Day-to-Day Life

I have had friends who have moved to other countries or states, and I always found myself wondering what their day-to-day life looked like.  Perhaps some of you are wondering the same thing about me?  Now that I’ve been here for two months and have settled into the routines, it doesn’t seem like a very exciting thing to write about, but I will do my best to paint some pictures for you!

Like so many of you, my work week is from Monday to Friday.  Every day but Wednesdays, I am up at 5:30, and out the door by 7:00 to catch my personal taxi driven by Juan Carlos (the only driver I’m allowed to use because he goes to our church).  For safety, my house mom always walks me to the door and watches me walk up the steep hill from our house until I get into the taxi.  On Wednesdays, I am ready to leave the house by 6:15 and ride in to school with Emily and David so that we can have a time of worship with the teachers.  The ride to school is an adventure in and of itself!  With horns honking and arms waving, we make our way the wrong way down a two way street avoiding any oncoming traffic so that we can inch our way out into a jam packed street and make a left turn. On the way we pass what I call the Starbucks of Tegucigalpa; basically, it’s a card table set up with three-gallon thermoses of coffee and bags of sweet breads set upon it.  Next to it is a line of plastic lawn chairs filled with people sitting, sipping their coffee and chomping on their bread.  From there, the drive is easier as we wind around, up, and down side streets, slowed only by the mile high túmulos.  On a good day, we make it in ten minutes!

A few students from one of my English classes

Once at school, I hang out with the teachers by the huge, green entry gate, talk with them a little bit, and greet the kids with hugs as they come in.  I enjoy this social time of getting to know some of the teachers a little better, and I love hugging the kids—especially the ones who try to pass on by without getting hugged.  I think they are the ones who need to be hugged the most!  When the bell rings, I make my way down the steep driveway and down the stairs to the basement office.  After a little more social time, I buckle down to work.  My mornings are typically spent doing accounting and writing for the ministry.  I also use that time to prepare lesson plans for teaching English.  I have an English class every afternoon except on Wednesdays.  Twice a week I teach the teachers, and twice a week I teach a group of adults from the community.  I love both classes, and I’m having fun applying so much of what I learned in graduate school!  Once I’m done teaching, Juan Carlos takes me home.  I am relieved to now have a key to let myself in the gate instead of having to knock and wait and pray for someone to let me in!  

Time of worship and special music with our Wed. night group

I am usually tired when I get home because of the heat, so I greet whoever is home, and go to my second floor room to rest and check e-mails.  It’s then time to exercise which I usually do on the front porch, in my room, or in the living room, depending on who’s around!  After a day of sitting, I am actually really looking forward to getting to move!  On Wednesday evenings we have our church group, so on Wednesdays after school I usually play with Emily and David’s little boys for a bit, and then we go to the home of one of the church members for our time of worship and a Bible lesson.  I help set up and take down the sound equipment, but am otherwise free to just take everything in!  I am starting to learn the words to the songs better, but I’m still thankful that we project the words up on the wall!  On Monday and Thursday evenings my house parents go to church, so I use those nights quite often to do some cooking for myself or to talk with my friends and family back home!  I usually visit with my house parents in the evenings, too.  Lately we are on a kick of learning the medicinal properties of common food items—well, and some not-so-common food items, too.  I had never before heard of carao or durian, but they are quite fascinating!

Saturdays are just as treasured here as they are back home!   The sun comes up by 6:30, so it’s hard to sleep in very late, but at least I don’t wake up to an alarm!  By the time I’m done exercising, showering, and Skyping with my niece and nephews, it’s nearly time for lunch, but I have breakfast anyway!  My house mom usually has something ready for me, but a couple times I’ve been able to make my traditional Saturday morning pancakes!  Most Saturdays, my house dad has driven me to Tatumbla to the country home of Emily and David.  It’s nice to get out of the city and up to the cooler, fresher, cleaner air of the mountains!  I have fun playing outside with little Anthony and Eli, and we usually go for a walk.  

Sunday School in the new school building.

Sunday we are up early and off to church!  Church is held in a cement block building with a tin roof, and wooden shutters in place of windows.  A couple church members arrive early to set up the plastic lawn chairs, and hang some hand made decorations on the walls.  I help set up the sound equipment when we arrive and greet as many people as I can.  We usually have about 40 adults and 30 kids, but things settle down after worship when the kids go up the road to a little school room for Sunday school.  Emily leads our time of worship, and David is the pastor; they make a great team!  It seems like every other Sunday there is some special event going on, so we quite often have a meal together after church.  These church ladies manage to put on quite the spread with just a folding table to work off from!  The rest of Sunday is free to run errands, play with the boys, or sometimes I return to my city home to relax.

I hope that gives you an idea of my daily life here, and I hope I didn’t bore you with too many details!  In case you’re curious about the food, I can promise you that that will be the topic of a future blog post!