Track, Granitas, and the Ballad of Billy Bob Joe

In a nest in the backyard, we found two baby doves that were still wet from the egg. They were nesting in the huge bougainvillea (here called Napoleòn).

Ranae hosted the Relief Society activity at our house on Saturday. She taught them how to make chocolate chip cookies. One of the ladies had never made any kind of cookie before. They compromised and made the batch with one stick of butter and one or margarine. Most people use margarine or manteca (not the city in California) and few actually use real butter, which of course is a superior way to make cookies.

We have been noticing what we call the Star Wars effect. We kind of feel like we are on Tatooine. If you recall during the scenes on Tatooine, there is a such a mix of fabulous technology and primitivity. We see the same here; no land speeders among camel-like caravans, but instead, people riding a horse, leading a burro with jugs tied on each side that they’ll use to fill with water for their house while talking on their Blackberry. Their house, without running water or an indoor bathroom, has a large, flatscreen TV with cable where they watch Phineas and Ferb. It is sort of like John Carter the movie—a mix of technology and simplicity.

Stuart: Monday was Honduran Father’s Day. They had an activity at the school, where I could come and eat lunch with my children in the school lunchroom. The note inviting me was also clear that I was to bring my own lunch. Then I got to play with the children. They had two waves of recess, so I got to play for a while with Aspen, then she had to go to her class, and then I played for the hour with the big boys. We played soccer—it was about 6 fathers against the 5-6th grade boy mob. We beat them, though they played really well. In the end it was sheer strength and awesomeness of the fathers that won the match. In sum, I had a great time playing with everyone there.

I was invited to go to the Biology Club dinner at the student cafeteria the other night. Supposedly, some students wanted to meet me and there was going to be a program of videos about the World Day of Water—an effort to conserve water and remind ourselves of the importance of water. The event, however, was just eating with students at the student cafeteria and a very loud (musical) presentation of slides about water on a screen on the side of the cafeteria. I took Henry, thinking it would be pretty cool for him, but nothing special went on and there was no formal event. The meat was pretty good though, with worchestershire sauce on it.

I started my mahogany project and transplanted a bunch of plants on Friday. I have to finish on Monday—make that Tuesday morning.

Jack (in blue T-shirt in First Place!!!!) ran the second leg of the Regional Youth activity (4 stakes in Tegucigalpa) at the Olympic Stadium. He did a great job and ran his heart out. Luckily he was able to rehydrate with Gatorade Thirst Quencher—Buy some today!

Henry: This coming Friday and for the next two weeks we will be off of school for Semana Santa [semana is technically 1 week, but we get two…] The electricity went out and had to use candles and flashlights. It was out for a few hours and so we didn’t have Scouts.

They painted the church inside and out. The floor is quite bright red, and in the classrooms the floor is bright white. They painted the walls brown [really a tan, up to about 3’ tall] and white. Me and Mom accidentally squished a snake while we were playing basketball. The snake was the size of a small earthworm. [it looked like a silver earthworm—Stuart saw something out there that looked like a legless lizard or something that wasn’t so snake-like. Dr. Gerson would know, but no pictures.]

Jack, Henry, Aspen, and Abe keep getting Granitas because they are great children at the school. During morning break, their teachers walk them over to the “Espresso Americano” cafe, where they can choose from tamarindo, orange, blackberry, blueberry, or pina colada flavored slushies. Henry thinks the orange are the best, like fresh-squeezed orange juice.

Ranae: On Monday I got a bag of tamarindo pods from our landlady. They have a hard crusty shell, which you crack and peel off to get at the seeds inside. The seeds are coated in a tough, chewy layer, which is what you eat. You pop it in your mouth to suck off the coating, which is as zingy as a lemon, with a nice sweetness, too. The children were delighted with the new treat. We ate them until our tongues burned from the acidity. Miriam made a delicious “refresco” drink with some. I think I would like a tamarindo tree in my yard someday. (None of us can figure out why Stuart no le gusta tamarindo.)

This week we also picked up a couple sugar canes that fell off one of the over-stuffed cargo trucks. We brought them home and everyone tried sucking on a chunk of cane after school. Interesting. Sweet. Fibrous. Definitely yummy, but then again, pretty much just like sucking sugar water out of a woody stick. We didn’t finish off the second cane.

