New School, Big Flames, Morning Swim
Aspen: I started school. I am in 2nd grade. I am learning stuff I already learned. My teacher is Miss Fanny. There are 21 students including me. It is the biggest class in the school. My best friend in my class in Honduras is Déborah. This week I saw a guatusa (/watusa/). [It is a small mammal (rodentia!) that looks like a teeny capybara. Bigger than a rabbit, but not by much.]
On New Year's Eve, I liked the spinning butterflies that threw sparks everywhere. I had library and music and I really liked them. I also like computers.

Abraham: I saw them burning sugar cane fields. I also started pre-school this week, was sick two days and got a new reading buddy named Luis. I also had my birthday which was good. I had a Mr. T pinata filled with good candy in it. I had PE and played with some balls. The first day of school, Abe came home and said it was good. The second day he came home and said it wasn't good.... “It was too LONG!” School here starts at 7:30 am and for Abe ends at 12. For everyone else it ends at 2:45. So for Abe, that long from the beginning was a long day for newly 5 year old.

Jack: I started school and am in 6th grade. It is rather sad. [I used to be in 7th grade in the US and is taking a semester of 6th grade so he can learn Spanish. Otherwise he'd have to go to Tegucigalpa for school that would cost a LOT of US$.]
There are 12 people in my class, including me. Their names are: Luis, Doc*, Isaac, Nancy, Freddy, Mauricio, Christian, Denzel, Marian, Victoria*, Roberta, and Me*. My teacher, Mr. Andrew*, is from Wisconsin. In Music class, we (my class) are learning to play “I'm Yours.” I play Futbol at recess, and I usually play goalie. I don't have much homework. My closest friends are Christian, Doc, Isaac, Luis, and Mauricio. Me gusta mi Escuelita.
On our way to Honduras, I lost one of my church shoes. I have to wear my Adidas Sambas to church.
*A star indicates that they are a gringo.

Stuart: We are becoming Honduran Residents. Then we can stay here past the 90 day tourist visa. That will be kind of fun. We'll have to get IDs. I have never been a 'resident' of another country so that will be kind of cool. I want to be able to keep my ID when we get back just in case. I will be initiating a long-term ecological monitoring project with about 50 species of woody plants (trees and shrubs). We will be recording their phenology (timing of bud break, flowering, etc) for the next 20 years. That means that I will have to hike around campus (about 16,000 acres) looking for the tree/shrub species to label and track over the next while. I am excited, though I didn't bring any boots....though I was impressed several times to do so...and didn't find the room to pack them.

We have been buying food at the Zamorano store here. They produce a lot of food, as an Ag school and then sell a lot of it. A large part of the student's education is summed up in “Aprender haciendo” which is on a lot of the Zamorano products. It means “Learning by doing” or “learn by doing”. So the students have classes in the AM and work on the Univeristy “industries” during the afternoon or at other times. So much of the produce, dairy and meat and other things they produce are made with student labor. It is pretty amazing all the material they produce.
One product of interest is the giant zanahorias (carrots) that we buy in the store. They are the largest carrots I have ever seen, and they are very good.
Each day, though we don't take pictures of it all, we see some cool new insect, bird or plant. Ranae just discovered Lemon grass and used it in a FABULOUS tom ka gai Thai soup last night. It was a hit.

Henry: This week we started school. I have a nice teacher. I already have a lot of friends. The first hour on the first day was kind of scary, but then I started getting friends, and it was good. We have to wear uniforms. The uniforms are blue jeans and a white polo shirt with the school name on it. On PE days we wear blue sweat pants and a t-shirt with the school name on it. We have an art teacher, a music teacher, a Spanish teacher, and a PE teacher. We play soccer at recess, and I don’t have as much math homework as at my old school.

The building is made of stone and we eat outside every day at picnic tables. There are a lot of palm trees, and I’ve heard a lot of different kinds of birds. The children’s family maids bring them lunch instead of bringing their own lunches to school. We do not have a maid yet.

We have seen a lot of smoke because down the highway (our road) there are big sugar cane fields that they burn. The flames are probably 40 feet tall, so we can probably see the flames from our house. They burn the sugar cane fields to get all the leaves off the sugar cane so they can harvest it easily. One day we were driving down the road and we saw gigantic clouds of black smoke coming from somewhere up ahead. We started driving towards it, and once we got there we saw a big field that was on fire, and the flames were really tall. We were just across the road from it. There were guys standing right next to the flames with blow torches and gas cans to catch the cane on fire. Soon the fire went away because all the dry leaves were burned up. Yesterday we saw big trucks hauling away all the sugar cane, and the fields were totally empty. The truck was filled till it was about to overflow with sugar cane sticks.

We have been going to our American friends’ house on campus. We play on their trampoline and in their tree house. Sometimes in their back yard we see these little animals called watusas. They look like an oversized rabbit with short brown fur and short ears, kind of like a miniature capybara. You should look these animals up.

There are many people here named Fanny.
Today we had a power outage. It only lasted for about 20 minutes, though.
Me gusta Honduras!

Calla: ghjicviv9l88’ Hi6
[Henry said "This place is paradise," as we sat in the cool of the evening near the mango trees, palms and blushing sunset; Calla then said, "Yes, It's parrot eyes."]


Ranae: That almost-at-the-equator sun beats down fiercely, and I have taken to wearing my hat every time I go out. Still, the breezes are pleasant and the mornings are cool, the tropical vistas are lush, and our little mountain valley is as beautiful a valley as I have ever seen. My heart is settling in.

Friday was my day to break through to a feeling of being fully happy here. There has been good food, good friends, simple hours, and a wonderful school where the children have been warmly welcomed. Stuart has work that will feel more like a hobby; I have appreciated the opportunity to spend many hours with Emmy Pack, who has filled me in on details of Honduran life and invited us to several fun activities. However, my experience has felt a bit restrictive. I cannot drive our vehicle (hopefully I’ll eventually get on the list of insured drivers for the university), cannot speak the language, cannot walk anywhere, and—till Friday—hadn’t figured out a good plan for consistent exercise for me, which is a key to contentment and sanity. But Stuart is attentive, and Friday morning we started a new routine. He’ll take the children to school (they start at 7:30) and Calla will tag along. I’ll slip over to our
landlord’s pool and swim laps for half an hour. Friday and Saturday, it worked like a charm. Ah! My perspective was refreshed, my body invigorated, my spirits lifted, my mind cleared. For me, the final piece was put in place, and I can be very happy here.

I want to figure out about using fresh coconut milk. I might need to buy a machete to open them, but the roadside fruit stand has tables full of the yellow fruits. Wouldn’t that be delicious with chicken and rice? Why buy canned?