Wednesday

I had to wake up at 5 this morning because we had to go San Pedro Sula early today and it takes a few hours to get there. The beginning of the trip is always the worst because it is just winding roads for awhile and being squished in the back seat of a small car never helps! Millie, Yassenia, her husband, Anna and I all seemed to be going to the Same Place for different reasons. Yassenia’s husband had to go to S.P.S. for business today and tomorrow, Anna lost her residency card and needs to get back home on July 6th, so Yassenia was going with her to help deal with immigration stuff, Millie had to bring her car into the shop, get her glasses and her phone fixed and I just always seem to be tagging along for the ride!! We dropped Yassenia’s husband off first, then Anna and Yassenia and then Millie and I headed off to the auto repair shop. I pretty much got the best deal out of it all because right next to the auto repair shop was dunkin dounuts!! Of course Millie and I had no choice but to go since it was really the only thing to do while we were waiting for the car. :> We sat and ate our donuts while drinking milk and coffee and then got a dozen donuts to go!! It was so good to have a donut!!! It is funny how once you are in such an unfamiliar place there is so much comfort found in sweets and familiar foods!!! My comfort foods have been chocolate and peanut butter so far. Kinda reminds me of LA Term!!
Anyways once we were done the car was still being worked on so we took a taxi to the city mall. We met up with Anna and Yassenia there and we walked around running Millie’s errands with her and window shopping. It is funny because all of the clothes for women here are tight and frumpy. Definitely Latina style.
Anyhow, we sat down for lunch in between errands and then on our way out we stopped off at the candy store. It was nice to go to all these places while we were there because Santa Rita is a small town and does not have any “touristy” things or foods to eat. It was good to have a few treats today! We finally left and started our journey back home, all extremely full yet continuing to eat sweets and speaking Spanish (or in my case, learning it). I love driving in the car and I really like the long drives here because you are able to see so much of the country and such different parts. San Pedro Sula is very much a city. There is so much smog in the air, so many buildings and businesses and it basically looks like a less advanced North America. Then, as you start heading away from S.P.S., there is so much green, so many cows, people on the sides of the road selling corn, riding horses, women carrying pots on their heads, and the crazy drivers that follow you know matter what part of the country you are in! Once you reach Santa Rita, however, everything is so much smaller and “homey.” There are even more people riding their horses, cows and chickens just crossing the street or grazing in front of houses, skinny dogs everywhere and still plenty of crazy drivers!! There are less buildings though, less industry and modernization. There is more poverty here. It is nice to live in a smaller town though, you see familiar faces everyday and there is more community.
Well the good news is, I, for some reason became a little less intimidated on the car ride back home and I really tried speaking Spanish. It has always been harder for me to actually speak Spanish because I really struggle with sentence structure. I have a hard time knowing where “lo” “que” “me” and “se” goes and I always try to translate things exactly...which does not work. I also have such a hard time conjugating the verbs in my head before attempting to actually say them. It is so much easier to read Spanish! But I finally just started talking more and making mistakes and asking for corrections and even just correcting myself. By the end of the ride, after dropping Anna off and bringing Yassenia back to her house, Millie and Yassenia were surprised at how much I was talking. They really encouraged me and told me how much Spanish I knew. It felt good and really made me just want to talk and learn more. And that is what I need. To really WANT to talk more. Otherwise I don’t. I so badly just want to be able to hold a conversation and not have to be timid or anxious because I only know so much. I just want to be able to understand people! I mean there are touristy parts here where more people speak English but really in Santa Rita there are very few people, just Millie and two other teachers, whom I have not even met yet! It is so frustrating to constantly be surrounded by unfamiliar people and not even be able to understand most of what they are saying!!! I cannot tell you how many times I almost just start rattling off in my gibberish because I am so frustrated!!!