7/30
Early this morning, Danny started bug hunting in the
property behind the store/across the street from the house. After breakfast, we
went bug hunting in the old cemetery. I found one type that looks like a little
thorn (like a rose thorn or something) on the tree branch, but is actually a
bug – pretty cool looking! Danny also got a chapulín and another one of the
tiger mantises, since he let the other mantis go (the one we caught in
Lancetilla). We also saw lots of pretty butterflies, and a few other
interesting bugs, but weren’t able to catch them. I also saw a couple of
lizards, including one whose throat got really big and red.
When Danny went to school, I worked on my III, and am now
done with reading/filling out templates for all of the studies…now just have to
send it to my mentor and then start writing!
Danny got back right as I was coming back from the
pulpería, a few minutes before class started. He got formaline while he was in
Ceiba, and was going to inject the bugs to kill them, which I wanted to see,
but when I got back from class, he said they’d died from the alcohol he put in
the container with them, only a few minutes after he added it and I went to
class. Only Vilma came to the 2pm Reader’s Club (so she was also the only one
in my 3pm class), so we worked on English and did several pages out of her
workbook, and then played hangman (some in Spanish, but mostly English).
After class, I went to Charlie’s to get reimbursed for
some Reader’s Club supplies and when I walked up to the door, the housekeeper was
mopping the tile outside, and Amalia yelled at me not to walk on it, so I took
off my flip flops, and walked to where she said Charlie was, but since it was
wet and I was barefoot, I fell, right on the edge where it drops off. It took
me a little while to be able to get up, and man does it hurt now!! I think a
big bruise is going to come through.
When I got back, I was drenched since it started
pouuuring when I left, so I went and took a shower (I was literally as wet as I
would have been if I’d stood in the shower with all of my clothes on for a few
minutes), and then after checking my email, Danny and I ordered chicken and
started watching the movie “Hijacked”. We went to the store for a few, and when
I went to take Max in to the house when they closed the store, there was a crab
in the house! Carlos shooed it out with a broom, but it was pretty angry!
We went and played dominoes with Cristina, Dan, and
Allison, and tried some of the hibiscus wine – it was good! After that, we went
over to VH1 for Cinthia’s going away, but didn’t stay too long.
7/31
This morning we caught the 8am bus to go to CURLA to go
bug hunting. We got chicken baleadas (the chicken reminds me of pulled pork)
and then went out to one of the orchards they have, with a bunch of fruit
trees. A guard walked with us for a
while, and I tried a little mango (really good) and we had a couple of the
fruits like the ones we bought in Lancetilla. Danny caught several good bugs!
For class, two of the girls gave a presentation on environmental education, and
that was it, so we got out at 11:45. We went to get some maracuya juice (sooo
good!) and had lunch at the school (only $2.50 for a huge plate of rice,
chicken, salad, and tajadas). When we got back, Danny injected the bugs with
formaline.
Only three girls showed up for class at 2, so I had them
make word searches and then they switched and found the words in another
person’s. For 3pm, we worked out of the workbook for a while and then played
hangman for the last little bit.
After class, I started looking up things for Roatán, and
then went to Ceiba.
Danny, Brittani, Playton and I went to Ceiba to meet
Mirian to watch a movie, but the only thing that was playing was Batman (one
screen spoken in English and one in Spanish), and it started before we got
there, and they were already selling tickets for the 9pm show. We decided to go
to Pizza Hut, and after we ate, we went to the other theater after dinner to
see if we could watch “Ice Age 4,” but it was already playing and the only one
that was going to play later was Spiderman, which we already saw. We went back
to the theater in the mall, but the line was soooo long that we decided to just
buy some movies (they’re 3 movies for $5, and they always have the newest
movies [we got “Ice Age 4”]) and go home.
8/1
After breakfast, we went to the store for a while and I
looked up stuff for Roatán. We went to Mario’s to watch the Honduras vs. Japan
game, which they tied (0-0), so they both move on, and Honduras will play
Brazil on Saturday (if they’d won, they would have played Egypt). We had fried
fish and it was so good – they weren’t as slow today, and the food was nice and
hot, and just really good today!
For class, I had 5 kids in the 2pm class (Diego, Kennet,
Nicol, Sahory, and Maryeli). Maryeli and Nicol asked me if Danny ate the bugs
he was fixing yesterday – when I told him about it, he said when they asked
what he was doing, he said he was going to fry them and eat them, and then
forgot to tell them he was just kidding – oops! They each wrote about their
ideal day (where they would go, how they would get there, what they would do,
who they’d go with, what they’d eat, etc). The example I gave was going to
Italy for a day, by plane, eating pizza and pasta and desserts, with my family
and my friends, etc..and it was interesting that 3 of them said they’d go to
Ceiba, Diego said he’d go to his cousin’s house in Porvenir, and those 4 all
said they’d eat fried chicken and/or tajadas. Sahory was the only one that
chose different things – she would go to Paris by plane with someone special
and do lots of romantic things…she’s always creative! After that, we made snowflakes. Since Vilma
didn’t come, it was just Sahory for the 3pm class, and she did really well – we
worked out of the workbook for most of the time, and she did great!
After class, Danny and I went hunting for butterflies in
the old cemetery - but didn’t see even one, so decided to go back in the
morning, since we saw a ton when we went the other morning. I was impressed by
his butterfly net, made out of a broomstick and pillowcase that he shaped into
more of a butterfly net shape and stapled around a reshaped wire hanger.
After that, we went to Jared’s and I got pastelitos. The
pastelitos weren’t as good as the ones we made, so I next week I want to buy
the dough from the neighbor and make the fried breakfast things and then
pastelitos.
8/2
We went butterfly hunting in the morning and I caught one
– I was so excited! For class, since it’s Thursday, we took the kids to play in
the field, and played games like “Sharks and Fish” and “Two Houses.”
8/3
We took a bus to Ceiba and then a taxi to the ferry with
Brittani and Playton. When we got on the ferry, I got some Sprite and a bag of
Yuca chips – very good (and not way more expensive just because it was on a
ferry, which was nice)! When we got to Roatán, the four of us shared a cab to
West End, and Brittani and Playton went to their hotel, and we went to
Georphi’s. Since they’re paving the road (it looks really nice – not just
normal cement, but a brown textured type), the road before Georphi’s was closed
to cars, so we walked from the entrance to West End – still not too far, since
West End isn’t huge. After we checked in, we went to get lunch (chicken burgers
and fries) at a place out on the water. It’s interesting how all the menus,
info in the hotel, etc, is only in English. After lunch, we took a water taxi
over to West Bay and went swimming. In the evening, we went to Tong’s for Thai
food and got pad thai and cashew chicken. Our table was out on the dock, and
there were things glowing in the water – much bigger than the plankton in Cayos
Cochinos, so not sure exactly what it was. There was also lightening, but here,
it’s not like at home, where we see one lightning bolt – there’s not really a
bolt, and it lights up the whole sky. After dinner, we went to Blue Channel for
a couple of beers and to watch the Olympics, and saw Michael Phelps win another
gold (which will apparently be his last individual gold) – which was surprising
since he was so far behind at the turn-around! After that, we went to Nova, a
busier bar, which was fun. There were a ton of Salvadorans, since they get the
week off as a holiday.
8/4
In the morning, we went to get breakfast at a little
Honduran place since it was cheaper, and just about the only place that was
open, since most places wait til at least 8am to open. We each had a “breakfast
pastelito” (pastelito with ham, cheese, and egg) since that was the only kind
of pastelito, and a baleada. The beans were kind of weird, so it wasn’t great,
but edible. After breakfast, we went to rent snorkel equipment and then over to
a place to try to rent a scooter, but they said they wouldn’t be open Sunday,
so we’d have to return it by 5pm that day. We went back to the hotel to wait
for the other place to open, and to watch part of the Honduras/Brazil game. We went
to the other scooter place, but they had to either charge a lot to my credit
card as a deposit, or needed it in cash. I decided since I really wanted to
rent one, I’d get out the cash, and then what I didn’t spend, I’d just have to
change back to dollars. But, none of the three ATMs in town worked. We then
found out about another place that rented them that only takes an imprint of
the card as a deposit, but we got there just as they were renting out the last
one. Guess it wasn’t meant to be this time! We spent some time at the beach in
front of the snorkel place and then we had lunch from the lady that we got
breakfast from – she was barbequing on the street, so we got BBQ chicken, rice,
beans, veggies, and tortillas (for only $5) – probably the best meal we had in
Roatán! I went snorkeling in the water there, but didn’t see anything besides a
bunch of grass and a couple of fish. We went over to West Bay to go snorkeling,
and saw some good fish. After we snorkeled, we hung out in the water for a
while, and then got some ice cream from one of the guys on the beach, and then
took a water taxi back to West End. We had dinner at a place on the street
(tacos), but I didn’t like it that much, so afterwards we stopped by a pulpería
and I got some bread (I think some sort of fruit – different than the banana
bread we got at the same place on Saturday, but good).
8/5
In the morning, we got breakfast at Rudy’s, the
restaurant at the hotel. I got banana pancakes – they were alright, but not
what I expected – the banana must have been put in the blender with the batter
or something, since there were no chunks of banana, but it tasted like banana
bread. After breakfast, we went snorkeling at the place across from the Roatán
Marine Park store (where we got the snorkels), and this time went further out,
and saw some cool fish – and the coral was better than in West Bay). We hung
out at West End and swam til we had to go back a little after 10, and then went
back to the hotel and showered and put our stuff together just in time to check
out at 11. We left our bags at the hotel and walked around a bit, looking in a
few souvenir stores, and then went back to Rudy’s for lunch. There wasn’t much
Honduran food on the menu, other than pastelitos (it’s actually pretty hard to
find Honduran food in West End), but Danny talked with them and got them to
make a dish with chicken, rice, beans, plantains, and tortillas, and I got the
pastelitos, and then we split the two dishes. The pastelitos were made with
corn dough, so they were very different from the pastelitos I’m used to, but
they were still pretty good. After lunch, we walked back towards the entrance
to West End, and met up with Brittani and Playton, who had gotten a taxi to
take us back to the ferry.
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