Nuestro humilde narrador llega a Honduras

I've arrived in Honduras!

Friday night I set out to try my luck on TACA airlines- they were the cheapest tickets I could get ahead of time and they were really nice about switching my flight what with the hurricane. My flight transfer got delayed (read as: I spent 6 hours in the airport in San Salvador walking around and getting to know my fellow demorados pretty well - one lady named Irma talked to me for about 4 and a half of those hours and showed me pictures of her grandkids - 4 people asked me if she was my mom, which is funny because we didn't look alike at all) but it was overall a good airline experience.

In the airport I reunited with Shin and Cosmo and don Marcio (aka SuperMarcio aka the Coolest Guy in Honduras) and we moved into the house together. It's much bigger than I through and it's right in the centro in El Progreso within walking distance of our office.

I met up with the COPPROME kids last night and it was AMAZING! Olvin and Ivancito have gotten so much bigger! All the high school girls played a fun (not fun) game called "do you remember what my name is" - I passed though. Phew! We're setting up a tutoring schedule soon.

On the way in from San Pedro Sula, marcio showed us where the water level had risen when the then-tropical depression came through: it had flooded to river to about 15 feet above its normal level, almost to the top of the arch under the big bridge that the Japanese built as a gift to Honduras. A lot of the houses I saw near the river were on stilts already, but some of them were flooded nonetheless. There were displaced people livinb in the middle of the highway divider with tarps for roofs and walls, being guarded by policemen with automatic weapons (apparently there were a few murders so they're trying to keep them safe). It was fortunate that the rain didn't cause more than the somewhat isolated lowland flooding we saw, but it was also a quick reminder of how there's always something more to do.

It's amazing to be back in Honduras, to smell the smells, to see deep green leaves and dusty roads and giant banano groves and mango trees and bodegas with open store fronts, the KFCs and Pizza Huts mixed in with fruit stands and BALEADORAS!!!... to feel the thud of a reggaeton backbeat coming out of a pickup truck, to see people stop on their way and shake hands with their cousin's friend's little brother and ask how they're doing... I don't know quite how to explain the full sensory experience - it takes me back but, more than that, it takes me forward to all the things to accomplish and things to come. Tonight we're going to take it relatively easy: visit the kids at Copprome, set up a schedule for the coming week, and plan what we're doing tomorrow to celebrate the national holiday Día del Niño - we're going to put together something for the kids in Siete de Abril and of course the Copprome kids.

"Mata ne" y hasta la próxima,
Carlos
(porque parece que he vuelto a ser conocido como Carlos)