September 18

So tonight we had the signature Adventist dish… haystacks. Except in Honduras, they have their own way of making it. They don’t have tortilla chips, so they use banana chips. I’m supposed to serve the kids and the first time we had “bananastacks,” or tajadas in espanol. I was very confused. The girls pointed at the banana chips so that I would serve that first. Then they pointed at the other stuff and I started to put it on the side of their plate. They proceed to laugh at me because every Adventist that’s grown up with the church knows how to make a haystack. I, however, stand my ground in saying that bananastacks are something completely different. ;)

Here in Honduras, there’s a thing called the soda phenomenon. Well, I’ve actually only heard of two cases, but I’m positive that it exists. It’s been affecting Tarynn and me every day. Tarynn and I crave sodas at all times. It doesn’t help that we’re in town everyday with the pulperias calling our names. Tarynn craves Coke and I crave orange Fanta. This is very out of the ordinary because Tarynn and I don’t drink soda at home. I refuse to drink soda at home because I find it so disgusting. And now we come here and it’s all we crave (that and of course bread, ice cream, bagel bites, jamba juice, pizza, etc… but those don’t count because I crave that all the time ). Anyways on to what I was going to say… this phenomenon led us to a pulperia. There are these pulperias, or little stands, everywhere. This one in particular had a very nice lady working at it. We had been there before, but we didn’t say much to her. Today we figured that we’re already slaves to the soda phenomenon and we might as well get to know the lady who is going to be feeding our cravings with her pulperia. We asked her what her name was and I really wish I could tell you what it was, but that’s absolutely impossible. We asked her what it was again and she blurted out this long jibberish and we were again very confused. She laughed at us silly Americans and she said to just call her Tonia. And so began our beautiful friendship with Tonia. We told her that we worked at the Infa and that we live at the Hogar de Ninos. Then she showed us a picture of some of her family that lives in North Carolina. She said that there was an American that came to Honduras and he met her daughter or niece or something and then came back to marry her later. And yes, this was all in Spanish. It was pretty hard to converse, but the lady was patient and she used her hands a lot. Then she gave us these frozen treats and two coconut bars for us to eat on the way back. This, amigos, is the way to my heart. Tonia, the pulperia lady is our new best friend.

Also, I thought I’d let you know… The bug bites are increasing. Honduras bugs are very grumpy. I thought they’d be kind and give me a break after a while, but no. It’s like they bite me and then go tell their friends to do the same. Boo for bug peer pressure.