I know everyone has seen those Mexican rodeos on tv with the wooden arena and the riders with straw hats.  Well, I honestly didn’t think it could get any worse that that… until I went to the Honduran rodeo yesterday.  First of all, we were dangling 15 feet from the ground putting complete faith in a 20 year old termite ridden arena being held together with a total of 4 nails.  The riders, all my age or younger, were wearing mismatched clothes and old little league football helmets.  After the bulls got done humping each other, they were corralled into the waiting area underneath where we were precariously sitting.  They slapped the bulls with sugar cane to get them into the cage where the riders took mount.  The next part was just like any other rodeo.  The rider pulls on the bulls balls until he gets bucked off.  But this is the best part.  The prize was a beer for every second the rider stayed on the bull.  A 19-year-old kid who can stay on for 8 seconds rapidly drinks his 8 beers and then gets back on the bull to do it again.  Towards the end of the rodeo, everyone was too drunk to stay on even 2 seconds, so everyone went to the fair to eat some street food and drink more beer.  Oh let me finish with the fact that the rodeo and fair are part of a celebration for the patron saint of one of the Catholic churches here in town.

Me and my roommate wrote a children´s song, and this is how it goes:

Yellow is the sun that shines so bright

Green is the grass that grows in height

Blue are my shoes that walk so far

Orange is the butterfly caught in a jar

White are the clouds in the sky so high

Pink are the cherries in my mother´s pie

Black are the spots on the dog named Lou

Red is my heart with love for you

You will NEVER guess what we saw while we were in La Ceiba.  We witnessed an attempted stabbing.  These two girls about my age, probably fighting over a man, were in an argument.  Then out of nowhere, one of them pulls out a knife with like an eight inch blade and starts trying to stab the other girl.  Me and the other girls I was with quickly walked in the other direction.  Later on when we were walking back to our hotel, we saw the woman who was getting stabbed at, crying and convulsing on the sidewalk.  I don’t think she got stabbed, but I’m sure she was still in a panic.  Weird huh.  So other than that, the beach was fine.  It was really trashy and there were a lot of people begging.  We even had one guy come up to us and tell us he was in the mafia or something stupid like that to scare us into giving him money.  The guy had no teeth.  It definitely made me appreciate Gracias more.  Gracias is clean and safe (no stabbings).  Those of you who actually keep up with my xanga may remember reading how I said Guatemala City was the poorest place I’d ever been.  Well La Ceiba was much worse, which was weird because it is supposed to be a tourist destination.  We actually met two guys from Ohio who were down there on vacation.  Probably the best part about the trip was the American food.  We ate at Dunkin Donuts, KFC, Baskin Robbins, and Burger King.  Which was weird too because back in the states, I would never eat at these places.  I hate fast food.  But eating at American restaurants just made us feel closer to home.  KFC made me miss Jim Bobs a lot though.  Nobody does chicken better than Jim Bobs.  That was always the first place I ate when I came home from college.  ANYWAYS, it is just crazy to think I’ve only been here 2 months.  It feels like an eternity.

I WAS IN A PARADE TODAY!!!!  Tomorrow is Honduras’ Independence Day so they have been having parades and what not all week.  Today was the day where we presented our nina patria, which means patriot girl.  Every school has a representative.  Ours was a 7^th grader named Michelle.  And then everyone in the whole school marches through the center of town behind their patriot girl.  All of the teachers had to be there to make sure the kids stay in line.  Ok but this was the funny part, the kids’ parents followed us the whole way through the parade.  They were like taking pictures and stuff.  Pretty weird because a picture of a kid marching at one place in the road looks about the same as if you were to take a picture 100 feet up the road.  Also they didn’t realize they were crowding the kids so they couldn’t walk in a straight line, and they were prohibiting parade watchers from actually getting to see any of the parade.  It was very bothersome.  There were a couple marching bands that were pretty cool.  Well by marching band, I mean about 20 kids with duct taped drums and home made sticks.  But they sounded decent.

