Mateo

Today, I got up early to run and get ready early for school. I had planned on observing the other first grade class and working on my observations and suggestions for the teachers. As I walked to school, I thought it seemed a little quiet and I started to worry a bit. When I arrived to the school, it was locked and empty. After I waited a bit, sent some texts, and returned home, I found out it was “Day of the Teacher” and that no one had school. So I felt sort of gypped but also pretty free. I was wide-awake and now had the whole day to do what I wanted. I decided to not try the library or health center and instead go down to the bigger town of Senti, just down the mountain. I had been wanting to meet Matt, the health volunteer down there, for a few days since everyone talked about him and assumed we knew each other. He had sent me a nice text welcoming me a few days before and I had planned on meeting him Saturday. But then I figured I had the whole day open and it would be better to visit on a Friday, when hopefully my bank agent and the internet site would have a better shot of being open. So I went back home, relaxed a little, washed some clothes, and texted Matt. A little while later he replied saying he was reading and would be home for the morning and to stop by anytime.

Encouraged, I changed and set off. I decided to walk down to Senti, since it was supposed to only take about an hour and be all downhill. After one false start, I made my way down the mountain peacefully in about fifty minutes. It got warmer and warmer as I went down further, but it was still a pleasant walk. It was especially fun to look back every few minutes and see how far I’d gone – from down below, the antenna atop the big hill in Cisco looks incredibly far away. I arrived to the entrance of Senti and promptly stopped at the first pulperia, where I bought a cold soda and saldo for my Tigo. I chatted with the pulperia owner, who assumed I was PC before I said anything, and said he was Matt’s best friend. He confirmed that he did indeed live next door and was a great person. So far, so good.

So I headed one house over to Matt’s, not really knowing what to expect. Profe had told me he was really quiet and the rest of the people in Cisco didn’t really say much besides talk about his skin color, so I didn’t have too much to go on. I wasn’t sure if it would be awkward and I’d want to just say hello or if I’d spend some time and get him to show me Senti. It was the kind of situation that would probably make me pretty anxious in the states but here it was just natural to open yourself up right away to the nearest person who spoke English and understood what you were doing out here. Still, it had the potential to be weird and we could have not gotten along at all. With all these thoughts running through my head, I called “Hola” through his open front door just past eleven am.

Six and a half hours later, I was hopping on the bus in front of his house to finally go home. Needless to say, I had a great day with Matt in Senti. After hanging out and marveling over his awesome house, he took me on a slow, guided tour of Senti. Besides eating lunch and hanging out at the park, I also met the centro basico’s principal, the doctor and nurses in the health center, and the woman who runs the “post office” in the town. I attempted to go to our banking agent but the machine wasn’t working. I saw where the internet was but didn’t go in. We also walked by the kindergarten (where one room is more like a cage), Matt’s host family, and a few of the bigger pulperias. I said hi to everyone and finally got a good feel of the town of Senti. It’s good that even afternoons like that can be considered work in the PC. Getting to know the neighboring communities, making my presence known, and learning to safely travel are all within the realm of things I should be doing right now. Still, I must say it was more fun to spend the day doing that than observing in a classroom.

After walking around, talking and laughing and eating the day away, we went back to Matt’s and just hung out for a while. I have to say I feel like Matt’s going to be a good friend because we found ourselves in perfect, companionable (mostly) silence later on during our very first meeting. By late afternoon, I was laying in his hammock, reading his Moon’s guide to Honduras and sharing the funny parts. He sat in his chair at his massive desk, working on a Yo Merezco manual and drawing a cartoon me. It was a lovely end to a lovely day and, somehow, I can see myself passing days like that again. Can’t say I mind.