Under the sea.

So me and some AFS friends went to a town called La Ceiba. Originally it was gonna be for about 6 days, just chillin there and exploring, since some people had heard it was a cool place. So once while we were there, we heard all this talk about Utila, one of the bay islands off the northern coast of honduras. So we ended up taking the ferry over there. When we got there, I decided to take a scuba diving course. Scuba diving is amazing. I had a blast. So our one week trip turned into two weeks.

So the last week I´ve been scuba diving. In one of the best places to do it in the world (and one of the cheapest =) )

Now I´m back in Omoa. Back to school tomorrow. But I´m ok with that.

Ok I´m sorry, that should have been way longer, but….oh well. The end.

An unexpected trip

Ok so I just got back from Tocoa, a town about 6 hours away to the east, that´s a little farther south from the beach. It´s kind of interesting how I ended up going there, so I´ll tell the story =)

 Ok so it started last week. Tuesday it must have been. I was going to practice music with some of the kids at the church. We were waiting outside for the kid with the key to get there, and a pickup passed by with 2 gringoish looking people in the back. They told me to talk to them, so I said “Hi!”. and they responded with a little “meehh” and a half wave. And then one of the guys said to me “you know they said hi like that, right? it´s cuz they´re Jehovah´s witnesses and we´re evangelicals.” And I was like “ohh..” and I sensed a negative additude (duhh) So taht got me thinking about jehovah´s witnesses.

Next day, it´s the afternoon and I go to the pulperia across the street. I meet this cool kid there who´s a distant cousin of the owners (of the pulperia) visiting from El Salvador. So we like talked a while and stuff. And then he asked me if I wanted to hang out at the beach later that night with him and a friend. I said sure.

So that night we went to the beach and just chilled. I found out that him and his friend were both Jehovah´s witnesses, and that kind of spiked my interest, so I asked them like what they were all about. We talked a while, and then he invited me to their meeting that would be the next night. I said sure.

So I went the next night. It was pretty somber. Everyone was really nice. But anyways, after the meeting he was all like “wanna come to tocoa with me and my aunt?” And I was like “uhh…I´m gonna have school” But I ended up going anyways.

So we went with his aunt and his niece to stay at his other aunt´s house over in Tocoa.

note- ok a little explaining. His “aunt” (they´re farther related than that, but yea) is the daughter of the people that own the pulperia, and I had seen her around before. And I knew HER daughter (her name´s Urani), who Alberto (my host brother) has a crush on.

So anyways, we stayed with their family there in tocoa who were really nice and really funny. One of the days there we went to another coast town called Trujillo (Honduras version!) where there´s another fort. But the one there is SUPER small and the Omoa one totally pwns it. The beach is really nice though. And I had a bomb caracol soup.

So yea, actually I got back yesterday. I´m continuing this post from yesterday because I wasn´t able to finish it before. Today I went to colegio for the first day, but we still don´t really have classes. This week we just have “charlas” (chats). Just going over rules and inspirational stuff. But guess what?! There´s a new gringo. His name´s Jacob. He´s gonna be here for the whole school year.

But here´s the crazy thing. He´s from Arkansas. He asked me where i was from. I said California. He asked what city. I said Pasadena. He was like “Oh, I was in the Rose parade last year”. And then I was like wait a second…Do you live in Fayetteville Arkansas? And he was like yea. And then I said “You wouldn´t happen to know any Flynns would you?” And he does! He goes (well went) to the same school as the Flynns. Well, Josh and Jessica at least. So yea, crazy coinkidink huh! Someone should pass the news onto them.

But yea, he doesn´t live in omoa though. He´s being hosted by one of the teachers at the school who lives in Cortes. So technically I´m still the only one in Omoa.

Alright, fin

School´s back

Tomorrow actually. Time to pull out the old uniform and put stuff in the backpack and wake up at 6 and walk 5 minutes to school. Every day. SWEET.

