So I never finished my story from last week about the events
that transpired after the Kid’s day events. When Cassidy and I left the community center made it home in
the rain, through the river like streets, we found quite the surprise. One of the big metal gates at the front
of our house was just gone. We had
no idea what had happened and then a man from across the street came over and
directed us towards the river. We
looked down using his flashlight and there it was our gate in the river! We
went up to our landlord’s house and found his wife and told her what had
happened. She asked if that was
all, which was a weird question for us and after we replied no she explained
that Alben (her husband) was over at the boys’ house because part of their roof
had fallen in. Apparently the
storms were creating quite the fiasco.
We went and got Brooke to show her what had happened and as we made our
way down the hill to our house we noticed that a bunch of guys were standing
around the area of our house. We
thought everyone was very intrigued by what had happened but after a few
minutes and the arrival of a bus we came to realize that it was not our
situation drawing all the attention.
Across from our house there was a dump truck stuck in the mud created by
the storm. The bus had arrived to
try and tow it out. This was quite
the scene and people continued to check the water to take a look at our missing
door. At one point it began moving
downriver and we were concerned that it wouldn’t stop until it became wedged in
a spot just below the bridge. Us
girls quickly became entertained by the bus trying to tow a dump truck. Their attempts thought kept failing and
we got bored after an hour so and decided to retreat to our homes since
apparently nothing was going to be happening with our gate that night. At some point they must have relieved
the truck from its mud because we heard some cheers and the truck was no longer
there in the in the morning. The
boys apparently got their roof fixed for the time being and this has been a
problem they have dealt with repeatedly.
The problem is that they have two roofs on their house right now. One being an outer layer of tin that
was put up because their original roof was falling apart and of course it is
made of asbestos so it has created many problems. Our gate was put back on this past week and we are grateful
for this because we feel much more secure and safe with some sort of fencing
there.
After that crazy week we were rewarded with a long
weekend. On Monday was Teacher’s
Day so we got the day off school.
We took the opportunity to have a long weekend at the lake. Lago de Yojoa is in the central part of
Honduras and is its largest inland lake.
We paid someone to drive us in their pickup truck there so we didn’t
have to take the crowded bus system.
It was a very pretty ride and the views of the lake as we drove around
it were breathtaking. The day we
were traveling though happened to be Honduras’s Independence Day. We have been told that it's not much of
independence but more of a freedom day because there wasn’t much of a fight
since Spain left voluntarily. This
added a few hiccups to our trip.
One such encounter was their version of a parade, which as far as we
could tell was more of a show from a marching band. The director was quite creepy and odd and the show included
little kids in hula costumes shaking their butts, which just seemed not
right. We attempted to find an
alternate route around the show which was on Main Street and a local gave us
directions, but of course this didn’t work and we ended up in a traffic jam on
a hill (at least it had a great view).
Once we got turned around and moving again it was only a
short ride and one more turnaround after going to far that got us to our
weekend destination. We stayed at
D and D Brewery and Lodge in private cabins and enjoyed the company of other
Americans that were staying here too.
It was quite a busy place.
We arrived hungry so we had lunch, I had chicken tenders and fries,
which were delicious, and as close to American as I have had. One thing interesting here though is
that the ketchup is sweet instead of salty like in the states, so that has taken
some adjustment. We decided to go
into town and check out the local area a bit…we also were looking for an
ATM. Of course upon arrival
at the bank, the ATM was not working so we wandered around town and checked out
some of the shops and bought fresh mango slices from the fruit stands on the
street, which were delicious. It
started raining though so we took shelter in a smoothie shop and had a drink
and then hailed a cab to take us back the lodge. That night we played a few games and had a nice American
dinner complete with beers. The
brewery specialized in fruit ales (apricot, blueberry, strawberry and
others). The beers were good, but
my favorite was the juicy cheeseburger I got to enjoy, so much so that I had it
the next day again for dinner.
A few of our group members left the next morning but the
rest of us stayed, had a delicious breakfast of blueberry pancakes and then set
out to rent rowboats and get to the lake.
We spent the morning out on the lake and even enjoyed a dip. We had two different boats and my boat
had some difficulty with the rowing part and decided to have a guy row for
us. This turned out to be a great
idea because he was also a sort of tour guide who knew a lot about the birds,
and other wildlife of the lake, including the location of a cold spring within
the lake. By the time we made it
back to the drop off point of the boats we were tired, sun burnt and hungry so
we at lunch at a comedor in town and enjoyed some great Honduran food.
