Day 10 - Tegucigalpa

This morning we got up early, had a quick breakfast of beans, rice, and cheese and headed into Tegucigalpa which is the capital city of Honduras. Tegus (Tey-Goose), as the locals call it, has about 2 million citizens and is quite a big city. There is a lot of beauty in the city and a lot of nastiness.
On the ride in, we took the NPH bus. Basically it is a renovated middle school bus with almost no shock absorbers. There were a few times that my behind got air as we hit a particularly big bump in the road. We then took a taxi to parque central (central park). The park was busy with a lot of traffic and pedestrians.
One thing to note about Honduran driving is that they use their horn indiscriminately. They beep to let you know they are coming, they beep to let you know you are in their way, and they beep to know they are about to run over you. And they will run you down. The phrase, "Keep your head on a swivel" applies here.
Just off the park, we had lunch at a neat little restuarant called Paradiso. They had quite a variety of dishes, most <$5. I ended up having Sopa de Tortilla (tortilla soup) with rice and chicken. Some of the other folks got a very tasty club sandwhich with fries. Heading back into the park, we went into a gorgeous Cathedral which was beautifully decorated inside and out. Next we just had to stop at the local McDonalds to get a McCono Chocodip (chocolated dipped soft serve ice cream cone). It wasn't exactly like the ones in the states, but it was pretty darned good on a hot day.
On our way back to the Ranch we took the local "chicken bus". The local public transports are all privately owned and some owners really pimp their rides. Other volunteers have seen busses with spinners, sound systems and even flat panel TVs. Ours was not so posh, and was jam packed with hondurans. My guess is that we had 70 folks on that bus at one point. The ride took a little longer, but wasn't too bad.
Mass was at 4PM today to allow the departing volunteers enough time to get to dinner in Tegus. Again the service was beautiful. Mass was followed by dinner and a rock concert. The concert was fun and we ended up playing with the kids more than listening to the band. They did tons of cover tunes in Spanish. The kids had a treat of some kind of candy and chocolate milk, so they were all pretty sugar-buzzed.
We've really gotten to know 10-20 of the kids. It's ashame that we can't stay longer to get to know more. It's a great feeling to be sitting at a concert and have one of your favorites come running over and jump into your lap only to fall sound asleep.