Estoy aqui

Hola y bienvenidos a mi blog. I’m not really sure how these things work, but I figured that it was either tell people about what I’m doing in mass e-mails or do this (and this looked a lot cooler (well maybe not cooler, but definitely more interesting)). So where to begin....

I arrived in Honduras 4 days ago into the capital, Tegucigalpa. The first thing I realize was that the people here drive ridiculously (well actually, the first thing I realized was obviously that everyone spoke Spanish and I understood very little of what they were saying to me (as a side note, I also would have gotten into at least 20 accidents on the 10 minute drive to the hotel)). There are no set lanes, and at any given time on a normally sized 4-lane road will be six cars wide going in the same or opposite direction depending on the circumstance. My first Honduran meal was at Campero, a chain of fast food restaurants that originated in Central American (it has been the only fast food chain to make the transition from Central America into the US). Actually, fast food restaurants are actually a big deal down here, being more expensive than normal food. I’ve been told that people will save up all week to go out to Pizza Hut (these establishments are complete with a hostess and waiter/waitress).

The next day we made the trip to my new home for the next year: Talanga. Talanga isn’t a large city by normal standards, but somehow this city and the surrounding area comprised solely of one-story houses have a population of around 30,000 people (thank you Wikipedia). The town has one (partially) paved road, and a bunch of other roads that are not-so-paved (from what I hear, they’re a mud pit in the rainy season and a dust cloud during the dry season). I’ve already seen that people use horses and ox-drawn carts for transportation about as much as they use cars. The natural city-dwelling animals include dogs, chickens, and on occasion pigs (I should also mention the mosquitoes who seem to greatly outnumber both man and animal alike (also, I’ve found that I’m just as delicious to mosquitoes here as I was back home (though not as delicious as I was in Costa Rica (though I am well on my way to surpassing that 91 bites received there))).

Pretty much, the last few days have consisted of last year’s volunteers parading us around town, introducing us to the locals, and translating for us what is being said (the accent is.... muy dificil para entender). The volunteers I’ll be living with for the next year are amazing and fun people (minus Joe). In order of appearance, there is: Joe Runde (don’t know why I’m spending another year with him), Lauren Mahler (a registered nurse from Massachusetts, which turns out is only a commonwealth and not a state at all), Melissa Farrell (another registered nurse from Joe’s neck-o-the-woods in Iowa), and Mike Dubiel (a wandering spirit (you really need to meet this guy to understand) originally from Cleveland who most recently has been living in El Paso as a volunteer) (as a side note: the final two volunteers will not be arriving here until el 1 de Agosto in case you were wondering). During these many introductions, there is one constant that I’ve begun to notice: people cannot for the life of them pronounce my name.

Instead of people saying “Shawn,” I’ve gotten everything from “Shone” to “Jon” to “Chang” (that last one seems to be particularly popular amongst the kids, who asked me if my name was “como ‘Yackie Chang’” (translation: like ‘Jackie Chan’)). So basically, I need to change my name. Chang is actually one of the front-runners (what can I say, I like it (also, I was told that “Chang” is a name taken by many chinos (chinese). When I explained that I wasn’t chino, but in fact japones (japanese), it was quickly explained that in Honduras the two were iguales (the same). Apparently, all Asians are chinos (go figure)). Right now I’m leaning more towards taking the name of Juancho (it’s a long story (and not that interesting), but basically in an activity we were doing I had to guess that I was Juan el bautismo, and jokingly a member of the community began calling me “Juancho” as a result). So I’ll keep you updated on the name front.

Beyond that, I’m just starting to get introduced to the different projects that are available to us (but I’ll save this for another post). Hope all is going well back in the states (this group missed the introduction of the iPhone, so I can only imagine the magnitude of changes that will happen while I’m out of country). Hasta Luego!