Catching up

Tuesday was my day off. We didn't do much because it started pouring in the morning. There was a short break around dinner time, and then it rained all night. Some friends had come over for dinner and were waiting for the rain to let up a little so they could leave. Meanwhile on tv, the news showed the streets of Tegucigalpa completely flooded. They stayed until late, but the rain never let up. They ended up having to leave in the rain. I was worried about them getting home safely.

It is so dangerous to drive when it rains like that. When the rain is coming down the streets are like rivers with waterfalls entering the streets from water pouring down the mountains between the houses and cascading into the street. Last night when my cab took me home from church some of the streets were still flooded with water or rocks and sand that had flowed down from the mountainside. It's hard to explain unless you see it - kind of like a landslide that lands in the middle of the road.

Karla came home with a whole bunch of sticky notes and announced that every day we are going to pick 5 new words and post them on the wall. When I learn them, we move them to the other side. When I wake up in the morning I practice the words in my bed. Throughout the day Karla asks me the words, and when I go to sleep those darn words are almost the last thing I think about. But it's working. I thought 2 months here would be enough to enable me to get a bilingual social work job when I return to the states. However, like with so many other things in life, I am realizing that the more I learn the more I realize that I don't know. I am not feeling confident at all about a bilingual job in two months.

Once again I am trying to do laundry. Lack of water and lack of sun continues to make laundry and arduous task. But at least I do not have to wash everything by hand as I have seen others doing.

Yesterday some people passed through and gave out toys to the kids at the breakfast program. I took some photos.

Also, Don Juan pointed out a boy who really needed some new clothes and shoes. We found a spiderman shirt, which did not appear very new (or clean) but he loved it and gave him a pair of shoes. He showed up wearing his shirt and his shoes today. Usually he eats and leaves immediately. But today he brought his little sister who was about 3. When he was done eating he played with a dog. The dog chased him around and around the church. After watching him outrun that dog for at least a half an hour I now understand why his nickname is "conejo" (rabbit). He is so darn cute! I am hoping that soon he will socialize with other boys, but sticking around and playing with the dog is a step in the right direction.

Today I ran the breakfast program alone. About 40 kids came. Tony has been doing work on his house this week so he asked me to help out. Things went really smoothly today. I am working to try to balance the fun with making sure that the kids clean up and leave when they are supposed to. They are doing better at playing together so that is no longer a problem. But we are attracting tons of bees and bugs because they try to escape without cleaning. Today I only had to say "Hasta manana!" (until tomorrow) and they all left! This has never happened before.

Jairo just came in and I need to talk to him. More later...

Observations

Did you ever think about the words for some of the traditional songs we sing in English? Karla has been walking around the house ever since I got here humming "The Ants Go Marching One By One..." Finally yesterday I asked her if there were words in Spanish for this song. She said she wasn't sure. So I translated it for her. How silly this song is! And it's been raining so much here I found myself saying "It's raining, it's pouring...." Then I tried to translate that to Spanish for the kids and they thought I was crazy (once again). Jose asked me why is the old man snoring? I said I have no idea! I've been singing these songs all of my life and I never thought about the words before.

Today we started teaching Valery sign language. She was so excited! She really loved it! Sometimes it is hard for her to express herself. If you don't already know, Valery has Down Syndrome. School is very hard for her. It is hard to understand when she talks, but we are hoping that she can use signs along with her words and she will not feel so frustrated about communicating. It was cool to see her so engaged and having fun while learning. Thank you to my sister-in-law, Dina, for information about sign language. The flash cards really help!

I ran the breakfast program with a lady, Gladys, from the church today. The kids tried to get away with things, but we kept them straight and everything went well. Tomorrow is my day off.

Valery and Dana Sophia are Home!

