post-thanksgiving post

While the climate here does not tell me it is Thanksgiving, nor is there any kind of black Friday here in Honduras, I am reminded of how much I have to be thankful for in this wonderful season of life. Yesterday was a pretty ordinary day, no turkey, no football, no family get together [ :( ] but it was still good...and I think its a great thing to reflect on how much I have to be thankful for each day.

As I write this post, I'm sitting in a hammock, looking out over the rolling green mountains of Copan (I know, its a little ridiculous, and yes I wanted to make you a tad bit jealous as you are eating your leftover turkey and stuffing!!)

So lets start with the most immediate things I'm thankful for... (in no particular order :)

-- a relaxing few day of vacation with one of my best friends who took the time and energy to come and visit me right here in Honduras! You don't find friends like Harmony just any day of the year, and I'm so grateful God put her in my life 4 years ago when I really needed her :)
-- a great host family in Nueva Suyapa and the richness they bring to my Honduran life.
--for friends who are celebrating birthdays today, and another year of life, both near (Johanna, MCC friend) and far (Becky B. in Colorado who I miss dearly!)
--for a wonderful family who loves me so much and will even bend over backwards to do special things for me...like send care packages and buy expensive plane tickets to make sure their daughter isn't too homesick over Christmas. I couldn't ask for better parents. love you so much.
-- for 2 sisters and a brother-in-law who mean more to me than most anything in the world :)
-- for health and safety thus far in the journey
-- for 2 great gringa friends who are always willing to share in the most ridiculous of Honduran moments and the tough ones too. I could not make it through the week without knowing they are only a text or call away!
--for the guy who takes the time to get to know me, across the miles, despite the terrible internet fiascos and my work-in-progress espanol
--for a network of MCCers in Honduras who are so fun to be with and truly care for me and my well-being.
--for a little computer that keeps me connected to the important people in my life

As I sat in a roof-top cafe last night with Harmony we were reflecting how different life was only 1 year ago at this time...at Thanksgiving last year there were so many things different about my life...so many friends who weren't even engaged and are now planning weddings, others who weren't even pregnant and now have a new little person in their family...it blows me away to think of how many people in my life I didn't even know a year ago...nor did I have any inkling I would be spending Thankgiving and Christmas of 2010 in Honduras! Its so fun to think back on what I didn't know then...and it makes me so excited to think about what I don't even know will be in my life next year at this time.

Thankful for a God who holds it all together in his hands, the good and the bad...the beautiful and the imperfect, the knowable and the unknown...what a great blessing to be one little person in his giant picture.
Happy Thankfulness reflecting to all of you.
Love and hugs!

stretchy stuff

Living in a new culture is a continual learning process. This may seem obvious, but humor me for a minute. Just when you get lulled into a false sense of comfort like...

"hey, I kind of know what I'm doing" or 

"hey, I can actually carry on an intelligent conversation," or 

"hey, I recognize where this bus is going" 

...well that's when you have to be really on your guard. For it is in these moments--these fleeting fragments of life that boost your confidence and give you a sense of joy--that you must prepare yourself for what is next. It is a rule of the cross-cultural learning-time continuum, that just as your self-esteem is soaring for even the briefest of moments, you are undoubtedly due for a humility-check.

Honduras has made me very humble.

This was good practice for my trip to Guatemala.

Some of you know that I had the chance to attend a conference in Guatemala, related to microfinance and training small business owners in business principles. It was through the Chalmers Center in the US, and every so often they have international conferences for church workers, NGO workers and other missionary-types. I must give a grateful shout-out to Thrive, my favorite youth group of Dillsburg BIC Church, without whom this trip would not have been possible. Their generosity enabled me and my boss here at MCM to both attend this conference. I am forever humbled by hearts of these awesome high school & middle schoolers! (<3 you guys!)

The conference was a really great experience. I had hours upon hours to practice my Spanish with people from all over central America. We would talk for hours around the dinner table and share about our work and lives in our respective places. For me, being the socialite that I am, this was probably the best part of the conference :) It also did not hurt that everyone kept telling me how good my Spanish was. This of course was very encouraging and made me very happy. Many could not believe I had only been in Honduras for 3 months.

