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