I arrived in Talanga on Saturday and its hard for me to believe its only day 5 here! My flights went well, although I wasn't able to connect with my parents in Miami and my roommates and I all arrived in Tegus around the same time. After arriving, we went out for lunch and after that, it's all a bit of blur. We have been meeting lots of people and getting oriented. Although the 6 of us PVIs live together, we each have our own host family who we will be spending time with. I met my family yesterday and will be going to their house to hang out for the first time this afternoon. My spanish is terrible and its one of the few things so far that I will have to do by myself so its bound to be difficult but I'm excited to get to know them. We've also have each been assigned to a school and particular classroom. My classroom is a third grade at Duarte school. Today was my second day there and its already proven to be very helpful to my spanish. I took a test this morning... hopefully I passed! The communication between my teacher and I is rocky because of the language but she seems to want me to be a student for grammar and other subjects to work on my spanish and then help her teach math. So much more has happened since we arrived.... we had to break into our own room because the lock was broken, I caught a tarantula, and we've had to learn how to manually flush a toilet, shower with a plastic pumpkin bucket and wash our clothes by hand at the pila. Sunday was my birthday and Monday was my roommate Carolina's birthday. We went to the children's mass in the morning on Sunday and Carolina, a little boy who's birthday was also Monday and I were called up front to be sung to by the whole congregation. Then we went to the evening mass that night and Carolina and I were called up again to be sung to.... and birthday songs in Honduras are much longer than the Happy Birthday we use at home! Monday night, our neighbors surprised us with a birthday party... we had cake, there was lots of dancing and Carolina and I were miraculously spared the Honduran birthday tradition of smashing an egg on head and then throwing flour at the person celebrating their birthday. I constantly feel overwhelmed but am loving all of it and am so grateful that I have opportunity to live this.
Thanks so much to everyone who sent me birthday emails or messages... I missed being able to spend it with people at home but definately had a great day here... It was a birthday I'm sure I will always remember!
New contact info!!!
My cell phone number here is 01150431942156
Email joanine.carey@gmail.com
Mailing address
Joanine Carey
Voluntarios Pasionistas
Iglesia Catolica
Talanga F.M.
Honduras C.A.
If you send me mail, please let me know via email or phone call so I will know to check it regularly. *hint hint, I love receiving mail**
Pictures coming soon, I hope!
Tererro
Juanita, Patricia, Miguel and I doing voices while reading a children's book on the radio
Honduran style transportation
Getting dinner at my host family's
Visiting people in Tererro... this is the "serious face" picture
Surprise Birthday party for Carolina and I
Hanging out in Tererro
Miguel, Nina, Carolina, Rosalina, Patricia y Juanita
The Llave (Key) to the Star Chart.... See below...
House Star Chart
My mosquito free bed
