lenguaje de signos hondureña

Today we did two things:

1. We taught a brother some English slang. Specifically "spiel." The other day we taught him "slacker." I'm sure he will benefit greatly from this education. This is unlike the time we told a different brother that a fork is called a "red chicken."
2. We went out in service with the Sign Language group.

They had run across a couple of English speakers while in the territory, so they brought us back to meet them. This involved taking a bus to a part of town we had never been to, and are unlikely to go back to without a large group. We saw a lot of interesting things, but did not take pictures, because it was decided that it was best to leave things of value at home.

So we met the English speakers, and Zach started a study with a man. He now has three calls names "Mario." His call book is going to get confusing. Then we went to a couple of deaf studies. I felt really bad for the sister conducting the study, because she had to sign, in Spanish, occasionally speak in Spanish, and then translate to English for me, because I speak neither Spanish nor HSL. 

Honduras has its own Sign Language. It's similar to ASL, but different. It is based on Spanish, instead of English, so even if a sign is similar, you form a different letter with your hand, ie. Yes vs. Si. I can't really describe the sign, so hopefully you know what Yes looks like in ASL. Imagine it with an I. Or maybe an S. They were signing so fast, I couldn't tell. But I think there was a pinky involved. So the sister had to learn the variations, and learn Spanish when she came down here. Makes me feel bad for complaining about trying to learn one language. 

We had a lot of fun though. It's amazing how you can communicate with people even when you don't speak the same language.