Lesson 3: How to say "Hola!"

Hello, World!

Well, I've been here for a week.  I'm getting used to the area and the culture and all sorts of fun stuff. Now, let me preface this by saying that I had previously heard that Tegucigalpa is one of the most dangerous cities in the world.  Well, the school I'm working at is up on the hillside away from the busy city life. It is part of a district of the city called El Hatillo (that's pronounced "ell ah-tee-yo" for all you Americanos out there). Essentially, it's a small village on the mountain that overlooks the greater city.

We asked if it's safe to take walks up in El Hatillo, which it definitely is.  So we've been exploring, and a new teacher named Will likes to go birdwatching, so I've been tagging along for those adventures. The interesting thing is that it's part of the culture for everyone to greet any person they see on the street.  My first day in Honduras, I was walking out of the gate of the school grounds and I heard from behind me a young voice yelling, "HOLA!!!" I naturally kept walking, since I haven't met my students yet, no kids would be directing their greeting at me. But I heard it again, and I turned and sure enough, there were some kids standing in their yards who were absolutely thrilled by nothing more than a wave and an "Hola" from the new Gringo teacher.

Even just walking around, everybody on the streets say "buenos dias", "buenas tardes", or "buenas noches" depending on the time (I've been wondering what time exactly to switch from tardes/afternoon to noches/night greetings...).

The school grounds are protected by guarded gates, so I've been trying to practice my colloquial Spanish conversing with the guards.  They always have a big smile and say hola, but if I try to say something more, I run the risk of them thinking I can carry on a full conversation about who knows what. (I've been finding that my 5 years of Spanish classes have given me the ability to decipher about 60% of Spanish that I can read, but I can pick up only about 20% of what people say. Not unlike America, they just talk so darn fast!)

So, I'm learning how to live here and how to fit in. Updates on my cultural adjustment successes and failures are on the way. I'll also write about setting up my classroom and the subjects I'll be teaching! Stay tuned!