Honduran Intersections

I honestly believe you could spend the rest of your life at a Honduran intersection if you refused to step in front of a moving car.

I also believe if you actually crossed the street when the green "walk" light was on (at the only intersection that has one) you would immediately be squished flat.

Enough about traffic. We were at the cafe at Hotel Marriott yesterday and witnessed a well dressed looking American dude meeting with a well-to-do Honduran. He was selling a high quality digital camera. He explained some of the features and the purchaser left very pleased. The next couple waiting sat down at the table and proceeded to buy a late model laptop. Apparently this "rep" was some sort of technology consultant who met people at coffee shops and sold them the latest and greatest technology. I gave him my resume.

Laptops and coffee shops don't go together the same way they do in the states. Instead of working quietly with headphones, the thing to do is play all your latest music acquisitions at full blast so everyone can enjoy them. We unknowingly tested this theory when Emily put on headphones to try and get some work done - she plugged the headphones into the wrong slot and realized after a short while that she could hear music DESPITE her headphones and not through them. No one batted an eyelash - it's what you do!

Other things you do in Honduras - put sugar in coffee, toppings on pizza and ketchup on tacos. Our first night here we ordered a PLAIN CHEESE PIZZA at Pizza Hut and got the same look I gave a single file of ants streaming from the electrical outlet of our kitchen marching to eat a pineapple left out on the counter. Our server confirmed 6 times that we didn't want any toppings. It was on the menu, we didn't invent the Honduran cheese pizza. Same thing with sugar in coffee - to refuse this condiment leaves you wondering what you might have accidentally said in Spanish. The server dejectedly puts the sugar back in the dispenser not knowing what else to say. Imagine walking up to someone you've never seen before and yelling "I hate you!" Same reaction. The ketchup on tacos is just sick. You have to specially request no ketchup, and that requires a manager to confirm the order.

We finally met some Americans who live here, who could be described at "legitimate". They've started a community of evangelical christians that live in the slums of outer Tegucigalpa with the population they seek to help. They've been training local Hondurans to become leaders in the community, start businesses and just help the local population in general. We are really excited to see what they do, we are planning on meeting with them later this week. What they've described to us sounds similar to some of the dreams Emily and I have shared. We'll keep you posted on where that leads.

Click here to see some more pictures of the past weekend in Copan, Honduras. Daveyray, our friend from DC, took some time from his busy schedule learning Spanish in Antigua, Guatemala to meet up with us and explore some Mayan ruins.

That's it, other than confusing a recent celebration of a Honduran holiday with an active early morning gun battle. It ended up being a holiday after all.