Sleepless in Honduras

It was a long night. I had that restless leg feeling in my left arm and leg. I also had waves of nausea. I tapped, cleared, exercised, and massaged. I don’t remember the symptoms going away, but I must have fallen asleep. I heard Chris leave the quarters just before my phone alarm went off at 7.

I stayed in bed a little, then got up to swish, exercise, make breakfast, read e-mail and meditate. He came back from running, and took a shower before going to the dining facility for breakfast. His plan was to bring back cranberries for me, but they were out. Instead he brought back something that looked like large raisins but tasted like prunes. I had a few. Then I put on my running shoes and took my purse. We drove the easy-go to the community hall to meet the others for the trip. We stood around and chatted for awhile. Then the vans were ready and we boarded them by name. At the front gate we all had to get out and go in a building to sign out. This was a new procedure and took a ridiculous amount of time. Then we got back on the vans and drove into Comayagua. It occurred to me on the way that the –maya- part of Comayagua might refer to the Mayans. We drove into town, seeing some of the same sights we saw Thursday night. We parked near the police station and walked to the town square. We just stood there for awhile, gawking at all the people and taking pictures. Then a man came up and offered to give us a tour of the old church – for a price per person. So we all agreed. I had trouble understanding him, but I think he told us about the building of the church and an old clock that had been brought over as a gift from the king of Spain. Its function now is to ring the bells every quarter hour. We walked up the narrow steep steps to the bell tower. I had an attack of claustrophobia in the stairwell.

We saw the clock and its workings. And then we climbed higher to see the bells. We took pics of the town from the tower. On the way down, Chris went in front of me and I rested my hands on his shoulders. There was no handrail. Not being able to see past him helped a lot. Finally we made it to the bottom. I rested against the outside wall and Chris disappeared. I followed the crowd into the sanctuary. There was a very old pipe organ. And lots of gilt ornamentation, and stained glass windows. Then we went outside and stood around for a bit. Chris disappeared again and then waved us forward to a cultural center. We saw a model of the town and pics of different seasons celebrated by the people. For Holy Week, they spread painted sawdust down the streets to make pictures of Jesus’ last days. The guide told us that Comayagua was originally 'coma y agua', which means food and water. After that, we went into a restaurant for lunch. We sat across from a missionary couple who lived in the city. They had fascinating things to say about the people and culture. They said they had never been sick, but were very careful about their food and water, where they ate, what they ate, and how they washed it. They told us that even the poorest people had smart phones because relationships were so valuable. Phones over food. But honesty was not a highly valued trait.

Coming out of the restaurant, a young boy asked for money to buy food. But when one of our group offered to get him food from the restaurant, he said no. We were told that his mother rents a baby so she can do better when asking for handouts. Finally we went back to the vans to go to post. I kept feeling a tickle on my leg, but never saw anything there. It occurred to me that I might not be alone in my skin – a creepy thought. So I used Chris’ pen to mark the location of the tickle. If it moved, then I would know. The tickle came and went, but always in one of two spots. When we got back to post, the others had to stand in line to sign out. Being civilians, we did not, so we walked back to the chapel to get Chris’ easy-go. We stopped at one of the bathroom buildings. (Some cabins have no running water so those people have to go to the bathroom buildings for toilet and showers). It was a short drive back. I took the chance to read e-mail. I got sleepy and laid down on the couch. Chris read outside and then came in to wake me up to see if I wanted to go out to dinner with the Wednesday crowd. I was too sleepy to decide so had to wake up first. I put on long pants and a long sleeve shirt over a t-shirt. When we went outside, it was cool and windy. Chris went back for an umbrella and a towel to wipe the easy-go seats. We drove to the front gate. The others were there, starting the check out procedure. They had called their taxi. Chris called ours and discovered that he was already in the parking lot out front. So we went on ahead to the restaurant. When we got there, the friars were already there. So the four of us went in and got a table for 8. We looked over menus until the other four showed up. It was hard to decide what to have when almost everything was meat and cheese. Chris ordered a chorizo sandwich and I got what sounded like veggies, but was a plate of rice with flecks of plant matter. Chris ordered me a salad. He also gave me half of the sandwich. I ate the innards and gave him back the bread. The others had ordered two anafrey’s which were bean and cheese dip with nachos in a container that kept it all warm. I skipped that. I talked with Chris on my left and Bobbie Jo on my right. I could not hear the others over the American music and general customer hubbub. At 8:10 Chris looked out to see if our taxi was present. It was, so we said our goodbyes and rode back to the post. Chris conversed with the driver in Spanish. We went back to Chris’ quarters to watch an episode of Criminal Minds before checking e-mail one last time and going to bed early.
* The third pic was a photo from the lunch restaurant. Apparently Chuck Norris ate there, too. *