Earthquakes and Donkey Polo

Well, apparently there was a very large earthquake just off the coast of Honduras that many people have asked us about. This happened May 28, 2:24 a.m. local time and was centered about 150 miles north of where we live. The quake registered at 7.1 on the Richter scale (although the USGS website has 7.3 listed). Unbelievably, this size of a quake only killed 6 people in a third world country. Luckily the epicenter was in the ocean and did not cause a tsunami as was feared at first. It did destroy some homes and a major bridge along the north coast outside of San Pedro Sula. Many people here in Catacamas woke up but neither of us felt it. Maybe the Northridge and Loma Prieta quakes desensitized us to large quakes or we have just been working so hard lately that we were exhausted. It supposedly shook the ground for over a minute. Many other Peace Corps volunteers felt it, especially those along the north coast, and for many of them it was their first earthquake. It was the biggest in Honduras recorded history and the last big one they had was in 1999 registering at 6.7. There have been 4 aftershocks of at least 4.5 magnitude since Thursday including one just on the Olancho border. We did not feel any of those either.
In other news, last week was natural resources week at the university and we attended a concert and a Bar-B-Que there. It was fun and a good cultural experience. It was also the 21st anniversary of CEREPA, the drug and alcohol center where Shannon works and the week was filled with activities. She participated in a peaceful march against drunk driving which was very interesting. We went to the quaint city of Yuscaran this past weekend to participate in the 13th annual donkey polo event during their feria del mango. This annual event pits Volunteers against the locals riding donkeys and trying to hit a plastic soccer ball with a stick into a small goal. The hardest part is trying to get the donkey to move, as Shannon found out early on in the game. Kevin's moved much easier but never wanted to turn to the right. We also didn't have saddles or even blankets to sit on and their backbones were not the most comfortable thing to sit on in the world. The locals fared much better as they basically had a professional donkey polo rider on their team. They ended up winning by a lot but we at least scored one goal (yay Haley!). It was fun but somewhat chaotic and we don't think the donkeys enjoyed it much. The local kids insisted on hitting and kicking the donkeys if they didn't move and it was terrible. At one point Shannon threatened to hit one of the kids (really good for a youth development volunteer)and they finally left her donkey alone! Shannon is now pretty sick (we're not sure why) so we are taking it easy this week.