Miriam is spectacular. Having help each day makes my life an absolute dream. I have to figure out how to take back home this feeling of ease and calm that comes from having less pressure to cook and clean each day. I find myself with more time to enjoy my children and respond to their needs and queries—more time to do my most important work. My afternoons after school are completely new—relaxed instead of packed and a bit hectic. Miriam said she would come home in my suitcase.

Midweek, Abraham found a cute little cockroach on our sidewalk. Yes, it was cute. At first he tried to spray it away with the hose, but it managed to outrun the flood, scurrying along like a tiny black ZuZu pet. Calla asked if she could pick it up. Swallowing my long-standing aversion to roaches, knowing that they are not dangerous, only disgusting, I said she could pick it up if she could catch it. She caught it, and as it tickled across her hand and arm, Calla sang to it, “Sigue el Profeta” (“Follow the Prophet”).



Abraham caught the cockroach in a 50 mL plastic test tube, filled the tube with water, and capped it with a blue screw-top lid. Abe shook the tube and watched the roach desperately swim up and down the tube. The older three children protested vehemently against Abe’s cruelty to the cockroach, so eventually he poured out the water. He then realized what a great pet he had found, and named the little creature “Billy Bob Joe.” He soon fell head over heels in love with his new friend and pinned all of his hopes for a childhood pet on this insect. The children let the roach out on our driveway, having a grand time watching it run along the cracks in the bricks. They played until dinner (well, until washing their hands before dinner).



Abe kept the tubed cockroach close during the meal, and rushed out after dinner to play some more. But alas! When he released the roach at one end of the driveway to have it run to the other side, Billy Bob Joe ran the wrong way, off the end of the driveway and into the planter box. He was lost amidst dirt and grass. Heartbroken and weeping, Abe ran into the house, straight to his bed, where he mourned like a professional, refusing comfort, questions, or even chocolate chip cookies (“Maybe later,” he told me between sobs). After a while, eyes puffy and red, Abe silently moved to the art table, where he used a black marker to draw a cockroach on a piece of cardboard and cut it out. He went outside and climbed in the hammock, gazing somberly at his drawing and swinging gently back and forth. Jack and I couldn’t decide if we should giggle or cry. Jack tenderly managed to get Abe smiling again, who finally accepted some cookies. And he asked me to write down a little epitaph on the back of his drawing: “This is Abe’s cockroach that he loved. He misses him very much. Abe tried to catch him, but he ran away into the dirt, and we tried to find him but we couldn’t. Abe misses him very much.” We are not sure we will ever have a pet like Billy Bob Joe ever again.

Aspen's Birthday and Honduran Baptism

Last Monday was Aspen’s baptism on her birthday. That was a great day for her and for all of us. Today was Central American Stake Conference, broadcast by satellite. It was Elders L. Whitney Clayton, Boyd K. Packer, and Don R. Clark (70), and Ann M. Dibb. They didn’t have translation headphones, so we listened in Spanish. Because Bros. Clayton and Clark both are Americans and native English speakers, but gave their talks in Spanish, they were pretty easy to understand for Ranae…and Stuart, too. The Primary choir was super great, as was the beginning Stake Choir. The conference was like eating a meal after a long time of eating very little. We met at the Uyuca Stake Center, a very pleasant, 3-story, pretty building. We hadn’t been in an official, actual Church building since mid-December, since the branch meets in a very old, converted clinica across the street from the billiard hall in a teeny town. One thing that struck Ranae and Stuart (after she pointed it out) was that the pictures in the halls had very vibrant colors—the golds, blues and purples stood out quite differently than in pictures we had seen in US church buildings. They were the best looking recreations of the life of Christ we had seen.

MangoWatch 2012! Mangos are the size of baseballs.

Aspen: I got baptized this week on Monday.
We had a Spanish party at school and we ate Honduran food.

Henry: We went to Tegucigalpa and got new clothes. I got some nice shoes (Puma) and a belt. In Tegucigalpa, my Dad bought donuts (“donas”) and orange juice for lunch. We left for Teguc at 9:22 and we came back at 4:19. I hung up my hammock in a shady, not rainy, spot in the yard. I get in it every day. Monday is Honduran Father’s Day.

