Christmas in Honduras

Here in Honduras, Christmas begins right after Halloween (actually decorations are in the stores way before that, but the trees aren't up until the masks are down). Last year we were so eager to be home for Christmas that we didn't even think about putting up a tree. However, this year, as the "Big Lots" of Tegus (also known as "Estock") began putting out the Christmas decor, Colin and I were bit buy the Christmas bug. So, we bought our first artificial tree ever (real ones are no longer sold due to de-forestation). It was just lovely as we looked it over. Little did we know that the muchacho would pack up the wrong tree.

We invited our buddies, Mike and Mavis, over for a little Christmas cheer and began the process of readying the tree. Within I'd say about 30 seconds, the tree was assembled. Colin's facial expression was none too impressed. A small, puny tree stood before us that wasn't even as tall as he was (we thought it was 7-8 feet when we bought it...). However, since Estock does not take returns..and everyone was already in the Christmas mood, Mavis convinced us that it would work, that it would be beautiful decorated, and she started untwining the lights. Mike got out the ornaments, and I started popping the popcorn for stringing! It wasn't long, but as the Christmas music played, the cheer spread, and soon enough, we had ourselves a fully decorated Christmas tree--and as Colin smushed it up against the wall, the tree actually looked a little more fuller ("a 2D view" he said).

We enjoyed some gluten-free lasagna, ate some leftover popcorn, and watched Elf to end our Christmas cheer just right. And as it started raining outside, I felt that Honduras had given us its little gift of "snow." So with Thanksgiving holidays within our sites and Christmas vacation just a little further away, I think we're ready to celebrate this year, even with our Charlie Brown tree.

Our neighbor's son joined us for the finishing touch--the star!

Sideview...2D-style

The guys began a series of group photos that the girls took a bit of time to catch on to.

Take 25

Colin actually can be cheezier than me! :) Now that takes real talent.

Baby Roberts' first ornament. My sweet and dear friend, Taryn, sent it to me only a few weeks ago!

Gracias a Dios

Hecho en Honduras!

Olancho

Well, like most of you, we're hanging in there these days. Our day-to-day mainly involves the quotidian scenarios that are much the same as your own in their predictability and pleasantness. Work, sleep, watch football, etc. However, Elisa and I have the opportunity at this present moment in time to occasionally step out into the wild and wacky Latin American world around us. And that might be where our paths diverge. For example...

This past weekend Elisa and I, along with our trusty Canadian sidekicks Mike and Mavis, headed into an area of the country, Olancho, that is known as the 'Wild West of Honduras.' This is a somewhat disturbing regional moniker when you stand back and realize that "the rest of the country already feels like the Wild West, so what the heck is going on in Olancho?" Folks readily tell you that "everyone walks around with a pistol in their pocket and a cowboy hat on their head." And so again you stand back and scratch your head thinking, "Isn't that what the rest of the country is already doing?"

Well, Hondurans are real friendly. And gringos are still fairly untouchable here so, with these assurances in mind, the four of us headed off into Olancho...the Wild West of Honduras.

The first observation that you make is how remarkable the roads are! For nearly 2 hours out of Tegucigalpa (which I remind you is the capital) you slog along through horrific half-paved pseudo-roads, god-forsaken tendrils of tar and strands of concrete so thin you could chop through them with your butter knife, and then--all of a sudden, everything goes quiet as a crypt. No bumping. No thumping. Just cruising. The road has become amazing. And I mean amazing, like I-81 amazing. You have crossed over into Olancho.

Again, the head starts itchin' and you start wondering..."why in the heck is all this road out here in the middle of nowhere? Nobody lives out here! I haven't seen another vehicle in 45 minutes! The road my farm in West Tennessee is on wasn't paved until about 10 years ago but this is freakin' state-of-the-art!" It defies all logic. In fact, if you keep going, the end of that very road literally drops off into nothing at a town called Catacamas...and you can't go no further! This is a road that literally dead-ends. There's nothin' east of Catacamas except jaguars and jungle and...umm...ohh...narco-trafficantes! Drug lords, that is!

That's why, my friends, this stretch of pavement is so fabulous. Former President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya (a proud Olanchan who now thankfully resides in the Dominican Republic) and his narco-buddies funneled millions and millions of dollars, euros, yen, marks, pounds and what have you out to their pet project in the jungle. So, there you have it. A thoroughfare Germans could be proud of. And, man, it sure is fun to drive!

So, we headed all the way into Olancho looking for... something. And we saw some cowboys and dodged run-away steer along the roads and we drove around the empty streets of Jutigalpa on Saturday night vainly looking for somewhere to eat, only to find out later that a blood feud is going on between two families and no one is going out after dark...seriously.

Rain, rain....

