Folklorico Festival at EBH

This past weekend we attended the annual Folklorico Festival at EBH (the boys' school).

The boys have both been preparing for this for months now (one child a willing participant and the other not so much)...All of the grades spend the first few months of school dancing in PE classes for this festival.  It's boy/girl dancing and very much a part of the Honduran culture.  The kids who learn the dances well are selected to perform the dance in this annual festival.  Jordan had a very difficult time accepting that this was part of his PE class and well, he sort of refused to participate.  Everett on the other hand embraced it full on and danced with his little lady each week learning the dance steps and was really looking forward to the big show.  Costumes were custom made, and then we had to purchase little leather "chanklas" (sandals), and a hat to wear.  Everett's costume was white pants with a purple shirt, and a lime green sash which coordinated with his partner's dress.  Our friends joked that Everett would be the first "Gringo" to perform in the Folklorico Festival.  

We were looking forward to watching our little star, and I think even Jordan (who had actually learned the dance) was thinking that maybe it wouldn't have been so bad to be a part of this tradition.  All of the performers were to arrive at 7:00 AM so I took Everett early and saved seats for the rest of our family - Jacqueline was vising us so I figured they could have a chance to eat a bite before arriving and besides in Honduras nothing starts on time.  The problem was that we didn't even know what time this thing was supposed to start!  I asked several people what time it would start and got many different answers (8:00, 8:30, 9:00 etc.).  I think we decided on 9:00 but around 8:15 I started to get nervous and called and told them to head on over.  At 8:30 sharp the festival started and by 8:34 Everett's class was already finished!  Jose arrived just minutes after Everett was done!  We were so disappointed.  I did manage to take somewhat of a video and of course he looked adorable in his costume but it just wasn't the same as being there!  Oh well - lessons learned.  I convinced them to come in and watch the rest of the show but by 11:15 everyone was beyond hungry and tired of sitting still for so long.  The show still wasn't over but we decided to leave anyway.  The dancing was entirely too long but it was actually pretty amazing.  Each class performed - the girls dresses were very colorful and absolutely beautiful, and the boys were very handsome too.  We also watched performances by the competitive team the school has - and they are always fun to watch.  They are just awesome!  

Part of the tradition is for the older grades to build these awesome displays that the crowd will enjoy after the dancing.  Each grade is assigned a city near to Comayagua.  Then they (with the help of their parents of course) are responsible for building a structure to portray that city and they also prepare and sell food from that area.  These were incredible!  The students tending the booths were in costume and telling all about the food/history/culture etc.  of their assigned area.  We didn't stay to eat - but I did manage to take photos of all of them.  

                                                     

  

Party all the Time!

US at Jose's Company Christmas Party

I know what you're all thinking - that I am totally the worst Blogger EVER!  I'll admit it - I am, but if you knew how busy my social calendar was you just might understand!  I've been a little busy since the last time I wrote - you would just not believe how much partying goes on around here!  I'm a little worn out!  Of course it's Christmas time here now (about to start the New Years festivities too), and here the Hondurans all celebrate on the 24th.  Folks typically gather in their respective homes for the evening (with extended families) to celebrate with gifts, food and FIREWORKS at midnight!  Seems like all month long there have been fireworks.  We are fortunate enough to be included in the family gatherings of one of the big families here - they have truly taken us all in and made us theirs, inviting us to just about everything they do - we love it and love all of them!  Last night we attended a party for a friend that had just completed Law School and was getting "sworn in"- it was a great time and a very beautiful ceremony.  She had great food, great music, and even a Tequila Fountain!.  On Christmas Day we had some soldiers over for dinner and then spent the evening in another friend's home for food and drinks, I already mentioned Christmas Eve, then Christmas Eve Eve, a quiet afternoon at our house ended in a late evening with 20 or so of our closest friends, before that we had Jose's company party and then there was Halloween and a big party in the neighborhood.  Leading up to the Halloween event there was a weekly "movie night" at different homes where a children's movie was projected on the wall outside and then after the movie the adults sang Karaoke until the wee hours of the morning.  The idea of the movie night was too charge a small admission and sell concessions (including beer) to make money for the Halloween event.  The day after Halloween there was a "Power Outage Picnic" where the whole neighborhood gathered on the soccer field with BBQ grills and coolers since no one had power for the day.  We've also celebrated both  Jordan's and Everett's birthdays this fall.  These kids birthday parties are just as much for the kids as the adults and they can last from 2 in the afternoon until the late hours of the night!  We've also attended many other birthday celebrations for friends, and the neighbor kids - we've even sung along with live Mariachi bands and have learned to like Tequila- ALOT (well not really)....  We've also managed to take a trip to North Carolina to see Jose's family for Thanksgiving.  We had a great time - Boys did indoor Sky Diving, and we even had a visit from our good friends John and Jolie Woods.  We traded stories and talked about what a lousy blogger I am.  John wanted to know why I didn't BLOG more about some of my experiences - such as getting rear ended by a BULL (it's true - I did.  He even put a big hole in the back of my car).  So among my New Year's Resolutions - I promise to try and be a better BLOGGER and to BLOG about the things you really want to hear about!!  

