As an NPH volunteer, I am responsible for working as a PT every day during the week and then 6-8pm in my Hogar Mon thru Thur nights. I have to work with the kids in my Hogar every other weekend for a day and a half. I can choose whether I want to work Friday night and all day Saturday or Saturday evening and all day Sunday. All of the volunteers are divided into 2 groups for their Salida (off) weekends.
We got our assignments last week and this was my first weekend off. I am in salida 1 and am pretty happy with the group. It is kind of important since these will be the people I can travel with on my off weekends. Brooke and I requested to live in separate rooms so that we can have the same weekend off. (They prefer that roommates have different salidas so that everyone gets a room to themselves almost every other weekend) So, the 2 of us traveled all the way (45 min) to Tegucigalpa for the weekend. We decided not to go too far since we still don’t know much about the city we call home. We left the Ranch on Friday and spent 2 nights in the Granada Hotel, which is located near the center of Tegus. It is a hotel that is pretty bare bones, but very luxurious compared to the Ranch. The rooms are all white walled with white sheets and no bed spread. The luxuries include the TV with cable and movie channels, a clean toilet that flushes normally and most importantly, a hot shower. All of it is totally worth the $10 a night.
Although we had some ideas of things we wanted to do and see, the goal of the weekend was just to walk around Tegus, get lost and find our way. We did just that on Friday evening. We attempted to walk from the hotel to an Argentinean restaurant that we had heard was very good. We didn’t find it, but did run in to some of the hotels and restaurants we had read and heard about. We accidentally ended up in the center of the city at a Chinese restaurant that was in the guide book, so we trusted that we were getting decent food. When our dinner arrived, we were very amused with Brooke’s fried rice, which was stacked like a mountain and spilling over the edges of the plate. I think the entire Ranch could have been fed with that plate of rice. When we left the restaurant, we took the rice with us so that we could give it to one of the many people begging on the street. Unfortunately, we didn’t see anyone on the way back to the hotel so we left the box of food sitting on a park bench. The next morning there was no sign of the food, so I am sure someone enjoyed it.
On Saturday, we did a little shopping in the center on a pedestrian street called the Peotonal. It isn’t exactly boutique shopping, but there are some good cheap stores and coffee shops. Afterwards, we took a collectivo (cabs that take a specific route and cost 10 lempira - about 50 cents) to the Multiplaza Mall. Brooke and I discovered this place a couple of weeks ago and we have declared it to be our Mecca. It is the only place that resembles the US in anyway and we can pretend we are back at home. (I am happy being here, but at times, it is nice to have a little taste of home.) As is common practice, we did a lot of shopping and probably spent more money than we should have, but that was all part of the “home” feeling. We went to TGIFridays and drank Margaritas to complete the American themed day. I also ran in to Liz, a girl from my language school in La Ceiba, who is volunteering at a different orphanage near Tegus. It was so great to see a friendly familiar face.
After dragging all of our bags back to the hotel, we set out on another mission to find the Argentinean restaurant. This time we were better prepared with a map and very shaky directions from the hotel receptionist. After walking in a few circles (and passing 2 sushi restaurants…jackpot!), we arrived at the restaurant just in time to eat before they closed at 6 pm!? (Guess they don’t have much of a Sat dinner crowd.) After all of the work we put in, we had pretty high expectations and I must say they were met. The food was different from our every day beans and rice and had a lot of flavor, which is something we crave after being at the ranch.
So, after eating dinner at 6:00, what were we supposed to do with ourselves for the rest of the night? Well, we continued our exploration of Tegus with the goal of finding a nice pub/bar where we could have a couple drinks. After talking to several people on the ranch, it appears that this is a highly desired thing and impossible to find. We did find a restaurant near the center, Maya Duncan, that had a good crowd and VERY loud live music. As we searched for a table were we might be able to hear each other talk, we ran into a group of volunteers from the ranch who had been vacationing over the previous week. What luck! We joined them for drinks and traded contact information so that we could meet up with them later. After drinks, we rested at the hotel for a bit and then headed out to join the crowd at a bar/club called El Castillo. The best part of the night was meeting a lot of new people including a group of Hondurans who have become really close with some of the volunteers. It is still very difficult for me to communicate with local people, so the conversation was sparse, but I had a great time anyways.
Sunday morning was a little rough, and we slept in as long as we could. We headed out at about 11 and decided that what we needed was Pizza Hut. This is crazy considering I really don’t like Pizza Hut in the states, but here it is a completely different story. The big draw is the salad bar. It is so rare to find good salads here and a little bit dangerous to eat them because of the dirty water. The last time I ate at a Pizza Hut here, I didn’t feel very well for about 24 hours, but now I feel like my stomach is a little bit stronger, so we went for it. It was delicious (my standards are so low, ah!) and I was relieved that I felt fine afterwards. Before heading back to the Ranch, we hit the grocery store. This just added to all of the junk that we had to carry back with us, so we just stuck with the necessities (you know, cookies, brownie mix and cereal). Getting back to the Ranch was a pretty big relief. I was finally able to go for a run on the trail (it was raining during my free time throughout the week) that circles the ranch. The view is so pretty and it is so relaxing. It was the perfect way to finish the great weekend.
