Blogging with the Bice's

Estamos en Honduras!

2011-12-29T10:16:00.007-06:00

Wow, its been over two years since our last blog. Much has happened in our lives. Extreme highs and extreme lows. But one thing remains consistent - our love for the people and country of Honduras. Greg says Honduras feels like home. We arrived in Tegucigalpa yesterday and will be here for 8 days. We're thrilled. We kicked the trip off with our dear friends, Jenny & Josue Hernandez. Jenny moved from Arizona to Honduras at age 19 to plant a Vineyard church in Comayagua. One thing lead to another and in 2010, she married the pastor's son, Josue. They are an amazing couple and their love for the Lord is evident and inspiring. We always enjoy the time we get to spend with them while we're here.

We're anticipating a fulfilling trip packed with new adventures and memories. Based on this scene from last night, I don't think Honduras will disappoint.

[Do you believe in magic? Mariachis pose with Ronald]

2009-04-29T10:56:00.011-05:00

My parents were here to visit last week. They were supposed to arrive on Saturday, but after their flight was canceled two days in a row (due to weather in Texas) they finally landed in Teguc on Monday. We didn't waste any time and jam packed each day full of activities. It was my mom's first time to Honduras, so we wanted to make sure that she could experience as much as possible in her 7 days here. One of the highlights of their trip was an art project we made with some of the girls from the orphanage. Last year a friend donated some 5 X 7 colored foam sheets along with adhesive foam cut out letters, so we decided this would be the perfect chance to put them to use. We figured we had enough materials for about 35 girls, divided into two seperate classes. So after setting up the tables and sorting out the materials, Greg and I, along with my mom and dad and a couple of the older kids set out to help the 5 - 12 year olds make the craft! Each partcipant would get a foam sheet to put their name and picture on, and add a personal touch with stickers and funky pattern edging scissors. We tried to control things the best we could, but it sure was hilarious when we were distributing the stickers. I would cut the sheets up so each girl would get 10 - 15, and then the others would give out one to each participant to add to their project. Well, my mom thought she was going crazy for a minute after she realized she had given several sheets to the same girls. They kept insisting that they didn't receive any, so my mom would continue to give them more. She caught on to their tactics, and called me over to help. One of the girls claimed she didn't get any, but when she stood up, I saw a sheet of stickers poking out of the top of her pocket! My mom and I started cracking up! The tricky little girls were busted! We all got a good laugh out of it! Toward the end, things got a little chaotic, yet still really fun. We were all impressed with how they were all helping each other. Especially the older ones assisting the younger ones. They really are one big family! We all had a great time and enjoyed the time we got to spend together! The girls were proud of their hard work, and the crafts turned out so nice!

The Cost of Food

2009-04-27T19:09:00.000-05:00

One thing that has been great about living in Honduras has been the prices of food - mainly fresh produce. Granted its not always the best looking fruits and vegetables we have ever seen, they still serve their purpose! Usually the best harvest is exported Honduras is left with the rest. Living in the banana republic, we figured we would have access to an abundance of fresh bananas. Sadly though, the store usually only carries the beaten and bruised ones - something we´ve grown accustomed to! It is often less expensive to buy the fresh version over the canned option (which we prefer anyway - if it is available!) For example, a fresh pineapple here costs 30 Lempira (about $1.50) as opposed to the canned chunks for 50 Lemps ($2.50). The challenge is though, you never know what you are going to get when you go grocery shopping. Some trips I am pleasantly surprised by things like mushrooms or cream cheese, and other times I am disappointed when the store doesn´t have staples like yogurt or tomatoes! We´ve learned to deal with it though, and just substitute when looking for a certain unavailable ingredient. We nearly always shop at one of the supermarkets in town (there are 3). The prices are a little higher than those at the open market, but for convenience sake, we prefer the grocery store. (We pass by it everyday on our walk to and from school!) Also, visiting the market is just plain stressful! It is crowded with people and traffic, and definitely is not the safest place to be in town (especially if you are not a local). Sure, you can get 4 avocados for 20 Lempira there (about $1) as opposed to only 2 or 3 for the same place at the store, but still we like shopping at the grocery. Most items are pretty reasonably priced, it is only the imported products that are a little more expensive (but worth it!) We do our best to balance our purchases with a combination of cheap local items and a few more expensive American products. The variety has definitely improved since we first came to Honduras! Often times friends and family have sent us packages of some of our most beloved food items to give us a little taste of home when we are missing it!

