Monday, August 17
First orientation day at Vida Abundant…it was SO long. We were given all the rules, demerits, do’s and don’ts, philosophy of Christian education and explanations of them all. So we were basically sitting in desks for about 6-8 hours of this day. It was necessary to know, but still not a fun day. We were shown our classrooms and ate lunch at school café; I started a tab there, which I’ll have to pay every 2 -4 weeks. Lunches are only about $2 so its not that bad and the food is pretty good, too. It’s easier than packing PBJ every day for lunch! We were given curriculum or lack there of; the lack of curriculum we received was the most frustrating. Jackie and Sarah had grades they didn’t expect they were going to teach and didn’t get some curriculum, so it made it even harder for them. I received most of my curriculum, which was a relief and most of it was there, too. At lunch break we went to see the river near school; its beautiful. I plan on going there to sunbathe on the rocks or sit on the water or something!
Overall the first orientation day was frustrating because of lack of curriculum, other things we were expecting we weren’t given and other things we were NOT expecting we were told we had to pay for, etc. The houses were getting cleaned up today and we found out the house Jacki and Sarah were supposed to be in has to have the roof fixed, which will take about a month. So Jacki and Sarah are moving in with me and Laura Beth for a month while house gets fixed. It’ll be fine, there’s enough room; it’s just the bathroom may get small. After our day we spent about an hour at Ana’s house venting all our frustrations to each other and discussing how things were going for us. It was probably the hardest day so far.
After orientation day we went back to hotel for dinner; Vicente and Dennis took Laura Beth to doctor because she was sick and then brought Kirsty to her host house in Gracias. Then Julia, Ana, Jacki, Sarah and me headed up the mountain in the rain at 9pm to “move into” the houses. Jacki and Sarah moved into me and Laura Beth’s house first because of Laura Beth being sick. It looked better than when I first saw it; they cleaned out the room that had a lot of the former owner’s stuff in it, but there were still lots of bugs and no screens on the windows. Vicente and Dennis went on a killing spree, killing HUGE spiders and other bugs before leaving Vicente, Dennis and I left Jacki and Sarah in the house for the night. I am just amazed by the servant hearts of Vicente and Dennis and other administrators like the Villelas to do anything to make our stay here as good as it can be. We would voice our concerns and Vicente would say “let me make a few calls.” Their generosity just humbles me so much and I’m so thankful for people like them here that make this experience better.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Sunday August 16
Today I slept in, which felt great to get some good sleep after traveling and being emotionally drained. Jake took most of us on a tour of Gracias later in the morning. It was a little overwhelming trying to see and remember where everything is in the town even though it’s small. There’s a market which sells fresh food, supermarkets, little tiendas, pharmacies, banks, and bus stations among other things. It was good to see everything, but overwhelming with everyone out on a Saturday in town.
Later that afternoon we went to church up at the school, where our principal, Mr. Lara preached. It was very small, about 20-30 people including us! Very different from what I’m used to at home! I understood most of what Mr. Lara was saying in Spanish without a translator, but Vicente was still there so he translated on paper for the 4 of us who were fluent in Spanish. Afterwards we went back to the hotel and just relaxed before our crazy week of orientation for the school. We ate a Honduran food called pupusas, which is like a tortilla stuffed with cheese and then there’s sauce to put over it. They were so delicious.
Vicente and Dennis (our driver and admin at the school in Teguc) took us to the hot springs here in Gracias! We went to the “not as nice ones” according to everyone here, but it was still so awesome to go. They had all these different pools of different temperatures and it felt good to relax in hot water too. It did smell like rotten eggs a little bit and the bottom was kinda slimy, but overall it was fun to hang out and experience that. I rode back to the hotel in the back of the truck with some other people and it started raining! It was so cold, but a good story later and it cooled me down after the hot springs. We played Euchre at night and then turned in for bed.
Today I slept in, which felt great to get some good sleep after traveling and being emotionally drained. Jake took most of us on a tour of Gracias later in the morning. It was a little overwhelming trying to see and remember where everything is in the town even though it’s small. There’s a market which sells fresh food, supermarkets, little tiendas, pharmacies, banks, and bus stations among other things. It was good to see everything, but overwhelming with everyone out on a Saturday in town.
