Welcome to Honduras

So I´ve drafted about three blog posts throughout my first week, and when I was finally satisfied with the latest version, I forgot to save it to my USB drive so now I am writing a whole new post. Gah.

Anyways, we arrived into Tegucigalpa about 11 am local time. Did you know that Tegucigalpa airport has one of the most dangerous runways in the world? They do! And we didn´t know either.

As we were landing the plane circled the runway about three time, each time getting closer and closer to the hills surrounding the airport. The last go round I swear we were no more than 100 feet from the nearest house. Pretty scary introduction to your new home. After that we waited in customs for a while and then we met our administrators! They shuttled us into the parking lot, loaded up our luggage to take directly to our host families and then took us to the training center.

At the training center they basically talked at us. I don´t remember what all they said because we were all so tired and too excited to sit through a lecture. After that we were taken out to meet our host families. Oh, this is about 3 pm local time (note that´s an hour after you East Coasters).

Now those of you who have heard me talk about my past roommates, those I was assigned to at least, know that I don´t have the best luck with living situations. I was TERRIFIED about meeting my host mother. On the bus to the training center we were finally given information on our host families. Suyapa (who until a couple of days ago I thought was called Norma) is my host mother. She´s basically in charge of the whole Peace Corps deal because her husband, Francis Javier, works all the time and then takes agriculture classes on the weekends. They have three children: Melanie (6), Meledine (4), and Javier (1). Great, kids! But, fortunately they are amazing! The girls are pretty crazy, always moving about, but they´re good kids and great to learn Spanish with. Javier is the cutest kid ever and has finally warmed up to me. We have established ¨confianza (trust),¨ which is big here is Honduras. The family is great and Suyapa and I have bonded over the telenovelas. My Spanish is much worse than I thought, but it´s coming along. I can understand more than I respond back.

The family lives in a very small house. We have a main room that is split between the kitchen and the living room. They basically only have 2 loveseats, a kitchen table, a small refrigerator, small stove, and a sink. Suyapa doesn´t even have cabinets for all of her dishes! (Pictures to come later). Outside we have our pilas, they are basically massive cement sinks that store the water for the family. Water here only comes on Sundays and Thursdays, so when it does come, they fill up the pilas. That water is then taken into the house in buckets to wash dishes and take showers. Yes, I take bucket showers now. I´m lucky that Suyapa heats up the water for me; other trainees are not so fortunate and mornings have been around 50º here recently.

Besides the main room there are two bedrooms and a small bathroom. The entire family sleeps in one room and I have the other. We´re required to have our own rooms, so that´s a good deal. It seems to be tradition in Honduras for families to sleep together in one bedroom. I´m not sure about their sleeping situation when a trainee isn´t around.

On that note, I´m also lucky because Suyapa has had a trainee before, so she knows the drill. She is a very nice woman and has been taking good care of me. She´s patient when I butcher her native language, and a great cook! Halley, her other Volunteer, still calls the house and was nice enough to call on my first night to help me get oriented.

Next post: the daily grind!