Jack: I got new Sunday shoes, a nice belt that fits, and new dress pants. Mr. Andrew brought a dead dog skeleton to school. We smashed open the skull to see if the brains were there. They were not. Me and Dad watched about 2/3 of the movie Tintin. I drank some Grap Gatorade. That wasn’t a typo. The package really said “Grap” as the flavor. It turned out it was really grape Gatorade. I got a bus to honk at me today because the driver knows me, from last Saturday when we went to Tegucigalpa. I am probably one of the only two gringos in the Yeguare valley [where we live, about 30 km from Tegucigalpa] to have ridden that bus. It is called “Viejas Express” (It’s really called “Viajes Express” but I like calling it “Viejas Express” since that means “old woman express”).

Abraham: We made St. Patrick ’s Day stuff. I walked to the Puesto de ventas [the little store on campus that sells University and other products] for a field trip. Our field trip was about grocery stores. My teacher brought some money and I got a juice box and I had a little bag of little gummy teeth candies, and I had a tomate (that is how you say it [tomato] in espanol).

Ranae: On Monday morning, the day of Aspen’s baptism, we discovered that the baptismal clothes at the church were only adult-sized, and Aspen would drown in the abundance of fabric if she wore them. Thinking quickly, I remembered the white sheet on Jack’s bed and the sewing machine we are borrowing from Namiq—just the items we needed to whip out a skirt for Aspen’s baptism. Miriam and I worked together to sew, taking turns through the day with sewing as we saw to the other needs of the day—Miriam cleaning and cooking, I making cake for Aspen’s class and banana cream pie for our family’s birthday celebration. The final stitches went into the skirt just minutes before we had to leave for the church, and it turned out very cute. Pairing the skirt with a frilly white t-shirt, Aspen had a splendid white outfit for her baptism.

But the day was not mine; it was all Aspen’s. The guests she had invited came, including Miriam and her daughter, Fanny. Aspen graciously accepted the kind gifts many people brought. Once she changed into her white clothes, she looked and felt something special. She glowed. Sergia Maria brushed through her after-school-day hair and slid in a pearly headband. Her white clothes, her astoundingly blue eyes, her cascading hair, her easy and calm manner—she was beautiful.

She descended into the font, which, though recently cleaned, had caught a load of black ashes from a local field of burning sugar cane when we removed its cover. The water was brisk by all accounts. Stuart said the prayer in Spanish and performed the baptism.
Aspen came out of the water invigorated and happy. In her words, she said, “I want to get baptized again!” All the details of the day and the program—the talks, prayers, songs, guests, the uniquely bilingual nature of the event—all were ancillary to that moment for that girl and her decision to commit to live a life following Jesus Christ. Our prayers were answered that Aspen would have a memorable and happy baptism. She received the gift of the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands, and the ordinance was complete. Satisfaction and joy filled my heart.


Aspen invited Miriam and Fanny to join us for her birthday dinner, which they did. Stuart and I made it clear to Miriam that she was not on the job—we had not invited her to come cook or clean up for us. She was happy to relax and visit with the children while Stuart and I prepared the birthday feast (homemade chicken nuggets and French-fries). We enjoyed dinner, pie, a piñata (Henry broke the broomstick twice as he took his turn to whack), and Aspen’s last present of the day, which were her own set of scriptures in a Honduran purse. She was thoughtful and happy to receive her own scriptures. Stuart, Aspen, and Jack took Miriam and Fanny home, and we all were in bed a bit past time. It was the birthday that would never end, but I guess it finally did, having been filled to overflowing with all the sweet contentment a little girl’s eighth birthday should bring. I am so happy to be Aspen’s mom!