Later that afternoon we went to church up at the school, where our principal, Mr. Lara preached. It was very small, about 20-30 people including us! Very different from what I’m used to at home! I understood most of what Mr. Lara was saying in Spanish without a translator, but Vicente was still there so he translated on paper for the 4 of us who were fluent in Spanish. Afterwards we went back to the hotel and just relaxed before our crazy week of orientation for the school. We ate a Honduran food called pupusas, which is like a tortilla stuffed with cheese and then there’s sauce to put over it. They were so delicious.
Vicente and Dennis (our driver and admin at the school in Teguc) took us to the hot springs here in Gracias! We went to the “not as nice ones” according to everyone here, but it was still so awesome to go. They had all these different pools of different temperatures and it felt good to relax in hot water too. It did smell like rotten eggs a little bit and the bottom was kinda slimy, but overall it was fun to hang out and experience that. I rode back to the hotel in the back of the truck with some other people and it started raining! It was so cold, but a good story later and it cooled me down after the hot springs. We played Euchre at night and then turned in for bed.
GRACIAS!!!
Saturday, August 15
Saturday was our travel day from Teguc to Gracias. We were so ready to see the place where we were living for the next 10 months. Vicente wanted some new music for our trip so we we each made playlists on CDs. He also suggested we play poker, like Texas hold ‘em. We didn’t have anything to bet with though, so he was like we’ll bet with chulas. I didn’t know what chulas were so Vicente explained they were like slaps on the wrist. So we betted with chulas! I won a few times and got to give everyone some chulas. We got lunch on the road and decided to take the shorter way to Gracias through La Esperanza, but it was more hilly and curvy. It was like a constant rollercoaster for a few hours. I was so ready to get out of that van when we finally got to Gracias and our hotel. It was amazing to finally see this town everyone had been telling us about and it lived up to what we expected. It was small but had everything we needed: a few supermarkets, a market, and many other shops. It was beautiful though!
Saturday was our travel day from Teguc to Gracias. We were so ready to see the place where we were living for the next 10 months. Vicente wanted some new music for our trip so we we each made playlists on CDs. He also suggested we play poker, like Texas hold ‘em. We didn’t have anything to bet with though, so he was like we’ll bet with chulas. I didn’t know what chulas were so Vicente explained they were like slaps on the wrist. So we betted with chulas! I won a few times and got to give everyone some chulas. We got lunch on the road and decided to take the shorter way to Gracias through La Esperanza, but it was more hilly and curvy. It was like a constant rollercoaster for a few hours. I was so ready to get out of that van when we finally got to Gracias and our hotel. It was amazing to finally see this town everyone had been telling us about and it lived up to what we expected. It was small but had everything we needed: a few supermarkets, a market, and many other shops. It was beautiful though!
After settling in the hotel, we all went to see the school up in Villa Verde. It was my first time riding in the back of a pickup truck in a while, but it was so much fun! People do it all the time here, I mean it makes sense; you can fit so many more people! The road was unbelievably rocky and bumpy up to the school though, which we were not ready for! The school though was gorgeous; the landscaping, the classrooms, the courtyard, the view of the mountains we have everyday from our classroom!! We were all so happy and excited to see the school where most of our time was going to be spent for the next 10 months! After that we drove further up the mountain to see our houses. Apparently there was some miscommunication about housing, which houses we could use, if they were ready for us or not…it was frustrating. But they showed us 3 houses that we would have between 6 of us living in Villa Verde. All of the houses here are made of brick and concrete so no carpet, which is kinda hard to get used to. Some of the houses had screens on the windows, others didn’t; all of the houses needed to be cleaned because the former owners stuff was still there. So there was still a lot to be done to get these houses ready for us to live in, which made our reactions to the houses not as exciting as we were hoping they would be. And bugs….TONS of bugs in every house. Yuck.
It was getting dark though and we had to head back down to town to have dinner. I was SO tired and hungry and felt so out of it, like I was ready to collapse from the travel, the emotional rollercoaster of seeing the school, and not having food in 7 hours. We went to Guancascos, which is a hotel here owned by a Dutch lady who originally owned the school before Vida Abundante bought it. We finally got our food and then went back to the hotel to crash.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Last Day in Teguc
Friday, August 14
Today we chilled around the school for a while, seeing the girls play volleyball and such. We were told Laura Beth was going to come today so we were excited to finally meet her after all her delays with her flights. We all had an opportunity to meet with the teacher in Tegucigalpa who teaches our grade; so I chatted with the 5th grade teacher. She went through all the material with me: the teacher editions, the student workbooks, the books and the curriculum. The curriculum is A Beka, which is made by Pensacola Christian College. It’s quite detailed and laid out lesson by lesson and after seeing that, I felt a lot better about actually teaching these kids. They make it easy for someone like me who has never taught to be enabled to teach kids. We also got interviewed by the TV station that the church broadcast explaining who we were and why we were teaching in Honduras.
