Week 1

I macheted grass yesterday. I am not really sure if “to machete” is a verb … but the verb in Spanish is “chopear” which just makes me laugh because it sounds like Spanglish at it’s finest :0) And actually machetting really isn’t that cool of a feat here since the kids seem to do it everyday, but I had to try my hand at it. I am pretty horrible though. The 12 year olds I was machetting with could move so quickly and cut the grass so short, but my patches continued to have tall spots. At one point my machete flew into a bush next to me (so I decided I should stop since I didn’t want to cut anyone’s legs off) and today I have some lovely blisters to show for my hard work.

The kids here are also OBSESSED with High School Musical. The 13 year olds I was hanging out with the other night could sing along to the songs verbatim, even though they had no idea what they were singing. And it’s not just the girls, I walked into the boys’ home I was hanging out in yesterday and there sat a teen age boy plugged into a cd player with the High School Musical soundtrack next to him.

I think one of my favorite parts about being here is that it feels like you are outside constantly. All of the buildings are built around courtyards and everything is pretty open and airy. The classrooms at school only have decorative bars where the windows would normally go and even the windows that have glass on them are rarely closed.

We celebrated Mass last night. In the middle of the service some of the kids started bringing up cartons of eggs and bags of rice and beans. I wasn’t quite sure if this was some Honduran tradition I was unfamiliar with or what. I asked the boy next to me what all of the food was for and he told me it was to give away. When I asked him where it goes, he simply responded “to the poor.” I am not really sure if these kids appreciate the beauty in their offering, but I thought it was a wonderful act of sharing.