As you might note from some of my blog posts, I really enjoy lists. Sometimes it is just easier to collect your thoughts in a bullet-pointed kind of way...and in other ways, it's just something I do rather compulsively.
I have made lists of all sorts of things since I've been here, like my 'Funny T-shirts in English' list, my 'Cosas Catrachas' (Honduran-isms) list, a list of books I've read, quotes from the books I've read, and a personal favorite, my list of 'Fun times with Allison,' as we have had many random, ridiculous happenings since the beginning of our friendship in September.
So I thought maybe it would be fun to share some favorites from my lists...
Honduranisms
1. Dinamicas- this might have been mentioned in a previous post regarding birthdays, but Hondurans LOVE dinamicas. they are like, little party games or ice breaker type activities that are a requirement for any office gathering here at MCM...and often occur at church gatherings and even family events. They can be quite stressful for the foreigner and often are embarrassing.
2. Que barbaridad- this is a frequently used and very popular saying among Hondurans. It literally translates to mean 'what a barbarity' but communicates a rather large variety of sentiments. In fact, my fellow SALTer, Alison, wrote a whole post on this phrase! It is used when something dramatic happens in life--like your brother won't get off the couch to get you a glass of Coke (que barbaridad)...something costs way more than it should (like a taxi ride for a gringa...que barbaridad)...someone you know got robbed (¡que barbaridad!)...all the way up to very serious offenses in life, like someone betraying your trust or hurting your family (¡¡que barbaridad!!) I learned this phrase very quickly, and use it very often, as it is a good comeback for sarcastic quips, or can communicate genuine sympathy for something crappy in life.
January 28, 2011
January 19, 2011
motivation
I like to be balanced in my posting and give an accurate depiction of my experience here. The good and the not so good, if you will. But it is always more fun to post while the going is good.
And things are going well right now. Last week involved some stunning gastronomic pyrotechnics…but thankfully I am back on track with my standard Honduran diet. I found that being cooped up for several days in my house gave me (too much) time to think and made me pretty down about my experience here. It was a combination of sickness, homesickness, and feeling useless. But I think God has used this down-time in my life here to give me time to reflect on things and get some much needed rest.
With a lot of prayer and some good encouragement and support from family and friends, this new week has gotten off to a fresh start…and for that I am so grateful.
Monday found me in a meeting with my coworkers, taking the lead and presenting the project I have been laboring over the past 3 months. Since I have 1 course of curriculum done for the business school and am wrapping up the 2nd course, my boss and I decided it would be good to do a test-run and see how it goes.
Starting tomorrow, they will teach 1 lesson each week for 7 weeks, with all of my coworkers (the loan officers) taking a shot at teaching. We will have all the community banks from Thursday meet together at 2pm for the class, and then pay their loans after. The goal is to have everyone who works in the bank program present to learn from each other, practice giving training sessions, and so I can get feedback as I work on more and more curriculum.
January 10, 2011
nuevo año
I realize I'm a little late in my 'Happy New Year' post...but things have been a little crazy for me the last few weeks...so, let's hit the highlights:
December 25: Christmas dinner with fellow foreigners. Delicious food and a fun time together.
December 27: My mom, dad, and little sister came to visit me in Tegucigalpa!
It was so great to have them here and be able to share my Honduran life with them. We spent some time with my host family (where I got to translate everything)...ate lots of typical Honduran food (baleadas, pupusas, tortillas, tacos, etc.)...saw the sights in and around Teguc...visited Lake Yojoa for a fun boat ride and fried fish...and spent time with my fellow MCCers, the Troyers. It was great to have them here, but hard to say goodbye.
December 31: Año viejo. The Honduran tradition to ring in the New Year is to burn the "old year" or "año viejo." Old year is basically a scarecrow-looking man, that sits in the street for the week leading up to the 31st. Children and teens hang out in the street, collecting money from any passer-by for the "año viejo." Their intention is to buy firecrackers with the money to stuff the man and light him on fire...I am skeptical the money is only used for fireworks, but alas, I did contribute :)
So, on the 31st, all over the neighborhood there were groups of children lighting the scarecrows on fire and watching them burn to nothing. The one outside our door first got a dousing of gasoline, plus the firecrackers...so it didn't take too long to get rid of the old man. My parents and sister also got to witness this exciting event, so don't be alarmed if you've seen my dad's pictures on facebook. They really aren't burning an actual person, it just looks like it.