I made it official today and signed my contract. Jackie, the unofficial photographer of our group, took photos of all of us signing the contract and shaking Vicente’s hand. We also took care of health insurance and learned how to do orientation from the staff at Tegucigalpa (which is quite specific). After our day at school we went to buy school supplies for our classrooms in Gracias. It was our last night in Teguc so Laura Beth and Julia’s host family, the Villela’s, took us out the mall and then bowling! It took a while to figure out our plans because we weren’t all in the same place, but everyone met at the mall to eat dinner and then we headed to the 6 lane bowling alley. It was so generous of the Villela’s to take us out and spend their time with us and it was a great way to end our time in Teguc before we headed to Gracias.
Today we chilled around the school for a while, seeing the girls play volleyball and such. We were told Laura Beth was going to come today so we were excited to finally meet her after all her delays with her flights. We all had an opportunity to meet with the teacher in Tegucigalpa who teaches our grade; so I chatted with the 5th grade teacher. She went through all the material with me: the teacher editions, the student workbooks, the books and the curriculum. The curriculum is A Beka, which is made by Pensacola Christian College. It’s quite detailed and laid out lesson by lesson and after seeing that, I felt a lot better about actually teaching these kids. They make it easy for someone like me who has never taught to be enabled to teach kids. We also got interviewed by the TV station that the church broadcast explaining who we were and why we were teaching in Honduras.
I made it official today and signed my contract. Jackie, the unofficial photographer of our group, took photos of all of us signing the contract and shaking Vicente’s hand. We also took care of health insurance and learned how to do orientation from the staff at Tegucigalpa (which is quite specific). After our day at school we went to buy school supplies for our classrooms in Gracias. It was our last night in Teguc so Laura Beth and Julia’s host family, the Villela’s, took us out the mall and then bowling! It took a while to figure out our plans because we weren’t all in the same place, but everyone met at the mall to eat dinner and then we headed to the 6 lane bowling alley. It was so generous of the Villela’s to take us out and spend their time with us and it was a great way to end our time in Teguc before we headed to Gracias.
Thursday, August 13
Today was our busy day of getting all the major things set up for us. We (all of us girls) met at the school in the morning and just sat around for a while by their basketball/volleyball/indoor soccer court and watched the kids play during recess. It was so cute because this one group of little girls kept coming up to us and saying hi and asking our names; then they would run back to their classroom because they thought it was time to start class again, but it wasn’t so they’d come back and talk some more and then run off again.
Then we went to the police station (with Vicente) to have all of our information given to the government. After that we headed over to the bank to set up our Honduran bank accounts so we could receive money from Abundant Life when we got paid J After that we were starving so we headed back to the school to have lunch in their cafeteria. After lunch, Vicente gave us the tour of the school and the church. We got to see the classrooms, meet some important people, and see the TV station and production part of the complex. Abundant Life is connected with the Spanish version of TBN and so from Abundant Life, they film and produce many of the programs which go out all across Latin America. We met the man who is the voice of that station as well as some other people associated with it. The church is connected to the school and it’s quite large for an evangelical church here. It has 3 services and about one to two thousand people attend Abundant Life. The sanctuary probably holds two to four hundred people and looked very nice. After this, we all piled in the van again and headed to the mall to get our cell phones! All of us girls got the same exact cell phone because it was cheap. The whole deal here is very cheap compared to stuff in the States. With Digicel (the company I have) if you talk for 3 minutes to the States, you get 15 free and those 3 minutes don’t cost you much anyway. It was hilarious to see everyone sitting around, trying to figure out our phones and getting everyone’s numbers; it was like we were technologically deprived for a few days without a cell phone and we finally got our fix J We headed back to the school and then back to our respective houses. Kirsty and I just spent a ton of time on the internet in the evening.
