Rapiditos 101

I thought I’d talk a little bit about the transportation situation here. The structure public transportation varies by location and can differ between cities so I’m talking about San Pedro. Here, in San Pedro, I’ve encountered direct taxis which operate like a taxi in the states. You flag them down, give them a destination, and after settling on a price they take you directly to that destination. This is the most expensive option. Then there are collective taxis that always are always parked in a certain place and run a specific route. They wait for a car load before leaving, so less private but not bad. You have to know their route because the taxi will let you out at anytime, but won’t deviate from their route much. Finally there are the bus routes where buses stop at the same places along their route. The 2 different kinds of buses that run these routes are: recycled school buses (mostly from the U.S. and I have been advised to avoid these for safety reasons), and Rapiditos.

Rapiditos are privately owned 15 passenger vans that have been personalized with decal stickers, window tint, and stuff stuck all over the dash. Many sport a large decal with some evangelical statement of faith, which sometimes in English. I’m still trying to decide if it is statement of faith or seen more as good luck... Maybe if people have to choose between two buses with crazy drivers, they’re more likely to get in the one that says “Protected by Jesus” on the side. When I say “crazy drivers” keep in mind that it is from a North American perspective, the rules of the road are a little different. For example it is common to drive on the shoulder when there is a traffic jam and then drive around the shoulder when the shoulder slows.

Rapiditos are 15 passenger vans but if you find yourself in one with only 15 passengers, you savor the moment. There is a driver plus a guy who mans the door and the collects the money. They pack people in and apparently are never full because there will be no possible way to fit in another person and they will still try to pick up more passengers. Also these buses are made for people who have a little shorter legs than I do.

This is my mode of transportation into the center of town where the MCC office is located. I catch the Rapidito a short two blocks from my house. Sometimes you have to pass on a couple of them because they are too full or look like they might break down around the next corner. When getting in one I have to make sure to have money in hand because there is no way I can get to my pockets. At a similar point in the commute they will start collecting money and one by one we pass up our 7 Lempiras. Then the tricky part is knowing the names of the stops. To get off you shout out the name of the stop as the bus gets close. I’ve figured out how to get to and from the MCC, which I do about twice a week, and have made the trip by myself enough to feel confident.

Everyone has Rapidito stories here, these are a few of mine.
During the Honduras orientation I was advised to not get into a Rapidito that looks like it’s racing. I remember smirking because it sounded like an odd and obvious piece of advice. Well I found myself in one of these the other day. Another Rapidito caught up to mine and our driver wanted to get to the potential passengers first. It was an intense about half mile where the driver was flooring it along with aggressive driving. It ended when a passenger took his time entering our bus, and we lost our lead. So we waited a while to let the other bus get ahead a ways, then continued at normal speed.
Another time a mother squished into the seat next to me. With her baby on her lap, she started breast feeding. I was unsure how to react to that but I followed everyone else’s lead and acted like it was no big deal.
And once there was a time when the Rapidito could not make change for a passenger. So when another Rapidito was passing up the driver yelled something at them and the next thing I know the buses are getting really close together. Our driver holds out a bill and there is a stretched hand stretched from the other bus holding a wad of smaller bills. After a few tries the money is exchanged and everyone got their change and, more importantly, nobody crashed.

I’m healthy and doing well. I’ve been teaching for over a month now and have a good feel for it. I’m on the trimester system so I have about a month and a half left of this trimester. It is frustrating sometimes when half a class or possibly a whole class doesn’t show up. But the bright side is that it saves me lesson planning time. My Spanish is coming along and I’m becoming an expert in Spanish computer lingo.

Thanks for reading.
And snail mail is always welcome (address is on the right)

New Fridge

So a little while back my host family’s fridge died. This was seen as a chance to rearrange the room that serves as both the kitchen and dining room. Yes, rearrange not redecorate, cupboards and shelves were relocated to places across the room. Meaning that new holes were drilled into the cinder block walls, so that things could be screwed into the walls in new places. Unfortunately they decided to do some of that drilling during the time I had decided to make an international call to my girlfriend. But in the rearrangement process, there wasn’t any consideration about where the new fridge would go. So yesterday when my host dad came back with a new fridge the process started again. The shelves and cupboards came down and were tried out on other walls.

This method of replacing a fridge felt bizarre to me. I know if I were at home Dad would have had the tape measure out a long time ago. There would probably be layouts diagrammed on paper complete with dimensions. Plus there would be a goal to not drill more holes in the kitchen walls than was necessary. I felt like things were moved around in a more trial-and-error approach to interior design. I just went with it and offered my assistance moving the oven, fridge, table, and such to new places across the room. And even though the method was not what I would have done, it resulted in a pretty functional layout of the room. And again I’m reminded that the way I’m used to doing things is definitely not the only way.

I also helped hold cupboards up to the wall so they could be fixed to the wall. I kept jokingly offer to raise whatever I was holding, up a bit. It always generated a response which first assured me that whatever I was holding was high enough as if my question was serious, then quickly followed by a joke about me being too tall. At 6 foot I am often one of the tallest in a group, and it’s no different with my family here and their house. I have learned the places where I need to watch my head around the house. I learned pretty quickly that I need to duck to go into the bathroom.

Class is still going well, but there seems to be constant change from week to week. For instance in my class of Advanced students, I’m now teaching how to code in HTML (web design stuff). So since I don’t really know HTML I’m learning it, sometimes the day before, then teaching. It’s weird to teach a programming language (HTML) in a language I barely know (Spanish). It’s a fun challenge.

Beard’s gone, next thing is a haircut.
There are kittens here and they just opened their eyes and are starting to walk around and meow… constantly.
Bananas here cost 1 Lempira, which is about 5 cents in US dollars, score.

Thanks for reading