Nearing the End

Update from our little cozy spot in Moroceli, Honduras: Steve and I are doing really well. The teacher strikes ended (the kids have lost a total of forty days of classes due to the teacher strikes, but finally the government and the teachers have come to an agreement). I will share with you my daily routine.. Every morning, I get up around five thirty or so. I use the latrine, put my contacts in and greet the granny that lives next door and is always making her corn tortillas. I leave and go running by the corn farms for about an hour. I like to see all the men on their donkeys leaving to work on their farms and greet all of them as I run past. Sometimes I get stopped by the herds of cows that run past... I run up a huge gravel hill and enjoy the early sun shining down on Moroceli in the distance. I run all the way to a small stream and sometimes I see parakeets near the stream in the trees. I turn around at the stream and run back. I run past the house of the other volunteer (Timothy) who lives in Moroceli and usually catch him watering his garden. We sometimes have a cup of organic coffee together and I head back to my house. Steve is a sweetie and helps me fill up the big orange bucket so I can bathe and then we usually eat breakfast together...oatmeal, milk and a little sugar with bananas... Sometimes my other neighbor, Sagrario comes over in the morning to greet us with her little adorable daughter. Today she started teaching me how to embroider. At 8 or so, I leave to go to one of the schools in the nearby poorer villages or in Moroceli and I teach classes about the environment. I talk a lot about the difference between Organic and inorganic garbage, how to take care of the water. Why Moroceli`s water is SOOOO contaminated and WHY NOT to drink the water that comes from the faucet... (amebas, worms...) I also get to talk about SEX, positive communication.. condoms, natural birth control... the importance of birth control.. Currently, I am working more with fifth and sixth graders with environmental issues.. but each week it changes and I work with a different curriculum. So I give classes about these topics and then during recess sometimes I go with the kids and we pick strange fruits (Guayabas, Lemons, Passion fruits, Bananas)... I read stories to them and then I go home around 12:30 or 1:00 in the afternoon.. In the afternoon it gets really hot usually. Steve and I make lunch together -- usually bean stew with veggies and he makes spaghetti or whatever.. We check email in the computer center and go around visiting people. I feel famous in my town. I leave my house and EVERYBODY knows me and yells at me like I am somebody important, like a movie star. I am the only white girl in my town. If Steve and I spend the day apart and I am looking for him all I have to do is ask anybody in the street where he is and everybody knows. At five o`clock, I yell to everyone that we are going for a walk and sometimes up to fifteen people come with us. Yesterday, several little girls came with us and they walked the entire hour walk BAREFOOT! I guess since they have never really had shoes, their feet are accustomed to it. We sing songs together in Spanish and read stories afterwards. For dinner, we sometimes eat at a lady’s house named Paula. She makes really good corn tortillas, beans, and tomato, cucumber, cabbage salad. It sometimes takes us an hour to walk the five minute walk home because we have to greet everyone and say good night... So as you see, I have my daily routine here and I feel really important and well respected. As our departure date of October 28 nears, I feel really worried about the change from humble community life to materialistic big town American life. I feel like I might become lost in the large mass of metropolis, consumerist society. I thank all of you that put your greatest efforts forth to come and know my life here in our quiet dusty town of Moroceli. On the other hand, there are some days when I miss you all so much I could cry..I do cry. I miss supermarkets and eight hour work days where I know exactly what I have to do. So I have rambled on a lot about random thoughts and feelings.. I am excited, worried, nervous, anxious to come home.. a little of everything.. SO please, please help me readjust and not feel lost between two different worlds and cultures. We will arrive in Kalamazoo airport on October 28… I do not know the time or the exact flight yet. But I will let you know when I find out… Lots of love and peace, Teresa and Steve