T.I.H.

The Abundant Life teachers have come up with a saying around here: T.I.H. When something happens that we can’t really logically explain or that we find rather unordinary, we say T.I.H. This is Honduras. We figure that there is no true explanation other than that we are in a new culture where somehow what happened is socially acceptable in this country. This helps us keep a good sense of humor because we just laugh it off and shrug, T.I.H. Let me further explain it with my afternoon yesterday…

1. For whatever unknown reason a swarm of bees decided to make their home in a rafter just outside the 11^th grade classroom. They weren’t making a hive or anything like that but rather were oddly all landing on the rafter and sticking there. There was just a black, buzzing mass on the rafters. So after school, the handyman took charge of getting rid of them. Twice, he constructed this torch of death by wrapping a bundle of wood around a long pole and soaking that in gasoline. Then he lit the wood on fire and lifted the flames up to the rafters. The bees were either burned instantly or smoked out. Of course this sent the bees furiously flying away so I had to protect myself with my books and swat at them so I wouldn’t get stung. Also, a few of my students were still around and they thought it would be great fun to chase after the bees and trying to kill them in their smoky stupor… they quickly learned how angry those bees were and that mad bees like to sting. Oops!

2. As I was walking home from school, I ran into the crazy lady who asked to borrow money from me a while ago. Now, I was with two of my students so I was desperately hoping that she would not bother me. Such wishful thinking. Sure enough she stopped me and shooed away my two little ones. Then she dropped her voice and began her ‘business talk’ with me. I pretended to not understand her and not remember our last encounter, hopefully avoiding it altogether so she would let me keep walking. Nope, she was too persistent. This time she asked me to lend her 3,000 Lempiras! I was so blown away! Not only had I denied her last time, and I was playing stupid this time, but now she had the nerve to ask me for even more! I simply looked at her with shock and disbelief, and told her that not only did I not have the money but there is no way I would give it to her.

3. This one takes the cake: last night one of the other non-teacher gringos in town, Mike, was making his rounds and saying goodbye to everyone because he left (for good) this morning. He stopped by our house and usually when someone is over, we just leave the door open. It wasn’t long until a woman poked her head over our fence and said “allí están.” This means, “there they are,” so naturally I thought she was looking for either Mike, who had just walked in, or Heather, who was here last year and is involved with various activities in the community. This woman had on a Jesus shirt, a rosary, and some prayer beads so I thought she was going to come evangelize to us and/or ask us for money. She was acting really weird and twitching a lot so then my mind changed to the idea that maybe she was possessed, by the holy spirit or demons (you choose), at the moment and was going to start speaking in tongues or something. What happened next was NOT what I would have ever expected… She took her shirt off! In the middle of our living room, with the door wide open, in front of people she didn’t know! Thankfully she had a bra on, and I was prepared to physically push her out of the house if anything else came off. Every single one of our jaws hit the floor. I was terrified and amused at the same. And, excuse my language, but all I could think was, “What the hell is going on?!” Because I was paralyzed with disbelief, I didn’t catch everything she said to us, but it was something like this over and over again: “I know it’s a sin to be naked but I have God in my heart so I am not sinning. He has sent me here with an important question for you, so please if you could help me figure something out. I know it’s shocking for you to see me standing here, but I must ask you this question.” I wish I could say that she had a very legitimate question that warranted her taking off her shirt, but sadly friends, I cannot. She wanted me to translate the tag on her shirt for her so she leaned her nearly naked body over me and held it out for me to read. However, when I went to go read it, it was already in Spanish! I kept looking at Heather and Mike for some kind of help or answer as to what was happening, but Mike was staring at the ceiling and Heather’s was too busy picking her jaw up from the floor. What other choice did I have but to answer the poor woman’s question? I told her that it was already in Spanish and read, “hecho en Haiti” which means “made in Haiti.” Feeling past the point of uncomfortable now, she agreed and then pointed to another part of the tag that she needed help understanding. So I looked at it and translated “XL” as “extra grande” for her. Then she sighed with relief and put her shirt back on. Yup, that is what she wanted me to do for her – tell her that her shirt was an extra large. Heather and I both quickly got up to imply that we were ready for her to go, but before leaving she had one more thing to say: she looked at Heather and said, “I know it is shocking for you to see me like this, but at least it’s not as bad as going out in short shorts.” What good advice seeing as Heather was in jeans and a sweatshirt and doesn’t even own a pair of short shorts here in Honduras. As I was ushering her out of the door, I started to close it and she told me, “No! Don’t close the door. You don’t need to do that! Just leave it open.” I wanted to scream at her, “are you kidding me?! After YOU walked in? I am never leaving my door open again!”

T.I.H.

Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream!