We had dinner and talked to Santi, the cook/maid for a while; well she actually talked more and Kirsty and I listened and tried to answer her questions and comment on things we understood. She talked so fast, but overall between the both of us we understood what she was saying. It’s much easier for me I’ve found to understand Spanish spoken than it is to speak it. It was great to practice our Spanish, as we both want to improve the basic Spanish we know.
My goal, which I think is realistic, is to be fluently conversational by the end of the year. And while I’ll teach in English everyday, hopefully the kids will agree to talk to me in Spanish outside the classroom, unless they want to practice their English. Kirsty and I have already been asking Jacki and Sarah, the girls who are fluent, what this and that mean, how to say this, and if this word is correct. Overall, it was a good evening.
Today was our busy day of getting all the major things set up for us. We (all of us girls) met at the school in the morning and just sat around for a while by their basketball/volleyball/indoor soccer court and watched the kids play during recess. It was so cute because this one group of little girls kept coming up to us and saying hi and asking our names; then they would run back to their classroom because they thought it was time to start class again, but it wasn’t so they’d come back and talk some more and then run off again.
Then we went to the police station (with Vicente) to have all of our information given to the government. After that we headed over to the bank to set up our Honduran bank accounts so we could receive money from Abundant Life when we got paid J After that we were starving so we headed back to the school to have lunch in their cafeteria. After lunch, Vicente gave us the tour of the school and the church. We got to see the classrooms, meet some important people, and see the TV station and production part of the complex. Abundant Life is connected with the Spanish version of TBN and so from Abundant Life, they film and produce many of the programs which go out all across Latin America. We met the man who is the voice of that station as well as some other people associated with it. The church is connected to the school and it’s quite large for an evangelical church here. It has 3 services and about one to two thousand people attend Abundant Life. The sanctuary probably holds two to four hundred people and looked very nice. After this, we all piled in the van again and headed to the mall to get our cell phones! All of us girls got the same exact cell phone because it was cheap. The whole deal here is very cheap compared to stuff in the States. With Digicel (the company I have) if you talk for 3 minutes to the States, you get 15 free and those 3 minutes don’t cost you much anyway. It was hilarious to see everyone sitting around, trying to figure out our phones and getting everyone’s numbers; it was like we were technologically deprived for a few days without a cell phone and we finally got our fix J We headed back to the school and then back to our respective houses. Kirsty and I just spent a ton of time on the internet in the evening.
We had dinner and talked to Santi, the cook/maid for a while; well she actually talked more and Kirsty and I listened and tried to answer her questions and comment on things we understood. She talked so fast, but overall between the both of us we understood what she was saying. It’s much easier for me I’ve found to understand Spanish spoken than it is to speak it. It was great to practice our Spanish, as we both want to improve the basic Spanish we know.
My goal, which I think is realistic, is to be fluently conversational by the end of the year. And while I’ll teach in English everyday, hopefully the kids will agree to talk to me in Spanish outside the classroom, unless they want to practice their English. Kirsty and I have already been asking Jacki and Sarah, the girls who are fluent, what this and that mean, how to say this, and if this word is correct. Overall, it was a good evening.
Tegucigalpa and Honduran Futbol
Wednesday, August 12
Today we had a travel day from San Pedro to Tegucigalpa; we packed all of our stuff into and on top of this van and off we went! Jake stayed behind to wait for Laura Beth’s flight to come in. The ride there was pretty good overall; the roads were windy and curvy (because of the mountains obviously), but there was also construction going on on these roads as well. When we got to Tegucigalpa, it was amazing to see all the houses going up into the hills around the city and it looked even better at night with all the lights of the houses shining on the hills. We all had a host family from the school that we stayed with while we were in Tegucigalpa. Kirsty and I roomed together in the same house with a lady who was the principal of the Spanish Abundant Life School in Tegucigalpa, Dona Aida Lopez. Her house was beautiful. See here when you look at these houses from the outside all you see are these gates and doors and you think, I don’t know how nice these houses can be because you don’t see them. But inside those gates and doors are gorgeous homes with tile and polished wooden staircases, high ceilings, large bedrooms, nice furniture and more levels than you thought. Dona Aida had 3 levels in her house and we stayed in one of the three empty bedrooms. Not all people have such nice homes in Honduras or Teguc for that matter, but I just didn’t expect it to be that nice; it’s nicer than my house in the States! And she can afford to have a whole maid/maintenance crew for her house. So we had a cook, Santi, who made all of our meals and then there were two other people who did the cleaning inside and outside the house.
