From Tegucigalpa to Siguatepeque: First Impressions, Piñata, and BBQ

As soon as we walked out of the airport we entered a city full of people and dust. There were kids hanging out in the corners, men with huge fists-full of Lempiras (Honduras’ currency) offering to change for American dollars, young women with children, and guys offering to carry your luggage. One of these porters took one of our friends’ luggage and loaded it into the Peace Corps truck. She thought he was one of the PC crew, thanked him in her best Spanish and kept on moving. The guy wasn’t happy… she hadn’t pay for his services. Since she didn’t understand what he was saying he looked for an interpreter who explained the situation to her. She promptly paid (although not very happily) and walked away from the guy… in her opinion he posed as a PC crew member to scam her and get the money. Good lesson to be a little more careful.

The drive to Siguatepeque was amazing. We all got fact sheets about our host families and enjoyed the ride. About our family we learned that they are 3: the mother Maria, the Father Federico and the daughter Gabriela. We also learned we would have our own bedroom, that there’s a shower in the house and that they even have an “electroduch”. Max thought the electroduch was some sort of horrible Chinese torture device. We quickly found out it meant they had hot shower. The best news of all was that they own one of the local Internet Cafes. From other trainees (we’re not considered volunteers until we swear in) we learned some would be living with families with four, five, or even more kids. Some didn’t have showers. We were relieved our situation seemed so much better.

The view during the drive was amazing. Hundreds of mango trees on the sides of the road, papayas, some sort of citric trees, Flamboyanes (they call them Acacias here), palm trees and pines. Beautiful green mountains crowned by even more amazing clouds. The houses along the road were really poor… many were one room with no windows and a towel for door. Beautiful little kids playing bare foot in the mud in the front yard.

After about a 2 hour drive trough paved and un-paved roads we arrived at the training center. It looked like we were in a different place. The buildings were of cement, painted, there was grass instead of mud, nice Land Rovers, a computer center, a nice "pulpueria" and even dormitories for us (coulples like Max and I got rooms to ourselves, but singles had to share rooms in groups of four). There was a piñata and a typical Honduran dinner: fried beans, plantains, cream, tortillas and “carne asada”. There were also PC volunteers who told us a lot about their projects and how is life in Honduras. We had a great time chatting with everybody, eating, and with the piñata.

Back in our room there were 4 twin beds, but we decided to share one of them. Max fell asleep right away, but it took me a lot longer, the day had been filled with too many emotions to fall asleep anytime soon. The only problem was that classes began the next morning at 7:30am. Sharp!!