January 1: my family left for the states. I was pretty tired, but when I got home to relax and rest with my host family, I found out they were going to Picacho (a park up the mountain) to spend the afternoon, so of course I went along. Turns out most Hondurans enjoy spending New Years Day at the park, so we sat around eating tajaditas and tamales and enjoying the outdoors with 60% of Tegucigalpans.
January 3: Grandma's birthday (more cake, more festivities, more hilarity with the Honduran extended family).
January 5-9: MCC Honduras retreat at the farm. It was really fun to get together with the whole Honduras team for a time of planning, fellowship, and fun. We spent lots of time catching up on each others lives, planning for the year ahead, worshiping together, eating, playing games, and even doing a little swimming. I am continually blessed by the people who make up this team and am grateful for their friendship and partnership here in Honduras. It's never easy to leave reatreat and get back into routine, but its good to be at home too.
So...that brings me to today. Back to work...hoping to find some time to catch up on sleep, but per usual the schedule is filling already :)
Today is my fellow SALTer's bday (happy bday Elise!) so we will be celebrating later this week.
Another SALT friend from Nicaragua is stopping in to visit, so I am excited to see her.
I think there is another family birthday party on the horizon...
...and who knows what else.
Thanks for your continued prayers and support. As I come up to my 5 month anniversary in Honduras, there is more and more pressure to figure out what my next steps are after SALT. Your prayers for wisdom and open doors would be appreciated too.
December 25: Christmas dinner with fellow foreigners. Delicious food and a fun time together.
December 27: My mom, dad, and little sister came to visit me in Tegucigalpa!
It was so great to have them here and be able to share my Honduran life with them. We spent some time with my host family (where I got to translate everything)...ate lots of typical Honduran food (baleadas, pupusas, tortillas, tacos, etc.)...saw the sights in and around Teguc...visited Lake Yojoa for a fun boat ride and fried fish...and spent time with my fellow MCCers, the Troyers. It was great to have them here, but hard to say goodbye.
December 31: Año viejo. The Honduran tradition to ring in the New Year is to burn the "old year" or "año viejo." Old year is basically a scarecrow-looking man, that sits in the street for the week leading up to the 31st. Children and teens hang out in the street, collecting money from any passer-by for the "año viejo." Their intention is to buy firecrackers with the money to stuff the man and light him on fire...I am skeptical the money is only used for fireworks, but alas, I did contribute :)
So, on the 31st, all over the neighborhood there were groups of children lighting the scarecrows on fire and watching them burn to nothing. The one outside our door first got a dousing of gasoline, plus the firecrackers...so it didn't take too long to get rid of the old man. My parents and sister also got to witness this exciting event, so don't be alarmed if you've seen my dad's pictures on facebook. They really aren't burning an actual person, it just looks like it.
January 1: my family left for the states. I was pretty tired, but when I got home to relax and rest with my host family, I found out they were going to Picacho (a park up the mountain) to spend the afternoon, so of course I went along. Turns out most Hondurans enjoy spending New Years Day at the park, so we sat around eating tajaditas and tamales and enjoying the outdoors with 60% of Tegucigalpans.
January 3: Grandma's birthday (more cake, more festivities, more hilarity with the Honduran extended family).
January 5-9: MCC Honduras retreat at the farm. It was really fun to get together with the whole Honduras team for a time of planning, fellowship, and fun. We spent lots of time catching up on each others lives, planning for the year ahead, worshiping together, eating, playing games, and even doing a little swimming. I am continually blessed by the people who make up this team and am grateful for their friendship and partnership here in Honduras. It's never easy to leave reatreat and get back into routine, but its good to be at home too.
So...that brings me to today. Back to work...hoping to find some time to catch up on sleep, but per usual the schedule is filling already :)
Today is my fellow SALTer's bday (happy bday Elise!) so we will be celebrating later this week.
Another SALT friend from Nicaragua is stopping in to visit, so I am excited to see her.
I think there is another family birthday party on the horizon...
...and who knows what else.
Thanks for your continued prayers and support. As I come up to my 5 month anniversary in Honduras, there is more and more pressure to figure out what my next steps are after SALT. Your prayers for wisdom and open doors would be appreciated too.