This past weekend we had a 3-day break because Monday was Teacher’s Day. We knew this long in advance and jumped at the opportunity to leave town, so we had been planning our getaway to Lago de Yojoa for quite a while. It was another beautiful weekend away from La Unión as we spent time getting to know another place in Honduras.

Saturday
Once again we hired a guy to drive us to our destination in his truck so we could avoid the bus. We left early in the morning and began our drive. It was your typical bumpy car ride through the beautiful countryside. We did get stopped along the way in a town along the lake for a parade. (Yup, if you read my Santa Rosa post you’ll remember that we ran into problems because of a parade there too.) Saturday was Honduras’ Independence Day so there were parades everywhere – we were bound to get stopped by one. The parade was in the precise middle of town and it was not moving, so neither were we. We got out of our truck to go enjoy in the festivities, but like usual we quickly became more intriguing than the parade and everyone turned to stare at us. There was a band playing and girls dancing in the street along with the tunes. We were not the only ones eager for the parade to finish so we could continue on our way, so we followed the crowd of cars trying to surpass the parade via side streets. That turned out to be a poor decision because we started up a hill only to get stuck up there in a line of cars because no one was able to drive all the way through the road. We awkwardly had to turn around and crawl back down the hill to wait once more for the parade to finish.

We finally made it to our hotel – after getting lost for about half an hour – around lunch time. We checked in and decided to eat lunch there because they had… wait for it… cheeseburgers! That cheeseburger made the almost 5-hour car ride completely worth it :) We stayed at the D&D Brewery all weekend (the cheeseburgers and beer were the main appeal of the place); the only negative was that it wasn’t actually on the lake. It was a hotel established by an American so there were lots of tourists there, which made it fun to see other gringos and talk to them in English. The rest of the day was entirely uneventful: we decided to go into town to get money and shop around. However, the ATM was not working and all the banks were closed so we couldn’t get money; as well, there wasn’t much shopping to be done and then it started raining. We had a very relaxing evening eating and playing cards together. That night, all 6 of us girls shared a room and we decided to push the three double beds together and have a giant slumber party!

Sunday
We started the morning with a lovely rowing adventure. The deal is you rent oars from someone in town and then head to the canal to hop on a boat. As simple as that sounds, you should also realize by now that nothing is easy in Honduras. We marched through a swamp and barbed wire to get to the boats, and then we had to convince the boatman to let us use a boat.  Since there were 7 of us we had to split up into two groups – Beth, Harriet, Cassidy and I were in one boat while Lori, Lenny, and Kara were in the other – and because our sets of oars were not matching, the man did not believe that we rented them from the same place and would not let my group on a boat. His logic was absurd but we finally got in our boat. Beth and I took over rowing first and it may or may not have taken us a while to figure out a synchronized pattern of rowing that had us going in a semi-straight line instead of zig-zagging and circling our way down the canal. However, the other boat did not have our skill (or luck) and ended up hiring a man, in the middle of the canal, to join their crew and row their boat. (If you’re trying to imagine how this happened, two men were in a boat going in the opposite direction and they flagged those men down to have one of them switch into their boat while floating in the canal.) At least they made the valiant effort of rowing, and let’s be honest, none of us will be going out for the next Olympic rowing team. 

It ended up being rather nice because he became a sort of tour-guide for us. 

He was a very smiley man and clearly loved being with us – we guessed that he was having the time of his life getting to spend the day with 7 uncoordinated, goofy gringos trying to row across the lake. We followed the shore line for a while and saw magnificent views of the entire lake, cool rock cliffs, and trees along the edges. We stopped to swim for a little bit (when you swim here, out of cultural courtesy, you have to keep your shorts and tank top on over your swimsuit) in the clear, yet not-lacking-in-algae lake. After that we decided to head back because we still had other plans for the rest of the day. On our way back the ‘guide’ tried to give us rowing lessons on how to be more efficient. Our boat made it back just fine, slowly but surely, with Harriet taking over as the sole rower; and the other boat made it back a lot quicker than us by the hands of their professional, local rower (Lenny did take another crack at trying to row, but he failed). We thought that lives could have been but a dream if we had wine and cheese with us for fancy dining on our sweet rowboat trip.

Our next destination was the Pulapanzak Waterfall. This is the tallest waterfall in Honduras at 43 meters and it is absolutely magnificent. It was actually here at the park that we received our first teacher discounts! We got a discount on our entrance fee and tour price; it was such a nice gift to us. We really wanted to do this tour that takes you behind the waterfall, but we decided to first go see the waterfall and take our glamour shots. Of course the pictures don’t do the waterfall justice but try to put yourself in my picture. The mist from the waterfall covered us and we all just stood in silence marveling at it.

