Waking up in Honduras was a new experience. Luckily the Ruttans let me sleep in since I hadn't had a proper sleep since Tuesday night. When I got up and ready, Dale, Carolyn, and I went out to do some running around. The following includes my observations of the places we went:
The mall
The first thing that I noticed walking in was the guard with a gun. Because of my experience in the DR and having read up on Honduras before coming, I knew that I would see many guards with guns around, but it is still a weird experience seeing them in places like the mall because it's so unlike what we're used to in Canada. Yes, we have security guards in our malls but they aren't heavily armed with guns in their hands. It's definitely something to get used to.
There were a lot of shops there that we have in North America, but there were also a bunch of shops I didn't recognize. There was a place like the Bath and Body Shop called Applewood. I saw Beautiful Day in there, which is a kind that I have at home. I also saw a place that is called something like Anne's, which I've seen in Traverse City. You can get pretzel dogs there, which I love! Unfortunately, I did not get one today. Maybe next time we're there. Anyways, it was just a short pop in there so Dale could get his hair cut.
The bank
Their banks are really interesting here. When you go in, you give the person behind the desk some kind of card and they give you this key card which you have to use to get through doors and elevators, which we had to take upstairs. It's cool to see how secure their security is here.
At the bank, I got some of my lempiras switched into smaller bills to make it easier to buy things since not a lot of places would have change for a 500 bill, which is equal to twenty five dollars US.
The marketplace is just wow. It's this big area that has tarps over top, and there's all these little stalls with all kinds of produce. There were so many stalls and they mostly sold all of the same things. Dale and Carolyn buy most of their produce there. It was interesting watching them communicate with the tenders, asking "Cuanto es?" which means "How much?" Something I noticed that I found odd was the fact that their oranges aren't even orange! They're more of a green and yellow colour.
Dale pointed out on a hilltop a statue of Jesus that overlooks the city. He said that we'd get to go up there at some point and see it so I'm excited for that. We unfortunately (or maybe fortunately!) did not get to go to the meat market section (as there were more sections there than just the produce) but we're going to go there next time so that I can experience that (and so they can buy meat). I did have a small experience with a meat market in the DR, so I know somewhat what to expect there.
The grocery stores
Before going shopping, Carolyn and I went to an upper section of the grocery store were they had a couple of little food and drink shops. There I made my first purchase, buying a Mango Granita from Espresso Americano. Then we went shopping for other food. It was so strange seeing what looks like to me like such high prices for things (39.00 for a bag of chips), but that is because everything is in lempiras. So something that is priced as 39.00 is more like $2.00 US. It was interesting having to try to figure out how much things would cost in American. I actually got a lot of good deals. I think I spent about 160 lempiras, which is only $8.00 and I got 3 bags of chips, a small bag of combos, a box of microwave popcorn, and 4 packets of drink mix. When we got to the check out, we weren't allowed to pack any of our stuff ourselves into the bags, as that was the baggers' job. After they bagged the stuff, they even loaded it onto these kind of cart things and took it out to the vehicle and loaded it into the back for us. It's weird being served like that, other people taking care of everything for you. Once they loaded everything, then you give them a tip for their service. Carolyn commented that they must give really good tips because people always fight over who gets to serve them when they go in there.
Next, we went to a store that is like their version of Costco, where you can buy bulk versions of things. Dale and I went down the freebies aisle, but unfortunately most of the stalls were closed :(
There was another store that we had gone in earlier in the day that was kind of like a Giant Tiger and while we were walking around, a song came on that was like the spanish version of Pharrell's "Happy". I found it so amusing hearing the song in another language! And, ironically, it made me very happy :P
There was another store that we had gone in earlier in the day that was kind of like a Giant Tiger and while we were walking around, a song came on that was like the spanish version of Pharrell's "Happy". I found it so amusing hearing the song in another language! And, ironically, it made me very happy :P
Driving
At one point during our travels around town, we saw a bumper sticker that read, "Sin Dios la vida no tiene sentido" which means, "Without God, life has no meaning". I had to write that down as soon as I saw it because not only is it so true, but it just makes me so happy to see people with bumper stickers like that. I've also seen many God and Jesus related signs as we've driven around and it just fills me with such hope seeing a country that's so full and open with its faith. It gives me hope for other countries becoming Christian countries as well (technically Catholicism is the largest religion but the fact that the country is so open to religion and faith in God and Jesus is just amazing).
Update: I have discovered that there are street signs, if you know where to look. They're mostly all overhead, like how they are on highways and they're usually posted a bit before the actual street, not right beside it as we're used to in North America (at least that's what I've observed). So there are more than just the one street sign I saw.
We took a bit of a detour on our way home as Ben missed his bus from school. In his defence, he missed it because he was helping someone carry a table. If you're going to miss anything, helping someone is a good reason why. So we had to take a drive to his school to pick him up, so that was actually kind of cool for me because I got to see where the kids go to school.
When we finally returned home, Elisa, Carolyn, Reuben, and I went for a walk through an area which currently the name slips my mind, but it is a neighbourhood that is right across the street from us and the only way in is past a guard and one of those raising and lowering bars. We had a nice walk through there and I saw a beautiful view of the city.
I think it's so beautiful at night too, looking out and seeing all of the lights of the city. Just gorgeous! Elisa came down and joined us after and we ended up hanging out the rest of the night, playing Spot It and Bananagrams and we watched a movie called "Over Her Dead Body". We are getting along so well. I think she probably appreciates having another girl around the house.
Well, it is time for me to sign off now. The team from Essex is arriving tomorrow so I need to get to sleep.
Until tomorrow, buenas noches!
~ Cass Haines ~
Update: I have discovered that there are street signs, if you know where to look. They're mostly all overhead, like how they are on highways and they're usually posted a bit before the actual street, not right beside it as we're used to in North America (at least that's what I've observed). So there are more than just the one street sign I saw.
We took a bit of a detour on our way home as Ben missed his bus from school. In his defence, he missed it because he was helping someone carry a table. If you're going to miss anything, helping someone is a good reason why. So we had to take a drive to his school to pick him up, so that was actually kind of cool for me because I got to see where the kids go to school.
When we finally returned home, Elisa, Carolyn, Reuben, and I went for a walk through an area which currently the name slips my mind, but it is a neighbourhood that is right across the street from us and the only way in is past a guard and one of those raising and lowering bars. We had a nice walk through there and I saw a beautiful view of the city.
It is seriously so beautiful here. It's a little smoky over the mountains right now because they are doing burnings in preparation for the coming rains but even still, I think it's beautiful.
For supper, we had stir fry, which is like one of my favourites! It made me so happy! After supper, Carolyn took me down to the bottom of their walled in area and I got to see a wider view of the city (they have a great view from their balcony. I will post a picture of it later).
I think it's so beautiful at night too, looking out and seeing all of the lights of the city. Just gorgeous! Elisa came down and joined us after and we ended up hanging out the rest of the night, playing Spot It and Bananagrams and we watched a movie called "Over Her Dead Body". We are getting along so well. I think she probably appreciates having another girl around the house.
Well, it is time for me to sign off now. The team from Essex is arriving tomorrow so I need to get to sleep.
Until tomorrow, buenas noches!
~ Cass Haines ~
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