Pase me la botella...

Recent highlights in my life have been:

1. Salsa dancing at this sweet restaurant called Sabor Cubano. People there really got moves. I also had flan that was not the watery mess Ms. Lanenga served us in grade 9, but so rich it was like cheesecake.

2. Ambar and I made our own little dictionary, which included our names and our mothers´names (all nouns) and other words like ¨amor¨ and ¨flor.¨ It was her idea, and she ran to the pulperia (convenience store) to buy a couple sheets of blank paper with money she found on the ground. She´s such a neat kid.

3. Visiting Congress. We met this one congresslady who was just on fire, it was awesome. And we learned about the valient few trying to wrest Honduras out of the clutches of foreign culture imposed by things like Pizza Hut.

4. Striking up a prolonged conversation with a Honduran student at the Pedegogica on a bench during lunch. His buddy came over too, who just so happened to know Jordan Bruxford (a good friend of my former housemate Peter). ¨I knew someone from Michigan. He was really tall.¨ Ha ha. It´s a small, small world.

5. A really good visit with my tutor, Keyla. She brought me to her house today. It was really interesting to see the contrast between the condition of her house and the way she dresses. I feel like a homely, frumpy mess next to her most of the time.

Did you know cashews grow inside of a fruit? Me neither. Also, this unripe fruit can give you a facial rash if you eat it unripe. I´m glad it wasn´t me.

Perpetual Confusion

Many times when with my host family, I am in a state of settled confusion. A good example happened Thursday night.

It was 8:20 p.m., and I came home to a dark house. I could not get my key to work (on the third of three locks) and after struggling for several minutes, I knocked. The shutters opened, and a man without a shirt on looks out at me. He started giving me directions about the key, but I was frozen in shock, because no men live in our house. The first thing I thought was, ¨Am I at the right house?¨, then ¨Gloria?! What have I walked in on?!¨ I didn´t hear a word the man said, so he opened the door. There was a cot in our dark living room. I just said ¨Lo siento!¨ and went into my room. The next morning, this man was still there, and we were all like, ¨Bueños días¨ as if everything was normal. He sat on the couch watching the news (fully clothed this time). I left for school, never receving an explantion of who the man was or why he slept in our living room. This is one of many examples of mystery in my daily life. I try to just go with it, but sometimes the curiosity is almost too much.

In other news, we all went to a region called Olancho this weekend, which is in the country. Before leaving, Cristina (my mama) called ¨Adios, mi hija! Cuidate!¨ (Goodbye, my daughter. Be careful/take care of yourself!¨ That felt really special, as she´s not usually like that towards me.

Olancho was sweet, we met another set of our host families, who we´ll go see next week. Sylvi and I are roommates, which is Very Good. There are 5 or 6 young kids in the house. I got up at 6 today and went for a run in this little town, it was so beautiful. Sylvi fought off the angry dogs for us.

Wednesday a bunch of us went to a U.S. vs. Honduras soccer game (DC United vs. Olypmia) in the stadium downtown. Pro fútbol is a big deal I guess; there was a really heated parade beforehand with shirtless men whipping their t-shirts around in the air. I had some banana chips w/lime and talked to a couple young girls whose uncle sells hot dogs there. Really interesting.

Siguatepeque

On Saturday, Cristina and I took the bus 2 hours up to Siguatepeque, which is higher in a mountainous area. Her son and his wife speak fluent English, so it was really refreshing to be able to meet people and have a conversation of some depth. I learned more about my mama´s life, which helps me understand her better. The trip was interesting on so many levels...

One thing I thought about there was maids. Their family had two of them, and while I know that hiring maids creates jobs (which may be better than what is otherwise available) it just felt really awkward to sit there reading magazines while these ladies ironed and made us dinner. Not quite just a business relationship, but not with the full rights of family/friends either.

It was really cold up there, probably no higher than 50 degrees (I know you all in GR are crying crocodile tears for me). But we had three hours of church in an open-air building without enough clothes! I shared a room with my mama at night, and the next day she teased me about making noise in my sleep, ¨I thought you were dying of the cold!¨

We are halfway through our first development class, which has covered Honduran history and the current state of health, the economy, and education. It is really interesting.

Today, after a visit to an elementary school, we all went to Sarah´s house and her mama made us pupusas. These are like tortilla-ish round things infused with cheese and topped with shredded cabbage/carrot/onion. Muy delicioso.

p.s. actually, I don´t have a digital camera, so I won´t be uploading anything.

Amor y Amistad

Yesterday was la Día de Amor y Amistad (the day of love and friendship). Ambar made me a little valentine, slid in under my door, knocked, and ran away. I gave her a ¨BEST¨ candy bar. She’s great.

In the afternoon, we met with our conversation tutors in Nueva Suyapa at their high school. I played games with a bunch of girls, like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Un Limon, which were so fun and everyone laughed a lot. I like my tutor, Keyla, a lot.

My Spanish speaking has become more fluid and less choppy this week, which is a big relief. I can feel my comprehension improving as well. My host family and I are both less frustrated. There’s nothing like being confident about your verb conjugation!

Yesterday while we were in Nueva Suyapa (which is a much poorer area than where we live in Tegucigalpa), we heard from women who work at a community organization called Genesis. They were part of a group for victims of domestic violence. We got to visit their houses and hear their stories. So much pain and so little support (financial or otherwise) but so much drive and hope. The 12-year-old daughter of one said she wants to be a lawyer so she can defend abused women and children.

This afternoon, I and a few other Calvin students went to a Bible study at the university. It was cool. I really like the occasional opportunities I get to talk to Honduran students at the Pedagógica, because we stick out so much as white people, and I have been unsure how we are perceived. But I have been received very warmly and kindly.