But something I´m looking forward to…March 1-7 I´m gonna be meeting up with the 3 other US kids in a city called La Ceiba. What for?? NOTHING! We´re just gonna be hanging out for a week. It´s gonna be really fun, I´m super looking forward to it. It´s another beach town, but bigger than Omoa, and we´ve all heard about it so that´s why we decided to go there.

So time here lately, well it´s been chill. Nothing amazing, but nothing crappy either. I finished 2 of the books I bought in Tegucigalpa. Around the world in 80 days and one about Che Guevarra. Around the world I enjoyed a lot, but the Che one was kind of blaa. Now I´m about half-way through the Hobbit. ANd then I still have one book left, called Our Man in Habana. After I finish these I wanna try to find Don Quixote, hehe. Or the other Lord of the Rings books. I dunno, we´ll see.

Ok this is the part when I don´t know waht to say.

I gotta be honest though, these past few months I´ve been coming to the internet at least a couple times a week, but i just never have the desire to write on this blog. It must be my anti-writing mindset getting to me. And it sucks too, cuz like little things have happened now and then that now I´ve forgotten, and who knows if I´ll ever remember them again, since I´m not keeping like a physical journal or anything.

But I´ve broken my silence.

So the heat´s coming back. I´m sweating right now. Sitting at the computer. And there´s a slight breeze too.

Lately my lips have been really tender. Not like chapped (I still have my chapstick) but it´s just like the skin right outside them feels kind of sore. Like it´s not very comfortable to open my mouth really wide.

I haven´t fished since the last time I wrote about fishing. So that makes it…3 times I went fishing. I could again. And I was going to too. I just haven´t. Laziness to the max? Probably. I do still go to the beach a lot though. Mainly to go and sit in a hammok under the shade and read. It´s good stuff.

Alright, well I´ve been on a while now, so I think I´ll go.

OH ps. A couple days ago I passed the oficial half-way mark for my time here. So that means just 5 months left. AH!

I guess I would say that time has gone by fast.

yeaaa

So I spent 2 weeks in Tegucigalpa with aunt and uncle Karol and Harold. It was amazing. The first 5 days a family came from Chicago and they were really cool. Wait I already put up pictures from that. So yea. Actually, i think it was that same day..I was on gmail and my american afs friend instant messaged me. I decided since i didn´t really have any plans for the next couple days I would go visit him in Comayagua, which is in between Tegucigalpa and Siguatepeque (where the seminary is) and is like 2 hours away. So I hopped on a bus and went there. And it was bomb. He has an awesome host family, and we had tons of fun. We went to this park where theres like a lake to go boating in (canoes, rowboats), a (freezing cold) pool, and a ZOO! but the zoo was kind of sad. They had like monkeys and birds and stuff. But the sad part was the had a LION. And it was stuck in a tiny little cage with a cement floor. Bored to death. It made me really depressed for a while. And there are like 3 leopards too, in a cage next to the lion one. So yea…honduran zoo. But the rest of the park was really cool. That lake made me wish i had a girlfriend, it was really romantically pretty. Someday I´ll take my wife there. And it´ll be sweet.

And I´ll just say I really like the city of Comayagua too. It´s like an actual city, with like paved roads and stone buildings and stuff, but without all the commercialized advertising stuff that plagues all big cities.

And the disco was pretty tight too

So now I´m back in Omoa. Same old, same old. School´s starting soon though. I hope that´ll be chill. I´ve almost finished “around the world in 80 days” since I´ve got back. In spanish mind you! It´s good, I like it. I guess it´s a classic or something. Oh and either here or when I get back I have decided that I´m going to read Don Quixote! Yes, that´s right. I will, I promise. The whole freaking thing.

Ok so to be honest, I feel lonely a lot of the time. I think its good for me though. Because I don´t think I´ve ever truely felt lonely before. Actually, I don´t think this is true loneliness either, but definitely more than I´ve ever felt before. I mean, I´ve always had like super tight homies and super tight family my whole life, and well, right now i don´t. Don´t get me wrong, I´m still enjoying myself for sure. It´s just…different.

