I was born in Baltimore, Maryland, several thousand miles away from El Paraiso, Honduras, where most of my family was born. Nine months after I was born, my mom was afraid that I would grow up not knowing where my family is from. This is when she made the decision to send me to Honduras for four years! It might sound crazy but my mom wanted me to grow up around my grandparents and she didn’t want me forget our native language. In 2004, I came back from Honduras and went to Georgia. I have lived in Georgia since then. I did go back to Honduras in 2011 and it was exciting. Although I only went to Honduras for one month, it was a very adventurous month. To this day, I still remember my very first day in Honduras.

I woke up and looked outside of the window. I saw clouds, clouds, and more clouds. Then I saw it. The dark green land mass that is, Honduras. As my ears began to ring from the descending plane, I could see the top of the waves clashing into what seemed to be giant boulders. I looked at my six year old cousin and I asked him,” Are you ready?”

When we reached the ground, I began to feel “butterflies” in my stomach. I was beginning to worry because I had not seen my grandparents in so long and I didn’t know how they were going to react to our arrival. Since only my cousin and I got on the plane without our parents, someone had to escort us until we got to our grandparents. As we spotted our luggage on the conveyor belt, I saw my grandpa peeking through a glass wall looking for my cousin and I. My grandpa was wearing cowboy boots and a striped flannel shirt. On his head, he had a wolf grey sombrero with a colorful feather attached on the side. My grandpa’s reaction was priceless. The very first thing he told me was, “Are you my grandson?” I responded by giving him an awkward hug. My grandpa had never seen my cousin before so he got a very different reaction. We grabbed our luggage and my grandpa took us to where Aunt Maribel was waiting for us at the door. I remembered spending lots of time with Aunt Maribel as an infant so I gave her a big hug. As we were leaving the airport, a beast of a man that was about 6’4 came and greeted us. He was my Uncle George. I found it ironic how my Uncle George told me that I had grown so much. When we got inside my uncle’s truck, I took an extremely long nap until we arrived at a small town. This is where I grew up.

Everyone in my family grew up there. Even my grandparents grew up there. Some of my aunts and uncles still live there. The entrance of the town is a long and narrow dirt road surrounded by trees. Around the trees there’s a tomato farm. My uncle pointed out the farm that he owned. As we passed through the town, I spotted some of my cousins playing outside. We didn’t stop because we had to go to my grandparents’ house. This is where all my aunts and uncles were at. When we arrived, a giant bull’s skull greeted us. The skull was mounted on a gate leading into the house. As we approached the teal colored house, I remembered that the house was L-shaped. In the inside part of L, was an L-shaped corridor without an outer wall. Instead, pillars surrounded the outer part of the corridor. This is where we parked the truck. Through the windows of the car, I could see two of my uncles and two of my aunts. I got nervous again. I stepped out of the car and greeted both of my aunts, and then I greeted my uncles. My uncles were both pretty tall, and they were both dressed like my grandpa. I went to the kitchen where my grandma was preparing food. She turned around and I gave her a big hug. I had not seen my grandma in so long and I never thought I would be visiting her again. She then handed me a plate of food and told me to eat outside. I looked at my plate and saw half of an avocado, beans, eggs, a piece of homemade cheese, and ham. I didn’t have a fork because in Honduras we eat most of our food with tortillas. Since we had not eaten on the plane, I devoured the food. It took me a couple of minutes to finish but I still devoured it. By the time I finished eating, the sun had gone down. Even though there was nothing to do, I was still happy. I talked to my grandparents about my brother and my mom for hours, and then they talked to me about when my mom was a little girl. The time was ten so I decided to go to bed. As I closed my eyes and began to fall asleep, I thought to myself,” This month is going to be better than what I dreamed it was going to be.”