Ya estuvo

Bye Honduras.

This is my last entry of what I hoped was a neat little glimpse into my life in San Jose. I have now been back in Fairfax since May 1, almost 2 months now, and the finality of my Honduran life still takes awhile to sink in. I still wake up thinking I'm there. I wait for the morning sounds of my little mountain town: the ubiquitous rooster crows, Tigra barking at a bolo or a small child or a tuft of grass, Rosario's turkey, the cows going out to pasture, men stumbling home from the cantina, kids heading to school. I never thought I'd ever miss sounds like that, but in the end the fact that I'll likely never hear those unique sounds again is a little saddening.

I call San Jose once a week, mostly to talk to Rossy my (almost) only friend. Every once in a while I get calls to the house phone, my parents hearing a distant voice yelling "Marina?!?!," realizing it's a Spanish speaker and frantically thrusting the phone at me. I do miss my few friends. It worries me what's happening now-- I just got off the phone with Rossy, the coup d'etat has everyone scared and staying indoors-- and I honestly don't know when I'll be back. But I have to go, that goes without saying.

Honduras and I had a very tumultuous relationship, but I would liken it to an eternal-yet-dysfunctional friendship. I might tell Honduras I hate it, I never want to see it again, it hurt me too much, too many run-ins with bolos, too many times I ended up sick, too many frustrating days when I wondered what I was even doing hanging out with Honduras. And Honduras might shoot back by saying it's glad I'm gone, it gets to party more without me being the buzzkill--more earthquakes, more political unrest. But I'll always remember those moments when Honduras' soft side shone through:

-the day I saw the most gigantic rainbow I'd ever seen in my life
-the day at the med brigade when I saw a baby being born
-the day Sandra came to my house to celebrate her quinceanera
-the day I was asked to be a godmother
-the sweet little dog that followed me everywhere
-the hilarious day that the bridge collapsed
-the impromptu religious pilgrimage I found myself in while walking home
-the day I made the sign with the tourism group
-Dona Elvia's sweet bread
-Dona Julia's puro cafe de palo
-Monopoly evenings
-the trip with Wizbif to Tela's unbelievably beautiful Punta Sal beach
-the day I fainted at the high school and the teachers revived me with smelling salts, then drove me 3 hours to the ER
-going to the caves with Chocho
-the day we finished the World Map Project
-fixing up our beautiful library

I'll just stop here, but there is so much more to remind me how great Honduras and I were together. How can we not be friends??? Honduras is awesome!

So I hope you enjoyed my rambling stories and anecdotes about my time in Peace Corps. I will be spending some time back home in Nova and working downtown-- after the background check I'll be cleared to start work at the PC Placement Office, hopefully beginning August 1st if not sooner. I'll shut this blog down pretty soon, closing up my little footprint in the blogosphere. Thanks for reading, and


PEACE!