Home Again

Well I made it back safely! Yesterday morning, I got up about 3 (Honduran time) and left for the airport and said my goodbyes. Then, I took a plane from Tegucigalpa to San Salvador with a small layover before catching a plane to Miami. I survived customs who didn't even look at anything I had and waited a couple hours until my next plane. I had some lunch in the airport, called my parents to let them know I was back in the US and got ready for my next flight to Memphis. At Memphis, I had a light dinner. The plane had some sort of electrical problem where it wouldn't turn on or something so it left about 45 minutes late but I finally made my way from Memphis to Greensboro where I found my parents and Amy waiting for me. How could you not smile after not seeing them for 6 weeks...

Yes mom and dad were waiting for me when I got off the plane
and even Amy with her new camera.

And as promised,
my Krispy Kreme donuts were waiting for me in the car

Then we had a 2 hour ride home but I did finally make it home about 1:30 this morning.

Oh and don't worry, I didn't eat 2 dozen donuts...I only had 4 yesterday and 3 more today...

3..2..1..

Since I am leaving at 6am Tuesday morning, I don't count that as one of my days in Honduras so I have three days left.

Yesterday, Kate and Anne came to the city for the weekend and are staying with Claudia. We went to the mall near Claudia's and managed to cross a few streets and make it back in the dark to her house. Then Claudia made us banana milkshakes and took us to rent a movie. We watched Dan in Real Life. It was pretty funny but I was the only one laughing at most of the jokes. Oh well.

Today, I went to the Chimenika with Kevin and am spending the weekend with the Nuñez family. The Chimenkia is an interactive museum. It was pretty cool but it would have been even better if I could have understood the tourguide. My favorite part with this house where inside, the floors are slanted so it's like you're falling over but really you're standing up straight but you don't look like it.

On Monday, I have to meet up with Claudia in the afternoon to go to TACA to precheck in and then Tuesday morning I'll be making my way back to NC where, upon my request, mom, dad, and amy will will greet me with a box of Krispy Kreme donuts!!! They have dunkin donuts here but I've always been a Krispy Kreme girl...

The End Has Come...Almost

Today I visited my last site to photograph.  It was the Escuela Experimental (Experimental School) that Jennifer taught at.  Everyone remembered her and by everyone I mean the principal because that's the only person I met.  So now I have a few edits left and then some write ups and I will be completely finished.

Claudia, the lady I'm staying with (this past Monday stretched til next Tuesday) answers questions for a talk radio show every Thursday.  I went with her today to listen.  It was really awesome.  I got to go inside the soundroom and even got a tour of downstairs where small radio stations operate.  The particular station the show she helps out with just happens to be the one all of Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua listen to and sometimes people from the U.S. call if they can pick it up.

By the way, 

America means the americas (north or south) 

NOT the United States of America.  

So if you say you're American, 

they will say they are too.

It was really cool to sit in on the show and get the tour and see how everything works.  They even had a Q&A session where people called in and now I know how they get people set up for that.  It was really cool.  The most exciting thing was that I got my picture with the microphone.

Claudia's work had a barbeque I got to go to.  Their "barbeque" is like our cookout or grill.  I don't think they know what a real barbeque is...  There was lots of meat - steak and sausage - plantanes, beans, tortillas, pepper sauce, and fruit for dessert!  There was also swimming and music and lots of words I still don't know!!  It was fun though.

Now that I am almost finished, it has started to sink in that I will be headed home in a few days... 5 to be exact

Final Assignments

Here are the pictures of the baskets.  Pretty sweet!!

One guy makes the duck and more intricate baskets. 

But these are all the baskets they have made to sell.

And this is where they sell them.

This week I have two more schools to take pictures of and then I will be through except for the editing which could take a while since I just took 200 pictures in the past two days.  

Last night, Claudia took me to her sister's house because they have a really great view of the city at night from their balcony.  It was gorgeous.  Unfortunately, I didn't have my tripod but luckily, the ledge on the window was wide enough I could use that as my substitute tripod.

She also took me to a coffee and tea place which was really cool.  It was very outdoor meets indoor but you're still kind of outside.  I had the most popular kind of tea which had some jasmine ginger and something else.  It was pretty tasty.  Then she took me to a bakery where I got a flan slash yogurt type substance with cherries and pineapple in it.

