Bienvenida in Honduras!!

I arrived in Honduras one week ago.  I have been overwhelmed by the warm welcome by the people of my neighborhood - hugs and kisses on the cheek, invitations to visit their homes and gifts of food.  They are teaching me what a welcome truely is.

The night I arrived, I came by bus from El Salvador.  It was a beautiful ride.  Padre Jose, one of my fellow volunteers, and one of the teenage girls from the neighborhood came to meet me.  They waveds as I pulled up, a welcome sight after 8 hours on a bus, and hugged me as I came out.  Then, after we had a good laugh about the amount of luggage I had and after I blushed more than I would like to admit at my american sense of 'need', we headed by cab to my new neighborhood.

The taxi could not enter our neighborhood, because the street was too wet (i think), but the driver still insisted on helping carry one of my three checked bags to the house a few blocks away.  There the other volunteers greeted me as heartily as Padre Jose and my lovely new friend had.  Nicolas and Padre Jose are both from France and both speak portugese as well as spanish, french and english!  Rita is from Brazil and speaks the same number of languages.  These three are all about 10 years older than I and all permanent members of Heart's Home who have given their lives in compassionate service of the poor.  Flor, my bunkmate, is a few years younger than me and from Argentina.  She will be in Honduras another 10 months.  We are already becoming very good friends.  I am grateful for their patience with me as I learn the cultural norms of our neighborhood and the way of life in our home.  And they are very generous in explaining things to me in simple spanish when I don't understand.  I am grateful to have such kind companions in this journey who also love to laugh.

That first night Flor was the cook. We had a traditional Honduras meal Beledas (spelling??), which she prepared with the brother of the girl who met me at the bus stop.  It was delicious - a honduran version of our borritos which consisted of wheat totillas (corn for me), refried black beans, guagamole, scrambled eggs, cheese and plaintains.  I think I could eat it every night!  Over the table where we ate hung a lovely 'Bienvenido Victoria' sign.  Unfortunately, my camera was not charged to send you pictures.  I will try take pictures this week though!