Everyone´s getting a PHAT hug when i get back. (that´s right, with a PH)

peace.

ok..

http://s90.photobucket.com/albums/k258/zoels/teguc/

there, I loaded all the pictures onto photobucket so they should be visible there. If it STILL doesn’t work..i don’t know what to tell you. But it should work.

But when I uploaded them they got all out of order, so you can play a game and try to match the captions from my previous post with the pictures!

Updates! with pictures

So as some may know, on the 26th of December I came to Tegucigalpa (the capital of Honduras) to visit my aunt and uncle (who are missionaries here) and another family that was going to be here. Since my relatives aren’t as digital camerally challenged as I am, they were able to take pictures, so here they are. Oh and since I’m lazy I’m just gonna be pasting the e-mail that my aunt already sent to my family. but I’ll add a few more things if i feel like it.

Dear Bill, Jill, and Ben,

Happy New Year!  Joel is in the living room trying to find the Rose Parade on TV.  Hope it will be on! (I found it! It was definitely a cool thing seeing pasadena all the way from honduras. I watched the rose bowl game too, USC pwned!)

Here are a bunch of pictures of Joel that I thought you might enjoy seeing.  As you know, a family we hadn’t met from a supporting church in Hinsdale, IL, came to spend a few days with us (Dec. 26-31).  They’re in a lot of the pictures and also took some of these.  Jim and Gwen are the parents, and their kids are James (a junior at LeTourneau University) and Christie (age 15).

I’ll send these in a couple of installments, since there are a lot (well I’m putting them all together, so lucky for you guys).  I made them kind of small (maybe too small?(I didn’t write that, she did)) so you can get them more easily.  If you want any of them larger, I’ll be glad to send them bigger.

The first meal at our house after everybody arrived:

Playing a labyrinth game::(That game is freaking CRAZY but I can’t beat it. It’s where you turn the nobs so the ball rolls around and you don’t want to fall in the holes.)

Hiking at a national cloud forest (7,000 ft.) called La Tigra:

 (I love how Harold’s head looks like it’s photoshopped in there…he’s actually really tall)

Picnic lunch at La Tigra:

Entrance to an old silver mine at La Tigra:(HUURRR) (that wasn’t on purpose)

Here are some pictures of our time in Siguatepeque, where our little seminary is.  (Harold is chairman of the board.)  We stayed in 3 rooms; ours had a little kitchenette.

Joel, Christie, and James in our room.  We were playing a game.

At the market in Siguatepeque:

Joel at night with sparklers.  He bought some firecrackers at the market. (ooohhh I like this one)

Pulling weeds at the seminary (Carol, James, Joel).  Jim and Harold were setting up computers in the office, so we decided to pull weeds.

Great view! (HEYAAA!!)

James and Christie in a tree at the seminary; Joel on a swing.

Playing soccer with some of the professors’ kids in the early evening.  Joel is on the right.

Eating a soup supper in our room.

Looking over the seminary buildings.

Visiting the Evangelical Hospital in Siguatepeque.  (Harold is a board member there also.)

Looking at a small sugar cane mill (Carol, Joel, Christie): (Check out my hand there, it looks like I don’t have fingers or something!)

At the Pulhapanzak waterfall: (oh and the shirt I’m wearing was my christmas gift from my family. It says Honduras, see!)

Eating sour fruit by the waterfall: (it wasn’t THAAT sour..)

Picking the same sour fruit:

Eating fish by Lake Yojoa: (ok I so I know it looks like its sour or something, but it wasn’t, that fish was just freaking amazing. It’s definitely the biggest fish I’ve ever eaten.)

Another great face!  (He liked the fish, but it doesn’t look like it!!) (and I wasn’t making these faces on purpose either, they just came out liek that…kinda funny lookin though. Oh and I should say that from where I was sitting I was facing Lake Yojoa and it was an amazing view and I wish someone had taken a picture of that too.)

