Week 7 - Finally Made It - part 1

Well, there's a lot to write about this week.  Probably the most important thing is that we finally made it to Belize after a series of small road trips and seemingly getting scammed by someone who probably makes his living by doing so.

I'll start off with the better stuff...we left campus early Tuesday morning and set out towards the north coast to visit 2 of the girls' families.  We ate a small breakfast before leaving, but a few hours into the trip we stopped at Wendy's for some food.  I had been looking forward to McDonalds or Burger King, since we planned on leaving for Belize, but a burger anywhere would suffice.  I had been up since about 5 or maybe earlier, so a 9:30 burger hit the spot like nothing else would.  The coke with ice(!!!) that washed it down was equally pleasing.  And off we went.  We made a couple more stops before we arrived at Mayra's house, including a stop for ice cream, a second round of Wendy's and dropping off Martha at the bus station where she met her dad.

Being in the car for 8-10 hours of course stinks, but my oh my, was the food worth every penny.  The fast food binge was pretty good, but the ice cream...now that was just down right scandalous.  The ice cold flavor hitting your lips in the 90 plus degree heat, after not having good ice cream since we'd been here...to die for.  We stopped several times for ice cream on this trip!  And Sarah got a Oreo shake last night that I'm sure will become a daily favorite. 

Ok, back to the girls' families.  Mayra's family was very generous, as most Honduras families are with guests, serving us chicken soup and rice for dinner.  Mayra told them that I am in love with Coca Cola (kind of the running joke when I teach class because when I give an example, I often use Coke in it), so they purchased a 3 liter for lunch.  3 liters are actually very common in Honduras, as is Coke.  Dinner was delicious.

The next morning we bought some beef for her family and some baby clothes for Martha's mother since she is pregnant with a surprise baby.  We dropped the meat off at Mayra's and visited Mayra's recommender.  Each student has to have a respected individual in their community recommend them for our school.  Mayra's recommender spoke English well and was very kind.  We talked for a while about the school and went back to Mayra's for lunch.  Before lunch though we stopped by Mayra's old house which had burned down a few years back.  Her grandmother, and daughters, still lived there with some of the house fixed up, but certainly not what it once was. The property was nice, however, with many fruit trees and a surprising amount of land.  Mayra's dad actually works from the house, rebuilding or refinishing furniture on the side - he works as a mechanic for his day job.

So for lunch we eached had about 1 pound of beef and half plate of rice.  Apparentlly, there was also turtle soup available.  After I forced down the humungous plate of food and soda, I felt obliged to try the turtle meat.  I mean, when else will I have the chance?  I feared never, so I had a small piece of the turtle meat, still on the bone.  Leaving meat on the bone, typically chicken, is also very common in Honduras.  I'm assuming for the flavor, but I've also heard of some people eating the bones too (OUCH!).  Anyway, the turtle was pretty awesome.  It was very similar to chicken, except just a tad chewier, but certainly not too chewy where you had time to think about what you were eating. It was good, but I was already stuffed, so only the one piece for me. 

Martha house, here we come!  (part 2)