With what sounds like 10 rouge dogs running by my house, barking, I began to get ready for bed on my first night in Honduras. After the dogs made their way beyond my earshot, I let the quite settle in around me. However, I quickly realized that it was not really that quite. The crickets were having a hay-day. Being from Alaska, and partially Washington, I don’t get to hear many crickets. So, standing in my room listening to tons of little insects stroke their legs together, or how ever it works, was almost mesmerizing. To backtrack a little bit, I arrived in Tegucigalpa at about 1pm (on the 24th of February). Before actually landing, we made three large circles around Tegucigalpa because we had to wait out some weather - this took us about a half an hour. Some of the other Peace Corps Trainees (PCT) had told me about the runway/landing in Tegus (as the locals call it), but I really didn’t know what to expect. I’ve landed in Sitka and Ketchikan in 60 mph winds, so I didn’t think much of it, but it was actually pretty intense. I wasn’t scared for my life like I have been landing in SE Alaska at some points, but it was still noteworthy. So, to land in Tegus, the 737 comes in normal, or so you think, but then all the sudden the jet turns hard over to the left. As it gets closer to the runway, it begins to straighten out and then lands (pretty much while still turning to the left) - and, all this while missing hitting the neighboring houses and businesses with the wings by about 20 feet.
After the 53 trainees were all off the plane and through customs, we grabbed the bags that had all been marked with pink yarn. It was a bit of a zoo, but I found my bags and after greeting the three PC officers (and Honduras Director) was told to make my way trough immigration. After having all my bags, even my purse, put through a scanner, like the regular screening you go through to get into the terminal of an airport, I made my way out into the main part of the terminal where more Peace Corps Officers shuffled us all out of the airport to a parking lot, across a street, and to a parking lot with six Land Cruisers and a bus. Each Cruiser had a list of names taped to its window, which was where we were to leave our luggage to be delivered to our host families (familia anfitriona). A yellow school bus was also there to take all of trainees to our training facility. However, this could not happen until we all made it to the parking lot, gave Lisa our medical questionnaire and immunization record, and gave our passports to a male Peace Corps Officer. It took a good 45 minutes for all of us to make it to the Land Cruisers. Amazingly, a cooler full of fruit (my first Honduran banana!!!) and bottled water, pizza and Quaker oatmeal-cookie-things were provided. I didn’t eat the pizza, but everything else was delicious (muy rico!) Waking up at 4 a.m., waiting in the airport for four hours, flying for three hours, and then lugging 120 lbs (not even exaggerating) through a few parking lots in what seemed to me like 95 degree heat, can make one pick up quite the appetite.
We all loaded on the bus and after we began the drive to our training site, we were given a piece of paper about our first host families. I am living with Ana Auristela and Miguel with their kids Michelle, Ana Maricela, and Miguel Earnesto. They are so nice. Ana Maricela is 13 and has been more outgoing than the other two. We even played a card game together. It took about 10 minutes for her to explain the game to me because of the language barrier - understanding what she was saying when telling me the rules was very difficult. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.
It took about an hour to drive from Tegus to Zarabanda (out training site). Here, we were introduced to a ton of the Peace Corps Honduras staff. I don’t remember anyone’s name - except Javier, but that is only because he will be picking the seven of us trainees that will be living in Los Planes up every day and taking us back home after classes for these first three weeks of training. In Zarabanda, we had a really brief - as in only two hours - orientation about water, food, the buddy system, money, and some logistics before we went outside to meet our host families. Auristela and the two girls were there to greet me!
Arriving in Zarabanda, was when my nerves really began to kick in. It was really just a matter of going all in - head first - and talking with my host family as much as possible. I talked as much as I could with them, and I definitely told them right off the bat that my Spanish was not very good - I’m already pretty good at looking confused, saying no comprendo and, repita por favor. The whole family is really nice about it and have been working with me, speaking with me, speaking slower for me and trying to clarify things when I don’t understand. Even though they are really nice and work with me a lot, it doesn’t stop my nerves everyday I walk down our road back to my house after training. There is a little bit of dread everyday, knowing that I am going to have to step inside and go completely into Spanish mode after a day of language classes and training. It literally makes you brain hurt.
Talking with Miguel and Auristel I get so nervous. I don’t want to say things wrong, but really, it is going to happen. I just need to keep talking and not worry about what is coming out of my mouth. Ok, yes, I need to worry about what is coming out of my mouth, but not about basic stuff. At this point, if I say el mesa instead of la mesa, it is not a problem - I just need to keep practicing speaking Spanish and not worry about that basic grammar. Our language instructs just want us to talk, talk, talk. Auristela and Miguel are really good about correcting me when I say thing wrong, too, so that makes it nice. I know that seems a little counterintuitive, but at this point all of us trainees (aspirantes) need to be corrected, so we know what we are doing wrong. After we hear things a few times, we will eventually make the words come out of our mouths correctly.
These first few days have been entirely too mentally fatiguing. Everyone here is over 21 years old, yet we are going to bed at 8:30pm because our brains are so fried by that time that we just have to go to sleep. It is crazy how just working so hard to speak another language for a few hours takes so much energy
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