dirty fingernails

Covered in dirt from head to toe, 3 kids piled on top of me outside the hogar, the hot heat of the 30 degree sun beating down on us...I´m laying there trying to catch a breath when all of a sudden I can hear the blaring sound of the bus horn coming from a distance, the bus that I´m suppose to be getting on! Quickly jumping up, Im jetting across the hogar front lawn, I book it through the fence, the children urging me along to catch the bus and helping to lock the door behind me...looking both ways I jut across the high way, past a young man holding 2 iguanas in hand, and I´ve made the great leap... one jump and I´m onto the bus that seems to never stop (literally you have to pretty much jump for your life onto it everyday)and I´ve made it homeward bound to La Ceiba with an unstopable smile dancing on my face!

Sitting on the bus I began to reflect...it had been such a WONDERFUL day and a joyful day at that. I had an exhilirating feeling of energy as I could finally take rest on the bus, laughing at how ironic it was to feel full of energy after already having spent so much of it on the children all day! Energy spent on pretending to be a fire breathing dragon, singing songs on the swings, teachign shapes, colours, numbers, using body and song to teach the body parts in English and a great visit to El Cacao, where there´s a local project for the children in that village. A nice change of scenery for the kids, a chance to interact with other children, and a great lunch under the tire swing tree, followed by story time and songs & guitar with Reid, the project founder. A couple rounds of the classic favourite, ¨En la Jungla¨ (in the jungle) and every single child was content...well at least for 5 minutes! aha.

Observing my surroundings on the bus I was odly reminded of home, family. It began when I was gazing at a bumper sticker plastered to the school bus wall that read ¨El Amor de Dios es Maravilloso¨ (The love of God is marvellous)...of course this reminded me of mom haha! Not only her spirituality but the stories she would tell me of her wonderful experiences in Australia, and how one time she took a boat with some men from chile who loved to use the word maravilloso, and that was the one thing she could remember in Spanish! Shortly afterwars a man boarded the bus and sat down next to me, bleading through bandages where his left hand once was. He was covered in saw dust and had just come from a construction project of some sort. Breathing in the smell of saw dust, one of my favourite smells...thoughts of Dad began to cloud my mind. Thats always a smell I associate with dad...remembering the way dad would do wood work in the backyard shed. Starting small conversation with the man next to me, I shared this with him in my broken spanish and of course he was kind to listen, and friendly to respond as most people here are. I think feeling things such as that, remembering memories is just part of this stage being away from home. I have no feeling of homesickness, but now as I am becoming more and more comfortable here and now that I´ve created a home for myself, things are more or less common now and I can associate certain experiences with home. And this is really strange for me because I never would have thought anything here would remind me of home...but I guess I you always care little pieces of home with you!


Anyways, enough of that mushy stuff...onto details of last weekend! Now that Dan and I have really settled into our new apartment things are really on a role. Actually who am I kidding...from the get go we had visitors every night, our house has pretty much been a hostel from day one...and the thing is we LOVE it that way. We are now officially the halfway house and the PARTY house at that ahha. We live in a perfect upper middle class neighbourhood, with friends upstairs and in every other direction. A 5 minute walk or less from the mall and a 10 minute walk to my bus stop!We´ve got what some might call a golf course behind us and across from us a gym and soccer field. Oh and lets not forget the grandmother that sells beer, cigarettes and other refreshments from her patio. HILLARIOUS. We do have a couple pet cockroaches from time to time...no biggie and a little gecko friend, that we recently gave the name tequilla. Suitably so while we were having a little big of fun last Saturday night! For the second Saturday in a row Dan and I threw another great party...volunteers and local friends getting together for some music from home, some good dancing and a lot of funny pictures, videos, and stories to follow the morning after. Of course the party didn´t end there...just on the go we all headed to the hot spot on a saturday night, the local club - la casona, where the party doesnt end till the last person leaves! You know you´ve really started to fit into a city (or that kats really made herself comfortable in a city) once youve gained the friendships and connections of the local clubs owners and their newphews! ahha. Lets just say it makes for a very good time, and a more affordable night! ahah

Well it´s time to head out, a friends taking me out for dinner on the town! Buenas Noches! Many more stories to come soon!