Bienvenidos a San Marcos

We have now been in Honduras for nearly 72 hours. I love it here. We spent Monday afternoon and evening driving from Tegucigalpa to Choluteca to San Marcos, eating our first dinner in Honduras at Pizza Hut, and buying groceries. Of the eight interns who are here so far (one intern, Heather, arrives next week), Kendra (aka Consuelo) knows the most Spanish. She seems to converse effortlessly, and doesn´t hesitate to start a conversation with any of the Hondurans who work for Mission Lazarus. I know probably 75% of her vocabulary and grammar, but I am slower (and less confident) about putting it all together and understanding native speakers. I am much more comfortable with practicing my Spanish with Chad, Shelly, Meredith, and my fellow interns. I waver between expecting to be fluent by the end of the summer, and wanting to let Consuelo do all of our speaking for us!

For another week or so, we also have with us another student, Todd. Todd is Taiwanese, about to graduate from high school in Washington state, and planning to study at the University of Washington. He is working with the Mission Lazarus clinic for two weeks for his senior project, a graduation requirement. Todd is a hoot. He knows probably about as much Spanish as I do. He loves to talk, and the thigns he says and the ways he says them are just funny! Sadly, he is not staying at the intern house with us. And he is only working at the clinic, so I might only get to see him one more time before he leaves.

The past few days we have been travelling around to visit different places that are part of Mission Lazarus. The intern house and Refuge (the children´s home) are at the ranch, a huge spread about 5 minutes´ drive from San Marcos. San Marcos is a cute little town with lots of colorful buildings, a small central park, several churches, a few schools, and lots of people. I find it interesting the way Honduras get around. Some people have American, European, or Asian cars and trucks. Automobiles and autobuses full of people bounce along the streets. Many more people have bicycles, or use their legs to travel around. On the highway between Tegucigalpa and Choluteca, we drove along a two-lane road at 45 miles per hour, with people on bikes or on foot passing by within 12 inches of the vehicle. We see lots of children walking along the shoulder of the road also. Fearless.

Today it rains. It has rained lightly but steadily since 5:00am. I don´t mind. But it´s a little chilly. I´m in capris and a t-shirt. By the way, there is another interesting thing about Honduras. Technically we are in Central Time Zone, but there is no Daylight Savings in Honduras, and right now the sun rises at 4:30am and sets at 6:30pm. While we are here, we have been waking before 6am, getting hungry for lunch by 11am, getting sleepy around 4pm, and going to bed by 9:30pm. This schedule could be good for me!

--Haley