When I landed in Honduras I was welcomed at the airport by Humberto and his dad with big hugs and greetings in Spanish. It surprised me how much my Spanish vocabulary has back-slid in just 3 weeks of English-Canadian bliss, even with the regular calls back home to Humberto. I can say, a temporary loss of vocabulary was totally worth it.
We slipped my 100 lbs (+) of luggage and material goodies I'd scrounged out of storage into big black garbage bags and threw it all into the back of their little Ford Ranger. The garbage bags served two purposes: rain protection and theft protection (presumeably black garbage bags look less appealing than suitcases to ladrones). Then we took a route out of town with as few as possible street-lights to avoid providing potential ladrones opportunity to swipe my stuff out of the back when we stopped. We all squished in the front, and three hours later, with a few hair-raising moments on the pot-holed, washed-out international highway, my 30 hour trip from Edmonton, Canada to Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras, concluded.
While I was in Canada I had excitedly described many of the Canadian things I was seeing with new eyes over the phone to Humberto. I told him all about fresh bear-poop encounters, cream in my coffee (mmmmm!!!), freezing my now mal-adapted-ass off in normal Canadian autumn temperatures, riding horses taller than me, and the reverse culture shock I experienced when my pals from my Dawson Creek workplace were telling typical Canadian off-colour humour that used to come so naturally to me. Oh, how things have changed!
Besides comprehending 100% of my conversations and revelling in old friendships and the comfort of shared understanding, eating a variety of delicious, long missed foods was one of the greatest pleasures of my trip. I made sure to stow away a recipe book in my luggage and have made good use of it this weekend, enjoying my own homemade cream of broccoli soup, oat and coconut cookies and some muffins. Simple culinary pleasures go a long way when you're far from home and everyone around you is pretty much content with beans, tortillas, and eggs two times a day, seven days a week.
I'm also enjoying my iPod-compatable little stereo and the music it's blasting sin head-phones, my infamous little blue-mandolin that I've had for 2.5 years and have yet to crack 4 chords (now is the time!), and several glorious books. Oh books...how I have missed thee.
A heartfelt thank-you to everyone who welcomed me to their spare beds while I toured around visiting in Canada, all the while feeding me pure yummmm, and to everyone who is now welcoming me back with hugs, beans, and tortillas.
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