...once again, and this time for longer

I have returned to Honduras. I suppose that is what some may call a triumph in itself, but it might be more a lack of making any decision than anything. I hardly thought about my job at IST at all while in West Michigan. I have no problem with that - it means I'm enjoying unadulterated time in the area I'd grown to long for so much over the past 4 months - but I've mostly been avoiding a lot of things about my job, including whether it's where I should be, for too long, and this has led to many of my problems. Anyway, I'm here, so that's that.

School starts on Thursday, and I have a LOT to do in the time between. I shan't bore you with specific details, but plenty of wrapping up from last quarter as well as all of my preparation for the coming quarter. I don't even know what classes I'll be having on Thursday, though, since the revamped math curriculum is bound to throw everything out of whack, and while it shouldn't bother or change the way I operate, for some reason it does. I wish the school were quicker on informing us of major changes, like schedule changes, and it's this aspect of the school, I think, that makes me tend to not give my all. I think I tend to live up to the standard I see in my environment, and since I don't see IST living up to a high standard, I'm able to live with my own failure to produce. (This is one factor among MANY for my problems down here).

I arrived safely and with little hassle - from home to "home" it was a voyage of just under 26 hours:
Hour 0 (12:00pm EST, Sunday): leave my folks' house in Hamilton, saying good-bye to my brother, sis-in-law, and adorable nephew. Dad and Carol are riding along.
Hour .75: arrive in Grand Rapids, where a gathering of Project Neighborhood people from my year and the two surrounding years are eating lunch and I'm able to see many people who were extremely important in my senior year of college.
Hour 1.75: leave said gathering.
Hour 4.5: arrive at the Detroit airport, 2.5 hours before my flight, because recent terrorism attempts are liable to make waits for security unbearably long.
Hour 5: pass through the last of security. Hmm, that was easy. Now I have two hours to kill.
Hour 7.25: board the plane in Detroit.
Hour 10.5: land in Ft. Lauderdale. Discover that my plane to Honduras, which should leave at hour 11.75, won't be leaving until hour 13.25 for some unknown reason. Meet up with my roommate Al, who flew his first leg from Chicago. We kill time in the terminal, helped by the free (but unreliable) wireless internet provided by Ft Lauderdale's airport.
Hour 13.25 (1:15 am EST, Monday): Board the plane in Ft. Lauderdale. This flight was the low point of the trip - middle seat, no leg room, already tired by no sleep possible.
Hour 16.25 (3:15 CST): Land in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. It takes about 45 minutes to go through customs (Hour 17), but there's nothing we can do as it's the middle of the night and the first bus for Tegus leaves at 6:30 (Hour 19.5). So we find some benches to take a nap on.
Hour 18.75: catch an overpriced (by Honduras standards) taxi to the bus station.
Hour 19.5: the Hedman-Alas bus, which is quite luxurious, leaves the station. We stop once, but other than that, I manage to sleep and pass the time quite well.
Hour 25.5: Arrive at the terminal in Tegucigalpa. Catch a taxi to home.
Hour 26 (12:00 pm Monday, CST): Unlock the door to home.

It is worth noting that I read nearly 400 pages in this 26 hour period. I finished two books (one previously started) in this time. I'm quite proud of this.

The difference between this voyage (besides the 19-hour difference in duration and having been in Honduras before) and the first one back in August is that I drove into Tegucigalpa rather than flew. I was able to study the city as it peeked into view through the mountains, picking out landmarks, reorienting myself as I realized we're at the northwest corner of the city, and my house is on the south end, noticing the notable tall buildings and cathedrals (rather than being plopped into the middle of it by an airplane with no points of reference to begin with). When we got into the cab, I wasn't satisfied until I was able to pick out a familiar sight, and I'm pleased to report it didn't take very long.

I realize this means the city is familiar to me. That's something I've always taken pride and put a lot of effort into - getting to know my surroundings. Knowing how to get around. Knowing where things are in relation to each other. I have to pay attention in every cab ride, every bus ride, in case we take a different turn and a new street is presented to me, so I can add it to my metal radar. I like to know exactly where I'm going and how to get pretty much anywhere by having directions explained to me once. I've done this with Grand Rapids, with Holland, even back to the route between Battle Creek and Hamilton I rode along nearly every weekend for the first 16-18 years of my life. I've come a long way to doing it with Tegucigalpa. I wish I had my own vehicle, so I could just explore on my own, get lost in a colonia and then find myself again on the other side, having "conquered" another little corner of the city.

So while there's plenty I don't appreciate about Honduras, at least I have that to keep me wanting to leave my house. At least there's something that makes me want to get to know this place. I'll always have this urge, I feel, so that wherever I go, I have a reason to pay attention and value a place, if only for its geography. And with its ever-twisting road system and limited visibility around hills that pervade the landscape of the town, Tegus provides a unique challenge.

I've started reading a book I found in a used bookstore over Christmas break called The Longing For Home by Frederick Buechner. I hope to provide some of my own thoughts in response to it right here, giving the blog some needed purpose rather than just rehashing how I feel regarding my existence down here from time to time. It's at least give me a framework in which to rehash how I feel. I think it will be a very worthwhile read at this point in my life. More on that later, as this post has typically ballooned, and I need to buy groceries. And, you know, actually do my job.