Our first night Kirsty and I just relaxed for a while and checked our email (since there was wireless available for free! J) and then later we went with Dona Aida and her husband to her daughter’s house to watch a Honduran futbol game! This was my first futbol game in general besides seeing a few minutes here and there in the states. Honduran people, like most Latin Americans are CRAZY about their soccer teams. Honduras was playing Costa Rica that night and so it was even more of a big deal because they are such a close neighboring country. We arrived there and all of her family started coming so eventually we had this houseful of people all crowded into the living room to watch the game. The first half there was some question over a Honduran goal and it was a huge deal; eventually it got taken away which didn’t make people happy J But they soon scored another goal. During half time, we got dinner was amazing as usual: chicken, steak, pork, tortillas, beans, rice, cheese, avocado, and platanos. It was so good and I was starving. The next half the Hondurans scored 3 goals and won over Costa Rica 4-0! It was a great game. It was so fun when Honduras would score a goal because everyone would stand up and clap and holler and some people did this dance they do here called the ‘punta’ which is like their victory dance. It’s hilarious watching them do it. There was so much Spanish flying around too and I tried to pick some of it up, but it was hard. Most of them were bilingual anyway and knew English so we still talked with her family some. After the game, we toasted Dona’s son-in-law for the promotion he got at his bank job with champagne. Then we called it a night and headed back to the house.
Today we had a travel day from San Pedro to Tegucigalpa; we packed all of our stuff into and on top of this van and off we went! Jake stayed behind to wait for Laura Beth’s flight to come in. The ride there was pretty good overall; the roads were windy and curvy (because of the mountains obviously), but there was also construction going on on these roads as well. When we got to Tegucigalpa, it was amazing to see all the houses going up into the hills around the city and it looked even better at night with all the lights of the houses shining on the hills. We all had a host family from the school that we stayed with while we were in Tegucigalpa. Kirsty and I roomed together in the same house with a lady who was the principal of the Spanish Abundant Life School in Tegucigalpa, Dona Aida Lopez. Her house was beautiful. See here when you look at these houses from the outside all you see are these gates and doors and you think, I don’t know how nice these houses can be because you don’t see them. But inside those gates and doors are gorgeous homes with tile and polished wooden staircases, high ceilings, large bedrooms, nice furniture and more levels than you thought. Dona Aida had 3 levels in her house and we stayed in one of the three empty bedrooms. Not all people have such nice homes in Honduras or Teguc for that matter, but I just didn’t expect it to be that nice; it’s nicer than my house in the States! And she can afford to have a whole maid/maintenance crew for her house. So we had a cook, Santi, who made all of our meals and then there were two other people who did the cleaning inside and outside the house.
Our first night Kirsty and I just relaxed for a while and checked our email (since there was wireless available for free! J) and then later we went with Dona Aida and her husband to her daughter’s house to watch a Honduran futbol game! This was my first futbol game in general besides seeing a few minutes here and there in the states. Honduran people, like most Latin Americans are CRAZY about their soccer teams. Honduras was playing Costa Rica that night and so it was even more of a big deal because they are such a close neighboring country. We arrived there and all of her family started coming so eventually we had this houseful of people all crowded into the living room to watch the game. The first half there was some question over a Honduran goal and it was a huge deal; eventually it got taken away which didn’t make people happy J But they soon scored another goal. During half time, we got dinner was amazing as usual: chicken, steak, pork, tortillas, beans, rice, cheese, avocado, and platanos. It was so good and I was starving. The next half the Hondurans scored 3 goals and won over Costa Rica 4-0! It was a great game. It was so fun when Honduras would score a goal because everyone would stand up and clap and holler and some people did this dance they do here called the ‘punta’ which is like their victory dance. It’s hilarious watching them do it. There was so much Spanish flying around too and I tried to pick some of it up, but it was hard. Most of them were bilingual anyway and knew English so we still talked with her family some. After the game, we toasted Dona’s son-in-law for the promotion he got at his bank job with champagne. Then we called it a night and headed back to the house.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
I'm REALLY Here!
