The Old Lady & the Shoe
Trip Start
May 25, 2009
1
10
11
Trip End
Jun 05, 2009
San Pedro Sula, Cortés, Honduras
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
We spent lunch with Ninoska and her family. She made us pastelitos, which are sort of like hot pockets with seasoned ground beef inside. It was a nice visit, but rather brief for Honduran time.
Next, Deeda (one of the volunteers) took us to visit Dona Norma and her family. Dona Norma used to work at the school as a cleaning lady. She is raising a litter of kids, even though she is nearly 70. Her appearance is old and frail with a very short stature. Sweet as can be. This year, the school fired her because they said she was "too expensive". Don't get me started...
She lives in her tiny house with 9 other people. Her daughters keep having illigitimate babies. Her daughter, who was on drugs, recently had a baby that she wanted to give up for adoption. Dona Norma wouldn't have it and has decided to raise the baby herself, even though her daughter is still living in the house! It's "her baby" now... when we got there it was laying in the hammock outside. This part was really difficult for me to swallow because my cousin, Holly, is desperately trying to adopt a baby from Ethiopia right now. How is it that in our world a parent that doesn't want a child cannot simply give it to a woman or family that wants it more than anything else in the world? We spent the afternoon visiting with the family and playing with the kids. We brought them clothes and toys. I don't know how they get by...
For dinner, I promised Nathan that I would make him lentil soup because that was his favorite meal last year. I taught him how and he tried to make it in Canada but I guess it just wasn't the same! We chilled out all afternoon/evening drinking Flor de Cana, Honduran's own rum, and cooking. It felt like old times... we even wrote mean things on the fridge about Alex, which was a joke that we all played as roommates.
Lastly, Mary & Digna threw us a going away party! They had food and pineapple upside down cake! Delicious!!! We played their favorite game "Los Globos", or "Balloons". They write silly commands on little pieces of paper and stuff them into balloons before blowing them up. For example, we may have had to act like a lion or a chicken or give a speech about someone in the room. It's fun! We said our goodbyes and then we were off to bed.
