In transit

Hello my faithful readers:

Wow – I can’t believe that I’m sitting here typing this blog from my apartment in Roatan, Honduras. Life has changed a great deal for me over the past year – in fact at this time last year I was preparing to give notice to my job to embark on what has turned out to be the experience of a lifetime for me – pursuing my MBA at Vlerick in Belgium.

I’m here in the Honduras for one of my last projects as a Vlerick MBA student with my team of four other students (Chris, Javiera, Jess and Julio). We’re here to help School of Life (SOL) Foundation to put together a fundraising plan. SOL is a foundation, based here on Roatan to help children in the Sandy Bay community who are at risk youth – risk of drugs, gangs and dropping out of school.

I arrived in the Honduras on Thursday afternoon following a long travel, which involved me taking the train from Belgium on Tuesday afternoon to London. From London I flew to NYC where I had a few hours to try to get into the city from JFK, do a little shopping and take care of my much needed manicure-pedicure at my spot on 7^th Ave and near 34^th Street.

I also caught up with one of my best friends Olin when I was in NYC but only for about an hour and a half at his Spanish Harlem apartment. I wish we’d had the time to catch up a little longer, but I had a flight to catch, so I headed back downtown to wait for the train to Newark, NJ where I had a hotel room for the night. The New Jersey Transit trains to the Newark Airport where I was catching my hotel shuttle were delayed; after a 2+ hour wait at Penn Station, it was almost 3 AM by the time I made it to my hotel.

The next morning I was up bright and early to prep for my flight to Houston, TX where I had a short stay with one of my other best friends Gigi. I also got to meet my godsons (her twin boys) for the very first time since their birth a little over a year ago. It was great to see Gigi in mommy mode and to see the boys in action. They were adorable and although I couldn’t imagine myself raising twins, Gigi was in her element and you could see that she’d spent a lot of time creating an environment focused on their comfort and enjoyment.

I didn’t get to see much of Houston because of some of the most torrential rains I’ve ever seen. I made a mental note that I should NEVER visit that city during Hurricane season. That’s why I consider it a miracle that all of my flights in and out of Houston were on time.

Our apartments are located right off of a lovely beach and the views are amazing. Our apartment complex is lush with vegetation with lots of beautiful trees and bushes. I’ve also seen lots of hummingbirds, crabs and fishes since I’ve arrived. I don’t mind that we don’t have hot running water because to be quite honest the cold showers I take are a relief from the heat. I love it here, despite all of the creepy crawly bugs and flying bugs, an unavoidable part of life here in the Honduras, which have taken a liking to biting me (and the rest of the team).

My favorite thing to do so far is to sit at the beach or at the top of our pier and stare out at the ocean. My access to internet is limited and I don’t have a mobile phone here with me so far Roatan has been a great place to get a little thinking and reflecting done. Before I arrived I thought I would be freaked out by not having constant connection to the internet, but when you’re disconnected from the rest of the world it’s s relaxing and it gives me time to think about the future without the distractions I would normally have. I’m also getting a lot of reading for pleasure in, something I haven’t done much this past year because things were just too busy.

We’ll get started working on our project full throttle tomorrow. But for now we have the rest of this weekend to enjoy getting acquainted to Roatan and all of the pleasures it has to offer. It’s very laid-back and the team is a lot of fun. Let the good times roll!