First Week Survival

I have now been in Honduras for 1 week! Juticalpa, where I'm living, has a population of around 40,000 but feels much smaller. The streets have names but no one her uses them so it's somewhat difficult to find stores. There is a park in the center of town with a beautiful white catholic church. Most of the stores are near this plaza. When I first arrived, I was living with a teacher whose roommate hadn't come yet while I figured out which family to live with. The houses have tile floors and several of the roads in town were paved recently. Some of the showers require you to plug them in to get hot water which is a little scary. Also, the stoves are gas but you have to light them with a match, which I hate. When it rains, usually at night (rainy season here is until March), it's much much cooler. The first day I walked to the school, we saw a dead cat in the road, black drool coming out of its mouth. The school is on a hill and it's a good 20 minute walk up the hill. Cabs are cheap (less than $1 u.s. to go anywhere in town!), which is helpful when it rains. My classroom is pretty small and dark and hot, and had a leak. I've started to decorate though so it looks much nicer. Orientation basically was going over the rules and procedures. The past two days, we've just been decorating, lesson planning, and hanging out. The food here is good. I haven't gotten sick yet. I am, however, starting to get sick of beans. Baleadas are the national snack food. They are amazing! They are flour tortillas with beans and something that is a cross between butter and sour cream. Sometimes they come with eggs, chorizo (sausage), or avocado. Otherwise, I've eaten lots of fried tortillas with beans, chorizo on a skewer, anafre (refried beans with Honduran cheese...very powdery and chorizo) that is kind of like a fondue....you eat it with tortilla chips.

I just moved a couple days ago to a new house with 2 other teachers, where I will be living until my family's house (which is being built) is done. The family will live two doors down from the teachers which will be nice. They have two daughters, one in 1st and 1 in 2nd grade. The father is in the military and only comes home on weekends. The houses are new and very modern. Theirs should be done in 2 weeks. They have hot water heaters so no plugging in water! The only thing I hate so far is that you can't flush toilet paper so the bathrooms all smell bad.

Most things are really cheap here like groceries, taxis, eating out (which is cheaper than cooking...most meals cost no more than $5 u.s. including a drink!) The currency here is limpieras and there are 19 to $1. They have coins but they are worth nothing so you end up accumulating a lot of bills. My debit card (I have Mastercard) doesn't really work here. They mostly only take Visa or the ATMs are broken. The internet cafes haven't had internet since I've been here. I'm at the school now. The electricity has gone off at least 3 times already, usually only for 10 minutes. Luckily I haven't been in the shower yet.

That's about it for now. I'm going to Tegu (the capital) this weekend, which supposedly has dance clubs that have bottle service and are hard to get into. We'll see. More updates to come. Keep in touch!