So, I was looking at one of our grocery receipts and decided to jot down some prices. Honestly, I am not entirely sure how much the equivalent good would cost in the states these days, but am pretty sure we are getting a good deal here. The exchange rate is approximately 20 Lempira (well, 18.89 to be exact) to $1 U.S. dollar.

5 Lemps for a pound of tomatoes (25 cents)
6 Lemps for a green pepper (30 cents)
6 Lemps for a green pepper (30 cents)
6.50 Lemps per pound of eggplant (33 cents)
7.50 Lemps for a pound of potatoes (43 cents)
9 Lemps for a bunch of lettuce (45 cents)
9 Lemps per avocado (45 cents)
10 Lemps for a package of hamburger buns (5o cents)
12 Lemps for a melon (60 cents)
22 Lemps per pound of Fuji apples - about 2 ($1.10)
22 Lemps for a box of (very sour) blackberries ($1.10)
24 Lemps for a monster bag of spinach ($1.20)
28 Lemps for a pound of pasta ($1.40)

30 Lemps for a can of black beans ($1.50)
30 Lemps for a pound of strawberries ($1.55)
31 Lemps for a pound of carrots ($1.60)
37 Lemps for yogurt natural ($1.85)
37 Lemps for a loaf of bread ($1.85)
40 Lemps for a honey bear ($2.00)
48 Lemps for a pound of ground beef ($2.40)
52 Lemps for a 1/2 Liter of Soy Milk ($2.60)
55 Lemps for a package of turkey bacon ($2.75)
60 Lemps for deodorant ($3.00)
86 Lemps for Honey Bunches of Oats Cereal ($4.30)
92 Lemps for a 14oz package of smoked sausage ($4.60)
93 Lemps for 8oz of cheese ($4.65)

I am sure we will have some sticker shock when we return to grocery shopping in the states...especially for the fresh fruits and vegetables!

small VICTORY

2009-03-04T15:11:00.004-06:00

We have a lady that helps out around our house two days a week. She cleans and washes clothes for us. Having a 'trabajadora' is pretty common here. In fact, many families have live-in maids and/or nannies. Since it is so dusty here and the right environment for lots of insects, it is necessary that you clean pretty frequently or things can get pretty nasty. (We made brownies the other night at our friend's very clean house and within minutes of serving them, tiny ants were dragging crumbs off the counter back to their hidden homes! Unbelievable!) Anyway, we didn't have anyone working in our apartment last year, but this year were thought it might be a good idea. We happened to come across a woman that cleaned for one of our friends that was actually in search of work. We connected with her, then hired her to come once during the week and once on the weekend. Maria is a single mom with three boys and cleaning is her sole income and we keep ourselves so busy that household chores sometimes fall by the wayside - so we are very happy to be helping out someone in need, and in return we get a tidy apartment! Really a win-win situation! We have gotten to know her over the year and have even gotten to meet her boys. We have gotten pretty close with the middle child, Abdul. He comes over to the house sometimes on Saturdays to hang out with us while his mom cleans. Greg teaches him English and I like to cook with him. Well, public school started a couple weeks ago (their school year goes from February to November) and Abdul mentioned that he wanted to walk with us in the mornings since we have neighboring schools. It was fine by us, so he comes to our place between 6:15am and 6:30am every day - let me just mention too, that he is one punctual Honduran! Anyway, so we have enjoyed his company bright and early each morning. So yesterday we didn't have time to eat breakfast at the house, so we took yogurt cups and plastic spoons to eat during the walk. Well, I finished mine and held it until I could find a place to properly dispose of it (trust me, trash cans are extremely few and far between to find here - no wonder there is such a litter problem!) We walked past a person sweeping up garbage on the steet and putting it into a wheel barrel, so I tossed my trash in too. Abdul definitely saw me do it, and almost simultaneously chucked his empty yogurt cup down a side street alongside some other litter. I was appalled! I kindly scolded him and told him to put his trash in the garbage can in the future. Fast forward 24 hours... This morning, Abdul was munching on a pack of oreos as we walked to school. (Yeah, I know, breakfast of champions!) I was watching him like a hawk, waiting to see what he was going to do with his empty wrapper. Well, to my extreme delight, he held the wrapper until we reached the "trash wheel barrel" and placed it right inside. I gave him lots of verbal praise for his action and seriously wanted to jump up and down I was so pumped! Who knows where his trash will go tomorrow, but today, I am celebrating!

