Dazed and Confused
Trip Start
Mar 28, 2003
1
5
20
Trip End
Jul 23, 2003
Tegucigalpa,
Honduras
Thursday, April 10, 2003
So the weekend was a total blast! First, the food sorting in Comayuaga. It wasn't at a warehouse as someone had told me. It was at this tiny little Franciscan compound. These Friars that live there are American and spend their lives helping to feed, clothe, educate, and care for the community around them. I was really surprised at how young they were (probably very early 30s), and one guy had even spent 4 years in the US Army. They had shaved heads and full beards and wore those long patchwork looking robes with sandals. The robes were tied with a large wooden rosary belt with a cross on the end. They were just the sweetest guys I'd ever met. They gave us a tour of the place and showed us how they lived. So the food sorting consisted of creating individual portions of beans, rice, corn, and sugar. Then, once a month the rations are distributed to the poor within the community. We were there with some American kids from Mission Honduras (a religiously affiliated group in the US). But the BEST part of all was that about 10 kids from the area were there to help as our "runners". Once we filled a bag, they would run them back to the store room. I have never seen such happy kids, and it was great to speak to them b/c they didn't care that my Spanish sucks! I even left with a new boyfriend!! Javier was this kid about 8 years old and he followed me everywhere and kept asking to take pictures with me. It really felt great to be there.
After that we went to the Joint Task AFB at SotoCono. It's still considered a temporary base...yet it's been there for years. We had an all-you-can-eat American buffet at the dining hall there for only $3.50/person. After that, everyone loaded up on American goods at the PX...everything you miss from home is right there in one store. So we got back to Tegus around 4:00 and I got ready for the Marine BBQ. Joyce backed out on me at the last minute so I had to go by myself. Now, I'm a pretty social person, but I hate going to events like that by myself where I still don't really know anyone. So I showed up and went straight for the bar. Once I had my drink in hand, I tried to eye someone that I slightly recognized and then push my way into their conversation. So it worked out okay and then about 45 minutes later Renee showed up.
I was told before I even came here that the only chance at a decent social life here was to make friends with the Marines. Renee hadn't ever bothered in the 2.5 months she'd been here. So I had to take the upperhand and go introduce us to them all. There's about 10 of them stationed here ranging from 21-27 years old. So then I graciously invited us to go out with them later that night. They're not allowed to drive here, so they have their own 24 hour personal van with driver to take them wherever. So after the BBQ broke up around 11:30 (sidenote: these Embassy folks know how to party...they were all out on the dancefloor shaking it), all us youngins headed to a new club called El Nilo (The Nile). Randomly, the owner there is actually from Hong Kong and he LOVES Americans! So we were immediate VIPS which was cool. So we stayed there all night and danced until about 5 am. For some reason the Honduran men are fascinated with my nose
piercing...I dunno. We waited around until well after the club closed as the only female Marine was waiting for her "man" who worked there. This was the first time I saw Alan and the first thing I thought to myself was "damn, she found herself quite possibly the hottest Honduran man." So we all headed out and a few of us separated from the group to go break into the swimming pool at one of the higher-end hotels in the city.
Sunday was a wash for the most part--just slept most of the day. I made the mistake of falling asleep on the living room couch in the middle of the day. The next day I was blessed with about 30 mosquito bites (yes, I counted them). Joyce and I went to mass Sunday night. It was pretty boring as it was all in Spanish. She conned me into going by saying that we'd be going out to dinner after. And where did we go? That's right, folks: Tony Roma's.
The rest of the week has been just a lot of work, I'm finally getting more solid assignments and have a better feeling for how things work around here. Last night I had dinner with a TDY Navy guy (TDY is a person who works for the gov't but is only visiting at this particular post on temporary duty). He's actually stationed in El Salvador. We went to Ruby Tuesday's (which I guess is an East coast chain similar to TGIFridays) and had dinner and watched the big soccer game. It was the two teams from Tegus playing one another-so it was a packed house. Last night was the first time (and probably will remain one of the few) I got to walk down the street after dark. It's suicide to ever do such a thing as a female-and the only reason I could do it was b/c I was with a man. But even then, there's never any guarantees. But it was great b/c it was really nice weather out.
Okay, again I'll end with some random factoids. So I know the question on everyone's mind is: what ever happened to that yellow school bus I rode in grammar school? Well, it's here in Honduras--the graveyard for yellow school buses. They actually use these as their city public transport buses! Unfortunately, I will never have the honor of riding one b/c we're not allowed to (murders are common, and entire buses are often held up and everyone robbed). About 3 hours north of Tegus is La Ceiba, there was a prison
riot in which around 70 people were murdered. The prisons here are extremely overcrowded and are run more like work farms. The security is beyond minimum. So the prison guards have been smuggling various arms into the prisoners i.e. grenades, assault rifles, machetes, etc. The largest gang here is The 18. These gang members began some trouble with non-gang prisoners. They retaliated by hording and locking up the "18" gang members into a cell block and then setting it on fire. Of course, the Honduran
newspapers had no problem with showing the most grotesque photos you have ever seen. I know it's sick, but I clipped some so that most of you will be able to see what I'm talking about.
Other than that, it's life as usual. My boss left today to take his family to Florida for two weeks vacation. I'm very excited for this week to be over b/c I'm off on vacation all next week. I have my Foreign Service exam on Saturday morning and other than that will just be packing for my trip. I'll try to drop you all a quick line before I leave and then will fill you in all the details when I get back.