But of course, this could not last for long. Part of the focus of the class was how to teach adults...so of course, we had to practice our techniques for teaching other adults. On the 2nd day I had to prepare a lesson with a partner (who was amazingly sweet and patient) and together we taught about 12 other people (mostly native speakers, mostly middle-aged men) a lesson about business in Spanish! I was terrified! I thought I might throw up! I didn't think I could do it. 

But--it turned out ok! I led a "dinamica" or game at the beginning of our lesson...was able to talk through most of what I wanted to say with ease and even confidently fielded some spontaneous commentary from the audience. It was terrifying...but I made it through. I wasn't sure if I could do it successfully, but I know now my Spanish is better for it. During the feedback time, one man did feel the need to suggest that I work on my Spanish...so you know, the victories are short-lived :) But I did have many friends at the conference reaffirm how well I did and that this man was out of line for saying that to me.

I have learned a lot about humility and not taking my Spanish-self too seriously. But the good thing is, through all of these experiences I am stretched...

...Stretched to get outside myself and just do what needs to be done, without taking time to worry about what might happen

...Stretched to try new things and meet new people who I might otherwise never have encountered

...Stretched to discover what happens when I stop trying to get it all right and just see what God does with what I have to offer.

It's kind of like when you sit in a bus for 15 hours and your muscles are so tight...it feels so refreshing to stretch and move around.  I'm still in the stretching process...still learning to allow myself to be stretched frequently...and still trying to be thankful for the opportunity to stretch every now and then...or maybe every day in my case!

I am thankful for the learning I was able to participate in at the conference in Guatemala; thankful for safety on the long trip there and back; and thankful for a God who gives me the stuff, whatever that stuff is, that makes it possible to stretch.

mas cumpleaños

Here are some photos of me with my coworkers (who are a little crazy, i might add)...

We were celebrating my birthday and Karina's birthday (lady sitting next to me).

no Honduran party is complete without a few 'dinamicas' or games...

we had to do this stupid egg on the spoon relay

cumpleaños!

It has been a whole weekend of birthday festivities for me. And it's not even over yet!

Yesterday I celebrated my 24th birthday with some good friends and Honduran family. The day started with people singing outside my bedroom door at 7am...everyone in my house got up early to serenade me with well wishes. I was kind of out of it when the song started, and really confused...then I remembered it was my birthday!

We went to church and I had made plans with another friend to go out for lunch. I felt bad about not being around to have lunch with familia, but they didn't really say too much...they seemed pretty calm about it (this should have been my first clue). Also, they mentioned nothing of cake (a Honduran standard for birthdays) and didn't seem to worried about me not being around. I was a little sad, but thought, 'no big deal. i'm a grown-up now...its just another birthday.'

Then my lunch plans fell through, but my fellow SALTer and good friend Elise called (almost immediately) to invite me to her house. She said her family wanted to wish me happy birthday, have coffee, etc. Again, my host mom was very calm about me leaving for the afternoon. When I got to Elise's house, most of her family wasn't even there...but we had a relaxing time, even took a nap. Ok...so to make the long story shorter--we got back to my house around 4:30, some cousins and grandma were waiting outside, and no one was opening the door. I was a little confused...finally, when we got inside I realized they had asked Elise to occupy my time all afternoon so they could decorate the living room and prepare the food! They had planned a surprise party but I was the first one to show up!!

It was really sweet and we had fun celebrating and eating cake together. I was amazed to find out how many little lies had been crafted throughout the weekend to keep the party under wraps. Made me feel very special though :)

The other fun thing was opening my email to have more than 95 emails awaiting me. Many were facebook posts, but still it was great to feel so loved and missed by so many people.

All in all, it was a good Honduran birthday. Today there will be a celebration at work (for me and another coworker) and tonite I'm going bowling to celebrate with some friends too. I guess I'll just keep stretching out the celebration!!