Everett & Jordan's Halloween Costumes

Homer & Marge Simpson 

Men at the Power Outage Picnic

Kids at the Power Outage Picnic

Tequila!

The Ladies at the Power Outage Picnic

Jordan's Bday Pinata

Everett's Starwars Party

Fresh Okra picked Christmas Day
with the Soldiers we hosted

   

Electricity

I know it's been a while - where has the time gone?!  As is everyone, we have been pretty busy these past few months.  I figured with school starting this was a good time to get back to posting!  So many things I need to catch you up on but today only a quick story about electricity.

One of the biggest hassles we have here is paying our bills.  We have to withdraw money from the ATM on base, convert it to the local currency of lempiras (we can do that on base too), then go to the bank of the merchant to pay the bill directly in to their accounts.  We may or may not have an actual "bill" to pay it from so sometimes we forget - like with the cable bill and the Internet, which I must tell you we've have each disconnected at least once since we've been here....  Due to the daily limit restrictions on the ATM bill paying could sometimes take a few days since we have to pay rent, school for the boys, electric, cable, and internet all the same way.  Did I mention that we have to go to different banks?  I loathe paying bills here....

Like the good wife that I am, I ran around paying everything that was due or would become due while the boys and I would be in the States so that my husband wouldn't have to worry about any of it (since he is at work during most of the banking business hours).  There was one bill that we didn't get to - the electric bill.  Jose insisted that it was no big deal and that he would take care of it (I really should have known better) but I left it alone.  June came and went and the bill didn't get paid, July came and went and we were just busy - the bill came (it gets tucked in the crack of the door of the house) but we were travelling and then getting settled back in to routine and well it didn't get paid either.  

One day while Jose was at work some guys showed up in a truck in front of the house so I went out to see what they wanted.  They spoke in Spanish of course and I had no idea what they were saying.  I called to Jordan's friends who were upstairs playing to come and translate.  They explained to me that the men were here to cut the power and that we owed 6 thousand something lempiras for the past 2 months.  Needless to say I was NOT too happy with my husband.  I called him at work to tell him what was about to happen as my visitors pulled a ladder out of the back of their truck and leaned it against the pole where the power lines were. I exchanged some not so nice words with Jose as he assured me they wouldn't cut the power off.  He asked to speak to the guys they just smiled and continued with their mission.  Once more Jose assured me that they wouldn't turn the power off and that he was in the car headed to the bank to pay.  The house went dark.... I was livid!!

Within the hour Jose showed up at the house with "Moncho", a worker from the neighborhood.  Moncho smiled at me as he jogged over to a new home construction site just across the street from us, grabbed a ladder, then quickly shimmied up the pole with his little work bag and reconnected our power in less than 5 minutes.  Jose paid Moncho 150 Lempiras (about $7.00) for his trouble and then gave him a ride back home. In Honduras everything can be fixed - if you have the right connections!  

