La Casa Verde

It has sure been an eventful 5 days! We just got internet in our house today so now I can finally fill everyone in!  Here was my first glipse of Honduras:

I was pretty nervous about going through customs at the airport since I was by myself and, you know, the whole language barrier thing.  I came prepared with a "cheat sheet" of Spanish phrases to that explained why I was coming to Honduras (thanks, Emily), which is a good thing because I needed it! When they scanned my suitcase that was full of school supplies, they opened it and began to question me about it.  They were telling me I needed to pay a tax on all the stuff.  They had no clue what I was saying and vice versa.  After much confusion, they let me go without paying.  

I stayed the first night in San Pedro with three other teachers from Minerva.  There were 5 other teachers flying in the next day so we all travelled to Gracias together on Friday night.  I got to experience quite the rainfall that first night.  It poured buckets, so much that the streets flooded in a matter of minutes.  I tried to get a good shot even though it was dark out:

After a long day of waiting at the airport, 9 of us headed in a van with alll of our luggage on a little less than a four hour ride to Gracias.  We were crammed like sardines!

I stayed the first night in my house alone.  It wasn't too bad after I came to peace with the cockroaches.  And I slept pretty well despite the dog and rooster noises waking me up way too early!  My three roommates arrived on Saturday and Sunday.  Here is a little tour of our home we (for now) call La Casa Verde.  A much more creative name is in the works.

This is my little bedroom.  Just big enough for the twin bed and my 2 suitcases:

 I don't have a closet so I used some sticky hooks to hang most of my shirts:

Here is a view from the bedroom hallway looking into our living room.  We were given a plastic table and four plastic chairs.  Since this photo was taken, we have bought an additional table and two more chairs.  Still a lot of space leftover filled with nothing!

We have a huge indoor-ish patio other the other side of the living room.  See the pictures to understand the "ish:

On the patio is a pila to hand wash our laundry if we so choose.  The other option is to take it to the lady in town for 100 lempiras (about $5) per load.  I'm choosing the cheaper of the two.

Here is a view of the toilet and shower.  Our shower is (fingers crossed) getting tiled this week.  And plumbing here isn't equipped to flush toilet paper, so that took some getting used to:

This is the opposite direction with the kitchen off to the right.  We have a toaster oven, portable range and a wood burning stove.  We haven't tried it out yet but I'm sure we will:

Off the patio we have a door to our private backyard - BONUS!  There we have mango, avocado and mandarin trees and are loving it!:

These are my roommates, Amy, Richelle and Sydney.  Last night we cooked tortilla, beans, plantains and guacamole for dinner, a very Honduran meal:

Here are some other views of Gracias:

And I'll leave you with this- a picture of the toad that keeps creeping into our kitchen, he's a monster!: