My life is like a roller coaster baby, baby

This weekend was the first time I got to visit my site, my home for the next two years. While traveling to my site, I was sitting on the bus waiting for the last leg of the trip to start, when my cell phone rang. It was Gabe, the guy who had volunteered in my site before me. ¨congratulations on getting the awesomest site in Honduras!¨ he sang into the phone. I hestatingly said thank you, finding that hard to believe as I sat in the blistering heat, sweating from places on my body I didn't even know I could sweat from, waiting for the damn bus to start.

After I got into the site, although it was absolutely beautiful and even a little cooler than it had been at the foot of the mountain, it did not seem to get much better. My host family consisted of just an older couple who didn´t even know I was coming that weekend, and seemed almost annoyed that I was there. I also got a fairly large room to myself, but such little furniture and bed, that they fit in one small corner of my room, while the rest looked eerily like a warehouse. The next day, after going around and meeting all the people I was supposed to meet in the town, I reached my house at noon. The day of introductions was supposed to last the entire day, but somehow got cut short to one hour. So, when I reached my house, I found myself bored out of my mind. After eating lunch and having only so much to say to my host family that apparently didn´t even want me there, I went back to my room and read until I got bored with that, and proceded to sit on my bed and stare at the ceiling, wondering if this is what the next two years of my life would be like.

The next day was the complete opposite. It was filled with adventure and unexpected encounters. I went first to the class Gabe taught, to meet the students I will be teaching english to every Saturday for the next month. I introduced myself in front of the class, and sat down quickly to hear him teach. His Spanish was, of course, absolutely perfect and slightly intimidating. But besides that fact, I realized that it wouldn´t be so hard for me to do. I actually got excited about what I would teach my class, and how I would be as a teacher. I have never even thought of the profession, mainly because I have always known I cannot explain things worth crap, but more importantly I don´t have any patience (which I assume is important for a teacher). But either way, I got very excited thinking about the possibilities of teaching.

The thing that made me the most excited though, was the Catholic youth group that I joined very briefly. This youth group was meeting in the school, just two doors down from where the students were having class. So I just basically fell upon them unexpectedly. Very excited, and not really knowing what I was doing, I just entered the room and sat down in the circle, and listened as the girl talked about different kinds of leaders, which ones are good and which ones are bad. She didn´t even really say anything inspiring, and I didn´t even talk to one person there because I had to leave early, but I for the first time since I had been in Honduras, felt at home. I realized also the beauty of being Catholic. That anywhere you go in the world, you can always find someone who you know who shares the same beliefs as you, and celebrates the same Mass with you each Sunday (or once a month, as the people do in this town).

The last part of my day was also wonderful. I met for the first time the president of the coffee cooperative that I will be working with mostly over the next two years. She is a woman, which is pretty rare here in Honduras to have woman leaders, especially of farming cooperatives. She was extremely inviting and also very excited to welcome me to the team. One of the first things she said to me was how happy she was that I was a woman, because women have much more trust between one another that a man could never share with them. This made me extremely happy, especially considering that my counterpart, the vice-president of the cooperative and a very ¨machista¨ man, definately had not seemed happy that I was a woman. But after talking to her and hearing all about the work I will be doing for the cooperative, I got very excited, especially about their attempt to get the fruit grown in their area (which there is a TON of) certified as organic, so they can sell it as certified organic produce, as well as possibly make it into jams and ship it off to the states.

Well, this is all I have to say about my experience. A roller coaster, basically. And I have a feeling the next two years of my life with follow a strikingly similar pattern......Oh, and as one last note, my host family warmed up to me quickly, after the initial shock of having me show up at their door unexpectedly. I love them, and know we will get along just fine.