Aug 18th
Well the end draws near as we pack up and head to the main office in the orphanage. There we met up with Katja and Max who agreed to take us to the capital. While going there one of their boys got sick in the car. So I gave him my dramamine that I had in my pouch (I did keep two though). We got to the capital and grabbed a taxi to the Hedman Alas bus station that was to take us to San Pedro Sula. The ride back seemed a lot faster than the ride to. Also on the ride at one point the bus slowed down to a complete stop. I feared that a road block was up but then I noticed something strange. There were many people walking past the outside of the bus with large liter and a half pepsi bottles. We got closer and I then saw the cause of the pepsi-bottle-carrying people and the halting of the ride. A pepsi truck had flipped over in the middle of the road! People were raiding the truck and traffic had completely went to 1km per hour (they use metric remember). That was interesting. Oh two more things I forgot to mention about the orphanage. One is that the milk we drank came in a box and had an opening like the Morton Salt Containers. Two is that since the milk sat on a shelf they have to zap it with chemical so it doesn't get chunky like up here, the chemicals extends the preservation of the milk. The preservation of this milk was extended to Jan. 14th of 2009. Chew on that one for a second. Anyway, we got to San Pedro and Luis picked us up again as we were going to stay there again. He took us to the hotel and said there would be a cyber café just down the block. So we went there and that's where I typed up the preceding Master Blog. Then we came back and I stayed behind to finish it up the blogging while Jen and Mom went to the mall to go shopping. When they got back we went to the Chicken Taco place that we went to on our way down. Tasty. Then we came back watched some tv. We watched the movie where the author means to kill a character in her book named Harold Crick who is really alive (if you know the movie comment it). After that we went to bed.
The last blog...
Aug 19th
Today's the day! The sun is shining, the tank is clean, and we are getting out of... >gasp< the tank is clean! Sorry again (Finding Nemo quote). But today we are going home! Yeah right. We'll get to that later. We got packed up for the last time and went down to breakfast. Beans, eggs, toast, juice (no coffee). After this we went to a store to buy snacks cheaper than what the airport would have. Believe it or not the store was just down the block. Everything is just down the block. We got back and Luis took us to the airport and said our goodbyes. We went through security (nicer than O'Hare) and then waited for the plane. Since I had to chug my juice I bought another in the airport among other things. Then came time to board the plane. Now this is bogus. There was security right before you boarded the plane who wouldn't let me take the juice that I bought in the airport and so he pitched it. I coundn't even chug it! Bogus. So we got on the plane and took off. At the end of the flight mom wanted to get off the plane ASAP because we had to go through customs and we only had a one hour layover. The lady who was supposed to be helping people said visas need to step up in line. About 15 minutes later a guy a few people in front of us asked the lady if there was some way he could step up in line because he had a 4:20 flight to catch. The lady basically told him off saying that he might catch his flight or he might not. We had a 3:55 flight to catch. It was 3:35 at the time. We still had half a line to go. Odds were against us. Then, (this was just stupid) the lady asked, at 3:50 if there was anyone going to O'Hare. We spoke up and the lady ushered us through. We had 2 minutes to get to the plane by the time we were done with customs. We went to baggage gave it to the lady who told us we better start running. We were only to happy to oblige. We went through security and I was the first one done so I charged ahead. There was a lady in front of me who was walking. I should've ran past her but I didn't and we missed our plane because of it. We literally missed it by like 5 seconds. A witness said so. So a guide scheduled us for the next flight whitch took off at around 8ish. It was 4ish. We had 4 hours to kill and we couldn't leave the airport because we couldn't get back in. So we ate some burgers (still having Tom's when I get back) and then we just watched movies and played gamboys for 4 hours. there wasn't a whole lot of things to do. Keep in mind that this was the Miami airport with the horribly expensive horrible food. Well eventually our flight came and we were on our way home. We got home at around 10:30ish and my grandparents were there to pick us up. We got our baggage (which made it onto the plane we should've been on) and then went home. Show me the way to go home.... I'm tired and I wanna go to bed.... Yes I had a little drink about an hour ago and it went right to my head (Jaws). Anyway I slept on the way home and when we got home I fell asleep. And so ends the voyage to Honduras and back.
But wait our story isn't finished...
The following day guess what I did. I called my neighbor, Trent, up and we went to Tom's to get me a Bacon Cheeseburger, a cookie dough blizzard thing, and a large order of fries. OHHHHHH boy it was good.
Answer to Previous Riddle: A bear can only walk into the woods halfway. Any further and he is walking out of the woods.
Riddle of the Day: Since this is the last blog of the year there is no more riddle of the days. Thanks for the comments though.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Day of ketchup... I mean katsup... I mean catch up!
Hello my faithful readers! I must apologize first for not blogging in... much time. Ill get to the reason for that in a bit. This is going to be like a master blog in which wraps up all of everything that has happened to me since arriving in Tegucigalpa up to now. So I'll actually have to use paragraphs now. Let's begin.
Aug 6th
First of is my Day of Sponsor Child Visiting. First of I have to say to my little bro Noah that, Noah, that morning on the tv, I kid you not, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was playing in spanish. Sounded a little funny though. For everyone else like you know when there's a movie in english playing and then you go see it in spanish? The voices aren't the same as the original. Anyways we went to this breakfast place called Super Donuts (literally because we couldn't find Dunk'n) and found out that though the food was the same, the taste was not up there with Luis' B&B breakfast. After that we got ready to see Eduardo (my sponsor child). The van with the overseer guy came to pick us up. He then took us to the "Project Site" which was a church and I saw Eduardo for the first time. I was taller than him but no suprise there and also I was (me the mexican and all) much whiter than him. It's ok because I wasn't exactly what he expected either. Apparently Andrés is an old guys name so... ok ok laugh it up guys but we actually had a good time. Eduardo's grandma wanted to meet me so we went to see her. She was actually a passenger in The Hudson River plane crash on Jan. 15, 09 so it was kind of interesting meeting her. Anyways, after meeting said grandma Eduardo was hungry for (can you believe my luck?) burgers! So we went to a Burger King in this like mall thing. Although being in a different country they do there burgers differently, needless to say, I'm still biking to Tom's on Thursday when I get back. After this the overseer guy (I should probably give him a name), Oscar was his name, took us to this arcade thing where we did a basketball thing (Michael Jordan would've been impressed if he were there), a soccer thing for Eduardo (Michelle Akers would've been less than impressed in me), a bowling thing (mom was 5 pts away from making it into the top five), and this Balladium thing. The Balladium was a thing where you went into this room and you basically shot foam balls at each other with this air pressured gun. It was fun. I also found out that Eduardo played in a Minor league for soccer in Tegucigalpa. You know like the Majors and the Minors for baseball? Eduardo was on the Minors for soccer. Needless to say he must've been good. After this we went to get some Ice Cream and that was pretty much the end of our visit. Oh we went to his house to to deliver some stuff and see where he lived. (I feel lucky now because I share my bed with my 4yr old brother (yes he has his own) but he's gotta share his bed with a I would say 18yr old brother). Then we went downtown (like the song) to type up some blogs. Following that we ate dinner, (ladies went shopping while I was singing in the rain next to a guard with like a 44 gauge shotgun), and went back to room to watch The Dark Knight and went to bed.
Aug 7th
So now we get up pack up and head for the out of doors to catch a taxi (by the way if you got a thing about having to wear seatbelts... don't come here, Honduras is not the place for you alright?) The taxi first ended up taking us to a station that didn't have a bus (famously known as the Chicken Bus) coming for like a long time. So he took us to another station for like 50 more lemps than paid for. Turns out that station didn't even run a bus to Guaimaca. Mom was not a happy camper. Luckily the, like, owner of the station took us to a station that did. We boarded and, thanks to a security guy with another 44 gauge, Jen's suitcase was saved of being robbed. Guard didn't shoot him or anything he just took it back from the guy as he was walking off. So the bus took off and along the way street vendors offered us stuff while we were still moving in a crawling traffic (in fact... if you've got any driving issues at all don't come here). I ate a pizza. Was tasty. So we get to Guaimaca, got our baggage and called a taxi to the orphanage. We talked to the head person in charge of certain things there, Katja (I think thats how it's spelled), and went to our house which was by the farm. After getting settled in we went back into town (here there be walking everywhere you go) to get groceries. The supermarket thing had cobwebs the size of 5 dollar footlongs at subway hanging on the cieling. Anyway, we got back, put the groceries away, and left again so mom could give us a tour of Orphanage Emmanuel. While giving us the tour mom talked to the principal person of the high school, Merethe, and she let mom see her friend Doris in the school. I guess it was a good thing mom came because Doris' grades were slipping. So after this we went back to the room and we relaxed for about 10 minutes before going to supper (they eat supper at like 4... which would be 5 our time). I missed out on dinner due to tardiness to the table. I brought something that I was a good thing to bring to the orphanage, this thing is something that if you know how to play it well it doesn't get you too many popularity points with the ladies in America, in Honduras though it is cool. I brought my chess set. All the guys there like to play chess. My first game a huge crowd of people gathered around and watched. I decided to bedazzle them with a set of moves they've never seen before. The 4 move checkmate. Everyone was amazed. I felt important. Life was good. Then this kid sat down in front of me. His name is Christian. He wants to play me. Among my homies in NHCS I was a pretty good player. This kid beat me on our first game. The crowd kind of dispersed after that. I hung out with the guys a little bit longer before they had to go to bed. Bedtime is at 6:30 (wow big shocker I know). Then I went back home and to bed myself as I was beat.
Aug 8th
I got up for my first day at the orphanage and took a shower that had warmer water than Luis'. Then I went down to the guys to have breakfast. It was like this oat cereal thing with powdered milk, peanut butter on the spoon, and a moon pie. Not my ideal breakfast me being a Wisconsinite and all. That day we found out that the orphanage got rid of there wireless so we couldn't blog (hence the reason for not posting). Also Katja asked us to help out a team volunteer group with an activity day thing. The first part of the day was consisting of me being official water balloon filler man, this job comes with drawbacks however because the activity day was for the little girls of like 7 and about every 3 minutes they came up to the hose where I was filling to demand water. The job tok a while. The funny thing though was that they did face paints and after getting there face painted they came to the hose (again where I was filling) and tried to wash the face paint off because they thought there face was dirty. The second part of the day consisted of me being soccer translater man. I took leave for lunch to eat with the guys. Lunch was spaghetti with veggies. After the activity day I went to have dinner with the guys. Beans and rice it was. As I was eating I came across something very hard in my mouth. thinking it was an uncooked bean I ate it. About 5 bites later I came across another hard crunchy thing in my mouth. I ate this as well. I started to watch my food a little more carefully and not 3 bites later something else crunchy and hard was discovered in my mouth. I pulled it out and realized that (no it was not bugs if your thinking such things) as well as the bean and rice for supper, I was dining on rocks. That was pretty much the end of my meal. After dinner/supper I played more chess with the guys (didn't get to play Christian). After they went to bed I played a long term named Jon and our game lasted a good while and then I lost. Was good to talk in english to someone though. After this I went home, did some spanish homework, and went to bed. It gets dark there around 7. Right now I gotta go back to the hotel but I plan to edit this and write more when I get back as the ladies want to go to a mall to shop. Until then my readers.
