Travelling

I’m not sure the last time that I updated my blog, or what I wrote on that update, so this may be very out of date.

Two weekends ago: I went to Comayagua to Peace Corps Olympics! I shared a hotel room with several friends and friends of friends (which is how you meet everyone in PC). I was kind of disappointed because we didn’t have hot water.

The Saturday began and we all go to the soccer field, which because of all the rain lately has been named the mud bowl. We play soccer, in three games. My team won! Not that I assisted in that. I was out there, but my skills at soccer stopped at basic passing the ball. I had a lot of fun. It was so hard to stop while playing, and people were sliding and falling into the mud all over the place. At one point I passed the ball to a teammate, and saw three other players from the opposing team start running for the ball and thought, “Oh no, they are going to get it;” but in the end they all slid too far and the ball went right to whom it was meant for. Go me.

After soccer, we had sack races, three legged races and a water balloon toss.

The final activity was ultimate Frisbee. Now, this is not my game. I tried, I really did, but just couldn’t get it. Every time that I tried to cover my person, I wouldn’t have a clue where the Frisbee went to, and if I watched the Frisbee for a second, I lost the person. In the end, I didn’t end up playing too much, just cheering on my team.

Afterwards we all went dirty and tired to eat lunch. We had the events at a real city, with all kinds of restaurants, Honduran and American. Then back to the hotel to rest for the night, and Peace Corps prom.

Now, I am not going to lie, I was disappointed in prom. Really it was a dress-up party. I went in a strapless dress (reuse of bridesmaid dress!) and had quite the sun tan/burn lines. I applied sunscreen twice in 6 hours, apparently not enough, even for an overcast day. Most of the women were in a similar position.

The next day I went home, and worked for the week.

Until Friday, when I took off for vacation. Now, before the vacation started I was flipping out because our paychecks were very late. For two months we had been paid at the middle of the month, and it was already the 20th and we hadn’t been paid. I didn’t have enough without that month’s pay, and the vacation needed to be paid for in cash. In the end a friend had to up front me a lot of money.

That first day I went up to the coast, picking up some friends on the way. We stayed in a cottage on the beach. Early the next morning we took off for some islands which are only a few miles off the North Coast of Honduras. After stopping at the conservation center, we went to where we would be staying. There is a Garifuna community there (refer back to old blogs if you don’t remember them). They fed us and let us sleep in one of the cabins for the night.

We did a bit of snorkeling that first day. Now, I was wearing a sundress over my bathing suit most of the day and thought to myself, “I need to but on more sunscreen before going out without the dress.” Yeah, people had already left, so I just went in. While in the water I realized that I hadn’t applied sunscreen, and yep, I burned. One hour in the sun, and skin not used to seeing daylight= strong burn. For those of you who haven’t already figured out where I burned, I burned my butt. There is a strong red outline around the bottom bathing suit half. So, burned butt cheeks and upper thighs = fun time sitting. I have never been more happy that I sleep on my stomach and therefore wouldn’t be in pain all night. The next day I applied much sunscreen the my bottom.

The next day did have a bunch more snorkeling, and we saw an island for sale. Very sweet set-up. We then ate more lunch (fresh fish again) and headed back to the mainland. Half of the group had to go back to work, and the rest of us went up into the mountains. We went to a lodge and ate before going to bed. Sounds boring, but all that sun and time on the water wore us out.

The next morning we went out white water rafting. It really felt like only a few minutes, but it was three hours, well, almost three hours. The stinky part is that the hard part is right in the beginning, and then it is much easier. So, the first few minutes I was still a little unsure and a little nervous, but later when I was like “whooahh,” it was only baby stuff. Not the fault of the company, but still a little stinky.

Yeah, and then we started heading home. Good times had by all.

I get home and there was an inauguration of a park and community center that my friend and fellow volunteer designed and found funding for. I went to that; it was very preachy since a reverend was the master of ceremony. Still, I had a good time.

Now, I am home, at least for a few days, and working. I am really excited for going and staying out in the aldeas in two weeks. I really like being out there.