December 27, 2010
christmas in Honduras
As I write this I am compulsively checking the Delta Airlines website to make sure the flight is on time from Atlanta...I know that I wrote about patience the other day, but this morning might just be the longest morning of my life!! I am praying all goes well and that my parents and sister will be arriving safely at 1 pm right here in Tegucigalpa. My Honduran family seems adequately excited too (though we know communication will be a challenge!). Since I will be taking a week "off" to spend time with the family, I thought I'd post some reflections on Christmas here in my home in Honduras.
The 24th of December is the big holiday here...this meant we all slept in and were in our pajamas til about 2 or 3 pm. Trademarks of Honduran Christmas include tamales, torrejas, lots of fireworks (cohetes) and church. Here are some thoughts on each of those:
1. Tamales: major process to make a batch of tamales. You have to make enough for your family plus the relatives, plus enough to eat on both holidays, the 24 & 31. It takes most of the day, and a couple hours to cook over the fire. Since I was still working hard on the 23, I missed most of the process, but got to enjoy the "bonfire" out on our patio. It was a nice evening outside and I was having fun looking at the stars with my nephew (who has adorable, endearing moments every now and then).
I should also mention I do not love tamales, but its tradition to eat 10 or 12 during the holidays...somehow, I have made it this far only eating 1! The family is a little worried that I hate them b/c I dont eat them enough, but they keep giving me other options, so I choose to not eat tamales :)
2. Torrejas are another food related tradition, more delicious to me than tamales. Basically, you make french toast, using fluffy egg whites instead of the whole egg...than you cook a stack of bread in a delicious sweet syrup and enjoy it hot or cold. I ate this most of the evening (while avoiding tamales).
3. Fireworks are a HUGE tradition on the 24. I mean, we've been 'enjoying' them for the past month or so, always right outside the house, at all hours of the day and night...but on this night children of all ages are allowed in the street past midnight (this is really rare in our neighborhood) and they are allowed to use everything from sparklers and poppers to what I would call mortars and newspaper bombs...yeah, it gets a little crazy. around 12, one went off very close to our spectator spot and I thought I was losing my hearing...but it came back :)
They tell me it is nothing compared to the 31st....can't wait for that!
4. Church--of course, we knew all day long we had church at 6pm, but for some reason my host mom did not stop cooking food and start getting ready til 6:05...then my brother starts eating a tamale at 6:20... somehow, we made it to church by 6:35 and only missed some singing. There was lots of upbeat music, a rowdy drama, more focused on the arrest, death and resurrection of Christ than his birth (which was weird for me) and plenty of clapping and singing. It was very different from the quiet, more somber, candlelit Christmas eve services I know and love...but I guess adjusting to new cultural traditions is what this whole thing is about!
For me, this was the point in the day where I missed home the most, and was most strongly reminded that it was Christmas, and I was not with my family. But, it was a good experience in learning how others celebrate, and that the iconic things we hold as being quintessentially "Christmas" really don't matter all that much. Pretty much, it all comes down to sharing time with people you love. oh and food. I think those are the 2 common denominators world-wide :)
The other tradition I participated in is staying up really late...I mean, for me it was 2:30am, but some in my family made it til 5am...I'm usually the first in bed at 10:30 or 11, so I felt like I made a good effort.
Christmas Day was pretty quiet and relaxing. I was able to call my family to wish them a Merry Christmas (well, almost all of them :) and then enjoyed Christmas dinner with some other friends from the US, England and Denmark. What a fun way to enjoy the holiday.
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas holiday, blog reader, and that you enjoy a festive New Year celebration. I will be enjoying some vacation time with my family and will fill you in on the craziness of the 31st next week.
happy merry Christmas holidays!
The 24th of December is the big holiday here...this meant we all slept in and were in our pajamas til about 2 or 3 pm. Trademarks of Honduran Christmas include tamales, torrejas, lots of fireworks (cohetes) and church. Here are some thoughts on each of those:
1. Tamales: major process to make a batch of tamales. You have to make enough for your family plus the relatives, plus enough to eat on both holidays, the 24 & 31. It takes most of the day, and a couple hours to cook over the fire. Since I was still working hard on the 23, I missed most of the process, but got to enjoy the "bonfire" out on our patio. It was a nice evening outside and I was having fun looking at the stars with my nephew (who has adorable, endearing moments every now and then).