Mmmk I'm back.
Aug 9th
I got up, showered, got in my church clothes (white polo and navy cargo pants) and headed to the guys to eat breakfast (ditto). We played some chess (need to beat Christian). We went to church and listened to a sermon that was about listening to God's call and watching for Him. After this I went to change clothes before going back to play more chess. I beat a long term named Jordan, I beat Jon, and I lost to Christian. Our record was 3 to zip him. We had lunch played some chess and I taught some guys some basketball drills to do that, hopefully my future varsity basketball coach, taught me. Then it was another rocky dinner for me and we went to the house den to watch Oceans 12. After this I went home did some more spanish and went to bed.
Aug 10th
Up we go to take a shower and have the same old breakfast. I shadowed a dude named Darwin in the 9th grade to see what it was like. During recess I learned how to play Connect 4 (don't laugh) and lost to Darwin. Then we went into the computer lab and worked on Excel. The teacher told us to put a password on it and to minimize it. I thought he meant get out so I closed out of Excel without saving my work. Oh yeah, Im smooth. Monday class ends early so after lunch (consisting of spaghetti again) mom, Jen, and I went back into town to buy more stuff. We came back in time for dinner which consisted of hot dogs and beans (rock-free) and I learned that this type of dinner was a once a year thing. Then we went to the gym to play basketball and soccer. I teamed up with another kid named Alejandro in a 2 on 3 and we ended up winning. Bed was early for them so I stayed in the gym with the team group to play bastketball and volleyball (I have gotten better). Then I went back home, did spanish, and went to bed.
Aug 11th
Showered, breakfast (cereal thing is really getting old), chess and school. In school we used Word in computer class. The guys (and gals don't get me wrong) had typed up a report and were adding to it. Now I know Amanda Roth could probably have done it in half the time I did but I managed to type up the whole report (by looking over someone's shoulder) in have the class period. Recess consisted of chess in which I beat Christian! Now our record was 3 to 1 him. Lunch consisted of a noodle casserole thing and back to school. Eventually school got out and we went to a bible study which they have everyday in which that day Jon gave his testimony. Then we had dinner (back to rocky food). Following dinner we watched LOTR:FOTR.Then went back to the house to do spanish and was done for the day.
Aug 12th
Today I woke up to a mosquito buzzing in my ear at 2:30 in the morning. So I slept in the living room on the couch until I had to get up. When I did I went through the same routine. I was developing a habit of it. I went to breakfast and guess what I found! More oat cereal staring me in the face. Bogus, but I ate it. Anyway we played chess, went to school, did some chess, went to class again, and breaked for lunch. Lunch was a noodle ramen oriental thing. After that we did some guess what! More chess. Then, when the guys went back to school I went in the library to help Jessica (a long term white hispanic, just like me (well the white hispanic part anyway)) to organize the library. I started, right there and then, to hate libraries and appreciate librarians a little more at the same time. I've also decided that the Dewey family is not in my good books (pun intended). I went home after this to take a malaria pill before I was sent forth again to the bible study. It was another volunteer's testimony. Dinner time consisted of more rice, more beans, and more rocks. Could make a movie out of that. The Fast and the Furious. The Rice, The Beans, and The Rocks, starring Vin Diesel. Anyways I gotta get back on track if I wanna get all these days in, by the way, did you know I had cereal for breakfast again? Just kidding (but I did though). Did some chess and went to Wednesday night church where a Danish guy gave his testimony.
Whew! 5 days left. I can do this.
Aug 13th
Thursday I was not feeling to well (courtesy of same food all the time and dehydration) so I stayed in the house most of the day sleeping. What's to say about that you wanna know what I dreamed about or something? No. That's classified. When I was up I drank fluids when I was down, well, I was down and out for the count. At the end of the day I watched A Knight's Tale with Heath Ledger. No similarities whatsoever with the Joker 'cept for his hair and some facial expressions. After this I went to sleep.
Aug 14th
Happy to report feeling better Friday and so I went to school with the guys (skipped out on the lovely oat cereal to talk to another house cook to eat there) and, well, learned stuff. I ate lunch with the little guys and had some tasty stuff. They gave me a chicken gizzard and, actually, it wasn't that bad. It tasted like, well, chicken. Supper was also eaten with the little guys and I taught some guys how to play chess. I then went home and found a termite nest as I was looking on the cieling for lizards (lizards are our friends, they take care of the spiders, although I'm sure a tarantula would have a lizard for breakfast... and not oat cereal with a moon pie and peanut butter).
Three... more...
Aug 15th
I showered and skipped out on breakfast. One can only take so much oats with powdered milk, peanut butter, and a moon pie if that one is a Wisconsinite. I went home to clean up a bit while the guys went to work. As I did this mom and Jen went into town to get souvenirs. I got done before they came back so that gave me time to relax a bit. When they came back mom brought word that we would be leaving Tuesday because our flight got bumped up to Wednesday. I had lunch with the little dudes again and then back home to break for a while. Supper was also eaten with the little dudes. I went to the big guys to play chess. Christian beat me again. it was now 4 to 1 him. I then went home and we watched Pirates of the Caribbean (it is spelled right) and went to bed.
Aug 16th
MMMM. Same routine blah blah blah and Church! Church was about living right in God's eyes. I went home to change clothes and went around for picture time with my compadres. We then took another kid from the orphanage named Andrés to a restaurant just in front of Emmanuel to eat. The chicken tacos were good. We came back and Andrés and I went to go get a movie so the little dudes could watch it. I then went to the gym where Jon, the watchful guard to make sure no one leaves unattended, was napping just outside the gym doors. Jon really likes the suckers covered in chile by the way. As do I. But the guys were playing soccer and I played chess. I then went home, watched Hancock, and went to sleep.