Then the real fun began. Our tour behind the waterfall. Now, when I hear about a tour behind the waterfall I think of something sophisticated and organized: perhaps there is something like a boardwalk to walk across with the waterfall rushing overhead, or maybe there’s even something a little more dangerous like traversing an edge with harnesses and some kind of rope system. Welp, this is Honduras and there is nothing as secure as that to be found. We started by trekking through mud and intense mist to the base of the waterfall. From there we jumped into a pool that we had to quickly swim across without getting sucked down by the current. Then we crawled along the rocks to a cove for brief protection from the forceful waterfall. Our guide told us that for the next parts of the tour we all had to hold hands tightly, look down, and breathe out of our mouths. Um… what did you say?! So we grabbed a hold of each other because our lives depended on it and slid into chest high water. The power of the waterfall was unbelievable! It was pounding down on our backs and heads. He was right – it was incredibly hard to see even when looking down, and breathe even through my mouth! We paused briefly in another overhang to seek refuge. Then we ventured back out there as we walked blindly across the base of the waterfall clinging to the rocks. Our final destination was a hole in a wall that we had to crawl through to get inside a cave. We had no flashlights or anything else to see inside the cave so we all just sat in darkness, in shock over this ‘tour.’ After a few minutes we wandered back to the start of our adventure, once again holding tightly to each other and grasping the rocks while trying to navigate the route. But, our guide wouldn’t let us go without one more daring activity: we jumped off a 25-foot cliff into the river below. He didn’t really give us much time to think about the jump and be scared. Instead, we each took our turn of standing on the ledge, looking down, figuring out how far to jump out, and then launching ourselves into the river, all within a single minute. What a thrill! We were screaming and cheering throughout the whole tour, and our excitement didn’t end. The whole tour was fantastically amazing and we were still on such an adrenaline high well into the night. Our crazy day ended with feasting on juicy cheeseburgers and luscious chocolate cake.

Monday

We asked the guy who drove us to the lake to return on Monday so he could drive us back – aka we successfully avoided any kind of bus all trip! Never mind that he was three hours late picking us up, it was nice not to have to suffer on a bus home. We spent the morning waiting for him in a very relaxed state. We read and surfed the internet at the hotel, went into town to finally get money out of our bank accounts, and drank refreshing smoothies. This time our space in the bed of the truck was even smaller because he had done some shopping along the way for everyone in La Unión, so we squeezed four of us and everyone’s bags into the bed. Once he picked us up it didn’t take long for our ride to get interesting. We were driving into some very dark clouds and knew there was no avoiding the inevitable – rain. He stopped the car and told us that he could either cover us with a tarp or wait for the storm to pass. Those of us in the back decided to just cover ourselves with a tarp and keep going. So we stretched this very dirty, nasty tarp over us and proceeded to drive. It was a serious rain storm! It was pouring and even started hailing on us! The tarp wasn’t doing a great job because we were all still getting wet and so were the bags. At one point I had to lie across all the bags and stretch the tarp as far as I could and hold it down just to cover the bags and try to keep them as dry as possible. Needless to say, we could not wait for the rain to stop so we could take off the tarp, and we were especially eager to get home. Thankfully we had another incredible weekend that made the uncomfortable ride home completely worth it.

This week please be praying for our health. We had a very unlucky week with everyone getting sick! Lori had a water amoeba attack her digestive system, Cassidy had an allergic reaction to the soap used to wash her sheets and is starting to get a sore throat, Kara had a sinus infection, Beth felt queasy for a few days, and Harriet suffered from the 24-hour flu. Pray that everyone recovers quickly and that those of us who slid under the radar this week, continue to be healthy. 

A day to just be a kid

September 10^th was national Kids’ Day in Honduras! Think of “Mother’s Day” or “Father’s Day” except apply that to children and you’ve got yourself a national holiday. Now, I’m not entirely sold on the idea that kids need a special day dedicated to them (no matter how good of an idea it sounded to me when I was younger) in this country, because parents do a pretty good job of glorifying their children on a regular basis. But, that is where my complaints will end because it meant a day of no teaching and letting my inner kid out while playing with my students.

The best I can compare this ‘holiday’ to is Halloween. First of all, they do not celebrate Halloween here because it’s a satanic holiday with all the magic and witchcraft, and in a country as religious as this one there will be none of that nonsense. So secondly, rather than pass out candy then, we just sugar up all the little ones on Kids’ Day! I was told (no asking, no giving me a choice) that I had to buy treats for my students. All of the elementary teachers were given 10Lemps per student and then we could spend the money however we wanted, but it had to be used to purchase sugary foods. I made all of my students cupcakes and then bought some lollipops to pass out too. Now thirdly, I am sad to report that they do not get to dress up in any sort of costume, but they do get to wear their normal clothes to school. So they are wearing clothes of out the ordinary. Now what do we do with all these normal-looking, hyper kids? Play with them!

