Last week went something like this:
SUNDAY:
(After Karena's pizza birthday party and a quick trip to City Mall for ice cream...) We were standing at a bus stop when all of a sudden, our group starts moving down the street at a rather rapid pace. Wilito (Honduran friend) was in the front, Maxito (Honduran friend) in the back. They were looking over top of us, signaling to each other in a very serious type way.
Adam: We are being followed. Don’t act scared.
Sarah: (Finger nails in his arm.) I’m not scared.
Adam: They want our money. Do we have money?
Sarah: Just a little cash. I don’t carry my card.
Adam: That’s smart, so they can’t take us to the ATM.
We pass the first bus we see. (Later, Wilito tells me that we passed it, so the guys wouldn’t get on and follow us. One had just pulled a mask over his face and started reaching into his pocket.) We turn the corner. Wilito flags down another bus in the middle of the street. We get on.
Sarah: Max, how did you know we were being followed?
Maxito: Because I get cold and my hairs stand up. I know these situations.
Sarah: Thanks, Max, for my life.
Maxito: (Smiling.) You’re welcome!
I sit down in the back of the crowded bus. I squeeze in toward the window. Maxito sits beside me in the middle. A Honduran man squeezes in on the end.
Man: I can tell in your face you have money (Smiling with gaping holes where his teeth used to be.), but we don’t kill you. We just kill each other.
Sarah: Because we don’t do anything to you.
Man: (After a long pause.) Because it’s too inconvenient. You’d have the police all over us.
Sarah: What a relief. Besides, it wouldn’t be smart to rob us. We have no money. We live here, too. We are volunteers. We don’t get paid.
Maxito: (Now speaking to the man in Spanish.) Look, they are here helping your children, helping your country.
Man: For this, you are welcome.
Sarah: Where did you learn your English?
Man: In your prisons.
Sarah: So, where’d you go in the states besides prison? (OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!)
Man: Seattle, Washington and (I, Sarah, can’t remember the other place because- OH MY GOD!), but I don’t want to go back… because you have rules and now we know we must follow them. They already got me for “reentry.” You have everything you want and everything you need… all the luxuries. We have about 50 people in this country that have everything and the rest… nothing. We are trying to survive.
Sarah: (To Max.) I can’t wait to get home and once I do, I am not coming out of “the castle” (my shed) for a very long time. I’ve really never had anyone tell me that it would be too much of an inconvenience to kill me.
Maxito: It’s Honduran living.
Long pause. Man exits, but only after shaking my hand.
Maxito: Are you okay?
I went home and napped instead of playing soccer today. We went to Wilito’s house to celebrate 2 volunteers’ birthdays. Wilito’s mom gave me a pair of her sandals because they knew mine rotted and I had to throw them away. She wouldn’t take no for an answer. We are blessed to know this family- in so many ways.
SATURDAY:
We met at the school at 9 a.m. and stayed until noon setting up for our big Christmas dinner. In fact, it is the biggest event of the entire year. We came home, ate, rested, dressed, and walked back to school… 25 minutes through Cofradia and dirt roads in our Sunday best. We felt like we were in a gringo parade.
The event started at 4. The students were ADORABLE! We had 4 year olds dressed in Santa costumes, performances from every grade level, and great food!
To end the big event, we (volunteers) performed the “12 Days of Christmas”. My designated line was: “5 soccer balls.” Ahead of time, I arranged for another volunteer to please catch the soccer ball when I juggled it across stage and kicked it to him. Um, he forgot. Therefore, it almost knocked Bianca’s face off. Because she ducked (THANK GOD!) it wizzzzed by the decorated Christmas tree and everything was fine… until I had to sing the line a second time. I threw the ball “in”- to the only audience member who was not actually paying any attention whatsoever. The last second possible, his hands miraculously swatted it away from his nose. Don’t worry, everything was fine… again… untilllll….
A parent offered us a ride home in the back of his pick up truck (ironic that this is for safety reasons). It was about 8 at night, dark. It is too dangerous to walk home alone. The truck cuts out on a speed bump. Speed bump underneath the truck, stuck in the middle of the road… Well, let’s go. Safer to walk, than all be sitting here together… waiting… for God knows what! …. Sooooo, we walked home.
When we got home, we found this visitor INSIDE THE HOUSE. No exaggeration- this very hairy tarantula was as big as my entire hand WITH ALL OF MY OUTSTRETCHED FINGERS.
Thank you, Sean, for “disposing” of this horrid creature!
We were also graced with the presence of these little guys this week:
- A turtle in the school pila (where we wash our hands… and feet on rainy days- ha!).
- These little kittens were born in Miss. Bianca’s 6th grade classroom! Momma cat sneaks in to feed them every night.
- I came home to a very BAD BOY finishing the last of Kim's birthday cake!
A final noteworthy conversation:
This girl (below), gets severely burned in the “glorieta.” She helps prepare our lunches each day. The burn (on her shoulder, the size of the palm of my hand) immediately blisters. I ask if she is okay and say how sorry I am, share the rinse under cold water advise. Without a flinch, she carries on with our previous conversation. Her mom hears me say how tough/strong she is and that I would be crying- A LOT- right now if that had been me. Her mom overhears and says something to the effect of, “It is the culture, Sarah. We do not get upset over these things. You have it much easier than we do.”
True, which made no response sufficient, or necessary.
