I feel like I live in Tegucigalpa

Since returning from Tela I have been staying in Casa Alistar, the bachillerato house in Tegucigalpa. We did not get back from Tela until late Sunday evening, so it was too late to catch a bus back to the ranch. Plus, Jean and I figured that we´d have to return back to Tegucigalpa the next day anyways, so we the three of us stayed at Casa Alistar. We wound down our crazy Tela weekend at T.G.I.Friday´s, where we rehashed details of the weekend and returned to talk of the ranch. On Monday I did some feeding therapy at Casa Angeles, had lunch with Jean, and in the evening met up with Teresa. The three of us headed over to the boys´house for our Monday night dinner. The boys made us gringas, which are like tacos...flour tortillas, chicken, chismol, quesillo, and a Santa Fe sauce. We had Cinnabon for dessert...yum! Benigno, an ex-pequeno who lives at the house, works at Cinnabon, so everytime we go over to their house, we end up eating Cinnabon. The next day, Tuesday, I went with Jean to help prepare for her "despedida"/going away party at Casa Angeles. Jean has been volunteering for over 15 months now as a physical therapist. She heads back to the U.S. on December 15. So, as all volunteers do when they leave, we had a despedida. The cook at Casa Angeles, Blanca, made a nice lunch of lentil soup, rice, and avocado. We all (tias, bachillerato girls, Jean, me, and Vanessa the coordinator of Casa Angeles) sat down to eat together. They all gave Jean their blessings, which was nice to hear. Afterwards, Jean headed back to the ranch and I stayed back. I met up with Teresa in the evening and we went to the mall to eat dinner and watch a movie...half price on Tuesdays...whoo hoo...that means 25 lempiras to watch a movie...just over a dollar! So, here I am on Wednesday. Monica, my nurse roommate, is coming into the city and we´re going to head over to Pasos Pequenitos/La Guarderia, which is a day care center for ex-pequenas babies. The coordinator has some concerns for a few of the kids´ speech and language development, so I´m going over to do some screening and testing. Monica is coming along to do some observations and charting of weight, height, etc. We´ll stay in the city one more night at Casa Alistar. Tonight we´re planning to go to Bambu, which a club close-by. Wednesday is ladies´ night, so we thought we´d check it out. Tomorrow, Thursday and Thanksgiving, we´ll head back to the ranch. The Stevens, volunteer family, is hosting a Thanksgiving dinner with all the volunteers. So, that should be a good, filling time! Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!!!

TELA

Tela is a tranquilo beachtown close to the Garifuna villages on the northern coast of Honduras. Jean (New York), Monica (Seattle, my roommate), and Jesus (Chicago, director of the rancho) rented a Toyota Corolla and headed there last Friday afternoon. We stayed in a resorty hotel called Cesar Mariscos right on the beach. It took about six hours to drive there. It was so nice to travel by car...it definitely beats the overcrowded, hot buses. I desperately wanted to drive, but since my license was robbed during my assault back in August, I was unable to. Monica drove up though and we had fun looking at the scenery, singing reggaeton, and stopping off at fun rest stops. We got to Tela around nine at night. We showered, changed, and headed out to the clubs. Tela´s nightlife is way more happening than Tegucigalpa. There are a cluster of bars within a block of each other, each blaring their own music. They´re open till 4am as well, so I felt like I was back in Chicago. The people in Tela are very nice and open...and man can they dance! In my past blog I mentioned la punta, a dance. Well, it was all over the dance floor in Tela and my jaw dropped to the floor. This was pure Honduran culture at its peak! We stayed out dancing till the club closed. The weather wasn´t ideal...it was overcast, windy, and not very hot, but we headed out to the beach early on Saturday morning anyways. I got sucked into getting my hair braided...again! This time I only braided half of my hair, and I paid only a fraction of the price I paid in Roatan. We chatted with local jewelry makers, bought coconut bread, played frisbee, and went swimming. I was excited because there were actually waves! The past few times we´ve traveled to the beach the water was so calm, so it was fun to dive into and catch the waves. In the afternoon, Jean, Monica, and I went to a nice little place for lunch...fried fish. Then we walked around the center and had a licuado. We relaxed, napped, and caught some of the U of M vs. OSU football game on TV, which was fun to watch. My family called during half time so that was fun too! We decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner. We dined in our hotel restaurant and ate fresh seafood. It was delicious. I ordered the sopa de caracol/conch soup. Afterwards we headed to a place called Max´s Bar. We had been told about this place by other volunteers. Max is the owner...born in Tela, raised in Germany and the United States. He was there and he hung out with us the entire night. It was a fun time. We spent the night drinking, asking tons of questions to each other, and enjoying American music. It was a bonding night for sure. We woke up early Sunday morning, had a nice breakfast, did a little more souvenir shoppping, and headed back to Tegucigalpa. Tela is a place I would definitely return to!

