Where exactly is Talanga, anyway...? (by Todd)

That's certainly what I thought when I first heard we were going there.

Well, basically it's a town of about 10,000 people (with maybe 30,000 if you count outlying areas) located about an hour north of Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital.

Here's a map (click to enlarge):


If you're like me before I started this whole adventure, you may be a little shaky on your Central American geography. There are five countries in Latin America: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Honduras is in the middle, and it borders on all the others except Costa Rica.

Check out the World Factbook entry on Honduras if you are looking for more information:

And, while we're on the subject, this is the Honduran flag:

The Honduras Volunteers (by Todd)

Here are our pictures!

Laura

James

Fr. Lucian

Kathy

Lauren

Todd

Orientation (by Todd)

The first actual part of the program is a three-week Orientation we have from July 17 to August 5. We'll be at the Passionist monastery in Jamaica, New York for a week, then at a Passionist Monastery in Pittsburgh, and then back to New York again.

The Orientation is for all the Passionist Volunteers International, both the one's going to Honduras and those going to Jamaica (you can check out the weblog for the Jamaican volunteers here.).

This is the Honduras crew at our orientation in New York. That's sign language for "F5," by which we mean the Fabulous Five (that's us! because there are 5 of us, you see? not counting Fr. Lucian).