Feliz Navidad

To bring you up to speed with my life that has suddenly picked up pace. December came and so did Christmas decorations, mostly in businesses but a few houses on my street have hung some lights. But the businesses here really support the American commercial Christmas trend. For example City Mall in San Pedro has a decked out, 2-story tree in the food court. The beginning of December brought my first round of classes to a close. On December 7th was my last day of teaching for the year and the following day I had a mini graduation ceremony for the students. The ceremony was a very short program where the students received certificates (apparently very important to people here) followed by the customary refreshments of cake and soda. The classes I teach are 3 months long and are offered 3 times a year. Round 2 of classes starts in mid-January.

Then December 9th there was a Proyecto MAMA EndOfYear/Birthday/Christmas party. So in other words lots of food, candy, and gifts and a piñata (obligation for birthdays). A Mariachi band came and sung "Happy Birthday" (in Spanish). I thought it was really ironic that they sang the verse that says "now we want cake," three times... if you sing "now we want cake" over and over, do you really mean it? Proyecto MAMA does a secret Santa gift exchange for the Christmas part of the party. The gift exchange was a little different than any I've participated in before. For example there was a price minimum for the gift and there was a sheet to write down what you want your gift to be, and could be as specific as you want. I put down that I wanted a soccer jersey of a Honduran team (I got a nice one of team Marathon), but one could write what they wanted in a particular color from a particular store. Being able to write what you want ensures that you actually get something you want, but also takes away the fun of the anticipation, just my opinion.

I said that I don't have class from the beginning of December through mid-January. During this time I'm actually going/have started doing a lot of traveling. This week (Dec 11-17) I'm back in Copan Ruinas to take some more Spanish language classes. My Spanish is a ton better and my comprehension is pretty decent, but my grammar is still weak when I'm conversing. Plus I can understand a question and respond but I couldn't tell you what tense I just used much less the rules or patterns for the tenses. So this week I'm focusing on expanding my vocabulary, improving my knowledge of the structure of the language. Plus it's pretty relaxing to be back in Copan, and living with the same lady my family stayed with when we were here back in 2005. This is my 3rd time studying at this language school, I becoming a regular...

My next stop on my marathon trip is to San Jose, Comayagua. This is where my host parents are from and where most of their family lives. The plan is to spend 2 weeks-ish there and get to experience Honduran Christmas with them. I've been told to expect lots of tamales, apples, grapes, and fire works. It should be fun and very different from Christmas in the states. I'm looking forward to it, and will let you know how it goes. Then in the beginning of January, I'm getting a much anticipated visitor. Liz is coming to visit me for a couple weeks and we will to do some traveling. One place we plan to go is to Roatan island off the north coast of Honduras. I'm really excited because Roatan is supposed to have some of the best scuba diving and snorkeling in the world. A lot to look forward to in the coming month.

I'm not really planning on having much internet over the next month, so it will probably be a while before my next post.

A random fact:
Since I've been living here the amount of names that I respond to has grown exponentially. At home and school (normal Spanish speaking settings) I go by Miguel. I go by Mike or Michael in the occasional English setting (MCC team). Plus people who know a little English call me Mitchel because they think it's the English version of Miguel. Plus some people call me "Me-Kay," the Spanish pronunciation of Mike. It's almost to the point where I'll answer to any word starting with M...

Thanks for reading and have a merry Christmas

Soccer

So I guess it’s been a bit since I wrote last, sorry about that. I told people that I was hoping to play some soccer here and hopefully use soccer as a way to make friends. I’ve been working on finding a group to play with since I arrived. I live about 3 or 4 blocks from a couple soccer fields but was told that you have to watch who you hang out with there. So I looked for guys from church who would take me out to play so that I wouldn’t have to worry about the crowd. I wasn’t having much luck until I got the invitation to play street soccer that I mentioned in my last blog post.

