Saturday, May 8, 2010

Week 39: Celaque and Mother's Day at Mayatan

Day 267 May Day!
I was up before the alarm and showered. I was feeling more sick and finally had it manifest, which did not make me feel better. I packed up and water proofed my bag while I waited for the others to wake up. We still had to distribute the food before I could finish packing.
We got breakfast and checked out of the hostel once everyone was awake. I picked up some Imodium in a pharmacy to make hiking possible and then we got a ride up to the visitor's center of the mountain. The car had a hard time making it up the gravel road, so we walked the last bit.
There was a crew of Gracias teachers getting ready to head out. Liam, whom I met on my way back from Antigua in November, and I recognized each other. We exchanged pleasantries and then they headed up while we were getting situated and signed in.
We started out along the river. There were a few small waterfalls and a lot of pines. Some of the flora reminded me a lot of VA, but mostly it was the pines. Though, the bromeliads and giant ferns would periodically remind me that I was not in VA.
We decided to take a detour and go to the mirador to see the giant waterfalls, though from a great distance. We lunched there, at about 2000 meters above sea level and then hiked back down to start going up again. We'd been playing a bit of a leap frog with the Gracias teachers, and our jaunt up the hill gave them the advantage.
By the time we made it to the first campsite, Don Tomas, I was still feeling alright. We took a little break and I noticed bees all over the campfire stones, which I took pictures of. After that, it got much harder for me, though. It was steep, long, and unending. I went slowly, both to keep my heart from beating out of my throat and to enjoy the view, which was looking less and less like VA as we ascended into the cloud forest.
We had to take a short pit stop to doctor up what I thought was a hot spot waiting to become a blister, until I took off my sock to discover that the blister had formed and popped and was rather large. We bandaged it up and it didn't give me too much trouble from there on out.
Everything became green and soft. The world was covered in moss. Giant fiddleheads a little smaller than my first sprang up among the branches of tree ferns. And though everything was changing into a type of forest I've never seen before, the only consistent bird song I heard was either a Wood thrush, or a close cousin. It was one of those days which was filled with moments of beauty or awe and I knew that they were just small enough they would be lost in memory to more momentous moments.
The higher up we got, the less consistent the signs were with where we were and how far we had come. But, after one last set of steep steps, passing the Gracias teachers, and continuing up for what seemed forever, we reached the second campsite. It was wetter and colder than the first and there were already a host of tents.
It was starting to rain, so we quickly got up the tents. Mine was a little leaky, but it was still better than sleeping on the ground.
We went about collecting wood, all of which was wet, but the rain was petering out. Anywhere that remotely not soaked wood could be found, we took it. As we were, the other folks who were already set up in the camp site started coming back and it turns out they were a camping club from El Salvador. I never knew enough campers/hikers existed in CA to make a club, but they were really cool. We set to work splitting up larger pieces to try and take advantage of the dryness inside. Most of the guys worked on that, especially after the Gracias teachers arrived and Cid helped them put up their tents. The fire prep was a long endeavor because we needed to make sure we had enough to burn before trying. It was going to be finicky. We could hear the El Salvadorians taking bets on the likelihood of us succeeding with fire in this wet place. However, with everyone working on it, we did make fire.
We then kept it alive with a metal rod we used to blow air under the fire and after some time started using a blower for an air mattress someone had. It worked like a charm. The Gracias teachers had soup for dinner, and it was a group effort to hold up the soup and keep the fire going for long enough for it to boil, but through much trial and tribulation, it was done.
We then cooked up our food on the coals. Satisfied and exhausted, shortly after dinner, I went to sleep in my slanty bed.

