Day 4

Abeula

The beach

In the city

The back yard mango tree


Luckily when I start to type the title my previous titles show up, otherwise I'd have no idea what day it is.

My iPhone doesn't work here (it doesn't even show the correct time) and it seems as though having a wall clock is not common. Therefore I usually base what time it is on the position of the sun (so primitive! Dad, good thing you taught me this!) It's a good thing though, makes the day more relaxing and less stressful!

I came to school tonight to do some studying but didn't get a chance to shower in between going to the beach and now, since Abuelo was taking his long evening shower. So I keep scratching my head and finding my nails filled with sand, or touching my ear and feeling scratchiness. I'm like a cartoon, if I turned my head to the side a waterfall of sand would spill out. 'Dirty' seems to be my typical state while I'm here and I secretly love it!

Obviously I spent the afternoon at the beach and pool again today. We do have to take a taxi there from the school. It's a short ride, but too long to walk, and probably not completely safe. The taxi is only $L20 per person which is $1 each so it's worth it. Monica's Spanish is better than mine so it's nice to have her to help. I also am really enjoying hanging out with her, not sure what I'd do if she weren't here!

I have to mention that for lunch today I had soup. HOT soup. Really? I was sitting drenched in sweat as I spooned it in to my mouth. A cartoon image pops into my head again... Let me also say that this wasn't tomato soup or chicken noodle soup, it was plantain and octopus soup. Yep, you read correctly. As weird as it sounds, it was delicious. I ate the whole bowl, and showered after.

Didn't make it to Porvenir today, I'm just going to go on Sunday. I'll put a few photos here, however they're not the best, but at least you'll have an idea of where I am!!

they showed up on top...dont know how to change that.

xx

Day 3

It's so hot here that sometimes I think my nose is running but it's just sweat dripping off my face.

The weird thing is, no matter how hot I am, a cold shower still feels like a cold shower. My neck is starting to hurt from straining to get my hair in the water and keep my body out. But not to worry, the second the water goes off, I'm sweaty again.

Luckily, there is a lovely breeze on the beach and the water is heavenly. My friend Monika and I went there yesterday and laid under a palm tree (it's too hot to lay in the sun) and swam in the sea. Afterwards we went to the hotel and got a drink and swam in the (really nice) pool there, which is free when you buy a drink. Ironically, we met the Honduran woman who wrote the English books that my program Honduras Children uses. She was there with a volunteer (who is staying with her) and we randomly asked them a question and started talking and made the connection. She had good things to say about the program and said there are 2 Swedish girls and 1 girl from New York arriving next week!

I'm hoping to go to El Porvenir today to meet the people I'll be working with, but I'm waiting to make sure I can get a ride there from Rafael, the director here. In true Hondurian fashion (or so I hear) he is taking his time with making the arrangements.

I am really excited to start working with the kids. I really like my English classes but I have all afternoon free and it's not enough structure. Especially since I don't feel comfortable going places by myself (for safety reasons). I'm also looking forward to meeting the other volunteers there, as there are only a few other people here at the school that I can have a conversation with. I feel really lucky to be moving on because Monica is supposed to be working at a school here and will stay with the same host family for 2 months. They are very greedy and always want to borrow her things and they sometimes don't have food for her. She's pretty positive about it, but I wouldn't want to be in her situation! She also hasn't started at her school yet because Rafael is arranging it for her and, like I said, he is not hasty when it comes to getting things done.

I am still studying a lot and although I'm having trouble processing the info and forming sentences, I am really starting to remember verbs and vocabulary and understand how it will all come together.

I still can't pick up on what "abuela" (my host grandmother) is saying so we can't really talk to each other. Abuelo, however, doesn't even try to speak to me, he just says teases me by saying "Buenas dias" at night time and "buenos noches" in the morning. Neat.

Both grandparents sit at home all day and watch soap operas. They are awake watching TV when I leave in the morning and are awake watching TV when I go to sleep at night. They will prepare a meal, put my plate on the table, and take their own and sit in front of the TV. It's great because I'm really learning some important vocab and phrases from these quality shows.

I am enjoying the lack of vanity here. The family I'm staying with lives so simply and it seems to make life easier. However, (stop reading here if you're squeamish) When laid my head on my pillow last night I felt something in my hair. I started swatting at my head and a cockroach flew out and landed on my bed and then scurried away. I'm cringing as I recall this horrifying experience, but I was very brave and reminded myself how much bigger and scarier I was than the bug and went to sleep.

La cucaracha la cucaracha, I'm NOT so sad to see you go....

Day 2

Alright, I'm going to attempt to fill you guys in about my second day, however I'm sitting in the dark because the boys are watching a movie and the movie is in English and very loud so I'm slightly distracted. Not to mention its very hot!

I had another great day today and although I sweat more in one day than I have in my whole life, I'm still loving it!

My first Spanish lesson was at 7:30. My teacher's name is Leslie, which of course I liked because of my Leslie! Her English is pretty good (she lived in Queens for a year) and she's a great teacher. She was impressed with how much I understood (I was too!) and she kept telling me "you know Spanish!" hmmm, not so sure about that, but positive reinforcement is always helpful. I'm not much of a studier, but I am SO determined to learn Spanish while I'm here that I studied for a combination of about 3 hours today (be proud mom and dad!). I'm looking forward to my lesson tomorrow!

This afternoon, Hector, one of the guys that works at the school, gave a couple other students and I a tour of La Ceiba. I feel much better now that I know the city a little bit and which places I can walk around safely. I was getting a little anxious this afternoon because I felt like I couldn't go anywhere.