Bad Behavior and Inhumane Punishment

2009-02-27T15:04:00.005-06:00

Today was really rough. School even ended early, but still will go down as one of my toughest days. It sort of started out funny, then just became overwhelmingly dissappointing. Our school's science fair was today from 7am - 12pm. As to be expected things started off a bit crazy - kids didn't know were to set up, they were short of tables for the exhibits, and some of them forgot some of their materials. Eventually things seemed to get under control and the kids worked hard in getting everything organized for their experiments. I was curious as to what 'unacceptable' things would be brought to school today, since last year some experiments involved liquor and dangerous chemicals. Well, sure enough, some of the second grader's had a pack of cigarettes and matches to use with their project. At least it was relevant to their experiement (on pollution) but still aren't you polluting the air more when you light them up in the school? Anyway, so that was kind of funny/shocking right off the bat this morning. Most of the kids did a really great job and I was impressed with their experiements. It was later in the morning when my sadness set in. I have been working with the same kids now for almost two years (I taught them last year in 4th grade them moved up to 5th grade with the same students). I am happy to have had the opportunity to stay with them as we have developed a close bond and know each other well. Discipline has been an area that I have really been working on them with. My class has always been considered one of the best in the school (since they were in kindergarten), but still they seem to have some behavior problems. I understand that they are just kids, they are learning right from wrong, etc. but most of the students at our school are really lacking in the behavior department. Recess and lunch time are like free for alls! The kids just go nuts, doing anything they can possibly get away with. When they have a little bit of freedom they completely exercise it - you wouldn't believe some of the things we have caught these kids doing! For example today, I had to take a bottle of hairspray and lighter away from an 8th grader (surrounded by a group of kids) that was holding down the trigger with the lighter in front it, shooting out like 12 -15 inch flames! That was the start of it. Not too long after some of the students from my 5B class came running up to me, telling me that a student from the other 5th grade section had put one of the smaller boys in the class in the trashcan. When I found the victim, he was crying so hard he was almost vomiting. It really broke my heart. After calling the students mothers and trying to console the poor boy, I thought I should check out the other classroom to make sure everything was okay in there. (Of course, none of them should have been in the classrooms, they should have been in the auditorium with their projects.) To my disappoinment, I walked in to the strong smell of smoke. My suspicions were confirmed, as I found a pile of used matches, ashes, and several burnt papers sitting on the floor in the middle of the classroom. I came out in rampage, demanding someone tell me who was the responsible for this...and did they realize they could have burned down the entire school? I actually got to the bottom of it, finding out that some of the girls 'forced' another one to light the fire, then they held her back so she couldn't put it out. Awesome, more drama to deal with. I tracked them down, gave me piece of my mind and made them clean up the scene. During all of this, the science fair was ending, so all the of the students were packing up and heading home. Of course, many of them busted out leaving their no longer wanted or needed materials scattered all around on the ground and trash everywhere. (Don't worry, the three female cleaning ladies would clean it all up, right?!) I noticed that one of my students didn't put any of her stuff away before she left, so with the help of a couple others, we cleaned up for her. Well, appartently I was being watched or something because when when I returned to gather my belongs and leave (I had to set them down to help clean up), someone had stolen back the goods I had confiscated earlier (the lighter and hairspray). The nerve! I am super irritated at this point, and decide to hit the rest room, then walk home. Here comes the icing on the cake. I go in to use the teacher's bathroom (we have one stall for females and one for males) and find no toilet paper. I go for the back up - paper towels - and that roll is empty too. This is normal in the student's restrooms, they have to bring their own TP, but we usually have it in the teacher's bathrooms. Thank goodness I have finally learned that it is necessary to verify that there is paper available in the stall before going to the bathroom! Since I didn't find it in the first stall, I thought I would check the second one. Nope, none in there either! Arg! Unbelievable! Just then an administrator passed by so I politely informed her that the paper was empty in both rooms. That's when I found out it was actually intentional...in fact it was a punishment! I was appalled! WHAT? Apparently they said "we are using the paper too fast" so they aren't going to replace it until next week. I guess they want to 'teach us a lesson.' You have got to be kidding me! We use the bathroom too much, so they aren't going to provide toilet paper? Then she went on to say that they think maybe people are stealing the paper - taking some home with them or something. Unreal! This set me over the edge. The disappoitment I felt from my kids terrible behavior (I really thought we were so much farther than that) then learning that the adult professionals at my school were "in trouble" for going to the bathroom too much - tears filled my eyes and I just broke down. Too much for one day already and it was just noon! I feel like a parent that has been let down by their child or something. It is such a sad feeling when you invest so much time in someone or something only to find out that nothing has changed. I just feel really let down. I am sure I will get over it, but today I am overwhelmed with sadness. I am glad that we have two days off school to recover and get refreshed for Monday. I hope you are having a better day!

