The Real Deal

To begin, I'll dispense with the notable milestones that made the last week so enjoyable and worth writing about. I reunited with 4 of the original group members in Jesus de Otoro, developed a special affinity with a 3 year old named José, danced for 3 ½ hours at my first Honduran fiesta, bought the hammock swinging lazily from the porch of our seed bank, washed clothes by hand for the first time, and (along with Rebecca and Sarah) delved head-long into our vigorous teaching schedule. I'll only go into detail with a few of the events in the interst of writing a shorter entry.

Let me tell you about this kid named José, especially because the picture with this post is of him. José is the son of Omar, a FIPAH employee in the Jesus de Otoro. During my visit to Otoro this past weekend, we spent two long evenings at Omar's house with his family. He has two daughters who are perfectly well-adjusted and love interacting with visitors. However, according to Claire―who met Omar's family last year and sees them on a regular basis this year―José never seems to like anyone. I can vouch for how silent and reserved he is. I don't know what it was about José, but the first time I saw him, I wanted to play with him. The first day he wouldn't speak to me at all. He still let me hold him and toss him up in the air. When we returned the second time, I was stunned b y how much José would talk to me with his quiet, shy voice. Claire told me that our developing friendship was a minor miracle―which may be a minor exaggeration―but I was sad to leave Otoro because it meant I wouldn't have another chance to see José.

Also during the Otoro trip, I went out to what Hondurans call a “discoteca” with the 4 students from our group and their host, Verónica. We actually did dance for a solid 3 ½ hours and I'm going to be honest and say that, at least at times, we were the stars of the show. On many occasions the DJ would yell out, “Saludos Yankees!”--which roughly translates as, “Hey everybody, look at those crazy white people dancing! Haven't they been going at it for a while?”

Since returning to San Isidro, Rebecca, Sarah, and I have started a vigorous schedule of English and deforestation lessons at 5 different local schools. Typically we'll work with one school each day (for about 4 hours) but on Thursday we doubled up. I won't digress to describe how endearing the students are after they overcome their initial shyness, but I do have to mention how much they impress me. After being in school from 7 in the morning until around 1 or 2 in the afternoon, almost every student goes home to work with their parents in the fields. Kudos to them and I'm sure I'll be sharing many more stories about the students when I write next week. I do need to fall asleep soon because we're planting corn in the morning but there's one last thing I can't forget―my weekly shout-out.

I'll stick with the three-at-once model from the previous post―Sue R. and Pastors Doug and Ellen. Mrs. R (I hope she doesn't mind me saying this) had trouble with the website and accidentally donated 3 times the amount she intended to for my trip. But, when I told her this, she decided she wanted me to have all of the money. The Martin duo offered to publish an annoucnment for me in the church bulletin and graciously donated themselves. People like the three of you are making all of this work possible. I truly appreciate it.