Two Months, exactly, in Honduras

After last week's sort of scary, more depressed about the security of the country blog, this one is a little more upbeat. Overall, we have been exceedingly blessed and continue to be so.

The children are making good progress in learning Spanish. Jack is doing a good job practicing…just talking, trying out new words and combos. It is great to hear him work on that. Henry and Aspen are learning and seem to understand a lot, even if they aren’t speaking back. Abe still is working and Calla is still (though less than before) uncomfortable when everyone around her is speaking Spanish. She furrows her brow and just looks displeased. However, she keeps surprising us with the Spanish words she knows. Jack asked her today, “What does venga mean?” and she correctly answered, “Come.”

In Honduras February is the Mes de Amistad (Month of Friendship). Friendship is a theme throughout the month. I think we should do that in the US.

We went insect-collecting this past Thursday afternoon until about 8pm. We set up a mercury-vapor lamp near a white sheet to attract a lot of moths and other insects—mostly moths. Likely we attracted a new species in this place. It was a higher elevation, forested region about 1 hour from campus. I will try to post a few pictures of some cool moths that we saw. This one was a little bigger than Monarch-butterfly size. The trip to Santa Inez was a VERY bumpy ride over very bad roads with huge rocks in them. We were in a converted ambulance that had benches on the sides for people to sit in with all the stuff placed in the middle. It was hard to sit and not fall all over the place as we rode along. Plus, the generator was leaking gas the whole way, so we got a little buzzed going and coming. I am sure my brain is now 41 years old having lost about a year’s worth of brain cells in that atmosphere. I would definitely go again, though. Dr. Schlein is a real entomologist and knows his insect families. It was great to be out in the field with a real expert. Reiniery Ortiz was our driver. He is an excellent driver and tireless worker. He was collecting insects like a pro. He has been working for the University as a driver for the science fieldtrips for about 14 years. A driver does way more than just drive up and sit around. He also helps teach the soils class and did a lot of work with us collecting insects. He probably knows enough to have a BS in Biology!

Reiniery and I are also in the Branch Presidency together. I would put him up there with any other counselor I have worked with or known. He has been a member of the Church for about 4 years and is totally dedicated and is a great worker and speaks up, with great ideas. He is outgoing and a solid guy. I can see him moving upward in the future. I think of him as a friend and his wife, too. They remind me of the Fife’s—Solid, good, funny, friendly, totally honest, smart people. We also had great food at their house a few weeks ago. This is getting long, so I will have to write a little more about them another time.

This week was interesting in a number of ways. We went to Valle de Angeles, a town that caters to tourists and is made up of shop after shop filled with things tourists would like to buy: purses, dresses, paintings, sandals, sculptures, magnets, machetes, and so on. We had been once before, but just to look. Now we went with clear goals of what to buy.

Aspen: I looked and looked for a dress and finally found a traditional Honduran dress. It has a white shirt and white skirt, with red, green, blue stripes [of rickrack—those are the ribbons on the upper and lower edges of the dress. It is really quite nice and Aspen looks like a bleached out Honduran.]. Dad came to my class to talk about science. I knew most of the answers.

Abe: I had a party at Valentimes day. I had orange soda and sprite. I got some chips and pizza and I got a Valentine from Nadia. It had Elmo and superheroes on it.

I got a chair in Valle de Angeles. It has these sticks, without bark on them. It has a leather seat with a horse head carved on it. [It is a three-legged chair. The leather seat has little pockets for the sticks to fit into so it stays on. It fits Abe perfectly. I am thinking to get one for everyone for camping. They’re very cool little three-legged stools.]

Henry: I bought a machete and a hammock with my own money in a little town called Valle de Angeles [Henry calls it Angelos Hanjelos]. The machete has the seals from all the different countries in Central America. It has a black leather case that has a part cut out of it so you can see the little seals on the blade. My hammock is orange, black, blue and yellow. The hammock was $15.

There was a skunk at school and it sprayed a girl in the face. I saw the skunk. She had to go home, [as you might imagine!]. She was in 4th grade. She came back to school two days later.

Jack: I bought a hammock that is black with red and white stripes. It also has some other stripes, but I can’t remember. I got the hammock for $15. I also got a little bracelet. A girl at Church today said,“¡¿Bob Marley?!” because the bracelet has green, yellow and red stripes.

I went bug collecting with Dad, Reinery, some students, and Oliver [Dr. Oliver Schlein from Germany, working as the director of the insect collection. He is funded by GTZ, which is the German gov’t equivalent to USAID. I worked for them in Indonesia in the ‘90s]. All of the native villager people came up to us to ask us what we were doing. We just told them we were collecting bugs. I kept catching little bugs in my hands. I stood around talking with people in English and Spanish. We had these super-filling dinners and Henry started eating mine.

There was a big fire in a town called Comayagua where more than 350 people died [you might have heard about it on the news…it was very massive in this Tennessee-sized country]. We also saw a fire in Comayagüela when we were in Tegucigalpa on Saturday. [Comayagüela is the other half of the capital city. It is also one of 3 Honduran LDS missions here—Teguc, Comaya., and San Pedro Sula.]

There was a safety party and I bonked my chin on the floor while I was doing the worm. We had a gift exchange for Friendship month in YM/YW on Sunday. I got a haircut. We rode in a mototaxi again today. I got to ride shotgun this time.

Ranae: So, having a maid is great. I have enjoyed Miriam’s company this week and deeply appreciate her help. The children are wowed by the good work she does. Besides keeping our house spic and span, doing laundry, and helping with meals, she helped remove a splinter from Calla’s foot, mended Abe’s torn blanket, cleaned Calla’s well-used baby dolls, and taught me how to make tortillas from just plain corn. On Monday she taught me how to make tortillas from Maseca (a kind of cornmeal you buy at the grocery store). On Tuesday she brought a bag of dry corn kernels and lime powder, which we boiled till the corn was soft. After Miriam took the corn home and ground it that evening, she brought back the resultant masa (dough) and we made a big batch of tortillas. The fresh-corn tortillas are tasty and . . . corny. We laughed and talked as we made tortillas. Wow! I laughed and talked in Spanish!

I was touched by a gift Miriam brought for Dia de Amistad—a package of cookies and a little card—and by her honesty when I was about to pay her ten extra lempiras on payday. She pointed out the 50¢ error, which won my heart. I am just really happy to have her as a help, a Spanish teacher, and a friend. She is cheerful, hard-working, and patient. I hope that our arrangement is favorable for her and that she feels comfortable as a dear friend in our home each day.

Here are Ranae and Calla next to an oregano tree (the tall, branchy white blossomed tree to the upper right) and a Poinsettia. I have seen a lot of oregano, but never this big! I always wonder if you could make something out of oregano wood--a table, and small hutch or something...maybe I'll do it someday.