I play with a group of guys who range from about 15-ish to a few years older than me. We play on certain section of street that divides an elementary school. The school has buildings on both sides and these buildings have outside lights for security. There are a couple houses next to the school that have outside lights as well, adding to the visibility and safety of the game. The dirt road has many rocks to watch out for, plus an array of potholes scattered throughout the field.  When it rains the potholes fill with water and become mud pits. The first couple of times I played I had to get used to obstacle soccer. Cinderblock walls on either side topped with razor wire have claimed their fair share of soccer balls. We kick around whatever ball we have, sometimes it’s a normal soccer ball other times it’s a plastic 50 cent ball. We score on little 2-foot homemade wooden goals. The games are quick and usually 3 v 3. When you score, you yell “quadra” and the team that lost is quickly replaced by a team waiting.

We play most evenings after it gets dark.  I wasn’t sure people preferred to play by the sparse light after the sun the sun goes down.I’ve figured it has to do with a combination of it being cooler, people having more free time, and there are fewer pedestrians later in the evening. It is a decently traveled street with most of the traffic being pedestrian. Since every time someone mistakes our soccer field for a normal street.  We have to pause our game to let them pass safely, and then the game starts again just as quickly as it stopped. It’s always fun even though I end up with scrapes of some kind about every other game. Nothing too bad, but enough to sting when I apply disinfectant afterwards.

My world can be a little small here sometimes with a language barrier and pretty much all my time spent with family, work, and church. I’ve put a lot of energy into knowing people in these settings but it feels constricting to have that be my entire life.  I’ve been working on getting to know more people in the community and neighborhood street soccer is great for that. It’s a setting where I can interact with youth while playing and also meet people walking by. And as a result I have had some conversations with people who live really close, but might not have met if I didn’t have a reason to go to their street. It’s fun to look down other dirt roads flooded with inhabited buildings and barbed wire fences, and think of the possible friends or conversations that might exist.

Last week our street took a collection and bought a truckload of dirt to fix up the sloppy sections along our road, mentioned in the last post. I got to help filling in the mud pits with most of the guys who live on our street. My understanding is that the government is technically responsible for maintenance but couldn’t possibly keep up if they really tried. So it defaults to community responsibility. It was really cool to see the community working together to pay for and fix their road. Another moment to stop and compare cultures. The road is much better these days and it is possible to walk to work and not have to watch and calculate your every step.

Other News:

School is winding down and my trimester will end the first week of December. Then the next week I will go back to Copan for another week of Spanish classes to hopefully help my grammar become more natural.

I had Thanksgiving here. The country reps Andres and Amy Zorrilla invited MCCers who were able to come over for a Thanksgiving meal. We had turkey and a whole delicious traditional Thanksgiving meal. Incase you who were worried that I’d be missing out this year.


Thanks for reading.

Expectations

Insert your favorite cliché stating that you should resist the natural human desire to have expectations or assumptions. Things taken for granted often don’t translate cross-culturally, but you already knew that. But a personal example is I had the assumption that the lines painted on the road mean something… so far it looks like I’m wrong. Also I didn’t expect that the next neighborhood over would be exclusively black for what I’m told. I have yet to get myself into too much trouble because of misguided assumption, but I have been thinking about the topic lately.

Back in August at SALT orientation, one piece of advice that repeatedly offered was “have low expectations.” This concise phrase was to remind us that even though we are young (thus invincible and can accomplish anything we set our mind to) and volunteering for a year (where a year in enough time to accomplish anything), that the visible effect we make might not be as drastic as we have dreamed it will be. Maybe it’s because of 17 years of teachers encouraging confidence in my abilities, but I find this advice hard to swallow. As I’m approaching the 3 month mark, there is a tug-a-war is going on in my head about what I’m accomplishing compared to what I feel I should be accomplishing. In the classroom I can see progress, but in the community I still feel like that white guy down the street. I have few community members who are more than just passing greetings but I’m just starting to accumulate enough courage to initiate a conversation with a stranger.

The other evening I church I arrived with my family on time, so naturally we were early. I sat in the back by myself because my host family decided not to sit down. Then sometime during the service a middle aged lady sat next to me; I knew her face but not her name. Services have many scripture reading and most people have a Bible to follow along, she was no different. When the pastor announced the closing scripture, she found the passage and then noticing I didn’t have a Bible she offered her’s to me. I accepted her offer but insisted that we share because I didn’t want to deprive her of being able to follow along in her Bible. She recited the last verse in unison with the pastor, took back the book, and asked me if I could follow along with reading. I thought it was an odd question but assumed it was an indirect question about my Spanish ability. I responded saying I could follow along and understood most of it. She looked impressed, and then told me that she could not read and that she memorizes the passages that get read often. It was my turn to look impressed and that was the extent of our interaction for the evening. Since then a congregation of Bibles has taken a different meaning.

