Javiercito

Remember how I said everyone at work was making fun of Javi's hair?

This email (a word document) was going around the office today. I couldn't figure out how to post it on the blog so I just took a picture of it.

Every time I see it I laugh uncontrollably. I sent it to Javi's mom and she said she laughed so hard she cried!!!

Funny!

Where did June go?

June just flew by.

The day after we arrived home from the States, at 7 am, our work (the Programa Comayagua Colonial) started calling. The annual planning meeting was starting that day up in Puerto Cortes and they wanted to make sure we were going with them. For being the "planning meeting," not a whole lot of planning went into actually telling us when it would be happening, since calling us VERY early the day after we got back from a long trip doesn't really constitute fair warning.

We joined them up there in Puerto Cortes the day after. Here is a picture of some of the group, the last day of the meeting when some of us spent the afternoon at the beach:



Puerto Cortes was the site we almost had.... We were supposed to go there but our site was changed last minute to Comayagua when there were too many security incidents on the road between San Pedro Sula and Puerto Cortes (the only access to the city).

We didn't see much of the city since we spent most of the time there at the hotel in meetings. I felt slightly sad that we didn't get the beach town as our site, but not really since I like our set up in Comayagua.

This is a picture of an abandoned boat right off the beach in Puerto Cortes. Apparently the story is it was left by some "narco traficantes" (drug traffickers) and sat in the bay for many years. Then, when Hurricane Mitch (the storm of the century here in Honduras) hit about 10 years ago, it was washed up and now sits in about 3-4 feet of water almost on the shore.

So, after the frantic and last minute trip to Puerto Cortes, we arrived home just to turn around and go back up to the North Coast a day and a half later. A long while back we had promised some friends we'd meet up with them that weekend in Triunfo de la Cruz, a little Garifuna town near Tela.

Here is a picture of a friend we made, named "Vicki Fresh:"

We met Vicki Fresh when he swam up to us in the ocean and just started singing reggae/rap songs in Garifuna and Spanish. He was fun and it's always nice to get to know the locals but he sort of outlived his welcome with us (he spent a lot of time with us), especially when he started asking for money. That, and we were all couples and he was sort of a 5th wheel. Oh well. I'm sure we will all never forget Vicki Fresh....

Here are some other pictures from Triunfo de la Cruz:

Then, as soon as we arrived from Triunfo de la Cruz back to Comayagua, we had something else waiting for us to do.....an intense 3 day workshop with us teaching a majority of the material. The workshop was for other peace corps volunteers who are not in the business project but are working with small businesses in their sites. We gave a crash course on how to write a business plan, keep accounting records, figure product costs, etc. It was a fun experience but at the same time very tiring.

After all the madness, we were sitting at home on Thursday night enjoying the peace and quiet. As we were sitting there, Javi decided, out of the blue, he wanted to cut his hair.....all of it. We did it.

Here are the before and after pictures:





People at work acted like it was the craziest thing ever and literally stared and commented for like 10 minutes the first day they saw him with the new hair-do. It was quite a scandal and they are still giving him a hard time about it.

Well, we are enjoying the return to our normal schedule. Its nice to be back and enjoy a quiet and peaceful weekend at home.

US Trip

Wow what a whirlwind!

We just returned from a 12 day trip to the States. We went to 5 cities (Las Cruces, NM – Albuquerque, NM – Temple, TX – Killeen, TX – Austin, TX), stayed in 4 different houses and at our best guess saw 50 people. (That 50 people was our estimate of only people we “visited with” and doesn’t include many wedding guests, etc.)

We didn’t take a single picture in Las Cruces while we saw my family and only a few while in Albuquerque with Javi’s family. Sometimes you forget when you are just comfortable and relaxing at home. Both moms cried when we arrived and when we left. Its hard to be away so long...

Here is one of the few pictures we took while in NM - a picture with Javi’s dad, bottling homemade wine:

Some good Albuquerque friends threw a “surprise” birthday for Javi’s 30th on Sat, June 7th. It was so fun!! (I say “surprise” because Javi knew something was up but didn’t know the details of the get together or who was going to be there.) Unfortunately this get together was one of those times we slacked off on photos.

Being home was fantastic and we did not feel that much culture shock at all. We did notice things, but didn’t feel weird about being back. We noticed how POLITE everybody was to each other and noticed people’s respect for personal space. There was also the shopping factor – so many things to buy in the stores, all labeled appropriately and neatly organized.

We also felt the passage of time (the almost year and a half we have been here) while visiting with friends who have kids. They are so much older and bigger!

Things were easy and convenient – not only because of the American lifestyle but just speaking your own language all the time and being in your own culture (you know the cues, the right things to say, how to act in certain situations, etc).

After leaving New Mexico we flew to Texas for our friends’ wedding. First, we had a visit with my grandma in Temple:

My Uncle Keith showing off his new motorcycle and tattoos:

And our good friends Paul, Breanne and their daughter Isabel:

Sebastian and Erin's wedding in Austin was BEAUTIFUL!!!! (and FUN!!!) I felt so lucky to be part of it in the wedding party.

Here is Erin as she came down the aisle with her dad:

She looks fantastic!

The ceremony:

The wedding party:

First dance:

Most all the guests stayed at the hotel were the wedding took place. We stayed up late celebrating. At one point during the evening somebody discovered that on top of the tv entertainment centers in each room there were antique hats in hat boxes. One person started wearing on and it caught on. Eventually lots of people were wearing the silly hats. Here is a photo with a friend (also named Sara).

Sebastian and Erin rented a “party boat” the day after the wedding. (The wedding was actually on Friday evening so they decided to carry on the festivities through the next day.) The boat goes out on Lake Travis and a good group of friends can hang out, swim and have a good time.


The Austin crowd likes to have a good time!


What a crazy trip! Two good things came out of it - 1, We're really excited to go home and get back into the swing of things. We have a wonderful country! but 2 - We are glad to have a little more time down here in Honduras to enjoy those things that are different and unique from back home. Just a little over 10 more months left to enjoy it!

Javi turns 30

On Saturday we had a party for Javi's 30th birthday. I personally don't know (yet) but I hear the event can be a hard time on some so we wanted to bring in the new decade in style.

First we made dinner with some good gringo friends. A few people came in from out of town.





Afterwords the Honduran crowd (and a few European ladies) started to show up.

We had cake. Javi's face got pressed into the surface of it before we cut it up, and because people were chanting "Que le besa" Javi gave me a kiss and shared his icing

Look at that face!

Later on we played games and there were some water balloons involved....

Here is Javi with Emil, the guy he works very closely with at the Escuela Taller. These kinds of things build camaraderie which goes a long way when trying to get work done here.

We are still recovering from the night's festivities!

Anyway, we are off to the States on Tuesday to spend almost 2 weeks at home with family and friends AND to attend the wedding of two good friends who will be getting married in Austin. We are VERY excited to go home, as you can imagine! If theres a chance, I'll post a little something, but otherwise it'll have to wait awhile til I get home. Of course, thats no different than how we post here. But maybe we might have some interesting things to say and some random insights after being away from home for almost a year and a half now.