Hector showed us Central Park (no relation to the one in NYC), the beach, and a smelly meat market, among other things. Surprisingly, the thing that made me the most nervous was crossing the street. I'm just not sure how to do it without stop lights, white lines, and a flashing red countdown telling me how many second I have to make it across. People just cross when they feel like it, and cars just stop when they feel like it. Should keep things interesting. On the way back we stopped at a smoothie place that uses all fresh fruit from La Ceiba and I had a banana, orange, papaya, and granola smoothie. Granola! Someone needs to start that up in the US!

There were two other people on the tour with us, Kevin, an American, who is here with his wife and two sons, and Monica, who is 22 and from the Netherlands, also volunteering here.

Kevin and his family are here doing missionary work and are basically here indefinitely as they sold their house and belongings back in Louisiana. They are studying at this school for 4 months and then moving to the jungle to help the people in a village there. They live off of donations from the church and people from their home town. His sons are 3 and 6 and will be home-schooled. There are no other children where they are living in the jungle. I'll keep my opinions about that to myself.

Monica seems really cool and we get along really well. I think she will come with me to visit El Porvenir (where I'll be starting next week) but she will stay in La Ceiba for two months.

On the way back from our tour it started pouring so I walked into my host family's house drenched. The little girl, Pamela, said "You shower!" and I said "OR, we can go play in the rain!" So she got a volleyball and we played in the street and jumped in the puddles. Then we took the ball to the field nearby and played there. Two random people asked if they could play with us (which was cute because Pamela didn't know them and they weren't hesitant to join in) and one of them happened to speak perfect English! He learned from watching American TV shows, figures.

After the rain adventure I went home feeling temporarily cool (temperature-wise) and happy to have a clean shirt (since I don't know how I'm supposed to do laundry here).

After dinner and a shower Pamela and I did our homework together. When her mom wasn't watching she would jump up and start braiding my hair, and then as soon as her mom walked by she'd hurry and sit down and pretend to be working hard on her homework. The nanny in me wanted to tell her to finish her homework first, but I figured I'd let her have a little fun (and I didn't know how to tell her in Spanish).

After this I'm going to sleep! The sun is exhausting! I did take a few photos today but they are still on my camera, so hopefully I'll post some manana!

xxD

I made it!

Barely.

Only because when I arrived at the airport this morning at 4:00am, I started digging through my bag for my passport and sheer panic rushed through my body when I realized I couldn't remember putting it in any of my bags. After digging through each of my neatly packed bags, the truth set in and I had a slight heart attack. I had to go back to my apartment, search for it, and come back to the airport by 5:30.

So at 4:20 I ran outside searched for a taxi (which was difficult because it was so early), found one (body drenched with sweat), asked him to drive as fast as he could to Washington Heights (scary, scary), buzzed our doorbell until Tovah woke up (I didn't have keys), found my passport, (still in the copier) got back in the taxi (super stressed), and made it JUST in time for my flight.

Although it was the worst and stupidest mistake I've made yet while traveling, I learned my lesson and it made for an exciting start to my trip!

Now on to the good stuff!!

When I arrived in San Pedro Sula, Rosie's mom, Thania, and her driver were there to meet me, which was such a relief as the airport was really crowded and obviously I don't (yet) speak Spanish. I feel so lucky for her generosity in helping me out! We all had lunch and then her driver, Amilcar, drove me the 3 1/2 hour drive to La Ceiba. He spoke enough English for us to have an interesting conversation and when we ran out of things to say we sang Michael Jackson and Marc Anthony together. (Ok, he sang Marc Anthony and I car-danced).

All I could think about the whole time was how normal everything was for him and how unreal it was for me. The landscape is beautiful. Dark mountains and bright green grass. Horses and cows roaming freely. Bright pink, purple, and turquoise houses. I'm not exaggerating when I say EVERYTHING was a photograph, and I was bursting at the seams wanting to capture it!

We met Amilcar's friend in La Ceiba and took a quick tour (the beach is unlike any other I've seen, in that the water and the sand are both dark. It's almost eerie except that the surroundings are bright and loud). The sea is warm and there are random white horses running and playing on the beach basically unnoticed by the people there. When I expressed how weird this was to me, the guys laughed and we discussed how completely different my follow-the-rules city is compared to here.

They dropped me off at the Spanish school and I hung out here for a minute, with an adorable 6 year old with whom I discussed colors in English and Spanish, and then walked a couple blocks to the house where I'm staying. I'm living with a woman, Rosalita, her 10 year old daughter, Pamela, 3 guys who are also studying at the school, and Rosalita's parents. In greeting, the grandma said to me, "Hola, you must call me Abuela." and that's it. Cute.

I'm choosing not to comment on the comfort level of my bed and the condition of the shower...

I played with Pamela for a little bit (of course) and then one of the guys gave me some insight to living here which was really helpful, as the people here are not really "explainers." It's kind of every wo/man to her/himself.

My first Spanish class is at 7:30 tomorrow, can't wait! So immediately after this I'm going to take my cold shower and attempt to sleep!

In conclusion for this lovely blog (never thought I'd ever write a blog) let me say that I chose the name "Banana Land" because a.) the roads on the way here were lined with banana trees and b.) Dora the Explorer often says "Banana Pants" a similar phrase that Josie and I always (equally) thought was a pretty funny sounding combo.

More later!!