Stuart: I am working as a Visiting Professor at the Paul C. Standley Herbarium. That means I do projects with the herbarium and other things I am interested in doing. One thing I am doing is working as an advisor for two students’ Senior Thesis projects. This week, we had faculty meeting. For those of you that have been in a faculty meeting, they are the same in Spanish as in English—in nearly every way. A difference for me, however, is that I communicate much less clearly in Spanish, with little nuance, compared with my English. As a result, I probably got my students in trouble with my limited ability to communicate and know the University culture here, which is WAY different from most North American universities. The students are a little stressed out about that trouble they found themselves in, but as a result, we are moving forward rapidly on their projects, which is measuring phenology (timing of plant development stages, like flowering, leaf opening, fruiting, etc.).
I am also starting, this week, a project growing mahogany trees for an experiment looking at how changes in soil microbial environment influence seedling growth. I hope it is good enough to eventually publish the results. Mahogany is everywhere here—our doors, moldings, interior trim, built-in closets are all made of mahogany. I think it is on the CITIES list of endangered plants and animals that are treatied to not be traded. The US is a signatory on that list. I am, therefore, afraid that I won’t be able to bring any mahogany items back to the US, but I am going to check on that. I really like wood products and would like to bring back some well-crafted wood products from some local folks.

Miriam, Spanish and da Bus

This flower is about 8 inches or so long and about 4-5 inches wide. In Planet Earth a similar one of these is shown opening up at night and dripping nectar--Pollinated by night-flying moths.

March 11
Tomorrow is Aspen’s birthday and baptism in the Zamorano Branch in the Uyuca Stake in Honduras. That is exciting for everyone! Last night for our date Stuart and I drained the green water out of the outdoor baptismal font, swept out the leaves and sediment, and started to refill the font. The water source at the church, in fact in the entire little town in which the church is located, is unpredictable. We thought it best to start filling the font on Saturday while there was water to be had. Because the water pressure was low (and the missionaries said it can take up to 3 hours to fill the font) and we didn’t want to leave our children too long, we filled the rest of the water up today after church. We also added a bottle of bleach. We will borrow the necessary white clothes this evening, and we should be all set for tomorrow. Everything worked out OK.

And of course we’ll have a piñata at home after dinner. Aspen and I are working on making a unicorn out of some empty boxes. It is filled with coconut lollipops, cardamom-flavored hard candies, and sugar-free melon-flavored gum.

Right now Henry and Jack are hanging in their hammocks in the back yard. Swinging weightlessly in a gentle cool breeze is something like heaven (just ignore the occasional deafening roars of semi-trucks passing by). They are so glad to have figured out a place to hang the hammocks that they bought a couple weeks ago.

A few weeks ago Miriam told me that she wishes she could learn to be a seamstress or a beautician, but can’t afford the training. So I have been plotting. Aspen needs some skirts for school, we need a couple of tablecloths to cover our utilitarian plastic dining table, and Miriam needs to learn to sew. A couple weeks ago I went with our landlady to Teguc to the fabric store (which, by the way, sells only fabric; all notions and threads and elastic, etc., you have to obtain at a separate store, and patterns are nowhere to be found). On Thursday I obtained a sewing machine from our friend Namiq, and on Friday I gave Miriam her first sewing lessons. She hemmed the edges of a piece of green gingham fabric for a tablecloth. She laughed about her attempts at sewing a straight line, which she observed were more like zigzags. And when she accidentally lowered the needle through my finger, it only slid under the top layers of skin, drawing no “sangre.” However, she is a quick learner and good with her hands, and I suppose she will quickly zoom through any lessons I have expertise to teach her.

Miriam taught me how to make “pastelitos”—little fried empanadas made from a seasoned corn tortilla and filled with mashed potatoes. They were tasty, especially with a topping of a simple cabbage-lime juice-tomato salad. These are a recipe we will import back to the States with us. We look forward to sharing them with you!

Talking with Miriam every day is really helping my Spanish. It seems everyone in Honduras is speaking more clearly these days. They are saying more things that make sense and are interesting. I realized that, when I can’t understand a conversation in Spanish, I automatically assume that the things being said are not interesting, or not funny, or are about topics that are out of my understanding. I catch myself being surprised when I understand a joke or conversation and realize that these people do talk about ordinary things that, in fact, are relevant to my life. I am on an uphill trajectory, but still quite near the bottom of the hill of mastering this language. Whenever I relate to Stuart something that Miriam told me, I do so with the “Miriam caveat,” which is that I think this is what she communicated to me.

We all get a giggle out of the funny English of the children at the school. They use English words in Spanish format, saying things like, “How many years do you have?” or “How is she called?”

