Feliz Cumpleanos

If you asked me a year ago, what I would be doing for my 28th birthday, I wouldn't have put myself in Honduras. A year ago I had just picked up from California, moved to Colorado and was looking forward to starting grad school in January. I was working for an amazing family nannying their two beautiful girls and a few months later would fall in love with my best friend. I started grad school with the hopes that I would make connections and get a teaching job. Unfortunately, teaching jobs are scarce in most states.

I was left without the possibilites of teaching in Colorado. I was at a fork in the road: continue on the path I was on, nannying and going to grad school. Basically living a life that wasn't fulfilling my passion. Or take a leap of faith and try teaching abroad. 




So here I am a year later. My life is filled with great new friends, adorable students and a Central American town unlike any other.


This is how I spent my 28th birthday. :)


My students have been begging to meet Esperanza and hang out with me on the weekend. So I thought it would be fun to meet them in the Central Park, bring Esperanza and a few goodies the day before my birthday. I should have known they would exceed my expectations. 


As Jenna, Kristin, Sarah and I walk into the park, I look around for my students...


Out of no where I see about 8 little bodies at a dead sprint, heading straight for me. I looked at Jenna and Kristin and we just started laughing. They were so cute running across the park, all yelling my name. 


They were so excited to see me and meet Esperanza. I thought they were going to fall over with excitement, all yelling at once. It was a small Honduran mob, trying to give me hugs and give me their presents. I had specifically told them, 'I don't want presents. I just would love to see your smiling face at the park.' But of course none of them listened and brought presents. I guess I should not be surprised that they weren't listening. hahahaha


We spent the next 3 hours hanging out, playing games and eating cookies. It was so special to me because I felt so loved. Not only by my students, but by my roommates Kristin, Sarah, and Jenna for partaking in my first Honduran birthday. 

A few of my girls :)

Silly kiddos got me presents. 

I was asking them if I looked fancy with my new feather head band??

My roommates and I with a mix of my students, Sarah's 5th graders and Kristin's 2nd graders. (Notice the kid in the upper right corner. That is Carlos, he is one of my students. This sums up how he is, doesn't matter where he is, he is ALL over the place, ALL of the time. But I love him). 

Playing Landa (tag in Spanish). Shocker they are chasing me. 

Two of my favorite kiddos. Lisbeth and Ricardo. They are both a little camera shy, but have big personalities. 

Carlos imitating Lempira, the Lenca chief who died in battle against the Spanish. He became a national hero and the currency was names after him. Carlos, in my eyes, is doing a great job imitating the statue. 

A few of the 5th and 8th graders. The 3 boys are my favorite in Sarah's 5th grade class. 

But the fun wouldn't stop there. 


Later that night, Kristin and I were making dinner, when I heard my name being yelled very loud outside. So I went out on to our balcony and outside our house was our friend from school, Anna Maria. Shebrought a cake and 6 of her Honduran friends to celebrate my birthday and my roommate Kristin's (whose was the week before). We ate cake and sat around and chatted with the girls (all in Spanish, Anna and her friends don't speak English). They were telling me how lucky I am that they don't know me very well because if they did they would have thrown water, eggs and flour on me for my birthday. Definitely glad I missed out on that Honduran tradition!! 


I topped the night off with beers with my 3 sweetest friends. 

A birthday beer with Jenna, Sarah and Kristin. 

And without surprise, my birthday celebration lasts longer than a day. I was treated to a pancake breakfast with all my roommates on Sunday :)

Esperanza was highly involved in the making of my birthday pancakes.

All 8 roommates eating pancakes with me. 

I had an amazing birthday. It was filled with love, laughter and friendship. I couldn't have asked for anything more. 

Feliz Cumpleanos!! 10/09/2011!!

Robbery at Casa Amarilla

So living in a small town has its positives and negatives.


One is very apparent. Most everyone knows who we we and where we live. There are only about 30 Americans living in the town of Gracias and 10 of us live on the same street. Needless to say we are watched whether we like it or not. 