I have also been on the receiving end of the assumption process. I was leaving work to go home a number of weeks back and met Luis from church. Luis is a 15 years old and plays the keyboard church, also the guy who recently cut my hair. He told me he was going to play some soccer and I asked where he played trying to sound interested. I got an invitation to go play some 3 vs 3 street soccer with him and his friends. When we walked home he told me that he didn’t expect that I liked to play soccer. Well he knows better now, and came over the other evening to convince me to come play some mud soccer. It wasn’t that tough a sell.

Some random fun facts:

White socks are not for mud soccer.

The Mennonite church here has had 2 food fundraisers so far, Hamburgers and Tamales. They’re good cooks.

The rain has turned some of the roads, including a section in front of my house, into mud soup. So my walk to work now more resembles an obstacle course.

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

Teaching

So I thought I should talk a little about teaching and the school because that is the main chunk of my time during the day. I have been officially teaching for 5 class. The school is run by Proyecto MAMA which is an origination based here in Honduras that is focused on helping young mothers. They provide a lot help in the form of education because private schools are better but expensive and public school aren’t known for quality, plus the teachers sometimes strike because of political stuff that I don’t know well enough to try to explain. But I’ve heard stories of kids having teachers at school only a couple times a month. In short education is a good strategy for Proyecto MAMA to provide aid. They have scholarship programs that sponsors kids to go to private school as well as offers tutoring classes, library facilities, and other classes at low cost (English, Computers). The computer classes I teach are about $4.50 total, $1.50 to sign up and about $1.00 per month for each of the 3 month course (1 trimester).

My first week here I was told was to prep for classes that start next week. That’s all they told me. I lucked out because I actually have an intern, give it a sec to let the irony soak in. She is going to graduate (the equivalent of) high school and she needs to do an internship type thing. She was a lot of help pointing me in right direction to start because she has been involved with the facility in other ways before. I had to come up with a schedule for the classes I was going to teach, so I whipped up an Excel spreadsheet to rough out a weekly schedule. I felt like I was throwing darts at a wall. After putting classes on Thursdays, I was told that Thursdays were reserved for kids who come for tutoring. My classes are open to the public but the kids who come for tutoring get to come in and play educational games on Thursdays. So after a few more stumbles through the process I finally had a schedule and so far I had only 6 students all signed up for beginning classes. I’m supposed to offer a variety of levels of difficulty. That didn’t seem so bad; I was looking at 2 classes of the same level one in the morning one in the afternoon.  That meant 1 set of one hour lesson plans, in Spanish, to give twice on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Well since then I (as of today) now have 17 students, 3 classes of beginners one class is two 8 year old girls, 2 intermediate classes and an advanced class. Which, equates to 4 sets of lesson plans and being tired at the end of the day. I have a wide range of ages of students, from about 8 years to about 50 years.

I think I’m getting past the initial shock of the amount of work that this will actually be and starting to get some semblance of a rhythm. Teaching in Spanish is definitely getting easier as the classes go by, probably a little because of my improving Spanish but probably mostly them getting better at understanding broken Spanish. Sometimes when I teach I feel like 100% of my Spanish grammar is incorrect. But even so it’s still pretty neat to people’s eyes light up a bit, and you can tell without asking that they just comprehended the concept.

I feel like I have some big shoes to fill. The last teacher was a YAMEN volunteer from Columbia, so he was fluent in Spanish. The person before him was a guy from the States who came with a similar language barrier issue as mine but was here for 3 years. So he is remembered as being well versed in Spanish. Despite this, people are very patient with me and are understanding when I ask them to please slow down their lightning fast speech.

Also some random facts about my time here that you may or may not know:
I’ve already gone through one cell phone, broke it playing Ninja. (If you don’t know what Ninja is talk to your local junior high or high school student)
I’ve been to the doctor once already, some kind of stomach bug that I had for a week-ish, think I’m about done with it.
And
I haven’t shaved in about 3 weeks, it might be time.