Madrina, Turno, Posa, Informes

Okay, so I´ve got to back up a little bit as I´ve gotten a little behind in my blog writing. Let me take you back to Friday, November xx. I had the privilege of being asked to be a "madrina"/godmother for one of the pequenos graduating from talleres/workshop. His name is Julian, he´s 19-years-old and he was on my team during the Olimpiadas/olympics. Being a madrina means that I had to buy him a graduation gift (I got him a sling backpack and a funky button-up collared shirt), had to escort him across the stage to receive his diploma, and I got to sit at the graduation dinner tables and be served dinnner. We got dressed up and had a really nice night. The ceremony was followed by a ranch dance, where Julian and I danced the entire night as he tried to teach me pasos/steps to the dances. Let´s just say my body was aching the next day from all the dancing! There is a dance here in Honduras known as "la punta". It is amazing to watch and impossible to do. Basically all that moves are the cadena/hips and the culo/ass. It is my goal to achieve the punta before returning to the U.S. :) The next day I worked with my hogar and did turno with them that night. We stayed up until after 1:00 AM watching movies. I had breakfast with them on Sunday and met up with them later in the day at la posa/the pond to go swimming. The following week I spent typing up informes/reports on all my students who receive speech-language therapy. It was challenging, yet educational to write comprehensive reports all in Spanish! School ended that Friday, November 17. School does not resume until February, which means that this is essentially "summer vacation" for the kids. Throughout December and January there will be vacation courses for the kids, but we therapists will have to continue with therapy. To celebrate the completion of the school year and our informes, Jean, Monica, Jesus and I went to Tela. Read on the following blog for all the fun details!

Halloween and Retiro de Voluntarios

Well, I gave in and bought minutes to use the internet lab here on the ranch. Here´s what I´ve been up to the past week.

Last Tuesday was Halloween. They don´t really celebrate it here in Honduras, but with all the U.S. volunteers we just had to do something. I bought a bunch of candy to bring to hogar, and dressed up as an....apple (okay, I know it´s the third time I dressed up as an apple...once in Kindergarten and two years ago in Chicago...but it works and it´s funny). In order for my girls to get their candy bags they had to say ¨trick or treat¨ in English. It was pretty funny to hear the variations, accents, and attempts. I felt like a team mascot; all my girls were punching me since I was stuffed with five pillows and biting me to see what the apple tasted like. After hogar the volunteers had a fiesta in Casa Personal. It was pretty fun. Ryan had just been to the U.S. so he brought candy corn. We decorated everything with cut-out pumpkins, bats, and ghosts. We had a Halloween scary music CD to get us in the mood. And of course no one was allowed in without a costume. People dressed up as a doctor, cat, Hindu Indian, hippie, Christmas tree, vampire, suicide victim with a noose, mummy, and of course me as an apple. I´ll post some pictures if and when I get my computer running again.

Last weekend we had our volunteer retiro/retreat. We all went to Valle de Angeles and stayed in this super cute hotel with cabins, hammocks, and parrots. We had dinner together on Friday night, which allowed for all of us to hang out and ´bond´as a group. On Saturday we had the retiro, which consisted of a talk with the padre/priest about issues on the ranch, bonding/get to know you better games, and reflection. I thought it was going to be pretty corny, but it ended up being really fun. It was cold though! Man, I was not prepared for this weather. We are now entering the rainy season. Valle de Angeles is higher up in the mountains, so it was much cooler there. I had to buy a sudadora/sweatshirt while we were there to keep warm. I also bought a typical blanket, which I´ve been using back at the ranch as well. Kris (Belgium), Annemarie, Jesus, and me decided to stay an extra night. We had dinner together on Saturday night and relaxed in our cabaña/cabin watching TV and reading. On Sunday we had a typical breakfast (eggs, avocado, cheese, platanos, tortillas, beans, ham) and did some shopping. We then headed back into Tegucigalpa to run our routine errands: internet and grocery shopping. It was a nice, relaxing, refreshing, feel good weekend.

Yesterday, being Monday, was Jean´s and my trip to Tegucigalpa. We went to the mall Mira Flores, had a coffee, and met up at the boys´ house where they made us dinner (spaghetti). Geovany, Miguel, and I ended up on the balcony listening to 1980´s ballads and singing at the top of our lungs; it was pretty funny. They are so into songs that remind me of slow dancing in middle school. It´s especially funny to hear them sing English songs with their Spanish accents. Quite a sight, and sound to be heard!

Tonight I am just getting back from hogar. We have three new girls in our hogar: Karina, Luisa, and Gloria. They are really cute, nice, and affectionate. Luisa is having some trouble adjusting and sometimes doesn´t eat and/or want to talk. I´m sure she´ll come around soon though.

My computer software should be arriving tomorrow, so hopefully I´ll be able to repair and retrieve everything that was on there!