I Love White People

Day 1 in Honduras started with me waking up at 8am and it was already a balmy 80 degrees. Since everyone hadn't arrived yet I went for a walk with Morgan and Lisa (no not my mother) around the city we're staying in El Progresso. The city is an interesting mix of developing world and developed. For example, the streets are liked with various markets, stands, and cultural spaces selling various fruits, vegetables, household needs etc. And then next to these markets you have Maxi Bodega, the Walmart of Honduras and any chain American fast food resturaunt you can think of including Popeyes, KFC, Dunkin Donuts, and Pizza Hut. Once again as it was in Europe, Pizza Hut is this fancy sit down resturaunt you would take a date to.

We also met up with a dealer during our walk. An money exchange dealer that is. Apparently one gets better exchange rates when you go to an individual rather than the bank. We hit up this nice man around the corner chillin on the street in a plastic resin chair. At 18 Liamperas for one one US dollar you couldnt possibly beat the price And this is where the title of the post comes into play. While walking back to the hotel I ran into the most charming Honduran man who told me that he loved white peple. Essentially he was using me for money. Shortly afterwards I was introduced to the infamous baleada (could be spelling that wrong) theif. They are basically tortillas that are filled with creams, eggs, chicken etc. It's one of the national dishes of Honduras, yet I have been unable to try it yet.

After a great morning walk it was now 100 degrees and we were off to get some Super Jugos at the mall. The mall was  your typical shopping mall you would find in the US, yet no one can afford it. Even if I couldn't I would still go for the AC Super Jugos is this amazing smoothie place where they take freshly squeezed fruit that they prepare in front of you and make smoothies. I had the papaya, pineapple, and orange juice one and it was delish, to quote Rachel Ray. Our next journey was to visit the house our leaders Morgan, Sam, and Morgan's brother Alex were living at. While touring the house we had the honor of meeting Chewey, one of the cutest but biggest son of a bitch of a dog you'll ever meet. For example, he just like to scratch on the door and run into the house even though he belongs to the nextbdoor neighbors and always wants to sit under you so as if your legs are going to scratch his back. And when he isn't up your ass he's chasing cars. I made the stupid comment, that the dog didn't have a tail I don't know what I was thinking, somehow I thought he'd be cuter if he had a tail?

After meeting Chewey and the next door neighbors who work with FASSO and OYE we went down to the local public schools. Public schools are different in the sense that they are free, yet the families have to buy their own books, supplies, lunch, and uniforms. Sometimes children commute over an hour to get to school. Additionally, class sizes are enormous comared to US elementary and high schools with almost over 50 students in a class. Usually there is never enough room for the students. Teachers also dont get paid on time. One teacher, for example, went three months without getting paid but still teaches because if she didnt the kids would have jothing to do and wouldnt lead to them bettering themselves. In a nation where 40% of the population is under 16 education is ever so more important. The soccer coach took us on a tour of the school, it was divided up into various buildings with sections of classrooms. Apparently the soccer coach was one of the best referees in the world at one point, working for FIFA. There were thousands of students at the school and the school day was divided into three blocks, including nights due to the large size. Eventually once in high school you pick a certain area of interest. One of the neighbor kids, who everyone nicknames "negro" because of how dark he is, is studying business and operates a microfiance company that makes underwear. It is small projects like this that are helping Honduran youth get and education and be the leaders of tomorrow their country needs. More on that in the next post. (Don't ask about the r and q at the bottom, using my phone and the cursor won't get rid of it)
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Kirstie Alley's Fat Ass Almost won Dancing With The Stars

More on that in a bit, but first off let me say that this blog post is brought to you by the wonderful people at android and the free wifi from the beautiful hotel, hotel montecriso tphat we are staying in. ok and also for some reason the caps key on my phone isnt working so i appologize for the lack of caps. so yesterday began with me arriving at reagan national airport and realizing that what i thought was my flight to miami was leaving at three fifty nine, not four fifty nine. next thing you know im walking through the airport as a quick pace, not to the point that i look like a moron but i am too afraid to ask what time the flight is leaving at. then i get to the terminal...well it turns out it was four fifty nine so i was on time. the beautiful people at spirit airlines though made us change gates though three times in a span of ten minutes, which was like a rat race of people running from gate to gate. personally i knew my assigned seat was eighteen f, it wasnt going anywhere so why did i care? Ok just figured out how to capatilize, so from here on out coment on my shity grammar if any occurs.

