I had a fantastic weekend! Friday night we had a mother's day celebration at our school. All the parents came and we (the seniors!) provided food and entertainment. A few people sang, but mostly it was dancing! I knew Hondurans were good dancers, but I was blown away! I'm especially impressed because I know they started two weeks ago and only had like 5 practices. Everyone did an amazing job, although some of the dancing would have shocked an audience of American parents. By Honduran standards, it was totally PG.
My physics teacher, Merlin, and Gabi
Singin' songs about unity and peace and stuff
Merlin and I
I was so hyper that night I had trouble sleeping, which was unfortunate, because I had to wake up at 4 am to be at the school for our trip to Tegus with Sr. Silva! Most of the students couldn't go because of Trabajo Social, but Merlin, Gabi, Oscar, and three of our professors had an awesome time anyway. To be honest, when I left, I didn't really know what we were doing. Sr. Silva, our religion teacher, is Portuguese and he's extra-hard to understand-- all I knew was that we were going on a trip, so I signed up. But I learned that we were going on a "run" (we didn't actually run much) with the organization Run 4 Unity to promote peace. I hadn't really worn running clothes, but that's fine, because in Honduras, nobody wears running clothes. If this had been in America, all the girls would be in yoga pants and jogging shoes, but Honduran chicks wear skinny jeans and ballet flats everywhere. Seriously, everywhere, even to go camping in a cow field.
When we got to Tegus, we met up on a sidewalk with a group of other kids and a lady who talked a little bit about the organization, and then we sang some fun songs and got started walking. We held a bunch of signs that said things like "Youth for peace!" and chanted and we had police escorts so that we could walk in street. Traffic was busy and a lot of people were annoyed at having to go around us. Blocking traffic for peace! Woot.
We stopped a few times along the way to meet up with little groups of other R4U people holding signs on sidewalks and to be interviewed by various cameramen. I think we were on TV, but I don't watch TV, so I don't know for sure. I ended up being glad it was so early in the morning because it was already so hot! We walked for about two hours and then we stopped at the university and gathered in one of the auditoriums. There was more singing and talking and some sexy dancing. (No event in Honduras is really complete without sexy dancing). We painted our hands crazy colors and put our handprints on a big poster and took lots of pictures. And then we ate lunch! All of us had brought Baleadas and Sr Silva had brought sandwiches and fruit to share and then we went to the mall "to eat lunch". Everyone made fun of me because I didn't want any of Sr. Silva's food and I didn't eat at the mall. "You don't eat much!" they said. But I had eaten three baleadas and a guava! I don't understand how my classmates are so skinny the way that they eat!
I was glad we went to the mall because it gave me a chance to buy a present for "mi mama hondureña". Bless Merlin for being patient with me when I was trying to pick out a card for my host mom! They all said things like "You are the best mother in the world"-- well, that's a little disloyal. Or, "you have always been there for me"-- well, that's not exactly true. Or, "you understand me more than anyone else"-- that would be difficult, considering we speak different languages! I finally found a fairly generic card and a bag of jelly beans with a cheesy little "Happy Mother's Day!" balloon. It's so difficult to communicate with my host mom but she is a sweet lady and I hope she knows how grateful I am to her for opening her home to me.
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That was pretty much my saturday! Obviously I was tired that night, but I had trouble sleeping. At three AM I was awoken to the sound of Giovanni's signature "Maliña!" outside my window, and I was like, oh, Rosa and Giovanni are having a date in the front yard at three AM, that's cool. But then I heard a bunch of other voices and I realized that, in fact, half of the church was in my front yard! And they had all brought drums and guitars and started singing a mother's day song. Thank heavens I had worn pants that night, because in Honduras, you never know if some guy is going to stick his head inside your window at three AM and shout "LEVANTATE, KAITI! How ARE yooooou!"
That was a serenata, and apparently they're common here on mother's day. Mother's day is kind of a big deal here. I noticed when we were on our way to la casa de los abuelitos that morning that a lot of people were dressed up and carrying cake boxes and flowers. We brought presents and mocha cake and Gracia's dad played a bunch of Mother's day songs on his guitar before we ate it. It was a good day. I hung out with Gracia and talked about books and ate ridiculously good food, as per usual upon visits to the grandma's house. We hung out at the river and caught fish and Gracia yelled at a bunch of boys who were torturing wildlife. They tortured a turtle and threw rocks at the beautiful colorful birds in the trees until they fell down and beat them, laughing while they screamed. One of the birds they had thrown rocks at was entangled in one of the trees, crying and badly injured. We managed to get it down because Gracia's brother and I wanted to put it out of its misery, but Gracia wasn't sure so she just left it hidden in some of the grass by the river, hoping those horrible boys wouldn't find it again. Animal abuse is something that is sadly prevalent in Honduran culture.
Me, Nicole, Gabriela, and Jenny
On monday I had something fun to do as well. It was my compañera Jenny's 18th birthday, so she had a little party at her house. Gabriela, Nicole, (Mirta?), and another girl who's name I forget and I hung out and ate pizzitas and nachos and cake for a while and then we went to the theatre to meet up with some more people from our class and see the Hunger Games, which I was ecstatic about. I've been bugging everyone about taking me to see the Hunger Games for the past month! Everyone has been warning me that the theatre in Comayagua is a joke, but it was much nicer than I expected. The chairs were plastic but a step above fold-ups, the screen was big, and the rows were slanted down so people's heads did not impede my viewing. And for a buck a ticket, I'm not complaining about anything. I would have paid that much just for the privilege of sitting in a well air-conditioned room for two hours! Haha! Maybe I'll pester people about seeing Avengers with me next.
I might be having another awesome weekend this week because I heard AFSers are doing a trip to Copan! I didn't go on the last trip and I sort of regretted it, but apparently everyone was robbed so I guess it was for the best. Hopefully that won't happen again!
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