Hello from Honduras!

Hola de Honduras!

Already our group feels like Santa Lucia will be a wonderful home for four months.  We know how to walk to the central park, the lagoon, a favorite café, and a beautiful outlook where you can see Santa Lucia along with Tegucigalpa stretched out in the valley below. At night especially, the lights are just beautiful. Most of our familias walked us around the city our first nights here, pointing out these highlights with pride. They all mention that everyone in Tegucigalpa wished they lived in Santa Lucia, and we can understand why.

Santa Lucia is a quiet little town, a 30 minute drive up the mountains from Tegucigalpa. The streets are made of cobblestone, and most everyone knows everyone else. Already as we walk around, we say hello to our families and other gringos (what they call white people like us!).

Our first days here we toured Tegucigalpa and saw the Universidad Pedagogica where we will be taking classes, the mall across the street from the Pedagocica, the more famous churches and squares around them, a communications museum, and we ate at a few restaurants as well. Slowly we learn that “asada” means grilled, and that “sopa” may have crab legs floating on top to add a little extra flavor. Yum! Also, an easy go-to phrase is “está rico” meaning “it tastes good!”.  These people love to eat well.

Our first week here the host families had a lovely party for all of us gringos. There were yummy bite-sized food – tacos, pastelitos con carne (pastries with meat), tuti fruti (chopped fruit with milk), pastel de tres leches (three milk cake). Then we were surprised by a Mariachi band who sang Happy Birthday the very long and Honduran way. A second fiesta was for Pablo’s mom. There were about 40 people there, so we got to meet a lot of Pablo’s family and friends from the University. The party was complete with a piñata, band, and food. They definitely celebrate more extravagantly than we do, acknowledging that the fullness of life is a gift from God.

More recently during our free time, we have enjoyed spending time with local friends we have made here. We play soccer, watch soccer and basketball, and spend time in a café that one of our friends owns. This past week the Fair of Santa Lucia filled the streets with food vendors, games, and people from all over. We have enjoyed walking through the streets, watching dancers, musicians, and artists.

Yes, we are taking classes. This January we alternate between Pablo’s Spanish class and Kurt Alan VerBeek’s Honduran culture class. In our Spanish class we are learning a new verb form called “vos” that Hondurans use often. It is the informal way to say “you,” implying confidence between two people using it. In our culture class we learned 2000 years of history in one class – a quick review. However, we find the knowledge helpful in understanding some reasons for the country’s current problems like poverty, violence, and government corruption.

We recently took a class trip to a sugar-producing factory in Tres Valles. They grow sugar cane, harvest it, and through a complex process produce white sugar. Did you know sulfur makes sugar white? They also produce electricity by burning sugar cane waste to keep the plant running; they even sell the extra electricity to surrounding areas. The trip ended at the home of Marvin, a friend of Kurt, with a delicious lunch of chicken, rice, salad, and freshly made lemonade.

Looking forward, we are excited for our six-day trip to the North Coast beach town called Cususna, and learning more about the Garífuna culture found there.