Vaya Honduras!

Written 9/12/08

Bug Bites: 10
Cockroaches Killed: Personally- 4, Housewide- 13

Today marks the end of the actual first week of classes. I have always had respect for teachers, but my respect has grown ten fold in the past week. And that idea of teaching being 3/4 pure theater? So true- though I think it is more like 50/50 because if you aren’t prepared at all, you’re pretty screwed as far as creating an interesting class goes. But before I get into all of this detail about my actual job, first things first.

Manuel the taxi driver.
Awesome. The man. Best thing that happened to us in Honduras. While waiting for Triny to figure out our transportation situation (of which we were completely under the impression that WE would be paying for) John, Abby, and I resorted to just taking taxis every day to school. One day, a man named Manuel picked us up and took us to school. He asked us if we would be needing a ride every day and we told him yes and that we would have Triny call him. Note: this simple exchange of words probably took 7-9 minutes; us understanding what he was saying and he understanding our broken Spanish. Dun Dun Dun dunnnn! Manuel becomes our driver AND the school is paying for it! YESSSSS!

We have decided that we will probably learn the most Spanish from him as he speaks EXTREMELY fast and has a tendency aka all the time to never pronounce the end of the words. So, “Como estás” is “costa.” Never the less he is very lovable and that’s what we do- we simply love him. Jolly teddy bear type who talks to us about anything and everything, helps us with our Spanish, and is a HUGE Honduran soccer fan.

Wednesday marked the Honduras vs. Jamaica game and we were lamenting to Manuel that we didn’t have a TV so we weren’t sure if we were going to watch it. Without missing a beat, he invited us to his house for the game. We previously had been driven by his house, learned that Manuel has two adorable daughters, a wife, and a lot of entertaining buddies, of whom are sometimes guests in our taxi rides home. We of course accepted his invitation and Abby and I promptly went out to the street to buy fake Honduran soccer jerseys.

When Manuel picked us up at 7:00pm we weren’t sure whether or not this was going to be a “Manuel and the guys” night or “Manuel-family man” night. Turned out it was the latter which was so cute. I am learning that family life is huge here. If your family plans to do something together and you made plans to go out, you cancel your plans, and spend time with your family. Not to mention, most people live with at least part of their extended family, if not everyone.

Manuel’s home was lovely and he lived there with his family as well as his parents. He has a 4-month-old baby- Lizbeth and an 8-year-old girl- Quirian. ADORABLE. They gave us hamburgers to eat and we all ate and watched together. Honduras won! Thank goodness, because had they not; we would not have gotten to experience the celebratory ride throughout town that would soon ensue.

Me, John, and Abby at Manuel's humble abode eating hamburgers and watching the game on the patio.

Quirian, Manuel's adorable daughter who gave both Abby and me bracelets at the end of the night. She made sure to fix her hair before taking this picture.

Manuel es el hombre as we like to say.

As we were driving home, Manuel, who is an active horn honker in general, starts blaring his horn for all to hear in celebration of the win. Of course, some more cars join in, and before we know it, we are driving in circles, down the same streets, definitely not going towards our house. Manuel was LOVING it. He and about seven other cars were not letting Santa Rosa sleep that night. He kept honking his horn and yelling “Levantanse! Levantanse!” out the window. We then taught him the phrase in English “Wake up! Wake up!” and was then keeping the entire city awake in English, Spanish, and Horn. I could not stop laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation. It was one of those moments where you just throw your hands up and laugh. The video below is a 30 second excerpt of the 25-minute joyride.

The truck in front of it with only about 15 guys on back waving their Honduran flag in celebration.

Manuel's celebration joy ride.

I wish you could see the picture better, but the sound is definitely there. This seriously went on for about 25 minutes...maybe more. Every time I thought we were heading home we would turn another corner and the horn would still be honking.

As I said before, Manuel is the man.