Sarah in Honduras: September 2007

I have been in Copan for language school for a week and a half now. Copan is really an interesting town. It is quite small and very well put together as a tourist town. I am living with a very large family, and my host-mother and her sisters (one of whom Adam is living with) were actually born in Copan. I have 4 host sisters about my age, an 18-year old host brother, another older host brother with the cutest 16-month old son, and 3 cousins who are in and out of the house daily. The family is also Evangelico and they go to church 4 times each week. I really feel like I am living dual lives in Copan. Half the time, I hang out with Adam and some other friends we've met here, speaking English and being tourists, and half the time I'm trying to be part of the Honduran family I live with. For instance, yesterday I went to the Mayan ruins in the morning with Adam, Brooke, and Mercy (friends from language school) and we went on an English tour with a few more Gringos. Afterwards, I went home for lunch, where my host mother talked to me in Spanish about her daughters in the U.S. and how she has never been able to visit them because it is nearly impossible to get a Visa to come to the U.S. from Honduras. After that, I played with Emilio, the cute child, and did my homework in my favorite cafe here. After dinner, I ran into Mercy and a couple of other guys from the tour and we ate ice cream in waffle cones and hung out. Around 9:30, the power went out all over town, and as I was contemplating how I was going to stumble back home in the dark, I ran into my host sister. She was on her way to church, as the father of one of the jovenes (youth group) had died and there was an all night memorial service and viewing. I went with her to the church and was once again immersed in the different culture. My host family had provided food for the service, and people wandered in and out of the church all night. It was quite moving, but different than any memorial service I had been to, as it seemed quite alright to smile and talk to people in the church...people were not as somber as at funerals I've been to in the U.S. In any case, It is hard to know whether I should be with the family all the time, trying to gain as much Honduran knowledge as possible early on, or whether I should take advantage of the last few days I have with Adam and English-speaking people my age. Trying to understand Spanish and the ways of the family all the time is frustrating, exhausting, and satisfying all at the same time.

Mercy, Adam, and Brooke at the ruins