Initiation

Written August 22, 2010

Yesterday we got a call from the three gringos (Americans) that live here and they said they were throwing a birthday party for someone in the church and we were all invited. So we headed over there around 8, just in time to pray, sing happy birthday and get some dulce de leche cake (Lauren, don’t worry, yours is better ☺). There were about 15 or so people there who were all around 19 or 20 ish. One of the girls who will be in my 9th grade class was there so it was nice to sit and chat with her. I was pleasantly surprised by how good her English is. It’s weird though, because in the US it is entirely unacceptable to do basically anything with your students outside of a school sponsored function, so this was a new experience for me. It’s nice to be in a small town where I don’t have to worry about crazy parents out on a witch-hunt for teachers. Obviously I still have to keep a little distance, but I much prefer getting to know my students while keeping a boundary than never really being allowed to get that close to them.

Once everyone had eaten cake they said we were going to play a Honduran game to initiate us. We had no idea what to expect but the boys assured us it wasn’t anything bad. So, the four of us girls (me, Amelia, Bryony and Holle) were all put in a room with three other Honduran girls. None of us had any idea what was going on. They called out one of the Honduran girls first, and all we could here was a lot of clapping and some screaming. Obviously that was disconcerting but I figured it was a group of people from church, so how bad could it be? I got called out 3rd and was the first of the Americans to go. I was told to sit across from one of the Honduran guys and repeat what he said and mimic his motions. Ok, no big deal. He kept saying “pidipipow” and touching his head, crossing his arms, touching his legs or standing up and I just imitated him. Everyone was clapping like I was doing well and kept telling him to go faster. After some time I went to sit down and they had slipped a cold, wet rag onto the seat. I definitely was not expecting it, but after I got over the initial shock I was able to laugh about it. It was pretty funny to watch the same thing happen to the other girls too. There’s no better way to feel comfortable in front of a new group of people than to make a complete fool of yourself. We all got a good laugh out of it and even lined up to take a picture of our wet behinds.

Despite having a wet butt most of the night I had a lot of fun and enjoyed meeting people in town that are more my age that aren’t married with 3 kids. I saw a lot of them at church today and felt much more welcomed into the community. I’m looking forward to getting to know everyone a lot better over the next year.