Me Hace Reir!

You make me laugh! Never have I been so thankful that laughing is not contained in a single language! I have laughed so much since I have arrived in Honduras! At myself and at other people, who have laughed even more at me. It’s hard to be frustrated about the seemingly impossible wall that separates me from the people I live, work, eat, and pray with when we are laughing.

At this point, the kids are especially difficult to communicate with because they don’t understand that, even though I am an adult and appear educated, I sound incredibly ignorant. There is a little girl here who is about 6 years old, the daughter of one of the other nurses. She is so cute and shy, but she has the silliest, most vivacious giggle, making it impossible not to follow suit. The other day, her mom left her at the nurse’s station for a while and Kelli and I tried to keep her entertained by talking to her about the colors and the Barbie stickers that she had. We got some of the ideas across but when we were having difficulty, she would stare at us with big eyes and try to hide her smile behind her sticker book. When we realized we weren’t getting anywhere we would laugh at ourselves and then she would burst out in giggles.  We may not have had a conversation, but we were successful in making a new friend!

Facial expressions, charades, gestures, and signals are all exaggerated to the extreme when words aren’t available. I have never acted so much in my life. Many times I want to pull my hair out because there are numerous things that cannot be communicated, no matter how you scrunch your face or wave your hands or dance around and I’m left with the words: “Ay! No se como explicar in espanol. (I don’t know how to explain in Spanish.)” Most of the time though, I feel like I’m living in my own sit-down comedy.  If only there were re-runs!