Update on Everything

This is a pictures of some of the Jovenes boys and staff at AGAFAM, the Honduras "county fair". It was a really neat fair, with rides, animals, stores, and tons of people. The JEC boys sold some of their woodcrafts and got the word out about Jovenes en Camino to local Hondurans. It was a great idea and a lot of fun.

Jairo's new motorcycle. With a donation from the states, we got to go with Jairo and Leopoldo to get Jairo a motorcycle. This will make it much more economical and esier for Jairo to visit Mogote. The roads to Mogote are rough on cars mechanically and economically so this is a great thing for Jairo.

I finally finagled my way in to a women's soccer league here in Honduras and I love it! It took a while tracking down who was in charge and how I could get in but finally after emailing authors of newspaper articles and meeting the director of the league I was able to get on a team. These teams are all from large companies in Teguc and the players have to work for the company with the exception of one player. I found my way after a tryout, on the Banco Atlantida team. So far we are undefeated after 3 games. I love playing and it is a great thing for me to have something to do outside of working here. My teammates are cool and it is neat to see a different part of society here and make some more friends. We play every Saturday afternoon.

Samuel´s Birthday Party

Last week was the week of parties for us, we were on the Honduras party planning committee and didn´t know it till last week, ha, but it was fun. We ran errands picking up supplies and decorating for our first party which was a going away party for the psychologist at Jovenes en Camino who spent a semester at JEC. Then next day we helped orgainze another party at JEC for October birthdays for all the boys and bought a huge cake and presents, it was fun too. Then on Saturday we had over Henry and Xiomara from Mogote and their extended family at out house to celebrate Samuel´s first birthday. It was in the middle of a tropical storm so our house was in the clouds all day, but we managed to get a break from the rain and have a traditional piñata outside.

Samuel at age 1 with his piñata.

It was really fun to have friends over at our house, I think it was fun for them too to get outside of the city for a day. Xiomara and her sisters made a traditional Honduran meal of chicken with rice, refried beans, tortillas, carne asada, pico de gallo... I pitched in where I could and made some gringo jalapenos filled with cream cheese with bacon on top, but I left the expert cooking to the experts. There was about 17 of us in all. We all had a really good time and our Honduran guests showed me multiple things in my yard I didn´t even know I had. They filled grocery sacks I gave them with the abundance of fruit that grows in our yard, way more than I could use. They found some kind of herb that they make tea out of that is supposed to have some sort of medicinal properties, but to my untrained eye it looked like a weed, haha. It was great to be able to share our house with people we have become friends with.

Will and Darwin pumped about some awesome food.

I learned more about Honduras culture today too. This was interesting. As you can see in the picture, I as an American set the food out in buffet style so everyone could help themselves... well after the prayer when I kept trying to get the men to start they line, they all just sat down even with my invitations to come get a plate and get some food. Turns out even at a party the women make plates for the men and children and then themselves... haha, but my Honduran friends didn´t skip a beat and in their own way everyone did eventually get food. I´m not sure what the men thought about my invitation to come serve themselves... haha, but they seemed to be understanding that I was just a crazy gringa who does things in a weird way and it all worked out.

So are you Bob Marley fan, or are you church people?

So it was that time again to renew our visa. This time we headed for Belize on a boat that leaves from the north shore of Honduras in Puerto Cortes and goes straight to Placencia, Belize. It was a long journey and took a couple of days but it went smoothly. We had a great time relaxing in a beautiful country we had never been too.

I loved the culture of the people in Belize. Placencia is a mix of people from all over the world. Many of the locals speak Criole which sounds like a mixture of languages with some English thrown in their but most people speak English with a really cool island accent, kind of Jamaicanish. Everyone is sooo friendly too. You can't walk down the street or the sidewalk in town without saying hello and having small conversation with everyone you pass. One man we passed on the street and became friends with stopped us and asked, "So are you Bob Marley fans or are you church people?" I replied to him that we were both, haha, and I think that blew his mind. We ended up having a conversation later with him sitting on the beach about life, love, and respect.

