La villa

Update!

Before I start, I changed the settings so that anyone can comment, you don't have to have an account.
also, we have a group blog that gets updated weekly ---> http://calvincollegehonduras2010.blogspot.com/

Last week was pretty much jam packed with classes and homework. On thursday night (we never have class fridays) we had a party at Alison Meyard's house and ate pupusas which are like this amazing tortilla cheese combo. Ben's girlfriend Melanie is here visiting along with the boyfriends of Alison and Allison. So we went downtown thursday night so show them around town.
Friday morning we gave Melanie a tour of Kennedy, the neighborhood where I live. She says "it is a lot to handle" haha. Kennedy is basically a million small houses all smushed together sharing the same walls. All of the houses are different colors with big water tanks on the roofs. In the streets are little restaurants, and people selling fresh veggies, eggs, tortillas, all kinds of food.
Saturday I went to a fundraiser night for my friend Heather's little brother. Each grade, kinder-5th, presented a traditional dance and we ate famous tasty Honduran food.
Sunday morning all of a sudden my mom came in my room and was like are you ready? Lets go. I had no idea where we were going but I just followed a long. (this happens all the time). We jumped my oldest brother Jimi's truck and took off for la villa where my mom has a small house in the country. I rode in the truck bed for about an hour. We passed through a tourist town where I ate an amazing slushie (totally worth the risk of getting sick) When we were in la villa I taught my cousins how to throw a frisbee. It was painful watching it smash against the gravel, off trees, into a chicken coop, and into barbed wire but It somehow survived. It was a fun weekend. On the way home I sat in the truck bed for an hour with sister and cousin while it rained the whole time. Definitely a bit chilly.


I register for classes today!! Scott I think I got you that rock climbing spot!

Nicaragua

Monday through Friday this week we had our group excursion to Nicaragua. It was SO great. I'm pretty sure I like Nicaragua more than I like Honduras.
Our first day in Nicaragua we stayed in the city of León. León was probly my favorite city because it was clean and apparently the safest city in Central America. The town is know for it's huge cathedrals. Monday we had a history of Nicaragua tour and visited a few of the famous cathedrals in León





Tuesday: Woke bight and early for another historical tour of Reuben Diarios house. He was a revolutionary poet and writer. Later in the day we left León for Managua and had a tour of the city. Tuesday night we stayed in the Nehemiah Center, which is a Christian organization that is helping to rebuild Nicaragua. We learned all about the amazing things they are doing to transform Nicaragua from a presentation by the founder's wife. Late at night I played a hilarious game of Farkle with some friends.

Wednesday we woke up real early again and went to a volcano! It super cool, but hard to breathe cause of the gas the volcano emits. Nicaragua is famous for it's many still active volcanos. Close by the volcano was a cave that had a super long name. We went though it with a guide cause it is like impossible to find. The cave was huge, with a tree on top whose roots went all the way through the cave underneath. Wednesday night we stayed in an awesome hostel in Granada and walked around the town that night. Oh, and we had a singing tour of the city haha. Our guide was a guide/opera singer who every once in a while burst out into song during our tour. It was great. Part of the tour was a horse and carriage tour of all the old church's in the city.









Thursday was the best day. We had went on a Canopy zip-line tour at this coffee making plant in Granada. The zip-lines were super huge and it ended with a free fall drop. We had so much fun on the zip-lines. We stayed in a nicer hotel and had lots of free time to go explore the city. When my friends and I were in the plaza we saw a sloth in a tree! now that just doesn't happen every day. Thursday night we went to the artesian market, did some shopping, ate great food, and watched dance show. They had dancers from all over latin america doing traditional dances. My favorite was the group of Argentinean ladies that danced with castanets. Way cool.

Every night we had a decent amount of free time to go out and see the city. I had lots of good conversations with locals and really got to know the city. I would love to come back some time.

Lago de Yajoa

Lago De Yajoa


This weekend I went to Lago de Yajoa with 8 other friends. It is the biggest (and I think only) lake in Honduras. It was a lot of fun, I just wish we had more time there. We stayed in a super hippy lodge place for about 8 bucks. People from all over the world come there because of the amazing food and cool atmosphere. I think I ate the best hamburger of my life of Friday night. I felt like I was on free time at summer camp in the middle of a tropical jungle. We were surrounded by tons of crazy tropical colorful plants. We are dinner at old wooden tables by candlelight and laid in hammocks when we were full. Late night we sat at our table for hours and had reat conversation amongst ourselves and with random people that were there. We met a man that looked like father time who had a beard in a thick braid that was at least a foot and a half off his chin. He is the official bid watchers guide at the lake and has been “wandering through” central America for a long time. Apparently Honduras is famous for an incredibly large number of tropical birds. Lots of tourists come solely for watching birds. We also met a guy who owns a bar in Utila who gave us great advice for where to take our SCUBA diving class in November which I am PUMPED about.

