The good, the bad and the ugly

Well where to start...

First of all I have been in site for about and month and a half now, and I have to say that I think the pace of life here in Honduras is a good change for me. I am way less stressed, not thinking about writing research papers, or grading math tests, or IEP meeting paperwork, or creating a decent looking holiday bulletin board in time, or preparing my students for a high-stakes standardized test. I no longer always feel like there are never enough hours in the day and walking around extremely sleep deprived. This is not to say that I'm not working hard and I don't have stress here, its just that the pace is different. To give you a more proper visual whenever I went hiking with friends I was always at the back of the pack, here I am constantly having to slow down for people to catch up with me.

Maybe a good organizational tool for this post would be the good the bad and the ugly.

first THE GOOD:
I recently had a visit from one of my Peace Corps bosses which went really well and was productive. She came to meet with my family, and make sure my home life situation was kosher. I got a good report from my family and I was able to voice my concerns about housing in the future. She also met with my 2 counterpart bosses and they actually sat down together for the first time and I have a tentative schedule and I have a better idea of what I'm going to be doing for the next 2 years! YEAH!

I got to go to my first official quinceanera. Which was a really big fancy deal, I am talking wedding style. One of the teachers at the NGO daughters turned 15 (think batmitzfa meets sweet-sixteen meets wedding). Damas= brides maides, tiara, tulle, lights, fireworks, expensive flower arrangements, a cake with a fountain in the middle- not kidding. Here's some pics to prove it:

The ceremony

 The dinner

  The cake

One of the most interesting things was the fancy dinner, they eat a lot of meat in this country I mean a LOT for example this was the dinner they served : Pepsi (always the need to consume lots of Pop here), potato salad, then Two large pieces of steak, a sausage, huge chicken leg , and a kabob of 6 shrimp, yeah you read correctly 5 different types of meat on 1 plate for each person this was not a check which entree you want thing. Ohh Honduras you will never understand vegetarianism :)

I went on a Halloween weekend beach trip with some fellow volunteers, to an island that is here down south only about and hour and a half away. Two buses and and a boat ride later we were at the island of Amapala. Which is dormant volcanic island. It is basically local people, most of the year although it has touristic potential, kind of a hidden jem feel. So we spent a nice weekend, enjoying the beach, the ocean, and had a bon-fire with smores! Pics:

More good stuff is I got MAIL! Delicious homemade chocolate cookies, and lots of other great stuff! Thanks Mom, Reb and Margaret!

I met a JICA (Japan's version of Peace Corps) volunteer who is really nice and also lives here in Choluteca, she is a math teacher training

The Bad
There are no more BAGELS in the city of Choluteca which is very BAD. I went last weekend to the only supermarket that imports frozen bagels (a dutch brand) and they don't have them anymore :( Probably because I was the only person in the whole city who eats bagels with cream-cheese, but seriously taking away this small pleasure, of my favorite/normal breakfast food ahhhh. Soo tired of beans and tortillas.


I was doing a presentation/training for the teachers at the NGO, I had prepared a really good power-point presentation and activities based on  them looking at the slides, and what happens in the exact moment I am going to start that's right the power goes out ahhhhh, which was bad because I had to totally change the order of my presentation, and verbally do stuff that there should of been a visuals for. It happened again when I was printing scholarship information at the school district, right in the middle half printed and the electricity didn't come back until several hours later. Oh well that is just one of the bad things about living here really really unreliable electricity. 




The Ugly
So on the Amapala trip, I was in a mototaxi accident and came out with some really ugly scratches on my leg that are still in the process of healing and a really funky ugly rash on my arm and chest from the bushes that we ran into. The whole experience was a bit ugly, but thank God nothing serious happened.

 This is what a moto-taxi is

Poverty this is the "ugly" that is everywhere and is so hard to see. Seeing daily people living in homes made out of sticks and garbage bags, seeing kids in school with out shoes and their teeth literally rotting in their mouths, getting approached by 80 year old women asking for money, or a Dad with his son asking me to give them money to buy groceries at the supermarket. It is heartbreaking to live surrounded by this poverty.

Also justifiable as "ugly" is this frog that I found on my bathroom door, who knows how he got there. But he's the kind of ugly that grows on you and your eventually like "oh how cute" :)

I miss you all and want to hear from you soon!

Em