Before embarking on our day of pure fun, we made time for God. We had a nice devotion in the morning led by the Honduran teachers. The kids were a little anxious about getting to all the fun, but they still have to praise and worship God, and learn a little more from the Bible. After that, the wild beasts were released. They had snack time and recess; I played ring-around-the-rosie with a few of my students which turned into a giant group of kids and myself holding hands and running around in circles. We always started in a circle but it quickly turned into this kind of clump of students running around each other and dragging their friends behind them. I love how simple games can be and yet all the kids go crazy for it :) After recess, the 1^st-3^rd grade students went down to the basketball court to play organized games. In true Honduran style, the teachers in charge had not set anything up so we all stood around, roasting in the sun, and doing photo shoots with my camera. You know how a photographer always tells his model “the camera loves you”? Well, it was the opposite for me – the kids loved the camera. Everyone wanted to be in the pictures that I was taking! Then, they all wanted a turn to take a picture. After making sure that I got all of my 3^rd graders in at least one picture (with whoever decided to photo-bomb their picture), I let them each take one picture on my camera. I was just as nervous as you are right now thinking that I handed over my camera to a bunch of 9-year-olds who had never held, let alone seen, a camera before. But, I monitored their time with my camera like a Nazi. Now I have tons of pictures with my precious little kiddos!

Finally the ‘organized’ games began and the kids were divided into teams. I was in charge of the blue team and we had to compete in a multitude of races. They always had to run around a giant circle but after that varied – in one race they had to run to the middle and snag the soda-bottle or bean bag first, then in another game they had to throw their bean bag to knock over the soda-bottle first. After we sufficiently wore out all the students (many thanks to the blazing hot sun) we went back up to the classrooms to play and eat. I spent most of that time swinging kids around upside-down or giving out piggyback rides. Needless to say, I was extremely exhausted and sweaty by the time Kids’ Day was over. I handed out my treats to my class and then sent the kids home on a sugar-high to go terrorize their parents. It was only a half-day at school, but it felt longer than any normal day – those kids completely sucked out all my energy! I had too much fun with them.

While all the elementary students were playing at the school, all the secondary students were sent to neighboring aldeas to put on Kids’ Day activities for those elementary schools. Obviously I did not go with any of the groups, but I have an idea of what happened. The groups each had student-leaders that organized and ran all the activities, with the help of their peers. They were all supervised by teachers, but the students were essentially in charge. It was their responsibility to bring candy to those kids and play games with them too all morning. I heard they all went well and every student had a blast!

This week be praying for one of my students in particular: Wendy. Her grandfather died last week and I can imagine the heartbreak. It is my understanding that he has been sick for a while, so at least his pain and suffering have ended. She missed school on Friday which was a big test day, so pray for her strength to continue on with school this week and to perform well. She is one of my lower students and I don’t want her to get further behind everyone else or to lose focus. Pray for her whole family that they find some peace throughout this experience and find strength in the unity of this community. 

Qué montón de gringos!

Although it would seem that there isn’t anything to do in this small town, our students have been finding fun adventures to take us on over the weekends. Saturday, some 11^th graders planned a day trip for us to a nearby waterfall. They actually did a great job of organizing it all from food to transportation to being good guides. They organized the activity as a fundraiser so we each paid 200 Lemps (about $10) for our adventurous day and it was well worth it!

They picked us up from the church at 10am with a truck and a few motorcycles, and right from the get-go it was interesting and we were reminded that we are in Honduras. There was a random police check in the middle of the road that we were taking; the motorcycles were ahead of us but as soon as our driver (the truck) saw the police, we came to a screeching halt and turned around to bolt it in the opposite direction. We didn’t get every far because one of the guys on the motorcycle called our driver and told him that the officers saw him and said that he better get back there right away. (I guess him turning around frantically looked suspicious or something.) The kids in the car decided to hand Cassidy a hat and told her just to hold onto it – their plan was to tell the police that her hat flew off and that’s why we turned around because we had to go get it. Essentially all of our drivers were trying to avoid the police because no one actually has a license or the right paperwork for their vehicles, and none of the motorcycle guys have helmets. But, after ‘convincing’ the police that they all simply forgot their licenses at home and they were going on a school trip, the officers let us go to continue on our way.

We drove for about 20minutes to an aldea called Naranjo where the ‘trail’ started. Now, if we teachers had ever decided to hike to this place on our own, it would take at least 2 hours to get there and then assuming we were even going in the right direction, I’m not sure how we would ever find the trailhead or take the right turns down the trail. No perfectly concise directions could help us get to the waterfall on our own. We hiked down to this waterfall through someone’s property – so we were literally walking through the rows of a cornfield to get to the base of the waterfall. It was only about a 20 minute walk, but it was pretty steep. Thankfully, all the students carried the coolers and baskets of food so we just had to worry about getting our bodies down to the bottom.

