Free At Last

Monday January 18th 2010 2:30pm

This entry really has nothing to do with the title, I just wanted to give a small tribute to MLK Jr. today. I had absentmindendly called my last entry "Three Day Weekend" without realizing that today is a day that most people in the US have off for MLK Jr. Day.


The rest of Friday
I met up with Marisela and her volunteer friend Sarah as soon as I left the internet cafe. Sarah is 26 and was the intern here before Kevin. She didn´t work through Global Ministries, but came down on a few different mission trips, and decided to stay for a couple of years. It was nice to talk with another intern about their experiences here.

Of course Sarah´s experience was completely different than my own, but it was refreshing to hear her stories, and to share mine with her. Marisela, Sarah, and I talked until around dinner time, and then met up with some of their friends for Pizza Hut. Waiting for us on our way out of Plaza was an American named Missy. She apparently came down to surprise Marisela, and had made arrangements with some of Marisela and Sarah´s friends to meet up with us in Plaza.

Having no idea who this woman was, the rest of the night became very awkward for me as Marisela, Missy, and Sarah caught up with three of their Honduran friends (whose names I still don´t know). I was very much on the outside looking in on the converstaion, but found it exciting to listen to their stories, and know that perhaps one day I might return for a surprise visit and tell some other intern tales of my adventures here.

With our bellies full of pizza, we said goodnight, and all went back to our respective homes. When I got back to my apartment, I found myself exhausted and went to sleep almost immediately.


Saturday January 16th

Saturday I woke up kind of late, and spent the rest of my morning working on my application to Union Theological Seminary. I waited for a call from Marisela, who was going to accompany me to the phone store to see what we could do about getting my phone fixed. Shortly before I came back to the US for Christmas break, my phone that I use for making calls within Honduras decided to no longer recieve or make any phone calls or messages, and I was eager to solve the problem.

Marisela had suggested that we go out for lunch and then head over to the phone store. 1:00pm rolled around, and I was still without any word from Marisela. By 1:30, I called her and she wanted to know if we could go closer to 5:00 instead. I said that would be fine, but that I was wanting to be home for dinner. What need would I have to be home for dinner you might ask? I was trying to make the Rig D from Magiannos.

As soon as I got off of the phone with Marisela, I got to work. I popped on some of my jazz tunes that I got for Christmas, and began preparing the ingredients. The whole mixture took a while to make, and with each passing step, it looked less and less like the delectable meal I devour at one of my favorite restaurants. Even after adding the cream, the sauce that should have looked milky white had a brownish, reddish hue to it, and I no longer held out hope for my creation.

When the whole thing was done, which took until almost 3:00, I set it aside to cool for a while before giving it a taste test. I watched some of the NFL playoffs for a little bit before trying to eat what I had just cooked. After a few minutes, I went back to the pot on the stove, and took a fork to the pasta dish. I managed to get a little bit of the pasta, the chicken, and the onion all in one bite, and much to my surprise it didn´t taste too bad. I wouldn´t say that it tasted like the Rig D that I was aiming for, but it didn´t taste bad. I had made enough for six servings, so I decided that it was fortunate that the meal wasn´t a complete waste, as I would probably be eating it for the next couple of days.

I read for a while and waited for Marisela to call, and when she finally did at 4:30, it was to let me know that she was on her way to pick me up to go to Mall Multiplaza. There was a phone store there, and also a movie theater. Our friends from the night before had invited us out to see a movie, and we were to meet there at 5:00.

The taxi sped through traffic and we were at the mall in no time. We climbed the escalator up to the movie theater, only to find that every single movie started after 6:30. What was an "Oh well, I guess we have to wait for an hour and a half," to the Hondurans, was a very frustrating "Are you serious? Why would you not check movie times before hand?" to me.

This did, however, provide us with some time to go to the phone store, where apparently, I needed to simply pay a fee to re activate my phone number. The price was minimal, and I didn´t mind paying it. The next hour and a half passed slowly as we decided to remain in the phone store and chat.

Finally we headed back to the theater, and enjoyed our show.

As we headed back to the parking garage, where our friends had left their car, Marisela wanted to call someone, which apparently requires sitting down at a Cinnabun. When that person couldn´t be reached, calling more people to find out how to reach that first person still requires sitting around at Cinnabun. Just as we were about to leave, the first person called back, and we decided to sit around and listen to Marisela´s half of the conversation. When she was done, she remembered that she wanted a Cinnabun, and debated on buying one for literally five minutes, which is about four minutes and 20 seconds too long for an inner debate on Cinnabun purchases. When she finally decided that she did NOT want one, we started off to the car again. On the way, we passed a pharmacy, and Marisela remembered that she thought she might be out of some drug at her home, and needed to buy one. This process took about 15 minutes, and right before she came out, our Honduran friends decided that they needed to go to the bathroom. 20 minutes later, they came back with grocery bags full of soft drinks because after the bathroom they figured that they might get thirsty later in the night. We slowly ambled down the length of the mall heading towards the parking garage.

The entire process took about an hour. It took us an hour to get from the movie theater to the car. It was an incredible test of my patience, and though I may have externally passed it, my mind was screaming at my lackadaisical time philandering friends.

A healthy serving of Rig D satisfied my hunger at that point, and I watched the end of the Colts triumph over the Ravens before doing a little bit of reading before bed.


Sunday January 17th

Yesterday, I spent the whole day reading, working on my Union application, watching football, and relaxing. There really isn´t much else to say about it.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr Day everyone!