Honduras!

May 21st, 2009 by Ryan Baldini

Ok so I am here. Using the internet cafe that costs about $1 per hour. What a deal. There is so much to say for the two days I´ve been here. A quick run down:

Tuesday: Arrived in Tegucigalpa around 11:30. Nicholas, a silly young London guy, was there waiting for me. 3 other volunteers arrived around the same time (2 from vVirginia, 1 from Rhode Island). From there we drove up to Valle de Angeles, which is a relatively nice and small town in the hills around the capital. We actually stayed in a pretty nice hotel, for Honduran standards. Actually it was just intrinsically nice. Beautiful views. Went on a walk with the hotel owners, one of whom who speaks pretty good English, through the streets around the hills. Uncrowded, very nice. We were all pretty tired, so we went to bed early.

Wednesday (yesterday): Woke up, had a quick orientation and breakfast, then back to Tegucigalpa for the bus ride to La Esperanza. Before getting on the bus, we went into what I can only describe as a Honduran mall. It was really bizarre for us Americanos. Basically a bunch of shops placed all over this warehouse. We didn´t realize at first, but the warehouse was huge and had many levels. Very interesting experience. The bus ride was 100 Lempira, which is just over $5 for a 4 hour ride through the mountains. It wasn´t no chicken bus either. Sort of a charter bus, no air conditioning, but comfortable enough. The drive into the country side got more and more beautiful as we got into the mountains. Very green, lots of clouds, but no rain yet! Got to town, hopped into the back of a truck to get to our homestays. I´m staying with a nice family of 7 right now. Very nice people. Still getting to know them. My spanish is working pretty well here! Anyway the family is unusual in that they don´t have any dogs or chickens right now. Dog died, chickens sold. But they have a decent sized backyard (lot bigger than the house) with fruit trees (ate an apple. good.) and they have a little convenience store type shop attached to the house. Wandered around the city (house is in the outskirts) in the evening. It gets dark early here, by 7. But then the sun rises early, so overall there´s plenty of sunshine. Slept well enough. Bugs arent too bad here. Not many mosquitos. But they have June bugs! and they´re seasonal too! And look exactly the same! weird.

Today: woke up fairly early, picked up at the house. Rode again in the back of the truck (common mode of transportation) up further into the mountains, a good twenty minute bumpy ride away from town. The scenery here, away from the crowds, is the most beautiful I´ve yet seen in Honduras. I would say they are green rolling hills, but the topography is more rugged than that. Steep hills, valleys, peaks, all green and dotted with little houses which all seem to have their own farmland on the hillsides. Anyway it´s gorgeous up there.

We´re working on a house for a family up there. Father recently died. The area was just cleared and flattened, and now we´re laying the foundation and the first bricks. Technically all I did today was just move dirt. Plenty hard work, and let´s not forget that I´m a mile high here. So the altitude did get to me a bit at first. Anyway I don´t know too much about the building process yet so I´ll write more about that later. Oh, The family is helping us out a bit. The kids like to play with my camera. Very sweet kids. Two of the boys are named Wilson and Nelson (very Anglo, no?) and the little girl is named Anna. I told her my girlfriend at home is named Anna. She wasn´t sure how to respond. Oh and when I told Wilson that I was 22, he asked how many kids I had. Funny stuff. Anyway it was good work most of the morning until around lunch time. THen back to town, and that brings me here. $1 per hour. How nice.

Love you all. Be thankful that your shower is hot, that your toilet flushes, and that you can safely drink from either of these two vessels.

Adios!

-Ryan