I should also mention I do not love tamales, but its tradition to eat 10 or 12 during the holidays...somehow, I have made it this far only eating 1! The family is a little worried that I hate them b/c I dont eat them enough, but they keep giving me other options, so I choose to not eat tamales :)
2. Torrejas are another food related tradition, more delicious to me than tamales. Basically, you make french toast, using fluffy egg whites instead of the whole egg...than you cook a stack of bread in a delicious sweet syrup and enjoy it hot or cold. I ate this most of the evening (while avoiding tamales).
3. Fireworks are a HUGE tradition on the 24. I mean, we've been 'enjoying' them for the past month or so, always right outside the house, at all hours of the day and night...but on this night children of all ages are allowed in the street past midnight (this is really rare in our neighborhood) and they are allowed to use everything from sparklers and poppers to what I would call mortars and newspaper bombs...yeah, it gets a little crazy. around 12, one went off very close to our spectator spot and I thought I was losing my hearing...but it came back :)
They tell me it is nothing compared to the 31st....can't wait for that!
4. Church--of course, we knew all day long we had church at 6pm, but for some reason my host mom did not stop cooking food and start getting ready til 6:05...then my brother starts eating a tamale at 6:20... somehow, we made it to church by 6:35 and only missed some singing. There was lots of upbeat music, a rowdy drama, more focused on the arrest, death and resurrection of Christ than his birth (which was weird for me) and plenty of clapping and singing. It was very different from the quiet, more somber, candlelit Christmas eve services I know and love...but I guess adjusting to new cultural traditions is what this whole thing is about!
For me, this was the point in the day where I missed home the most, and was most strongly reminded that it was Christmas, and I was not with my family. But, it was a good experience in learning how others celebrate, and that the iconic things we hold as being quintessentially "Christmas" really don't matter all that much. Pretty much, it all comes down to sharing time with people you love. oh and food. I think those are the 2 common denominators world-wide :)
The other tradition I participated in is staying up really late...I mean, for me it was 2:30am, but some in my family made it til 5am...I'm usually the first in bed at 10:30 or 11, so I felt like I made a good effort.
Christmas Day was pretty quiet and relaxing. I was able to call my family to wish them a Merry Christmas (well, almost all of them :) and then enjoyed Christmas dinner with some other friends from the US, England and Denmark. What a fun way to enjoy the holiday.
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas holiday, blog reader, and that you enjoy a festive New Year celebration. I will be enjoying some vacation time with my family and will fill you in on the craziness of the 31st next week.
happy merry Christmas holidays!
December 21, 2010
esperanza
I have never really thought of myself as an impatient person. Ok, well, lets take driving/road rage out of this conversation for a minute :) I am usually a patient person, or at the very least, I think I'm good at hiding my impatience.
However, being in a culture that does not reward punctuality has taught me a lot about patience--and probably more about impatience. Though I am pretty good at hiding it, I am often impatient...as I wait for my family to get ready to leave the house (when the set departure time passed 30 minutes ago)...as I wait for the bus to start moving at each of the 16 stops on the way down the hill...as I wait for an 8am meeting to start before the clock reaches 9:20...as I wait for an email to pop in my inbox while I work...the list could go on.
The amazing thing is, Hondurans seem to have endless amounts of patience. Or if they don't, they are really good at faking it! I can't even count the number of times I have seen women contently waiting for a meeting that should have started 40 minutes ago. Or looking out the window on the bus, never once worried about what time it is, or what time it will be when they get where they are going. I guess it's a requirement to survive in a non-time-oriented culture...but it still amazes me and inspires me every time.
The interesting thing is, the verb for 'wait' in Spanish is esperar. So often, waiting has such a negative connotation for me, or at the least, brings to mind sources of frustration. But this week of anticipating has especially reminded me that in Spanish, 'esperar' also means to hope. And I love that these meanings are so intertwined. Although I become exasperated waiting, I have a hope for so many things to come.
I have been waiting for some things in my life...but...not everything comes the way you want it. However, I have a hope that these things all work together somehow...and that each part of the journey, the fun stuff and the crappy stuff is somehow being worked together for my good. So...I continue to wait, but I wait with hope that God can do even more with all of this than I could even know to ask for, or imagine.
This week is an exciting week, as we remember the coming of Christ as a baby, and wait with hope for his second coming. May our patient waiting for his return remind us of the hope we have in Jesus Christ that sustains us in our impatience.
