Viaje medio

When I arrived back at my room, Lorena and Celia were cleaning it. This included mostly sweeping and mopping the floor, and changing the sheets. The cleanliness of floors seems very important here. I see women constantly sweeping tiles, indoors and out, sometimes more than once per day. Lorena was making the bed when I walked in, and as the double bed is pushed up against the wall, she couldn’t reach the far corner, so she threw the sheet toward it, then flung herself onto the bed. It was quite a site, this short plump 50-ish woman in skirt and heels, flat out on the bed, reaching for the corner to wrap the sheet around it. I looked at Celia and we both smiled with amusement. Celia is a 15-year old girl (who appears to me more like 12) from a nearby village, who lives here and works about 12 hours per day for Lorena. Her mother and little brother visit weekly, and I understand that Celia will return to her village one week from Sunday. That happens to be the day I leave, so perhaps she’s just here when Lorena has guests. I assume this is an arrangement based on her family’s inability to care for her, or perhaps she is actually able to take some money home. When Lorena was telling me about her, she whispered the word, “indijenas,” just the way some people in the US whisper, “black,” as if it were a dirty word, and the people about whom they are speaking don’t know that’s how they are described. There’s definitely a socioeconomic divide here between those of Spanish descent, and those of Mayan descent. I’m not sure why I’m surprised by that, as we have the same phenomenon in the US, but we also tend to treat all Latin Americans equally, regardless of their ancestry.

Hosting students is definitely a business for Lorena. When I learned that I would be staying with Lorena and Luis and their 3 kids, I thought I’d be part of the family life. I’ve known people who hosted visiting students, and that’s the way they treated the experience, but Casa Lorena is more like a bed-and-breakfast. I am not invited to partake in activities with the family, not even to watch TV with them in the evenings, and on the other hand, there is nothing expected of me either. I enter the house only at mealtimes, and sit at the dining room table by myself. Except that much of the time Lorena will sit and keep me company, or sometimes she’ll eat with me, but the family (read: male) meal time is definitely separate. I was told that the oldest of her kids was 18, but in reality, the youngest is 18. She is away at college in Tegucigulpa. The two older kids are sons – one owns 3 moto-taxis in town, and I’m not sure what the other one does. I haven’t been formally introduced to them, but have made a point to say, “Hola,” in passing. Some of the other students have mentioned that they are way too close to some of the family drama, so I guess I prefer what I have to that option.

One of the son’s moto-taxis caught fire the other night. The driver and a young boy came to the door screaming, and Luis went running out the door with a fire extinguisher. There doesn’t seem to be a fire department. Lorena was very sad, and went into her room to cry. She couldn’t decide whether to call her son in San Pedro to tell him of this tragedy, or wait till he returned home. It obviously meant financial setback for the family. Luis is a mechanic, and keeps two large delivery trucks in front of the house. I think he is short on work, as I’ve seen him around a lot during the day, and heard him say to Lorena that he had, “no carga.”

I had an opportunity to ask Edwin about how some of the utilities work in Copan. He explained to me that the electricity, water and trash collection are all municipal services – through Santa Rosa and Tegucigulpa - but that the water and electricity infrastructure is especially overloaded in this area. As I suspected, that’s why there are rolling blackouts and water outages periodically. I’m glad I did a bit of laundry in the sink this morning, as there is no water this afternoon. I will be glad to reunite mi ropa with laundry macinas in the US, as I don’t think I’m able to get them very clean. I’ve never been fond of scented deodorants, but have recently discovered a use for them.

Ayer, I made it to the Mayan ruins. They are not far at all when you take the correct road. They were pretty impressive, as I’ve never seen anything that old – structures that predate written history (though in a way they ARE written history). There are totems carved in stone for Mayan rulers, and altars that were used for human sacrifice, as well as pyramids, residential structures, and a stairway that depicts the peoples’ history. I have to admit, though, that I was more fascinated by the free-flying scarlet macaws at the entrance. They are birds that were bread at Macaw Mountain, and are being prepared for release. I assume that when they are ready to be on their own, they simply fly away. They’d have to be foolish to go very far, though, when here they have the best of both worlds – freedom AND free food. It was incredible to see these creatures in their natural environment, perched high in the treetops, then swooping low overhead to where a whole line of ten or more perched atop an 8-foot fence. I took several videos from very close up; one about five minutes long.

(because Ellen said I had to be in some of the pictures)

I finished workbook #2 and was presented workbook #3 yesterday. I’m feeling much more comfortable with reading and writing, as I have time to look up verb forms and such, and even more comfortable with understanding the gist of what people say, but am still quite insecure about crafting spoken sentences on the spot. Most of the time when I talk, I think about the sentence ahead of time and look up words, then blurt it out in the midst of conversation. I told Edwin that I want to have mucha practica next week. I think we might spend some time walking around el mercado and other places in town, talking about what we see and speaking with other people. That sera’ perfect (future tense!)