First Impressions

Dec 15, 2008

As I am flying into Honduras, San Pedro Sula to be exact, I am already in love with the landscape. Coming from the midwest, I am not difficult to impress in this area. The city is moderate sized and lies in a valley area that is surrounded by green “yummy looking” mountains. The experience of flying in to Tegucigalpa later in the day is somewhat similar, but with a larger city area. The buildings and city layout remind me of Istanbul with most buildings positioned hillside and everything sort of stacked on top of each other.
I am met at the airport in Tegucigalpa by Carmen, an ex-pequena (orphan), who speaks no (NONE!) English. We make a very amusing pair as we attempt to communicate regarding transportation and money exchange. I am already getting great practice with my limited spanish, but am acutely aware that I have a lot of work ahead of me. We load my life into the trunk of a taxi and take off for Casa Angeles, which is one of the NPH (nuestros pequenos hermanos) homes in Tegucigalpa and where I will be spending the night. The taxi ride takes about 20 minutes and costs us only 80 lempira (honduran currency), which is about $4.50!!! I really wish cabs in Chicago were this cheap!
As we pull up to Casa Angeles and unload the cab, the only word my brain can come up with to capture the situation is Wow…wow, wow, wow! (I know…this does not bode well for my literary expression for future blogs) I have no idea where I am, I can’t really speak the language and this building is practically falling down. As it turns out, I am going to be sharing a room with my new friend, Carmen, for the evening. I am standing in her 10x15’ room with a bunk bed, wooden table, small armiore, wooden chair and industrial sized fryer (yes, like the ones your french fries come out of at McDonalds). I know, totally random. The time is 6:00 pm and Carmen is trying to make small talk, but only about 50% of our conversation is making any sense and I think we keep saying the same thing over and over again (at least I am). We finally give up and watch a movie on the 12” TV in her room. It is in spanish, but luckily an american movie that I have seen before and I pretty much know the story.

Side note: I now totally understand why my spanish speaking patients often times resort to smiling and nodding even when they have no idea what I am saying. After several tries at understanding, I just want the humiliation and effort to end. I have a feeling that I will be perfecting this art over the next week.