(I am also waiting for the arrival of some special visitors to Honduras! Please keep my family in your prayers as they travel here next Monday to spend some time with me. I am hopeful that it will be a fun time together and a time of relaxation and rejuvenation for me.)
Oh, and a couple Christmas festivities I am waiting for...
>Making Christmas cookies with the host family tomorrow night (totally new for them, and they are stoked)
>2 more cuchumbos (gift exchanges w/ church group and extended family)
>December 24 (the big holiday-day in Honduras)
>C-mas lunch with some North American friends on Saturday
>Learning to make tamales...and eating lots of tamales
>cohetes (fire crackers) at all hours of the night and for the "old year" (año viejo) celebrations
December 15, 2010
water
Water is a scarce resource for most of the inhabitants of this world...but, in my North American experience, I have never found this to be a great concern.
For residents of Nueva Suyapa, water is a big deal. Water only comes to the colonia a few times per month, so when it does, you fill every available vessel to save it up. And when it rains, you store the rain water too. My friend and co-SALTer Elise wrote a post on her blog about how her family stores up water...they have a very elaborate system which even involves an old refrigerator that holds the H20.
In my house, we use our water carefully, but usually have confidence that the water will come when we need it. We have a large pila (cement sink/bathtub-sized fixture) that holds most of the water we need, a tank for the bathroom (only sink and toilet have running water. no shower :), 3 barrels of reserve water, and an assortment of old juice jugs and buckets as the back-up to the reserves. Typically, we go through the pila, the bathroom tank and by the time we just dip into the barrel, the water comes to our part of the colonia. When the water comes, you leave the faucet running and fill as much as you can!
I said that we trust the water will come, but this week has been a little tense. Not only were we out of drinking water (which has thankfully been remedied) but since Sunday the pila has been on 'E' and we are almost through all 3 barrels of reserves. My host mom said yesterday if the water doesn't come, we probably won't have enough to bathe. So of course that got my attention! This also means no washing of the clothes (by hand), and saving the bottled water for cooking. With 6 people in the house, its amazing to think how much water we use in a day--and that's using it conservatively!
So...you can pray the water comes soon. We would like to fill the pila...and I would like us to bathe. However, it is pretty chilly, so maybe I could start giving up my morning bucket shower.
In other water related stories, I got to see the Pacific coast of Honduras!
Although the water was salty, it was great to go to a warmer spot for a day and enjoy the beach with my coworkers. This was our office outing/Christmas party...rough, I know :)
We took a boat ride in the Gulf of Fonseca which is shared by Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador. Pretty awesome. Enjoy some of my favorite fotos from the day.
very thankful for water...potable and salty :)
For residents of Nueva Suyapa, water is a big deal. Water only comes to the colonia a few times per month, so when it does, you fill every available vessel to save it up. And when it rains, you store the rain water too. My friend and co-SALTer Elise wrote a post on her blog about how her family stores up water...they have a very elaborate system which even involves an old refrigerator that holds the H20.
In my house, we use our water carefully, but usually have confidence that the water will come when we need it. We have a large pila (cement sink/bathtub-sized fixture) that holds most of the water we need, a tank for the bathroom (only sink and toilet have running water. no shower :), 3 barrels of reserve water, and an assortment of old juice jugs and buckets as the back-up to the reserves. Typically, we go through the pila, the bathroom tank and by the time we just dip into the barrel, the water comes to our part of the colonia. When the water comes, you leave the faucet running and fill as much as you can!
I said that we trust the water will come, but this week has been a little tense. Not only were we out of drinking water (which has thankfully been remedied) but since Sunday the pila has been on 'E' and we are almost through all 3 barrels of reserves. My host mom said yesterday if the water doesn't come, we probably won't have enough to bathe. So of course that got my attention! This also means no washing of the clothes (by hand), and saving the bottled water for cooking. With 6 people in the house, its amazing to think how much water we use in a day--and that's using it conservatively!
So...you can pray the water comes soon. We would like to fill the pila...and I would like us to bathe. However, it is pretty chilly, so maybe I could start giving up my morning bucket shower.
In other water related stories, I got to see the Pacific coast of Honduras!
Although the water was salty, it was great to go to a warmer spot for a day and enjoy the beach with my coworkers. This was our office outing/Christmas party...rough, I know :)
We took a boat ride in the Gulf of Fonseca which is shared by Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador. Pretty awesome. Enjoy some of my favorite fotos from the day.
very thankful for water...potable and salty :)
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