Last summer, our first in Honduras, we missed the rainy season. In fact, we had very little idea of what "rainy season" was...until now. Normally, August would be a wet month in Tegus anyway, but this year we've gotten 300 % of the normal amount.

From our lovely  porch on the top floor of our building, we have the luxury of enjoying the rain. Almost every afternoon, we sit and watch the gathering of massive clouds above the mountains. We wait for the soft wisp of the pre-rain and then comes the downpour. We loves storms anyway but these are the best we've ever seen. More sound and electricity than you would think is possible. And along with it, torrents and torrents of rain.

From our porch, it's all highly entertaining and relaxing. But many of our friends are not so fortunate. As we watch in awe, many of our friends pray that God would have mercy and spare them from the rain.

One group of friends live on a ranch outside of the city in the cloud forest--which sounds very exotic and beautiful. And much of the time it is, but lately they have been locked in a battle with nature. Each day they spend 5 to 6 hours rebuilding (mostly by hand) the four miles of road that leads to their home. After they've worked in the coffee fields or spent all day in the schoolhouse, everyone heads out to the road to load 100-lb boulders, split rocks and attempt to rectify what may be the very same patch of road they were working on the day before.

Down in the city, other friends face daily power outages (we lose power once or twice a week), spend extra hours in detour traffic around washed out bridges and watch from the homes as the city's main arteries are swept away in the torrent. Sounds dramatic. It is.

Even the roads in our neighborhood are coming apart, and they are generally fairly well-constructed pavement streets. (The Kia is doing her best to dodge them...some of them are 3 or 4 feet wide and a foot deep or more.)

The other day we got a firsthand look at how destructive the forces of nature can be. About a half mile from our place a 20-ft erosion wall gave in behind a building. It demolished 20 cars. You can see a couple of the leftovers in the left corner (along with the security guard wondering about the curious gringo photographers).

So, we have mixed feelings now as we sit and enjoy the view from our porch, knowing our friends and many others are really struggling out there. Many people died last week in the landslides in Guatemala. So far the human life toll has been minimal here but the danger is looming.

I accidentally erased the close up....This picture doesn't do the damage justice, but you can see a couple of the crushed cars on the left. Fortunately, no one was inside.

A different angle. Notice the mansion/fortress perched above on the hill. Sometimes, we wonder when they're going to come down.

This was taken last spring when we visited the ranch. Terry and the other folks grow blackberries and cloud-forest coffee  (BTW: I'm not doing "Angelina" lips on purpose...it's just that the berries can be a bit tart!)

Colin is standing with Al (one our missionary friends) and two of Al's neighbors. Their house was made by hand--mud bricks, open windows, and an open-fire stove. They actually have electricity because of Al and the folks at the ranch. However, electricity's in and out these days.

The mujere of the home is working at her washing area (without running water--they use buckets to collect rain water...I bet they have more than they can deal with right now). This room is the main room (with only the bedroom as an addition). Here they eat, talk, hang out, meet with the gringos...watch the chickens as they walk through the house...they do not have a refrigerator or anything using electricity but the light bulb. 

Looks like a pretty comfy cabin! The left side is where we spent time chatting in broken Spanish. The right side is where their beds are. They have an outhouse nearby.

Anyhow, these are my little thoughts..Super fresh because the school's power went out the last two periods of the day on Thursday. The rain even brought hail that afternoon. That's when "free reading" sure came in handy.

Setting the right example

School is in session, and my new 6th graders are just as lost as expected. So, to help them get acquainted with me and my classroom style, I asked them to create an "All About Me" collage. The only catch was that I wanted them to use a circle not a rectangle so that I have more space on the wall for hanging their finished work.
"How do you make a circle, Miss?"
"Very easy. Just take the construction paper (my example was a brown sheet) and fold it in half. Then, take the scissors and cut a little half circle and.....voila!" I opened my circle of brown sheet and the whole class burst out laughing. My circle was a butt with a perfect crack down the middle. No doubt about it. No amount of re-cutting could help, either. And I was laughing so hard that I was crying. "Don't cry, Miss, " said little Gerardo. Cutting a butt out in front of my students. That's a first.

Better idea

  

Antigua

Hello. Colin here. Well, we're back in the saddle again. The kids come to school tomorrow and away we go once again. But everyone is very sure that this is going to be a good year. Compared to last year...how could it not be?

At this point last year, military choppers were circling overhead, rioters were setting buildings on fire and swine flu was running riot. This year, everything is very tranquilo, so far. No culture shock or military coups to deal with...only a nasty dengue epidemic and bratty school children. Nothing but good vibrations (what does that even mean, anyway?). So, it's very good to be back in our classrooms, back in our own bed, back with friends.

