a day in the life...

I think I've probably said something like this before...but it's nearly impossible to capture what a typical day is like for me. Some days are pretty dull, with nothing more exciting than buying chocolate ice cream at the corner store or taking a trip downtown to have coffee.

But some days, things are just completely ridiculous. And when it's happening, nothing in and of itself seems so crazy. It's only later, when you reflect on the day, that the sum of the parts amounts to something that you just think people not familiar with Honduras might not believe!

Yesterday was my host brother, Josue's birthday. Tradition (in my host family at least) means waking up early to sing to the birthday person before they even get out of bed. My host mom woke me up and we all tried singing outside Josue's door...let's just say, we were all half asleep and it was a pretty terrible rendition. No one was singing together, and half way thru my host mom forgot the words (in her defense, it's a longer song than the English version) and we all broke down laughing when she ended with a "cha cha cha." I think Josue just turned over to sleep again because it was pretty pathetic.

Monday mornings usually start out with a rousing office meeting of the Income Generation Program. At the beginning of my time here I understood maybe 40% of what was going on. Now that I am more accustomed to the terminology of the bank program, the speed at which Hondurans talk, and the joking nature of the men I work with, I think I understand 86-93% of what goes on :)

Today's meeting did not lack for drama. One coworker confronted the rest on their lack of respect for personal property. Mostly, this is not a very Honduran concept, but I was glad she spoke up. People do not respect anyone's desk or personal things and are continually fighting over lost items, whether it's calculators, staplers, printers, helmets, or keys to the moto. It gets a little out of control. And so did the discussion in the meeting!

After the meeting I did some more work til lunch. Lunch was pretty normal, at home, watching a family-favorite dating show while we eat. The show is out of control, as it's called "12 hearts" and tries to make matches of couples, loosely based on zodiac signs and physical preferences. Awesome.

In the afternoon I was quietly working in my office. Allison, my fellow gringa friend who works at the ministries calls me and says "are you bored? if so, come to my office, now." So, of course intrigued, I ran upstairs for a break. I found 2 children who we know from the school, plus their mom (a teacher) holding a mangy looking pigeon. The basic rundown was they pigeon fell from the ledge outside of Allison's window and they wanted to put it back on the ledge. Since I was the tallest (and by default must have the longest arms) I was elected to stand on the chair, reach out of the window with the pigeon in a dust pan, and deposit said pigeon on the window ledge. So I did. No big deal :) We watched him for awhile but he didn't do too much. You know, rescuing pigeons, all in a day's work.

pigeon in the dust pan, about to go out the window.

The evening was a typically Honduran birthday celebration. There wasn't ever a plan, and earlier in the day no one knew if we would actually have cake, but somehow, everyone in the family knew when and where to show up, my host mom made tacos for all, and we shared a cake for Josue's 24th birthday.

family chaos + cake

I have come to love family birthday parties with my host family, all of the craziness and awkwardness. Last night did not let me down :) Not only did we have 20 some people in the house, but we had our usual photo-taking frenzy. One of the cousins, who will remain nameless, is rather obsessed with taking photos of the gringa (yep, that's me). But not just when I know it's happening. Like also when I'm not looking, he's taking shots with his cell phone. Then he supposedly wanted a photo with the birthday boy, but at the last minute was like "no, with the gringa too!" So...I posed for about 15 photos with the cousin and my host brother. It was rather embarrassing. Then I was reassured by their uncle that I am more than welcome to take his son to the US...just as long as he gets some US dollars in return.

I still haven't figured out a good response to these innuendos. Thankfully there are some other cousins who look out for me and tell me not to pay attention to their crazy uncle. But I know the matchmaking is never over!

By the time all the pictures and cake and family stuff was done, we were pretty tired. We still had to watch the Honduras vs. Guatemala match on TV...and, though I didn't know it, I had to help a kid from church with 9 pages of English homework!! So...I did. It didn't take me too long, and I had a good time berating Axel for never practicing his English and talking with Lucia (my host mom) about everything under the sun and her childhood growing up in Olancho.

Overall, it was a good night of memories with the host family...just nothing that will ever be easy to capture in photos or words. But...here was my attempt!