On Friday after a fantasic Quesadilla we went to the Pulhapanzak waterfall. It is 143 feet tall and really cool. We went swimming for while in the safer part and I skipped rocks for a while. The rocks were all perfectly flat and round. Just ripe for skipping, I probly averaged 10 skips a rock.

We kinda hitchicked back to the city and took the buses home. Basically anyone with a pickup truck you just ask them if they can take you and you hop in the truck bed which has no limit of occupancy. Hannah almost peed her pants on the bus though. I thought she wasn’t going to make it. It got to the point where she was sweating and we started coming up with emergency plans.


NICARAGUA! We are leaving Monday and will be in Nicaragua for 5 days. I’m not sure what all we’re doing but I know that we will be climbing a volcano, zip lining, hiking, and going to lots of museums. A well needed break after a week with multiple midterms.

Tuesdays Rule

I love Tuesdays. On Tuesdays my first class is at 2 pm, which means I can sleep in. Tuesdays are just good days. I wake up at around 10 give or take 30 minutes. Actually just give half hour to an hour. I prefer a slow wake up with some soothing music. My group of choice for mornings is Hillsong United. Worship music puts my thoughts in the right place and reminds me of how great life is. On Tuesdays, and other days I excersize on my roof Haha. I have one dumbbell that is made of 2 two liter bottles filled with cement with a bar connecting them. I have a few excersizes that use it. Afterwards I usually just sit on the roof in the sun for a good 20-30 minutes before taking a shower, singing to hillsong all the while. That right there is a god start to a day if I do say so myself.

Showering is probly my least favorite part about Tuesdays haha. The water here is litrally so cold that is a hinderance to my hygiene. I only take showers every so often because the water makes my brain hurt. You can probly compare it to the feeling you get from jumping out of a hot tub in the winter and rolling around in the snow. I have to work showering around the days that we have water because a couple days a week water doesn’t come to our neighborhood.

My spanish is improving every day. There were a few times in early September when I thought I was never, ever going to understand what people are saying. Lately I have been having theological discussions with my family. Needless to say I’ve come a long way.

So I haven’t shaved in close to 2 months. It’s the first time I’ve ever had facial hair and it kinda grosses me out sometimes. I’m probly gunna go the full 4 months just to say that I did.

Genesis, my 2 year old niece who lives with us is now best friends with me. For the first 3 months at least she was incredibly shy. She's way sweet.

I got a haircut the other day. When I walked in I asked how much a normal haircut asked, he said 50 Limpiras ($2.50) and I was like I’m down. He didn’t ask what I wanted, just started going to town on my head. Not gunna lie I thought I was going to be bald again at one point. Everything turned out ok and I got a sideburn neck shave at the end! He put shaving cream around my cheeks and neck and used a straight edge blade (Ian Gackowski I know your jealous) that was the fisrt time I’d experienced a straight edge shave so I left feeling very good about myself. When I got home my family asked me who cut my hari, said “Qué barbaridad!” and “Que feo.” (awful/ugly) I think people tell it to you straight a little bit more here.

Someone asked me what I like more about Honduras than the states. The answer: Honduras has foosball in their McDonalds. Pops, If you were here we would be playing right now. You too Andy Schiemo.

If anyone wants to send me something for free from Calvin, Melanie Roorda is coming down on the 20th adn she'll have extra space in a bag.

Gracias a Dios

Update!

A ton of stuff has happened lately and it's hard to think back in time...

So like a week ago a piece of my computer broke and my friend told me the same happened to him and he superglued it back on. So I was like ok no worries, went to the nearest pulperia and bought some Superpegamiento. I was trying to open it when I realized you have to pop a hole in the top. I used the cap to break the seal and it exploded and some superglue shot into my right eyeball. At first I was like, did that really just happen?? and then flushed my eyes out with water. Luckily my eyelids didn't get glued shut. it hurt pretty bad for like 2 days and then I woke up 3 days later and everything was back to normal. I got lucky cause I have no idea where to find an opthamologist in a third world country.

