we´re here!

After a long journey by bus, airplane, then bus again, we made it to Santa Lucia yesterday (Sunday) around 7 pm. The bus ride was definitely very scary, flying over mt. passes and passing cars, semis, etc. in no passing zones. That´s going to take some getting used to. When we got to SL, our host mother, Gladys and our host brother, Dario who´s 21, met us and drove us in a little pickup up to their house which is on the top of a hill. Actually, the whole town of SL is on a mountain that overlooks the capital, Tegucigalpa. We talked a little while our host family including the dad, Melvin, and then ate dinner with them (fried chicken, rice, and sauteed vegetables, corn tortillas very good). We sat around the table a bit longer then unpacked our stuff and went to bed. We have our own room and a bathroom that´s connected. Our shower is¨warm¨ at best but was more than we were expecting! The family is very nice and willing to talk with us. I´m working on Luke to do more of the talking. This morning we got up at 6 am, had breakfast with the family (we told the mom we like something light so we ate banana, watermelon, oatmeal with milk, and coffee while the dad and brother had beans, eggs, tortillas, and cheese. We might start liking bigger breakfasts soon!). We then left for the training center which is about 30 min from our house. Our host mom walked us there today and then walked us up our hot lunch at 11:30. All volunteers eat their lunch at the training center. Today mostly involved getting to know the staff, getting some shots, and talking about diversity and how the language training will go. Luke seems to be sick with a sinus infection so they brought him some anitbiotics from Teguc which will hopefully get rid of whatever he has. So far, so good. Oh, it´s way colder here than we thought and I´m kicking myself for not bringing a few more sweaters, socks, and a jean jacket but oh well. It feels like September in Iowa here, cool in the shade but warm/hot in the direct sun. I guess a lot of sites where volunteers end up are really hot and then others are cooler than Santa Lucia so we´ll just have to wait and see if we need more clothes shipped. SL is a small, safe town with lots of birds, chickens, dogs, flowers, etc. all over and the roads are cobblestone. People are friendly and say ¨hola¨a lot. Current volunteers who came to talk to us today said that ¨SL is NOT Honduras¨...we´re not sure yet what that means. Our family has a dog who´s 4 months old names Peluchin, he´s definitely a puppy and gets super excited when you pet him and then you can´t get rid of him. We hope to write more soon!