Take a holiday in Spain (or Honduras)

First of all, I have a new address. It's on the sidebar. Send me mail. It doesn't have to be a package (but I sure do like those), just write me a letter or send a card. It would make me feel a little closer to reality. Tell me about new movies, music, relationships. I appreciate these things. Even though I have internet, it is painfully slow and the bandwidth isn't strong enough to upload or download, leaving me clueless about anything that's not on facebook. If I don't answer you on fb chat, means my bandwidth is dead. Letters are the way to go. [See side bar]

Time is a funny thing here. I’m sure you’ve always heard that Latinos never arrive anywhere on time. Well, Hondurans are no exception to the rule, in fact, they take that rule to heart in a way that is already driving me crazy. Be sure to ask if you’re meeting at the real time or Honduran time. We practice soccer at 4. Most people show up at about 4:40 and everyone is there by 5. Meetings are guaranteed to start at least 30 minutes later than they are scheduled for. Time also moves slow here. Sometimes my days seem so long that I think it’s never going to be time to get in the bed. How early is too early to excuse yourself to go to your room?

I remember when I studied abroad I hit this point where it had been the longest amount of time I had ever been away from home and out of the States. That came at about 3 weeks then. At that time, I experienced culture shock and an extreme desire to go home. This week I think I experienced that point. I have been gone from home for about 4 months now, the longest I have ever been out of the US. I wanted to be normal so badly this week. I wanted to eat meat that wouldn’t be rejected by the USDA, I wanted to be able to drive, go eat sushi, cook with wonderful spices and flavors, and have a good glass a wine (or just a glass period). I haven’t felt like I wanted to come home, but just that more of home was here. Hint, hint, mom, come visit me already.

I have been sick for over a week now. It started as a cold, but now I think that I have bronchitis. Our PCMO’s (Peace Corps Medical Officers) have been super busy this week, so they never called me back. I think I need antibiotics. The nearest pharmacy is like an hour or so away. Again, normalcy.... where are you?

My information I got about my site told me there were 800 people here. I think 200 is more of an accurate number. The other day I went by the mayor’s house to have coffee and platicar (to chat). After a good political discussion among other things, he introduced me to his oldest daughter who is also named Jessica. I continued talking with her and she was really floored at my desire to live here in this little pueblo for 2 years. “You really do like it here? Isn’t it hard and very different for you?” she asked me. She is one of very few of the people here who have had the opportunity to move to the city to go to the University. I hadn’t really been thinking about it much, but it is so different from the world from which I come. I don’t even know how to describe to you what it feels like to be this tall, white, blue-eyed, educated woman in this pueblo. Sometimes I feel so out of place, I don’t know what to do with myself. I’m a minority, and by quite the long shot. I’m sure that more than the mayor’s daughter wonders what in the world I am doing here. I too sometimes wonder what I’m doing, what I will do in these two years.

I do love my host family here. I am thankful that I can go back home to them, share with them, and joke around and feel a little normal. They treat me really well and are already considering me to be part of their family.

There is only one mirror in our house. (Not normal for a daughter of a hair dresser. There have always been mirrors everywhere in my life.) A few days ago, I straightened my hair (without a mirror) and got ready to go to the kindergarten. I went to look in the one mirror in the house, and I barely recognized myself. My hair has grown several inches (I hadn’t noticed because I usually wear it in a pony tail), is a very light reddish color, and I have pretty much stopped wearing makeup. It’s a strange feeling to look in the mirror after not seeing yourself for a while. I feel like I have changed...and not only physically. I think my personality is different in Spanish. Is that possible? I live my life here in my second language... Language barriers, somewhat limited vocabulary, and a place where sarcasm is rarely understood.

I’m definitely still messy in Spanish. My room is a wreck and I’m procrastinating washing the pile of laundry I have by hand. The sun’s out today, I should get to that.

In other news, the US tied against Costa Rica last night with about 12 seconds left in the game. What does that mean? Well, it means that CR gets bumped to 4th place, and moves Honduras to 3rd place, qualifying them for the World Cup next year in South Africa. Oh and the US won 1st place. Everyone went ballistic here when US scored the goal. I think more people here were watching that game instead of the Honduras-El Salvador game. There are 3 cars in my community. We all piled up in the back of the 3 cars and went around honking the horn, whistling, and screaming HONDURAS HONDURAS! This is the first time in 28 years that Honduras has gone to the World Cup and only the 2nd time ever. Soccer is life here in case you didn’t know that. So it’s a big deal. A huge deal. Today was declared a national holiday. No school. No work.

No wonder they can’t escape this cycle of poverty. Always taking holidays.... Guess I’ll just read another book today.