Thanksgiving, San Pedro & Trujillo

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope that everyone had a happy Thanksgiving and was able to spend some quality time with family and friends and eat some good food. I missed my grandma's sweet potatoes, my mom's cranberries, spending the weekend at the beach with my family, meeting my cousins new baby and catching up with my family... Fortunately I was able to have a nice Thanksgiving here spending the evening with fellow volunteers. A man that owns a hotel teamed up with another volunteer to cater a dinner at a hotel on the beach where they invited all HHK volunteers to spend thanksgiving together. We were even fortunate enough to get some turkey and stove top stuffing! There was also rice, veggies, pasta dishes, mashed potatoes and gravy and some pies. I have found a new passion... Pecan Pie!!! I don't know if I have never tried it or if it was just that this pie the other night was more amazing than any piece I have ever tried, but it was excellent. My roommates and I each got a plate piled high with food and all we could think about was how the kids would all die to be eating what we were eating. So Bethany emptied her water bottle and we stuffed the rest of the food we had on our plates into her bottle so we could take it back to the kids. Francisco in particular because as we were leaving he followed us out asking what we were going to eat and if we would bring some back to him as he does every time we leave the Hogar. We do things like this often and just laugh, we know have a saying, "you know you have lived at an orphanage in Honduras too long when..." in this case "you stuff food into a nalgene water bottle to take back to the kids at the Hogar."

I wanted to go around the table and have everyone say what they were thankful for but everyone seemed a bit too eager to dig in but Cheyanne another volunteer after dinner asked me what I was thankful for. I thought about it and I usually always say my health and the health of my family which I am still very thankful for, but I thought about what I have experienced in the last 5 months and what I am thankful for is the people I have met in my time here. I have met so many people with such huge hearts that it really gives me confidence and hope that there are good hearted, amazing, selfless people out there in the world. I could write a book about our hitches alone and how generous and friendly the people have been that we have met. I will try not to drag this blog on too long so I will just cover a few of them...

Last week was the last game of the season for Honduras. They played in San Pedro Sula against Mexico, their biggest rival. Last time they played in August they lost 1-3. I really wanted to go and at the last minute 3 other volunteers said that they would hitch to San Pedro Sula with me and take the chance of getting last minute tickets. So we grabbed some clothes and headed off hitching our way south to San Pedro Sula which is about 3.5 hours away. Our first hitch was a man named Wilfredo who lived in Tacoa but had a house in San Pedro Sula right next to the Stadium. He really wanted to go to the game and said we could stay at his house and he would drive us there if he was going, but that he was just going into La Ceiba because he had a meeting. He was a middle aged man who has a niece in Miami, FL and 3 daughters in North Carolina. He dropped us off in La Ceiba and we waited for our next hitch which we got after about 15 minutes and we were cramped in the bed of a truck with a couple bags of oranges. I offered to give the two men driving us money when we pulled over at the gas station which they would not accept. After we pulled away from the gas station they pulled over and bought 3 bags of lyches which are a fruit here almost like a grape or cherry. They handed us two of the bags and said they had purchased them for us to eat. They took us all the way to Progresso which is about 2 hours from La Ceiba and dropped us off on the main road heading to San Pedro Sula. From there we got another hitch in a truck but I sat up front while the other 3 volunteers sat in the back. The man was a construction worker who lived about 15 minutes outside of La Ceiba. I chatted with him about what I was doing in Honduras, my family, his family, soccer, etc for about 45 minutes and he asked where we were headed. I just told him to drop us off wherever he was headed and we would walk or get a cab to where we were going. He insisted on driving us to the Stadium when he found out that was where we were headed and said it was on his way. When we pulled up to the Stadium we shook hands and I got money out to give him and before I could offer it he placed something in my hand and said he wanted me to take it to remember him by. I looked at my hand and he had given me a $20 bill. I was in shock and told him there was no way I could accept it and that I had money and I was going to offer him money for gas and the ride. He insisted that I buy something nice for myself to remember him by and placed the $20 back in my hand. This was by far my most shocking hitch experience... He dropped us off right in front of the stadium where we were able to buy last minute tickets to the biggest game of the year for half price ($5). The game was amazing! Honduras won 1-0 over Mexico advancing them to the next series beginning in February. The stadium was PACKED! I don't think they have a max capacity at this place because it was PACKED from the bottom level to the top, there aren't even seats, not a soul was sitting down. People were standing cramped in aisles, on stairs, everywhere. We watched the game, took pictures and videos, cheered with the locals and got soaked. It poured the entire time and once the game was over we were soaked along with all of our stuff. We got a cab to take us to a hotel after fighting our way out of the stadium and he was very nice, attempted to rip us off, but then after we confronted him about and maybe sobered up, he spent the entire evening with us. He drove around San Pedro Sula helping us try and find a hotel, but everything was booked. SO he then offered to take us to Progresso which was on our way but about 30 minutes away. He said he lived there and we could stay with him at his place and he wouldn't charge us. He droves us to Pregresso, took us to his favorite restaurant where we bought him dinner to thank him and then offered to take us to his favorite karaoke bar. At that point it was about 1 am and we were still soaked so we asked him to drop us off at a hotel. He drove us around Progresso trying to find a hotel that was still open and helped us wake up a manager so that we could check-in to a room. He gave us his number and told us he would show us around the next day if we had time. For all of this he charged us the same fee it would have been to head straight to Pregresso after the game without any stops or dinner.

The next day we got up in the rain and headed back. We got our first hitch in the back of an SUV with two very nice men that were visiting family in Honduras but currently living in San Diego. They dropped us off about half way and we got another hitch in the back of a truck with a couple driving. It started to pour out and they pulled over and gave us a tarp to use to cover ourselves (a common hitch technique when it is raining out). WE got back to the Hogar soaked again, but we all had a blast! And it was definitely worth it, even if just for the hitching experience alone.

I am running out of internet time so I have to go. I will add more about our hitch to Trujillo and the kids hopefully tomorrow. For now I want to say again Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!!