Concrete is the choice material for building houses in Honduras: cinder block or poured concrete. Our house in Tegucigalpa is made of poured concrete, including the internal walls. Canadian houses are made of wood and drywall.

The big difference is what you use to paint concrete as opposed to drywall. What Honduran builders use is a white powder mixed with water. The dry solution dissolves when water is applied to it.

I hadn’t given it any thought, of course, until I spilled my tea on the wall in the front entryway. I immediately went to wash it off and found paint coming off with the tea. Fortunately for me, the spill was behind a hall cabinet, so I dried off the wall and hid the bare patch behind the cabinet. In any case, the paint under the white hall paint was white, so not a big deal.

A few months later, in the kitchen, I had another spill. Black beans on the kitchen wall. Forearmed with the knowledge of the white powder paint, I scrubbed gently. Little did I know, that some previous resident had painted their kitchen red. As you can see above, it is quite something.

I’ve since gone to the hardware store and picked up some powder paint. I’ll let you know how many coats it takes.