Christmas musings

Well, as we only have one half day left of school until Christmas break, I'm finally thinking: "Hey, it's almost Christmas." It's been such an exhausting five months. I think that since the seasons down here pretty much remain the same, I've not really "caught the spirit" yet. Christmas lights are everywhere, people are shopping for gifts, the students are bringing the "Favorite Teacher" ornaments, but I'm just now thinking, "Huh...so this is Christmas..."

What's Christmas like for most folks in Honduras? Well, we're discovering that at all Christmas parties (which begin like at 6:00) dinner is usually served at 9:30 or 10:30. Last night, we enjoyed a little fiesta with some of Colin's colleagues. It was delightful to hang with Hondurans and gringos. It's customary to have a huge Christmas village setup somewhere in the house. Baby Jesus usually is not present in the scene until Christmas Eve at midnight. All trees are artificial. There are no real trees in Honduras for sale because of the deforestation laws. Much of the decor is flashy, like Christmas in the States. There are no yards to admire. All the yards are behind walls. But, windows can be seen above the walls, decorated with all kinds of lights.

What am I missing about Christmas right now? Good question. I'm missing wearing sweaters, sitting in front of someone's fireplace drinking hot cocoa, hearing good Christmas music, driving through neighborhoods seeing the Christmas fanfare, watching Christmas movies (yep, I left those in storage with my Christmas stuff at home), and getting excited about sharing gifts with the family.

Our church hosted a little Christmas concert this past Sunday. It was a lovely (and short) affair. The kids put on a play about what they have been studying in Sunday school on the Voice of the Martyrs. Then, Colin and I sang our favorite Christmas hymn, "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus," and then the choir took over with a few robust numbers. It was quaint, and had a little bit of homey-ness to it. But that's another thing I'm missing--Christmas hymns. Gotta get to singing some more of those around the house.

I've posted some pics of our school's Christmas party. It was a nice dinner at the Marriott hotel, complete with some crazy Latin dancing (which of course I really got into) at the end. Then, Colin treated me to a stay there to celebrate our six-year anniversary. It was lovely! And I'm so glad to be married to this handsome husband of mine (sorry for the chummy romance...)!

Jennie and Eric, our close friends and neighbors

Mollie--the students think we're sisters. So we have the ongoing joke that we're "gemelas" (twins)

La gringas de Escuela Americana

My wonderful Honduran peers--these ladies join me in teaching middle school. Maurici, our aerobics instructor, is the second from the left (red lipstick)

Colin serenading Mike with his pork chop.

Iris on the dance floor--she's amazing! I was trying to keep up...and cracking up the crowd, of course.

Alejandra and Raquel, my partner teachers and friends

Wish I had a camera

There's been more than one occasion where Colin and I have failed to bring the camera along to capture some unforgettable moments. "What's our problem?" we have asked ourselves time and again. And if I had pictures to show, these would be what you would see from our recent outings:

1) Four Honduran "Santas" at the Mall Multiplaza greeting all the little ninos and ninas.
2) Santa with Winnie the Poo standing in the back of a pick-up truck waving to all the folks on the main street (it wasn't a parade, just a Santa drive-by)
3) a taxi cab driver holding a huge stack of 2 X 4s on top of his cab (no ropes or anything) driving down the main highway
4) the security guards on our way to school changing guard...and clothes...on the side of the road
5) Eric (our neighbor and friend) driving on the sidewalk to avoid the HUGE sewage pothole in the middle of a side street (all the other cars had taken a different direction)
6) the view of the city at night from atop the highest mountain in Tegucigalpa as we ate an amazing meal with our friends, the Lofchies (and our Peace Corp buddy, Justin)
7)  three cars passing the bus on an uphill while we were coming downhill--at 50 mph
8)  the two clowns that hop on the public bus and tell jokes (especially about gringos) for a few lemps

So...from now on I'm bringing the camera along for the ride.

I'm Back

Hey folks. Colin here. It's been a while...over a month. Good to smell ya again.

Why has it been so long, you might ask? Can't say exactly. Several factors were at work. For one thing, it's been pretty tranquillo around here and I didn't really have much to comment on. For another thing, Elisa and I felt like we were scrounging around on the bottom of the culture shock floor, there for a few weeks, and I just didn't care to put my thoughts out there. They were mostly not happy ones.