A few days before we left for our Independence day vacation, we had spoken to our neighbor, Norma, who was watching Esperanza for the weekend. Norma had kindly warned us that we should not leave valuables in our house for our long weekend away because people know that we will most likely be traveling. She told to us about a similar situation last year that the Minerva teachers had their house broken into on the same weekend and we just needed to be aware. 

The morning we left for Lake Yojoa, I put my computer under my pillow, stashed my money in a pocket of a pair of pants and put my phone in my makeup bag. It didn't even cross my mind that 24 hours from that moment someone would be going through my room looking for stuff. 

The next day our neighbor Norma came over around 6 a.m. to feed Esperanza and found the entire upstairs part of the house open. All doors and 2 windows were wide open. She immediately called Julie, an American teacher that has been here for 3 years, to tell her what happened. From there our landlord, owner of our school and Julie's friend came over to find out what was and was not taken from the house. They found my computer under my pillow and my phone still in my makeup bag. I decided not to tell them where my money was because I didn't want them rifling through my clothes in an attempt to find my money. If the robber wasn't smart enough to look under my pillow, I highly doubt he was smart enough to rummage through all of my pants pockets to find money.

So we spent our vacation not worrying about it since nothing major had been taken. 

When we got back, we discovered that my roommate, Kristin's blackberry phone, camera and 300 lempiras($15) were missing. 

Unfortunately for us people don't utilize common sense around here. When we got back from our trip, we found 2 out of the 4 bedroom doors locked. The problem with this strategy is that none of us have keys to unlock the bedroom doors. So as you can imagine we have come home to our house that has been robbed and to add salt to the wound 2 of the girls can't even get into their bedrooms. I was lucky that they didn't lock my bedroom, but they left my phone and a few of my plugs laying on my bed. So if the robber had come back, he would have been treated to a brand new Droid phone. 


So at this point my roommates have to break into their own rooms. Two screens and a broken door handle later, my roommates were finally able to get into their rooms. We were all finally able to assess our rooms and it was clear to us that the robber seemed to only go through our underwear and folded clothes drawers. Bringing us to the conclusion, he was just looking for money. 

My roommates and I sat around and ate pizza that night chatting about who could have done it. It obviously had to be someone we knew. But as we racked our brains we just couldn't pin point who it was. We gave up thinking we were going to figure it out because one can go crazy contemplating all the possibilities. 

A few days later we were presented with some interesting news. 

Norma came over and asked if we were missing a camera. Apparently, she had not been informed that a camera had been stolen. She told us that our neighbor, Tortilla lady, (we call her tortilla lady because she makes and sells tortillas), had come over to her house and had tried selling a camera to Norma's son. So Norma's son looked at the camera and then the pictures and realized that there were pictures of white girls on the camera. He immediately knew it belonged to one of us. So he acted interested in buying the camera and had managed to take a picture of the camera with his phone. He told tortilla lady he would think about it and possibly buy it later. He went to his mom and told her what had happened. 

So when Norma came over, she showed us the picture of the camera and sure enough it was Kristin's camera. We were flabbergasted. How the heck did Tortilla lady get our camera? Norma told us that she was pretty sure that Tortilla lady's 15 year old son broke into our house and that it is less obvious if she is selling a nice camera rather than her son, who apparently has a reputation of stealing. The crazy thing is they live one house away from us. So the minute we moved in he has probably been scheming. 


Norma's plan was to have Tortilla lady come back over with the camera to sell to her son and then she would inform her that we have cameras in our house (hahaha, which we don't, but they don't know that), that we know her son broke into our house and that we were going to go to the police. 


As expected when Tortilla lady was informed that we knew, she crumbled and apologized profusely to Norma. She begged that we didn't go to the police because her husband would beat her son for robbing us. So we decided to give him a chance to come over, apologize and return Kristin's things. If he did this than we wouldn't go to the police. Unfortunately, he never came and apologized. We did get Kristin's camera and phone back though. 


We are still in limbo about what to do about him. I suggested he come over to our house and do community service for us to pay of his debt. But he has been hiding in his house with his tail between his legs. 