Hello everybody! I’m so excited to share with you via this blog what’s going on in my life in Honduras this year. I can’t guarantee how often I’ll be able to post, but I’ll try my best! Internet isn’t as accessible or fast here, which is hard to get used to. I would appreciate your prayers SO much for this year. Thanks for taking the time (and having the patience) to read my blog!
This day begins my journey for the next year of teaching in Honduras. Julia spent the night last night at my house so I got to meet her for the first time and she’s great! We chatted about our expectations and questions we had and shared all the info we knew with each other.Once we finally got to the airport, we had to park and get out all of our luggage from the Yukon which was 3 bags for me and 2 for Julia, but they were heavy and that doesn’t include carry-ons.
We found our terminal and began the process of checking in baggage, which took a while. Julia only had 2 bags, but one of them was really heavy and the older man helping us was like “Are you sure you don’t want to move some things?” He was really trying to be helpful so he didn’t have to charge Julia the extra $100 for the extra weight. The security line was next, so while we waited for that, my parents prayed for us and said goodbye. Neither of them cried, although my mom may have been teary-eyed a little bit. I’m not a crier for the most part, especially in the moment of goodbye. The emotions tend to hit me after my experience has sunk in a little bit and isn’t as new and exciting as in the beginning. So I was sad to say bye, but for now, while I miss people, I’m not REALLY missing them yet. I think after a month or so it will hit me that I’m in Honduras for a year and won’t see the people I love near as much as I’m used to.
After security, which went well, we headed to our plane and met Jacki and Stan. Jacki is a sweet girl as well; very laid back and personable. Stan is older, in his 50s, but he seems pretty cool; he’ll be like the dad/uncle to our group until he goes to La Union to teach and we go to Gracias. The flight to FL was uneventful and went well. We landed, got some lunch in the airport, talked about our expectations/questions/ideas for the whole trip, and then boarded our plane to Honduras! I originally thought I would have a freak out moment in FL, but I really didn’t (that happened more when I actually got to Honduras and realized ‘I’m in another freaking country, not for vacation, but for a while!’). The flight to Honduras was more interesting.
First Jacki and I switched seats with a couple because they were in the emergency row and one of them couldn’t speak English and that’s not allowed; Jacki and I switched and got the benefit of extra leg room too! J But there was this middle-aged man sitting in the row in front of us and he made the trip SO interesting to say the least. As we were taxi-ing on the runway ready to take off, he pressed the flight attendant button wanting to know why his seat didn’t recline and he wanted a seat that reclined. The flight attendant firmly told him it’s because he was in front of the emergency exit and so it’s not allowed. Well he was pissed about that. Then when we were in the air he moved to another seat without the permission of the flight attendants and so they had to firmly tell him again to return to his seat. He was getting all huffy saying he wanted a complaint form and such. By this time, I realized either he’s crazy or something else was wrong; and the something wrong was he was drunk…seriously. I could smell it. The craziest thing was on his way back from the bathroom he stops and looks at me and says, “So when are you gonna marry me?” right out of the blue! I was so taken aback that I didn’t know what to say so I was like, “Not for a long time.” He kept talking to me a little bit and I tried to be polite, but not friendly, trying to give him the hint to leave me alone. There was a guy across the aisle making hand gestures like “He’s crazy!” and I was like yeah! Well this guy continued to make a scene, harass the flight attendants, and shout loudly, along with the occasional “Are you sure you don’t wanna marry me?” to me as well. I about had it and was SO glad when we finally landed in San Pedro Sula. He ended up having to talk to the pilot about his behavior; he was clueless when he got into the airport, too. It was horrible and hilarious at the same time.
We proceeded through customs with no problems, got our baggage (it all made it!), and found Jake and Vicente (our contacts in Honduras) in the terminal with all of our stuff. Jake is the guy from the States who taught here last year and Vicente is an administrator for the school in Tegucigalpa (the capital). We packed all our bags like a puzzle into this van and left the airport just as it started to rain. We unloaded and relaxed for a little while, and then Jacki left to go with the guys to pick up Sarah, whose plane came in later than ours. Oh we all met Kirsty, another US teacher, at the airport because her plane had come in earlier that evening. While we waited for Sarah to come, Kirsty, Julia and I got to know each other: why we came, past relationships, family, school, etc. Kirsty’s cool and very nice. Sarah arrived and she is a hoot! So animated and fun. We spent the night in San Pedro at a nice hotel because we were leaving in the morning for Tegucigalpa. We are going to spend a few days there to do some paperwork, get a bank account, cell phone, exchange money, and other things like that.
