Week 7

All of the volunteers pose for a photo on Cayos's beautiful beach

We spent this past weekend in Cayos Cochinos (Pig Islands), which are a small group of beautiful islands off the northern coast of Honduras. We began our trip by taking a taxi at 6am on Saturday morning. After riding in the back of the pick-up truck for an hour and a half, we arrived at a small inlet where we waited yet again until we were loaded into a small boat and taken to the island where we were renting a house for the night. 

Though there were other homes on the island, we shared the beach with only one other house, which meant we essentially had it to ourselves. The water was a beautiful light blue and, off in the distance, we could see the outline of the mainland. We didn't have any WiFi on the island and it was a lot of fun to hang out with the other volunteers without our phones. I spent the day lying on the beach listening to music, reading, and swimming. It was the perfect weekend getaway.

Carrying kids to the bathroom during torrential rain

Rainy season has begun here in El Porvenir. It rains almost every day for at least an hour and leaves muddy puddles everywhere. 

On Tuesday, the two HCA medical volunteers, Keegan and Angela, came to classes. Normally, they spend their days at one of the clinics in La Ceiba, so this was a new experience for them. Most volunteers who work at the clinics and hospitals in Ceiba stay with a wealthy Honduran man named Rafael. Though our two medical volunteers weren't staying with him, he fed them a home-cooked lunch every day and allowed them to take a siesta at his house. It was at Rafael's house that they met a nineteen-year-old German-American volunteer who is spending time in Honduras in order to learn Spanish. We'd heard many stories about this volunteer before, about how he had trouble letting go of his cushy, privileged way of life, so we were quite surprised when he agreed to attend class with Angela and Keegan. 

We'd only been with the students for 15 minutes when the volunteer from Rafael's house walked up to me and told me how much he was enjoying himself. By the end, he seemed completely immersed and he was practically glowing. I believe that his reaction speaks volumes about the power of children and the impact of spending time with people who are less fortunate than you. I never got a chance to actually discuss his response with him, but if I were to take a guess, I'd say that this experience truly opened his eyes just as it has opened mine.

Drawing a picture of her family

It had been raining hard for the entirety of the class and my favorite part of the whole day was when we had to walk the 25 minutes home in torrential rain with water running halfway up our calves. The rest of the volunteers were somewhat used to getting drenched and a few of us even enjoyed the rain. Most of us were wearing old athletic clothes and flip-flops or Tevas, all things that could survive the rain. However, the German-American volunteer had worn a pair of expensive eggshell colored shoes that he didn't want to get wet, so he decided to take them off and walk barefoot back to Beach House. I must admit that I found this quite impressive. Based on what I'd heard, I half expected him to complain a lot and then take a moto-taxi home instead of walking through the rain and puddles like the rest of us. Seeing him willing, after only two hours with the children, to let go of his expectations of luxury and join in was quite touching.

We got two new volunteers this week. On Tuesday, Laura and Celia arrived at Beach House where they will be staying for two months and five months respectively. Laura was born in Spain, raised in Germany, attended an international school and is fluent in Spanish, German and English. Celia is my age and is from Germany but just spent some time in Bolivia before arriving here in El P. It's been quite nice having more volunteers and the house has also felt much more lively since they arrived. Our PEP (Porvenir English Program) classes are also seeing an increase in numbers. On Wednesday, we had 17 children in one class -- a number that I haven't seen since my first week here. It's starting to feel as busy as it did when I first arrived and I'm appreciating the amount of energy we have here.

Word of the week:

Que pedo chucho?: literally means "What farts street dog?" but is used to mean "What's up?"

Yamit quote of the week:

"The ants have not come back because I MURDERED them!" said after smooshing hundreds of ants that were climbing up our bathroom walls.