Thanks for reading.
If you have questions shoot me an email.

Pictures

The house I'll be living in for a while.

I really hate how pictures clutter a blog post. That being said here's a whole post full of them. Also I tend to post more pictures on facebook if you're interested.

My room

My Honduran family, my sister Bessy (left), my father Jesus (center), and my mother Consuelo (right)

The street that runs in front of the house. The 2 story building is my church.

The same street but looking away from the church.

This is where I do my teaching.

Another view of the computer lab.

More information coming soon but so far lesson planning is keeping me pretty busy. Thanks for reading.

Church and Stuff

The Proyecto MAMA school where I work is connected to the local Mennonite church here in 6 de Mayo (the part of San Pedro Sula that I live). I live about 10 houses away, so it’s a short safe walk down the dirt road to work or church. The church is small-ish congregation but it’s hard to judge the actual size because there are multiple services per week and I don’t think everyone goes to all of them. I’m pretty sure there is something happening at the church about every night whether it is a bible study, youth group, or service. The age limit on  the youth group is a lot more flexible than the way I’ve perceived youth group back home. There are people in the group from high school aged through early thirties, including people with kids. It’s just interesting to think about the contrast with youth in my home church. This past summer I was a youth sponsor for the youth convention in Pittsburgh, meaning I was an adult in charge of the kids. Now I step into the youth group here and I’m not even close to being the oldest. 

The church building is a rectangular concrete structure. It’s two stories tall which is taller than most all the surrounding structures. The second story is new and functional but not finished with makeshift lighting and almost complete stairs (have to be careful going up there). The first story is the sanctuary of the church. The floor is a smooth concrete and the back half of the church is left open, free of chairs or benches. Staring about half way into the room there is a section of plastic lawn chairs in the middle with wooden benches across the aisle on either side. In the front there are steps that span the width of the room up to raised stage both are set with white tiles. On the stage there is a sound board where a tangle of cords goes out to speakers, mics, and a keyboard. Also there are a variety of percussion instruments including a full drum set, tambourines, and turtle shell. There are sheets that hang on the wall at the front of the sanctuary hiding a mural  behind them.

The other day the service started with my host parents and I walking into the room at the time when the service was to start and the only person there was the pastor kneeling on the stage steps praying. Many people kneel at the steps to pray either silently or aloud or in song. Gradually people started filtering in and either found a seat or went to pray at the front. Some people’s prayer turned into song but each was singing something different. Then one of the songs slowly became popular and people began singing in a cappella unison. The keyboardist arrived, finished his praying and setting up the keyboard, and now is working on figuring out what key people are singing in. Soon after the drummer sat down in his stool and laid down a rhythm. They sang a string of praise songs that were loud enough that I probably wouldn’t have been able to understand even if they were in English. This experience illustrates the difference in the perception of time between home and here. I’m finding that lots of “starting times” are often more like suggestions. It was something I was expecting to encounter but it still feels weird because of the difference of cultural norms. Last Monday evening was a surprise birthday party for the pastor. The invitation said 7:00 pm and we didn’t leave the house until 7:15… I can’t imagine casually arriving late to a surprise party in the States. It turned out to be fine and were some of the first to arrive. Plus the pastor didn’t arrive for another hour, but soon after they had him blindfolded and swinging at a piñata.

I also have been fighting some kind of stomach bug for the past few days and have not had much of an appetite. I think I’m starting to swing back but it’s been a tough one to shake. I’m Ready to be done with it though.

New Home

I just got back from Tegucigalpa where we had the MCC Honduras team meeting. There are 11 of us working here and we´re all from the US or Canada. So we all speak English and mostly spoke English while we were together. It was really nice to be able to get my point across easily and be able to converse on a higher level than I´m able to do in Spanish. We stayed at a retreat center that MCC has worked with located in the mountains above Tegucigalpa. It was nice to get some cooler weather and out of the heat and humidity that I´m going to be dealing with daily here in San Pedro Sula. While we were together we visited some local partners of MCC in Tegucigalpa, had team meetings, and also hiked in La Tirgra (a national forest). The team is a fun group of people and I´m looking forward to working with them.