2 Hospital Visits in One Week

     Several weeks ago at a birthday party, Jose learned that one of our neighbors, Sara, was active with a local mission.  What a perfect opportunity for Moire, he thought, to volunteer.  Sara works for a company called LaFarge, and they support Operacion Sunrisa (Operation Smile).  LaFarge supports the mission each year when they come and Sara helps to find volunteers and acts as the liaison between the two organizations.  Jose got to talking with her and decided to take up a collection among the Harris employees to donate to the mission as well. 
     If you aren't familiar, Operation Smile is a National Organization.  They do surgeries all over the world changing lives one smile at a time.  They fix Cleft Palettes, and Cleft Lips.  I spent 2 days the hospital and witnessed first hand how amazing this organization is.  A public service announcement is put out in  the local papers, and word is spread that the mission is coming.  Anyone in need of surgery can come to the screening which is held the first day the team is in town.  Most of the patients are infants and small children.  Some of the patients come for their 2nd, 3rd and 4th surgeries.  Patients are only turned away if they are too young (I think the minimum age is 6 months), to thin (there is a weight limit), anemic, or too sickly to undergo the surgery.  Some of the babies with this birth defect are malnourished - not only because they are in such poverty, but also because the defect prevents them from being able to properly latch on to a bottle and  suck.  After the screening, patients get their surgery date and they wait for this life changing event to happen.  
     The surgeries are done at the local public hospital.  The Public Hospital was a shock all by itself.  Think of an old public school building with no central air conditioning, no toilet paper in the bathrooms, flies buzzing around, several (and I mean like 6-8) beds in a room - no sheets, no pillow, no blankets, no meals delivered to the room and very few nursing attendants.   My description can get the image started, but words cannot describe the overall feeling I got from being there.  To get to the wing of the hospital that this group would be occupying for the mission you had to go out side, behind the main building, step over rubble, go around some old baby beds and other miscellaneous objects, and dodge a guy mixing concrete by hand.  The part of the hospital that they used was the maternity ward, so the 6 or so young teenage girls in labor waiting to deliver were shoved into a corner of the hallway to pace the floor (labor and delivery in the public hospital is a separate story all together).  
      My job was to play with the kids who were waiting for surgery.  There were about 20 scheduled per day, with the more complicated ones done on the first day because they would be the only ones staying the night.  The patients having only their lips done would be released the same day (can you imagine?)  Of course, my Spanish skills are in the development stages so at first things were a little awkward, but it wasn't long before we started to bond.  One of the administrators introduced me and then I spent the next two days coloring, bopping a beach ball back and forth, and holding crying babies to give the moms a break.  It was difficult at first to see such distortion on these young babies and small children.  It was just so so sad.  Most of the moms were teenagers.  They had traveled as many as 9 hours by bus to get here.  Many were dirty and so were some of the kids.  I can't even imagine how they had been shunned by their communities and even their own families, or how much this opportunity will mean to them.
     Jose's coworkers ended up raising just over $500.00 to donate to the mission.  They were thrilled and said they would use the money to feed the families that were there.  How great is that?  The second day the ones that had stayed overnight were happy to see me and were so proud to show me their sweet babies' new faces.  What an amazing feeling.  It was difficult to maintain my composure.  Not much I can say to describe the feelings I felt, but so happy to have been a part of this event that truly changed these lives forever.  I hope to be a part of this mission project again next year.  These pictures were taken from their website - I don't have any from this trip.





Before...












After.....

So a few days later..... I had the chance to experience the Private Hospital - as a patient!  After visiting Texas - I discovered I had some poison ivy on my arm. 

 My mom had it and so did Lee, but the kids did not. The only thing we could figure is that we got it from Everett's clothes since he still likes to be carried, and on Lee and I, it was in the crook of our arm.  The problem was that it just kept getting worse.   As soon as it was gone - something else started breaking out on my neck and on another place on my arm.  I took Benedryl but it didn't seem to help.  I was going crazy! 

 I felt like I was itching everywhere.  

My friend here recommended that I go to the hospital.  I thought - surely not!?  