Today was a day that Jose and Karla have been looking forward to since I arrived. Their daughters left right before I got here to spend time in the country with Karla's parents. Karla's sister, Karina, who also lives in this house (and will now be my roommate) was with the girls. It was perfect for me to get to know Karla and Jose without the girls around. But as all of you parents know, 2 weeks without your one and six year old is a long time. Jose dropped Karla and me off at church, then went to the bus station to pick up Karina and the girls.

In the meantime we learned that someone stole the battery from Walter's truck up in La Tigra last night after he got home from the concert. So Jose dropped off the girls at church. He and Tony bought a battery and went up to La Tigra. Once again, Karla and I were stuck at church (last time was a week ago when Tony got a flat tire after the futbol game.) This time we were starving so a lady offered to drop us off at Pizza Hut so we could feed the girls. Tony and Jose met us there. They said someone clipped the wires off the battery and probably stole every car battery around, which is strange because La Tigra is such a remote area.

I was so exhausted after only sleeping for three hours last night. My heart was still pounding at 6 am from that stupid coffee yesterday afternoon. We went to look at houses on land up above the church. They are building Honduras' version of condos up there. I didn't have my camera, but imagine bright colored cement stucco townhouses side by side. Personally, I was discouraged by that sort of development, but the houses were nice inside and very cheap because of the location. They had balconies and the views of the mountains were really amazing. I wonder what that area will look like in 10 or 20 years.

After house hunting I took a two hour nap. I felt bad because I was invited to join Lourdes for a gathering at her house, but as I said to Tony, I had no energy to socialize with strangers. (Lourdes was having a party to say good bye to the members of her Spanish class and I don't know any of them.) I would have really enjoyed going if I had any energy at all.

Now I am adjusting to life with a house full of people. The girls seem comfortable with me so far. And Karina is very easy going, so she will be a good roommate. Karina will learn tomorrow when she shows up for class if her college teachers are still on strike or not.

And my last good news is that one of the ladies whom Tony and visited came to church today. She brought her daughter, who is 16, and both boys who are in the breakfast program. Tony had me introduce them to the church and welcome them. Afterward the Mom said she really enjoyed it and she will be back next week!

Lucas Leyes, Flat Tires, Ants and Rojo

Today Jose and I got up early to take about 20 older kids from the church to a conference in the morning. The main speaker was Lucas Leyes, a Christian motivational speaker from Argentina. He was very dynamic and had a lot of good things to say, but at times even the native Spanish speakers couldn't understand him because he spoke really fast. The conference was held in a large, nice auditorium. It ended at 1:30 and we were starving so we went back to the church and ate pizza, then processed everything with the kids. Then the kids played soccer at the church while they waited until 6:30 pm to go to a concert that was included in the cost of the conference.

I saw two babies about the same age as my nephew, Jack, at the conference. I am not homesick, but I sure do miss Jack. I want to give him a big smoochy kiss in his neck and listen to him giggle. I look at pictures of him every day. My friends here are probably sick of hearing about Jack, but they continue to look at pictures and say how cute he is. I would love to hold him and have him wrap his arms around my neck. I miss my little bug!

After the conference Jose and I went to run some errands, one of which was to pick up his car from the mechanic. Walter and I each pointed out that Jose's front tire was really soft and needed air. He told me he likes it like that because if it were too hard it would pop in all of the pot holes. So we picked up Karla and went to a few stores. Luckily at one store we happened to park in a puddle and Karla noticed that air was bubbling out of the puddle from the tire. By that point the tire was flat, so we hurried into the car and drove along a main street where there were various guys set up along the road selling used tires. Finally we found a place that had the right size. By that point the rubber was starting to tear apart, but we made it. We got a new tire and went to celebrate with a cup of coffee. I never drink coffee, especially at 4:30 pm, so I was up all night. It was a small cup, but my heart was still pounding at 6 am this morning. While we were inside one of the cars near ours got robbed. We were freaked out because we had just bought a scanner for Karla's computer for work. It was in plain sight in the window of the hatchback, so we lucked out. Better to have to replace an old worn out tire, than to loose a brand new scanner! I should mention that this was another afternoon of absolute torrential downpours. The streets were rivers again, cars stalled in the middle. It definitely makes driving exciting!