We had a great time of relaxing and discovered a really cool place in the world that we can't wait to visit again to renew our visas.

The "Campout"

Last Saturday was the big day. The boys in Will's Wednesday night bible class had been looking forward to this day for a long time asking about it just about every time we were in Mogote. The "campout" at our house. Many of the boys don't get to get outside of the city very often so they were thrilled to come to our house "in the country".

I will let Will tell more details, I just wanted to put these pictures up while the internet was working well.

Family!

Well, this blog is a little late, it has been a busy week once again, but we had great visit from the women folk in Will's family a week ago. Will's mom Tamara, sister Jessica, and Jessica's mother in law Janet, all made the trek down despite the political unrest.


As soon as they got off the plane, we hit the ground runnin. With a gift from the church Will grew up in, the Bristow Church of Christ, we were able to purchase 63 needed pairs of tennis shoes for every boy at Jovenes. So we piled suitcases and shoe boxes in the back or our truck, and dropped them off, so that we could drive to the stadium and feed people with Amber. The stadium can be an intimidating place and we took the ladies there within hours of their arrival, but they did great and were a huge help passing out soup. I always enjoy when we have extra people with us at the stadium because it frees us up to be able chat with people more freely.


We didn't slow down much the rest of the visit. Friday, we spent the day at Jovenes passing out shoes, figuring out whos was whos, playing some soccer, and sharing some of our favorite new eating places. Saturday we went the the Jesus statue, La Tigra the cloud forest, and La Cumbre a really neat restarant that overlooks the seemingly infinite shining lights of Teguc. Sunday we went to Valley of the Angels in the morning, and church in Mogote in the afternoon.

We were so happy to have our family here. It is so refreshing. I'm so glad that we had the chance to share our life here with our loved ones that live there... in person...it is just a neat thing.


This is at La Tigra. We had a blast hiking around and the clouds were amazing that day, we hiked through the clouds for a long way making the forest really dark and cool in the middle of the day.


We love you guys. Thanks for making the effort to get here. It means a lot to us.

Spontaneous Parades Throughout the City!

Honduras qualified for the world cup tonight!

After church tonight we hurried into a grocery store to try and be able to catch the end of the game. Honduras had to beat El Salvador and the U.S. had to tie or beat Costa Rica for Honduras to qualify. The stars were lined up for Honduras tonight because the beat El Salvador 1-0 and in the last minute of injury time in a game that should have been won by Costa Rica the U.S. scored making it a tie game 2-2. The games ended at about the same time and the entire country of Honduras errupted into cheers and honking horns. We left the grocery store into a lively city and decided to drive around a bit and enjoy the moment.

The city turned into a spontaneous parade. Everyone came out into the streets waving flags, wearing jerseys, and hollering. We drove around town, honking and yelling with everyone else. While listening to the radio we heard the president announce that tommorrow is a national holiday!

It is so exciting for this country. The world cup is HUGE! Honduras hasn't qualified since 1982, and this is only the second time in Honduras history to go. It is so great to have something so unifying, something so exciting, something going so well for the country. I believe that for tonight, and maybe tommorrow, this country has forgotten their political strife and is unified in celebrating this great feat. And it is so exciting. I'm happy to be in this country tonight! I'm so proud!

Current Situation in Honduras

As you may have heard there has been some new political turbulence in Honduras this week. The ousted president is back in the country and at the Brazilian embassy in the middle of Tegucigalpa causing many clashes between his supporters and those of the new government including the military. The new government in response has imposed a curfew since Monday night at 6 to keep people out of the streets. They are suspending the curfew today from 10am-5pm so people can get out and get food. All the airports have also been closed but will hopefully reopen tommorrow. The borders too are closed since there is a curfew but should reopen when that is lifted.

We are fine. We are at our house in the country away from the turmoil in Tegucigalpa, we have plenty of food and water. We are using this time to rest and get settled into this new house.

We just wanted to let you know the current situation here in Honduras, but also to let you know that we are fine.

Please pray for peace in this country.