I think Honduras is the first country I've come across about which I've realised that I knew almost nothing, apart from the most basic facts - where it was, the name of the capital city ( though not how to pronounce it ! ) and that the official language is Spanish.
So in preparing for my interview with Diana, who, with her husband, are the only Hondurans in Tasmania ( unless there are some hiding elsewhere on the island somewhere ), I thought I had better do a bit of research about Honduras so that I would be better informed.
As with all the interviews, I've done, I always ended up learning all sorts of interesting bits of infotmation and I'm a sucker for trivia. For example, the term "Banana Republic" was first attributed to Honduras, in the 70s I believe when the coutry was dominated by the infamous United Fruit Company and was heavily dependent on banana exports. It was also interesting to learn from both my own research and talking to Diana that there were some parallels with Tasmania - both are very mountainous with heavily rainforested, remote areas. But of course, Honduras's rainforest is tropical.
However, it wasn't these little factoids about Honduras that were the most interesting part of my conversation with Diana. I think for me the most interesting thing was her experiences of working in a bottle shop in Hobart for the first two years she was here., especially given that it was during what was perhaps the most intense stage of the covid pandemic in Tasmania.
Working in such an environment gave Diana the opportunity to learn about all sorts of surprising aspects of Tasmanian/Australian culture and get a unique perspective that many newcomers would probably never experience. And of course, alcohol is quite an important part of life for many Australians, as we discussed in this episode with some humour ! To be honest, the Hondurans attitude to alcohol during their lockdown ( they just didn't drink rather than buying a years' supply of champagne), seemed much more like what I did, and much more sensible !