Day 268 May 2
I had heard that there are two species of monkeys that live in this forest and that they come down at night to pick the campsite clean. Ever sound I heard in the night I decided was a monkey, whether is be true or not. The night was long, cold, and wet. There was a root under me that I spent the night maneuvering around and the trails of water from when it rained got the sleeping bag a bit wet. Mostly, I spent the night sliding downhill toward the bottom of the tent, waking up, and inching my way back up.
Around 5:30 I woke up and decided to go wandering while I waited for the others to wake. I explored around, hoping to get a good view. There was a good cliff, but there were so many trees that I could only kind of see the patterns of clouds below us. I circled back by the latrine, and went out through camp the other way as to never get too far from the others.
I was in the process of taking a picture of a large, fallen tree with a lot of growth on it when I saw a pair of legs appear behind it. Chris came out of the woods as he too had gone out on a morning stroll. We decided to head back and wake the others to start getting ready to get out.
We packed up, ate a breakfast of powdered milk with granola. We used our green-ish algae water for the milk. Then, we left our tents and our main bags in the campsite to return to after we came back from the peak. We brought our most valuable items with us, just in case, and headed out before most of the camp-club members, or any of the Gracias teachers were up.
The hike up was rough on my now very sore, swollen knee. However, we were only 300 or so vertical meters from the peak, so it wasn't too long of a trip. There was a bit of up and down to it. This forest makes me think of faerie tales.
When we got to the top, we were in the midst of a cloud and could see nothing. There was no view at all except for gray. Periodically, the wind would pick up and our cloud would disappear for a few seconds, then the clouds below, the town of Gracias, and the mountains in the distance were visible. The cloud tops in particular were cool.
We did a number of things claiming, “I am the highest person in Honduras doing...” just for fun. We ate the last of our chocolate and then we hiked back down. On the way down, we came across the Gracias teachers who had all of their bags with them and we recommended that they stash them on the side of the trail to pick up on the way back down, which they did. We chatted a little, said our last goodbyes, and continued on.
We stopped by the campsite to finish packing up and refill on water before continuing down. Going down was surprisingly easier for my knees, but we decided to take a trail we heard was nicer, called El Gallo, to go back to the visitor's center. It started out going down, but then it started to go up. It went up for a long time, and before we had connected with the trail we had already come down a long ways. The trail lead to a mirador at 2300 meters above sea level. When we finally peaked it, the view was nice and we stopped to lunch, but it was really the end to my knee.
The descent was long, but pleasant. The small plants growing along the path seemed like they were the same as in VA, again. I couldn't get the idea out of my head. The forest was obviously recovering from a forest fire, which added a beautiful element to the hike since it was recovering so well.
When we got back to the visitor's center, there was a bus of school girls just about to head back to town. We decided to skip taking showers and take the convenient ride. We chatted with the girls, who seemed very impressed that we had done the whole thing.
When we got to town, we got a new hotel. This one had hot water, fans, quiet rooms, free coffee and water, private bathrooms, and better beds. I enjoyed a warm shower and watched Animal Planet in Spanish until everyone was ready.
We hit the town looking for a pizza place that doesn't exist and ended our wild goose chase with a Chinese dinner. The plates were immense and so we ordered to share. I filled up and it was good. We also saw our fellow teachers as they came in, still unshowered, to eat as well. We had exchanged numbers on the mountain (except Liam and I had exchanged numbers back in November) and told them they were welcome in Copan any time. One of the younger teachers, who was enthusiastic about everything, promised he'd see us this coming weekend.
After dinner we got a cab to take up our to the hot springs in Gracias. They are very different than the ones in Copan. They're about 15-20 minutes outside of town and only cost 20 lemps to get in. It felt really nice to relax in one of the pools. They had several, of different sizes and temperatures. One was large and obviously meant for swimming.
When we were ready to leave, we called our taxi. He said he “had a flat tire” and couldn't come. It was about 9:30 and the hotel closed at 10, so I was a little anxious. We waited around and asked a number of people as they were leaving if we could get a ride but they were all full or going the other way. Finally, we did catch a ride in a back of a truck and made it to the hotel at 10:05.
I went straight to bed and the room had no window, so with the lights off the only thing you could see was the red light on the TV.