I think I will probably be a little ¨gordita¨ when I come back, as most of what I eat is fried. Today I finally had the courage to tell Gloria I didn’t need quite so much to eat in the morning. A typical breakfast was: a big bowl heaping over with different sliced fruit to start and then a grilled triple-decker chicken-cheese-lettuce-tomato-mayo-ketchup-mustard sandwich. At 7 a.m.! And I´d eat it all, too, because I felt too badly to have her throw things away.

This weekend I’m going with Cristina to Siguatepeque to visit her son and his family. I am looking forward to that.

Sunny days.

So.

It seems like half of Tegucigalpa has a cold, including me. But I´ll happily take that over digestive problems any day!

Friday night I went to a discoteque downtown. It was really fun. Since it costs the equivalent of $5 to get in, the crowd was a little more sophisticated than us six "American" college students. The music was mostly Carribean. I danced with a couple Hondurans, who did a lot of turns.

Yesterday we all went to a county fair called Agafam. We saw lots of farm animals, including a brahman, which I had never even heard of before. It looks like a mix between a buffalo and a dog. Muy feo.
We also went up to Piccachu, which is an enormous statue of Jesus. It is situated on the side of a mountain, his arms outstretched over Tegucigalpa. I really don´t know what to think about that.

For Sunday dinner we had tilapia, complete with teeth and tail! Yum!

This afternoon, Ambar and I played outside. There is a little triangle of dirt/grass by the house, where we played baseball with a piece of wood and a little plastic ball. We also played volleyball by stretching her jumprope between a bamboo stalk and some ironwork on our window. It is fun, but the balls inevitably end up in these little gutter streams, which smell like they´re probably not carrying rainwater.

Something on my mind: a Honduran Burger King worker makes a little over the Honduran minimum wage, but can´t afford to eat at BK with what he makes.

Also, Hond. gets a lot of produce from Guatemala, but recieves the poorest quality goods. Gtmla ships the best stuff to the U.S. and Europe, the average stuff to a couple other Central American countries, and saves the worst for itself and Hond. I´m embarrassed!

No hablo español.

I have a lot, and I mean a lot of respect for people who have become fluent in a foreign language. There is so much complexity in language, I could just drown. I have lost so much of my Spanish since high school, it is really discouraging. I think I´m going to give up on literature\culture and regress to grammar and verb tenses. Que lastima.

Yesterday we went to Nueva Suyapa, where Kurt and JoAnn live. I met my language tutor, Keila. We will meet a couple times a week and chat. She is finishing high school and wants to be an engineer. I seem to run into a lot of female engineers in-the-making.

Recurring themes in my Honduran experience: plastic patio chairs, mayo, butter, cheese.

Men cat-call (and make other interesting noises) a lot here, which is just the way things are. Sometimes I find it funny, except the horn honking is annoying. (We walk along the side of a beltline-like road going to school.) Unfortunately, I think that in reaction to this phenomenon, some of us female students have gone overboard, being suspicious of all men and assuming they all hypersexualized or are following us. That gets on my nerves more than the horn-honking.

Montanas

Hola,

Yesterday and today I went on a retreat with the other Calvin students to the mountains, a place called La Tigra. It was beautiful up there. We drove up a windy little mountain road, and had to push the van up the really steep parts. It was nice to breathe deep of clean, unpolluted air and be able to drink from the tap. This morning we hiked for about 3 hours. There was a sweet waterfall. I had the best hot chocolate, honey, and pineapple juice of my life.
We spent a lot of time getting to know each other, which was good. There are some really neat people here with me.

On Sunday I went to church with Gloria and Ambar, se llama ¨La Gran Commission.¨

The other day I saw a burly construction worker wearing a t-shirt advertising a theatre production of ¨The Feminine Mystique.¨Ha ha. If he only knew.

Gloria made me raspberry juice (from the fruit) in the blender the other day because I said it was my favorite fruit. Que rico!

Welcome to the Hond

I´m here! I left home at 4am on Wednesday. It was emotional and I didn´t want to leave, but as soon as I stepped out and breathed Honduran air, I was thrilled to be here.

My family is nice, there is an 8 year old girl called Ambar. She has a brilliant smile and uses it a lot. She has taught me a few card games and last night she let me choose some seashells from her collection. Very sweet.
My technical ¨mama¨ is in her 60´s and is nice but doesn´t talk to me much...yet. She has been to Chicago quite a few times and speaks some English, although when she does I am usually more confused because my ears are expecting Spanish.
Then there is Ambar´s mother, Gloria. She talks to me a lot and has walked me to school twice.
My family took it upon themselves to call me Esperanza [Hope in Spanish]. I like it, it sounds nicer than Hope I think. They think it is easier to pronounce.

It is very warm, very sunny, and very beautiful here. The land is hilly and curvy and in places remniscent of San Francisco. ¨The campus is like paradise. (Deborah, it looks a little bit like Santa Clara--they have a rose garden).
We started class today, 3 hours of Spanish in the morning and 2 of history in the afternoon. I am in the highest of 3 Spanish classes, which is just Literature and Culture. I think it is going to be a little over my head.

Oh yeah, as the airplane was landing, I saw a circular rainbow! And as the plane dipped below the clouds, the plane´s silhouette was transposed on it. It was awesome. Symbolic, you might say.

There are a ton of U.S. chain restaurants here. Jessye, you and I could fit right in--there are Dunkin Donuts and Burger King on my walk to school.

Anyway,
Adios, Kwaheri, Tchuss, Tot ziens,
Esperanza