Week 10

El Porvenir at 6am

This week has been a relatively uneventful week. On Tuesday, I had my second meeting with my writing advisee. Since our first meeting, he's changed the topic of his paper at least four times. This means that he's had to rewrite a thesis and outline that many times. I'm starting to realize that these sessions are less about him learning how to write and more about him being able to explore ideas/topics that interest him and practice English. I'm a bit disappointed that I won't really be teaching him how to write and that my work with him won't parallel what I did in school, but I'm happy to spend time with him and talk about politics and such.

In general, since I've been here, I haven't been keeping up with the news. There's so much going on right now and I've been content not knowing about most of it. It's like we have this little bubble here and, though it's a very different kind of bubble than I had at home, it's protecting me nonetheless. By not listening to the news, I'm allowing myself to believe that the things going on in this little, coastal Honduran town are the only things that matter. However, I do appreciate having one hour each week when I can talk about intellectual topics with someone who knows politics and who cares a lot about what's going on in the rest of the world. So, even though we're not doing as much writing as I'd expected, I still look forward to Tuesday afternoons because I know that I can count on my advisee to keep me in touch with things that are happening outside of El P.

On Wednesday, I woke up at 5:15am so I could attend a few classes at Centro Universitario Regional del Litoral Atlantico (CURLA) with my study buddy. He knows that I'm very interested in how the Honduran school system works, and he invited me to join him so I could gain a better understanding. Luckily for me, the day that worked best for him was the day that I have meetings about my job as the Snack Coordinator. I was able to juggle a few things around and make it work so that I could go with him.

Tamale, pastelito and yucca cracker

Though I couldn't have done anything to change this, I do wish that I could have gone earlier during my time here. Due to the vote that is taking place in late November, and some other factors, most of his classes were in exams. During his first class (Spanish) he got his final grade back, and during his second class (English), they had a party to celebrate the end of the year. The twenty or so students in the class gathered in the gym and the teacher set up a projector. If students wanted five extra credit points, they could get up in front of the class and sing a song in English. Once most of the class had gone, the teacher turned to me and asked if I wanted to go. After much coercing, I got up and sang Me Voy by Julieta Venegas, a song that I'd first heard in Spanish class in 7th grade. It wasn't until I was in the middle of singing it that I realized how few of the words I actually knew. Oh well.

From interacting with various university students here in El P, I've come to understand that their college experience is a bit different from those in the United States. Instead of students living on campus, the ones I've met typically commute to and from home each day. For most people in the U.S., going to college means leaving your family and living on campus. People choose colleges based on much more than the academics and many colleges have reputations for the strength of their social lives. Coming here and seeing the differences between university life in the U.S. and in Honduras, is fascinating.

At the soccer game in San Pedro

Early on Friday morning, all of the volunteers took a bus from La Ceiba to San Pedro Sula which is one of the three major cities in Honduras. About a month ago, we'd bought tickets to see the World Cup Qualifier between Honduras and Australia in San Pedro. After dropping our belongings at the hotel, we went to the stadium. Driving through the city, almost everyone we saw was wearing a Honduran shirt or team jersey. Beginning about a mile away from the stadium, people were selling flags, shirts, vuvuzelas (those horn-like noise-makers), and tickets. As we got closer, we saw more vendors and the streets got more crowded. There were TV cameras everywhere, many of them trying to get footage of the gringas. Our manager is from Australia and was decked out in yellow and green. Within seconds, she became the center of attention. The rest of us were supporting Honduras (of course) and we got comments like "extranjera Hondurenas" (foreigner Hondurans) and questions about who we wanted to win. We're used to getting a lot of attention in El P, but this was a new level. It seemed like every third person wanted to get a picture with us for no other reason than that we were obviously not Honduran. Everyone was friendly though, which I was grateful for.

We even made it on TV. There I am on the left in the photo on the right

Waiting in the line to enter the stadium took us over an hour. Once inside, we pushed our way through the crowd to try to find seats. Because individual plastic chairs are easy to break or set on fire, the stadium was built more like an amphitheater with everyone squished together on step-like concrete benches. It was a first-come-first-served situation and we were not even close to being first. Eventually, we all found seats. This was thanks to many kind-hearted Hondurans who saw us struggling to find a place for a group of eleven and moved over to make space for us.

Besides a bunch of lights that were pointed towards the field, the stadium had nothing that used electricity. There were no big screens with a close-up of the game, and there wasn't even a scoreboard or time clock. What made me proud though, was that all of the fans were content. There may not have been glitzy screens or even toilet paper in the bathrooms, but that didn't matter. Being here made me realize that you don't need a scoreboard or a big fancy screen in order to enjoy a soccer game. Everyone in the crowd still had an unforgettable experience because they were there to watch two teams play a sport that they loved and nothing else.

Two volunteers sport their patriotic flags

The game itself was pretty anti-climatic. It ended in a 0-0 tie and we didn't even get to see a goal get scored. We'd all been expecting Honduras to beat Australia by a landslide and were disappointed that they couldn't perform.

On Saturday at noon, we headed to the bus terminal and began the long and tiring journey back home. The bus ride was almost four hours long. I spent most of that time catching up on sleep, listening to music, and looking out the window. Going to the game in San Pedro was so much fun, but I think we all breathed a sigh of relief when we arrived back in  El Porvenir. I know that I did.

Word of the week:
Atragantarse: to choke. This word was taught to me after I choked on my water -- something I tend to do more often than I would like

Yamit quote of the week:
"We have 3.5 hours to think of a quote of the week!" said at the beginning of the bus ride back to Ceiba. Normally, throughout the week, I'll write down funny things that Yamit says. The past few weeks, however, blog-writing day has come around and I won't have a quote because I’ve been too busy to write down all the funny things she says. This means that we have to spend some time thinking about what funny things Yamit has said over the past week. Hence, this week's quote.