Pizza Delivery

I always took for granted the fact that there are road names, house numbers, street signs, etc. in the states. I never realized it, but it is extremely easy to get wherever you wish to go. Not true in Honduras. There are no such things as addresses. I went over to a friends house the other night to lesson plan with a bunch of other IST teachers and we decided to order pizza. It seemed simple enough, but after placing the order, we realized we weren't exactly sure how to get to the house. The way they give directions here is by landmarks (for example, the gym is across from the hot dog lady, my house is down from the store with the chicken on the sign and near the basketball hoops/soccer goals in the street, my other friends live next to the monkey and down from the pagoda) .....see how it works? Simple right? Ha! So we gave directions the best we could and then hoped for the best. The pizza man called about 45 minutes later saying he couldn't find it, but he was next to the Catholic church. Ok, that's easy I thought because that is near my house. We gave him more directions, which he followed, but when he called back again a while later, we discovered he was by a different Catholic church and my directions took him to the futbol fields. This went on for quite a while and finally the guys we were with decided to just have him stay where he was and they would walk and go get the pizza. 2 1/2 hours later, hungry and frustrated, we finally got to eat. Oh my, gotta love this country!

Left in the dark......literally.

For the past 2 Sundays, I have been attempting to go to a church called Iglesia Impacto because they offer English translation headsets so that I can follow along with the sermon. Last Sunday we were not quite sure how to get there and after asking 2 different taxi drivers and a random lady standing on the sidewalk, we gave up and went to an all-Spanish speaking church. This Sunday, I was excited to finally be going to Impacto so I could understand what was going on around me. When we got there though, the building was pitch black - apparently the power went out (a very common occurance in Honduras). What this meant: no translation....again. Even without power, the sermon still went on and a lantern was placed on stage so the pastor could see. As for us in the audience, we weren't sure who we were sitting next to or what was going on around us. [To get an idea of how dark it really was: at one point a man walked up to the group of IST teachers attending that morning and started speaking English. We were so shocked we dared to ask, "Are you a gringo?" He was, but you know it's dark when you have to ask someone that!] Despite being left in the dark 2 weeks in a row, I am determined to not give up yet!

Micah Project

Every Friday teachers from IST get in a van and drive about half an hour to get to the projects. Our purpose: to play soccer with boys from the streets. I have only gone once so far, but once is all it takes for your heart to break at the sight of these men ranging from 6-25 years of age. They are dirty, unhealthy, and have such a strong addiction to shoe glue, they carry old bottles around full of glue and they are constantly inhaling/eating the yellow paste. If they come to play, they are given food afterwards. It is kind of scary playing against them because they have nothing to lose so they play full force, bottles of glue swinging from their mouths or in their hands. It is sad watching them fight over the food that is passed out, but it is an encouragement seeing the directors of the Micah Project there, loving on each and every one of them, no matter how dirty or high they might be. Check out this site to see pictures of some of the boys and find out more about the Micah Project: http://www.micahcentral.org/Streets07/streets07.htm

Wait, wait...........and wait some more

I like to do things quickly and efficiently - apparently I moved to the wrong country for that sort of thing. Even the simple, everyday tasks take 10 times longer than they should. For example, if you get thirsty you must: fill a pot of water, wait for it to boil, take it off the stove, let it cool for about an hour, then once it is semi cool, put it in the fridge for about 6 more hours to give it time to finish cooling off. Finally you may get yourself a drink of water. If this seems tough, try doing laundry, preparing food, using the public transportation - the need to multitask has taken on a whole new meaning! You can waste hours sitting around trying to accomplish one, simple, mindless task.

Well that's peculiar

Adjusting to life in Honduras was surprisingly a fairly smooth transition. The culture and lifestyle are obviously a lot different, but for some reason it hasn't been too hard. I've learned how to use the public transportation, I've learned how to order coffee from the local cafe, I've learned not to jump when I open the kitchen cupboards and cockroaches run out or when geckos run out from between the sheets in my bed, but there is one thing I can't seem to get the hang of: carrying toilet paper everywhere I go. I can't count how many times I've gone to the mall or out in public, needed to use the bathroom, and then remembered, "Oh yeah, I forgot to pack some toilet paper when I left!" It's just not one of those things you think about. Hopefully I'll catch on soon!

You know what they say about those who assume

My roommate and I live in an apartment in a small community in Tegucigalpa. There are 4 different apartments in our one building and our landlord and his family live in the apartment on the bottom floor (we are on the very top). The landlord's granddaughter invited us to a weekly Bible study in their home and we were extremely excited because, being brand new to this country, we were starting to feel accepted. We were told the Bible study started at 6:00 p.m. - automatically we assumed that since we are in Latin America, 6:00 meant about 6:30 or so. At about 6:15 we slowly started making our way down the stairs, only to find that when they said 6:00, they had meant it! They had been sitting around waiting for us to show up and probably wondering why the crazy gringas were so inconsiderate! Oops :) We ended up making really good friends at the Bible study, they forgave us for being late, and we now attend every Friday. We definitely learned our lesson though!

I can't promise anything will come of this.

I have had so many interesting experiences already since moving to Honduras, I decided it was time to start a blog because it would probably be the easiest way to keep everyone up to date; however, I cannot promise that anything will come of this because, while I may be living in one of the most beautiful countries in the world, I am also a teacher and don't have a lot of time for this sort of thing. So who knows, this could be the first and last blog I ever post on this site, but at least I gave it a shot. Anyways, my posts won't be poetic, creative, or even well writen (everything I strive to be as a writer), but they will hopefully be informative. So there you go.