Day 1- Saturday

We had to wake up at 3:00am to make it to the airport and get checked in before our 6:00am flight. I have never flown without my parents, but i successfully checked in and went through security by myself since I flew on a separate airline than the rest of the group (I did meet up with a girl named Whitney who flew with me on the Delta airline). Before we took off for our flight to Atlanta, the pilot came over the speakers and said that the plane had a faulty engine and that it needed to be fixed before we took off, so we were delayed about 30 minutes. Good thing the flight was less than an hour because the whole faulty engine stuff really freaked me out and I was not comfortable on that flight. After our 2 hour layover in Atlanta, we flew to San Pedro Sula which was about a 3 hour flight. I had never been through customs before since I had never been out of the country but it wasn't bad, they just filled out my passport. Honduras is only an hour behind our time, so at about 1 we met up with the rest of the brigades in the San Pedro Sula airport. We exchanged some of our American money for Honduran money (limperas) and the exchange rate was about 1.00 dollar to 18.88 limperas. I only exchanged $20.00 because at the tourist places we go to and where we were staying they took American dollars. I was in the dental brigade, then there was also a medical brigade and a water brigade. Medical brigades didn't come until the next day. Our 3 brigades loaded onto 2 buses to prepare for the 7 hour bus ride to outside the capital of Tegucigalpa. Even though the ride was really long, I'm glad we did it instead of flying into Tegucigalpa because I got to experience the gorgeous Honduran landscape. I had no clue Honduras was so beautiful, but there was a gorgeous lake and mountains surrounded us wherever we went throughout the whole country. Along the ride we also saw how the poor economy affected the people's way of life. It was really sad to see all of the barefoot kids running around without a guardian to watch over them, their dirty clothes, and the slum houses that were everywhere. We only saw a few houses the whole trip that were not slum houses; it was really heartbreaking. There were only like 2 roads we went on the whole trip, one went north-south and the other went east-west. We noticed that most people did not have cars, they either rode bikes, walked, or rode horses. Since the roads were only 2 lanes, there was no speed limit and cars passed each other all the time. At first I thought we were sure to get in a wreck, but after the first day my nerves about wrecking went away because everyone just seemed to know the unspecified rules of driving in Honduras. But if people drove like that in Charlotte, there would be many, many wrecks. A couple of hours into the trip we stopped at a little buffet, but I was nervous to try Honduran food so I kept it pretty American. I ate fried chicken, cucumbers and tomatoes, rice, and tortilla. Honduras has sewage problems, so you can't flush toilet paper down the toilet; you have to put it in a trashcan. That was hard to get used to at first so most of us forgot a few times but oh well. At about 10pm we made it to Rapaco (our home for the trip). I was exhausted and just wanted to sleep but they forced us to eat dinner and have a meeting. I still ate American with a PB&J, pineapple, and cantaloupe. Rapaco was absolutely gorgeous! It was by far one of the nicest places in all of Honduras, so I was lucky we got to stay there this year because last year they stayed in a not so nice place. Rapaco had a huge wrap around porch around the entire enclosure. There were hammocks, ping-pong, eating tables, laundry, and full bathrooms. The rooms we slept in were just divided male/female and we slept on bunk beds. There was no air conditioning but at night Honduras cooled down to the 60s so it was comfortable. Rapaco also had walking trails, a horse, and a dog on the property. We were safely gated in and guarded with a couple of armed guards at night so I always felt safe. Plus, Rapaco was off of a dirt road about 10 minutes from the paved road. The weather during the day was perfect in the 80s with a light breeze and it never rained; much better than the freezing cold and torrential downpours in Chapel Hill before spring break. Since it was the dry season there weren't too many bugs except for at night, but it was never really bad. We had to brush our teeth and wash our face with a water bottle because if you drink the water in Honduras you have a very high chance of getting parasites which would be terrible. I finally got to sleep around midnight.