The last melon... (sorry Ice Age quote) The last blog day thing.
Aug 17th
Not much to say about yesterday (Monday). Same old routine. However, the students in the class were learning math, and they were learning to add mixed numbers. I was catching up on journaling yesterday during math but when the Profe, as the students call their teachers, put some problems up on the board, the guy to my right, Juan Carlos, would notify me and I would pull out another paper and answer them quickly. The first set of 2 problems probably took me about 10 sec (be proud Mr. U) although I got one wrong (but not too proud Mr. U). The second set of three questions took me about 15 seconds and two things happened that were kind of funny. Firstly the kids were all amazed at how fast I did the problems, called me a machine they did, and secondly the Profe said that he had the answers for tomorrow then as I handed him the paper. When school was done I ate meals with the little guys and, it being my last night, went for the final showdown. I was ready to even the score to 4 to 2 him. I was going to take Christian off his throne of chess righteousness. And I did! Using the strategy of a hanycapped guy at lifest who creamed me the past 2 years I defeated the undefeatable. The strategy if you want to know was to have a set of plans for both ends of the board. Then pick a side and begin to set your plan for that side of the board in motion. As you are doing that occasionally move a piece on the other end of the board for the other plan. Since you will secretly be working 2 plans the plan in which you move the pieces most frequently will get stopped by your opponent. But by then you should have your plan on the other side of the board pretty much wrapped up. This is how I beat him. 4 to 2 the score was. I still lost but I was happy. I then said goodbye to all, went home to pack up some and waited for the next day.
That was like the post of the century. Anyways Imo' give some answers to prior comments now. But first off thanks for using the comment box. After all that is what it's there for. Secondly Emily, to answer your question, I do miss my burgers. Like I said I'm going to Tom's the day after I get back as I get back at like 10 at night.
And now... The moment you've all been waiting for...
Answer to Previous Riddle: A river (good guess with the clock though)
Riddle of the Day: A bear can only walk into a woods so far. How far can he walk into the woods?
Answer to Emily's Riddle: Carpet (nice try Emily)
Aug 6th
First of is my Day of Sponsor Child Visiting. First of I have to say to my little bro Noah that, Noah, that morning on the tv, I kid you not, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was playing in spanish. Sounded a little funny though. For everyone else like you know when there's a movie in english playing and then you go see it in spanish? The voices aren't the same as the original. Anyways we went to this breakfast place called Super Donuts (literally because we couldn't find Dunk'n) and found out that though the food was the same, the taste was not up there with Luis' B&B breakfast. After that we got ready to see Eduardo (my sponsor child). The van with the overseer guy came to pick us up. He then took us to the "Project Site" which was a church and I saw Eduardo for the first time. I was taller than him but no suprise there and also I was (me the mexican and all) much whiter than him. It's ok because I wasn't exactly what he expected either. Apparently Andrés is an old guys name so... ok ok laugh it up guys but we actually had a good time. Eduardo's grandma wanted to meet me so we went to see her. She was actually a passenger in The Hudson River plane crash on Jan. 15, 09 so it was kind of interesting meeting her. Anyways, after meeting said grandma Eduardo was hungry for (can you believe my luck?) burgers! So we went to a Burger King in this like mall thing. Although being in a different country they do there burgers differently, needless to say, I'm still biking to Tom's on Thursday when I get back. After this the overseer guy (I should probably give him a name), Oscar was his name, took us to this arcade thing where we did a basketball thing (Michael Jordan would've been impressed if he were there), a soccer thing for Eduardo (Michelle Akers would've been less than impressed in me), a bowling thing (mom was 5 pts away from making it into the top five), and this Balladium thing. The Balladium was a thing where you went into this room and you basically shot foam balls at each other with this air pressured gun. It was fun. I also found out that Eduardo played in a Minor league for soccer in Tegucigalpa. You know like the Majors and the Minors for baseball? Eduardo was on the Minors for soccer. Needless to say he must've been good. After this we went to get some Ice Cream and that was pretty much the end of our visit. Oh we went to his house to to deliver some stuff and see where he lived. (I feel lucky now because I share my bed with my 4yr old brother (yes he has his own) but he's gotta share his bed with a I would say 18yr old brother). Then we went downtown (like the song) to type up some blogs. Following that we ate dinner, (ladies went shopping while I was singing in the rain next to a guard with like a 44 gauge shotgun), and went back to room to watch The Dark Knight and went to bed.
Aug 7th
So now we get up pack up and head for the out of doors to catch a taxi (by the way if you got a thing about having to wear seatbelts... don't come here, Honduras is not the place for you alright?) The taxi first ended up taking us to a station that didn't have a bus (famously known as the Chicken Bus) coming for like a long time. So he took us to another station for like 50 more lemps than paid for. Turns out that station didn't even run a bus to Guaimaca. Mom was not a happy camper. Luckily the, like, owner of the station took us to a station that did. We boarded and, thanks to a security guy with another 44 gauge, Jen's suitcase was saved of being robbed. Guard didn't shoot him or anything he just took it back from the guy as he was walking off. So the bus took off and along the way street vendors offered us stuff while we were still moving in a crawling traffic (in fact... if you've got any driving issues at all don't come here). I ate a pizza. Was tasty. So we get to Guaimaca, got our baggage and called a taxi to the orphanage. We talked to the head person in charge of certain things there, Katja (I think thats how it's spelled), and went to our house which was by the farm. After getting settled in we went back into town (here there be walking everywhere you go) to get groceries. The supermarket thing had cobwebs the size of 5 dollar footlongs at subway hanging on the cieling. Anyway, we got back, put the groceries away, and left again so mom could give us a tour of Orphanage Emmanuel. While giving us the tour mom talked to the principal person of the high school, Merethe, and she let mom see her friend Doris in the school. I guess it was a good thing mom came because Doris' grades were slipping. So after this we went back to the room and we relaxed for about 10 minutes before going to supper (they eat supper at like 4... which would be 5 our time). I missed out on dinner due to tardiness to the table. I brought something that I was a good thing to bring to the orphanage, this thing is something that if you know how to play it well it doesn't get you too many popularity points with the ladies in America, in Honduras though it is cool. I brought my chess set. All the guys there like to play chess. My first game a huge crowd of people gathered around and watched. I decided to bedazzle them with a set of moves they've never seen before. The 4 move checkmate. Everyone was amazed. I felt important. Life was good. Then this kid sat down in front of me. His name is Christian. He wants to play me. Among my homies in NHCS I was a pretty good player. This kid beat me on our first game. The crowd kind of dispersed after that. I hung out with the guys a little bit longer before they had to go to bed. Bedtime is at 6:30 (wow big shocker I know). Then I went back home and to bed myself as I was beat.
