Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Public Transit..... (sept. 6th)

Today was an overwhelming day. I dropped Matt off at the airport this morning :/ and then oscar, the taxi driver, took me to the bus terminal. He helped me try to find the right bus to go to El Salvador and carried my bag for me as we ran all around the terminal upstairs, downstairs and back up again, trying to figure out the different times and prices of the different buses. And of course, everytime we passed by the different windows the same people would try to “sell” us their bus’s destination, “La Ceiba, La Ceiba, ven aqui, La Ceiba, La Ceiba!”
Finally after buying the tickets to El Salvador I needed to find a bus to Siguatepeque. As usual, as soon as I got on the bus everyone stopped to stare; I went to the back of the bus to find a seat and put my suitcase, uncomfortably on my lap as the wheels jammed into my thighs and tried to look semi-confident in what I was doing/where I was going. Just then my phone rang, it was the woman I had just bought my tickets from, she let me know that I had dumbfoundedly left my tickets in the office! As I felt my face go from hot to on fire, and my body from being wet to now drenched with sweat, I thought I was going to have a panic attack. Oscar had already left me and I was uncomfortably stuck between people and my luggage on a bus that was starting to leave. I didn’t know what to do, should I try and stop the bus to go get my tickets? Are they going to be okay if I leave them there? At this point I just wanted to get to Sigua. “Are you serious?! Can you please just save them for me?? I come back on Thursday.” Gracias a Dios she said the words that could not have given me any more comfort at that time, “yes, I will save them here for you, no te preocupes (don’t worry)”. As soon as I got off the phone the creeper sitting next to me started saying stuff to me. I figured if I just ignored him he would get the hint but apparently he thought grabbing my arm would make things better. Being as flustered as I was at this point, I whipped my head around and quickly snapped, “no me toques!” (Don’t touch me!) I guess that did the trick because he said sorry and then didn’t bother me the rest of the way. I get quite fed up with the men around here... Anyway, as my legs and butt drifted off to sleep the bus slowly trucked on, making several stops along the way. At most stops there were people waiting for the bus’s arrival to run up to the window and try to sell you their goods, once again grabbing your arm through the window to really get your attention and better their chances of making a few lempiras. About half way through the ride the bus pulled over once again and a swarm of people ran up to the bus, this time selling fish. The lady sitting next to me shot her arm across my body, hitting my chest along the way, trying to grab a bag of fish as the lady selling the fish for some reason continued to shove the bag in my face instead. Oh the wonders of public transportation in Honduras. I am going to miss this craziness, there is never a day that goes by that someone or something doesn’t entertain you… or flabbergast or inferiorate you. I did finally get to Siguatepeque and it was so good to see Kristin and meet the family and see the home I will be living in for the last three weeks of my trip. They have two dogs and one reminds me of sadie. :) I am excited to come back and live here. It will be quite the change from Santa Rita, it is a lot bigger; they actually have restaurants here!

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