We went back to the house and were unloading the car when Karla started jumping around and screaming in Spanish. Her arms were full and she dropped everything and ripped her shoe off. I had no idea what was happening - I thought she got a bee in her shoe, so I picked up her bags and carried them in for her. But then as we were leaving I was standing outside the car waiting to get inside when I was attacked by little red ants. They were all over my feet and flip flops and pant legs. I did the same screaming dance that Karla did. Jose kept telling me to get into the car (to get off the ground and away from the ants) but in my mind I wanted to get all of them off me before I brought them with me in the car. Man, those suckers have a mean bite! And they are hard to get off you because they are so small. I'm sure all of the neighbors got a good laugh from my screaming and jumping around, swatting at my feet.

We returned to the church just in time to leave for the concert. There was a huge line outside so there was a lot of anticipation. I don't think any of the kids had been to a concert before. By the time we got inside there were only seats for our large group in the back. When the music started everyone stood up and two boys who I work with every day at the breakfast program had no chance of seeing anything. I thought maybe I could get them a quick view of the stage from the side aisle so I grabbed them and took them with me. We ended up watching the whole concert from the very front row! They were so excited! It was cool to see them having so much fun jumping up and down dancing. They also took the worshiping part very seriously. At one point the band asked everyone in the audience to get onto their knees, so we all squeezed onto our knees and prayed. Then they had us reach out to the people next to us and pray with them. They talked about speaking positively to people - saying nice things to your family and friends. Then they asked us to say nice things to the people around us. The girl in the picture above was a complete stranger. She turned to Milton and Bismar and words flowed from her mouth for about 3 minutes about them being important in this world and in God's eyes. She said they each have a special future in store for them and she will remember them in her prayers always. It was so perfect because I could have never said all of those things in Spanish the way she did. By the end Bismar and I were both crying. Afterward I hugged her and thanked her. I explained my limited Spanish and she said she was happy to have spoken. How awesome to see young teens (13, 14) treat each other like that!

By the end we were exhausted but we all had a fabulous time. I was so happy to be able to share it with Milton and Bismar. They are very special boys and already show strong leadership potential. I think a lot about what the future holds in store for them. I know it is an experience none of us will forget.

Afternoon Stroll Through Los Pinos

God is moving in Los Pinos!

After the breakfast program was over this morning Tony invited me to join him in visiting another family in Los Pinos. The funny thing is that we had originally planned to go out for lunch and meet with a friend of his, but we learned at the last minute that his friend was out of town.

At first I told Tony that I would stay behind at the church to work on my blog because the wireless internet I've been tapping into at home has not been available lately. But then I thought, "What the heck? I might as well go." As we left it started to rain, and then I saw that we were not driving, but walking straight up the hill behind the church. I thought "Oh yuck, what have I gotten myself into?" and the boys kept joking that the home we were visiting was far, far up the hill. When we got to the top of the road it started to downpour and we all ran, screaming into a little open ended cement garage sort of thing to take cover from the rain.

Finally the rain let up a little and we ran to a boy's house who lived nearby. His mother was happy to invite us in and show us her one room home with a refridgerator and tv! I think she said she had 5 kids in total living with her in one room with a single bed and a full sized bed. She asked us to sit down on the beds, which were perfectly made, I felt like I would dirty them from having run through the rain to get there. She was very happy to meet Tony, saying that she hears her son talk about "Tony, Tony" every day. Tony invited her to come and observe the breakfast program any time she wished. He asked if she has a church she belongs to. She said she does belong to a church, but it meets at night and she can't go alone at night because it is not safe, so at this time she doesn't go to church. She said that God is still an important part of her life every day, and she prays, but it is not safe to go to church alone. We talked for a few minutes more, and then we got ready to leave to visit another home.

