By Brendan Davitt
The Shelburne News
February 26, 2009
My name is Brendan Davitt and I am a freshmen attending Champlain Valley Union High School. During the last week of January I traveled to Tela, Honduras to participate in a service program called Hands to Honduras which is organized yearly by the Shelburne/Charlotte Rotary Club. This trip gave me a first-hand perspective on Third World countries and made me realize how fortunate I am. This trip was filled with many first-time encounters. Here is one I would like to share with you.
I found much of the food that we were served in Honduras fascinating. For most of the time we were there, we were on our own for dinner. Throughout this tiny town on the coast, there were many places you could eat, from Italian Pizzerias to Chinese food. Although there were many types of food, seafood ruled dominant overall. One night out to dinner on our trip, we went to a restaurant and ordered a seafood platter. When this mountain of food arrived, I can still remember everything that was on it: there were four soft shell crabs, a ½ pound of conk, a ½ pound of plantains (which are the greatest food ever) a pound of shrimp, and some other weird looking fish – overall it was great. Another aspect of my food adventures in Honduras that I will never forget – one night after another day of hard work, my mom, and two of our other friends from Williston, Niles and Joy, and I went out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. When we were seated we were waited on by a 12-year-old girl and her 11-year-old brother. The funny thing about all of this was that these two kids spoke English. So as I’m sitting there, this is what I was thinking: we traveled 2,200 miles to the Central American country of Honduras, we go out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant, and find that everyone in the restaurant spoke English!