But before we returned to Tegucigalpa to settle back into normalcy, Elisa and I got on a bus and took a sixteen hour ride to Antigua, Guatemala for a week of relaxation and Spanish school. And let me tell you something. It was amazing. In all seriousness, if you ever want to go away for something special, Antigua is the place. Flights into Guatemala City aren't too expensive (or long) from the States and Antigua is a mere half hour's ride from there. It is the most magical place we have ever been to. Check the pictures out for yourselves.

Don't know exactly what happened here but it's a cool effect, yeah?

Good tropical art

My lovely wife with a lava sea in the background. But more on that later. I stuck this one in here because it's candid and it's hard to catch Elisa in a candid moment. She's what's known as

a 'poser.'

Some beautiful building of some kind...

Los Arcos

These colors are amazing, aren't they? Guatemalan culture is very vivid and distinct. Each pueblo or town has its own print--like Scottish clans. Guatemaltecos can tell where someone is from by their clothes.

Why is Elisa jumping out from behind that tree? I don't understand any more than you do. But this is the courtyard of our little Spanish school...I wish I could go back there and live forever...

Us with our wonderful teacher, Odilia. She was even sweeter than she looks. Her favorite teacher expression would come out in this little chirpy sing-song voice. She would always say, 'Vamos a ver,' as in, 'Let's see...' We loved her. She and her husband have four chicas...and all four are into karate. Weird, huh?

Our breakfast cafe where we'd cram our homework over expresso. They made a movie in this place last year.

Los Arcos en la noche

One of the major reasons to visit Antigua is the cuisine. Some of the best international food you'll find anywhere. See the astounded expression on my face as we wait for our Mediterranean dishes...the absolute best hummus ever.

No, this is not a postcard. That is Volcan de Agua. You can see it looming from almost anywhere in town.

And yeah, that's for real. This is Volcan Pacaya on the other side of town. It exploded big time two months ago and is building up for another as you can see. This picture was taken as Elisa and I were running down the mountain away from it. We went almost to the top. Stupid? Maybe. But very fun.

This is about 1000 yards from the top.

My wife likes to make me pose for these rugged, inspirational pictures where I stand in some dangerous-looking place and contemplate the meaning of existence. I think she wants to be an 'artiste'.

Still warm...

Elisa didn't want me to keep this shot. She said it was too 'bootylicious'. But how can one be too bootylicious? Is there such a thing? You girls and your...issues...

I call this one...'Sea of Lava.' What do you think?

Onward and upward!

What a shot, huh? Cowboys are so cool.

Me and our guide Carlos. Super nice guy and yes, he is really that small. Central Americans must think gringoes climb down the beanstalk.

This is where the folks wash their clothes.

If you look closely, you'll see the entire Crucifixion narrative.

...after a long, hard day of studying the Spanish. Don't I look so weary and worn? Life in Antigua is brutal.

Elisa grabbed this amazing shot of a woman on the loom.

I don't know about this one but Elisa wanted to keep it...something about being able to prove to our kids one day that we used to be very cool...

Yeah, I don't know anymore than you do on this one. There was some kind of parade. That's all I can really tell you.

And, like any good parade, there was dancing in the streets.

Much love, folks and nos vemos.

Summer lovin'

  
Is it just me or does everybody make grandiose plans for summer and then maybe get one of them accomplished? Not that hanging out with the family is grandiose, but from the beginning of the summer we were traveling back and forth in our dearly missed Subaru Outback. We went from my little brother's wonderful wedding to the Thomson family reunion in the rural mountains of Virginia. Then, we sped our way over to the 60th wedding anniversary of Colin's grandparents and the next day found ourselves alongside Emerald Isle beach. While we caught our breath from quick catch ups of dearly missed family, we finally slept in one bed together (before that we had slept in 11 different beds in 11 different nights). Rest. We found some, but when your back in your own country, you want to do everything you've been missing since you left! And that's pretty impossible. But I'm an optimist (and just slightly irrational), so I believed we could get it all done and relax, too.

We found time for both, but what a rush of seven weeks! Tegucigalpa slowly slipped from our minds as we talked in English everyday, all day....as we walked around Wal-mart, slowly taking it all in (really? it's all in one place? that easy?)...as we adjusted to the rules once again of the road...as we got up to Dad's good-morning bacon....as we (OK, mostly just me) worked three 1000 piece puzzles...as we watched all kinds of TV in English (although 'So You Think You Can Dance' is probably almost as good in Espanol)...as I gobbled up gluten-free menus and Colin found some good beer...yes, the summer gave us time to let the year slide off our backs and remind us how much we love being home.