But things are looking up now. For one, there's a new president now (you can see him handsomely pictured above). His name is Porfirio 'Pepe' Lobo. I'm sure that he's a real nice guy. Honest, wise and just, no doubt. And everything went well at the elections. No major violence broke out anywhere and the largest number of registered voters ever turned out at the polls...so that's nice.

But there's still plenty to be thoroughly annoyed by in this place. For example...when you go in to use a public bathroom around here, there's always a sweet little lady called a 'muchacha' who is diligently mopping the floor. Even at our school, the cleaning ladies are always in the bathroom...and they don't leave when you come in! So, I'm supposed to maintain my composure and urinate properly with a muchacha swabbing my feet with a dirty mop.

Or try this on for size: every time you go in the dern grocery store--they've switched things around on you. What once was the potato chip aisle might now be the home of feminine products...and vice versa.

Or if that doesn't get you sufficiently frazzled, you ought to try getting some kind of nasty tropical fever that leaves you with 18 of the worst hours of your life, complete with hallucinations, sweats, vomiting, tremendous aching (especially around the spine and shoulders), etc. At first, I thought it was dengue fever. Now, I suppose it was only jungle chicken.

Anyways, it's not paradise. But then again...what is?

Ciao for now.

So...we went to the beach

This Thanksgiving, since the usual family get-together was impossible, in order to cheer ourselves up  (and catch some rays), we decided to take a trip to the north coast to the beach the locals here all recommended: Tela. We sped off towards our destination Wednesday exactly as school let out with our traveling buddies, Mike and Mavis. With  hearts singing, we enjoyed gabbing and talking about how glorious the beach was going to be after a long, long, long semester. Even the construction traffic of over an hour didn't zap our enthusiasm. We stopped for the night at one of our little motel spots on the lake. When we awoke, all we could hear was major rain. Surely it's not raining in Tela, we hoped. We drove through the rain, and arrived at our destination in the midst of the downpour. Maybe this will stop tomorrow, we dreamed.

This was on the way up--a bridge had been built right next to this one to replace it.

Our dream did not come true. It rained the whole weekend. There was a short break in the storm the morning we left, so we took a short walk on the beach, and saw some wildlife (below). The storms had brought tons of litter all over the beach. Not so much as one shell! Or even a dead jelly fish. I would have settled for the dead jelly fish. Or driftwood...

Buzzards await an easy day's catch. They kind of reminded me of the angels in "City of Angels" standing there with their black wings spread. I'm pretty sure I was the only one who thought so, but I was working on positive thinking.

We stayed at this fancy resort. We should have known why the prices were 50% off the regular. Rainy season isn't called "rainy season" for nothing. But we couldn't leave without going down this slide about 20 times. And so we played in the rain...we really did keep up the positive thinking. And we were really glad to be away from the city for a few days, rain or no rain.

This resort is called Telemar--all my students recommended it. The rooms were amazing. I was glad to share with our friends in order to have super comfy beds. The guys did a lot of napping on our rainy vacation, while the gals read books and talked on the porch. It's a good thing we all like each other.  There's not too many people you could be happy cooped up with in a hotel room on the beach front during two full days of rain.

Floods of water covered the road, but these Hondurans were quite used to it. Check out his boots.

Front yards? Most of the houses are built on stilts.

On the return trip, we stopped off at the lago again. There, we walked a 5K boardwalk where there were fragments of the Mayans over which to ponder.

We found such dense jungle on our walk. And mosquitoes. No me gusta.

Mavis and I in front of Lago Yojoa.

Some Hondurans enjoying a bit of fishing on the lake (there's no swimming in this lake due to pollution).

Mayan ruins. Apparently, this led to some kind of worship site (but this was all there was to see).

On the sunny ride home--which only took 2 1/2 hours from the lake. No traffic today due to the elections (which Colin's going to be blogging about as soon as we know the results). It was a fantastic drive. Bummer that the rain followed us to the beach, but we'll figure out something else to do for fun for Christmas break. It's only three weeks away!