One of the main meeting rooms on campus.

Abe has started really trying to speak Spanish. He loves to have little Spanish exchanges with Miriam, with Jorge the groundskeeper, or with the guards at the entrance to campus. Everyone is quite friendly here, greeting strangers on the sidewalk and always smiling and waving. Abe calls out “¡Buenos!” as we pass by. Calla has started loving to do the same.

The language barrier continues to be particularly problematic at church. The children don’t understand much, and the fledgling Primary is not always well-organized. Sometimes it is very hard to spend three hours sitting still and being reverent when nothing they hear is comprehensible. However, they are good sports. And our family religious instruction has become more precious and effective. We love Family Home Evening! Every Monday we all gather for an awesome evening of singing, talent-sharing, treats, and a lesson. Calla has been put on the roster of participants. She loves her opportunity to shine each week—and shine she does, whether as teacher, chorister, conductor, or Spanish-word instructor. Her enthusiasm and dedication have refreshed and inspired us all in our love for this family tradition. I feel how essential this time is for our children to learn and love the gospel.

Jack: Me and Dad rode on a “chicken bus” on Saturday. It was really loud. Weird Al probably wrote the song, “Another one rides the bus” after riding on a bus in Honduras. The bus played loud music the whole time through a bus-wide Pioneer sound system. On the way back from Teguc [about 45 min] I sat on the giant subwoofer in the back. It was probably 2’ tall, by 3’ wide by 1.5’ thick—large enough to fit under most of the seat of the bus. When they were playing “Party Rock Anthem” I got up and danced and sang [to the delight of the other youth on the bus]. When we got off the bus, the bus driver said “Adios Bailarina” [good bye dancer] or something like that. I hung up my hammock in the back porch.
We went to Teguc for the elimination trials track meet. Hardly anyone showed up, so we were all selected to run, since we were the only ones there. [this illustrates the blessings of doing your duty. Just for showing up, they got the blessing]

Henry: We went bug collecting with my dad and I caught some bugs. While we were collecting a pond was nearby and we saw a dead frog and at least 5 other live ones. We saw an owl at night. Dad took pictures of it. I hung up my hammock between two trees out in the back yard.

Aspen: [she didn’t have much to say today]
Calla: A banana or a bamama. She sings twinkle twinkle little star. She is growing up. She is still a wacky sleeper.

We leave you with a Tabebuia tree in full bloom!
Another variety is red and is the national tree of El Salvador.

Bees and Bugs

We haven't posted in two weeks, so this is our attempt. Ranae was foiled in posting something on this week, by not having the computer at home. She'll add her addendum later.

Jack: I won the spelling bee for all 6th graders in the bilingual schools in the Tegucigalpa area. The spelling bee was in English. My first word was represent. The second to last word was broccoli. I got a T-shirt from it and don’t have to wear my school uniform on Monday, because I can wear the t-shirt from the Spelling Bee. I went to a DNA lab and extracted DNA from a strawberry. It looked like white snot. We also made chocolate chip cookies using Ghirardelli chips we bought at the store here in Teguc. Last week we house sat for a guy at Zamorano who was in El Salvador. The house sitting also included walking their Siberian Husky, Old Jack. I got my picture taken with the Bimbo Bear. [Bimbo is one of the largest food companies in the world—they are in many different countries and it is usually pretty yummy (processed) food. Their mascot is a white bear with a chef’s hat. The name usually makes me chuckle just a little bit.] I signed up to ride the 400m race at the Uyuca Stake Jovenes Olympics that they will have in a few weeks. I will be doing training runs with the other jovenes [the short way to write Young men and Young Women]. We built a small brick wall at the church with me, Dad and the Missionaries.
We saw cheese and strawberry flavored ice-cream at the store. I got to go out for a Granita with my the Principal and Johny, kid in third grade with a cool watch, a kid in my class named Christian. I got a granita de mora. I won the drawing from respect tickets we can earn at school. I read the 7th Harry Potter book in 2 days this past week.