Citizen's Arrest!

2009-02-15T20:12:00.003-06:00

It was an interesting walk home from school on Thursday. Greg and I both finished teaching early, so we left around 1:30pm. We took our normal path home, walking down the main boulevard. As we approached the supermarket, Jumbo, we noticed a lot of commotion. There were people gathering around watching something and occasionally we would see a person go running by. We walked up to the crowd pretty hesitantly and noticed the Jumbo employees all standing outside of the building. Then we saw someone we knew, so we asked him what was going on. He told us that just a few minutes before Jumbo had been robbed. Not all of the details were clear, but apparently a man came in alone (presumably with a weapon), held up a cashier, then took off running down the boulevard on foot. As we were learning about all of this, a jumbo employee came running up saying that the thief had been caught! Literally, one block away (in the direction toward our apartment), people were holding the robber down in the parking lot of a bank. This of course drew even more spectators which we had to weave through to get home. Even traffic was stopped! We did, however, get a glimpse of the perpetrator as we passed by. He was a young guy probably in his late 20s or early 30s. Not sure what was going to happen to him, but definitely a bad situation. Sadly, things like this happen all the time Honduras. This was not the first time that we witnessed a robbery here, however, it is one of the few times the thief was actually caught. Unfortunately, some people fear that crime will be on the rise here since the government recently passed a law increasing the minimum wage to more than double what it was previously. Sure, many employees deserve higher wages, however, most companies cannot afford to double employees salaries. So instead, businesses have been forced to cut employees. Now, the lucky ones that were able to keep their jobs will be doing the work done previously by several employees for an increased salary, but leaving many people unemployed losing their entire income. It is a tough situation and several people we know have already been negatively affected by it – and I am sure that is just the beginning of it! We can just pray for those without employment and hope something good can come out of this!

GOD BLESS YOU!