Day 269 May 3
After 10 hours of sleep, I felt great. My legs and knees were sore, along with my back and arms. Something about this trip felt like a full body workout...hmm...
I re-situated the clothes that had been hanging out to dry to continue the process as much as possible during breakfast and the morning hours. I took a shower and we headed out to breakfast at the same place we ate two mornings ago.
While we were eating, a drunk beggar came in and started asking for tortillas. Because, he said, he was drunk. One of the most burly men I've seen in Honduras was eating with his wife and son and he told the man to leave. To leave right now or he would remove him. That, really, it would be a good idea for him to leave.
The man continued to hang around our table and tried to argue. I remember being grateful with the burly man got up to escort him out and then shocked when he simply chucked him down the stairs and out the door. Even the waitress and his wife jumped a bit. There was a silence, and we said nothing about it for a little while. I heard his wife telling him that it was a bit excessive, and he looked at us and asked if we were okay with it. We said yes and he said, “See, they're tranquil.” It was a little uncomfortable, but the beggar did not come back in and was gone when we left so I can only assume he was not too badly injured.
We went back and finished packing up our things before catching a bus out. The bus was crowded, but fine. Cid and I continued into Santa Rosa when Katie and Chris split to go to La Entrada so that we could return the sleeping bags and tent.
We got a taxi up the hill to his mom's house, where is brother was just waking up to let us in. This time I actually got to chat with his brother. He showed me in foreign currency collection, which was impressive. He is only missing one quarter, Delaware I think, from the 50 States quarters, so I said I would get that for him when I was home. He also has a large library of books, including a lot of Tolkein, Clancey, and C.S. Lewis.
We cleaned out the tent and wiped off all the dirt before heading into Santa Rosa to the pizza restaurant. We left the sleeping bags at the house, but brought the tent for his dad to pick up later. I got to meet his mom while we were having lunch at her restaurant. She was very friendly and looked through all my pictures on my camera. Unfortunately I couldn't bring myself to be as talkative with her. Both my nervousness about Spanish and about her made me quiet, but I answered all of her questions to the best of my ability. I'm kind of counting on Hamlet to let her know that I'm okay when I speak English. It just reaffirmed my need to improve my Spanish and, even more, my confidence.
Lunch was delicious, but around 2:30 we headed out to catch our bus to La Entrada. We caught a taxi and stopped to flag down the bus as it was going. We paid and ran onto the bus. It was a very full ride and Cid and I were separated. When we got to La Entrada, we arrived just as a bus was pulling out and jumped on it too (part of the luck with buses is that they are pulling out for about 15 minutes to ensure they are as full as possible.) Our ride to Copan was with a young man I see every morning on the way to school.
We got home and Cid went off to work. I stayed in and started on my laundry immediately. I cleaned up the house a little bit but spent most of my time on the clothes, which were smelling pretty awful. The power was out, and I gave up on holding out for a hot shower so I went in for a cold on and went to Picame for a baleada. While I was eating and reading my book by candle light, the power came back on. Shortly after, Cid came over and we went up on the roof and talked about our travels.
Around 9 I made it down to bed.

Day 270 May 4
I was up and out early to get set up in my classroom. I was horribly let down to discover that the coffee maker was still broken. Luckily, I had tea, but it just isn't the same.
We had no reading groups because Megan had to sub for Caroline. That gave us time to cover a lot of material we needed to get through. We had a relatively good day and ended with singing practice with Beth's class.
Of course, as is the way of my mystery curse, my mug broke during lunch. It was situated between Sierra and myself and a soccer ball landed right there. Between us and smashed the mug all over the place. 'Tis luck, or a lack of luck.
I walked home with Megan and her friend after school. I did a little grocery shopping with Sierra and then rushed home to get my bag, turn around, and go to tutoring. Tutoring was fine and uneventful. Though, I noticed Jaqui was walking differently and I wonder if she's not 5 or 6 months pregnant.
I rushed home and Tammi called right as I came up on them standing at my door step. We had a running date and so I changed very quickly and was ready to go. We wanted to go on the nature trail at the ruins, but it was closed up early. We tried to go in anyway, since the gate wasn't actually locked, but the guard stopped us. We then ran back to the road and ran out to Las Sepulturas. I did better than I expected and was able to talk the whole time. I find that when my muscles are sore I am more motivated to exercise as I don't want to let the growth go to waste.
I got home and sweat more than I think I ever have before in my life. As my body cooled down I just dripped. It was gross, but it made showering feel wonderful.
I spent the rest of the evening doing all the cleaning I didn't get to do over the weekend. I swept the house, organized and leaned my room, finished my laundry, did the dishes, edited and went through my photos, and cleaned the bathroom. It was satisfying. I fell asleep around 8:30.