Aug 8th
I got up for my first day at the orphanage and took a shower that had warmer water than Luis'. Then I went down to the guys to have breakfast. It was like this oat cereal thing with powdered milk, peanut butter on the spoon, and a moon pie. Not my ideal breakfast me being a Wisconsinite and all. That day we found out that the orphanage got rid of there wireless so we couldn't blog (hence the reason for not posting). Also Katja asked us to help out a team volunteer group with an activity day thing. The first part of the day was consisting of me being official water balloon filler man, this job comes with drawbacks however because the activity day was for the little girls of like 7 and about every 3 minutes they came up to the hose where I was filling to demand water. The job tok a while. The funny thing though was that they did face paints and after getting there face painted they came to the hose (again where I was filling) and tried to wash the face paint off because they thought there face was dirty. The second part of the day consisted of me being soccer translater man. I took leave for lunch to eat with the guys. Lunch was spaghetti with veggies. After the activity day I went to have dinner with the guys. Beans and rice it was. As I was eating I came across something very hard in my mouth. thinking it was an uncooked bean I ate it. About 5 bites later I came across another hard crunchy thing in my mouth. I ate this as well. I started to watch my food a little more carefully and not 3 bites later something else crunchy and hard was discovered in my mouth. I pulled it out and realized that (no it was not bugs if your thinking such things) as well as the bean and rice for supper, I was dining on rocks. That was pretty much the end of my meal. After dinner/supper I played more chess with the guys (didn't get to play Christian). After they went to bed I played a long term named Jon and our game lasted a good while and then I lost. Was good to talk in english to someone though. After this I went home, did some spanish homework, and went to bed. It gets dark there around 7. Right now I gotta go back to the hotel but I plan to edit this and write more when I get back as the ladies want to go to a mall to shop. Until then my readers.
Mmmk I'm back.
Aug 9th
I got up, showered, got in my church clothes (white polo and navy cargo pants) and headed to the guys to eat breakfast (ditto). We played some chess (need to beat Christian). We went to church and listened to a sermon that was about listening to God's call and watching for Him. After this I went to change clothes before going back to play more chess. I beat a long term named Jordan, I beat Jon, and I lost to Christian. Our record was 3 to zip him. We had lunch played some chess and I taught some guys some basketball drills to do that, hopefully my future varsity basketball coach, taught me. Then it was another rocky dinner for me and we went to the house den to watch Oceans 12. After this I went home did some more spanish and went to bed.
Aug 10th
Up we go to take a shower and have the same old breakfast. I shadowed a dude named Darwin in the 9th grade to see what it was like. During recess I learned how to play Connect 4 (don't laugh) and lost to Darwin. Then we went into the computer lab and worked on Excel. The teacher told us to put a password on it and to minimize it. I thought he meant get out so I closed out of Excel without saving my work. Oh yeah, Im smooth. Monday class ends early so after lunch (consisting of spaghetti again) mom, Jen, and I went back into town to buy more stuff. We came back in time for dinner which consisted of hot dogs and beans (rock-free) and I learned that this type of dinner was a once a year thing. Then we went to the gym to play basketball and soccer. I teamed up with another kid named Alejandro in a 2 on 3 and we ended up winning. Bed was early for them so I stayed in the gym with the team group to play bastketball and volleyball (I have gotten better). Then I went back home, did spanish, and went to bed.
Aug 11th
Showered, breakfast (cereal thing is really getting old), chess and school. In school we used Word in computer class. The guys (and gals don't get me wrong) had typed up a report and were adding to it. Now I know Amanda Roth could probably have done it in half the time I did but I managed to type up the whole report (by looking over someone's shoulder) in have the class period. Recess consisted of chess in which I beat Christian! Now our record was 3 to 1 him. Lunch consisted of a noodle casserole thing and back to school. Eventually school got out and we went to a bible study which they have everyday in which that day Jon gave his testimony. Then we had dinner (back to rocky food). Following dinner we watched LOTR:FOTR.Then went back to the house to do spanish and was done for the day.