Tegus is growing on me

Looking at the calendar, in just three weeks will be the year anniversary of our decision to take the jobs in Tegucigalpa. It's amazing to think that it was a year ago. And now here we are, in this troubled city, learning the culture and getting to know it's people. And some of them are just wonderful. This weekend we spent time with a Honduran couple, Mario and Soad (and she happens to be one of the most beautiful Hondurans I've seen yet). They had us over to their home, made a big Thanksgiving feast for us, and then we all swapped our comedic marriage proposal stories. Mario and Soad attend our church, and they are eager to be our friends. I'm so glad! In the midst of their obvious wealth, they have such humility and "down-to-earthness" about them. After church today, they even treated us with some cafe' at the nearby Expresso Americano (the best spot in town for the infamous granita cafes- a frozen coffee drink). 


We're getting more and more accustomed to our new home. It has really helped to have such an embracing church nearby. That community, while mixed of all kinds of denominations and mission purposes, believes that the body is one and acts in a genuine, loving manner towards each other. All pretenses are stripped. Being around this group of people has opened our hearts to their perspectives here in Honduras. However, I'm still working through the music we're singing as a "choir" for Christmas--eek... I think I sang something similar in showchoir one year. But hey, beggars can't be choosers! 


The weather is actually growing colder. We pulled out our sweaters this past week. Hondurans here though go the whole nine yards. They're selling down feather jackets in the department stores. Scarves, toboggans, and gloves are donned by our students almost everyday--and they don't even take them off when they're playing soccer during recess. It's definitely not THAT cold (maybe it's been in the 50's), but it's enough to want a little something to ward off the chill.


Driving around town is also less threatening now that we're used to where we're going (even though we still just go around and around our little bubble). We're in the mood for a car, but not in a rush. Our sweet neighbors lend us their car anytime it's available. And when it's not, we've got a faithful taxi driver, Marlo, who's always eager to pick us up anytime (and Colin always is over-generous with the price, but I married a tenderhearted man. I'm not complaining. He's just like my father-in-law--always wanting to make sure people are taken care of).


I miss home, but not because there's no TJ Maxx down here (although there should be). You can buy anything you need or want down here--and I've even found gluten-free crackers and cookies to satisfy my longings for Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. I miss my family and friends quite a bit. I often think about you all. Thank you for checking in on our blog. I'm heading up the blogs lately because Colin's hit a bit of a writer's block. But since I know most of our readers don't mind a little blabbing from me, and I don't mind blabbing, I have no qualms posting my random thoughts on a Sunday. 


We're working up the energy to suffer a SIX DAY WEEK at school this week. We're making up one of our missed days on Saturday. I've never gone to school on a Saturday before. Should be fantastic. Got any ideas to entertain the kiddos, since I know they're going to be so much fun to teach on their weekend day?? I'm thinking a game of Taboo all day--I teach English after all. Or maybe Scattegories if I can create it...I left the game at home. 

The product of not having carpet (Hondurans don't believe in it) and keeping your windows open all day. The foot-washing practice is necessary before bedtime...at least for Colin. I'm not as cleanly as he is, and so sometimes I (slight hesitation) forget...

Shout out to Twin Oaks...

So....today we had parent conferences in the middle (and high) school. Before it even began, I knew it was going to be a disaster. Our principal gave no instructions on how to operate these conferences other than: 1)Keep each conference 10 minutes, and 2) If parents get volatile, keep your calm and send them to my office to discuss matters further. Okey-dokey. He did promise to ring a bell (thanks Cathy Jones for that EXCELLENT idea), which he maintained only once....bless his heart. He doesn't have the best of people skills, which really makes me miss my former boss. I mean REALLY miss Mrs. Cathy Jones, and all my other cohorts in crime on parent conference days (I miss you ladies!).

Entonces, the students left at 11:00. We had an hour for lunch (and I hid in Colin's room because I saw a LONG line in front of my classroom). Then, the games began. I had a sign up sheet with 10 minute increments. That didn't last long. I had mostly English speaking parents, so the conferences were understood well enough (even here B's are from the devil...and I happen to be one consistent devil when it comes to B's and C's). Only four conferences were in Spanish. I mostly got what they were saying, and likewise they understood from my facial expressions and limited Spanish vocab what was going on with their kiddos. I kissed LOTS of people today. That's going to be a tough habit to break someday. I love that part of this culture!