As I stood to leave she took my arm and held me back while the others left. It's kind of a blur now, but she asked me if she could come to our church on Sundays. She said she would really like to come to our church. I was surprised because I hadn't said much during the visit. I told her of course, we would love for her to come to the church. She said she didn't want to go alone, so I told her I would be there at 9:00, looking for her and I hoped she would come.

Then I went down to where Tony was waiting and told him what happened. He asked if I wanted to go back and pray with her. I said yes, but I'm not good at praying in Spanish. He said the language is not important, just ask her if she wants you to pray. So they all waited outside (we had about 5 kids with us) and I went back and asked if I could pray with her. We held hands and prayed together. I prayed that she would come to church and gain a sense of community so she would not feel alone. After our prayer she said she is very excited to come to church on Sunday - so now one of my prayers is that if she comes I will recongnize her! So many faces are new to me here. She seemed genuinely moved and I really think she could be here on Sunday. If not, Tony and I have another plan...

Then we went to the next house. The mom in this house was very animated. She seemed like a strong willed woman. To make a long story short, the very same thing happened again. The lady asked me as everyone else was leaving if she could come to church. She said she will seem me there. We'll see what happens! I suggested to Tony that we visit a couple of homes every Friday. He liked the idea. At the very least we can meet the families of the kids.

Special Gifts

This morning I was greated by at least 8 boys swarming around my cab outside the gate of the church. Then one of them stepped forward with a gift for me. Of all of the kids in the program, he is the only one with whom I have had to be very strict. He is a bigger boy and he sometimes bullies the others, so I was very surprised to receive a gift from him.

I absolutely love it. I would say that I can't wait to hang it on my wall at home, but that's not true because I am in no hurry to go home. But when I do get home, one of the first things I will do is to put it on my wall. It's shaped kind of like it should be a waterfall. His mother makes them to sell.

When the boys saw how excited I was about the gift, they all began hugging me. Wish I had a camera for that. About eight 12 year olds wrapped around me with hugs. Another special gift!

This morning we had a special breakfast because there was no school this week so we made a hot breakfast of panqueques (pancakes) with strawberries and bananas inside. For the people who helped, Tony made a special batch with chocolate inside. Yummy!!!

Thank God for Muncho!

It started raining today sometime in the early afternoon. I was doing some work (or maybe writing my last blog entry) when it started. At one point I was ready to go home, but after Tony's experience with two flat tires in three hours during the last heavy rain I figured I would wait it out.

At one point the rain let up temporarily, but Muncho, my taxi driver, didn't answer his phone. And then it started raining again. After 3 hours I finally tried calling again. When he tried to pull into the church driveway I thought his car was going to get swept away by the flood running down the street. He ended up stopping in the middle of the road, where the road was highest and the water was lowest to let me in.

He immediately said he does not usually work when it is raining. I explained that I know how dangerous it is because of Tony's two flat tires from pot holes that were hidden by the rain last week. Meanwhile we're driving down streets that are absolutely flooded with more rain coming down the mountains and pouring out from between the houses like huge waterfalls. I tried to take a picture, but for some reason it didn't work. The picture above is just looking outside from the office to the church.

Anyway, Muncho and I both got home safely - he lives right up the street. I paid him some extra money and told him that I appreciate that he came to get me. He said to call him when I need a ride tomorrow, and I told him it will be a little earlier because we are serving pancakes tomorrow!

An added sidenote: I think the add for Geico insurance is not as crazy as it may seem. Last night I noticed a small little lizard, I assumed it was a geiko, on the living room wall. Now I see a bigger one crawling along the top of the wall in my bedroom and it does talk!!! It makes little clicking/churping sounds like a squirrel. The funny thing is that yesterday I heard the same sound and I asked Jose what it was. He told me it was a bird. Does he think I'd be scared of a geiko or did he not hear the same sound that I was asking about? Anyway geikos can talk in their own geiko lanuage. I'm listening to it right now.

Breakfast Program

Painting white shoes black.
White is not popular here.

