I am not sure why the school cafeteria was called "La Glorieta," because there was certainly nothing glorious about it. In return for providing the construction materials, Pepsi (the real owner of Honduras) demanded that the structure be painted in its signature blue and white colors, ironically also the colors of the Honduran flag. The Pepsi logo also had to be emblazoned in as many places as possible. Inside the kitchen, our excellent cook, Dona Nuvia, and her able assistant worked long and hard to feed the school's 170 kids and fourteen staff, dishing up Honduran staples like pollo frito with tajadas, frijoles con arroz, chop suey, and the ubiquitous baleada. It was always like 120 degrees inside the kitchen, but Nuvia and her chica did not seem to be the least bit fazed by the searing heat. Lunch was always pandemonium as teachers struggled to get the kids from all grades to form actual lines and wait their turn to get served (it is a Honduran custom to cut ahead in line whenever possible). There were only a few tables in front of the glorieta and these would become filthy and fly-infested after about ten minutes into the lunch period. All in all, we would not have made it without our Pepsi cafeteria-Nuvia's nourishment kept teachers and this administrator going for the rest of the school day.
