Life is good. Well into May and I have yet to write a new post. Brace yourselves folks, this one will be long.
The first week of May my little sister Sarah and little brother James came down to visit me for a week. On my way to meet them in San Pedro Sula our bus stopped to get some gas and an older gentleman standing next to my seat collapsed. Me and some other passengers managed to get him off the bus and luckily there was a nurse on the bus. People were convinced it was just the heat (reasonable as it was horrifically hot), but with some time he stopped breathing and they administered some CPR for a few minutes until an ambulance arrived. Luckily we were only about 15 minutes outside of the city to the Cruz Roja ambulance made good time. I’m not sure what ended up happening to this man but hopefully he pulled through. Eventually we all pilled back on the bus to finish the trip to the city. On arrival I realized my bag had been riffled through. I lost a cell phone and some cash, but nothing too terrible. During all the commotion I lost track of my seat and bag and I’m pretty sure that is when I got those items stolen. Not a huge deal, but not a great way to start the trip.
Sarah and James touched down at about midnight and after some sleep at the hotel we set out for San Francisco where we spent the remainder of the week. That Friday the school celebrated mother’s day and my siblings got a chance to see how special events are run in the school. My director insisted on involving those two in the event somehow and had them pull numbers for the raffle. Winning mother’s got a wide range of gift baskets and such. Most filled with cooking goods and kitchen utensils (gender stereotypes anyone?). Now I’m no mother but if I was and my kids gave me cooking oil and spatulas for mother’s day there would be some serious issues. I guess that’s how it rolls here.
One afternoon we hiked up to a waterfall and spent some time swimming (in James’ case loosing his boxers) and just relaxing. It was perfect weather and the rain held off which was great because even though we all had raincoats none of us thought to bring them along. If you want to see some of the goofiness that took place at the waterfall ask my sister Sarah for some pictures and videos they will leave a lasting impression I promise.
The last few days we spent in a coastal town called Triunfo de la Cruz. It is a little ways outside of a much better known city named Tela. A small and quiet beach town that has a couple places that rent out basic rooms right on the beach, it is by far one of my favorite places to visit. We only had a short time there, but it was worth all the bad bus rides. The last night was spent in San Pedro, where Sarah and James nursed their lobster red sun burnt bodies in the hotel. Their flight left at the convenient time of 1 am so we pretty much just killed time in the hotel seeing at SPS is either too hot or dangerous to do much else. Overall it was an awesome time. I think they both had a really great time and as always it was great having them here.
In the weeks to follow I have pretty much just been here in site. Work is really flying now and as opposed to my last entry with teacher strikes and no class, I am in the school everyday with different responsibilities. I am enjoying the work and have been trying hard to keep on top of stuff her all the while making sure I am keeping up with applications for teaching jobs back home.
A quick side note (this is a gross story to skip it if you aren’t interested….but really it’s pretty ridiculous). About a week ago I went for a run and decided to go down the paved road for a while (which is rare) and at one point a car was coming close to me so I hoped off the road into the small side ditch to avoid the car. Given no sidewalks and in most cases no shoulders this drop is pretty steep. Well when I hoped down quickly without looking and landed directly on a dead dog’s body. (let that soak in for a second)
It was about as nasty as you could imagine, and then multiply that by a couple thousand. Needless to say the aroma that followed was horrendous. As I told of fried of mine here, “imagine the 10 nastiest smelling things in the world and mix them together” that’s the best way I can describe what hit. As soon as I got a good whiff of all this I immediately threw up and continued too for a while. Needless to say this put a damper on my run and I returned home with my head down realizing I had just reached a new low. I described what happened to my neighbors and in the most caring way possible, they began to laugh violently. In hindsight it is pretty funny, as long as it wasn’t you stepping on the thing. I chose to share this to give you but a glance of some of the absolutely ridiculousness that follows a life down here. Really, you couldn’t make this stuff up. In this case I doubt anyone would want to.
Things are great down here. I know my time is coming to an end and to be quite honest I have chosen not to think about it and just enjoy what is left. It’s hard to believe how fast time has flown, especially remembering my first thoughts when I arrived here in town. I hope I can just relax and have a great close to my time here before getting ready to get back home. Hope everyone is doing well and a special thanks to everyone still reading this thing.
