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!