Typical Saturday

Our day started with D's Eagle League futbol game. So far, his team is undefeated (they've only had two games). He's on the Jaguars and today they defeated the Lions 5-3.

Considering that he is learning to play futbol from a coach who only speaks Spanish, I'd say he's doing pretty well. The coach is really good about letting all kids get fair play time. At first, I was worried that D's skills would be far behind the other's who, I stereo-typically thought, had been playing as long as they could walk. This is only true for about half the players on the team, and the other half are only getting their first formal futbol training now, as 6, 7 or 8 year olds. His team consists of 1st and 2nd graders, all from his school. You should see some of these kids play. Amazing. The passes, headers, blocks and shots on goal make for great futbol, even though none of them weigh more than 55 pounds.

After lunch at home, we ventured out to Plaza Morazan (also known as Parque Central), in El Centro, just a short drive from our favorite swimming spot at the  Maya. It may be a short drive from our bourgeois oasis at the Maya, but it's certainly a different world. We joked that we were quite the spectacle as we walked down the pedestrian-only esplanade, where there were mostly catracachos out for a social, Saturday afternoon. But we didn't truly become a spectacle until our kids saw Seleccion jerseys. We bought them and they wanted to wear them immediately. In case you've been living under a rock, or not living in Honduras, Seleccion is the national team that recently qualified for the World Cup. And everyone, I mean everyone wears a jersey on game days. So, our family had to represent, and the kids got jerseys. And they wore them for the rest of the day. So now we were not only the only gringos in Plaza Morazan, but we had people scratching their heads, wondering why these gringitos were in the know about the national futbol team.

Of course, there are several churches around El Parque Central, and E snapped a photo of beautiful Iglesia los Dolores, a baroque-style cathedral just off the square. More impressive than the clay pot decorations and the heart with piercing dagger were all the pigeons above, below, on, around and over it. The photo does not give justice the multitude of pigeons flanking the cathedral. On the side, there were a dozen people selling warm tortillas. We bought a bagful and they were delicious. Huevos Rancheros tomorrow for breakfast.

There was also a maze of aisles in a covered market area where I took the picture of L on a chair near a stall selling plastic flowers. Just after this picture, we walked to an area where we could look down to a one lane road with sporadic traffic that lead to an underground road/tunnel that led to ??? and an open grate where we could watch brown, rushing water flow to who knows where. Me thinks it was raw sewage, but keeping my fingers crossed that it was just run-off rain water, but is hasn't rained recently...

One thing that really struck me as we walked around this older part of the city with it's somewhat charming neo-colonial architecture was what a shame that it's been so sullied by graffiti. No space is sacred... churches, private homes, walls, and businesses have all been subject to graffiti over the recent months, since Zelaya was ousted. I have two dreams for Honduras... one is that all the graffiti will be painted over and never vandalized again, and that all the streets will be given names and each home and business will be given an address.

Lastly, we ended up at Sabor Cubano, a Cuban restaurant. Mojitos, platos tipicos, and several hands Uno capped off our day.