Ayy No, Bennett

Last week and the beginning of this week have been very special to me. Knowing that I'm leaving in less than a week is very agridulce or bittersweet. I get to go home to my family and friends and have time to relax before the next year starts, but I will be leaving this place and people. I know that if I stayed here for longer I would learn so much more Spanish as speaking and listening is coming much easier now. Every conversation has at least several sentences that I do not understand, but that is amazing compared with the level at which I started.

This post has a very different tone than most if not all of my others. It is one of appreciation that is not solely striven for as a goal but naturally flows from me to God and these people. Often I find that what I want to be thankful for is not an actual involuntary expression but is something for which I solely desire to be thankful. I know intellectually that things are good and are blessings, but to actually treasure something in my heart is a gift in itself.

I have two more days here at Teletón as I will be leaving on Friday morning to go to the beach before I leave. I had hesitations about going to the beach because I kept thinking about what if I donated the extra money here or gave it back to Gordon instead of going on a trip? But (1) I've been encouraged by some friends here to go (even though I'll be leaving a day early) because I don't know when I'll be back here; (2) because I am going with Orlando and some of his friends, so it will be a treat for him because he doesn't get to do many trips like this; and (3) one of Orlando's friends will be driving and will drop me of at a hotel in San Pedro Sula, which is where the airport is and it's much safer than taking the buses between cities (especially because I'll have all my luggage which would be bad to have stolen).

I forgot to post before that in the physical therapy with the adults they have taken to calling me Oliver. Bennett is not as common here (except for the Honduran soccer player whose last name is Bennett) as Oliver and is much easier to pronounce. The title of this post is one of my favorite phrases to hear, "Ay no, Bennett" when something funny happens or I don't understand something. It's always joined with some kind of laughter or joke, and I've come to love it.

There has been a lot of down time here while observing and that has been a good time to get to know people here. Last week I started interviewing people (to complete my internship objectives) and those have been fantastic. It's been great to ask deeper questions rather than just asking simple questions since I do not have the vocabulary for more intellectual conversations. I look forward to completing them and translating them to discover what they said since I didn't understand everything at the time.

I must make a comment on an earlier post: although Santa Rosa is a more developed city it is also a city of deception. Orlando said something to the fact of "a village breeds an inferno." The larger cities of Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula do not have a great a problem of people constantly judging and evaluating each other by what they wear, but Santa Rosa is not that way. Here the people all dress up their best when they leave to give the impression that they are not poor. It is the reason there are a ton of shoe stores here because everyone is shoe crazy as a sign of who you are and how much money you have. I suspect it's similar to many European countries that people dress up all the time because most people are at a similar financial level and it is a fierce competition to appear higher than the rest. Most of these things I have been told by others and can only see the superficial evidence.

I am going to cut this post short so I can go to bed, but I have more I will post later.

Nos vemos,

~Bennett