Hey Mister...

Today is our third day in San Marcos, Honduras, visiting with my friend Liz from Pierpont´s restaurant. She is down here teaching third grade at a private school. Half of the classes are in English, and they are pretty good I may add, and the other half in Spanish. They kept coming up to me saying, ¨hey mister,¨and showing off something new.
The kids are brown, with tear dropped eyelids, and sweet smiles. They act just like the kids that I used to tutor in Lawrence, at the Quail Run Elementary school. We had a wonderful day, and I gave them somewhat of a geography lesson as I discussed my trip with them. They were very excited, and want me to return on the way back through. We ended the day with yoga and meditation, before gathering their things and getting together for a picture. I truly commend Liz for here work, it is not easy teaching this age group in two languages, half way around the world, in a third world country. She is doing an excellent job.
The weather has been very nice here. It rains at night, which kicks up the humidity during the day. It is probably in the 90´s right now, and we expect the same further south. It is suppose to be raining in Nicaragua, and we are expecting more mudslides. We saw quite a few in Guatemala from the last hurricane, so we are prepared and moving carefully. I am excited to get to Lake Nicaragua in two days, it is suppose to be amazing.
Honduras is different. It is the poorest country in the western world and can be very difficult to come to as an outsider. The people are very nice, however, they don´t seem to be very excited or proud of their lives and heritage. The country is in a slump, the president has been stealing tax dollars, the roads and transportation is terrible, there are few jobs, poor city utilities (the water is off from 6AM to 4PM every day, and the electricity goes off because the money the president stole was for the electrical supply of the country), and it is just kind of sad. The school today was trying to teach the kids about Honduran pride and standing up for the protection and growth of the country, however, the kids did not seem to really respond. National pride is extremely different when compared to what may be seen in Mexico for example.
Nonetheless, the kids are still playing and smiling, cows still roam the sides of the roads, dogs through the streets at night, and I even saw a woman on the bus yesterday to Santa Rosa with a live chicken in her bag. They call them Chicken Buses!
Honduras does have beautiful country sides, giant mountain tops and rich Mayan culture. It will be interesting to see the difference of culture and economics as we move into Nicaragua.
Ending off my afternoon, I was gathering my things together to head to the Internet cafe. One by one, the kids came by with their backpacks, smiling and telling me ¨goodbye mister.¨