Thank you, dearest family...Megan, JT, little Noah D, Dave, Scottie, Mom and Dad, Jenna-Clare, Jeremy, the mighty Wilbo, Abbie, Daddy and Mama. And our dear friends....thank you Natalie, Becky, Rachel (really, it had been 3 years?), Sara, Steve, Bobby, Tarryn, Matt, Brandon, Mariel, DB, and all of you we couldn't meet up with (Richard and Sarah S, Brennan, Derek, Joseph...so many.) or only could talk via phone, gosh...you are our other family. One day we'll be closer together and can enjoy some BBQ (or tofu, whatever's your hankerin) in our backyard with all of our cute little ones running around everywhere. We already miss all of you...tons.

Coming soon (Colin-style): last week's adventures in Antigua, Guatemala.......

   

Circuses and mud baths...

Well, I know you've been waiting for the rainforest photo shoot. Turns out that instead, my stomach had other plans at La Tigra and I spent most of the weekend getting rid of some food poisoning instead of posing next to the monkeys.

After we breezed through the last bit of school (which was full of chaotic details), we took Abbie on a vacation through Honduras. She spent the whole month volunteering at various schools--one bi-lingual Christian school in the outskirts of town, one deaf school ("I was two languages away," she said), and also getting a firsthand look at the work of the Micah House. We all earned a bit of vacation time--and while Tegus has a certain amount of beauty, she needed to see some of the Honduran gems before she left.

We began with Tela, the beach town of the city folk (about 7 hours from here). There, we stayed the night at a lovely spot on the beachfront, Cesar's. Then, we drove over to Sambo Creek, a Garifuna town just west of La Ceiba. We stayed at a charming place called Villa Helen's and began a real vacation, including seeing the Moscow Circus perfom, snorkeling with them the next day (for real!), and zip-lining through the jungle and ending in a hot spring with fresh pineapple being served to us on a platter. Plus, we had a mud bath. I know, right? Even Colin dipped in. After the beach, we drove another 7 hours to visit the Mayan Ruinas in Copan. This great little town served up some amazing food, and we were taken back in time as we roomed for several hours through the ruins. The trip ended on a winding road that brought about some car sickness, but hey! What a vacation! Here are a few of the photos.

This is our tabloid shot--Cesar's had a pool on top of the hotel. Oh yeah!

This was one of Abbie's best sunset pics (Mike, we had you in mind as she showed us all the pictures)

Nothing more romantic than a few cows making their way across the beach...

This was at the Moscow Circus! We were the only gringos enjoying the show--which was SPECTACULAR! Everything from giraffes, tigers jumping through fire, clowns entertaining the crowds (we were laughing out loud), and even a tightrope walker!

This chic was something else! She could juggle everything with her feet! The guys handing her the items behind her really enjoyed their job, too.

We showed up for our snorkeling adventure the following day and guess who came with us? These were a few of the circus performers: first row-dancer and tightrope walker (zebra speedo), second row-cello juggler, tightrope walker (she weighed no more than 80 lbs) and performer, back row-performer and our snorkeling guide.

It's hard to get Colin out of the water when we snorkel--he LOVES it! Abbie and Colin actually got to see a spotted sting ray within a few feet of them.

Cayos Caychinos--the island and keys where we snorkeled....

Our new island friend, Gisela. She and I had a good little Spanish chat on the beach. As I was leaving, she asked, "Are you leaving for always?"

This is where we stopped for lunch of the fresh catch of the day with rice and beans....mmm...And a banana soda (it tastes similar to cream soda--so good!)

Such a beautiful place--and coral was washing up on the beach! (along with plastic bottles, but we won't go into that right now.

This tree is pretty famous. It's the only tree living on the volcanic rock--there is no soil of any kind, however, the volcanic material is full of nutrients, keeping this arbol alive for over 100 years.

The end of our lovely day on the islands (this was taken by our circus friends)

This was at the top of the zip line before we canopied through the rain forest

Such fun! We went on one zipline that was 1 km long (20 lines in all)

We had a blast together--and Abbie was continually hit on by the guides. 

After ziplining through the rainforest, we took a mud bath and rinsed off in the hot springs. Pretty tropical...

  

The Roberts' clan

Colin in front of the SUPER hot springs...you can't sit in these waters.

After the beach, we drove down into the mountains to visit the largest Mayan Ruins in Central America--so the Hondurans boast. It was mighty impressive.

Behind us is the homes of the Mayans and their graveyards. They buried their dead underneath their homes to remain close to them even in death.

This was the playing field of one of the most deadly ball games of the Mayans. However, it was the winner who would lose their head, not the loser. To give your life to the gods was the honor. 

The Mayans came from Mongolia. The minute we learned that, so much of their art and sculpture made sense! You can see the Asian influence.

We had such fun with Abbie--she made our end of the year absolutely wonderful. 

I have my very own restaurant in Copan. :) They have good coffee and eggs (especially when you add the Don Julio sauce!).

This young mother sat beside us during dinner, waiting for us to help her feed her son. Her son was such a cutie--and she was able to take home lots of food. .