The conferences were scheduled to end at 3:30 (what?! But hey, it was a positive thing that I didn't have to stay until late or come for a half day tomorrow. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that since I only saw like 40 sets of parents, the others will complain about the conference scheduling). I found myself still having conferences until 4:30. I was the last one to go home. And I'm surprised I have any words left to write. I guess I just wanted to say, I miss Twin Oaks. The conferences there made sense--in more ways than one. And we got free dinner...and good hang out time when we were free...and some grading done...and we really had an awesome middle school team (sigh). I miss you all. Almost a little too much, but hey! I can now say with you that my conferences are over!

This beautiful tree/flower can be seen on our walk to school.

We also see this. The tire is in the garbage "can." There are no dumpsters here, only the side of the road or in these lovely metal containers.

Yours truly. Ain't we a pair? Yo!

Nuestra Comida

Lo siento (sorry) for the long stint in between posts. We've found ourselves swamped in school life...and the World Series just began, so Colin's been glued to the screen (it's in ENGLISH! Yey!).

We've managed to take on a couple challenging colds in that last week. It's an interesting pantomime spectacle to watch when I go to the "farmacia." The nice pharmacists listen to my broken Spanish and watch my expressive motions, and then I walk away with some kind of medicine that's written in Spanish that hopefully addresses my issues. In this process, I discovered that Hondurans consider cough drops candy, so you can find them next to the Snicker bars. In the farmacia, they give you menthol drops called "Medicada." They're strong, sweet, and to the point. But they mostly taste like cheap Certs. I still like my Halls (or those Swiss cough drops that I can't remember the name of right now). So, I'll hopefully find those at the next stop, without the pantomime.

Colin encouraged me to take a sick day today because I haven't been sleeping much since the cold has taken over my body. I was zapped yesterday after school. I'm glad he knows when to help me say "no" to work. It's hard for me not to go. Planning for a sub is a much more work than just going...and I have control issues when it comes to letting someone else guide my classes.  And at this school, instead of subs, they just ask teachers to take care of your classes when they have a free block. It puts everyone out, I think. I don't quite understand the logic, but I'll just throw it into the pile of "It's Latin America!" So, not going to school today helped  me work through both my physical and psychological issues. :) And I got to make a rice pizza...my last one for a while because I'm out of my favorite crust mix: Namaste Pizza Crust.

Speaking of food, I wanted to give you a little glimpse into my new refrigerator wardrobe. I'm trying my hand at cooking "plato tipicos" of Honduras. They make lots of dishes from platanos (plantains) and yucca (which is like a potato, but a little different in taste). I fried up some "tostones" with the plantains the other day, and served them with some salsa. Mmmmm....The yucca I didn't know what to do with, so thank goodness we've got the internet! I cooked the yucca, and then made a delicious garlic/onion/fresh lime sauce. The sauce made the top ten list. However, the yucca? Well, its taste is a bit dry and pasty. We worked through it, appreciated it like "God made it" as Colin said, and then discarded most of it (Ok...confession: I have a hard time throwing away food--even food I don't like. For example, the fish tacos I tried to make within one of the first weeks we got here? Well, they were rough, but I froze the fish mixture thinking I'd use it again later. I just threw it away a few days ago....it was difficult. There's a bit more of "Crazy Frances"--that's my grandma-- in me).

These are "verde" plantains. They make non-sweet fried food. If you buy the "amarillo" plantains, then they'll be sweet. They're not too bad, but I like verde mas.

I chopped the yucca into squares. If you saw it before I peeled it, it was covered in dark, brown, leathery skin, and its shape looked like that of a long, disgusting terd. Maybe that's one reason we had a hard time really liking this new food.

Last, but not least, on today's "Food Features by Elisa" we have the Honduran style eggs. They do not refrigerate their eggs here. They have them wrapped in plastic wrap and then keep them out on the countertops. I haven't become that Honduran yet, so I still put 'em in the 'frig.

more pics

huh?

These pics are actually from our city, Tegucigalpa. Couple Saturdays ago we went out and ambled around downtown on the day of the big USA vs. Honduras debacle. We had our Honduras jerseys on, of course. Didn't want to get scalped.

But this here gentleman was providing some musical entertainments for the passersby.