The thing that bothers us the most, is that his mom, Tortilla lady, was involved. We used to buy tortillas from her about twice a week. She even taught us how to make them. So the fact that she had the audacity to say she didn't know that the camera came from our house is the most insulting part of the whole scenario. 


So 3 things I learned: 1. Never hide anything valuable in your underwear drawer. That is the first place they look. 2. Most crimes are not random. 3. There are good people in this world, who have your back, no matter what!


Our neighbor Norma and her son showed our house the true meaning of friendship and what it means to be a good neighbor. 

This was the window that he went through. GGGRRRRRR

Lake Yojoa

Every vacation is much needed, but for some reason Honduras' Independence Day couldn't have come at a better time. Sarah, Kristin, Jenna and I decided to go to Lake Yojoa, which is located in the center of Honduras.

As with most things in Honduras nothing is easy. So getting to Lake Yojoa was...shocker not an easy task.

One of our Honduran friends recommended we take the 4:30 a.m. mini-van to La Esperanza, get on a bus to Siguatepeque, then take another mini-van to La Gauma, and then take a taxi to our hostel in Los Naranjos. Nothing is easy in Honduras.

So I should have realized that there was something in the air when I got up that Thursday morning at 3:45 to catch the 4:30 a.m. mini-van to Lake Yojoa. I got on the bus and immediately got myself a window seat. I have developed a severe case of car sickness since living out here. Small mini-vans are the absolute worst for me. They are jam-packed with people, the roads are really bumpy and curvy and it makes for the perfect scenario of misery. So as I mind my own business on this mini-van and attempt to sleep after I took a Dramamine, my seat neighbor figures out that I speak English. My hopes of sleeping through the misery are immediately shattered.

Maya is a 5'2, 70 year old woman from Israel. She has got the thickest Israeli accent, topped with smokers breathe and the raspy voice that comes with years of smoking. She has officially become my seat partner for our lovely trip. I spend the next 4 hours listening to Maya tell her life story. Now under normal circumstances, I might have enjoyed listening to a woman who has been to more countries than I can fathom traveling to in my lifetime, been in the Israeli army and has been a psychologist for over 40 years. But it was 4:30 a.m., I had taken a Dramamine and all I wanted to do was forget that I was on a windy road that makes me miserable. No such luck though.

As Maya and I chat I realize she is traveling alone and meeting us was a bit of a blessing for her. Due to her lack of Spanish speaking skills, she has been taken advantage of and all she wanted was to enjoy her time in Honduras. So before I know it Maya is tagging along on our trip, even talking about staying in our same hostel. I am pretty sure when the other girls realized that she was tagging along they wanted to kill me. Here we are on the beginning of our "relaxing vacation" and we now have a fifth wheel. So I tried to make light of the situation and view Maya as a lesson in caring for others, especially ones who are traveling alone. 

After an exhausting morning of traveling we finally arrive at our hostel, the D & D Brewery. Yes I said brewery, with American Beer. A few years ago an American was traveling through Honduras and could not find any brewerys in the entire country. So he packed up his stuff and moved down to Los Naranjos to open the first brewery. He recently sold it to another American, Bobby Durrette, who gave us a bit of American culture down here. 

Day one at the brewery was spent chillin out by the water, drinking some amazing brewed beer, eating a delicious cheeseburger and chatting with new friends. It was a good way to end the madness that had begun at 3:45 that morning.

 The Canal near our hostel that connects to Lake Yojoa. 

Unfortunately for us day 2 started out on the wrong foot. Jenna’s phone rang at 7 a.m. which was our first indication that something was up. It was one of the other teachers calling to tell us our house had been broken in to. Of course our minds start racing: Is Esperanza ok? Did they break into both upstairs and downstairs? What was taken? The list of questions went on. Luckily for us, Esperanza was apparently going crazy all night long. 


