Tegucigalpa

It's Saturday afternoon, and I write from a
n internet cafe in the mall. My first promise to myself on hearing I had got this post: that I would never set foot in a Central American shopping mall. That's my first promise broken. Here are some other promises I had made that I appear to be in the process of breaking:

1) "I will not live the lazy lethargic office-bound development worker life; I will exercise regularly." Au contraire, this week I have done little with my body other than sit. I've sat in cars, on sofas, at tables and at desks. My mind has been variously stretched, but my posterior - constantly at rest. With the exception of the poor salsa dancing on Wednesday, and a token 10 lengths in the squeenchy tiny pool at the hotel Maya this morning, I've been unfailingly at rest.
2) "I will avoid refuges of the rich and super-rich, I will live as much like a local as possible". See comment above about the pool in the Hotel Maya. It's big, and brash, and packed with gringos. But with a lovely lovely outdoor pool.
3) "I won't hang out exclusively with ex-pats." So far, I've hung out not only exclusively with ex-pats, but exclusively with Irish ones. Not that I've done that much hanging out so far.

The thing is, I'm new here, and I don't know anything about anything, and when my flatmates are taking refuge in the familiar, I'm inclined to do the same. Although they do tell me that because I'm working on the civil society programme, I'll meet a lot more people than they do in the course of their HIV-AIDS work.
Tegucigalpa, you see, lacks a middle class. Where are the educated liberals, my peers? I'm given to understand that some of them are at fancy civil society receptions in expensive hotels, so I'll meet
them there. Others, I think, have fecked off to Miami, or maybe New York. The rest just aren't my peers - they spend all their time hanging out in the mall, or in the enormous fast food restaraunts that line the bulevard Morazan, just behind our house. Tegus has all the nasty trappings of your average developing city: the slums, the traffic, the smog, the malls and McDonalds, but none of the benefits: good restaurants, interesting scenes, music, clubs, theatres and gigs....
Thus far then, I give it five out of ten. Pretty hills, and friendly people. But I'm still baffled and lost. So far in Honduras I've seen next to no poor people, and I'm very uncertain of the work I'm doing. I think this is unsurprising, and maybe it's good that I record this for contrast. I hope to have a field trip to the north of the country very soon, where I'll be able to get a better feel for the work we're really supporting.

More in this vein when I get the chance - and apologies if it's sporadic. Also, I have a mobile phone now! Email me for my number if you want it.

Thanks for the comments kids: they warm my heart.