Thursday, July 2 -- Last full day in Honduras

My last full day in Honduras, and I couldn’t have asked for a better day! Sam, Christian, and I had been planning a graduation ceremony for our English class at Villa Soleada for the past week. We were unsure if we would get to have it considering all the crazy circumstances, but we did. We began our morning by going on a scavenger hunt in the centro to buy sandia (watermelon), duct tape, and last minute souvenirs. The centro of Progreso is really the heartbeat of the city. It’s always booming with business as townspeople sell fruits, veggies, tortillas, hammocks, machetes, and more. We braved the crowded streets one last time, and politely responded to the clearly spoken English “hellos.” We had to turn down our first vendor because he wanted 45 lempiras for each sandia, that’s crazy. We crossed the street and bought them for 35 a piece instead. Christian and I carried the sandia through the centro as Sam navigated our way to the nearest clothing store. I had to buy a couple of Honduras jerseys for some very adorable young cousins of mine. Christian scouted out some legit polo t-shirts and Sam kept us on track of time; I love our team, we work together better than any trio could. After finalizing our purchases we dodged the traffic to the car where Clare waited for us. We stopped by the apartment to pick up some coloring crayons and then headed out to Villa for our last day. It felt like forever since we had been there, and in reality, it had been almost a week since our last venture through the community of Brisas, visit to our favorite pulperia, “hola’s” to the children chasing our bus, and spectacular lunch time with Pastora and Sandra. Our first destination point was the pulperia. While we were not meeting with the commander and chief to make our battle plans for the day, we still enjoyed a bag of pop or “soda” as you Virginians say and said goodbye to our dear friend, Omar. We walked down the main road a ways and stopped at destination point C (for coloring books of course). I wanted to give two of the girls I had met coloring books and crayons as a going away present. They accompanied us numerous times through Brisas as we conducted our surveys, got in trouble by their parents for not checking in with them as to their whereabouts, and kept us in tune with the local community gossip. I don’t think that they have ever had coloring books before because when I asked them if they liked to color they acted as if they didn’t know what that was so I said if you want to learn I will bring you coloring books and crayons. The smile on their faces was a promise that I couldn’t break to them, so I returned today to do just that, give them maybe their first coloring books and crayons. They were so excited and it broke my heart when they wanted me to give them to all of their friends too. I know it wasn’t fair to choose only two of them, but it gives me the idea to bring more in the future for the children that live there. Next destination point, G (for graduation at English class). As we entered the property of Villa Soleada, we were welcomed by screams of joy and Nicol and Keilin running full speed in our direction. We’ve spent almost every day playing games with them, coloring, and teaching them English. It was the greatest feeling ever when my friends ran our way and jumped into each of our arms one by one saying “no se va a ir, you can’t leave us.” As we approached the bodega, Sandra and Pastora chimed in with “no se va a ir, va a quedar conmigo para siempre, you have to stay with me forever” They say this in a voice that is impossible to turn down so I reply with “por su puesto voy a quedar contigo para siempre en su corazon hasta que regreso la proxima vez, of course I’m staying with you forever in your heart until the next time I return.” We received so many hugs today from everyone; it was definitely a day full of love. After savoring every last bite of my rice, beans, tortillas, and spaghetti, we began the graduation ceremony. Our very own Christian made one last fantabulous cartulina, poster, to hang on the wall of the bodega. We expressed our thanks for participation and patience as we taught them for the past five weeks and then handed out the “diplomas.” After finding legit diploma paper at the apartment I made one for each of our students. We called their names one by one, gave them a round of applause, and cheered as they each shared a different English word that they remembered from the course of our lessons. We were so surprised that not one word was repeated; however, when one man said “yes” as his English word we could only laugh and applaud him as we had never once said that word in class, oh well; it was still an English word. We took a class photo and numerous individual photos with our family members of Villa Soleada. To celebrate the graduation, we shared our watermelons that were purchased earlier that day at the centro. Watermelon seems to be as popular if not more popular in Honduras than the U.S. which is wonderful because it is a healthy, inexpensive treat for many people to share. We stayed as long as we could with our friends at Villa, and when it came time to say goodbye, I used every ounce of energy to hold back the tears. I said I’d be back as soon as possible, and I hope for that to be winter break. It never gets easier to say goodbye, but as I stood in the back of the truck and yelled “adios amores” and “chelito,” to one of my good friends, I couldn’t help but smile because of the lasting relationships I have with my family in Honduras.
Dinner plans…back at the apartment, Sam, Caitlin, and I decided to host an enticing dinner of homemade baleadas, fresh black bean salad, and puppy chow for dessert. I personally invited all of the staff, our friends from the Women’s Academy, and the UVA crew. After all the numbers had been tallied we prepared to go the grocery store, but…a lightning storm outside pushed back our departure time a little because as we were deciding how much money we would need, a lightning bolt struck our transformer outside our house and sent sparks flying everywhere. The power went out immediately, and we all looked at each other as we realized we hadn’t showered and there would be no running water the rest of the evening. Thus is life in Honduras. We made the most of it and quite enjoyed packing some clean clothes to shower at our friends’ hotel. Even though we made a list of all the things needed for the evening’s festivities we still forgot that because there was no electricity we would need to cook and eat by candlelight; some might find this inconvenient, we took it as a challenge and made the most of it. Once we were all cleaned up and back at the apartment, we began the assembly line of making baleadas. Caitlin took over the tortilla, beans, and cheese department; Sam handled the eggs and chicken; and I added the finishing touch of toasting them on the stove. As I have mentioned earlier, I have yet to master the art of making tortillas by hand so for the sake of everyone’s baleadas we cheated and ready-made tortillas. We all pitched in to make dinner happen, and it was truly a success. Baleadas and black bean salad, nothing could have been more pleasing to my taste buds  While having twenty people over for dinner was a little crowded, we wanted to spend the most time we could on our last night with our closest friends. After dinner, Shin gave us a little speech and presented each of the fellows and Caitlin, the BGF intern, with a thank you gift. Once again I tried to hold back the tears, but so many had been stored up that a few escaped. Clare baked us the most delicious cake, and we all said a few parting words. To distract us from our sadness of leaving in the morning we had our cake, and ate it too, then we cranked up the music to “just dance.” This evening and entire day was by far the best that it could have possibly been. I was so scared we weren’t going to be able to say our goodbyes as planned because of the political situation, but thank God we got our day of closure.
Packing in the dark was quite an adventure. I was half way done before the power went out, but the second half seemed to be more tasking than the first, maybe because I had a flashlight in one hand and was throwing stuff in my suitcase with the other hand. The first day we arrived we were without power because of the earthquake; now, the last day we are here we, we are again without power. I’d say that makes this a complete trip (well minus the parting earthquake. I’m glad that didn’t happen today, too.)