Honduras; mosquitoes, rain, and one hundred amigos.

It is Monday morning. It has been raining almost steadily since Thursday night? It's hard to remember now. On Saturday it rained so hard the streets we're covered in inches of water and 4 foot deep rivers flowed quickly in the ditches on either side. We teach on Saturday and Sunday at the orphanage and at times we literally had to shout to be heard over the rain pounding the roof. It doesn't faze the people here. If you ask them "It's normal". I was taking a shower yesterday, marveling at how dirty I had become, only to realize when I hopped out it the water was bringing in the dirt. All our taps, toilets and showers are spewing muddy water. What was welcome relief, cooling off the town from the normally intense and humid heat, has gone on a bit too long for us. We wanted to go to the beach today, our day off, I don't think we will. We could go to the river outside our door if we wanted. 

As much as I complain the rain has only been one small part of experiences in Tela, Honduras. We arrived a little of two weeks ago and settled into the volunteer house just as two other volunteers were preparing to depart for home. Out house is quite big, a large kitchen, living room, two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Colin and I have had it all to ourselves. We share a huge yard with another house. Our landlords, Roy and Dina live there. They have 5 dogs and a parrot that is always trying to bite us, and that shouts peoples names all day. We have quite a few fruit trees, coconut, star fruit, mango (though we will miss the season). Our house is located in what we have learned is the safer part of Tela. We can always walk to one of the three neighborhood grocery stores to get fresh produce or ice cream, and many nights sit out under bright lights to watch soccer played at one of the fields down the street, sometimes with a cold beer. Beer is consistently cold down here, and even by ten o'clock at night I am usually still sweating. The mosquitoes are another big part of our lives down here, and I know we have been a big part of theirs too. We do our best to keep doors closed, burn bug repelling stuff, and wear bug repellent. It is also a constant give and take between going shirtless because of the heat and risk many bites. At any given time one part or another of my elbow or foot will be covered, and it has become just another part of life here. Oh and yes we are still taking malaria medicine mom. Another cool part of Tela is the beach. We live about 2 km from it. The bus will take us right there and we ran there one day. The water is cool, and calm, great for swimming out and floating in under the sun that feels so close. We play a lot of chess ( a three and a half hour game last night that ended in a stale mate) and do a lot of push ups ( we've done a hundred pretty much every day since getting here, I did two hundred yesterday). We also often spend a lot of time cooking meals together, then cleaning up, and listening to NPR. We have a lot of time to do a few things which is usually really nice.

The biggest part of our lives, hardest and most enjoyable part, is our work at the orphanage that sits down the street from our house. The orphanage, called simply the S.O.S. is situated on a huge piece of fenced in land, mostly devoted to grass and several large to small trees. There are 14 houses, each with about ten kids, all ranging from 3-18, girls and boys. Each house has a house mom who lives there (we're pretty sure) and takes care of all the kids, cooks, cleans. More than that the kids think of their house mom as their mother, not only a woman who cooks, cleans, and looks after them. We have come to see how each house really views themselves as a family. The kids within a house call each other brother and sister. Even after they move out of the orphanage, the family bonds seem to remain, and is maintained through visits. The orphanage is quite remarkable in this respect, at least in my eyes. When walking the grounds, except for the security guard at the gate, no adults are in site. The staff are working away in their offices, the mothers are washing clothes or cooking in the houses. The kids run free, playing where and what they like within the safety of the fence, with very little monitoring. Along with kids playing, kids working, especially the older kids, is a fixture on the grounds. Also seemingly without much supervision kids (some who don't give a darn what we say in class) are raking leaves, cutting grass, and sweeping sidewalks. Colin and I have both commented how it feels like a little bit of paradise in many ways. The oldest kids seem to be a big part of the reason the orphanage works so well. Quite contrary to rebellious, these teens are extremely engaged in the community life at the orphanage. The way they care for and look after the younger kids is quite amazing. 

We teach 4 days a week (though we changed schedules this week and so worked 6 days), our normal schedule runs Wed-Sun. We have four classes and we take two each day; 3-6, 7-10, 11-14, 15- and up. The only direction we were given by the director, Denise ( a great energetic man, who sweats about as much as he laughs) was to teach an hour of English everyday. It has been quite a challenge, though a fun one at times, to come up with lesson plans for all the different age groups and skill levels. After the first morning with the 3-6 year olds both Colin and I felt like the class had been two hours of getting climbed, hit, laughed at , cried to; the entire range of the extreme and ever changing attentions of these little ones. Exhausting. All of the kids old enough started back at school after their summer break, Dec-Jan, one week after we arrived. Since mandatory school is back in session,they seem less inclined to voluntarily come to our classes, but we usually have at least a few dedicated to teach. The older kids especially want to learn English and we have had some really positive experiences teaching these class, seeing them improve in real ways. 

Teaching (or trying) has taught me some really important lessons. When we first started I had a lot of anxiety about it all; the kids weren't getting enough out of it, I could be teaching more, or teaching in better ways. Especially when we are teaching English, a whole language, using Spanish, it can feel overwhelming. I really have to accept what I can do, and believe that the days lesson we have prepared is exactly what we should be teaching, and will benefit the kids. This gives me the courage to get up in front of the class and stumble through explaining gerund (using ing) in Spanish. I think this can be applied to all areas of life. That our fears of being insufficient are the greatest threat to the gifts we have to offer others; the gifts themselves are plenty. Colin is a big life saver too, we can help each other out in class when one of us is struggling. 

Things will be changing soon. In four weeks, which is sure to fly by, my friend and travel companion Colin will probably be heading home. After spending some time in Belize with my dad, I will most likely be heading into Southern Mexico to begin working with an agricultural project. As far as I know I will be assisting two Mayan gardeners in two different garden projects, one at least that is attached to a restaurant(on the roof!) in the city where I'll live. That will probably last another four weeks and I will try to find another farm to go to, while also keeping my options open to prospects back in the U.S. I will be home certainly in August for Mary's wedding. This trip has had many phases. I feel the most settled in this phase for very obvious reasons. I also feel the least like I'm waiting to return home, Seattle or another city in the States. As exciting as traveling was, seeing lots of new places and new faces from week to week, the joys of even two weeks worth of building relationships and community are much more grounding. I feel at home here, more with myself and my environment than I have in awhile. It's pretty cool! Though talk to me at 8 am on a school morning when our lesson plan for the day is only okay...