My faith has been restored in Honduras. This past weekend, I took a trip to my nearest big city to visit some PC friends, hit up the only ATM with 3 hours of my site and to take a well needed break from life in site. I had a great time hanging out with 4 other volunteers from my training group and catching up with what everyone had been up to. We also made some homemade pizza for dinner and had banana pecan pancakes for breakfast the next day! It is always great to have some non-Honduran foods every once in a while.
I was headed home the following afternoon and was walking to my bus. I should preface this by saying that I have acquired a new habit when traveling in Honduras. I now spread my money, credit cards and ID cards out all over my body and any bags that I am carrying. I put some money in my back pack, some in my different pants packets, I keep a secret stash under the insert of my shoe and depending on how much I am carrying, I might find a few more hiding spots. I do this, so if I ever were to be robbed/mugged (I guess I should say if I ever get robbed/mugged again, I already lost a phone to some muggers a few months back in another large city I was visiting) I could hopefully just loose some of my money and not all of it. The thing I hate most about not having a bank in my site is that I have to travel with larger amounts of money at least once a month. Half of Hondurans live on less than $1USD a day. My rent alone is around $80. It always makes me a little nervous to travel with this much money, even though, I feel very safe traveling from my site to the “big city”. The bus driver and I are friends now and he always keep an eye out for me and sometimes even gives me a reduced fair. On top of this, I usually know ¾ of the people riding the bus, many of whom are work colleagues or neighbors.
Anyways, back to the story. I was walking to my bus and reached into my back pocket to grab my phone. I must have also had put some money in this back pocket, and it fell out onto the street. A man, sitting on the side of the street called me as I walked past to return the money I had dropped. I have to admit that I was shocked. I dropped one bill the equivalent of about $5. I had no clue I had dropped it and this man could have easily pocketed the money. You can buy around 3 meals, 25 bags of chips, 10 beers or even a bus ticket to Teguz with that money, just to name a few things. It really made me so happy to know that someone would go out of his way to return the money I had dropped! It was exactly what I needed after being frustrated with how things tend to work in Honduras!
I should mention that Honduras still does always find a way to win. A few minutes later I was sitting on my bus waiting for it to leave (if you want a seat you have to show up at least an hour early) and a bolo (the Honduran word for a really drunk guy) came staggering up to our bus. The ayudante (the guy that collects money on the bus and helps people with their bags) shut and locked the door to the bus. The bolo proceeded to yell slurred profanities and attempt to kick the bus (he was having some balance issues that prevented him from making contact). I was a little nervous, but everyone else locked in the bus with me crowded around the windows and laughed at the bolo as he eventually was dragged away by a group of men. After packing upwards of 100 people on the bus (this bus is a yellow school bus, it safely and comfortably sits around 40-50 people), we were off. I got to spend the next 2 and half hours sweating to death as I was tossed around my seat, knocking into the man sitting next to me and the people standing in the aisle. I should also mention that it is only a 20 mile trip to my site, but it usually takes well over two hours due to a number of factors. When you combine an aging yellow school bus, unpaved mountain roads and plenty of stops, you get a very long and uncomfortable bus ride.
Anyways, life is good! You win some and you loose some. I guess I just have to keep working hard and perservering, knowing that in the end, I will have gained some amazing life experiences!
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