A day in the life...

Hey ya'll! Well...four more days in Honduras and I haven't melted...yet.

I am definitely settling into my new life here in quaint little Copan and I definitely owe all of you an update. I think the best way for me to explain what life here is like is just to take you through a "Day in the life of a Minnesotan girl living in Copan" (don't worry...this will not be the title of my book...)

My days usually start like this: I'm in the middle of some great dream when suddenly, this very annoying beeping enters the dream...about 15 minutes later, I realize that it is actually a combnation of my alarm clock and the alarm on my watch (I do not trust that only one of these contraptions would wake me) For the record, the time is 5:30 a.m.

I stumble out of bed bleary eyed, and fumble around for my light switch which is in quite possibly the weirdest and least convenient place ever. This next part of my day is definitely the worst part...the bathroom.

No, it's not Montasuma's Revenge (although he has gotten me a couple times...) it is the smell. So here in Copan, let's just say that the sewers a a bit older than those in Minnetonka. So every morning, I take a deep breath before entering my bathroom because throughout the night, some sort of sewage backs up into my toilet. Ah yes, the joys of thurd world travel.

But after a good flush, everything is ok and I can move on with my day. So now that I'm awake, I throw on the top t-shirt in the pile and top pair of pants in the stack (literally, this is how I get dressed now...just wear the two things on top...a far stretch from the fashionable days at Gen Mills) After my high fashion lok is complete, I climb down the pretty trecherous stairs and eat pancakes.

Yep. Pancakes every day (or at least the last 6 days running). I'm definitely not complaining since there are MUCH worse options of things to eat every day and I've never had a real probelm with repetition. So I throw down my 3 pancakes with honey (very weird...hoep I get used to that soon) and my banana and it's off to school.

I think I mentioned this fact in my last blog but in Honduras you are pretty much always in one of two states while walking: Walking straight up hill or shuffling straight down hill. These hills are no joke. So first I do my awkward shuffle down the hill, then I climb the huge hill and then it's down 126 steps (yes, I have counted this several times).

There at the bottom of the hill awaits a rusty navy blue pick-up truck. We climb into the back and we're off! First, we need to stop at this market to pick up fruit for the kids and load 150 bananas and 5 watermelons into the truck. And then, we are really off...

So over the past 4 days I have tried to take pictures of the ride and it is virtually inpossible. But what I can tell you is that it is truly stunning. We ride alongside a river and up a hill that is so green...again, my writing skills just are not up to the task of describing this one. It takes us about 25 minutes to get to the school and we usually pick up a couple of kids alng the way.

The school literally pops up out of no where. It's like we are seeing endless untouched land and all of the sudden, there is a little turquoise school that just creeps on our right with about 30 kids just waiting for us to get there.

Again, I will definitely write more about the school later but it is really great. It is very different from my other school. Not better or worse...just really different. I have 2nd graders again (8-10) and I'm definitely already loving all 20 of them...even Kevin, the ADHD child who has quite possibly the loudest voice I have ever heard (more on all the kids and the school in another entry)

School goes from 7 to 12 and even though we are loaded back in that pick up truck by 12:30, it feels like a lifetime since that alarm went off at 5:30. So we head back down (amazingly, the views are equally stunning on the way down) and unload the pick up truck.

Now exactly why we get off at the bottom of the 126 stairs when all of us live at the TOP of the 126 stairs is beyond me but I have filed this in the TIH category (This is Honduras...) So I climb the 126 stairs (have I mentioned that there are 126 stairs yet??), shuffle awkwardly down a hill, struggle to climb the mountain and go back to my house for lunch. At this point, I shove whatever Tina puts in front of my into my face (a, because I'm starving and b, because I have spanish class and really want to have time to buy a diet coke) and I'm of again.

You guessed it, down the hill, up the hill, down the stairs and to the Spanish school. I have SPanish lessons for 4 hours a day for my first week and am trying to fit some more in while I'm here in Honduras but we'll see how that goes.

My Spanish teacher is adorable and looks about 12. She is actually 18 (which is insane) but she is so sweet and classes have been great. I do have a quick funny story about spanish class...

Now this doesn't even touch the circumsision mishap but it is still funny and ironically, again about beign jewish (I think I just need to stop metioning this fact). So we were talking about countries I've visited and Israel came up and one thing led to another and suddenly, it came up that I was Jewish. She did have a slight look of surprise when I mentioned it (I don't think there are a whole lot of USY chapters here in Copan if you know what I mean)

Anyway, the next day (clearly this fact that I was Jewish had stuck with here) here's how it went:
Her: You said you Jewish right?
Me: Yep.
Her: You look exactly like a jew.

Now it was about this time that I had to remind myself that in this culture, people call each other fat to their face and it isn't offensive. People just say it how it is around here. But nonetheless, it was a funny story.

So after Spanish class, I drag my ass back up the 126 stairs (seriously people, I am going to have a rock hard ass when this is over...and ridiculously oversized calves), down, up....you get the picture and home where I immediately throw myself into an ice cold shower. I think I forgot to mention that all of these activities occur in 95 degree heat.

Dinner time followed by either out for a drink, a salsa lesson, a little internet (like tonight!) or just chilling at home watching either Anderson Cooper on CNN on the only English channel I have or trying to watch the Simpson's in Spanish.

And then, it's bedtime.

The days are full. The stairs are impossible. The heat is nearly unbearable. The food is bizarre. The roads are unpaved. The bathroom is smelly. And the teachers are slighty offensive.

But you know what? I'm loving it.

xoxo,
Debra