I´m going to get so fat here... but I´m going to love it

This week has been so busy, it´s hard to believe that I´m actually here. I´ve already gone on so many adventures, and I´ve barely been here a week!

First thing I did was help the sisters set up a presentation on emo. That´s right, the emo/punk movement has finally made it to Central America, and everyone is really worried about how it´s going to affect the kids here. The sisters think all the girls will be suicidal and sad all the time, but I think they´re overreacting. We´ll see what happens, but I doubt it will amount to anything. There was a long extensive list of warning signs, and, according to the list, I would qualify as being emo, too, so I think they´re just on a witch hunt. We also watched a presentation on anorexia and bulimia, which I found very interesting, considering I thought a bigger problem would be the hunger issue. But American culture is catching on here too, and everyone feels the need to be super-skinny. And emo, apparently.

There is still hope, however. On Sunday, we went around distributing donations of food, clothes, soap, and dishes to the really poor families around town. These families live in cardboard and tin houses, cook outside, and don´t have plumbing, electricity, and really, they don´t even have a right to the land. But they were very grateful for whatever we could give them. What I found more touching, though, was that the ¨missionary¨group distributing the food was made up of the girls that live here, and it was their idea to form the group. The girls here come from the same situations as the people we were helping, if not worse. Here, they get food, clothing, and a place to live. Most of them are here on scholarships, either through the government or a benefactor. So, since they have everything they need, they wanted to give the extra donations to families in need. How cool is that?!?

I also got the opportunity to go to three countries in three days! Going through customs in a car is not quite as cool as on a plane, because I didn´t get my passport stamped at all. But going to Guatemala was really fun. Santa Rosa de Copán is really close to the borders of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, so it´s only about 2 hours before I´m in another country. We went to the town of Equipulas, which is famous for its basilica of the Cristo Negro. The statue of Christ is supposedly miraculous, and it´s a big draw for pilgrims and tourists. There are a lot of indigenous people around of Mayan descent, too. It´s a really interesting place, and a very typical place for a bunch of nuns to take a visitor, don´t you think?

All the special activity aside, I´ve been working a lot here too. I´m going to be selling food in the concession stands here during recess to all the students, so I´ve been learning all the new foods and the new money. There is a bakery here that the sisters operate that makes pastries that are absolutely to die for. Teachers get to eat for free, so I have a feeling I´ll be quite a bit heavier (and happier) when I come home. There´s also all these new off-brands of chips and sodas that don´t exist in the US, but are basically the same things we have. I´ve been trying everything out, and I doubt I´ll go hungry here in Honduras either. I´ll also be teaching English, computers, and math. Computer and math classes wil be especially interesting because I have to teach them in Spanish. I feel like it´s hard enough to try to explain things in English, so Spanish will be especially tough. Send me some prayers or ¨good thoughts¨ for that if you get the chance. Those start next week.

This weekend, I´m going to stay with the family of one of the sisters, and take Teri (the volunteer here I´m replacing) to the airport in San Pedro Sula, as I say goodbye to the one person around here who speaks English. I also have to remember how to drive standard, and forget all the rules of the road (there aren´t any rules here) because I will be the official driver for the sisters. I´m sure those will be some exciting times, enough to get my heart pumping, at least.

Hope everybody´s doing well and enjoying the summertime!