In other news, Monday is Day of the Teachers, which means we have the day off.  Three day weekend=trip to the coast.  So I just want all of you to know that we are going to the Caribbean tomorrow morning.  You would be amazed at the tan I have currently.  We have to walk absolutely everywhere so that makes it easy to maintain respectable tan.  After a weekend at the Caribbean, I should be able to blend right in with the Hondurans.  Another benefit of going to the coast is AMERICAN FOOD.  We already have plans to hit up KFC (for Jennifer) and the closest place with a hamburger (for me).  Judging by my experience in Guatemala, I expect the nicest place in town to get a hamburger will be McDonalds.  But hey I’m ok with that, anything American will take the edge off the homesickness.

We’ve been hanging out with the missionaries a lot.  Last night they taught us how to make spaghetti with the ingredients you can find in the market.  Also we made these bread sticks that were to die for.  Next week we are making chicken pot pie.  The kids love us, and when they aren’t doing school, they invite us to play card games or watch movies.  It is nice to be around a family every once in a while.  Our group in the house is gradually getting fed up with each other.  It vaguely feels like being on the Real World.  Without all of the sleeping together stuff.

Oh I forgot to tell you about the parade of torches.  It was freaking cool.  These kids, entirely too young to be doing this, carry enormous torches through town and up into the mountain.  I don’t know where they went in the mountain; we didn’t follow them because I had to pee really badly.  ANYWAYS, it looked sort of what I imagine a march of the KKK looked like, of course without the white hoods.  Ok well on that note…I’m going to hit the hay.  We are getting an early start for the coast tomorrow.

i went to a soccer game this weekend!!!!!  it was great.  i got to speak so much spanish and with people my own age.  i met a guy named franklin and a guy named marcus.  and they invited me to go to church with them.  well i ended up going with sandra hercules who owns our school and goes to the same church.  but i saw my new friends there.  ok so i need to tell you about this church.  they claim to be pentecostal and anyone who knows me, knows how i feel about pentecostal churches, but this one wasn´t so bad.  no one ¨spoke in tongues¨ or was ¨filled with the holy spirit¨  they did dance alot though.  they have this huge area in the front of the building specifically for dancing around.  you´d think it would be distracting, but it really wasn´t.  i mean i got the feeling sometimes that people put more energy into dancing than into singing praises, but who am i to say thay were´t prasing correctly.  the best part though was how unintimidated i was at this church.  at the other churches, i didnt´know the songs so i felt awkward not participating in worship.  also the other churches did alot of kneeling which we dont do enough of in the states for me to feel comfortable with it.  and everone dancing around drew attention away from me.  at every church we´ve gone to, or just any place in general, we are the ¨north americans.¨  everyone stares at us.  wants to talk to us.  or hug us or shake our hands.  it is like we are celebrities or something.  it gets really annoying.  but since everyone else was making such a fuss, less attention was directed toward me, the north american.  anyways, i will probably go to this church again.  it was just the place i felt most comfortable.  even though it is pentecostal.  well other than that, things are going really well.  gracias is really starting to feel like home.  i miss my family alot though.  especially since they are in the middle of moving, and i wish i could be there to help.  my fifth graders did stress me out a little bit today though.  today was doris´ birthday so of course we had cake and coke and to them that means free day for the rest of the day.  then as soon as i get them under control, the power goes out.  and they are like oh we cant work in the dark.  then as soon as i convince them that they can see with the light from the window, it starts to rain.  and they freak out because we had to stay inside for gym.  but under normal conditions, they are very smart and very well behaved.  oh i have also started a dance class.  with choreography and stuff.  our first performance is tomorrow night.  i´m probably more excited than they are.  i´m just excited that they get a chance to feel what it is like to perform.  performing all though high school are probably my fondest memories.  ok well i´m rambling now and i´m paying for it so i have to go.