Pictures from La Esperanza

You might remember us writing about our trip to La Esperanza with the 7th graders that we took a few months ago. Well, I finally got around to scanning some pictures of the adventure for your viewing pleasure.

This is the cabin that I stayed in with the 9 other seventh grade boys - and no, I didn't have a separate room.


The cabin itself was really cool - completely constructed out of local logs and vines. The vines were used to fill in the gaps in the construction, which served more of a visual purpose than anything functional, as we could tell from the many bugs and spider webs hanging around inside. Of course the guys didn't care, though. They were more interested in challenging each other on the GameCube, as you can see!


Probably the highlight of this trip was visiting the farmers market that took place in town on Sunday. All kinds of different vendors had set up shop on the sides of one particular street selling fish, vegetables, fruits, toys and anything else you can imagine. Then people haphazardly poured through the little channel in the middle of the street between the vendors, stopping at random to have conversations with friends while everyone else tried to manuever their way around them. I couldn't help thinking, "This must be what a blood cell feels like trying to squeeze through cholesterol laden arteries". Forget about your comfy, American 4 feet of personal space you so cherish - you're lucky if a few seconds pass where you're not completely pressed up against the person in front and behind you. I did manage to get a few pictures that more or less capture the energy and color of everything there, I think.


All of the local women here that have children use this ingenious way below to carry them around. It's a win-win situation, really - your hands are free and your kids hands aren't!


Here was another interesting sight (and smell!) in the market. These are huge seed bags completely filled with dried fish of all sizes, apparently used for soup.


We had a chance to take a little side trip out of town for a while to explore a "lake" called Chiligatoro, where we spent part of our afternoon. This is most of the seventh grade class with the lake in the background. Think you could handle them in the classroom? :)


Tomorrow Megan takes the Biology GRE here in Tegucigalpa. She's been studying really hard lately, and she's looking forward to having it behind her. So if you think about it, pray for her tomorrow morning while she's racking her brain!