Today, Claudia and one of her friends took me to see El Picacho or the Jesus statue (the small version of the Brazilian one).  It was quite large though.  

There were some amazing views too.

And not just because I'm in the picture...

Back in the City

I´m back in the city to take pictures now. I am staying at Claudia´s house until Monday. Yesterday, I went to a hospital and a nursing type home for people who don´t have families and can´t live by themselves. They make these awesome baskets to sell. My computer is back at the orphanage so I don´t have pictures to show you right now.

I also went to the market with Claudia last night. First of all, all their fruit here and I mean ALL their fruit here is much larger than at home. But they are so much cheaper. Claudia got a couple pounds of tomatoes and onions and some carrots and peppers (probably about 7 lbs in all) for about 5 or 6 dollars. The market was really cool. It was outside but under a lot of tents connected together. There were boys there who had wooden carts and would carry your stuff around for you. There were a lot of people there but I did see one other white person which was a nice surprise. But since he had darker hair he didn´t draw as many stares as I did...

This afternoon, Claudia is taking me out to see the city and Sunday, I´m going to church with her. Monday, I´ll take some more pictures and then Tuesday, I´ll go back to the orphanage. Then a week later, I´ll be leaving for the states.

More News

So I broke down and tried to make some lemonade with those massive lemons. I only used one with lots of water and tons of sugar (they only have raw sugar here by the way) I made quite a mess but it still turned out pretty sour.

It was very refreshing
if you like that warhead sourness in your drink!

We also found our first pet. It was a tiny lizzard. Kate found him in our shower. He was an omen of things to come I suppose.

Next, a scorpion tried to call our shower home. This was my first scorpion sighting. It took us a while and some creative thinking to figure out how to get him outside.

As you can tell he was very threatening!

This week, I am meeting up with Claudia who is going to take me around to several different places to take some photos.

facebook, email, and other internet withdrawals

So it's been a while...probably about two weeks since I've had access to the internet. But now I'm here and ready to catch yall up on the past weeks. Going back to Utila which was when my last blog was posted.This is from one trip into town...
about a 30 minute walk from the hotel in Utila.

I also got a bad case of Honduran chicken pox...

only these came from walking at night and are often called bugbites. This is why I have to take malaria medicine I suppose. We were all scratching so bad that me and Kate made a bet that whoever scratched first (from the waist down) had to buy the other dinner. Well we all know how cheap I am...and stubborn. We lasted about 2 days before we called a truce.

On the left is Kate and to the right of me is Anne. They are the other World Hope Volunteers who are working at the orphanage. This was on the deck overlooking oh just the Carrabean...

After Utila we took a few buses to Copan which is my favorite spot in Honduras. It is the perfect mix of tradition and tourist stuff. We got to visit a bird sanctuary. I was a little disappointed because I thought the birds would be flying around but instead they were in cages. But it turned out to be really awesome because at one point of the tour, they had birds you could hold. I'm talking parrots not just parakeets.

I was excited.

These birds kept walking on my shoulders
and it tickled. I looked real cool I'm sure.

We also went to the Mayan Ruins. It was pretty amazing. Our tourguide used a stick with a feather on the end as a pointer. It was pretty hilar.

Anne and I took advantage of having a little fun where some people were probably sacrificed a few centuries earlier...

At the hotel, a few of us played spoons. Ultimate spoons where we had to run down the hallway. A couple was walking down the hall when someone got it and when we all went running by they immediately knew we were playing spoons. I guess it's universal because they had Australian accents. The second night we got fussed at for being too loud so we moved the game outside to the city square without running. It wasn't as much fun so I taught them the word game!!

Tim, Emma, myself, and Kate played along with Tristan
who called it an early night before we took the picture.

We also got to go horseback riding. The horses were small but that was ok since it was my first time. It was about 3 hours with a 30 minute break at the top of a mountain. Coming back down, we got to go through a river which was awesome.

My horse's name was chicaloca (crazygirl) and crazy she was. She kept stopping to try and eat. She was a road hog too. She wouldn't let any other horses pass her even though she was old. If a horse tried to get in front of her she would speed up. She also bit at another girl's horse when it tried to pass. I got stuck with her coming back down too. She made the trip interesting though.

