So much has happened since I have last updated this blog… I
guess I’ll start at the beginning.
Last weekend I went to Isabelle’s house for the
weekend. We (Isabelle, Osiris, me, and
Isabelle’s brother) left from the school around 1:30 with Suami’s dad’s truck
(Suami is another student at the school).
Suami’s dad dropped us off in Limpera.
We then waited for some family friends of Isabelle to pick us up for the
45 minute ride from town to her house.
Along came two family friends… on motorbikes. So, I hopped on the back of the bike of some
guy I didn’t even know and rode with him on a gravel, Honduran road for 45
minutes. A couple of things about this
experience: 1. I would like to thank Perry for being the first person who I
rode on a motorcycle with, because of that I wasn’t completely scared out of my
mind to be riding a bike again. 2. Riding motorcycles here is a little different
as the bikes are smaller and there is a place to hold onto on the back of the
bike, but it definitely is an arm and ab work out to keep balanced and not fall
off the bike as you are going up and down hills that are extremely bumpy – I thought
I was going to be super sore the next day, but thankfully I wasn’t. 3. It
is a completely different experience to be riding through this beautiful
country in the open as opposed to inside a vehicle… the trip was absolutely
gorgeous – both the wind and the view. The
only part that was unfortunate was the fact that there was dust
EVERYWHERE! I was so dirty when I
eventually got to Isabelle’s house… and therefore dirty the rest of the weekend.
Isabelle’s family was absolutely beautiful! She has four (I think) siblings. I say I think because there were always other
people in her house. Additionally, her
mother feeds at least three kids who aren’t hers every meal, so I was never
quite sure who exactly were her siblings.
But learning this (that her mom feeds additional kids) was a beautiful
lesson for me. Isabelle doesn’t have a
whole lot of money (something that Sor Mirna felt she had to make extra clear
to me before I left), and yet her mother opens her house to whoever comes by –
there were always people I didn’t know coming in and out of the house – and gives
everyone who came in food. Literally,
you could not enter her house without receiving something to eat or drink! This also means that I ate more in that
weekend than I had in a long time (eventually I had to tell them that they were
giving me too much food!) 
On Saturday morning, I made tortillas with the girls. I swear, they make a TON of tortillas everyday
and they make them about three times a day!
I seriously don’t know how they eat so many! I asked Isabelle how many they make a day and
she didn’t know because they don’t count, but a lot. I have become better at making tortillas, but
every time someone new teaches me, they change the technique with which they
teach me a little bit… so I’m still trying to find the best way to make
them. It still takes me about twice as
long to make one as the girls here, and mine are never round… but they are
getting better. We then went to Isabelle’s
cousin’s house because she had some ripe peaches and oranges growing behind her
house. So we picked them and ate them…
the orange was not quite ripe, and I wouldn’t suggest eating un-ripe oranges…
they aren’t good. The peaches on the other
hand was delicious! The only thing about
peaches here is that they are about half the size of peaches that you can buy
at the store and they are a lot fuzzier… so people tend to peel them with a
knife before eating them… it makes eating/preparing to eat the peach a lot more
time-consuming, but it is definitely worth it.
In the afternoon, we went to the river to swim… and it was a ton of
fun! We took two younger boys who didn’t
know how to swim, and it was amusing to watch Isabel teach the boys. Other than that, we just kina hung out… The
girls asked me if I wanted to help them make pasteles (which are pretty much
smoother and skinnier tortillas that are filled with rice, folded over into a
half circle, and fried). However, I
haven’t mastered the making tortillas thing, and these needed to be circles, so
I opted to just watch. Other than that,
we pretty much just hung out.
Sunday, we were planning on leaving at 11:00 in the morning,
but the guy who was supposed to drive us to Santa Rosa (or at least to Lempira
where we could catch a bus to Santa Rosa, I’m not sure which) never showed up. We waited until 1:00 at which time Osiris’s
dad decided to drive us to Lempira. From
there, we caught a bus to Las Flores, and then another bus to Santa Rosa… so I
was able to spend more time navigating my favorite bus system! We made it back to the school around 4:30 at
which time I took a much needed, and appreciated shower.
On Tuesday, we didn’t have school because it was worker’s
day. So, the sisters took a trip to
visit some houses of ex-students as well as one who was an interna, is now a
nun, but is sick with some rare disease.
Because all the sisters have for a vehicle is a small truck, and four
sisters went with us, Thalia and I sat in the bed of the truck on a couple of
mats and it was a HOT day! We stopped at
one girl’s house – she wasn’t there as she is currently a first year postulant
or aspirant (I’m not really sure which), but we talked with her parents for a
while and they gave us a ton of food!
And I was able to try more new kinds of fruit! We then traveled on to the nun who is sick’s
house. The sisters all were talking to
her and Thalia and I got kicked out, so we amused ourselves with games. For lunch, the family loaned us their second
home that is in the mountains and ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL and really
peaceful. I definitely wouldn’t mind
going back some time for a weekend retreat type thing. Anyways, we had a typical “road lunch,” which
if I was in the US would probably be some sort of easy fruit and sandwiches and
chips… but in Honduras, we had hard boiled eggs, beans, platinos, and
cream. The cream actually ended up
spilling and making a mess on the way… long story short, sandwiches are WAY
easier.
And then Thalia left me on Friday. Initially, I didn’t think that I would be
able to take her to the airport because I have to give classes in the morning,
but Sor Che was nice enough to offer to proctor the exam I was giving, which
meant that I was able to go with Thalia and Sor Xiomara to the airport. It was sad to see her go (I almost took
pictures of her leaving, but I thought that it would be a little too motherly
of me) and now I’m here solo until Ashley comes in June. After dropping Thalia off, we traveled around
San Pedro collecting donations and buying fruit. We then went to the school in San Pedro to
wait for the two Novices that are going to be staying at our school and helping
out for the next month. I guess the year
before you profess, you kina “live the life” so the novices are here pretty
much doing everything the sisters do.
They are both really nice.
So, I guess that is this week. On a somewhat separate note… the bugs of
Santa Rosa are finally coming out (I think it is because it is getting hotter
and the rainy season is just about upon us) but as I was writing this during
study, I got at least 10 new mosquito bites, all of them on my legs! Not fun!
Anyways, loves to everyone at home, I’ll be seeing you in
about 2 months!
No comments:
Post a Comment