Week 5 - Cold coke, ice cream, snickers and Skittles

Ahhh, what a good way to end the week.  A trip to the small town 9 miles away to get ice cream, a cold coke, snickers, skittles and some more ice cream...We went into town to get some building materials (eg concrete, rebar, etc) for a kitchen that is being built at the local primary school in Los Valles.  When you take a truck with little or no shocks, it's almost not worth going into the town, but my 3 girls hadn't been outside a 4 mile radius since we arrived, so we figured it would be good to get out a bit, and get a treat.  An hour and 15 min later or so we arrived at the gas station to grab some gas and a cold coke.  Turns out there is a supermarket inside the gas station, along with a restaurant, and a visitor's center.  Now that I think about it, I didn't really see a visitor's center, only some overpriced, possibly hand made items.  By overpriced I simple mean, double what I could get them for in Teguc.  Anyway, no real visitor center, that I could tell.

We happened to run across a chest freezer with some ice cream pictures around, so we asked if they had ice cream, and by God's grace they did.  The ice cream was of decent quality, a little icy, not as much creamy, but it hit the spot!  Not having many cold items in the recent past, a small cup of anything cold would have done the trick.  Just in case, though, a cold coke for me and a cold diet pepsi for Sarah. And since we were there, I threw in a Snickers and a pack of Skittles.  Sarah took an apple.  Boring, but healthy I suppose.

Joseph had left earlier to get the supplies because Sarah was taking her time walking through the store.  In may have been the 2 girls hanging from her.  After finishing off the ice cream and coke, we waited a while, dancing to some Spanish music in the store and watching the rain come down onto the inside garden.  Not as much hungry as I was bored, I opened the Snickers and shared a couple small pieces with Liv.  After a while we went outside so I wouldn't also get into the Skittles and so Olivia could stay distracted from the waiting.  We met a nice Lady and her daughter that spoke English.  It was nice to talk to a Honduran and not have to guess what they were saying or sound foolish trying to speak Spanish (even though I am learning more).  We exchanged contact info and left.  We may get the daughter (who was probably in her early thirties) to volunteer at the school some, but maybe not, she may have been interested in a paying job.  Before we left Sarah mentioned getting another ice cream.  I'm glad she asked, cause I didn't want to seem like a pig eating all the sweets.  2 more ice creams please!

On the way home we picked up maybe 10 people in the bed of truck and drove them at least part way to their home.  We finally got to the school some 4 hours later or so and talked with the guys and Olivia played with some of the small kids.  We finally arrived home and grabbed a quick bite before getting the girls down for bed - we missed a good dinner, but the ice cream was worth it.  Then I of course had the skittles and read   a little.

Probably the highlight of the week, but we also had a group of volunteers here, which is always nice.  Volunteers usually bring some nice snacks and help renew your energy.  They did a lot of work around the coffee farm, collected rocks, watched after Olivia, hoed part of the garden I'm working on, and brought some good snacks.  One night they opened a bottle of wine that was shipped in the last container.  I got sucked into a glass and 2 games of some dice game.  Glorious.

I feel like I'm getting along a little better with the students. Not that it was ever bad, but I guess we're just getting to know each other better.  And I'm probably learning to be a little better teacher as well.  Teaching has been for the most part pretty fun.  I compile my own lesson plans and teach several different subjects; English, math, history, computer, current events, maybe some more.  Sarah has also been able to do a few classes and it seems she enjoys the "adult only" time.

We would also like to build a bathroom for our cook that lives on campus during the week, but goes home to her small house that lives 16 people!  They currently dig holes in the ground to relieve themselves.  crazy.  Anyways, I don't know for sure what the cost would be, but I think it would be $1500-$2000 to do it right (ie with a septic tank and vent).  If you are interested at all in helping (even $20 helps!) please email me.  irajoe17@hotmail.com.  We will be looking for other projects in the community in the future.

Also, please consider coming down for a week or so to visit and help out or just relax a bit.  It's pretty nice here.  :)