Day 7: JULY 4th, Honduran Style!

July 4^th, 2010

Independence Day!

Tom all dressed up and ready to wake up the British volunteers

The day started off quite early- 6:15 AM. Our group, along with the other American volunteers at the compound, wanted to do a “special American” wake-up call to the British volunteers in the compound down the hill. It started off with a marching drum led by Tom and all of us wearing red, white, and blue. We marched down the hill, mimicking a battlefield entry and barged into the British room. Someone then read the whole Preamble out loud while we all hummed the star spangled banner in the background. The whole thing was quite hilarious because everyone was half asleep in the room but we were this hyper bunch with U.S.A flags and handmade poster boards saying “Give me liberty or give me death!”, “We have Beckham!” , things of that sort.

So back to today…It was our first day off from Brigades (Yay! A much needed break!). I definitely needed some quiet time alone, chilling. I kind of wanted to see Mayan ruins or go explore Honduran culture but that would have been a 9 hour drive. Instead we had a BBQ pool party at a place down the hill at Club Campestra, 10 minutes away.

Time to throw people in the pool!

Lunch was pretty good. I hadn’t had BBQ American-style chicken in awhile so I was really craving that. The pico de gallo and avocadoes here are delicious! Most of us just lounged around; some were swimming and some were playing cards for the majority of the time. I was in the latter group. For some reason, card games have been the game du jour for this trip. We play cards after every brigade in order to decompress. We take a break for dinner and then play some more until people want to go to bed. It’s funny, actually. This is probably happening since there is no internet connection and the one TV here is occupied by the soldiers/security guards. Oh well, nothing beats a good card game of 13 (Vietnamese way)!

Paddling in the murky waters of Honduras

Forrest horseback riding with Fred babysitting

After dinner we got together and enjoyed fireworks, Honduran style. It may not have been a Disneyland style display but I at least saw some flashing lights in the sky! The staff worker lighting up the fireworks had no fear. He straight up shot the fire work tube through his hands instead of laying it on the ground. Talk about bravery, but borderline crazy!

Nostalgia: last year on this day, I was also speaking broken Spanish but it was in Seville, Spain. So it’s been two years since I celebrated July 4^th in the states. I should make sure I’m celebrating in the U.S. next year…I’m starting to forget what it’s really like!