"A different language is a different vision of life" -Federico Fellini

Today I was mobbed! Thankfully my attackers were about two feet tall and were more interested in hugging me and sitting on my lap than anything else. I have spent every morning this week playing teacher with ten 2-4 year olds for about three hours. I'm learning all sorts of new things like Spanish words for different animals and singing Barney songs in Spanish. The kids I work with are absolutely adorable and I am going to miss them terribly! I have been teaching them words in English at the same time and their pronunciations are so incredibly cute, I think I'm in love.

Today another group of volunteers also came to play. It was 5 Spaniards from Madrid. Just as I was getting a handle on the Honduran accent they introduced a lovely lisp spoken really quickly. By the end of the morning my head was spinning. After all the accents I've been introduced to, my Spanish is quite eclectic (read: slight disaster).

Last Saturday I spent the day at a Red Cross sponsored soccer tournament taking pictures and filming. I met one of the players for the Honduran national team who was from Tela and was there to support the Red Cross. All the little kids were running up to him and getting him to sign their t-shirts and hats while we were filming an interview with him. I took about 300 pictures during the day and probably walked away with a solid five that actually looked decent. Sports photography is hard!

It's interesting how people I meet in Latin America usually end up telling me their life story. Like my distant host cousin in Argentina one evening told me all about how she got paid in US dollars before the economy crashed and didn't put it in a bank so she became really wealthy when the depression hit in 2001. Then she told me all about my host relatives and her children and how she was set for life but worked because she enjoyed it.

Yesterday the woman I'm the "teacher's aid" for told me all about office politics. How long she had worked for IHNFA, her job, who worked a lot, who didn't, how the people in the office always asked for help but never gave her any. Then she told me that her sister really wanted her to live in Spain with her but she really enjoyed living alone. And her favorite family members were the poor ones because she could be herself around them.

Another woman in IHNFA told me all about the little boy she adopted and where her brothers worked in the US (people here are very honest about whether or not their relatives have papers. In the US it is usually spoken about with such disdain and has such a negative connotation. Here it is mentioned in passing as if it was just a minor detail like their occupation or location. For example "Yeah my brother that lives in Miami doesn't have papers but the other one in New York does). She told about her quest to get her US visa renewed and problems IHNFA suffered.

Another guy I met in a store talked to me for at least twenty minutes about how he went to Tegus a couple off weeks ago to participate in the protests and how he wanted to work in the US because there was no work in Tela. He also told me that he learned English from watching movies - his favorite being Dirty Dancing,

I haven't decided if these people open up to me because of their culture or because I understand Spanish a lot better than speaking it. It's easy to tell me long stories because I usually just nod my head and follow along. Either way it has helped me become a much better listener.

In other news Zelaya (the ousted president) is trying to return tomorrow, maybe. Everyone I ask seems to have no idea what is going on. I know it must be a disaster in the government but the people (and the press) have continued on with their life and take little notice.

Finally the other day I read that the minimum wage here is roughly $3.15 A DAY. Although it is true that living here is much cheaper than the US I have no idea how the majority of people survive with such little earnings.

In exactly two weeks I'll be back in the States. The past four weeks have gone by so quickly. One day just kind of melts into the next. I'm already thinking about how I can make it back here (oh goodness). I think my best bet would be to learn how to fit into a suitcase and just have people check me in as their luggage on their flight (it's only three-ish hours from Atlanta).