According to our neighbor who was taking care of her, she said Esperanza barked like a maniac all night. Luckily, Esperanza was unhurt in the robbery. So at first glance it seemed like nothing had been taken, but we discovered later that 300 Lempiras, a camera and a cell phone had been taken. They failed to steal my computer, phone and 1,000 Lempiras, which were easily accessible, if the robber had any sense (my hiding spots: computer under the pillow, money in my jeans pocket and phone in my makeup bag). We would later discover who robbed us. But we will save that for another blog ;)

 So drama put on the back burner we decided to go to Pulhapanzak waterfall. We had heard you could walk behind the waterfall and into these caves. An idea the girls and I were not sold on immediately. But after seeing how awesome the falls were, we decided it was worth it.  

We had to descend this huge hill to get to the bottom of the falls and the closer we got the louder and more intense the water got. As we started to climb these mossy rocks, the tour guide jumps off this mini-cliff into the water. I wasn’t sure if I was watching a death defying act or just our tour guide being a complete idiot. After he climbs back up he asks us if we want to jump as well. We all looked at him, like get a clue buddy we aren’t that crazy. But we came to a smaller pool of water that we did decided to jump into. It was the equivalent of jumping off a diving board, nothing crazy but was a must do for the experience. 


After jumping into the pool our guide pulls my hand to get out of the pool so we can climb down these rocks to get behind the waterfall and into the cave. At this point my contacts are burning because the amount of water splashing around me is outrageous. I can barely see or hear. It was a little intense, but I hadn’t even begun to realize how intense it was going to be. The guide has gotten all 4 of us girls to this point on the rocks and he is about to lead us behind the waterfall. When all of a sudden he grabs my hand and leads me blind, under the waterfall and behind it. Here I was standing behind this waterfall alone. I had about every emotion running through me. It was an unforgettable moment. After a few seconds he leads the rest of my friends under the waterfall to where I am standing. It was great seeing everyone's face after coming through the waterfall.


Next he leads us to this cave, which you have to crawl through this hole that is about 4 feet by 4 feet. Sarah takes one look at it and starts to freak out. She is telling me she can’t do it. So it took me a minute to convince her that it was going to be just fine. We finally both crawl through to discover this cave is so small that the five of us barely fit in it. But it was pretty cool. We took a minute to enjoy and then we had to go through the intense process again to get back out from behind the waterdall. As we start to climb down to go under the waterfall, I have the overwhelming feeling of panic. I knew how intense it was getting through the waterfall and I wasn’t sure I could go through it again. I looked at Sarah and told her I needed a minute. So we went back on to the rock and now it was her turn to talk me into. I just didn’t want to wander into the waterfall with my eyes closed and no sense of direction. So the guide comes back and gets us, which made me feel so much better. Even though this guy was a little crazy, he at least knew where he was going. 


After we get though the water we make the hike back up and out of the waterfall. Each one of us laughing at the intense time we just had. Before we had hiked behind it, we had heard that not very many people actually go behind the waterfall because it is so intense and scary. Now we understood why, it was intense. But we had managed to do it. It was something that felt like one of those life moments that you are so scared doing it, but afterwards you are so thankful you did.

So as we walked back to the main road to catch a bus back to the hostel, the police drive by. We were feeling high after our intense adrenaline rush, that we asked the police for a ride. They gladly obliged. I mean who wouldn’t want 4 Gringas riding in the back of their truck? I can’t say that I have ever been in the back of a police car/truck, so I was glad that my only experience was not due to any criminal activity.

I look a little silly but I managed to capture all of us in the picture as well as the truck filled with guys passing us. Immediately after they passed us they were hollering at us. 

That night we were blessed once again with good food, great beer and a fun game of Apples to Apples.

The great part of staying in a hostel that is small is getting to know the people that work there. So on Saturday, Bobby and Anthony, the owner and manager, invited us to a regatta on the lake. We got to hang out with the most white people we have seen since we have been here. There is a large group of English and Americans that live near Lake Yojoa. 


Big bummer though we didn’t get to see any boats race because a massive storm came through. But it was nice to chat with some fellow Gringos.

On our way to the lake for the regatta. Our first time in a car since we have been down here in Honduras. It was a weird feeling. hahaha

The storm that rolled in which stopped the regatta. 

Our last night in Los Naranjos was spent like the previous ones. We had to get up early the next morning to head home.

