Changing the Channel

Estoy aqui! I´m here!

I arrived in Honduras on August 15th. Flights went smoothly and I met my fellow Passionist Volunteers and our director Fr. Lucian at the Tegucigalpa airport. We drove through Tegucigalpa to get to the highway to Talanga. Graffiti on most buildings and walls provides evidence of recent protests and political turmoil, but the city otherwise seemed normal. A bumpy drive through green countryside and hills brought us to Talanga. The house we live in is in the center of town. It has three bedrooms and two ¨bathrooms,¨ though no running water. That means bucket showers and flushing the toilet by dumping a pot of water into the toilet bowl. It´s very basic but livable; my only complaint is a lack of natural light in our communal living space, but the room that I share with Joanine and Jean has great light. After meeting various neighbors and friends, we were very tired. I successfully hung my bednet in my bottom bunk, creating a little nook. On Sunday, we went to a two masses. The children’s mass in the morning was crazy. Everything is done by the children, even the singing. It was basically a free for all. We also attended an evening mass with lots of community members. Fr. Lucian introduced us to the parish; they were very excited to meet the new gringas. Monday we toured the schools that we will be volunteering in all year. We will not be teaching, but rather placed in a classroom initially to help with learning Spanish and once we are comfortable, as a teacher’s aide. I chose a first-grade class at a school around the block from our house. The kids are adorable and have so much energy. Unfortunately they cannot afford workbooks for each child, so the teacher has to write everything on the board and the children simply copy; the amount of learning actually taking place is minimal. I can’t wait until I’m more confident in my Spanish and can actually communicate with the children and the teachers (not to mention everyone in Talanga…).

My roommates are great. I live with four other girls and one guy. In English there names are: Joanine, Jean, Carolyn, Jamie, and Mike. In Spanish, their names are: Nina, Juanita, Carolina, Rosalina, y Miguel, respectively. One HUGE change for me is that my name is Patricia here. Since there are two Carolyns in our group, and it would be really confusing for the Talangas if we had the same name, I decided to go by my middle name. It’s a bit weird, but I like it. New life, new name.

Life is great so far. I still can’t believe that I’ll be here for a year; as time goes on I’m sure it will get more real, but for now, I’m just enjoying the learning process. Not knowing Spanish is frustrating, but I trust that I’ll get it someday.
My contact info in Talanga is:

Carolyn Patricia Plunkett
Iglesia Catolica
Voluntarios Pasionistas
Talanga, F.M.
Honduras, Central America

Cell # +504 31 94 2036

Thanks for reading! I'll try and post often and with a bit more commentary so it's not simply a rundown of my days when I get to know the people better. Hopefully that will be soon!

Abrazos!