Thursday, December 27, 2007
El Apartamento
We spent all of yesterday making and hanging curtains. It literally took us all day because Andrewhad to drill into the concrete wall to hang them - something that seemed to get harder and harderover time. Either the concrete was getting more and more solid, or, well.... that must be it. Click here to see the promised photos of the apartment which we love dearly. I must say, I think the challengeof getting out, speaking Spanish, meeting new people, and feeling totally acclimated here would be much easier if I didn't like being home so much.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Christmas Greetings!
Andrew and I are gearing up for our first Honduran Christmas in a few days... it's really hard to believe that Christmas is coming when it's so hot and, well, un-Christmasy around here. December was a busy month for us, as we continue to adjust and find more things to do. Our apartment really is feeling like home (I promise to post pictures soon) and we've been able to have people over for dinner a few times which makes it feel even more like home. I was pretty sick yesterday, just a 24-flu thing, but didn't even mind too much because it gave me the chance to just lay around the house and enjoy some hours of quiet by myself.
This past weekend we went with the whole MCC team up to Cerro Azul Meambar National Park which is right by the biggest lake in Honduras, Lago Yajoa. There are ten of us MCC workers in Honduras (along with 2 small kids) and we have team meetings three times a year where we can get together, relax, share some stories, and get a few games in. The park was beautiful and my first experience being up in the cloud forest. It rained the whole first day we were there and was actually pretty cold (we did a lot of sharing of the few meager warm clothes a few of us had brought). The second day cleared up a bit and a bunch of us went on a 4 hour hike up the mountainside... we went up among huge ferns and tropical plants that I'd never seen, and stopped by a big waterfall on the way back. Pretty idyllic - plus it met a serious hiking craving that I've had for a while. We often go on the "coke sign hike" - the paved, urban hike up to the huge coca-cola sign on the hillside facing San Pedro Sula; but there really isn't any substitute for getting away from the city and on a "real" trek. You can check out our pictures here.
We'll be celebrating Christmas with MCC friends Josh and Maria - the other childless, host-familyless couple here in Honduras. Although we're surely going to miss family and friends from home, I'm excited to celebrate Christmas in new ways... for instance: Andrew and I will be performing in the Christmas choir at the local mennonite church on Christmas Eve. Always a real treat. We've had 3 performances so far and we just keep getting worse. I really can't say why. After that, we're heading to Marcos' house for Christmas Eve tamales. Marcos works part-time at the office here and is a favorite of mine - he has daughters my age and feels kind of like a Honduran dad figure. His youngest daughter told us we're going to wait until EXACTLY midnight to eat our tamales - we'll see if I can make it. It feels good to be included in their family Christmas, and I really do feel blessed to be here right now.
Merry Christmas!
This past weekend we went with the whole MCC team up to Cerro Azul Meambar National Park which is right by the biggest lake in Honduras, Lago Yajoa. There are ten of us MCC workers in Honduras (along with 2 small kids) and we have team meetings three times a year where we can get together, relax, share some stories, and get a few games in. The park was beautiful and my first experience being up in the cloud forest. It rained the whole first day we were there and was actually pretty cold (we did a lot of sharing of the few meager warm clothes a few of us had brought). The second day cleared up a bit and a bunch of us went on a 4 hour hike up the mountainside... we went up among huge ferns and tropical plants that I'd never seen, and stopped by a big waterfall on the way back. Pretty idyllic - plus it met a serious hiking craving that I've had for a while. We often go on the "coke sign hike" - the paved, urban hike up to the huge coca-cola sign on the hillside facing San Pedro Sula; but there really isn't any substitute for getting away from the city and on a "real" trek. You can check out our pictures here.
We'll be celebrating Christmas with MCC friends Josh and Maria - the other childless, host-familyless couple here in Honduras. Although we're surely going to miss family and friends from home, I'm excited to celebrate Christmas in new ways... for instance: Andrew and I will be performing in the Christmas choir at the local mennonite church on Christmas Eve. Always a real treat. We've had 3 performances so far and we just keep getting worse. I really can't say why. After that, we're heading to Marcos' house for Christmas Eve tamales. Marcos works part-time at the office here and is a favorite of mine - he has daughters my age and feels kind of like a Honduran dad figure. His youngest daughter told us we're going to wait until EXACTLY midnight to eat our tamales - we'll see if I can make it. It feels good to be included in their family Christmas, and I really do feel blessed to be here right now.
Merry Christmas!
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Just give it a good Thanksgiving push!
Thanksgiving came and went with little fanfare here in Honduras, though, inidentally, the only Thanksgiving email I received was from a Honduran amigo here in San Pedro. Anyway, Darrin (one of our country reps), Amanda and I spent Wednesday through Friday in the mountains of Danlí and Trojes visiting an MCC partner who helps subsitence coffee farmers diversify their crop load for when coffee prices drop. Getting up to the projects is a trip, but it's worth it.
First, a four-hour-bus ride from San Pedro Sula to Tegucigalpa, a one-and-a-half hour 4 X 4 truck ride to Danlí, a 2-hour car ride from Danlí to Trojes, and two more hours on muddy cliff-side roads out to the project site near the Nicarguan border. At one point I was pretty sure we weren't going to make it...
But we did, and were treated to some of the most amazing mountainscapes and charming farms I've seen.
These coffee farms tend to be built on steep sides of mountains, which present huge challenges in planting gardens. The MCC partner teaches farming techniques, such as using sugar cane, which has thick, deep roots, to help anchor the soil.
In the picture below, the farmer was drying his corn inside his living room because of the recent heavy rain.
We were greeted warmly by the families. At the first house we visited we enjoyed fresh sugar cane juice with a squeeze of sour orange. In the pictures below they are sending the sugar cane through the press.
While it was hard to know that my family was gathered around the turkey in Goshen on Thanskgiving Day, and I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the chance to be in Central America, experiencing a very different way of life than I had in the US. And though Thanksgiving is not observed in Central America, a poor farm family invited us into their homes for a delicious feast of free-range chicken, potatoes, rice, and corn tortillas.
It was a very good Thanksgiving.
First, a four-hour-bus ride from San Pedro Sula to Tegucigalpa, a one-and-a-half hour 4 X 4 truck ride to Danlí, a 2-hour car ride from Danlí to Trojes, and two more hours on muddy cliff-side roads out to the project site near the Nicarguan border. At one point I was pretty sure we weren't going to make it...
But we did, and were treated to some of the most amazing mountainscapes and charming farms I've seen.
These coffee farms tend to be built on steep sides of mountains, which present huge challenges in planting gardens. The MCC partner teaches farming techniques, such as using sugar cane, which has thick, deep roots, to help anchor the soil.
In the picture below, the farmer was drying his corn inside his living room because of the recent heavy rain.
We were greeted warmly by the families. At the first house we visited we enjoyed fresh sugar cane juice with a squeeze of sour orange. In the pictures below they are sending the sugar cane through the press.
While it was hard to know that my family was gathered around the turkey in Goshen on Thanskgiving Day, and I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the chance to be in Central America, experiencing a very different way of life than I had in the US. And though Thanksgiving is not observed in Central America, a poor farm family invited us into their homes for a delicious feast of free-range chicken, potatoes, rice, and corn tortillas.
It was a very good Thanksgiving.
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