Our next adventure started from there, we grabbed a taxi and
took it to Pulhapanzak Waterfalls.
This was actual a park of some sort and had trails that revolved around
Honduras’s largest waterfall. We
surveyed the options and decided that we wanted to do the behind the falls tour
which had been recommended to us by Americans we met on the bus several weeks
ago. It surely was amazing! We started the tour walking down to the
river below the falls and the adventure began in a spot where you could feel
the mist of the falls. We then
carefully hiked/climbed along the river leading up to the falls. This included a jump into a pool of
water that had an offshoot of the falls and then swimming across the pool and
climbing up the other side. We
then were at the waterfall. As we
went behind and underneath it our tour guide gave us a few directions. He said, “hold hands tightly in a line,
look down, and breathe through your mouth.” Then we were off, our line began heading into the heart of
the waterfall and all you could feel and hear was water pounding, and it was
amazing. I could barely see when
all of sudden the guide grabbed my head and tucked my under a cove beneath the
falls. Once we were all here we
continued on and made it to a landing where we could look up and see the falls
tumbling down on us. The next stop
was climbing into a cave behind the fall where we relaxed for a few minutes and
talked about the rush of adrenaline and experience we were getting to enjoy all
together and then we began the trek back.
It was similar to the way there except included 1 extra thing. We jumped off a 25ft cliff into the
water below the falls. I of course
was the first of our group to go, right after I watched the guide safely do it
of course. I was beyond excited
and it was quite the rush. It was
the perfect adventure for our weekend and when we all made it back to land we
were grinning ear to ear excited beyond words with what we had gotten to
experience all together. We made
it back to the lodge had dinner and played some catchphrase before retreating
for the night. In the morning we
had breakfast, a delicious breakfast burrito, and then waited for our truck to
arrive and take us back to La Union.
Unfortunately time in Honduras tends to mean little so the 11-12
timeframe came and went so we headed into town to see if the ATM was working
and to get a quick bite while we waited.
We were able to get money from the machine and enjoyed some smoothies
and pastries while we waited. It
was a wonderful weekend that was topped off by my choice to ride in the truck
instead of the bed because on our way home it started raining really hard and
even had moments of hail. I was
very lucky to be inside but my friends in the back got the full experience. Luckily, there was a tarp they were
able to put over them and it saved them from getting to wet. We were happy to arrive home and spent
the evening preparing for the upcoming school week.
School this week was very interesting! On Tuesday morning I
wasn’t feeling well, but figured once I got to school I would be
okay…wrong. I ended up leaving
after the first 3 classes and I came home to sleep for a few hours. Jake then took me to the clinic and
they gave me medicine to get rid of the amoeba I had somehow caught from the
contaminated water. It was awful and
had similar symptoms to having food poisoning in the states. I slept the rest of Tuesday and decided
to go ahead and make it to school on Wednesday. I didn’t do much teaching but I was able to have my students
work from their books and do practice problems. I came home and slept more. On Thursday I was feeling much better just still a little
under the weather but of course today was the day one of the directors was
coming to observe us. It isn’t as
nerve-racking here as the states though because they wouldn’t ever fire me and
send me home or else they would really be screwed without a science
teacher. Of course though, they
were going to sit in on my eighth grade class (which is the worst behaved),
luckily, though I had planned to play Jeopardy with them to review for their
upcoming test. The students were
great and they really enjoyed it.
They even told me the next day how fun it was.
Friday was a frustrating day though because they took their
test and the average was a 57%! I
didn’t understand it because half of the questions from the test were
represented in some form in jeopardy and those that weren’t were on the study
guide I had given them. I am still
debating what I am going to do with this because it honestly seems like they
just didn’t do enough studying.
This weekend we don’t have very much planned. We had a little barbeque last night
because last week was one of the microfinance guy’s birthdays and this week one
of them is leaving for good. The
food was great, but all of us teachers were exhausted and ended up leaving to
go to bed a bit early. They had
made a specialty harvest drink though that is corn based and it was
delicious. It had hints of
cinnamon and definitely sugar in it and was thick. It was a good relaxing night of food and fellowship. Tonight we will have dinner and game
night again and then relax tomorrow and plan for the week ahead.
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