Mornings in Copan are pretty glorious, especially on the weekends. A typical Saturday consists of waking up, eating a scrumptious breakfast of locally grown or produced fruits, vegetables, coffee, and eggs, sitting on our porch basking in the sun, and enjoying the view of the mist rising over the mountains.
This Saturday was no different. After breakfast, I headed into town to check out the seventh annual Cabildo Infantil (Youth Town Council) of Copan Ruinas. On Tuesday, I started observing at a primary school called La Estanzuela located about 5 kilometers from Copan. The students had spent most of their week working to create a book on the environment (the theme of the Cabildo Infantil this year) that would represent their school at the youth council. Like every school in the municipality of Copan Ruinas, they elected a student a student mayor** who would present the book at the council.
After seeing the kids (and their teachers) working so hard on the project, I was excited to see the program in action. I walked into Copan's municipal buildings around 9am and there were excited kids milling around all over the conference hall. Along the wall of the hall several tables had been set up to display the books that had been submitted. There were a lot of really neat entries, but I think La Estanzuela's book was one of the best. I hope that they won first place!***
After watching the kids get settled in and start working on projects (they had to create something useful out of a bag of "trash.") I said my goodbyes and headed back out to the town square to meet up with Graham.
In Copan Ruinas, it seems, couches are only sold as part of a three-piece set. This reality has been holding us back from upgrading from our plastic chairs to something a little more comfortable. We've almost bought couches several times. There was the set in Gallo mas gallo (the Honduran version of Walmart) that was cheap, but on closer observation, aready broken. We tried to hire a local carpenter to build us a couch, but that would have cost almost as much as the three-piece set. We were frustrated. Last week, we had a lucky break. Another couple at the Mayatan School decided they wanted to buy a loveseat and we agreed to go in on a three-piece furniture set for 5,900L. We hit a few snags along the way and ended up paying more than we'd hoped, but by noon our living room was complete with a heinous black, early-nineties, geometric print couch!
*The soccer part of this segment is getting its own entry. Check it out.
** I will soon be starting a blog about my Fulbright research on the Honduran education system. The first entry will touch on the story of Vanessa****, the little girl who was elected student mayor of La Estanzuela. If you are interested, please check it out.
*** La portada (the cover) of La Estanzuela's book won first place!
**** I will not be using the real names of students in my posts.
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