Enjoy some fotos of my birthday weekend...

favorite friends who took me out for dinner

the cake! didnt really spell my name right, but thats ok

the family + extended family at the party

al mercado

One of my favorite things to do when I visit other countries is check out the grocery store. This may seem weird, but I have a theory that you can learn a lot about a culture from their grocery store.
The second best thing (or maybe even better, haven't decided yet) is to visit a local market. I have had the chance to do this with my host mom on 2 different Saturdays and it has been a good adventure.

First, there is a big market on the other side of the river, in Comayaguela, where you can find pretty much anything cheap...from bike helmets and car parts to underwear, nail polish and fresh baked goods, it's the place to go. The downside is, its a pretty long bus ride and also it's not very safe. I was excited to go and check it out a few weeks ago with my host mom--it was just the 2 of us! She took good care of me, always grabbing my arm before we crossed the street and making sure I was following her quick pace. We were on a mission to find a scarf as a present for my coworker and we walked through the entire market, without success. However, it was fun for me to see the whole thing, and we did find some other treasures along the way.

The other big market in Teguc is known as the Mayorero (I think that's how you spell it). This market is mainly just for produce and basic household staples. We took our big canvas shopping bags and headed down there last Saturday. Of course, the 3 year old wanted to come along, so that added a new dimension. Now we had to make sure he didn't run off, and half the time he wanted to be carried too. I have minimal patience for this...
Anyway. First stop was the line up for bean, rice, sugar and other kitchen supplies. Apparently the price of beans has gone way up, but we were able to get them much cheaper here in the central market. The line was about 15 people long, and we waited for about 25 minutes. We bought 5lbs of bean, 10 lbs. of rice and 5 lbs. of sugar...plus cooking oil, coffee, seasonings, soap, and fruit juice. Ok, so, I thought at this point my bag was pretty heavy...

Then we head to the street of meat. How neat! Actually, it was pretty gross. I think I would rather not know how unsanitary the meat I consume really is...the butcher has it all laying out in the window, so you can size it up...then he cuts it up for you (without any kind of gloves)...puts it in a plastic bag...then takes your money (with the same hands that cut the meat) and sometimes will give you another bag (with some remnants still hanging on the outside). You then put this meat bag in your shopping bag to await refrigeration for about 2-3 hours. Nice!
Ok...now the bag is heavier, but we're probably on our way home, right?

Well next we went to buy cheese or queso. Honduran cheese is really different from what we typically eat in the states, but I really like it. We bought queso seco (dry cheese), quesillo (a milder, soft cheese) and mantequilla (kinda like sour cream...cheaper here in the market than in our neighborhood).
This is good. We have most of what we need, the 3 year old is screaming his head off...so we can go!

But not too fast...we still need veggies (since the gringa--me--said she loves vegetables!) All the vegetable stands offer pretty much the same variety, but you can't just stop at the first place you see. You have to touch all the produce first, ask how much it costs, mumble about how expensive it is, and then go to the next table where it will probably be the same price. We sized up some carrots, onions, pepino (cucumbers), patasta (still have not figured out what this vegetable is) and some cabbage. So...we add all this to the bags. They are pretty full at this point.

1 more stop, for some fresh fruit. My host mom makes really good fresh juice about 2 times a week. She usually buys tamarind, maracuya (passion fruit, i think) or nance. I enjoy all of the above, which most foreigners do not, so this makes her very happy. We add a few pounds of maracuya to the shopping bags.
Oh man...I think my bag is heavy, but Lucia is carrying her half of the take plus her grandson! I don't know how she does it!

We make one last stop to buy a beverage. I don't have any idea what this is, but its sweet and cold, so I take it willingly. Also...drinks on the go are served in plastic bags...like a sandwich bag with a straw, and then tied up at the top. Or sometimes, just tied, no straw, so you bite of the corner and drink it that way. Its rather fun, but takes some skill.

Thankfully, we are near the exit of the market and we have a jalon (free ride!) from my host brother. We are glad to get to the car and dump the heavy bags. The interesting thing is, Lucia usually comes by herself on Saturdays...I have no idea how she manages all the groceries by herself, but it's impressive. I think she wants me to go again, because she enjoys having the help :)