Aug 12th
Today I woke up to a mosquito buzzing in my ear at 2:30 in the morning. So I slept in the living room on the couch until I had to get up. When I did I went through the same routine. I was developing a habit of it. I went to breakfast and guess what I found! More oat cereal staring me in the face. Bogus, but I ate it. Anyway we played chess, went to school, did some chess, went to class again, and breaked for lunch. Lunch was a noodle ramen oriental thing. After that we did some guess what! More chess. Then, when the guys went back to school I went in the library to help Jessica (a long term white hispanic, just like me (well the white hispanic part anyway)) to organize the library. I started, right there and then, to hate libraries and appreciate librarians a little more at the same time. I've also decided that the Dewey family is not in my good books (pun intended). I went home after this to take a malaria pill before I was sent forth again to the bible study. It was another volunteer's testimony. Dinner time consisted of more rice, more beans, and more rocks. Could make a movie out of that. The Fast and the Furious. The Rice, The Beans, and The Rocks, starring Vin Diesel. Anyways I gotta get back on track if I wanna get all these days in, by the way, did you know I had cereal for breakfast again? Just kidding (but I did though). Did some chess and went to Wednesday night church where a Danish guy gave his testimony.
Whew! 5 days left. I can do this.
Aug 13th
Thursday I was not feeling to well (courtesy of same food all the time and dehydration) so I stayed in the house most of the day sleeping. What's to say about that you wanna know what I dreamed about or something? No. That's classified. When I was up I drank fluids when I was down, well, I was down and out for the count. At the end of the day I watched A Knight's Tale with Heath Ledger. No similarities whatsoever with the Joker 'cept for his hair and some facial expressions. After this I went to sleep.
Aug 14th
Happy to report feeling better Friday and so I went to school with the guys (skipped out on the lovely oat cereal to talk to another house cook to eat there) and, well, learned stuff. I ate lunch with the little guys and had some tasty stuff. They gave me a chicken gizzard and, actually, it wasn't that bad. It tasted like, well, chicken. Supper was also eaten with the little guys and I taught some guys how to play chess. I then went home and found a termite nest as I was looking on the cieling for lizards (lizards are our friends, they take care of the spiders, although I'm sure a tarantula would have a lizard for breakfast... and not oat cereal with a moon pie and peanut butter).
Three... more...
Aug 15th
I showered and skipped out on breakfast. One can only take so much oats with powdered milk, peanut butter, and a moon pie if that one is a Wisconsinite. I went home to clean up a bit while the guys went to work. As I did this mom and Jen went into town to get souvenirs. I got done before they came back so that gave me time to relax a bit. When they came back mom brought word that we would be leaving Tuesday because our flight got bumped up to Wednesday. I had lunch with the little dudes again and then back home to break for a while. Supper was also eaten with the little dudes. I went to the big guys to play chess. Christian beat me again. it was now 4 to 1 him. I then went home and we watched Pirates of the Caribbean (it is spelled right) and went to bed.
Aug 16th
MMMM. Same routine blah blah blah and Church! Church was about living right in God's eyes. I went home to change clothes and went around for picture time with my compadres. We then took another kid from the orphanage named Andrés to a restaurant just in front of Emmanuel to eat. The chicken tacos were good. We came back and Andrés and I went to go get a movie so the little dudes could watch it. I then went to the gym where Jon, the watchful guard to make sure no one leaves unattended, was napping just outside the gym doors. Jon really likes the suckers covered in chile by the way. As do I. But the guys were playing soccer and I played chess. I then went home, watched Hancock, and went to sleep.
The last melon... (sorry Ice Age quote) The last blog day thing.
Aug 17th
Not much to say about yesterday (Monday). Same old routine. However, the students in the class were learning math, and they were learning to add mixed numbers. I was catching up on journaling yesterday during math but when the Profe, as the students call their teachers, put some problems up on the board, the guy to my right, Juan Carlos, would notify me and I would pull out another paper and answer them quickly. The first set of 2 problems probably took me about 10 sec (be proud Mr. U) although I got one wrong (but not too proud Mr. U). The second set of three questions took me about 15 seconds and two things happened that were kind of funny. Firstly the kids were all amazed at how fast I did the problems, called me a machine they did, and secondly the Profe said that he had the answers for tomorrow then as I handed him the paper. When school was done I ate meals with the little guys and, it being my last night, went for the final showdown. I was ready to even the score to 4 to 2 him. I was going to take Christian off his throne of chess righteousness. And I did! Using the strategy of a hanycapped guy at lifest who creamed me the past 2 years I defeated the undefeatable. The strategy if you want to know was to have a set of plans for both ends of the board. Then pick a side and begin to set your plan for that side of the board in motion. As you are doing that occasionally move a piece on the other end of the board for the other plan. Since you will secretly be working 2 plans the plan in which you move the pieces most frequently will get stopped by your opponent. But by then you should have your plan on the other side of the board pretty much wrapped up. This is how I beat him. 4 to 2 the score was. I still lost but I was happy. I then said goodbye to all, went home to pack up some and waited for the next day.
That was like the post of the century. Anyways Imo' give some answers to prior comments now. But first off thanks for using the comment box. After all that is what it's there for. Secondly Emily, to answer your question, I do miss my burgers. Like I said I'm going to Tom's the day after I get back as I get back at like 10 at night.
And now... The moment you've all been waiting for...
Answer to Previous Riddle: A river (good guess with the clock though)
Riddle of the Day: A bear can only walk into a woods so far. How far can he walk into the woods?
Answer to Emily's Riddle: Carpet (nice try Emily)
Thursday, August 6, 2009
A Tegucigalpic day! That sounded a lot cleverer in my head...
Well, our second day in to Honduras I wake up in a strange place. Not strange as in the changes one might imagine but have you ever spent months at home and then spent a weekend at a relative's house? When you wake up you imagine to see your same old ceiling and you being in the same old bed and suddenly... WOAH! Your not in your house! That's how I felt. I woke up to people (namely mom and Jennifer) making noise. I got up and took a shower that had water I swear straight from the mountains. It was cold man. After this I got ready to leave and took all the luggage to the lobby area and went to have breakfast. Breakfast for the morning was eggs, toast, like fried banana things, and beans. The beverage of the morning was coffee... I will never have coffee as long as I live again. I don't know what the big deal is about it. I will stick with my Mountain Dew thank you very much! Anyways, Luis took us to the bus station and we went our separate ways from there. Security at the bus station was not as bad as at O'Hare but it was pushing it. We got our tickets and waited for the bus. In the waiting room a movie was being played. It's the one about the robotic kid, David, who lives for like ever and was left in a woods with his teddy by his mom. Also in the movie is were they torture the robots in arenas. Ok a group thing here now... if you know what the movie is called (as I can honestly not remember the name) comment on it please. So the bus came and we boarded. Anaconda was playing on the bus. The bus smelled funky and I think that was a factor to the motion sickness I got on the bus. (no accidents though) We stopped about halfway through at an oasis type of thing and I walked off the motion sickness and found my land-legs (you know sea-legs? well I found my land-legs). We had lunch at a buffet and I know that the first thing I'm going to do when I get back to good ol' Wisconsin is going to get an American Burger. Doesn't matter from where but I'm going to get one. We waited for a bit to get back on the bus and that gave me some more time to work off the motion sickness. We got back on the bus and headed off (no movie this time) and again I got sick. So I took a nap and that made it go away. While I was napping my cousing Jennifer takes my camera (seeing as she wasted her camera's battery and starts using mine! I was not thrilled about that. But I was woken up just before we got to the bus station in Tegucigalpa (aka the capital of Honduras). There we got our baggage (dad mom almost lost the laptop briefcase... not the laptop though she took it out before the trip because it had to go under the bus) and waited for the hotel taxi driver to come get us. He did and I almost lost my carry-on because he couldn't close the trunk. Anyway the guy demanded a tip at the hotel and that was kind of interesting. Must've been for almost kissing my carry-on goodbye. So the taxi driver took off and we got our hotel key and went to our room. It was a double bedroom single (private) bathroom thing. It was like a Honduran hotel suite. So we trashed it... nah just kidding we got settled in and headed to the Central part of Tegucigalpa in a taxi. At the central area we looked for a battery cord so Jen would stop free-loading off mine and my batteries (gamers would use the term leeching :-) We couldn't find one and then looked for the next thing on the list... rechargeable batteries for my camera. I have regular spare batteries but I guess that's not good enough. We found some and I carried that around (keep that in mind as it comes into play later). Then we went to exchange US dollars for Honduran Lempieras and I called Compassion HQ so I could notify them about me being here. After this we went to a Mexican restaurant (MEXICAN not HONDURAN) and had a snack there before we went to this cyber cafe to type up blogs (for some certain adults with me it was to also check facebook). After this we went to a Argentinan restaurant where my mom's friend from the orphanage works. She was working on this particular night so my mom had to say hi. We got some food which by the way was better than the food in Miami and then had some dessert. Once we were done, we went home on the same taxi that took us there. The driver was nice and he drove us back to the hotel. We paid him and went into the hotel to our room. Now, remember way back up there when I said we bought some camera batteries? Well I don't know whose genius idea it was to make me hold on to them but let's just say that it was the taxi drivers tip... So after that we watched Gridiron Gang and went to sleep.
Answer to Previous Riddle: Few (if you ad e and r it becomes fewer)
Riddle of the Day: The old one runs forever, but never moves at all. He has not lungs nor throat, but a mighty roaring call.
Answer to Previous Riddle: Few (if you ad e and r it becomes fewer)
Riddle of the Day: The old one runs forever, but never moves at all. He has not lungs nor throat, but a mighty roaring call.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Day 1
Hi everyone! I gottta be somewhat fast as I am in a Cafe right now and paying money for this. Let me tell you a bit about day 1 of Trip Honduras. First off I got up at 1 am. I was none too thrilled about that. But on our trip O´Hare I slept most of the way. Once at the airport we had to wait for about an hour and a half for check-in. After we were allowed to get through security (and it definitely was security let me tell you) we went to McDonalds where we were talking to a half asleep employee. While we were eating breakfast we were watching the planes go by. It was interesting. Following breakfast we sat around watching more planes. There was a lot of planes. Anyway, eventually our plane came and it was time to board to go to Miami. We got on the plane and I learned on the way there two things... 1 is that this was my cousin, Jennifer´s first time riding a plane, and 2 I learned that not only do you have to pay for the refreshments now on the plane but you need a credit card! I was so dissappointed. So we touched down in Miami and I learned something else then. Never... EVER... get food from a stand in an airport. The food was outrageously expensive (something like $50 for a sandwich, 2 salads, a 3 soda/waters. a bag of Chips Ahoy cookie things, and a fruit bowl) and the food is crap. Horrible. So we go to the plane for to take us to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. We got off on what must've been the last plane landing that night and had to wait forever for immigration things. Before we got our baggage my mother told us that we are to not let anyone help us because they expect a tip. Well that was hunky-dory but when the hotel man (Luis was his name) came to collect us, a kid (no more than maybe 7) came up to me to offer to carry my bag. I thought he was like Luis' son or something but my mom told me I had to give him a tip. I was not laughing. I was stiffed a dollar and mom and Jennifer were trying to hold in their laughter. Not working out so well. So we were in the van and Luis drove us through San Pedro. They drive like animals. I am reminded of my grandpa Jim and my cousin (Jennifer's brother) Joe competing to get somewhere. I swear the right lane was for people going the speed limit and the left lane was for people going like 20 miles over the speed limit. It was interesting and also everyone in Honduras is horn happy. Though since they beep their horn every 30 seconds they don't hold the horn long like people in the US. Also we saw many american things like Popeye's, Pizza Hut, Little Ceasar's, Ice Age 3, Harry Potter 6, Transformers, and Shell gas stations. Luis was awesome and told us all about Honduras the way to the B&B. The street that the B&B was on was just destroyed. It was due to rainwater. Suppsedly the street was a river to divert water from the Malls and when it went down the street it killed it. We got settled in to the B&B (very cozy and nice it was) and went to eat dinner at a nearby taco place. The owner was like 78 so he knew what he was doing. It was very good. After this we came back to the B&B, we watched Hitch in our room and went to sleep. Very interesting day.
Answer to Previous Riddle: An umbrella
Riddle of the Day: A three letter word in which if you add two letters there is less.
Answer to Previous Riddle: An umbrella
Riddle of the Day: A three letter word in which if you add two letters there is less.
Monday, August 3, 2009
All set!
Well we're all set to go to Honduras tomorrow at 2:30 am :(. We worked on packing donations to send down to Tennessee to a guy who would send them to the orphanage and I got packed yesterday. Today we ran errands and such (my mother and me). That was interesting but I got to eat my favorite food for lunch... Tongue Tacos! I also got a liter and a half of Jarrito which is like a mexican soda. Really good. But back to the important stuff.
First we went to NHLC for something, then went to DHL to ship stuff off only to find out that it didn't open until 11 am (it was currently 10am). So then we went to Wally-World (aka Wal-Mart) to get copies of pictures of my family to give to Eduardo and any kids in the orphanage that I came close to. Since we had to wait on the getting of the pictures we went to Kwik-Trip to get gas in the van as we would be taking that to Chicago the following day and then to Fleet Farm to get Insect Repellant with... 100% DEET. T'was actually more like 99.5 but (thanks to Math Mom and Mr. U) we rounded up. Also if you go to Fleet Farm they got a bunch of animal heads that can't all be real.
After our Hunt for Deet we went to go get those tacos mentioned earlier (I won't rehash but it was tasty). Following lunch we went back to go get those pictures. They turned out pretty cool. We got to put words on them and stuff. It was about that time that we noticed DHL would be open. So we went there only to find out that they didn't do domestic shipping anymore. The guy suggested FedEx so we went there. Keep in mind we're only beginning with the errands today and mom is stressed. We went to FedEx and found out that they do domestic shipping and so we were able to unload packages there... Or should I say I was able to unload packages there. You know, the 60lb ones. After much pain and stumbling (all on my part) we were done and we went home after accomplishing our first set of errands.
Our next set involved going to the bank and stuff like that... That was the easier of the two errands. Not much to tell there but... OOOOOH we got suckers... you know, the Dum Dums you get from the bank if you have children in the car? I don't think I qualify as a child anymore because I initially didn't get one. But no one ate them and so I might have them on the way to Chicago tomorrow. What I really need is some Mountain Dew... they sell a six pack regular size at Wal-Mart for $1. They really do have "Unbeatable Prices". But we came back after bank time and waited so mom could do some stuff on the computer before we went to a Town of Menasha cook-out thing. It was alright. I saw some former NHCS students there. Not of my class but of the now sophmore class. Anyways after that we come home, I empty out the van for the morrow, I bring some tires in from the car (did you know what a steel belt is? I found out first hand... literally) and now I type this up... so that about sums up my post for today and now that the trip starts I will post everyday so be on the lookout for them!
Answer to Previous Riddle: The letter "M"
Riddle of the Day: (you may have heard this one before) What can go up a chimney down but not down a chimney up?
First we went to NHLC for something, then went to DHL to ship stuff off only to find out that it didn't open until 11 am (it was currently 10am). So then we went to Wally-World (aka Wal-Mart) to get copies of pictures of my family to give to Eduardo and any kids in the orphanage that I came close to. Since we had to wait on the getting of the pictures we went to Kwik-Trip to get gas in the van as we would be taking that to Chicago the following day and then to Fleet Farm to get Insect Repellant with... 100% DEET. T'was actually more like 99.5 but (thanks to Math Mom and Mr. U) we rounded up. Also if you go to Fleet Farm they got a bunch of animal heads that can't all be real.
After our Hunt for Deet we went to go get those tacos mentioned earlier (I won't rehash but it was tasty). Following lunch we went back to go get those pictures. They turned out pretty cool. We got to put words on them and stuff. It was about that time that we noticed DHL would be open. So we went there only to find out that they didn't do domestic shipping anymore. The guy suggested FedEx so we went there. Keep in mind we're only beginning with the errands today and mom is stressed. We went to FedEx and found out that they do domestic shipping and so we were able to unload packages there... Or should I say I was able to unload packages there. You know, the 60lb ones. After much pain and stumbling (all on my part) we were done and we went home after accomplishing our first set of errands.
Our next set involved going to the bank and stuff like that... That was the easier of the two errands. Not much to tell there but... OOOOOH we got suckers... you know, the Dum Dums you get from the bank if you have children in the car? I don't think I qualify as a child anymore because I initially didn't get one. But no one ate them and so I might have them on the way to Chicago tomorrow. What I really need is some Mountain Dew... they sell a six pack regular size at Wal-Mart for $1. They really do have "Unbeatable Prices". But we came back after bank time and waited so mom could do some stuff on the computer before we went to a Town of Menasha cook-out thing. It was alright. I saw some former NHCS students there. Not of my class but of the now sophmore class. Anyways after that we come home, I empty out the van for the morrow, I bring some tires in from the car (did you know what a steel belt is? I found out first hand... literally) and now I type this up... so that about sums up my post for today and now that the trip starts I will post everyday so be on the lookout for them!
Answer to Previous Riddle: The letter "M"
Riddle of the Day: (you may have heard this one before) What can go up a chimney down but not down a chimney up?
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