The plane was a...special mix of people. Everyone was mainly Latino or coming from AIPAC conference in DC...and then I realized I was flying to Ft. Lauderdale/Miami Intl, explains everything. The airport didnt have the greatest decor. One of the main problems was that there was absolutely nothing good to eat. I enjoyed a Nathans quarter pounder. But let me backtrack a moment to the flight. No one seemed to know anything about flying. For example, we live in a post  911 world America. You cant just walk up to the bathroom and form a line of about 10 people, also you cant go to the bathroom once the fasten seatbelt signs are on. Then once we landed some guy just had to get up asap and take out his luggage which led to the steward yelling at him.

Now flash forward back to Ft. Lauderdale during my four hour layover. Then while eating my burger these two girls started yelling at the bar because they wanted the local fix station not CNN. The bartender thought they meant Fox News and they said no. Well they took offense and even though they didnt want Fox News they started bitching that they wanted that now just for spite. The airport has an agreement though to play CNN, like most do. My little stud of a brother got the gold medal for being first in his class for 9th grade, so ill let him have his moment. Then Aunt Vicky just had to call me and go off on Kirstie Alley, who she thought one dancing with the stars. It was almost worse than the Boykos are in code red post from Shagged Abroad London. "OMG...no she didnt win...no...she looked like a beached whale...and omg when she worse that black top and pulled off her skirt she was in tights. Those thighs looked huge and she looked like something out of Stargate SG1 (or whatever thats called)." After that 5 minute rant she realized she didnt win and everything was right in the world.

The flight to San Pedro Sula was a bit delayed because some Olga bitch never showed up and spirit waits for people to show up. Then to ad insult to injury, they had to remove her bag. This took over an hour. Thank god I had the chick next to me to chat with, but sadly she fell asleep. After the hour delay we were off to Honduras and thats where the fun (and the blog post tomorrow) begins.

Shagged Abroad Parte Dos

So after consulting with my fan base I was convinced to bring back Shagged Abroad for a limited time engagement but instead of the UK were spicing things up a bit and GOING TO HONDURAS ( <--- that was in an Oprah accent by the way). Now that I'm thinking about it the phrase "limited time engagement" makes it sound like I'm Disney and I'm re-releasing some movie every decade so that a new generation can "experience the magic". Let's face it, that's just a ploy for Disney to make cash off unsuspecting parents who don't wanna listen to their kids bitch that their version of The Lion King is now outdated because the new version features a new song and bonus features, not to mention its 2 discs! I will try my best not to make this like a Disney movie re-release. This new blog will be exciting and tell my tales in Honduras as only I can tell them. There is a chance that I may not be able to update this daily so in the case of the event that that is indeed true, I may write it in a journal and then gradually update when I return to Los Estados Unidos in 2 weeks.

And I'm sure some of you are sitting there thinking, why the hell am I going to Honduras? Well I will be working with Paso Honduras learning development, traveling, and experiencing Honduran culture and society. One of the service site we will be working out includes an orphanage of little boys addicted to glue. So in a sense this blog will be a bit educational this time around (more than Greek Pottery I'm sure) There will be some fun along the way too! One weekend we will be hitting up the beach on the Pacific Ocean and another we will be visiting some Mayan ruins.

This will be my second time in Latin America so I now know what to do that I shouldn't have done in Peru. They include:

Do not climb a mountain at night during a rain storm....It only leads to you being absolutely soaked and nearly dead in the process

Stay away from guinea pigs. Yes, I ate a guinea pig while in Peru. It wasn't good. Meat should not be sweet and not tender, just saying. Plus, I wasn't a fan of the fact that they even showed me the little guy's head, feet, and arms.

As cute as the little children are it isn't OK to be the white Oprah and give them everything. This is mainly because of the fact that they form this bond to you that isn't fair to them once you leave them after a few days and secondly it gives them the notion that we can solve all their problems just through money. It also is offensive to the locals who are working hard to make the city, country etc. a better place. They work hard to provide for their families and they do appreciate some of the concern and gifts we give them, yet at the same time it hurts them because they aren't able to provide as much as we can. I don't know if that made much sense but until you're in the situation its kind of hard to comprehend.

Anyways, sorry to ruin the moment. That's all I have to say for now, since I am leaving for a few hours for Ft. Lauderdale and then Honduras, so hasta manana! (By the end of these two weeks you readers at home will know so much Spanish you won't even need to buy Muzzy or Rosetta Stone)

And for some info on Honduras check this out!