Me on chicaloca

I left Kate and Anne at the orphanage and met up with the group at El Paraiso which is my favorite small town place. It is a poor town but the people there are amazing. I took some pictures and experienced my first 3 hour church service in which I understood close to nothing since it was all in spanish. I stayed with a family there for homestays and they were really nice. They couldn't speak english but we still had conversations with my elementary spanish. They didn't have running water because they city turned it off so I now know how to flush a toilet without running water and I also had my first bucketshower.

One day, the church had a game day for the community and of course there was soccer. Gringos versus the locals who made up about 4 teams. I was taking pictures but we lost all of them and were supposed to play the girls so it would be more even. I played in that game because they needed a more agressive girl. Or at least a more competitive girl. I scored while playing in my chacos. Oh yeah! We were tied 5-5 and had to have pks to decide the game. I scored another goal so I scored two goals that day when I usally never score. There must be something in the water here... But we won by one in the shootout.

I then made my way back to Tegus to take pictures for World Hope. I had a lot of interesting experiences there. But Casa Hogar is where I stay and is a lot nicer than I expected.

This is the view I get to see every morning when I wake up.

It's ok to be a little jealous

This is the view at night which is georgous

They have a little kitchen and running water. Although there is no hot water. I'm pretty sure no matter how many cold showers I have, I will never get used to it. I still can't get in all the way.

The kids go to bed after dinner which is at 5ish. So we have a lot of time in the guesthouse. We usually eat a snack. Kate is alergic to red 40 so I picked out all the red fruitloops so she could have a snack.

This is proof that I do help out every once in a while:P

I've also learned some valuable lessons here. One is don't leave your trash out overnight on the porch.

Or at least when there are two dogs that live here

Also sweeping really does no good.

We sweep every morning and this is what it looks like. It's mainly from bugs.

They have mango trees at the orphanage that the kids climb and pick. They are really sour but they have no problem eating them. They also showed us lemon trees . We picked some. They smell so good. And they are huge.

And by huge I mean HUGE

I also went to a barbeque with Chofa. I don't know where I went or what I took pictures of but I knew I had some good food. There were 6 of us. Kate came. We had grilled tortillas, beans, steak, and sausage. Ahhhh it was so good. One of the men had a lot of trees and plants and he was showing us around when a butterfly flew on his arm.

This is a butterfly or mariposa

We also went on like a ten minute walk to an overlook of the moutains. It was so beautiful.

The pictures fail miserably at showing how beautiful it is.

We also went on a hike. In the rainforest. Although there was like a path which was more like a road but cars aren't allowed back there. We walked and walked and walked for about 30 minutes to a waterfall they said was grande but it was pequeno.

It was still pretty. They wanted us to swim but it was too cold.
It's winter here but in the summer, everyone apparantly swims here.

At lunch, they showed us a chili pepper. They said it was really hot. Kate broke it open and put it on her tongue. Her mouth was burning for a good 10 minutes. Her eyes were a little watery too.

Rule of Thumb:
If the locals don't eat it and say it's hot
then you shouldn't either.

I also discovered my new favorite fruit. I'm going to butcher the spelling and just write it how it sounds because I have no clue how to spell it...maracuda. It is sweet but sour but not really. It is amazing.

We had this juice for lunch with our barbeque. I had several glasse. They had the plants at their house and they picked a few for us to take back. But sadly, they dont have these in the states.

This is a view from the poor part of Honduras. They have the best view while all the rich people live in the city. The opposite is true in the states...

Oh there was also a plane crash at the airport. The plane was landing when a local downpour started and the plane couldn't stop in time. This is the second most dangerous airport to fly into in the world because there is no room for error when landing. I got to see Honduran journalism at work. They don't block off the area like in the states. They taped and photographed everything. People were coming out all bloody and they showed one man receiving cpr. It was crazy. 5 people died including the co pilot and the president of the national bank and some people in cars. They are no longer letting the big planes fly in so I am going to have to leave from another airpot. So now I'll be finding my way around 2 airports instead of one where no one speaks english. Just one more way for me to work on trusting God!!