And here it is: the waterfall. It was absolutely magnificent. It was much bigger than we imagined! We crossed a bitty stream to get to the actual base of the waterfall and we thought that was crazy enough, boy were we wrong. The waterfall is divided into three sections so we left our things at the bottom and then began exploring. We climbed up to the first section where the swimming hole is. We slid down a rock, like a slide, into the pool and then just played around. You could swim underneath the waterfall and or jump off the rocks into the pool (if you were brave enough). While we were enjoying the swimming hole, all of the students started climbing up to the other parts of the waterfalls. We thought they were all crazy and stupid for doing that, and just laughed at them for being so foolish. And yet, everything we thought was crazy and out-of-the-question ridiculous, we ended up doing. Soon enough we were all crawling along the side of the hill clinging to rocks, branches, roots, bushes, or whatever else we could confidently grasp to get up to the second section. That is the only part of the climbing up or down that we did on our own, so we were pretty proud of ourselves for making it. Never mind that the students scurried up the same slope in less than half the time we did or that our bodies were shaking out of fear or that we were covered in mud – you could not take away our pride. Up there you could lean against the rocks of the waterfall and enjoy nature’s massage. But that wasn’t good enough.

Next, we climbed up the waterfall itself to get to the third section. The boys all helped with this one because, well let’s be honest, it was extremely dangerous. The rocks were slippery (obviously, they were underneath rushing water) and there weren’t a lot of solid holds, and they even took turns laying down at the start of the fall to block some of the water from gushing down. Up there we could keep climbing up a little rock to a cave that was behind the waterfall. Most of us just stood there thinking, “I cannot believe I am on top of a waterfall, and I climbed all the way up to get here.” We tried not to look down or think about getting back down because we didn’t want to ruin how rewarding it felt to have climbed all the way up. At so many different moments I wished that I had a waterproof camera so I could take pictures and share the sights with you; we saw many cool views and explored thrilling parts of this waterfall. Sorry, you’ll just have to use your imagination.

Then began the descent. This is truly what we were most nervous for, but the students helped us literally every step of the way and never left us alone or asked us to figure out how to get down on our own. They showed us exactly where to step or where to hold onto. They always extended their hands for us to grab when there were no holds, or if it would be too slippery, or even if we were just scared and needed someone to hold onto. They used their hands or backs or arms for us to step on if needed as well. We did a lot of sliding, scooting, stretching, and squealing to get down, and of course I was singing to calm my nerves. We all took a gigantic sigh of relief once we made it to the bottom and then it hit us that we climbed to the top and made it down, without dying. No one would recommend us to climb it; in fact they would highly discourage it. But, this is Honduras and we have fearless students who like to break the rules every once in a while.

At the bottom we dined on chicken sandwiches, plantain chips, cookies, and coke. We took lots of group pictures together so we could never forget this day or who we were with. We laughed about if Jake knew we climbed to the top of the waterfall because that was the one thing he told us not to do, or if Mr. Larra (the vice-principal at the Gracias school, the man who conducted our interviews and orientation, and one of the main directors for the whole school system) knew because he told us to never hang out with our students outside of school. We just loved the whole experience :) After lunch we hiked back out of the cornfield and then piled in the truck to be taken home. Thankfully there were no police stops this time. However, while dropping someone off, a man rode by on his horse and was shocked to see so many white people in one spot so he shouted “qué montón de gringos!” (That’s a ton of gringos!) We commended the students for taking such good care of us from driving us there and back, feeding us a good meal, and protecting us up and down that waterfall. It was a successful adventure!

Like the last post, praise God this week for the (safe) fun we have been able to have with our students. We know the whole-school-system rule that we shouldn’t hang out with students outside of class, but we have been blessed to live in such a small town that we can get away with it. In fact, here it is encouraged. We have been able to play with them, go on adventures with them, invite them over for dinners, and just spend time with them in any way outside of the classroom. We are building valuable relationships with these students and in all honesty, half of our fun comes from time with them.

Santa Rosa: the bus rides

The next morning we got up and went to a little coffee shop for breakfast before beginning our journey from hell back to La Unión. I have been on my fair share of psycho bus rides, but that day’s trip(s) took the cake. (If you’re still with me and have read all the way to this point, this is the part where our wonderful trip lost its luster and you will surely laugh at my misery.) From Santa Rosa to Gracias, we were shoved on a bus that was already quite packed and ready to leave. I had a man physically pushing me into the bus and then he “found” a seat for me sandwiched between four grown men in the back. I just giggled and closed my eyes at how lucky I was to sit back there. I tried desperately to keep to myself but the bus driving was driving like a lunatic so I kept sliding into the men next to me. To make matters worse, every time we stopped to let someone off, it instantly became unbearably hot back there and the fumes were making everyone nauseous. Luckily we had the sweet serenades of Justin Beiber playing on the stereo to sooth our minds. Nonetheless, we made it safely to the bus depot in Gracias and little did I know that I would be begging for that bus ride later on.