            
Yesterday I moved into my new house for the year, visited the office I´ll be working at, plus met some of the church youth. It was a whirlwind of a day and I´m still adjusting. The house I´m living in is a simple house. I have my own room with a big bed, dresser/closet, and a window that has no screen to prevent mosquitoes or other bugs from coming in. The bathroom next to my room has a shorter door and I have to remember to duck when I pass. Also, I´ll be taking bucket showers this year. The family is great, very friendly and welcoming. I live with a mother, father, and sister. There are 2 more children that are my age or older but they do not live at home. They also have many pets: two dogs, a parrot, and a pregnant cat that will probably have kittens sometime very soon. The house is about a half block from the Proyecto M.A.M.A. office which is connected to the Mennonite church.

            
The place where I work is a cement room with 11 computers (10 on mobile desks for students to use). I have air conditioning which is nice because it gets pretty hot and humid during the day. I´ll be teaching up to 4 levels of difficulty to students, if more kids sign up. So far there are only 6 students enrolled in the beginner’s class, but the previous schedule has 20 students enrolled with people in each of the 4 levels. Classes don´t start until next Tuesday, and it´s a little nerve wracking that I´m supposed to teach in Spanish in a week. I feel like I need to do lots of study and prep work before then.

            
Last night my host sister brought me to the youth group here at the Mennonite church. There were about 15-ish youth there. It was a good atmosphere, they liked joking around with each other but you could tell it was all in fun. They took turns introducing themselves and one of the youth mustered up an English welcome and everyone was impressed when I said that I understood him. The group then tried to convince the pastor to try English also but he would not be persuaded. Then I introduced myself and I jokingly asked if they wanted English or Spanish, they laughed and not surprisingly they chose Spanish. They´re pretty forgiving about my poor Spanish and seem like an entertaining group to get to know and be around.

            
My Spanish is improving daily and time it takes for me to hear something and understand it is getting quicker and quicker. My Vocabulary is still very limited and slows me down. It looks like this year could keep me 
plenty busy, for sure until I can speak more naturally.


Now I need to figure out how to plan a lesson.

Done With School

I'm approaching three weeks of living out of a suitcase and my Spanish has improved. This last Friday was my last Spanish class at the school in Copan. The two weeks there went by fast and was a lot of fun. My host family in Copan was really nice and welcoming. The house is actually down the street from where my family stayed when we where here. The town was pretty much the same as how it was then which was convenient for finding my way around the town.

Some of the highlights of my time in Copan were hiking, seeing the ruins, horse back riding, visiting the bird park, and playing soccer. On the Saturday after a week of classes, Keila and I went on a hike up in the nearby mountains. The school set us up with a guide who took us for a three hour trek across all kinds of landscapes. We went across bridges, through agriculture, over/under many barb wire fences, cut through pastures, up slopes, and made a stop at an indigenous village. The following day we went to the ancient Mayan ruins within walking distance of the town. These ruins are famous for being the most informative of the Mayan culture. The park itself is just the ceremonial areas a lot of the surrounding area has piles of ruins waiting to be excavated. The Mayan story is fascinating they built some really cool structures. The school also organized a horseback riding trip up into a different part of the mountains. This was my second time ever ridding a horse with the first time also being in Honduras. So it looks like a tradition starting. the bird park was really cool as well. They have many exotic birds and some that will mimic you. But the best part was the area where they pulled them out of the cages and let you hold them. The guy who was getting the birds out gave me a Scarlet Macaw to hold and before I knew it I had one on each arm and one on my shoulder. It made for a good picture.

I also got to play soccer once while I was in Copan. Several people knew that I liked to play soccer and they all said that they were going to let me know when a game was going to happen. I didn't hear of anything and then I told Enrique (Runs the language school) that I like to play and he said he and his friends were going to play today and to meet him at the school at 5:30. I walked down to the school and as I stepped in the door at 5:30, it started to pour. Unfortunately that was enough to cancel the soccer game and Enrique told me he'd let me know the next time. There ended up not being a next time but on Thursday evening I decided to go check out the field anyway. I found some kids playing a game already and went down to watch. After a while I was asked if I wanted to join in and I jumped at the chance. It was a lot of fun and they asked me to come back the next night. Unfortunately I was leaving to come back to San Pedro Sula before then but it would have been fun to play again.