Exercising and Wedding Recap

2009-01-30T07:31:00.004-06:00

Greg and I recently started exercising regulary again. We have done it sparatically since we returned, but now we actually have a plan. See, it is a little difficult here because its not like you can just go out for a run when you feel like it (for safety reasons of course!) There are a couple of gyms in town, but they aren´t very conveniently located for us, nor do they offer hours that accomodate our schedule. So while we were home we bought an exercise series of 11 DVDs - each focuses on a different muscle group and several of the discs include various cardiovascular exercises, each about an hour in length. Well, apparently somehow ´word got out´around our apartments (there are 6) that we had started a fitness program and slowly but surely, our neighbors began asking if they could join us. Even a couple teachers, administrators, and students from the school (who do not exercise) requested to join in too. Happily we invited them to come and so far our record high for attendance has been 13 participants! Thankfully we have a little covered patio (for parking our non existent car) because once the group grew that big, we had to move things outside! Anyway, we are pretty excited to have a group of work out buddies and are really motivated to stick with it even more so since others are counting on us now!

So, I will give you a quick overview of the wedding we attended. We had a great time and enjoyed the experience! We headed out in the general direction of the church (not exactly sure where we were going, since there are no addresses) and luckily saw a truck with the bed full of people all dressed up. Kyle, Crystal, Greg, and I all got the notion that they must be heading to the wedding too, so we started following them. Fortunately, just as we suspected, about 7 to 8 minutes later, we were there! Not sure if we would have found the place on our own, but thanks to the truck, we made it! As to be expected, the ceremony started about 25 minutes late (Honduras time as we say!) and lasted about an hour and a half finishing at approximately 9pm. You would have thought the bride and groom were the most famous couple in Honduras by the way guests were snapping photos of them. It was truly like the Honduras paparazzi as guest continued to stand up and move extremely close to the couple to take pictures throughout the entire service. Greg was trying to be respectful and keep his distance while taking photos, which resulted in have at least one other photographer in every shot he took. I don´t think he got one photo of just the couple because guests were literally in the bride and groom´s personal space the whole time! It was pretty funny! So after the wedding, we were starved! We weren´t sure what time the reception would actually start or if and what they would be serving for dinner, so we made a quick stop at Dunkin Donuts on the way back into town. We filled our bellies then went to the reception. It was decorated nicely and each table had soda, beans, cheese, and chips on them for appetizers. Around 10:00pm they began serving dinner. At 11:00pm the bride and groom shared their first dance then opened the dance floor up to all the guests. By this point, Greg and I (and Kyle and Crystal too) were all so tired that we were ready for bed! We stuck around until 11:30pm, hoping they would cut the cake, but it didn´t look like it was going to happen anytime soon. We heard that weddings here normally go on until 2 or 3am, and we just weren´t up for the all-nighter! We did enjoy our first Honduran wedding, but I think we prefer an earlier start!

Wedding Preparations

2009-01-17T16:02:00.007-06:00

Greg and I will be attending our first Honduran wedding this evening! We are very excited to see our Spanish tutor, Dina, get married - especially because we got to help a little bit! A few weeks ago when she was giving us class, we offered her a sample of some cookies that I had made. She enjoyed them and semi-jokingly mentioned that she would love to have them at her wedding. Greg generously offered our services and made it official...we would make 250 oatmeal raisin cookies for her reception. As we prepared to start baking earlier this week, I thought the task would be quite daunting. However, since Greg and I worked together - and we were making them for a dear friend - it ended up being a lot of fun! We made a few on Wednesday evening, then on Friday cranked out the remaining 200. Crystal helped me package them and I would say after a total of 7 hours of work, the job was complete! In fact, Mario (Dina's fiance) just stopped by to pick them up...less than three hours before the wedding!

