Technical Difficulties

My lap top is officially busted. It will probably be a couple weeks before I get it fixed (if it is fixable), so my blog posts and email replies are going to be a bit delayed. This will give many of you time to catch up on all my past blogs and leave me comments :)

An update on life here in Honduras...

I spent the weekend in Tegucigalpa. Friday night the psicopedagogia/special education department had a birthday dinner and then we all went out dancing at the Harley Davidson Cafe. Vanessa, my roommate Monica, and me stayed in the city Saturday night. We spent the day lounging in the Nan Kin hotel watching TV, we went to the mall, saw Nacho Libre at the movie theater, and went to Ruby Tuesday´s for dinner. Sunday we met up with Debra, who is my roommate from Chicago Amy´s friend from college. She is working outside of Tegucigalpa as an English teacher. Anyways, we went to a creperia for brunch, which was delicious. It had a very nice view of the city as well. So, now we´re just finishing up our routine Teguc rounds -- internet and supermarket -- before heading back to the ranch.

Hope everyone is doing well, and even though communication might be slow on my end, please keep in touch via yours!

Sin Planificacion/Without Planning

Sometimes the weekends you do not plan end up being most fun. That was the case for me this past weekend. I had a salida/free weekend. The Europeans were going to Amapala, and I figured I’d already been there, so I chose not to go. Vanessa (San Francisco) and Annemarie (Minnesota) were planning to go into Tegucigalpa. They had their entire weekend planned out, so I figured I’d ‘tag along’ with them. They went into the city early on Friday, whereas I chose to wait until later in the afternoon. I hitched a ride with Victor (ex-pequeño from Mexico) and Miguel (ex-pequeño from Honduras). Instead of dropping me off directly at the hotel we went to Media Mall, which is the Honduran equivalent to Borders or Barnes &Noble. We had coffee, read magazines, chatted and chilled out. I then went to the hotel and hung out with Aline (France) while we waited to hear from Annemarie and Vanessa so we could meet up with them. We decided we’d get something to eat in the meantime so we went to the Multi Plaza Mall food court and got Quizno’s and ice cream…yum! Annemarie and Vanessa text messaged us and said they were going to meet up with us at the mall and then we were going to go out dancing. Well, our group quickly grew; Victor and Miguel showed up, as well as some other ex-pequeños: Giovanni, Benigno, and Hector. We all went out to Los Cabalos for drinks and reggaeton. It was a good time – Victor even entertained us with some table dancing.
The next day we went into the center for licuados and pan dulce/sweet bread. Then we all split up to run errands. While I was out shopping I got a text from Miguel and Victor inviting me to go to Valle de Angeles (a little pueblo outside of Tegucigalpa…I’ve written about it in one of my first entries). I really had no other set plans, so I said sure! Can I just mention that it is so much nicer to travel by car than by Honduran bus! It was a beautiful drive through the mountains. We stopped at a roadside vendor for elote/corn on the cob on the way. While in Valle de Angeles we café and bar hopped; sitting out on the terrazas/outdoor seating, we ate pupusas, anafre, and pastelitos. It was a beautiful, relaxing day. Feria/fair was going on as well in the pueblo, so we got to see some traditional dances and hear music. Afterwards, the plan was to drop me off at the hotel so I could meet up with the girls and we were going to go out and celebrate one of the ex-pequeños’ birthdays. However, Miguel and Victor dragged me out to a restaurant where they were meeting up with one of their co-workers, Nancy. Nancy’s husband works for El Heraldo newspaper, so he gets tons of free stuff. Well, it just so happened that they had extra tickets to a flamenco show at the theatre, and they offered them to us. There was no way we were going to turn those down, so we headed directly to the theatre in our scrubby clothes. We ended up sitting in box seats and enjoyed a wonderful show, which reminded me so much of being in Spain. Afterwards, we got some food and I headed back to the hotel.
Sunday was a pretty lazy day. I hung out for the most part in the hotel with Annemarie, who was sick, watching movies, reading, and napping. I went out for dinner with Vanessa and Douglas (New York), but that was pretty much it.
On Monday we had off of school in celebration of the discovery of America. Jean (New York) came into town early – we usually come into Tegucigalpa on Mondays to do therapy in Casa Angeles on Tuesdays. Miguel and Victor text messaged us inviting us to go to Picacho, which is a park on the top of a mountain with a huge statue of Jesus looking over Tegucigalpa. We hopped in the car and went along for the ride. Tegucigalpa actually looks pretty nice from afar. Afterwards, we headed to El Dorado, a strip mall with the best licuados in town. The boys then invited us over to their place for dinner, where we watched cable T.V. and ate spaghetti.
Then it was back to work on Tuesday. Casa Angeles at 6:00 AM. However, Jean and I enjoyed ourselves a little bit more in the afternoon. We treated ourselves to T.G.I.Friday’s for lunch and I got a pedicure…yeah baby! Now that’s high class! Hey, after three months of living and walking on the ranch, my feet needed a little T.L.C.
Basically, Tegucigalpa is growing on me. This weekend enabled me to see the city from a different view, immerse myself in the local culture, and hang out with Hondurans…what more can you ask for!