Here are the last pictures.

At one of the churches we started in Tegucigalpa:

Our final evening meal together at a typical restaurant called El Patio:

Refried beans are in one clay pot (with charcoal underneath), and stretchy cheese is in another.  Joel is trying to get the cheese to go onto his tortilla. (AHHH that stuff was amazing..)

Ok so I guess that’s the end of the pictures. There were more but those are the ones that my aunt pulled out of me and I’m too lazy to find the other ones.

So I went to the doctor today. I had had these little scabs on my body that at first I thought were bug bites, but turns out they’re not. They just these little circular things that kind of fill up with puss and get hard and don’t go away. I had bought this anti-bacterial soap and some cream stuff, but it didn’t work, so like I said, I went to the doctor. Turns out I have a staff infection, and the doctor prescribed some antibiotic pill thing and some other type of cream. But it should all turn out fine now. And the weird thing is that these little scabs don’t itch and don’t hurt..they’re just kind of there.

But yea, DON’T WORRY MOM! haha. Peace people. 

I was reading the newspaper

and there was this joke in the jokes section that made me crack up, so I´m gonna share it with you guys.

A couple arrives at the doctor´s office: “Doctor, we want a treatment so that my wife doesn´t feel pain while giving birth.” The doctor says: “We´ve got the latest treatment. It´s so effective that the father will feel the pain.” When it was time to give birth everything turned out fine and the husband exclaimed “Doctor, this treatment is so effective that I didn´t feel any pain at all!” But when they got home they found the mailman dead next to the door.

hahaha. So yea I cracked up for a while. Peace!

A new entry

So the past 3 days it´s been really rainy and muggy here in Omoa, Cortes. I don´t mind it too much, but it sucks for a couple things.

1. Using the bathroom. It´s fine to just..use it, but then you have to go outside and get a bucket of water and then dump it in the toilet, but then when you walk in the bathroom again your feet are wet and you get the floor all dirty so then you have to get the mop and clean it and then finally you can leave.

2. There´s either no water, or the water´s really dirty, which means no running water showers. You gotta use the water in the bucket and just dump it on you. And this usually isn´t so bad, it´s actually really refreshing, except for the fact that its freaking COLD. But we deal. e

So I bought a fishing line. And a hook and a lead weight. and I found a little piece of wood to wrap it around. My “cuerda”. BOO YAA

So I´ve gone fishing 2 times so far. The first time I didn´t catch anything. But it wasn´t my fault! It was because the hook that I had bought was too big, and the fish were too small, and they would just steal the carnada (bait) and wouldn´t get hooked on the hook. It sucked though, because for a long time I thought I was doing something wrong, because Alberto and the other guys were catching stuff. But yea, I realized.

But that´s when the rain came. So we had to wait a couple days. Until yesterday, when it cleared up for a while. Oh and during that time I bought a smaller hook, so the fish would stay. So yea, yesterday we went again. AND….I caught 2 fish!!! SHABAAAMM. So when we went home we cleaned them and ate them and even though they were small, they we GOOD. So yea. The end. For now. Once it stops raining we´re gonna go again, and I´m gonna catch more!! Muaha.

So that´s about it for now.  Oh wait, my mom sent me the IMC minutes deal, where it said Miller brought up the idea of going to London in 2008! I really REALLY hope that can be worked out, do you guys know how awesome that would be?! Don´t slack off band kids! We can do it!!

No but seriously, it would be really freaking awesome if that could actually happen, I really hope it does. So yea.

Oh one more thing. I just finished reading A Clockwork Orange. In Spanish! BOO YAAH. La Naranja Mecánica is how they translated the title. And it was really good. So yea, an achievement I guess. Peaceage

Marcha

So two days ago the school held a little protest march. There are two things we´re protesting

1. On the road to Puerto Cortes, there´s this part that isn´t paved for maybe 200 feet. Its just bumpy dirt and when cars cross it they make lots of dust. So we were protesting that they finish paving the road because I guess they´ve already payed for it. Also, there´s an elementary school right next to the dirt spot and I guess there have been kids getting sick from inhaling dust or something.

