Easter Weekend

Sun, 4/24
I now have a phone! I was able to buy one from one of the other volunteers who’s leaving in a week, so she dropped it off last night. Got up at 4:30am to go with a few of the beach house girls to a 5am Easter service. It’s amazing how much noise there is in the morning – chickens all over the town, dogs, tropical birds, etc. The house the missionaries live in is amazing! The house is huge (they host a lot of volunteer groups), has a lovely porch, a playground, and a gorgeous garden, which also houses two parrots and a white-faced monkey. After the service, we all had breakfast at the house - coffee, pancakes, and fresh fruit (watermelon, cantaloupe, mango, and pineapple) – so delicious. Luckily, the water truck came by this morning, so we got six more jugs of water – we were down to less than half a container, and go through 6 a week. It’s only L120 or $6 for 6 five gallon jugs. A little later in the morning, I went to the hotel for WiFi for a while, and then went to the beach with Anna and Lola. I got a baggie of mango from a woman on the beach for L10 ($0.50) – really tasty! Anna went to go get lunch with Anne, so later in the afternoon Lola and I went to get some food at one of the vendors that’s set up on the beach. We got pasteles de carne molida – kind of like empanadas filled with seasoned rice and little tiny bits of meat (only about $1.25 for two!). I also got a Port Royal (so delicious, cause I was super hot after hanging out in the sun for so long!) and a watermelon that I brought home (which was a bit smaller than the ones at home, but only $1.25!). After eating, we spent the rest of the evening hanging out at the house and I planned for tomorrow's classes.

Sat, 4/23
Got up at 6:30 this morning because I woke up and then couldn’t go back to sleep. I had breakfast (dry cornflakes) outside, and it’s incredible how light it is this early here (though it also gets dark before 6:30 every night). I took a shower, and man, was it freezing! Since the water is still not working at the wash basin (pila) outside, I did a little bit of laundry in a bucket in the shower. Went to the hotel to check email/etc and got to Skype with Mom  The WiFi stopped working in the middle of our call, so went back to the house and read a bit, organized some of the shelves in the living room, and then went to meet Anne, the founder/director of the PEP program. Headed down to the beach where Anne lives, and it was hopping! The beach definitely attracts a lot of people during Semana Santa. We headed across the road to get a Port Royal and chat. She told me about an HIV education program that Duke and Virginia Tech students will be helping with for a couple weeks this summer, so I’m hoping to get involved with that as well. HIV/AIDS is the second leading cause of death in Honduras (first is auto accidents), so education is extremely important. In the past, the education has been done by a group Anne works with who puts on puppet shows for younger kids and presentations for older kids (they do ones on dental health, hygiene, HIV, etc), but the kids were much less enthusiastic about a discussion after the HIV presentation while in a large group, so this year they will be splitting the students into smaller discussion groups to try to make the session more comfortable and beneficial for the students. I’m hoping to get involved with the project while they’re here! Ruth saw us at the restaurant so after talking with Anne, we went to Charlie and Amalia’s house. It was good to meet them! Amalia gave us some good horchata, too! We used the WiFi on their porch for a while and I got to finish my conversation with Mom (and Derek was there this time), and Skype with Nana and Grandpa, too! We headed back to VH1 to drop off my computer, the beach house to drop off Ruth’s, and then headed to a restaurant near the end of the beach for dinner with Anna and Lola. I had the filete de pescado – fried fish, rice, salad, and plátanos – very good! We headed back to VH1 and hung out on the porch for a while, and a bunch of people in scary masks came up to the little barred cutouts in our fence – some of the ones who go around scaring people during Semana Santa pretending to be Jews. It was so creepy!

PHOTOS: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10100359599097428.2804941.10735354&l=518b6851df