Our last night at the D & D

It was sad that our vacation had come to an end, but it was an amazing vacation. 

But no Honduran vacation is complete without a little yoga breathing due to an insanely packet mini-van:

Nos Vemos!

Highlights

When I think back about why I started this journey, teaching, I realize it has become so much more than about teaching. It has become a life lesson that has changed me in so many ways. I have had my good days and bad and I am so blessed to have amazing friends to share this journey with. There are times I know I couldn't make it through if I did not have them right next to me. 

As I get ready to close on week 6 of living in Honduras, I would like to share some highlights of my new lifestyle.

Here I am 30 minutes in Honduras and I am miserable. The 6 hour plane delay was definitely not helping the cause. Luckily only half of this luggage belongs to me!

          Best place in the house in the hammock on our patio. 

First ride in the back of a pickup truck. Didn't realize this would be one of two forms of transportation for me: buses and the bed of pickup trucks.

Water in a bag/ Bolsa de Agua. It is more common to see me drink out of a bolsa de agua than a waterbottle. 

I am cooking on our burners that sit on the ground. We share them with the girls downstairs, so they are constantly up and down between the 2 floors. 

The addition of our little one, Esperanza. She has definitely changed our lives. Oh little Espy!

Impromptu slumber party in the living room. This was one of two times. The first I found a huge cockroach on my wall. The other was when Kristin found a mouse in her room. When we find animals in our rooms, we decide sleeping in packs in the living room makes us feel better!

We are lucky enough to have a washer, but no dryer. Each day our yard is a beautiful display of our colorful clothes hanging out to dry. By the way there is nothing like a crispy towel that air dries. :-p

Of course living in Central America would not be complete without playing soccer. Some of the teachers get together on Sundays to play at the stadium in Gracias.

We live at the base of Mount Celaque, which is the highest mountain in Honduras. We hiked to the waterfall (too bad it was foggy and rainy and we couldn't see it, but we heard it) and possibly one day we will hike to the top, which takes about 2 days!

A festival in Central Park, Gracias, to celebrate education. These children are dressed in traditional Honduran outfits. 

And what could my life be without my little class. I have 20 students. Here they are on Dia de los Ninos. It is a day they get to celebrate being a kid. They are normally in their uniforms but since it was a special day they were allowed to wear their regular clothes. 

Each day brings new memories. I look forward to making a tone more and sharing them with you. Thank you for sharing my experience with me. It means a lot to me!


Que vaya bien!

A Helping Hand

I have officially been in Gracias for 40 days and it seems as if each day I experience something new. It either, challenges me, scares me, shocks me, or in today’s case makes me happy.

We met Melissa and Kevin, a missionary couple a few weeks ago at our school. They picked up and moved their 4 children down to Gracias to share their love of God as well as help children in need. Lempira (the state I live in) is the poorest in Honduras with a large number of homeless and starving children. They decided to sponsor 2 children to go to Minerva, where I teach. Through our chats, we learned that they started a feeding center for children, more commonly known in the States as a Soup Kitchen. Each Saturday they travel the mile and a half up the mountain to one of the poorest communities in Gracias to feed children. A few days ago they asked all the American teachers at Minerva if we would be interested in helping out; preparing, cooking, and serving food and playing with the children.

In my eyes today was a day no one can put a price on.

The 10 of us started out the day walking the mile and a half up the mountain to what I thought would be a building with a large kitchen to feed about 75-80 kids. Oh how I was so wrong. We were half way up the mountain when a nice family picked us up in their pickup truck. Yes, we hitchhiked in the back of their pickup truck! As we chatted through the back window with one of the passengers, we found out coincidentally we had been picked up by the Honduran woman whose house we were cooking and feeding these children at.

Here we are riding in the back of the truck: I'm on left, Kevin, Jenna, Kevin's daughter and Sarah D. There were 3 more kids, plus Sarah and Kristin in the bed of this truck :)

When we arrived at Beatty's house we were immediately in go-mode. She showed us that there are people in Honduras who can be efficient and delegate people for jobs. A trait I have yet to be displayed by any other Honduran. I was give the role of helping out in the kitchen (not sure why, I have never been a master chef in the kitchen…at all!!) Luckily all I had to do was cut and prepare vegetables, as well as pull cooked chicken off the bone.