Day 271 May 5
I was up and out early again. Miss Norma had warned me that they would be taking a class picture with me for a project in Spanish class, so I put on a little bit of makeup, which my girls noticed immediately. I started out with tea again, but part way through the day, when I went to make more, I discovered that the coffee maker had been replaced with a new, working one. Yay! It is my friend.
We had a good morning and I was having a very energetic and involved Science class with Nora Welchez walked by with a guest. The kids were even giving good call and response. I love it when that works out.
Beth has a friend in town, so she left early and Abby subbed for her last class when they came to practice Baby Beluga. Things did not go as smoothly as usual, but it was manageable.
After school, I packed up quickly to go to a meeting with Megan in which we would review the latest applications for folks who want to work here next year, but the room was empty. I grabbed some copies so that I could meet her in the office and walk with her, but her office was locked. I had noticed that she was not here in the morning, but I thought it was because her friend was in town and Ann had said she didn't need her in reading groups. I stopped by Linda's office, but she didn't know anything. Instead we got to talking about some of my students, one we feel we have to let go to the public schools next year and one who's sponsor wants a write up on her. I went back to my room, wrote the write up, and sent it to her.
I walked home with Abby and Allan and we were picked up part way down the hill and rode the rest of the way in the back of a truck. Once home, Sierra invited me for a smoothie, so I dropped my bag and sat down with her in Picame. Before I could order, I got a call from Megan asking if I could come be a nurse. I said yes and asked what had happened, “My friend Kristin...” Then the phone cut out.
Megan had tried to call me twice when I was still at school, but I had no saldo to call her back, now I was concerned so I ran in the house, grabbed my first aid kit and ran up the hill.
Megan and Kristin had spent all night and all day with doctors or by toilets. Kristin had both a bacterial infection in her stomach and a parasite. Now with all the medication, lack of sleep, lack of food, lack of water, and still being ill...she was a mess. Megan, who also hadn't slept, didn't feel equipped to deal with the situation alone and just wanted someone else around in case something more happened.
Megan went into town to talk to a few local doctors, get some things that Kristin needed, run a few errands of her own, and left me in charge of Kristin. We watched “Becoming Jane.” The only thing I really needed to get done that afternoon was print pictures of my students, so I gave my zip drive and money to Megan so she could do it while she was out. I had hoped to do a ton of grading, but it was at home and could wait.
I stayed and helped and cleaned, and prepared emergency buckets, and mopped when the bucket wasn't around, and cooked until a while after seven. Anne came around 7 and Rachael was going to come around 9 to stay the night with them. Megan had calmed down considerably and we talked. I tried to get her to sit and relax but she was too wired and too tired to relax. Hopefully she could sleep later.
Cid came by to see the house, as it's where I want to live next year, and then we went back home and sat on the roof talking until about 9:30 when we realized neither of us had really eaten. We went into Picame to see if they would do us a favor and make baleadas after hours, which they did. I then went to sleep.

Day 272 May 6
I had a late start to the day, but I managed to get in 2 cups of coffee before the power went out. I had a nice chat with Rony about my Spanish.
The kids had a good day. We behaved well and spent a lot of our time finishing up our mother's day frames, cards, and songs. We took a quiz on paragraphs, which went horribly. We shall try again later...
After lunch, I discovered that my key no longer worked for my classroom. I ran to get Rony, who used his magically powers to make it work again. It took some tricks. Social Studies started 10 minutes late. I spent my break on grading, which I'd fallen behind on and then we finished the day singing outside, which lead to a lot of distracted kids.
After school, Marlon and his brother were hanging out in my room and when Patona came to clean my room, Marlon was so proud of his picture frame he wanted to show her. He's never been proud of much of anything he's done in class. It made me really happy.
I got sub plans from Ann to give to Cid later, as she'd be missing school tomorrow to go to a mother's day event at her son's school, which is the Honduran public school. We walked home together.
When I got home, I found a very drunk and unhappy Josue laying on the floor of my house. Sierra was in Picame trying to decide what to do about it. I rushed through and left for tutoring, managing not to deal with the situation much.
Tutoring went well, and as I was leaving I saw Viki, from the first semester, which a batch of students in the park. I gave her a big hug and we chatted a while before I headed off. I found Hsuan, who is having some real problems with the orphanage and may not be able to stay to see his project through, which is sad. I saw Josue drinking in the street, so I at least knew he was out of my house.
I went home and showered and then walked to Casa de Cafe to drop off the sub plans with Cid. Josue stopped me in the street to inform me that he was dying and would be single for the rest of his life. It was awkward. I saw saved by Tammi who was touring around two of the folks from Viki's group.
I got to Casa de Cafe and Cid was in and out. Suna, his 4 year old cousin, came and told me all about her chicken pox, which she is recovering from. I kept up mostly, but my Spanish has gotten noticeably worse since I stopped taking classes.
I ate pasta with Cid and we chatted a while before I headed home at 8:30 to go to sleep.

