Well I made it to Honduras (via
Atlanta, Miami, and El Salvador) if you haven’t already heard. I would give you
more details but I really don’t want to relive that 19+-hour travel day. Just
know that it typically takes one connection and about 4.5 hours to get here
from Kansas City. Most of my time thus far has been spent between the school
and my apartment. I hope to remedy that soon though. I am itching to do some
traveling and get to know the rest of this country. So far I’ve been to Tela
for orientation, which is a resort community on the coast. The particular
resort we had orientation at was made specifically for the Chiquita banana
employees who had their beach homes there. When that closed someone else bought
it and made it into a resort, which is now owned by the family of one of our
students.
The school is the most beautiful
school I have ever been to. It is situated at the base of a jungle mountain. I
call the mountains that surround me jungle mountains because I am used to the
Rocky Mountains and these look nothing like those. Think Appalachian Mountains
but with a variety of dense palm trees, vines, and vegetation I don’t have a
name for. There are several building on campus including early childhood,
elementary, middle, and high schools. I’m not sure how many kids are in each
one buy I know that I have a little over 100 kids per grade and that there are
750 to 800 cars that converge on this place every morning.
Life here hasn’t been without its
frustrations. Honduras is known for having about a million inconsequential
steps to get even the simplest task done. Like to get copies made at school I
have to fill out a form 24 hours in advance that requires everything short of
my blood type to be included on it and then get it approved by two different
people or I have to stand in line once a month to pay my bills, which takes
anywhere from 1 to 3 hours.
I haven't had the chance to really
get out of the city yet other than a Honduran nightclub, taco place around the
corner from my apartment, and TGI Fridays. San Pedro Sula is so Americanized it
is almost funny (mostly sad). There will be a Churches Chicken next to a TGI
Fridays next to a giant mall containing another Churches Chicken along with
KFC, Subway, McDonalds, and a Burger King. The good thing about this is the
grocery stores have everything you could ever want or need. They have all my
gluten free and dairy free favorites. Oh and beers are like 40 cents here!
The first photo is from a resort in Tela, the second is my apartment, and the third is the school. You can check out my Facebook page for even more photos.
Cheers,
Melissa