This day begins my journey for the next year of teaching in Honduras. Julia spent the night last night at my house so I got to meet her for the first time and she’s great! We chatted about our expectations and questions we had and shared all the info we knew with each other.Once we finally got to the airport, we had to park and get out all of our luggage from the Yukon which was 3 bags for me and 2 for Julia, but they were heavy and that doesn’t include carry-ons.
We found our terminal and began the process of checking in baggage, which took a while. Julia only had 2 bags, but one of them was really heavy and the older man helping us was like “Are you sure you don’t want to move some things?” He was really trying to be helpful so he didn’t have to charge Julia the extra $100 for the extra weight. The security line was next, so while we waited for that, my parents prayed for us and said goodbye. Neither of them cried, although my mom may have been teary-eyed a little bit. I’m not a crier for the most part, especially in the moment of goodbye. The emotions tend to hit me after my experience has sunk in a little bit and isn’t as new and exciting as in the beginning. So I was sad to say bye, but for now, while I miss people, I’m not REALLY missing them yet. I think after a month or so it will hit me that I’m in Honduras for a year and won’t see the people I love near as much as I’m used to.
After security, which went well, we headed to our plane and met Jacki and Stan. Jacki is a sweet girl as well; very laid back and personable. Stan is older, in his 50s, but he seems pretty cool; he’ll be like the dad/uncle to our group until he goes to La Union to teach and we go to Gracias. The flight to FL was uneventful and went well. We landed, got some lunch in the airport, talked about our expectations/questions/ideas for the whole trip, and then boarded our plane to Honduras! I originally thought I would have a freak out moment in FL, but I really didn’t (that happened more when I actually got to Honduras and realized ‘I’m in another freaking country, not for vacation, but for a while!’). The flight to Honduras was more interesting.
First Jacki and I switched seats with a couple because they were in the emergency row and one of them couldn’t speak English and that’s not allowed; Jacki and I switched and got the benefit of extra leg room too! J But there was this middle-aged man sitting in the row in front of us and he made the trip SO interesting to say the least. As we were taxi-ing on the runway ready to take off, he pressed the flight attendant button wanting to know why his seat didn’t recline and he wanted a seat that reclined. The flight attendant firmly told him it’s because he was in front of the emergency exit and so it’s not allowed. Well he was pissed about that. Then when we were in the air he moved to another seat without the permission of the flight attendants and so they had to firmly tell him again to return to his seat. He was getting all huffy saying he wanted a complaint form and such. By this time, I realized either he’s crazy or something else was wrong; and the something wrong was he was drunk…seriously. I could smell it. The craziest thing was on his way back from the bathroom he stops and looks at me and says, “So when are you gonna marry me?” right out of the blue! I was so taken aback that I didn’t know what to say so I was like, “Not for a long time.” He kept talking to me a little bit and I tried to be polite, but not friendly, trying to give him the hint to leave me alone. There was a guy across the aisle making hand gestures like “He’s crazy!” and I was like yeah! Well this guy continued to make a scene, harass the flight attendants, and shout loudly, along with the occasional “Are you sure you don’t wanna marry me?” to me as well. I about had it and was SO glad when we finally landed in San Pedro Sula. He ended up having to talk to the pilot about his behavior; he was clueless when he got into the airport, too. It was horrible and hilarious at the same time.
We proceeded through customs with no problems, got our baggage (it all made it!), and found Jake and Vicente (our contacts in Honduras) in the terminal with all of our stuff. Jake is the guy from the States who taught here last year and Vicente is an administrator for the school in Tegucigalpa (the capital). We packed all our bags like a puzzle into this van and left the airport just as it started to rain. We unloaded and relaxed for a little while, and then Jacki left to go with the guys to pick up Sarah, whose plane came in later than ours. Oh we all met Kirsty, another US teacher, at the airport because her plane had come in earlier that evening. While we waited for Sarah to come, Kirsty, Julia and I got to know each other: why we came, past relationships, family, school, etc. Kirsty’s cool and very nice. Sarah arrived and she is a hoot! So animated and fun. We spent the night in San Pedro at a nice hotel because we were leaving in the morning for Tegucigalpa. We are going to spend a few days there to do some paperwork, get a bank account, cell phone, exchange money, and other things like that.
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