We ate lunch at a little comedor before getting on that second bus. 

Our bus ride to La Unión was equally as packed, but this time we all had good seats. Outside of Gracias is a town called La Paera and it is the last town that you drive through before hitting the dirt roads. There, the bus stopped and the driver told us that we had to switch buses. Since it took us a while to figure out what was going on, we were some of the last people on the new bus. I bet you can already tell where I’m going with this… I was the first of the teachers on the new bus and I look down the aisle and froze… there was absolutely no room for us. Every single seat was taken, people were already piling over into the aisle, they were packing men into the very back to stand, and there was no more space on the overhead carriers. I had a look of sheer panic on my face because we had to be on this bus, there was no option of waiting for the next bus to La Unión. So, with our giant bags in hand, we crammed onto that overly packed bus. Thankfully the people were really nice and helped us push other bags together in the carriers to make room for our things; we managed to get everyone’s bag up there except for Kara and Lenny’s big bag. There were two men in a seat next to me that scooted over as much as they could to offer me space to sit, so I had about 4 inches of seat to sit on. The rest of the bus ride went a little something like this: The roads were so unbelievably rocky and poor that I’m not even sure the driver thought we were going to make it. The bus bottomed out every time we went over a bump or turned the corner, and all its passengers were tossed around like the beans in a maraca. At one point my head kept bouncing off the belly of some large man standing next to my seat. The men standing in the back kept laughing hysterically at Harriet and me because of the looks on our faces every time we were jolted around or bounced out of our seats. The bus could never get going fast enough to get a good air flow in there so it was disgustingly hot and people were sweating all over each other. The aisle stayed crowded for the entire ride with people sitting on each other’s laps, leaning against seats which meant sticking their butts (or bellies in my case) in others’ faces, or trying to remain on their feet while the bus driver seemingly wanted to toss them to the ground. The driver got out to check the engine once and then proceeded to let his 16-year-old-ish son drive for the rest of the way. A woman with a very angry chicken in a bag sat next to Cassidy and that chicken was raising hell in the bus (rightfully so, I wouldn’t want to be trapped in a plastic bag either). Harriet was given a sleeping infant to hold by a random woman and her bag fell on top of her head. Someone dumped their bags in Lori’s lap. A boy sat next to Kara who fell asleep on her and she had to save his box of chicks from falling and letting all of them loose. Lenny’s balancing skills were tested as he had to stand for the majority of the trip. And I had the privilege of meeting Fernando Gómez Paz, the man next to me who declared that we are the best of friends and invited me home with him. Two abnormal thoughts crossed our minds by the time our normally 3-hour bus ride rolled into La Unión 4 hours later: we never thought we would be so happy to see La Unión, and we never wanted to leave again.

This week praise the Lord for our safe travels! Although the conditions may not have been ideal, I am so grateful that we never ran into any serious issues like actually not being able to get on the bus, a flat tire, a hold-up, or whatever else could have possibly gone wrong. The Lord just finds new ways to test our patience, and all we can do is grow from it and walk away laughing. Thank Him for blessing us with such a great weekend just to enjoy being somewhere new together and being able to stock up on some things. And thank Him for giving us a reason to love this little town that we call home. 

Santa Rosa: the city

We finally got out of La Unión for a weekend! We had many reasons to go: to get our debit cards, to withdraw money from the bank, to stock up on groceries, to buy a few necessities we were missing, to fill our bellies with delicious meals, to see a bit of Honduras, and to simply get away for a nice weekend. All of our wildest dreams were fulfilled with this trip. ‘Content’ is the perfect way I can describe how we all felt while there.

Our trip began Saturday morning. We were lucky to have a guy drive us to Gracias in his pick-up truck, so all of us gringos piled into the bed of the trunk and we were on our way. It was an interesting journey because, well let’s face it, none of us had ever spent that long in the bed of a truck nonetheless on the poorest of dirt roads. We got the usual overwhelming amount of stares from people we passed in the villages along the way. I have to imagine that in areas as remote as those, they really don’t see many white people let alone a whole group of them at once. We even passed a truck filled with men who could not stop laughing us and turned it into a race to catch up and pass us. The ride itself was beautiful. We left early enough in the morning that the clouds were still low and rising out of the valleys. We were constantly looking at our surroundings in awe; and yet we noticed after taking so many pictures, that each picture was the same. The countryside is just so beautiful here. Even with all the stunning sights, do you know what the best part of the ride was? Getting to the paved roads. Those are heavenly. We saw many interesting sights along the way: a woman carrying a chicken in a plastic bag while riding a motorcycle, a loose herd of cattle just moseying down the highway, horses crossing the highway without an owner, and trenches that made the road unfit for any vehicle to drive through. 