Aspen: I got a bunny rabbit to keep at my house for the week. It is named Pinky, but it is black. It eats vegetables and fruits, but not lettuce or beans. On Thursday, I made a windsock that has colored papers coming down from the bottom. When the wind blows the papers wave in the wind. I am going to be baptized and confirmed next Monday on my 8th birthday, probably. We walked Old Jack a few times. It was fun. He is really fast and strong. I got to wear some perfume from a girl named Yvonne. She also rides horses. While they were in El Salvador, I got to put on her riding helmet, gloves and riding boots. It was really fun and the boots were really big.

Henry: I got sick while dad was gone for 5 days on a bug collecting trip. I stayed home from school on Wednesday. While he was gone he saw and touched an adult wild crocodile. I got some medicine. I am pretty much better except for a cough and headache. We babysat a guy’s house while he was in El Salvador. We had to walk the dog. He was a husky and very strong and fast. He made me get pulled behind him. I am still learning Spanish and getting better. We went to Tegucigalpa yesterday and Jack won the Tegucigalpan spelling bee in English. We couldn’t watch the spelling bee because they think it will be too much pressure on the students. So while we waited for Jack to do his spelling, we went to a coffee shop. I got a drink of mora (blackberry or mulberry flavor) and an apple/pina pastry. We saw cheese and strawberry flavored ice-cream at the store. We’ll buy some eventually to test it. I got to go out for a Granita with my teacher and another kid in my class named Antonio. A granita is like a slushy. I got pina colada. I got to do this because I had the most “caught-ya’s” in my class. A “caught-ya” is when you get caught doing good things, like standing in line quietly, being ready on time.

Abraham: I watched the movie G-Force about the hamsters at Oliver’s house. I liked it. I played with a Zu-zu pet at their house. It was pink. I helped walk Old Jack. He was nice. I like chocolate chips here. I like minimos a lot. I like platanos.

The last two weeks have been pretty eventful. Abe got poked in the eye and a little chunk of his cornea was missing…which you could see. He seems to be better now, which is good. We were asked to house-sit for a colleague while he was giving a talk in El Salvador. They have a dog named Old Jack and he is very strong and fast. I would walk him some nights and mornings and Ranae walked him other days. I got a little sore running with him, but it was really great to do it. He is a good dog and convinced me that a Siberian Husky would be a good dog to have, if we had some space for him to roam—maybe someday.
I was out of town for the last week collecting insects at the main reservoir-hydroelectric dam for the ENEE. That is the Empresa Nacional de Energìa Elèctrica. This dam is the largest single provider of electricity for the country ~30% of the energy comes from here. They (the enee) control the watershed and wanted to do some monitoring of the biodiversity there. The reservoir is also home to the largest aquaculture production of tilapia in the world (according to the folks there). Supposedly, if you have eaten imported Tilapia, they came from here at AquaFinca (“water farm”).
The area around the reservoir is about 290m higher. We collected about 300-315 m. The forest is a mixed pine-oak and other broadleaf plants in the forest. Since it is the dry season, there wasn’t a lot, but we did find some interesting insects and I met some good folks and made some good connections. We’re going collecting again in March to a protected area—a national park—but will be at much higher elevation, 1500m or higher, maybe even into the bosque nublado (cloud forest)! There should be more insects there and it will be a different set and for me will be completely new batch of animals. I have never collected anything in a cloud forest, but hope to develop some projects to do so while I am here.
I got a number of ticks, chiggers and ate food that I wouldn’t normally eat. Some of it was great and other of it just confirmed my previous feelings about it. I am still suffering a bit of intestinal distress from the trip. Otherwise it was great. I spoke Spanish the whole time and it was good practice to learn a few new technical words. We had this really very dense banana bread that sat with you for a while, in a good way. It was very good, prepared by the ENEE cafeteria folks. We also had Pan de pan, which is bread pieces mixed in with egg, cinnamon, milk, butter, and is sort of custardy. It is also quite good.
While I was gone Ranae and Henry came down with strep throat or something similar. They went to the clinica and were treated and were much better when I got home. I was pretty worried about them and prayed a lot for them. Now that I am back, I have to get back to real work in the office and take care, again of my online classes I am teaching. My parents have been very sick which was very concerning and I spent a lot of time emailing and calling and trying to find things out for and about them. They have moved to Arizona with my sister and that is so relieving—they will be well-cared for there. We’ll probably go visit them in the next month or so.