2. There´s been some business man extracting dirt from the river here in Omoa, and the school doesn´t like that. It´s dirt used for making cement, and I guess they think its unfair that this “Señor” is getting all this free dirt and that it isn´t fair because at the school they´re constructing a new building and they need dirt too. I don´t know, something like that.

So we marched all the way to chivana (about 2 miles away) to the unpaved part of the rode, and then blocked traffic there for like an hour. I thought it was kind of dumb to block the traffic…people just wanted to get by. We just stood there and people would talk on the microphone and would say “El pueblo unido…” and we would respond “…jamas sera vencido” (The united town will never be defeated).

So yea I guess it was an experience. I´m not too sure what I think about it…like if it´ll work or anything. I´m pretty sure it was dumb to block traffic for an hour though, I don´t think that really helped anything… only pissed people off. One car they let through heading for Omoa because there was apparently a sick person inside, but then realized taht the hospital is in the other direction…so the next car that said that they didn´t let pass.

In other news, I´m planning on visiting Harold and Karol in the time between Christmas and new years. Karol´s a cousin of my dad´s,  but I´m just going to call them my aunt and uncle to make things simple. They live in Tegucigalpa. Everything´s going to work out really well, because we arranged it so that I´ll be able to stay in Omoa for Christmas, the day after head for Tegucigalpa, stay there for a couple days, and then come back the day of the 31st to be in Omoa for new years. And also, there´s going to be some family from the US visiting them during that time that has two kids arround my age, so that´ll be cool to hang out with them too.

And tomorrow is my last day of school. After that no school until february. Fun huh? I hope so. Maybe I can get good at soccer or something.

So that´s all for now. I REALLY MISS HOME!!!! Ahhh…it seems like forever before I come back. And I really want to come back. And likewise, it seems like forever before I´m gonna be totally comfortable with spanish….hurry up time. Hurry up. I´m sick of having to have everything explained to me. I wanna be independent again. And clever. I miss being clever.

Hart would be amazed

Ok so I went to the beach today just to watch the clouds and stuff. At about the time the sun set, everyone was gathering in a circle close to the water, so I went to see what was going on.

 Some guy caught the freaking biggest fish I´ve ever seen!!!! It was seriously like some sort of mutant. I would estimate about 4 and a half feet long, and at least 2 of me fat in the middle. OMG it was amazing. It must have weighed at LEAST 150 lbs.

And it didn´t completely die until after like 20 minutes. Every once in a while it would jump up and flop like a little fish except its huge. Finally the guy brought out a knife and slit its belly. There were some eggs inside that they took out. It was funny because they brought like a a little pail to put the eggs in, but they didn´t fit, so they had to get another bag too.

Oh and when they pulled up its equivalent of a cheek bone, there was this red stuff that kind of looked like the stuff on a coosh ball but the little pieces were a lot thicker and shorter. Kind of like a really frilly red sponge.

But yea, so it was pretty much amazing. And I didn´t have my camera so all you people will never see it. Oh and its called either guaso or guasa I think … (the type of fish) I wrote it down but I don´t have the paper with me.

So yea I know I haven´t written in a while. Everything´s going good though. This is the last week of classes in school, the next week we have final exams. After that I don´t have school until February 1st!! Pretty tight. I´m supposed to contact my local advisor about my community service project for our summer, so maybe I´ll get around to that, maybe now. No one has contacted me…so yea. Afs requires that we have a community service project during the summer so that we “have something to do” and don´t just stay in the house all day.

I took more pictures of the house and stuff like 3 weeks ago or whenever it was right after I put up those other photos, but I forgot to bring them. Next time.

So yea, I´m never going to think of fish the same way again.

 NOTE – Ok I wrote this like a week ago, but I guess it never got “published” and was only “saved”. So here you go. A week old.