Once the truck dropped us off in Gracias, we had to wait on the side of the road for a bus to come by and take us to Santa Rosa. When we got on the bus we ran into some of the teachers from Gracias! We knew they were going, and we were going to meet them there, but it was fun to see them on the bus and catch up. Once we rolled into Santa Rosa and got off the bus, it was a sensory overload to say the least. After living in our quiet little town of La Unión for three weeks, everything seemed that much bigger and louder. There were tall buildings (more than one story!), lots of cars and people in the streets, a dj playing loud music on a stage across the street from the bus depot, and men surrounding us when we got off the bus asking where we were going and grabbing our arms in hopes of getting our business for their buses or taxis. At one point I just closed my eyes and squealed because I couldn’t handle all of them!

We dropped our things off at our hotel first. We stayed in Hotel Santa Rosa which was rather nice. 5 of us girls shared a room that had double beds for each of us, air conditioning, and a hot shower that had excellent pressure. We each paid $12 each to stay in this ‘luxury’ hotel that also had fast internet and free water for us. From there we had to get into town to make it to the bank by 11:30, before it closed, to get our debit cards. By the grace of God someone was able to track down our debit cards to Santa Rosa and ask that they stay there so we could pick them up – but this was our only chance to get them, otherwise we would have to make a different trip Gracias on another weekend to get them. 

Little did we know that it was Santa Rosa day… the streets were pure chaos. There was a giant parade, fireworks and vendors everywhere, and people lined the streets so tightly that there wasn’t space for the even the smallest or skinniest person to squeeze in. We quickly realized that we were on one side of the parade but desperately needed to get to the other, where the bank was. Thankfully Jake is as tall as he is so he led the brigades as we wove our way through the hot, loud, and staring crowds. We pushed our way to the front and became part of the parade for a brief 5 seconds. (I looked over to see a caravan of military men passing through the parade with ferocious war paint on their faces and red smoke coming from their car as we crossed.) We made it to the bank just in time. And, as promised, our cards were all there and we were able to finally get some money out of our bank accounts!




After that we made our way to a pizzeria to meet up with the Gracias teachers for lunch. Let me just tell you, that was the best pizza I have ever eaten. Blame it on how hungry we were, how badly we had been craving pizza, or whatever else you can come up with, but that was darn good pizza. It was torture sitting in the restaurant and smelling it while waiting for it cook. Once we got our hands on that pizza, we devoured it and not a single slice was left behind. Anonymously we decided that we ate too much, but it was entirely worth it. Then we walked to a teacher’s supplies store. Granted, it’s not quite the supplies store you would find in the States, but it was still a fantastic stop. Everyone bought something for their classrooms – maps, notebooks, paper clips, pens, learning tools, etc. I personally bought enough folders for each one of my students to have as a ‘Friday folder’ and then 5 more for myself to organize all my papers in, and I got a multiplication poster to help my students with their times tables. They were simple purchases, but I reaped the rewards instantly when school started back up on Monday. 

After that we went to a store similar to a K-Mart. A few of the teachers needed general household items and personal items. So we found another glorious store to shop in. I stumbled across things that I thought I wouldn’t be able to find down here or buy until I returned to the States. Again, they were simple but have made all the difference: a nail file, nail polish remover, a pumice stone, hair products, and soap for my classroom. (By this time, Jake and Lenny were thoroughly bored of shopping with us and doing their best to be patient with us excited females.) Then we went on to another treat: Kaldi’s coffee shop. It’s one of Jake’s favorite coffee shops in Santa Rosa and I don’t blame him. Cassidy and I decided to each buy a drink and then share them; so collectively we had a peach and mango smoothie, and a vanilla/almond-ice cream-with-two-espresso-shots float. Ooof. Even just thinking about those drinks brings a smile to my face! Pure heaven in a glass. We had to pace ourselves so that we wouldn’t suck down all that liquid joy too quickly. Everyone’s drinks were equally delectable.

From there we returned to the hotel for only a brief moment to drop off our bags, and then we headed to the grocery store. This was another chaotic experience. It was that particular grocery’s store 5^th anniversary which naturally calls for a celebration of all celebrations. I am not exaggerating when I say the grocery store was worse than any store the day before Christmas. The palce was packed with people down every aisle, there was a dj to play music and give away prizes, there were promotions out the wazoo, and they were even giving away alcohol samples so you could have gotten drunk off the free mini-shots they were handing out. (Would it surprise you if I told you that even the children were getting to sample this alcohol?) It was crazy, and once again I did not appreciate the crowds. I would have liked to buy everything I wanted there and take it back with me, but not only was my bag not big enough, I also did not have a cooler to take refrigerated things with me. So I settled for these dietary necessities: Oreos, Cheerios, macaroni and cheese, other pastas, orange and yellow peppers, granola, wine, peanut butter, cookie mix, plantain chips, and tuna. I have considered everything to be a wise purchase so far! 

