El Rey Feo

We have arrived safely in Honduras, and are as settled in as we can be at this point. We will be staying in dorms, separately, for the first month until the last batch of volunteers leaves (some honeymoon!). It's a little crazy in my dorm with eight girls! Trip is in the same size room but with only one other guy. So we won't really be able to unpack and settle in for another month or so.

Everyone has been so nice and welcoming so far. Trip and I arrived 24 hours before any of the other volunteers did, so yesterday at mass Stefan (the director of the orphanage) introduced us to the whole orphanage after the service. Kids came up to us all day afterward wanting to meet us. We learned so many names yesterday, but we fear that when we see them in different clothes today it will be a great deal more difficult to remember them! They're used to people having to learn their names, but we hear that they will pressure us endlessly to learn theirs.

We anticipated Trip's name being difficult to say in Spanish, as in Spanish pronunciation it usually will come out sounding something like "chreep" or "chreek." We decided to keep his name as is, though, using the english pronunciation, to see how it went. This has actually very quicky given Trip a nickname, Shrek. This is what everyone thinks he is saying. So now, some of them are already calling me fiona. Hah! We'll see how this pans out, but I think Shrek might stick.

Our actual orientation doesn't begin until tomorrow morning, so we've had a lot of time to walk around this huge campus (they call it the "rancho" or ranch) and get to know all of the different buildings. Reinhart (the previous director of Honduras and a friend of Grandpa's) is in Nicaragua right now so we haven't gotten a chance to catch up with him yet.

Last night the power went out in all the rancho. So we had to wait a long time to get our dinner and then we walked to one of the hogares (homes), Casa San Andres, where the mischievious boys live. They have been separated from the other homes for their bad behavior. We waited for about a half hour in the complete darkness waiting for their food to arrive before we ate, until finally they decided to build a great bonfire in the boys' common area so that they could feed everyone in the light. We ate beans and sour cream on tortillas! The boys were all so crazy around that huge fire! They ran around and had a great time. Two boys were sharing a pair of rollerblades, on one foot each, and it seems they have gotten really good at using only one! They were weaving in and out of everyone standing around the whole night. Finally after about an hour at the bonfire, we heard one little voice cry out from the crowd: "La Luz!" and then there was a great roar of cheering, as the power had finally come back on, which meant that the Saturday night activity would still be held. The activity that evening was "El Rey Feo" or The Ugly King, which meant that each home had to choose someone to dress up as crazy and ugly as they possibly could. Everyone scurried back to their hogares to dress up their candidate. We dressed up Marco* (who I had sat next to in mass earlier that day and who is less than four feet tall with an eight foot personality) in a homemade fat/humpback suit with boxing gloves, ashes from the fire smeared on his face, a mop for a wig and a monacle that one of the other boys in his home pulled out of his special shoebox of his most precious possessions.

Marco* didn't end up winning, but the competition was wild and crazy. They all walked down a makeshift runway amidst a roar of cheers, loud crackling music which jumped from Honduran salsa to the YMCA, and an announcer you could barely understand. It was a bit scary at times. The 8-12 year old girls grabbed us as soon as we got there and instructed us to yell "ESTRELLAS!" whenever their contestant was on stage. They challenged Trip to dance, which ended in him wearing a cowgirl hat ten sizes too small and doing his best salsa moves while the girls squealed in delight. The ropes that defined the edges of the runway were taut with excitement while a hundred pequeños were near hysteria as each contestant strutted and danced down the stage. It was all fun and games until one of the kids told the announcer my name and I was called to the front to eliminate a contestant. It was terrible! One of the hardest things to do! I couldn't possibly eliminate another, so I grabbed Trip and made him eliminate the next one, who left crying. In our first act of Central American politics, we were corrupt in our choices, as we had pledge alliance with the estrellas so that we would continue to be in their good favor. The last four kids were judged by a screaming match in which the estrellas ended up winning. Trip and my cheers definitely tipped the scales. It was a late and crazy night, and my ears were about fried from standing next to the screaming girls all night.

Unfortunately, we haven't felt comfortable enough to bring out our cameras quite yet, so we don't have any pictures. Soon enough we will! For now, we are just having a great time learning the places, the faces and becoming accustomed to this new world. Tonight, we will have another bonfire in the courtyard of the volunteer homes to meet all of the new volunteers. Stay tuned for more!

*Names are changed to protect the privacy of the children.