Sad day yesterday...Wonderful day today!
Hi everyone!
I hope all is well back home. I´m at an internet cafe right now with my hermana. I have to leave in a half hour to walk home in time to receive a call from mom - yay!
I´ll tell you about yesterday first. It started off bad because we couldn´t eat breakfast because we had to get bloodwork done at the training center. In addition, we all got a tetanus vaccine the day before and my whole left arm ached. So we trudged to the training center complaining about our empty stomachs and the 6 hours of spanish we had ahead of us (one day a week we have two extra hours). Later in the day, we all received sad news. One of our friends decided to return home. We were all hugging her goodbye and crying. It´s hard to see one of us go because we have gotten so close. But she decided that she is not ready for PC service right now and wants to reapply later. She also started dating her boyfriend 6 months ago and really missed him and her family. While we don´t want her to be here if she´s miserable, we are all very very sad to see her go!
The day was pretty much ruined after that. I didn´t feel well at all and ran a slight fever later I think because of the vaccines. I dragged myself home and did my homework and whined to my family a bit, who were all very concerned and served me lemon tea. I read a Clive Cussler book and I went to bed at 8!
Well sleeping 10 hours has a way of changing a person´s outlook on life...hehehe. No, seriously, I woke up feeling much better today. It was a beautiful sunny day as usual and I dressed in a cute skirt and sandals for class and felt good about life. What a fun day! We had 4 hours of spanish as usual in the morning, and in the process discovered our teacher´s last day is tomorrow. So we decided at once to celebrate together by making a hallowed trip to the best restaurant in town - Wendy´s! Oh, the heaven of anticipating that burger, those fries, that Frosty after nothing but beans and tortillas for 2 weeks. I really can´t explain it.
Then in the afternoon us Health people had 4 hours of a fascinating topic - Diarrhea. Yes, we talked of nothing but poop for several hours. We even made up some hilarious skits about how bacteria and parasites in diarrhea can spread and the beliefs and practices here in Honduras that make diarrhea the 2nd leading cause of death in children under 5 here in Honduras after respiratory infections (not so hilarious). We got in groups, made up a skit, and performed. I played the part of a fly, buzzing about, landing on food, spreading disease, and finally getting swatted. A dazzling performance if I must say so.
Then came the piece de resistance. Wendy´s! Our teacher Esly drove the 4 of us from my spanish class in her carro to one of the nicest Wendy´s I´ve ever been to. It would be a very long walk for me, but in a car it wasn´t too far. This Wendy´s opened up a few months ago and it is very expensive by Honduran standards - basically it´s the same price as in the states. Also did I mention that during training we all receive the equivalent of $2.50 a day for "walk around money"? Doesn´t sound like much but it goes a long way here. Well on Thursdays the Wendy´s here has a deal called "Super Amigos" where you get 5 drinks, 4 hamburgers, 2 chicken nuggets, one nachos and 5 fries for the equivalent of 7 dollars. We added a spicy chicken sandwich and another hamburger and several frostys (mind you there were only 5 of us). Well we dug right in and it was so much fun. We were all laughing the entire time and most of the people in the restaurant were staring at us. I mean, we were laughing so hard we were crying. I can´t really convey the experience. Mostly we laughed at ourselves, our limited Spanish, and the fact that were were so freakin´excited to be at a Wendy´s in the middle of central america. A great time and I am very happy right now.
On the way home as Esly dropped us off we listened to the Beatles and other great english music and felt the wind through our hair. Oh, and I saw my life pass before my eyes several times because Hondurans drive loco. She was swerving in an our of traffic, sometimes crisscrossing paths with oncoming cars, coming inches away from people on bicycles and pedestrians. But I made it home and that´s what matters. Then I got my hermana to walk with me to this lovely internet cafe where it took me 15 minutes to just load this one website. But I didn´t let that spoil my mood. I bought a "carnet" where it´s 30 lempira for 3 hours online, 10 lempira an hour, which is about 60 cents - great deal huh!
Well I hope you enjoyed my account of my last two days. It´s definitely a roller coaster ride here!
I hope all is well back home. I´m at an internet cafe right now with my hermana. I have to leave in a half hour to walk home in time to receive a call from mom - yay!
