Following the start of orientation, which consisted of worship/devotional time, insurance/banking talks, and meeting our principals, we were given our first set of Lempiras [Honduran currency, where 20 Lempiras is roughly equivalent to 1 US dollar], a basic shopping list, and told to meet back at the bus in 2 hours.
Apparently it was shopping day for everyone in Tegucigalpa, because the mall grocery store was packed with people. We first stopped by the photo place, where we got our residency card pictures taken. When I asked the new teacher coordinator what a residency card was, she said that basically it's to say you have permission to be here in Honduras and you don't get kicked out of the country. Needless to say we won't get our cards for awhile still, so I'll have to keep acting American, which is not hard every time I open my mouth.
We then commenced to grab some empty grocery carts and wheel them into Hiper (the Honduran Wal-Mart), eyeing our shopping lists and at the same time trying to navigate our way among the many aisles. Thankfully my housemate and I stuck together most of the time, which was most helpful when converting prices from lempiras to dollars (to find out realistically how expensive something is) and trying to find the best deals. My housemates and I decided to buy our own groceries, and it was quite the adventure finding my inventory in the store. The Honduran brands, for the most part, tended to be cheapest, and I learned that soup (sopa) comes in a bag. Also, we each bought a fan for our rooms, to drown out the dogs barking/neighborhood noises and to keep cool when the humidity intensifies.
At the end of our time in this one-stop shop, each teacher had piled high items in their cart and we caravaned over to the cash registers. At one point, I looked down the row of registers, and the IST teachers had almost completely taken over! It was almost comical. I did notice that Honduran families, unless they know each other, are usually reserved in the grocery lines, paying and leaving, not making much conversation with the clerk as I expected they would.
After we paid (counting out our Lempiras and hoping we had the right amount) and bagged our groceries, we were able to push our carts right out to the IST bus waiting for us outside. Because of the lines, my housemates and I were the last to get back to the bus. Although, I think I also slowed us down, because I had a dud shopping cart, which kept forcefully veering to the right, as if it had a mind of its own. So I had to dig in my heels and push it the other way just to make it go straight. Thanks to the help of another teacher also helping me counteract the force of the cart, we were able to avoid the mud puddles in the parking lot, but by the time we arrived back at the bus, I was exhausted. With all of our newly made purchases (fans, ironing boards, fruit, microwaves, rice, sheets, etc.) taking up the seat space, we all squeezed in where we could. I was nudged in between the back of a seat, three grocery bags (which I alternated to my lap), and a microwave; the bus seat kept tipping over with the imbalance of weight, causing me and whatever I was holding to go toppling onto the floor. I thought it was pretty hilarious--another experience to remember.
The crazy part was that at each drop-off, the teachers of the house would have to find their groceries in the pile up. My bags were all over the bus, and I'm so grateful for the chain of teachers who helped me find them! And of course, as soon as we unloaded our groceries onto the pavement in front of our casa, it started raining! Gotta love Tegucigalpa!
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