In other news, this past weekend we went to Nueva Suyapa, a rural community, to experience life in the countryside. It reminded me more of a home-stay like we did back in Guatemala. We all separated into groups of 2 and were placed with families in the church. Mi amigo Ben and I were in the same house. Nueve Suyapa is a city on a mountain, and so to get to our house we descended down the sketchiest road I've ever seen. It's probably more accurate to say we belayed down to our house. Our family was composed of a mom/dad, and 3 sons. The first ting we did was eat a phenomenal lunch. It may not look good to you but it pretty much changed my life.

The Zelaya family had the coolest tradition. Once you finish your meal, you say, "Ya Comí," which means I just ate, and then everyone at the table says "Gracias a Dios," or thanks be to God. So we did that for 6 people every meal. I asked where that tradition came from and they explained how life is incredibly hard financially where they live and that every meal is a gift from God. Pretty cool.

Church on Saturday night was great. We sang some songs that I knew the english version to so it was easier to learn the spanish. The greatest part were the family presentations. Close to all the families presented some type of worship in from of the church. My family along with Ben and I sang a song that we practiced for like an hour during the day. Others sang songs and a few did dramas, all including their gringo sons/daughters for a weekend.

Saturday night we watched Blood Diamond and talked for like 5 hours with our parents. Our conversations varied from family traditions to world religions to poverty to the difference between Cristianos y Católicos. After our awesome convos we kicked it oldschool with some mario-kart on the nintendo 64. Ben dedicated his freshman year to the game so he just dominated us. Sleeping was literally impossible. The roosters cockadoodled like crazy every 2 hours and our bros fell asleep with their TV on super loud. It was funny how loud it was at 3 in the morning.

Today I had my first huge exam. Woah, so I just got a phone call from a friend saying it' not safe to leave Duncan Donuts because their are people waiting to steal our laptops. Our friend left Burger King 15 minutes ago and some guy jumped her and tried to steal her backpack. The 2 girls started screaming and people came out into the street, the robber got scared, jumped in a taxi and left. She was pretty shaken up but they are both safe now. The streets here are incredibly unsafe. 3 people from our group have been robbed and we've experience lots of other crazy stuff too. I've started walking with my money in my socks cause thats what my family told me to do. When we were in Nueva Suyapa my mom made me take off my watch when we walked in the streets. It's nuts. Don't worry though, we've got the system figured out.

My brothers for a weekend

The "nice" road that cars somehow drive on

Our outhouse

New Food

I thought this would be a fun post. Here are a couple pictures of some of the strange foods I've been eating. Every meal without a doubt contains beans and tortillas (beans are way good here). I've liked the food for the most part, but every once in a while there are things I cannot stomach. For example one day for breakfast I had 2 uncooked hotdogs covered in this like mayo-orange condiment. It was rough. I generally only like half of the fruits here. A lot of them are extremely bitter and have a uniquely awful taste in my opinion haha. The other day I had this soup (we have soup a lot) that was green with like 7 new vegetables in it. It also had a corn on the cob floating inside and a huge piece of tough meat with bones in it. I was only armed with a spoon and very confused how one goes about eating corn on the cob and ribs with a spoon. Like everything else here, you just use your hands haha, reach on in, pull out the food eat it, eat it, put it back in, slurp loudly, whatever you want really. My manners are going to be awful on return to the states...

What is this? I have no idea. Tastes good in soup

Nances- The ting I hate the most. The smell makes me sick. Nance juice is just as bad haha.

Guayava

Tejadillas, kinda like nachos.

We eat fish all the time. Suuuuper good and always served with eyeballs and all.

Líchis - the inside looks and feels like an eyeball. It's like a sweet jelly thing.

Probably the most awful thing ever. Smells like rotting pumpkins. Some type of squash thing that sits in the fridge for days. My mom eats it, just looking at this picture makes me cringe.

I've eaten a lot of coconuts here. Yellow ones are better than the green ones. Lots of Viatmin B they say! Good for preventing Dengue

So we were at Cusuna and I saw a sea turtle for the first time. I was like "o my goodness a sea turtle!! then a bunch of guys ran out, flipped it over, and chopped it to pieces for lunch. It was pretty shocking actually haha.