SNOPPY???

I started the day yesterday by calling my mom. Really, I had nothing to say, but it was nice to talk to her. Usually we talk almost every day when I am in the states. I know that she can tell from my voice how I am truly feeling - so now she knows that I am truly happy here. It was a good way to start my day.

I've been riding to the church and back home with my taxi driver, Muncho. He understands that I'm working on my Spanish so he talks to me about the days' events and helps me with my words. The problem I am facing now is that I have learned so many words so quickly that I am getting the words confused with each other. The words for rain, to cry, and to wear are all similar. I think I have said that I cried my clothes instead of wearing them.

On the 19th the first church group is coming. They have agreed to the idea that Tony and I came up with about spending their time focused on one specific family. By the time they are done the family will have a water system, a cement floor and real walls for their house with fresh paint. Today we learned that we will need to first fumigate the house and treat the family with a cream to get rid of a bacteria that lives in their dirt floor and on their bodies. To me it sounds like an enormous process which must be done in a meticulous manner or the home and the people will continue to have the bacteria. Tony is confident that we can do it all precisely as needed. I am glad that HE has confidence because to me it seems a little overwhelming. After we are done with this project the church has invited Tony, two boys from our church, the family that they are working with while they are here, and me to Utila for 5 days to relax, snorkel, and spend time at the beach. Utila is a small island off Roatan. Everyone tells me it will be a great time. I am very excited.

Yesterday after the breakfast program I stopped procrastinating and wrote a letter which I have been worrying about since Tony asked me to do it. There is a store here similar to Costco and Tony was hoping that we could work out some sort of deals with them. I am comfortable with the idea of writing a letter, but less comfortable about asking for something. In the end it turned out great and I was proud of it. Instead of being business-like, I think I portrayed the real feelings of the breakfast program and all of the different ways it benefits the children as well as the community. Now I hope that the letter serves its purpose and the store owner is willing to help us in some way with the breakfast program.

I've started to help more with organizing the breakfast program. It's not much work - just delegating to the kids and then supervising. It's nice because then Tony can spend more quality time with the kids. Today I got a picture of them all playing Uno together.

Yesterday was another futbol game. Walter came over and watched it with Karla, Jose, and me. This time Honduras won so everyone was happy, dancing around, firecrackers outside. It is cool to see everyone wearing their Honduras soccer shirts on the day of the game. Where ever you look, people of all ages are wearing their shirts and talking about the game.

I am hoping that it will not rain tonight. I really need to wash my clothes, but there is no water until tonight. (I still don't understand this water system at all, but Muncho says that tonight at 8 pm there will be water.) I am hoping that I can wash everything tonight, then hang it to dry for tomorrow. I wish that I had one more pair of jeans with me. I don't want to buy another pair here when I have more than enough jeans in my closet at home.

Tonight Jose and I will watch the Magic vs the Lakers. I am looking forward to that.

Saturday I am invited to go with a group of kids to a conference from 8 am - 1 pm. Then there will be a concert (I'm not sure if the concert is for them, or by them.) at 7 pm. It will be a full day. Karla wants to ride roller coasters in between. We'll see...

Today was the first day Carlos did not show up for the breakfast program. Although we don't expect him to be at the church every single day, we are wondering how he is spending his time today.

Girls' Day Out

Today Karla and I went shopping downtown "Al Centro". It was a fun day out. As we sat and ate lunch I thought about how little our language barrier affects us. I am learning a lot from her because until yesterday I thought she really didn't know English, and also because she talks really fast - so fast that everyone here jokes with me about it. Yesterday I asked her in Spanish, "What is the difference between 'esquina' and 'calle'?" and she answered me in english - Esquina is "corner' and calle is "street". I was freaked out - she says she doesn't know English, but she knows the word for corner????? Now she admits she does know some English, but she didn't do as well in her English classes as some other students so she lacks confidence.