Since then I've come back and met the MCC Honduras reps, Andres and Amy Zorrilla. And then came out to the finca which is a farm/retreat center, about an hour outside of San Pedro, run by MAMA. Keila, Megan (connecting persons MCCer), and I are hanging out here for a few days. There are many ripe oranges and grapefruits that I've been devouring. And today we went to a nearby lake and went sailing and swimming all afternoon. On Tuesday we'll go to Tegucigalpa for MCC Honduras team meetings.

Copán Ruinas

Today was my second day of Spanish classes at the Spanish school Guacamaya in Copán Ruinas, Honduras. I´m here for 2 weeks and then I eventually end up in Tegucigalpa for the MCC Honduras team meeting. Copán is a small touristy town that is very safe, in the mountains and next to some famous Mayan ruins. In the summer of 2005, my family and I were here in Copán for four weeks at this same school to learn Spanish. It is really cool to be back and be somewhere familiar, I believe it´s a feeling not many SALTers experience.

Keila and I were dropped off at the bus station Sunday (8-21-11) afternoon, bought our tickets and found the correct bus ourselves. It´s a small accomplishment in the grand scheme but it felt good to be able to do that. I slept for a good chunk of the 3 hour bus ride from San Pedro to Copán. I was starting to feel ill but with sleep and lots of fluids I´ve seemed to get over it before it got bad. Enrique picked us up from the bus stop and took us to our host families. Keila is staying in the house where my family and I stayed when we were here. I´m staying with a host family a few houses down the road. The family is very nice and welcoming and patient with my attempt At Spanish. Also Sara (the mother) is an excellent cook.

The Spanish classes have been one-on-one for 6 hours a day, 4 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. After class my brain is fried and I have to go for a walk or something before even thinking about attempting my homework. I haven´t done any of the touristy things like visit the ruins. I hope to find some locals to play soccer with. My teacher knows I like to play soccer and might help me connect with some guys. That would be awesome.

Beginning

First of all I am very grateful for all the donations that were given to help support me. I recieved over the minimum amount of money that MCC requires. The minimum contribution is $4,600 and I recieved $5,550 in donations to support me. The minimum contribution amount actually is only a half or even a third of the total cost for MCC to support a SALTer for a year. The additional money donated still goes to keep me fed and watered for the year. So thank you for your generosity.

The SALTers and IVEPers all met in Akron for orientation this past week. The week flew and was a lot of fun making friends from all over the United States, Canada, Brazil, France, Germany, India, and many more. The week helped inform us and prepare us to meet and interact in new cultures and some of the possible difficulties. We played soccer, volleyball, ultimate frisbee (in the rain), and even some basketball. It is amazing how in a short week people from all over the globe can become such close friends. I lucked out with an awesome roommate from Brazil. I also was able to find people to help me work on my limited Spanish, which still is far from fluent. I had lots of awesome conversations over the week, and looking forward to sharing stories with SALTers and wish we would reunite with the IVEP group.

Keila and I got into San Pedro Sula last evening around 7:00 pm. It was warm and humid when we stepped off the plane even though it was dark out (sun sets around 6:30). Today we got lots of logistic information about our next year. Looks like we'll be experts at finances because we have to document every purchase we make. We got cell phones and are learning about how they work and when to load minutes to get bonus minutes. We walked around downtown San Pedro today, met MAMA workers, and spent some time at the MCC office. We are here for a few more days and then we go to language school on Sunday for two weeks before we start at our assignments. 

The food so far has been delicious but it looks like it will be easy to overload on fried food.

I'm excited

Intro Post

This is where I plan to be doing my blogging during my SALT assignment in Honduras. I arrive in Honduras on August 18 and will be in language school and other Honduras orientation until September 12, when I start my assignment.

On the right, I have posted my mailing address for this coming year. I have also posted my new email address. Feel free to contact me if you have questions or comments about my posts, have updates from the states, or just want to say hey.

I'll do my best to keep this blog up-to-date