Day 273 May 7
I woke up an hour late, panicked. It was not a nice feeling. I called Cid to see if he wanted to walk together now that I wasn't leaving at an ungodly hour, but I was still leaving too early. I ended up meeting up with Chris on the way and then we got a ride with Gilda, so I only arrived 20 minutes late. I was also greeting with some sugar cane from my student Yaira, which is a rare treat in Copan. Cid arrived as the bell ran, which made me a little nervous, but I was glad he already had his plans and key to the room.
We had an energetic morning and the behavior was better. We made our Beluga puppets for the mother's day celebration and fraction pizzas. We practiced our song on the stage with our props and then went to lunch. It was the most productive, well behaved half day I've ever had.
I had more than 4 hours until the mother's day event started, and I decided to stay at school the whole time. I put grades in my computer for the first time this quarter, planned for next week, cleaned my room, and made my worksheets for next week.
While I was working, I got a call from Zoltan, from Gracias that I met on the hike last weekend. He was in Copan, on his way to Antigua, and wanted to see the Copan night life since there is none in Gracias. I invited him up to the school to see Mayatan and the mother's day event.
He arrived as I was finishing my work and as others started to arrive for the event. I showed him around as I got to work on prep for the event. I was surprised to find myself nervous for my kids to perform. I knew they were nervous and I wanted them to do well. We'd practiced so much, so I knew they could do it, but I was afraid we wouldn't have enough students, or they'd be too quiet in their nervousness.
They were pretty crazy before hand, and after, but the performance went really smoothly. They were among the louder, more composed performances. I was so proud of them! This must be why people have children...
After the performance, I took them to the room, we got our picture frames and cards and I told them how proud I was of them. I was a little sad later to see that Juan had pulled apart his picture frame, thrown it away, and just had his picture.
Shortly after the acts ended, it began to rain, which cleared people out quickly. We cleaned up in the rain and then I started to walk home with Zoltan. We got a ride in the back of a truck, which had my student Katia and her mom. Katia is one of my more outgoing students, but she is shy around her mom. We had talked before the performance about how much her mom wanted to hear her singing loudly and if she would do it for me. She promised and had done a good job.
I went home and showered. While I was waiting for Zoltan to come back from his hostel for us to get dinner, Sierra, her friend Henry, Carolina, Jorge, and eventually Cid came over. After an hour or so, Zoltan came and we had baleadas, which he previously claimed not to like. I changed his mind. We can be friends.
After dinner, the whole group went to ViaVia for a while. We were also joined by Jesse, for a short time, Zeya, a Peace Corps volunteer I've known since my first month here, and a friend of Cid's we didn't know would be in town named Rob. We eventually migrated to Barcito to meet up with Mark who is back in town. We stayed there until they closed and the whole bar moved to Papa Changos, which has changed location slightly. I was confused at first, but we figured it out. I'm not sure I like it as much. It has a bigger dance floor, but there was a man who was insisting on teaching me to dance and would neither let me leave nor allow Cid to cut in. Three times he told Cid to wait. It stopped being fun quickly, but eventually I got away and Cid smoothed things over to make sure there were no hard feelings. It was awkward, but things got better after that.
Eventually, Cid, Sierra, Henry, Zoltan, and I decided it was time to go and got everyone dropped off where they needed to be before making it to bed.

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