I´ll tell you about yesterday first. It started off bad because we couldn´t eat breakfast because we had to get bloodwork done at the training center. In addition, we all got a tetanus vaccine the day before and my whole left arm ached. So we trudged to the training center complaining about our empty stomachs and the 6 hours of spanish we had ahead of us (one day a week we have two extra hours). Later in the day, we all received sad news. One of our friends decided to return home. We were all hugging her goodbye and crying. It´s hard to see one of us go because we have gotten so close. But she decided that she is not ready for PC service right now and wants to reapply later. She also started dating her boyfriend 6 months ago and really missed him and her family. While we don´t want her to be here if she´s miserable, we are all very very sad to see her go!
The day was pretty much ruined after that. I didn´t feel well at all and ran a slight fever later I think because of the vaccines. I dragged myself home and did my homework and whined to my family a bit, who were all very concerned and served me lemon tea. I read a Clive Cussler book and I went to bed at 8!
Well sleeping 10 hours has a way of changing a person´s outlook on life...hehehe. No, seriously, I woke up feeling much better today. It was a beautiful sunny day as usual and I dressed in a cute skirt and sandals for class and felt good about life. What a fun day! We had 4 hours of spanish as usual in the morning, and in the process discovered our teacher´s last day is tomorrow. So we decided at once to celebrate together by making a hallowed trip to the best restaurant in town - Wendy´s! Oh, the heaven of anticipating that burger, those fries, that Frosty after nothing but beans and tortillas for 2 weeks. I really can´t explain it.
Then in the afternoon us Health people had 4 hours of a fascinating topic - Diarrhea. Yes, we talked of nothing but poop for several hours. We even made up some hilarious skits about how bacteria and parasites in diarrhea can spread and the beliefs and practices here in Honduras that make diarrhea the 2nd leading cause of death in children under 5 here in Honduras after respiratory infections (not so hilarious). We got in groups, made up a skit, and performed. I played the part of a fly, buzzing about, landing on food, spreading disease, and finally getting swatted. A dazzling performance if I must say so.
Then came the piece de resistance. Wendy´s! Our teacher Esly drove the 4 of us from my spanish class in her carro to one of the nicest Wendy´s I´ve ever been to. It would be a very long walk for me, but in a car it wasn´t too far. This Wendy´s opened up a few months ago and it is very expensive by Honduran standards - basically it´s the same price as in the states. Also did I mention that during training we all receive the equivalent of $2.50 a day for "walk around money"? Doesn´t sound like much but it goes a long way here. Well on Thursdays the Wendy´s here has a deal called "Super Amigos" where you get 5 drinks, 4 hamburgers, 2 chicken nuggets, one nachos and 5 fries for the equivalent of 7 dollars. We added a spicy chicken sandwich and another hamburger and several frostys (mind you there were only 5 of us). Well we dug right in and it was so much fun. We were all laughing the entire time and most of the people in the restaurant were staring at us. I mean, we were laughing so hard we were crying. I can´t really convey the experience. Mostly we laughed at ourselves, our limited Spanish, and the fact that were were so freakin´excited to be at a Wendy´s in the middle of central america. A great time and I am very happy right now.
On the way home as Esly dropped us off we listened to the Beatles and other great english music and felt the wind through our hair. Oh, and I saw my life pass before my eyes several times because Hondurans drive loco. She was swerving in an our of traffic, sometimes crisscrossing paths with oncoming cars, coming inches away from people on bicycles and pedestrians. But I made it home and that´s what matters. Then I got my hermana to walk with me to this lovely internet cafe where it took me 15 minutes to just load this one website. But I didn´t let that spoil my mood. I bought a "carnet" where it´s 30 lempira for 3 hours online, 10 lempira an hour, which is about 60 cents - great deal huh!
Well I hope you enjoyed my account of my last two days. It´s definitely a roller coaster ride here!
posted by Lauren @ 19:53
1 Comments:
At February 4, 2005 at 9:09 AM,
Anonymous said…
Great reading Lauren! Keep them comming. I hope you like rollercoasters, cause it definitely dosn't sound like you will have much time to get bored! Remember, a bad day, just means the next good day is that much closer!
By the way, I would have payed to see that diarrhea skit ...
Steve K
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