I ended up going with Alejandra, who is an administrator at the hospital.  She took me into the E.R. and translated for me since no one spoke any English.  A young doctor (who spoke English) came and took a look at me, and told the nurse to start an IV!!! I couldn't believe it.  The nurse was super nice - no English and NO GLOVES, but she got it done.  The IV was attached to a carabiner type hook that slid on a pole above my bed and across the other beds in the ER.  Interesting... but so much nicer than the Public Hospital!  About an hour later, the nice young Dr. said he'd like me to consult with the Dermatologist to see if she might could figure out what caused the reaction.  My friend, Alejandra was awesome.  She checked on me periodically and translated when necessary.  The Dermatologist came and determined that it wasn't something that I ate (because if it had been, when she scratched it with her tongue depressor, it would have raised up?),  she said it could possibly be from my old school fillings disintegrating (I think not!) but maybe not, and finally she concluded that I would need to come back in a few days and take a battery of tests at the lab to determine what it was....  After a few hours of the IV I was back to normal.  I got a prescription for like 4 different (benadryl-ish) things and took them for the prescribed time and never went back for the tests.  I'm good......

Semana Santa in Comayagua

 Semana Santa is a BIG deal in Honduras.  This is the celebration of Easter and it lasts a Lonnnnggg time.  The kids are out of school for 2 weeks, everyone is off of work for a few days, families travel to the beach and other places and many people come to Comayagua to see the processions of the "Santa Via Crucis" or Stations of the Cross, and the saw dust carpets.  All week long there are church services, live re-enactments leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus and processions in the streets.  On Thursday night around
midnight, the Bomberos (firemen), clean the streets and different organizations, families, businesses, catholic groups and local families get to work.  They prepare the carpets until 9am in the morning when the Processions of the Santa Crucis trample their hard work- its amazing and very beautiful.  We arrived at the cathedral square around 7:15 and there was already a crowd.  Jose had to work so we wanted to get in early and see the sites.  All natural materials are required for the carpets.  Most are constructed with colored sawdust and some contained salt, rocks, seeds, coffee, cinnamon shavings, tamarind shells, and flowers.  Ladders were placed at many of them so that you could climb up and take photos.   Not sure just how many there were - they went on for blocks and blocks.  We saw the group of people (not sure what they are called) that would carry the crucifix and watched them march in hooded robes and carrying staffs it was a little creepy, and then we saw the beginning of the main procession right before we were leaving.  It was very cool to see - so many people were out and about.  The tradition and the cohesiveness of the Honduran people was awesome.  There was even a carpet that was a work in progress where the kids could pick a frame and then fill it with sawdust with the help of volunteers.

 Midweek we were invited to go to some friend's of ours' family picnic.  In our neighborhood there are oh maybe 50 houses or so.  A few Americans, but for the most part they are Honduran families, and most of them are related in some way or another!  We were very touched to get the invite to the picnic.  The father of many of our friends is the man who owns the whole golf course.  He started this neighborhood from a dream and it has really flourished.  He is the one who wanted to invite us.  It was a great day under a huge tree on another part of the Golf Course that isn't yet developed.  Kids had a ball, and we had a great time too.  The main dish at the picnic was fried fish- the WHOLE thing.  Eyeball included.  It was actually very good - I ate it and then Jose finished it up for me.  I wasn't about to eat the skin, or the tail!

 Later in the week (on Easter Sunday) we hosted an American Easter Egg Hunt here in our neighborhood.  It was the best!  With help from our good friend Uncle Stevie - we had hundreds of eggs and American candy hidden here in an area of the golf course.  The kids were so excited!  We probably had about 35 kids and their parents come afterwards we ordered pizza and the kids played in the streets and ate their candy.  Everyone is already talking about doing it again next year.

