In 2012 I went to teach in rural Honduras. Here are some of the things I loved about my experience in Siguatepeque…

 

1. Honduras is a beautiful, mountainous country with a handful of colonial cities. Comayagua is about 45 minutes from Siguatepeque and worth the visit. It’s charming and quaint with it’s cobblestone streets and Spanish colonial architecture.

 

 

2.  Heading to the market early in the morning every Sunday with Hieu (more about her later) was the highlight of my week. Each week would bring new kinds of fruit or vegetables bursting with colour and aroma. The vendors would always gladly tell me how to eat or prepare their produce, if I wasn’t familiar with it. It was cheap, fresh and delicious! After buying a grocery bag full of mangoes for $1 we’d head home to make mango cocktails!

 

           

3. I met some incredible friends! Josh, Scott and my beloved Hieu made my experience in Honduras unforgettable. From running marathons and watching high-school soccer matches to riding in the back of pickup trucks with guns and tequila…we did it all!

 

4. Visiting Tela during Semana Santa was such an experience! Beautiful beach, delicious seafood and hot hot hot weather. Although, I never got used to the Honduran practice of hitting the beach and going for a swim in your clothes. It’s the strangest thing! Hieu and I stuck out like sore thumbs in our bikinis.

 

 

5. The biggest highlight of my time in Honduras was my class of 4th graders. They made me laugh, they made me cry, they made me yell…and I loved every minute of it. I’ll never forget these 21 special people and I’ll always wonder how they are doing in their lives. Thanks to social media I keep in touch with many of them. I wonder if they’ll ever fully understand how they changed the trajectory of my life?