” she says. “I love to see children in school, it’s important.”

She does not know the secret of her longevity: “I try to live right, clean life. I made mistakes, but I asked God for forgiveness,” she said. Though she’s has lived this long, Miss Vornie has been at death’s doors a time, or two. When she was in her forties a gasoline stove in her home exploded and burned a significant part of her body. During the ordeal she was pronounced dead on two different occasions, but as fate would have it, she pulled through. The recovery was difficult as she had to have eight surgeries and received a skin graft.

Vornie Pandy Bennett had never drunk a beer, or smoked a single cigarette. She indulges a little, every now and then, on special occasions with a delight. “I do drink a little brandy. Two-three drops in a glass of water,” she says. “It strengthens the body.”