Tela

Last weekend we took a trip to the beach to celebrate my big 4 - 0 birthday!  It was awesome!  We went to Tela which is a sleepy beach town just over a 3 hr drive from here.  It was just perfect.  The place we stayed at was called VillaMar. In the 70's it was part of the Chiquita Banana plantation where the executives lived.  The boys were so happy.  We spent the whole weekend in the hot sun lounging on the beach or by the pool.  The resort property was pretty big.  It was all inclusive with several restaurants to choose from, activities, entertainment and a private beach with shade, chairs etc.  The beach was very clean and the water was super clear.  It felt a little Jamacia-ish with the Garafuna people walking up and down the beach selling Pan de Coco (Coconut bread), offering over and over to braid your hair (not sure how to say this in Spanish but I figured out what they meant), and young boys selling coconut water.  They carried fresh coconuts and if you bought one (which we did) they did some fancy cutting with their machettes cutting off the top so you could drink.  They even had straws. 

 It was neat.  One of the little girls selling Pan de Coco sat and chatted with us for a bit.  Her name was JoAnn and she spoke French, Spanish, and a little bit of English.  She was 11 and attended school.  We talked with another gal (didn't catch her name) but she wanted to braid my hair I kept telling her later and she would ask why not now?  She was 20, and had 2 small children.  Her little boy was one and her little girl was 5.  She also had a 5 year old sister.  Her daughter's name was Genesis.  When I first asked her I thought she told me the girl's name was Hennesy - I even repeated Oh Hennesy?... and she said Yes! Hennesy... I said you mean like the drink?  She said no, like the first book in the bible.  I was a tad embarrassed. Very nice people, and they were very interested in us as Americans.  Early in the morning the mamas would come walking out on the beach.  They were dressed in brightly colored sun dresses and carried huge baskets on their heads.  The baskets were filled with the Pan de Coco that would be disbursed to the younger ones to sell.   All in all it was a great trip and we've already made reservations to go back in April.  

We've been here 2 months today and it's starting to feel like home.  The boys are doing really good in school.  Jordan got his first progress report and has all As and one B so we were happy with that.  We did just find out that he should actually be in the third grade here because of when his birthday falls.  Oh well - I think we will just leave things be.  We finally got a housekeeper.  Her name is Julie.  She comes twice a week and we pay her 200 limps (which is about 10.00) each time she comes.  Jordan was super excited to learn that she will cook for us, and he asked if she could please please please make him lunch on the days that she comes.  He said to tell her just to make him whatever she would make for her own kids.  The first day she came she made some tortillas and some kind of ground beef/potato mixture with their version of salsa to go on top.  He was so excited to get it at school because many of the other kids have housekeepers that do the same on a regular bases.  The problem is that she doesn't speak any English.  It actually stresses me out a bit to have her here because we have a very difficult time communicating.  She has only made lunch that one day.  One of Jose's coworkers uses Julie and that's how we found her.  Carolina is the coworker's wife.  She is from Chili and speaks perfect Spanish.  Carolina translates for me but that is quickly getting old....  We'll see how this works out.  Julie is only 25.  She has 4 kids.  9,7,4 and 2.  Her husband is a farmer.  She rides a bus an hour each morning to get to Comayagua then I pick her up on the side of the road.  She needs the work.

One of our new favorite things to do is to feed the stray dogs.  We look forward to it every morning.  The hungrier the better - we like em skinny!  We are often in a hurry in the mornings so the boys sometimes eat a bagel w/peanut butter, or a waffle on the ride to school.  Most of the time they don't finish it so we have leftovers for the dogs!  Everett will get in the front seat and point out the dogs to me and then we pull over and toss it to em.  Sometimes they get scared and don't eat it but most of the time they are happy pups.  Every time it makes our hearts happy!  Jose is not so excited about the idea so we usually wait till he is already out of the car.  Another thing that makes our hearts happy is Olga.  She is a housekeeper somewhere in our neighborhood and last week we started giving her a ride home.  It is so hot here and almost every day when we leave to get Jordan from school we see her walking up this big hill in the neighborhood.  I think she walks to the front gate and then gets a taxi from there, but from now on when we see her - we give her a ride.  Not sure exactly where she lives but she is so appreciative to get a ride to the school where we pick up Jordan.  She doesn't speak any English either but she is really happy and smiley and loves Everett.  He talks to her all the time (in English) but neither of them care.  Jose is not too excited about this either but we do it anyway!