When we were lucky enough to have our friends Paul and Clare visit us (read about that here and here) we did a lot of chatting about our life in Honduras compared to life in the US. We tried to explain cultural nuances (when we actually noticed them) but we weren’t exactly sure what our friends were thinking about our adopted home for the past 22 months. I figured they could say it better than we could so here is a guest post straight from the source!
We knew we were going to see many things we’ve never experienced before in Honduras, but you really can never prepare yourself for complete immersion in a very different culture. Paul and I wanted to visit Dave and Kristi before they even left for their journey. We decided that there is never a perfect time to take off work and leave the country, so we just bought tickets and went anyway.
Upon our arrival, we experienced the luxe bus system for the only time we paid the high dollar for plush seats and snacks on the way to Copan. We chatted away the entire ride, catching up on life with one another, and arrived to Copan at dusk. Copan was such a fun place… Drinks at night, lots of fun food to choose from, quaint cafes, cobblestone streets… Not to mention Maccaw Mountain and the Mayan Ruins! I loved seeing Paul get adventurous with his food palette! He typically is the “meat and potatoes” kinda guy, but quickly acclimated to baleadas and pupusas! So delicious.
Digging in to pupusas
We loved the tourist parts of the trip, but it was especially enlightening to visit the town where David and Kristi live. Trinidad is a beautiful town tucked away in the rolling hills of Honduras. We would take walks through town, and it was so fun to see D + K interact with their neighbors and friends. A little boy yelled to David “AMIGO!” from a few blocks away; the guys outside of the Red Cross were eager to show them their new gym equipment (the most antique treadmill we’ve ever seen, see picture of Kristi demonstrating how it’s done); stopping by their former host family’s store and meeting the young boy that lived there who was drying coffee beans nearby; one of Kristi’s friends’ daughter came by the morning after we arrived and brought us homemade tamales… We were humbled to see how the people of Trinidad have adopted our friends into their community as much as Dave and Kristi have made Trinidad their home.
Taking the treadmill for a roll (bonus: the metal tubes under the belt kind of felt like a foot massage)
The simple but functional home D + K have made for themselves there was our little hangout for a few days. I was really excited for Kristi to teach me how to do laundry, Honduran style! It gave me a whole new sense for the word “laundry.” What we really loved about being at their house was seeing what life is really like for them there. We also appreciated the simplicity of enjoying one another’s company to pass time, as opposed to watching TV and having all of the modern distractions constantly surrounding us. Not to say that we didn’t enjoy a little bit of Dick Wolf’s Law and Order when we stayed in our hotels with the finer amenities. Because believe me, we did.
Laundry lesson
Scrub-a-dub
Another cool highlight of our trip was joining D + K on a “work day,” when we got to meet the mayor of Trinidad and be escorted by “his people” to the communities where Dave is teaching the municipalities there about chlorinating their water sources. That is, we were escorted after the mayor showed up to the Town Hall after us waiting around for an hour or so, because no one wanted to drive us out there until the Big Man showed up. Then a little more hustling happened, and we were on our way. That’s actually something we had to get acclimated to: waiting. You realize how much of a hurry we are typically in, and our patience for waiting wears thin pretty quickly. It was nice to adjust to being content with getting somewhere whenever we would get there.
Off to work
During the course of the workday, we found out that quite a bit of the leg work for D + K’s projects is done through followup. Many of the times, it takes a bit of time and patience (again, key components in Honduras) to see the project to fruition, or even just to witness a bit of progress. This culture is so very different than ours in so many ways, and what I really liked about that was how it made us examine ourselves a bit deeper.
At the end of the workday, the Town workers dropped us off at our peaceful mountain getaway, where Dave and Kristi invited them up for a cold coke as a “thank you.” The guys seemed to be grateful and genuinely enjoy their company. It’s nice to know our friends are in good hands there.
We wrapped up our visit with our friends in Tela, where we enjoyed music videos (lots of JLo, PitBull, and Enrique) over grilled chicken (!!) and Imperials, had our share of stunning sunsets from what felt like the highest point of the world, and went to Punta Sal to snorkel, see monkeys, and avoid the eyeball of the fish that was our lunch. Saying goodbye wasn’t sad, only because we will be seeing them in one short week!
Thank you, David and Kristi, for hospitably giving us the grand tour of Honduras, taking care of our every need along the way, and flooring us with your fluent Spanish! See you soon, friends.
Love, Clare and Paul
Honduras has public art!
I loved reading Clare’s post and hearing how our Kristi and David are doing in Honduras from someone else’s perspective. I would have liked the opportunity to see them in their daily lives there and meet their friends and people they’ve spent the past 2 years living among. Thank you for a descriptive account of a week in the life of David and Kristi in Honduras. Sounds like a wonderful visit!