Our arrival to Honduras was quite uneventful. The customs agents did not really care why we were coming to their country nor that we did not have a real address. When we arrived in Tela Matt and I were sure we were in the wrong town. We were supposed to be at the beach but all we saw were mountains covered in green palm trees. We took a taxi into the town center (about a 5 min drive) and where shocked when only a couple of blocks away was the ocean. After finding a decent hostel we decided to explore. The town is quiet and slow. There are bright colors splashed on houses and stores. We found a resturant right near the beach that had the best peanut butter and banana sandwich I have ever had, which may have to do with the fact that the mountain is covered in banana trees (a pound of bananas is less than 25 cents)...
On Thursday Matt and I went apartment hunting which landed us in a beauty salon and talking to the owner of a cell phone/t-shit making/car speaker shop owner. Niether proved to be any help. We also met up with a friend from NC State who is working with an amazing program called World Camp (http://www.worldcampforkids.org/Index.htm) who set us up with this guy who is in his early 20's and is going to save honduras. She calls him Miguel Obama.
Friday morning we woke up around 7 am to go running on the beach. My favorite sites were the train tracks that went out about 100 yards into the ocean and then abprutly stopped (it was part of the tracks that were built for the Rail Road Company who use to export bananas to USA) and the coconut trees growing all over the beach. It was sad to see that the sand was littered with trash all over except for the part ownd by the expensive hotel which employs guards to watch that Hondurans don't come through the beach access points. Speaking of guards there are guards with guns everywhere. I was told they don't have real bullets, just rubber ones and most of them look terrifically bored.
At ten we met with Miguel. He is one of the most incredible people I have met. He grew up in the US illegally and just under two years ago was sent back to Honduras. He decided it was his job to save the youth of Tela. He started his own organzation called Pro Joven that targets youth in the area and teaches them about HIV/Aides, holds soccer tournaments, leadership training and encourages them to stay in school. Matt and I met him for coffee with the expectation that he would give us some names of different contacts he had and tell us a little about his organization. We were shocked when he went throw all the different audiences we wanted to cover here and talked about how he kew someone and started planning dates he would take us to meet them. The he told us that he was going to introduce us to some of his friends from other organizations.
Before we left to meet with 4 different non profit groups we told him we still needed to find an apartment and so he decided to help us. Before we knew it we had an amazing apartment with two beds, a huge bathrooom, a frigde, balcony, wireless internet and a water cooler. It's also about 3 blocks from the center of town and only $500 for six weeks.
Miguel the spent the rest of the afternoon taking us around Tela to talk with different directors (of and explained that we were writing a documentary and asked if they would be willing to particpate. These people could not have been more excited about us filming them. No one comes to Honduras just to learn about the people . Two of the organizations (Red Cross and a fosster center) asked us if we could make short powerpoints for them so they can send it to officials or grants. Tomorrow Matt and I will spend the afternoon making a presentation for the foster center that they will be showing the first lady of Honduras when she comes to visit next Wednesday.
Things could not be going any better. There is some talk of political unrest but here in Tela you would never guess. I already can tell leaving here is not going to be easy.
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