I love this picture. It's got it all...imperialistic neo-colonial collides with tropical atomic green smashed up against iron gates and homeless folks and cheap plastic Japanese motorcycles and Eurotrash luxury automobiles with tinted windows. This is part of our world now and it don't make no sense. (don't know why the font is all underlined but whatever).

Just a few blocks from our luxurious apartment...and this barrio isn't even one of the bad ones...

And this is Edificio Fama! We're at the top left.

and here's me and...of course...

...BamBam. He says that when was a kid he wanted to play futbol americano but he wasn't big enough (dooowhutt?). And so his two choices were drugs or boxing. He chose boxing. Now his dream is to open a home for streets kids. But obviously the guy has no charm as you can see and is clearly a poor physical specimen...and we really feel sorry for him and are pretty sure that he has little chance to influence anyone.

So there's a bit more of our neck of the woods and these are some of our peeps.

stroking the soft underbelly...

I have a good friend by the name of Brandon Story. The sort of friend who says the sort of things that stick in your head. Well, we used to drive around Bristol, TN at all hours of the night raising hell. And as we cruised through the backstreets and forgotten alleys of town, Brandon would often quip that we were stroking the soft underbelly of Bristol. What does it mean? Well, it means something, doesn't it?

This weekend, Elisa and I hit the road again with our hardened travel companions, Mike and Mavis. We rented a tough little European car and set out on a journey to connect in some small way with our new homeland (and get the heck out of our troubled city). Now, it wasn't hard travelin' in the Woody Guthrie sense...but it was somethin'. After 400 hardbitten kms, we topped the mtn looking down on Tegucigalpa on our return, and felt like we had stroked the soft underbelly of Honduras.

Here's a few pictures. I'm sure Elisa will fill in the gaps.

If you look close, you can see that the rim was hung upside down. Yep, that's about right for Honduras. Why make something easier when you can make it harder?

Alright, it's my (Elisa) turn to write--Colin's spent a good hour uploading these selections. We have so many to choose from.

There were so many amazing flowers along the way--these kind of looked like skinny morning glories.

This is a snake skin! No...not really. But it is a tree. Can you believe that?

This flower was called something in Spanish that meant "blueberry lips." I'm definitely a fan.

The falls were beautiful, and muy refresco! We got a snack and just listened to the roaring water as we caught our breath.

Some parts of the hike were almost dark because of the jungleness (a new word for a solid description).

Mike has a way of making Mavis smile--wrapping her hand around his sweaty waist is one of them. They're great fun to hang with.

Not many road signs in Honduras, but we were grateful for these. We found the road to the national forest (which was a mixture of pavement, rocks, dirt, and a combo of the three at times) happily with these signs.

This massive "cataratas" was overwhelmingly beautiful! And the picture only captures one side of it--there was another waterfall to the left of this picture. People went down near the bottom to enjoy being sprayed by its waters. We also swam above it in the rapids--felt a bit like the Y in the Smokies (sigh...).

We stopped for lunch in a town about an hour and a half from Tegus--Comayagua. This church was the center of the town, and we sipped some wonderful granitas at the local coffee shop. And I bought three huge bags of limes from a sweet, old man for 30 lemps (a little over a dollar).

Colin was an excellent driver. We saw some some pretty crazy driving as we drove back to the city. This bus was passing the 18-wheeler just as the car (you can see it at the top left) was coming around the corner--thus the lights. The custom here is to flash your lights when you want to warn someone to get back on the other side of the road. Honking is mostly used to say "hello" or "can I get in this lane?" Whoever scores the middle of the road first gets the passing lane (regardless of the side of the road).

Home sweet home. This is a picture from outside of Tegus...we spent about an hour in traffic due to a construction worksight/car accident (side-swiper)/taxis hogging the outside lane and finding their way in. My bulging bladder made me one cranky lady. But we made it home. :) Or at least to the nearest grocery store.

Speaking of home, when we dropped Mike and Mavis off, we just had to snap a shot of their neighborhood wiring. This is typical Honduran fashion. And new lines are popping and being put up everyday--and this is in the good neighborhood. Speaking of which, we just lost our power a few minutes ago, so I'd better publish this before it goes out again. The wind tonight is CRAZY. It's almost like being at home during the fall.