Dia de Cultura

This week before Easter is called Semana Santa in Honduras. Schools are off all week, people take vacations and nothing is open. Peace Corps, unfortunately had to work Monday-Wednesday, but we finished off the week with a cultural day. Each family had to cook and bring a traditional Honduran food to share. Each Spanish class had to present some type of cultural presentation representing American culture. My class did a skit depicting the process of entering the Peace Corps (the application, the waiting, the medical exams, staging, etc.). We also had the pleasure to see a performance by the local traditional dance group.

Speaking of Honduran culture...after being in Honduras for almost two months I have started to notice a few things. Some good and some bad.

First of all the good stuff...

-Overall Hondurans are very friendly. Often when you walk down the street you will greet every person you pass, creating a friendly atmosphere. On the other hand this often is hard for Americans because sometimes we just want to get where we are going and get things done and not worry about making small talk with every person we see.

-The host families are very welcoming and caring. My host mother defers to me as her daughter and tries to make me feel as comfortable as possible.

The not so good stuff...

-My homework experience: After dinner one night my 19 year old host brother came in and asked me to translate something for him and then went off to work. So I started translating it and then stopped to think. I asked my host sister if this was his English homework and she told me it was his girlfriend's English homework from University. I explained that I didn't really think I should do her homework for her and left the rest of it on the table. Later when my host brother and mom returned home my host mom called me out of my room and asked me to finish the homework. I again explained that I didn't think it was right to do her homework because she wouldn't learn anything and besides the professor would know it was not her work. I explained how in the US cheating is against the rules. I offered to help her out with the homework if she wanted to come over, but I wouldn't just do it for her. My host mother then explained that things are different in Honduras and teachers don't care if you learn anything or if you cheat, as long as you turn in your homework. So after about 10 minutes going back and forth I finally convinced them that I wouldn't finish the homework and that my brother's girlfriend really should do the rest of her own homework.

-Pets: Pets in Honduras are a little different than pets in the US. In the US I know some people that treat their dogs like they are children. In Honduras they treat their pets like they are trash. The streets are full of stray dogs that eat trash, get in fights and bark at all hours of the night. For example, my family has five dogs, three adults and two puppies, which I actually didn't see for a few weeks because they keep them somewhere else? One of the adult dogs apparently doesn't like me because he tries to attack me every time I see him, so eventually they put him somewhere else. The two puppies are very cute, but look incredibly mangy; skinny, dirty and listless. I wish I could pet them, but I'd rather not get fleas.

-Piropos: This literally translates to 'compliments' but most American women don't see it that way. I think a better translation is 'cat-calls'. Without fail white females receive these as the walk down the street from Honduran men hanging out on corners, driving in cars and sitting in their houses. They make really obnoxious kissing sounds and usually try to say something in English in hopes of impressing us? The best policy seems to be to ignore it, although I have flicked a few of them off when I was in a particularly bad mood (it doesn't seem to help though, it just eggs them on).