Ashley is here!
Sor Xiomara, Profe Hector, and I went to San Pedro Sula to
pick up Ashley on Monday the 4th.
It was actually kinda weird speaking in English when she first got here
having not really spoken any English to another native English speaker here for
a month. My first instinct was to
actually talk to her in Spanish which took me by surprise. But that feeling really didn’t last all that
long. Ashley is an adorable accountant
from just outside of Dallas, Texas. She
was here three years ago for about a month and a half when she first graduated
from college and is now taking about 2 and a half months off of work to
volunteer again.
Tracy and Molly came
too!
Tracy and Molly, two previous volunteers also came to visit
this past week. Molly was here and in El
Salvador as well for a grand total of 2 years at the same time Ashely was here. Tracy was here 2 years ago for a year. Molly only came for 4 days and then was
traveling to El Salvador to say hi to the sisters there too. Tracy will be here until the 25th. It was a party in our room for a while, which
was a ton of fun. At night, Tracy and
Molly would share the stories of their escapades while they were here. It was really interesting listening to the
stories of their adventures and comparing their stories to what the Sisters
have told us about what they did.
Apparently they had quite the adventures while they were here. Tracy was picked up by a couple of the
volunteers who were in El Salvador in a car that they had rented and then drove
to the Ruins by themselves using nothing other than a coloring map… apparently
this adventure involved yelling out of the car to strangers in the towns which
way they had to go and then taking a “short cut” through the aldeas and needing
to drive across a small river. Yeah, my
stories aren’t nearly as good.
Also, the sisters always told Thalia and I that the
volunteers always met gringo friends.
And we blamed the fact that we never did on the fact that Peace Corps is
no longer in Honduras. However, talking
to Molly and Tracy, they had like one or two American friends and that was it. Hearing this makes me feel a lot better… I
was concerned that I was just anti-social here.
We visited Swami’s
house!
Ashely’s first weekend we both went to Swami’s house. Swami is one of the Segund Curso girls who
lives in Lempira. Ashely, when she was
here before, Swami’s aunt, I think her name was Rudi, was a student at María
and Ashely visited her house so she had previously met all of Swami’s
family. Rudi actually came home from
Gracias where she is currently studying to be a nurse, so I was able to meet
her and her family. While we were hanging
out, Swami’s younger sister and cousin got both Ashley and I to play tag with
them (in Honduras it is called oofa) for hours on end. When we needed a break, they girls stole our
cameras and took a bazillion pictures of themselves and us and just about
everything you can take a picture of. 
On Saturday morning, Swami’s dad and brother took us to one
of their family coffee farms. It was
super cool! I always wanted to visit one
of the girl’s coffee farms but was afraid to ask because a majority of them are
rather far away from their homes. The
coffee won’t be ready until November, but the family cut down some bananas that
they brought back to the school.
On Saturday night, we went to the town’s school where they
were playing a movie… it was Drag Me to
Hell which is a comical scary movie.
There were a ton of young kids there who thought it was hilarious… I
couldn’t watch. I am so totally not a
scary movie fan!
Oh, and funny story!
I don’t remember if it was Friday or Saturday night, but there was a
HUGE bug flying around in our room.
Ashley called it a “Flying Cockroach” which it basically was. Anyways, we were about to go to bed and this
thing was flying around and Ashley was screaming (but quietly because Swami’s
family was sleeping) and I was laughing (but once again quietly) and trying not
to make a whole lot of noise… but the bug was seriously gross. Eventually, it landed on Ashley’s bed and I
trapped it in a plastic bag and threw it out the door. It was hilarious, and if I had more
time/wanted to write more, I promise this story would have been better, but
maybe you had to be there. I do,
however, miss the dry season when there were significantly fewer bugs. On that topic, though. The other day in our room at María, Tracy
told me that she stepped on a cockroach… I was perfectly content believing that
we didn’t have cockroaches in our room… that bubble has officially been popped!
My class ended!
I finished my last week of class on Friday and I handed in
my grades today… I am officially a retired English teacher! The girls actually did really well with this
module which makes them, me, and Sor Mirna really happy.
I went to Guatemala.
I went to Guatemala on Tuesday with some of the sisters who
were traveling to a retreat in Guatemala.
We dropped them off in Esquipulas where they caught a bus to Guatemala
City. However, there is a really awesome
Basilica in Esquipulas where the Cristo Negro is. So we saw the Basilica, walked around the
town, took some pics and then drove back to Santa Rosa.
I only have 7 days
left.
So, for those of you who don’t know, I’m coming home on June
28. That gives me 7 more days here. And while I'm super excited to go home and am starting to get everything ready for when I leave - the girl's and sister's presents are almost done, it really is bitter sweet. I love all of the girls here SO much. And they are all leaving for vacation on Friday, which means that they are having my despidida tonight and I have to say goodbye to everyone tomorrow... it really is coming to an end... and I'm not sure if I'm ready. I already said goodbye to the three sisters who went to Guatemala. It is very surreal... and doesn't feel real yet.
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