Monday, December 15, 2008

Thursday, December 4, 2008

November!

I've been optimistic thinking I could get an internet connection fast enough to upload pictures to our blog again. I've been waiting to post until I got the pictures but it seems that it is taking too long. I noticed that the last time I posted was over a month ago. I is time for an update!
We had a nice November. We spent our weekends exploring parts of Copan. A couple of weekends ago we hiked up to a little village called La Pintada. It is known for the corn husk dolls and woven cloths that the women make. The women make them and then the children sell them in town. We were bombarded with children as we entered the village. Fresh gringo meat. It was so funny to see them stop playing and pick up their bags of dolls. They stayed with us the entire time, following us around even though we told them we didn't want any. I really enjoy the picture of the girl and the dog following David and Zach.

This past week we enjoyed many wonderful meals in celebration of Thanksgiving. The school hosted a traditional American meal complete with turkey, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. We had the dinner at the director of the school Norma's house. She lives in a house up in the hills that is beautiful. It has a great view of the town of Copan and the surrounding mountains. The entire staff, American and Honduran alike were there. We had a great time and it felt very festive.

On Thanksgiving we started out our day by hiking up to a house up in the mountains. A lady who cleans at the school, Eva, invited us to come with her to visit her mother. Her mom lives up in the mountains about a 45 minute hike from any real road. Their house was made of mud and sticks and was very modest. We brought meat and beans and rice and the women made a delicious meal over the fire. We then walked down and went to see Eva's new house which is in the process of being built. She and her husband have saved for a long time to buy the land and get the materials to build a house. It is a cement house and all the walls are done. They have the forms ready to pour the cement roof. They have worked so hard together on the house and have basically done it all themselves. We admire their hard work and dedication as a couple. That is a rarity around here.

In the afternoon we went to a Thanksgiving potluck hosted by one of the teachers at Mayatan. We brought mashed potatoes that we made using our little pots and pans. It was quite an adventure. The meal and company were excellent and it was as close as it could be to a meal at home. We had the rest of the weekend off and our friends Daryl and Sarah from Bellingham came to visit us. We pretended like we were on vacation and wen to see all of the tourist sights around Copan. We went to the ruins on Saturday and also the bird park. On Monday we went to a place called Aguas Calientes which are hot springs where they have pools of water filled with naturally hot water. We spent the day there and had a picnic. It was the first time we had been there and we plan on going back sometime.Overall it has been great here. This weekend it was about 85 degrees each day. This week it has been a little colder but nothing like fall in the Northwest. We are looking forward to the 18th of December when we get to head to Costa Rica. We ended up getting cheap plane tickets that are only about $25 more than what it would have cost to take the bus but about 22hours less of a time commitment. We are thrilled!