Week 6

The kids were super excited about the paper hats that they made

After so many goodbyes in the past two weeks, I'm finally beginning to appreciate the smallness of our new HCA family and I'm also getting used to the coming and going of volunteers.

On Monday evening, all of the volunteers came to Beach House and we had pizza night. The tradition began a few weeks ago when Yamit and I decided we wanted pizza and invited the other volunteers from our house to join in. Only one other volunteer was interested. The three of us made the dough from scratch and then topped it with whatever we could find in our fridges. As someone who loves to bake, I was happy for an excuse to prepare something more exotic than pasta or eggs, and it was fun to have other people involved. Originally, we'd envisioned having just the members of our household be a part of this weekly tradition, but when the three volunteers from VH1 said they wanted in, we were happy to include them.

Sophia reads Harold y el Lapiz Color Morado to the kids

The next night, we all gathered in VH1 and made a typical Honduran dish called baleadas. Not only did everyone enjoy hanging out together, it was also fun to lead the cooking project one night and then have tasty food made for us the next night. Most of the time, meals are a fend-for-yourself situation, and I enjoyed these two more communal dinners. Making and eating are great ways to bond and I'm happy that everyone here was as excited as I was about giving it a try.

Kathryn, one of the other volunteers, and I have taken to jogging a few times a week in the early evening. We begin at Beach House, which is at one end of town, and run down the main road until we reach the pineapple fields at the other end. Then we turn around and run back. The entire trip takes about 25 minutes and we never go much faster than a slow jog. Recently, we've been lucky enough to run by the elementary school just as it's letting out and I absolutely love it. It's fun to be out when the town is so alive. We are guaranteed to see at least a few kids from our classes and they always wave to us. I must be a country-girl, or at least small-town girl, at heart because I get so excited when I'm out and about and I see people I know. When I get a wave or a smile, or even see a familiar face, I feel as though the people here recognize and care about me, and that is invaluable.

Moving the fridge downstairs

This week has been very productive in terms of housekeeping. Over the weekend, Yamit and I finally got around to cleaning our room. We wiped down all of the shelves in our bathroom and cleaned off the soap holder which was covered in green soap belonging to a past volunteer. We also washed the sheets on our old roommate's bed and moved it to the other wall. Now the part of the room where she stayed is a little "office" where I write on my computer and watch movies. It's very nice to have so much more space and to have a spare bed at our disposal.

On Wednesday, the entire population of Beach House did a huge fridge cleaning. We went through all of our baskets and shelves and got rid of old, unclaimed food that belonged to past volunteers. We also washed the shelves and doors and consolidated all of our food so that we could move everything from the snack fridge into one of our two main fridges. Call me weird, but I find this kind of cleaning to be quite satisfying and once we'd finished I felt fulfilled.

Carrying a bed down the main street in El P

Our next step was to move the two unused snack fridges out of the kitchen. They had been taking up tons of space and, with them gone, the room feels so much more open and uncluttered. Our last housekeeping task involved getting one queen-sized bed and mattress from Beach House to VH1 and two twin beds and mattresses from VH1 to Beach House. The two buildings are about a four minute walk apart and I can only imagine how silly we must have looked walking down the street carrying beds and mattresses. As if we don't stick out enough already :)

Word of the week:
Esta pringando: 'it's drizzling'
As we enter into the rainy season, it's helpful to know more than one word that means rain. Apparently, pringando is a very "in" word at the moment, mostly used by the younger generation.

Yamit quote of the week:
"I saw a red motorcycle and it was actually Dorian's!"