I do not know if I have mentioned it already, but it is beautiful here! La Ceiba is nicknamed La Novia de Honduras, which translates to the girlfriend of Honduras. Everyday regardless of the weather or how I am feeling I can just walk outside and look at the amazing mountains and see the ocean and instantly feel better knowing I am in a natural paradise. The beach is about five miles from the base of the mountains, if that, and then it is an endless jungle. The jungle here is amazing, filled with these lovely red and yellow flowers and all kids of different lush trees. There are multiple rivers running through the jungle but my favorite spot is hiking up this dirt road for about 2 hours to a place called Las Mangas where there is a little swimming hole. It is priceless. There are huge white rocks to lay on and jump off of into the river, a little swimming hole with a little natural rock water slide that is about 3 feet. My home stay family showed it to me and I went back yesterday with my two roommates which turned out to be an interesting night... Mom, don´t read beyond this point. We got to the base of the mountain around 5 and started trying to catch a hitch back to the Hogar. We finally caught one and they had to make a stop that lasted about 10 minutes and we were on our way. They were not going all the way to our village but we thought it would be better than nothing. They dropped us off around 6:30 at their stop which was about 4 miles from our village. We tried hitching while walking but it was dusk and no cars were stopping. The sun dropped within 10 minutes and we ended up walking the four miles in the dark to our village. It was the first time I had been outside of the orphanage at night, unless in Ceiba in a group. It was lovely. The stars were amazing and there are fireflies everywhere here! We all lived and ended up having a great day and walking all together about 10 miles which we felt allowed us the privilege of coming to town today for some ice cream which was delicious! Mom, again do not read on... Also, the other night we were in our room, my 2 roommates and I and we were watching a movie on the Hogar´s TV and we heard gunshots right outside of our window. I didn´t think anything of it and I looked down and all of my roommates were laying on the floor. I asked if those were real gunshots and they said yes. So I got on the floor as well. We turned off all of our lights and looked outside. Our armed guard was out of site and we couldn´t get his attention yelling out our window. We walked to get the head Tio and Tia to see if they knew what was going on... They opened there bedroom door and told us that the two shots were warning rounds to scare off potential robbers in the neighborhood. They told us that they wanted to let everyone in the village know we did in fact have an armed guard and that it was a planned drill. They apologized for not telling us. We went back to our room and laughed for about 15 minutes at the fact that we are warned about fire drills in the states and here we hadn´t been warned about our armed guard letting off a couple of rounds right outside of our window.
OK mom, now you can read on...
Life at the Hogar has either gotten better or I have just been lowering my standards and been adjusting... I love my four students. They are all adorable in their own way, but Angelo is my little angel. Another volunteer loves him as well so she keeps telling me I am going to have to fight her for him. He lost his tooth last night so she put 10 lempiras under his pillow. He woke up so happy about it and within 2 hours one of the other kids had taken the money. That is one of the things that is hard here at the orphanage. The kids have no respect for each other or the volunteers. They do respect their head tio and tia, the couple that is in charge. But other than that they don`t show much respect for their possessions or the other kids and they are inconsistent in the respect they show for the volunteers. They don´t have to work for anything and because of that they haven´t learned what it is like to work hard, earn money, and purchase something that you need to keep in good condition. They are given all of their clothes and all of their possessions and just trash them. We have to control all of the books they read, all of the puzzles they use, and toys they borrow. This means they knock on our door at all hours asking, tia, yo quiero rompecabeza, tia yo quiero un libro. This is something we have been talking about to try and work on so that they have an idea what it is like to work or create something and earn something in return.
I went swimming with all of the kids Friday after class and they acted totally different. None of them fought, they all got along, they were all happy, they were all excited to play and talk and everyone had a blast. It was a wonderful experience to see them away from the orphanage. I was talking to another volunteer about maybe trying to talk with all of the kids about something special they would like to do and rotate and take the kids in pairs or one at a time away from the orphanage to do something that would be memorable for them. It is hilarious though, I was asking the kids what their favorite meals were, and each of them said beans and flour tortillas. This is pretty much what we have to eat every single day at the orphanage. The food is decent, but I was thinking they would pick something they rarely get to have. The food at the orphanage doesn´t compare to the food from my home stay but it is pretty good and definitely edible. I helped the cooks our Friday because one cook got fired for stealing food so they are short handed. At first one of the cooks was a bit irritated because she gave me the job of manning the frying pan and I was spilling some of the oil while flipping the pastelitos. But I eventually I got the hang of it. After manning a frying pan in a kitchen in Honduras you lose about 5 pounds in water weight from sweating so much. I was soaked. But it was wroth it. I am learning some good cooking tips and the food is really good. Although at the orphanage there is a huge lack of fruits and vegetables. It is mostly beans, tortillas, means and rice. Oh and the sweetest coffee every which is really good and served to all of the kids which doesn´t help their already hyper behaviors.
I am trying to think of what else to update everyone on... We brought it up to the director that the kids need proper showers and we need to hire a plumber to fix the existing showers and we were told it was an issue with money because the organization is currently suffering. Oh, and I am going to a soccer game on Wednesday at the stadium in La Ceiba with the head tio and the other volunteers. I am so excited about that. It is Victoria, one of the Ceiba teams and Olympia, a team from San Pedro Sula. It is cheaper for women to go to the games, it is only $2.50. Hmmm... The weather is lovely. It rains maybe two or three days a week, but not for long. The rest of the time it is insanely humid, sunny, and perfect. After hiking all day Saturday and being gone all day I was so excited when we finally got back to the orphanage because I missed the kids, my students especially. I counted 35 bugbites on my body today when I was swimming and that is with wearing bug spray about half the time and sleeping with a mosquito net. Alright I need to head back to make some lesson plans for tomorrow.
Ok, I hope all is well with everyone back home. Take care, eat lots of raspberries for me and I will talk with you all later.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment