The Trip Out of the Convent

My trip to the mountains of Ocotepeque:

Above is a picture of a 10 year old sister of one of my students trying to show me how fun it is to let this calf take her for a run. She tried really hard to convince me to try. I would have tried....only for for her sake...but the calf would have nothing to do with me.

The #1 thing I learned after getting the amazing opportunity to travel to one of my student's houses...up in the breathtakingly beautiful mountains...is to monitor what I eat 2-3 days before leaving because I can never be sure of the plumbing/toilet/non-toilet/not really a flushing toilet but a squat toilet situation where I'll be staying for 3 days. That's all I'll say about that. The #2 thing is to always bring a flashlight. You never know when you're going to a place where electricity is a luxury.

We took a bus from Santa Rosa de Copan to San Marcos/Ocotopeque. Here is the bus stop in Santa Rosa de Copan. I think I know where old school buses from the States come to retire.
This family was amazing and so welcoming and nice and really took great care of me! The kids loved, loved, loved my camera and successfully exhausted the battery within 4 hours of use. I, unfortunately, did not have the chance to take any pictures of the ride to and from the house on top of the mountain because we arrived at night and when we left my battery was kaput.
This trip made me long for a way to record smells and feelings. The feelings because I'm not sure I can adequately describe the road we traveled to get to the house. 'Bumps in the road' is too weak a phrase. 'Potholes' do not describe them well. These adjectives will have to suffice: rocky, jolting, lurching, jarring. The fact that I had to tell myself to relax because my chances of getting whiplash would be greater if my muscles were tense might give you a bit of an idea. I got a fantastic core workout trying to keep myself from flying from side to side inside the cab of the truck as the driver navigated his way along a very, very, very rough road for an hour and a half. What surprised me the most was that someone had but in intentional speed bumps. It made no sense to me since the driver could not go faster than 10 mph on the parts of the road without speed bumps. I'm not sure who is in charge of the roads in this country but there are often men and children using shovels to fill in some holes and they ask for money from passing drivers. I'm pretty sure they are not paid by the government.
I would have loved to record the smells because there is nothing like fresh food being prepared ALL DAY in the kitchen which is in the middle of this house. I was so grateful for the incredible generosity this family showed me and I felt a bit guilty as they fed me more food in 3 days than I've eaten in two weeks. I'm pretty sure when I arrived back on a Sunday, I was still full by Wednesday.
There is a picture of this family on the side of this blog.