Before we left to go shopping I closed my bedroom door because the rest of the house was full of mosquitoes - one of the first new words I learned was zancudos (mosquitoes). Anyway, now my room is locked from the inside. We can't figure out how to open it. We tried jimmying a credit card, but it didn't work. The good news is that we sprayed the rest of the house so we are temporarily almost free of mosquitoes. But we might die of the fumes.



Today I bought some cool new shoes. We went to a store that had Izaac Mizrahi and Steve Madden and a bunch of other name brand shoes for about $15. The ladies here wear high heels all of the time and I brought flip flops, sneakers and Crocs. So I bought sandals that tie around the ankle with a wedged cork heel. Karla bought really cute little flats. Then we got matching shirts to wear for the soccer game tomorrow - El Salvador vs Honduras. I got shampoo here because I didn't want to have the weight in my suitcase. Karla had to help me with conditioner. I almost bought the kind that you leave in your hair by accident.



We looked for a birthday present for Jose - can't say what it is in case he reads this, but we didn't buy it yet anyway. And we went to a panaderia for homemade bread and sweet rolls. It was fun to spend the day together. Reminded me that I don't spend enough time playing with my girlfriends when I'm at home.



Nothing profound to write today. I didn't save the world or feed hungry children and I didn't take any pictures, although al centro is cool - tons of stores that all sell the same things basically. We are both still looking for new bibles. We went to 2 stores, but no luck. I need a bilingual one and Karla needs a special one for herself with a zipper since one of her daughters ripped some pages out of hers. I am thinking I will continue to look and get one for her as a gift if I can find a nice one. I know her taste well enough - what a perfect gift!



Time to eat dinner - tortillas with eggs, queso fresco, avocados, beans and mantequilla (which literally translated means butter, but in this case it is salty sour cream - I love it!). Last night I wanted to take a picture of our dinner, but Karla had one of her college friends here and I was embarrassed. It was like artwork. A plate of lettuce with plum tomatoes hollowed out and filled with tuna salad. There were radishes and all colors of peppers placed carefully around the plate. It was beautiful and tasty. We also had part of the broccoli from the market and they teased me that we were eating part of my head. The broccoli was steamed, then tossed in a mixture of spicy vinegar and mayonaise and lime juice. Our starch was rice cooked with peppers and pieces of tomato. My contribution to the meal was the refresca (drink). Karla showed me how to make homemade lemonde with raw sugar, water and lemon juice that comes in the squeezable lemon like we have in the states, only it tastes fresh. Mmmmmm... my mouth is watering thinking of it! We had horchata for lunch and Karla said she will teach to make horchata too.



Time to go help with dinner. Tomorrow, back to the church for the breakfast program. Oh! I forgot to say that last night we went to a very Americanized mall. We stopped for ice cream at Baskin Robbins and they only had 12 flavors!!!!!! I was so surprised. I tried to explain that Baskin Robbins always has 32 flavors. I think they thought I was crazy. First time I ever went to Baskin Robbins and didn't get Rocky Road in my whole life! And the earth quake 2 nights ago was a 5.7 but Karla and Jose didn't even feel it. They were dressing for bed. I was in my bed reading. It felt like the bed turned into a water bed for a few seconds. But it didn't make the news at all. The epicenter was North of my city.



I also thought I should clarify - I do not live in Los Pinos. Los Pinos is across the street from the church. More and more families from Los Pinos are attending church each Sunday and many kids are coming for the breakfast program on weekdays. Los Pinos is a very poor community. It is cool to see everyone blending together so nicely from different communities.



Where I live is very nice and it is much more safe. I think the people are beginning to recognize the gringa who is walking around. (People here use the word "gringo/gringa" with no intention of being insulting - it just means that it is a person from the states. It's even on the tv and the radio - Honduras lost to the "gringos" Saturday in futbol.)



Aunt Cath - thank you for passing along the address. It is great to hear everyone's comments and insight. Thank you for reading!

Views from La Iglesia

Some Safer Parts of Los Pinos