We had to go back to the hotel after that trip too so we could once again drop off our bags. If you saw all the bags that we accumulated, you would have thought we were stocking up for the apocalypse. For dinner we ventured off to a restaurant called Zots which was recommended in our guide books and described as something similar to T.G.I.Friday’s, and Lord knows American food sounded amazing to us. Lori and I decided to each order something and then split our plates, so we had a burger, shrimp, and chicken with fries for our meal. (We take surf n’ turf seriously!) It wasn’t anything spectacular – I think it was a mediocre attempt at American cuisine. We did order a national beer, Port Royal, which was rather tasty! Then we decided to be a little crazy and not go to bed at 9pm so we put on our party pants and went to a local bar: El Rodeo. It was a neat place! They had a live band playing and people were dancing all over the place. We just sat and watched with our jaws dropped because we were amazed and all the Latin hips taking control of the dance floor. The sad part was that it took an hour for all our drinks to make it to the table, so by the time the last person finally got their drink, everyone else was tired and just wanted to go back. (So much for our wild night on the town.) That was a disappointing stop in our night. 

Creepy Crawlers

I considered myself to pretty lucky with not coming across any particularly terrifying critters thus far, especially in my house. Friday night, my luck ended. Lori and I stopped by my house after school before going to hers for dinner, and there we encountered our first little friend (yes, only our first one). Sitting calmly on the floor, minding its own business as if it owned the house, was a cockroach. Normally I cringe at the sight of these little fellows and whimper like a child, but I suppose since it wasn’t moving I didn’t totally freak out. Thankfully I had Lori with me and she has no fear towards cockroaches. Armed with solid rubber boots, she crushed it with one stomp. Alright, she wasn’t that powerful. It was a tricky little bugger and she had to jump on it a few times, but she still got the job done and even picked it up with her bare hands to throw it away. Even though I didn’t panic, I still had no desire to get even remotely close to it.

Then we made our way to her house and ran into another surprise. Lori opened the door and instantly started screaming, so I poked my head in and saw the cause of her terror: a tarantula. Scurrying across the floor was a black, hairy, decently-sized tarantula. Coincidentally, Cassidy had told us earlier that morning about seeing this exact spider next to her bed the night before so we knew who we were dealing with. I have no idea how that girl slept through the night knowing that a giant, terrifying spider was in such close proximity to her bed. I told Lori to grab a tupperware so I could trap the poor sucker. As I approached it, it actually started crawling towards me so naturally I screamed like a little girl too. But, I put on my big-girl pants and trapped the tarantula in the tupperware, we slid a piece of paper underneath it to create a spider-proof seal, and then took the little devil outside. We made sure to throw him someplace far far away so he could not come back and make his home in their house – we tossed him into the river. Our hearts were pounding all night, but we were so glad to get rid of both of those critters. Thankfully I had Lori to kill my cockroach, and she had me to capture and dispose of her tarantula. (Sorry friends, no pictures. We couldn’t risk letting our horrid pets get away.)

On a more positive note we did get to spend part of the evening at La Unión’s finest view point. Jake and another guy, Mike, picked Lori and I up from school on their motorcycles and drove us up a road towards an aldea called Las Playas. It wasn’t a far drive, maybe 20 minutes, but the view was incredible. Jake said that whenever he’s having a hard day, he escapes up to remind himself why he lives in this country. I completely understood. You can see for miles up there! I had no sense of direction – which way was north, south, east, or west – but that was not important. Jake and Mike pointed out all of the different aldeas (small villages) in the area. We could see countless coffee and corn farms nestled in the hills, and a river that counts as an unofficial boundary. I especially loved how un-developed everything was – nature at its most innocence and pure form. It was simply breathtaking. We watched the sun set behind the mountains before taking off. As we were driving away you could see the lights from all the aldeas just freckling the mountainsides; there couldn’t have been more than a dozen lights per aldea. It made me thankful of the place that I live in – that it wasn’t as small as those places and most likely more developed. I can’t wait for my next trip up there!

Pray for me that I keep finding these (good) hidden treasures. I certainly don’t need any more bug encounters, but I would love to spend more time just soaking in the natural beauty that surrounds me here. It was so peaceful and exciting to see. It certainly helped me fall in love with the place that I am living in. Not everything has to be negative or humorous here, it can be enchanting if I just look for it.