I really don't know if anyone is enjoying this at all and sometimes I feel like I'm not saying anything that interesting just thoughts and feelings and randomness. One of the things that I have picked up while being in Honduras is when you don't know something, you put your hands up to your shoulders and make a "I have no idea" face. The more dramatically you do it the more you communicate to people that you literally have no idea. It's the equivalent to our shrug, and right now I am making this very useful "I have no idea" motion, and if one person finds the slightest enjoyment then I'll keep talking.
First, this week was the coldest week we've had here, literally cold showers were painful, and we spent the whole week in sweatshirts, jeans and drinking coffee. Buuuuut.... I loved every second of it. It reminded me that oh wait a minute it's October and that I should be wearing pants and sweatshirts all of the time and going to DC for homecoming. That turned into me being homesick a little bit so a call from the family would be great anytime (hint).
I also spent my week still translating letters for the sponsors in the states. We finally finished them and it's not that I don't find them meaningful because they are really beautiful and I know it's important to communicate with the sponsors especially when the letters contain prayer intentions... but frankly it's boring and now I know that my vocation has nothing to do with data input.
I tend to enjoy the things that are unplanned and not a part of my schedule the most. For instance, a few of us went to the Missionaries of Charity and drove their minibus filled with seven HIV positive kids under the age of seven, and went to Pollo Campero for dinner. It was literally the most fun I've had in a long time and I wanted to adopt everyone of them. I watched the cutest 3 year old drink about a half a liter of Coke and then dropped him off with the sisters. Bueno Suerte Hermana! It's really beautiful to see that even though they are religious and don't have a family in a traditional way, they still very much are mothers to these children who many of them have already lost their parents to AIDS.
There are things here that I have been able to get use to: ants being everywhere, the very very salty cheese, drinking incredible coffee all of the time, sipping Coca Cola like its a fine wine, and the fact that I'm beginning to make friends. Yadira, the young woman I work with for our Sponsorship program has become a good friend here, wants go get tres leches with me and eat loco elote with me. The latter I'm not excited about, a Central American favorite at fairs in the way that we love our Funnel Cake that consists of Corn on the Cob, deep fried, with mayonnaise on top and sugar. No thanks. I'm getting use to the Honduran accent, which people slur words together and don't pronounce the "s," with the kids in the sponsorship program I end up saying to them a lot "You're eating your letters!" The Spanish way of saying you're dropping letters.
There are also things here that I have yet to get use to and I don't think I will anytime soon. One, people calling other people gordita, it's okay if you call someone a little fat, if you say gorda it's another story, but I've heard people call girls who are about my size gorditas and so I'm just waiting for the day to come. Secondly, racism is so common here, and I think it's so shocking to me because I grew up in such a diverse area that in schools multiculturalism is something that is celebrated, and it's deeply understood that racism is not okay. Furthermore I can't understand the racism between other Central Americans, when I can't tell the difference between Hondurans, Guatemalans, El Salvadorans etc... Sometimes with accents I can but other than that no. As for me, I get enough assumptions being a very fair, typical looking Gringa. Everyday I walk out of my house I have to prove myself because many people who look at me assume I can't speak. Also when guys call out to me, it's always in English, I always know when they're talking to me haha! I usually joke to whoever I'm walking with and say that we must have a lot of bilinguals in our neighborhood.
Ok more to come later, I wrote half of this last weekend so a lot has happened since but I don't want it to be obnoxiously long,
United in Prayer,
Hannah
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