hn32.

alright, so its about time to get another entry in. in fact, i feel like i have let you guys down by not writing recently, so i'll try to make this one worthwhile. first and foremost, happy new year to all of you, merry christmas, happy kwanzaa and channukah. i hope thats how you spell those last two. anyway, its been a difficult past few weeks, with a few adventures. first, i am finally getting out of the mental slump i was in, and falling back into a normal work schedule. before the christmas holidays i found myself spending less time working than i wanted, but that's all over. hopefully. i am now looking ahead at the world of possibilities in front of me, and it looks good. although everything is somewhat on hold for now due to crummy weather and the coffee season, there seems to be some sort of light at the end of the tunnel, a silver lining to the clouds, and whatever other metaphor you would want to employ. basically things are getting better. i am currently on the prowl for funding for small projects, so if anyone is familiar with any good NGO's for that type of thing, i am open to suggestions. Or if you just want to send me money, even better, but I doubt anyone would be that open to it. alright, so enough about that, lets talk about christmas and new years. the first holiday, which i expected to be huge here in honduras, was in fact much less than expected. i had a few drinks with some community members, which surprised me because usually people dont even come anywhere near alcohol for religious holidays, and then ate tamales until i fell asleep. there was no party, no celebration, and in fact, nothing out of the ordinary. the next few days I spent making an attempt at some sort of work while taking care of my friend's dog. i dropped the beast off at her house on the 28th, and the morning of the 29th left for vacation. and that is where all of the "fun" started. i arrived to tela that evening with my friends brock and leila, and we found ourselves a hotel room and some pizza. the next day more of our friends arrived, and by the evening we had a solid group of about 20-25 people. we went out to a bar, and were sitting around when three honduran girls walked in. one of them motioned to me to approach the table to i sat with them and began to chat. they were extremely friendly, and showed great interest in the boys of the group. about 15 minutes late, brock and leila leave to go home and get robbed on the way by two teenagers with a gun. at this point i get a little suspicious, pry my other friend away from the girls, and go approach the cops parked across the corner. they leave to talk to brock and leila as three shady looking teenage gang-member types park themselves across the street from the bar. i think, well shit, it seems that they're here to get some more of us once we leave. suddenly, out of nowhere, a different set of cops pulls up to the corner and arrests the kids. i think, this is an opportunity to figure out if they're the same ones, and i call brock's phone which was stolen previously. it rings in the pocket of one of the hoodlums and he turns it off non-chalantly. i think, alright here's my shot, and do the most idiotic thing possibly. as the gang members sit in the back of the cop truck, i approach the cops and talk to them about getting the phone back. well the cops leave telling me they'll be right back, meanwhile the three girls hop into a cab and disappear as well. i then approach the waitress at the bar and inquire about the girls. turns out that they do this all the time, talk to gringos, and then get them robbed. when i ask her, why she didnt bother warning us, she tells me that we seemed to be enjoying it way too much and she didnt want to ruin our fun. well thanks. then she tells me that if we file a report against the members of the gang, they will get out regardless and probably find me and shoot me. just me, mostly because they watched me talk to the cops. well thanks again. so at this point, we talk to the cops a few more times, i go back to the hotel, and the party continues. the morning after, we decided it was best to get out of dodge and we did just that. the next few days were filled with less eventful, but much more fun partying, which involved no shady female characters, no gang members, and no one threatening my life. overall, i would say the vacation was a success. however, the return trip was not nearly as fun. apparently, it is best to avoid the cafeteria of the bus station in san pedro sula, because on the way back, about half way home, i got hit with the biggest stomach ache and a case of extreme, well ill spare you the details. regardless to say, i had to spend the night in a hotel instead of continuing home because i couldnt leave the bathroom. awesome right. at the hotel i had another interesting little encounter with the honduran underworld. when i finally got around to looking for food that night, i spoke to the hotel clerk and he told me he could find me some cup noodles if i gave him the cash. so i did and went back to my room to wait, while watching a hugh grant flick, again awesome, right? about half an hour later, with no noodles in sight, i went looking for the guy. the other clerk points to a room down the hall and tells me to go knock. i check it out, and the original clerk who offered the food opens the door. inside i find a honduran prosititute loading a revolver with some bullets that are scattered on the bed. the guy then asks me if i would marry her and take her to america with me. i politely decline and return to my room, laughing and hoping that at one point i would get some noodles if the guys lives to bring them to me. about an hour later he found me, noodles in hand, so i guess it all worked out in the end. the next day i returned to site with a mixture of busses and jalons, and fell asleep, some of the best sleep i have ever had. that's about it in a nutshell. i feel like i missed some details, but i wouldnt want to bore you guys, so just use your imaginations. any questions?