Monday morning, not up as early as the last couple of days, so we figured we'd get our bread after breakfast. Breakfast included fresh coconuts from the hotel owners' yard. The van picked us up, then we stopped at the bread lady's house, and learned that Monday is her day off (dia feriado). We went on to the coffee shop downtown. While we were having our coffee, we noticed that it was raining. It was a serious downpour, and there was a drain blocked, so the side street was flooded almost up to the curb. When it was time to go to the school, the driver went to get the van. After a few minutes, the rain stopped, so we went across the street to wait for him. It seemed like it took him forever to come. When he arrived, he explained that there had been deep water all around the van. While he was trying to figure out how he would get to it, a handicapped man on a hand cycle came by. The cyclist ferried our driver out to the van with our driver standing on the rear axle of the hand cycle. Then we went to the school arriving a few minutes after our scheduled 9:00 am arrival.
We went in the gate and around to the sports court. This is a large basketball/volleyball court with a roof (paid for by St. Barnabas') and concrete bleachers on the two long sides. As we walked into the arena I saw something that made me uncomfortable. There was a long table (actually 2 tables) with white tablecloth and seven chairs. There were seven little straw baskets with candy and cookies spread out on the table. The table was clearly for us and we were to be guests of honor at some sort of ceremony. I like to do what I can do and leave with just a low key thank you. However, I long ago learned the importance of accepting people's gratitude and in this case there was also the pride of the students who would be putting on a show for us. First they went through their usual Monday routine of singing their national anthem, saying the pledge of allegiance, the reading of a bible verse, and a few words about the bible verse. All of this was led by students. I'm pretty sure that there was something else, like maybe the Lord's Prayer, but I'm not sure. I wasn't keeping notes. Guests of Honor do not take notes. They watch appreciatively. After all the routine things were done, then there was the special presentation. The school's Seniors did a Honduran folk dance. That was followed by other classes doing Japanese, Indian, and Brazilian dances. The last one was a French can-can. The theme was the countries of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. It was a very good performance. It was nice to see the entire student body in one place.
After the assembly, Frank and Scott got to work on finishing the big painting of the school mascot (a scorpion) on a wall facing the street. It rained on and off through the rest of the day, but there is an eve over the wall, so, with some occasional help from other group members, they got the job done in plenty of time. The rest of us 'roamed the halls'. We visited the science classroom where Melissa Green showed us a video put together by a class on a visit to the Lancetilla nature preserve a few weeks before. We also visited the computer lab with 25 computers. There were first graders in there. I was surprised at how much they can already do. We visited other areas and visited with teachers during their free time.
That evening we had dinner at the home of the Senior Warden. It was a beautiful house with teak doors, beautiful paintings, and we had wonderful juice from the bitter orange tree in their back yard. Our hosts (Martha and Nathaniel?) lived in New York for many years. We had delightful conversation in addition to some very good food.
Monday night we started packing and went to bed. Tuesday morning we got up early and finished packing. Then breakfast, one last stop at the bread lady's, a quick photo in front of the scorpion, which looks really good, then on the road. We had time for a half hour of souvenir shopping, then to the airport. I think that we arrived back in Virginia somewhere around 10:00 pm. Scott and I agreed that it was the best Honduras trip that either of us had been on, and that's a total of at least eight trips. Maybe you'll join us on the next one.
