Lentil Soup

My appreciation for the randomness of Honduras waxes and wanes depending on the adventure it throws at me. At times the adventures are difficult, and other times they are rewarding, for example, offering up lentil soup.

The other day I was waiting in the Parque Central for the kids to show up to English class, and this man approached me. He looked Catracho, and spoke Spanish, in which he asked what the park was called. I replied, that as far as I knew, it was just Parque Central. At which point he switches to English, and begins to explain that he is Indian, lived in the States for several years and then decided to move to Honduras. He has been living here for almost two decades, and does research/practices natural medicine.

Anyways, during the conversation he mentioned that he has an apartment in Corquin that acts as his vacation home. Having mentioned earlier in the conversation that I was looking to rent places, he offered to rent me his apartment.

Well, today I went with him to see the apartment. It's actually pretty far out of Corquin so unfortunately I won't be able to rent it, but the experience that resulted was interesting.

I honestly wasn't sure of him in the beginning, because he whipped out his stock investments in the park, which, why do I need to see those? I also am a bit wary of people who directly question you about your religious beliefs and other more personal topics of conversation I generally reserve for closer friends. Nonetheless, he seemed like a harmless guy, and against all better judgment from Juan Carlos (Security Director of Peace Corps) I got in his car to view this apartment.

Again, alarm bells when he had me read the "testimonies" as to the success of his natural remedies, but we went to the apartment and were only there for five minutes before we drove off again. "That was easy," I thought. And then (and this amazes me that I didn't understand even though we were talking in English) if I wanted to go to the next town, and I agreed. I have to admit that I was hoping we were going to get lunch. Well we went farther, but turns out he just needed to go to a hardware store.

Anyways, this entire time we're talking about the events of yesterday and what we've observed/experienced in Honduras. So he asks if I would like one of his natural remedies to cure stomach problems, and I sheepishly accept. Why I do this to myself, I don't know. I mean, for all I know it was that crap from the movies that they put over your nose/mouth and you immediately pass out... my imagination sometimes strays... but you never know!

Well, in the process of getting my cure-all potion, I am offered delicious lentil soup, which leads to more political discussion, a stock investment lesson, and eventually suggested philosophies on life ... The lentil soup and political discussion was lovely. The soup satisfied cravings for food other than beans, cheese and tortillas, and the political discussion catered to my need to get other people's opinions on the current events in Honduras.

And that was my afternoon, in short.