Annie, Sarah D. and I were preparing the vegetables

Pulling HOT chicken off the bone. Kristen G. and had raw fingers after that!

After my duties were fulfilled I went out to watch the children play games with one of the Honduran men who came to help. It was so fun watching these kids play games and have fun. But the most heartbreaking aspect was some of them didn’t have any shoes or proper clothing and even though they were having fun I knew food was on the back of their mind. Who knows when they got their last proper meal!

   Some of the children playing games with one of the Honduran men.

               Helping one of the woman serve the food

The meal was finally ready around 12 but some of the children had become impatient and left because they had been there since 9. So we had about 50 children and mothers to serve. I can honestly say that seeing these little ones eat a proper meal was outrageously fulfilling yet so saddening at the same time. We cooked for them rice with carrots, green beans, chicken and onion with a slice of bread. By no means in American standards was it a large meal. Yet some of these children took 2-3 bites and then took the rest of the food back to their home to feed other family members.

                   The meal we helped prepare for them. Pretty basic!

At one point all of the children had been fed and Beatty insisted that we eat. We looked at each other, how we could possibly eat part of this meal when these children are hoarding food to take back to their families. We kindly said no, but there was no going around this one, either we offended Beatty and continued to say no or we ate a plate with guilt. I have never been so torn in my life. But I had no choice, I was not allowed to leave the kitchen without a plate shoved into my hand. As we tried to force the food down, don’t get me wrong it wasn’t that the food wasn’t good; we just couldn’t stomach eating it thinking about all the children who had left because they were impatient and hungry. I could afford to buy food after we left, they couldn’t.

                                  Their outdoor stove

As we sat and chatted with the missionaries and Beatty we learned about the issues surrounding children in Lempira. There is only one person to oversee child abuse cases in Lempira. It is hard to imagine but the state of Lempira isn’t very big but there are a lot of small communities embedded in these mountains and there aren’t a lot of roads to travel on. Their goal is to build a child rescue center where these children can come live and get proper nutrition.

But until the child rescue center is built, the feeding center will continue to take place out of Beatty’s kitchen. She is a woman who doesn’t have much but what she has, she feels is important to share with her community. A Honduran lifestyle that, really is important to who they are as a community and culture.

I felt so blessed being able to help these children eat a proper meal and forget about their troubles for a few hours. But the help didn’t stop there.

One of my roommates recently got a colon infection. She was in and out of the doctor trying to figure out what was wrong with her. But they finally figured it out and were able to give her the proper medication. However, unlike in the States, where you would receive medication in pill form, she received it in liquid form. She was given instructions that she had to inject herself in the butt with her medication for 5 days. Well, yesterday was her first day of this injection. But giving yourself an injection in the butt is really unattainable unless you are Inspector Gadget with your go-go-gadget arms. So she asked us if anyone would be willing to inject her. I can’t say I immediately jumped at the chance, but after making eye contact with my other roommates it was clear they were too scared to do it.

       Sarah W. and I putting the medicine into the syringe

Luckily teamwork was crucial in administering the shot. Sarah W., put the medicine in the syringe, Kristin was my aide, she held Colleen’s butt cheek together and I was the doctor and inserted the needle. 

Before this all took place I felt okay until I had the needle in hand and was standing over her butt. It is a lot more nerve racking than you think. Colleen had told me not to worry but that she would probably scream. Not exactly what I wanted to hear, but I wasn’t really surprised. 

So as I administered the shot, Colleen was dead silent. I could practically hear the liquid leaving the syringe and entering her blood stream. After it was over, I looked at her and asked her if she was okay. To my utter surprise she said “Yeah, it hurt but you actually did a better job than the doctor!” We all burst into laughter…did I honestly just stick a HUGE needle into my roommates butt?

But I couldn’t have done it without the help of my nursing staff hahaha!