Wish List: Updated 17-october-2006

First of all, thanks for the text messages...they are very fun to receive randomly throughout my day. Secondly, many of you have asked how you can be of help, what you can send, etc. I'll keep a running list on this blog entry of things you can send to the ranch, and to me :)

Ranch

1. Money sent to the general operating fund. This means money that goes towards daily necessities, meals, employee salaries, etc.
2. If you go to the NPH website www.nph.org; click on the Honduran flag; then click on "How to Help" link. These links show many ways you can help out, projects, and being a padrino/godparent to one of the pequenos.
3. I'm taking donations to raise money to buy the girls in my hogar Christmas presents. I'm not sure what to get them yet, but am thinking maybe University of Michigan or Chicago t-shirts (Rita, Anna, Kristin, Amy...maybe you can help me out with this...).

Care packages for me :)

1. Face wash (Neutrogena, Dove)
2. Facial moisturizer (anything with SPF: Oil of Olay, Neutrogena)
3. I-Pod
4. New speakers for my computer (the ones I brought blew up)
5. People, Oprah, US Weekly magazines
6. Breathe Calm Daily Vitamin Lotion from Bath and Body Works
7. Febreze
8. Wrinkle spray (to get the wrinkles out of clothes)

That's all I've got for now. Keep checking back for more items!!

Call me...or text me!

A few weeks ago I got a new cell phone. I never posted my new number, so here it is:

country code: 504
phone number: 331 68 46

Plus, I found out that you can text me for free (you and me) by going to this website: http://www.alo.hn/mensajes/index.php. Where it says "por"/for, type in my phone number (without the country code). Then type your message and who it's from where it says "de"/from. It's free for you and fun for me!

Culture Shock: Updated 17-Oct-06

Well, I've been here for 2.5 months now. I'm getting into my daily routine, have travelled a bit, and have experienced quite a bit of culture shock. I've been able to speak to some of you on the phone, exchange emails, and plan visits. For those of you planning to visit (or those who aren't, but are still interested), here are some tips on cultural differences here in Honduras. Check back often for updates!

1. Do not put used toilet paper in the toilet -- throw it in the wastebasket.

2. Banana clips and hair scrunchies are totally in style.

3. Place money in different hiding places on your body when in Tegucigalpa (pockets, underwear, bra).

4. Cold showers.

5. Going places in "jalon" (a.k.a. hitchiking).

6. Waking up to roosters crowing.

7. Many ugly dogs walking the streets.

8. Men making cat calls to any 'gringa' walking down the street (e.g., "Mi amor"/my love, "Casate conmigo"/marry me, "Hello lady", "tss tss", "Beautiful").

9. Kids borrowing something and never giving it back.

10. The main mode of transportation is old school buses from the U.S. Some are 'pimped' out, painted, etc. There is a very eclectic mix of people and music on the buses. You'll see everything from old men wearing cowboy hats, young school kids, mothers breast feeding their kids, and locals selling baked goods up and down the aisles. Some blast reggaeton music and others play 80's ballads. Riding the buses is a great way to see a little bit of the old and the new in Honduran culture.

11. Drinking out of plastic bags. I guess in order to cut down on pollution, and costs, markets sell beverages in plastic bags.

12. Buying a can of pop/beer is more expensive than a bottle of pop/beer. If you buy a bottle of pop, places are able to recycle them; in fact, many pulperias give you a discount if you bring an empty bottle in when you buy a drink.

Viernes/Friday

Fridays I begin my day at school. I do therapy with Marguerita, who a five-year-old in Montessori. She is actually not a pequena. She is in the process of being adopted by a volunteer here named Monica. The short story is that Monica, a few years back, was working at an AIDS center for children born with the virus. Marguerita was one of the patients, but as she grew older the virus disappeared and the center would no longer take care of her. Marguerita's mother was a drug addict and also had AIDS, so Monica did not want her to return to the mother. The mother eventually died. Monica decided to adopt Marguerita (who suffers from some form of fetal alcohol/drug syndrome). Being in Honduras, the process is not an easy one. She has now been trying to adopt Marguerita for five years, I believe. Anyways, Marguerita presents with some serious speech-language delays. Next, I do therapy with Pablo and Carlos from "especiales"/special ed. Then it's time for "recreo"/recess where I take care of Joel, another one of the especiales. Joel has been severely abused; he's about 16-years-old, doesn't talk, uses some signs to communicate, drools on everything, and is always hungry! During recreo we get a "merienda"/snack. It is my responsibility to keep Joel from stealing all the other kids' snacks and eat his own. Not an easy job! After recreo I have therapy with Luis, another Montessori student who has HIV and then I head up to Santa Maria Reina, which is the "hogar"/home for the female "especiales". I help out during lunch time. There are three girls (two of them sisters) who all have cerebral palsy: Glenda, Isaura, and Doris. Originally they were brought to the ranch from Casa Angeles thinking that they were higher functioning and would be able to attend school. However, all they do is sit in their wheelchairs and watch telenovelas/Spanish soap operas. I come in around noon, get caught up on the telenovela plot and help them with feeding. Then it's time for me to head to the "cocina", eat lunch, and then I'm off for the weekend!! Fun times :)

**Picture of Marguerita