Questions, Questions and More Questions...

It’s hard to believe we’ve already been in La Union for one week. Right now I am sitting outside at the school, enjoying the emerald mountains that completely encompass us here. We’ve been busy preparing our empty classrooms for the start of school – working with very limited resources to try to create an aesthetically pleasing learning environment. But then we gaze out the windows and find our attempts at art and beauty pale in comparison to the subtropical world around us.

Lenny and Brooke (one of the other new teachers) so excited about lesson planning

But enough distant gazing for the moment… Back to reality. We have already spent a few days trying to create a theme for our classroom (Lenny’s is sports; mine is rock stars!), using scissors, construction paper and lots and lots of masking tape. I have run into a few delays in this process, as my particular classroom somehow attracts all the rainwater in the area. I guess holes in tin roofs will do that. Supposedly the largest holes have now been fixed. We are now on to lesson planning, which in itself is quite an effort. Lenny and I each have seven distinct classes to prepare for, and our brains are suffering from a bit of numbness at times, as we try to relearn everything we’ve forgotten (and some new stuff – I mean – who uses words like subtrahend and minuend these days?). We are hoping to be prepared enough to take charge of our classes once Monday arrives and school officially begins.

Me, working hard on the class schedule that has to be displayed in every classroom

Life outside of school is mostly about surviving and adjusting. We have been busy trying to figure out the necessities of life, which means we’ve had to ask lots of questions (which means Lenny looks at Kara and then Kara attempts to reach deep into the darkest crevices of her brain to try to recall words that haven’t emerged in years…). Here’s a random sampling from our recent questions (and the responses we’ve gotten):

Q: You said there was a queen-sized bed waiting for us. Is this supposed to be queen-sized?

A: Yes, this is the biggest bed we’ve ever seen in La Union.

Q: What do we do with our garbage?

A: Burn it. Or pay someone to burn it for you.

Q: What’s on the menu today? And how much does it cost?

A: Baleadas (like every day). 10 lempiras. (Baleadas are the most common food here – pretty much a tortilla filled with eggs, beans, a really sour cheese and sometimes avocados; 10 lempiras is about 50 cents.)

See that little blue building in the middle? That's our casita! 

Q: Do you have any chicken for sale here?

A: Yes. Here you go.

Q: Well, I just want the chicken breast. Do you sell the chicken in parts?

A: Yes, here is half a chicken (with some quills still sticking out).

Q: Oh, okay. Thanks?

Q: Where are the rest of the books we need for our classes?

A: We don’t know. They could be here next week; they could be here in a few months.

Q: Okay, but school starts next week!

A: Yes, you’ll be fine.

We have definitely had many interesting questions arise (and even more interesting answers), and we are still figuring out what life here looks like. The most basic things take a lot of effort.

This is the road we walk along for twenty minutes every day to school

For example, we had the other American teachers over for “Family Dinner/Game Night” (yes, we brought Settlers of Catan to Honduras), and in order to make that happen, we had to find chicken and rice, identify recognizable vegetables from a few veggie stands, clean them in purified water (with bleach), cut them, cook them with very limited pots, pans and utensils, pull out quills and bones and seeds and pits, serve the food, then clean all the items again, and let them fully dry so as to make sure any bacteria in the water died. Phew. It was hours of work, for something that would have taken 20 percent of the time in the US. Such is life in La Union.

Slowly but surely, we are figuring things out. My brain feels a bit like a sponge – soaking up an overwhelming amount of new information. I am definitely looking forward to the day when we have more answers than questions. Although, who knows if that day will ever come? For now, I guess my job is to learn to be okay with all the questions, while also gracefully accepting the unexpected (and sometimes unwanted) responses.

 -Kara

Croaking Roosters and Motorcycle Shopping

We made it. We’re here. We didn’t miss our flights or get lost. We didn’t become one of the countless murder victims in San Pedro Sula. We didn’t bail at the last minute. We are really, actually here.

On more than one occasion, Lenny and I have looked at each other and said, “Is this really happening? Can you believe it? We’re really here.” The blur of packing up, saying goodbyes and transitioning has left us unwilling or unable to fully grasp the fact that we now live in Honduras. But then all of a sudden we look up at the lush mountains surrounding us, or we wake up to the “croaking roosters” (as my City Boy Husband calls them), and the realization just hits us, leaving us a little shocked, even gasping for air.  This is our life now: croaking roosters and mountain peaks.

View of Gracias from Hotel Guancascos

It’s been hard to take it all in, largely due to the flurry of activity that has accompanied our first two and a half days in Honduras. After flying in to San Pedro Sula on Sunday afternoon, we met up with the other American teachers and somehow arrived safely (with all the luggage piled incredibly high on the top of our minibus) in Gracias, Lempira, where we settled into the hotel that has housed us for the last few nights. Monday quickly filled up with trips to the Tigo cell phone shop to get cheap, tiny phones and a detour at the bank to set up Honduran bank accounts. The line to enter the bank went up the street and around the block, and just to get in the bank we had to get approval from three security guys with guns in hand. Thus commenced one of those moments of “Um, we live here?”

Fuerte San Cristobal

Monday afternoon we hiked up to the ruins of San Cristobal Fort and then later headed to some local hot springs nestled in a beautiful gorge. We played some volleyball there with the other new teachers, watched the sunset in all its mountain splendor, had dinner (during which we experienced our first power outage) and then spent awhile relaxing in the hot springs and enjoying a remarkable array of stars, a sight not easily seen in our former, NYC life. We even got to observe the remnants of Tropical Storm Ernesto as we watched the lightning strike the more distant mountain peaks. We had another incredulous moment of “Are we dreaming this, or is it really happening?”

Today we headed up to our sister school here in Gracias for all day teacher training and orientation. School mission, expectations, code of conduct, and so on were all covered, and it felt good to start planning for the type of classroom experiences we hope to create. We filled the late afternoon with some grocery shopping and also some motorcycle window shopping (during which I had other epiphanies that this new crazy life – a life of stocking up on peanut butter and pasta sauce and considering the purchase of a motorcycle – is really our life. Who would have thought?).

Tomorrow we will spend the first half of the day finishing up with orientation, and then we will head to our town, La Union, a two and a half hour drive farther away from civilization. It is then that we will really first meet our new home. We are eager to get there, if only for the chance to catch our breath and savor the realization that our life has drastically changed. Honduras is now our home. Although we can hardly believe it, we really do live here. It’s not a dream. This is our life. 

-Kara