Also in preparation for the la boda (the wedding) Greg needed to get his scuffed up dress shoes polished and shined. After unsuccessfully searching for a store, our friend Maria offered to take them to the market, get them cleaned up, and bring them back. We graciously obliged! She noted that it would be pretty unexpensive, so we sent her away with the shoes and 100 Lempira (about $5). She returned a couple hours later with the shoes in excellent condition (I wish I had a before photo) and 60 Lemps! We couldn't believe that it only cost two bucks! Quite impressive!

Our weekend has been very relaxing and the weather today has been unseasonably cool. It is overcast and there is definitely a chill to the air. We actually enjoy it when we have a change from the typical hot and humid weather. Hopefully the rain stays away though for the wedding tonight!

Have a wonderful weekend! God bless you!

Up to Speed!

2009-01-10T08:09:00.032-06:00

HAPPY 2009!!! We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New

Year celebration! We sure did! God continues to bless us and fill our lives with his joy, love and peace and we pray that he does the same for you!

Okay, so this blog provides an overview of our life over the

past two months (while we have been on blogcation). Here is a list of the top 25 things that have occurred recently in no particular order:

1) 5 days on a mission trip in Managua, Nicaragua spending time with families and playing lacrosse with kids that live in the city's trash dump (www.lovelightandmeloday.org)

2) Hosted a cookie exchange party to prepare for the holidays

3) Greg played in multiple soccer games that started at 10pm

(which really means like 10:30, 10:45)...on school nights!

4) Cooked a Thanksgiving turkey...and realized we forgot to remove the giblet bag AFTER we started carving it!

5) Celebrated Emily's 28th birthday

6) Went to the traveling Mexican Circus (in Comayagua)

7) Emily helped direct Maranatha

School's Christmas Program

8) Visited the Mayan Copan Ruins

9) Drank lots of Starbuck's Coffee (Chocolate Peppermint Mocha Twist - YUM!)

10) Welcomed our newest Godchild into the world, Ella Grace Cates Flatter

11) 14 1/2 hours worth of bus travel throughout Central

America

12) Went hiking in the mountains with the Friendship Chapel to deliver food and supplies to people living in the mountains

13) Emily's dad and brother came to visit for a week

14) Greg submitted his application for Graduate School

(after working on it for an entire year!)

15) Served a Padrinos (God parents) for one of the boys from the Hogar de Ninos during his high school graduation

16) Spent two weeks in TEXAS for the holidays

17) Emily started graduate school to earn a Master's in Education

18) Endulged in some delicious sushi in Austin

19) Successfully viewed Lost seasons 1, 2, and 3

20) Toured a Honduran Coffee Plantation

21) Greg bought jeans at Macy's for $4.50 (originally $60)

22) Ate lunch at the infamous 'trio'

(KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut...all in the same restaurant!)

23) Visited a historic Spanish Castle in Omoa, Honduras

24) Baked lots of yummy treats (cakes, cookies, snack mix, etc.)

25) Ordered and delivered official uniforms for Maranatha's high

school soccer team

The Early Bird Doesn´t Get the Worm!

2008-11-10T09:26:00.003-06:00

This is a new lesson that I have learned while here in Honduras...just because you have planned and are well prepared doesn´t actually increase your odds for success. In fact, it might even hinder them....

November 10-14 is exam week at our school (because it is the end of our first quarter). Each day the students have 3 exams, and following compeletion of the third class, they have a 20 minute recess then they are are dismissed for the day (they leave at 9:30am). Every grade (First through Eleventh) is required to take the end of the term tests. In preparation for exam week, the school´s administration asked teachers to turn in a copy of their test in advance (about a week before) so it could be approved. Then the administrators pass the tests on to the librarian to make the alloted copies and then we pick them up all ready to go in the library the morning of our sheduled exam. I get all nervous about deadlines, so I hurried up and got my test turned in early. Well Greg, on the other hand is totally a ´last mintuter.´ So last minute in fact, that he alarmingly jumped out of bed at 5am on Monday morning (November 10, the first day of our exams) remembering that he forgot to make his tests (let alone actually turn them in!) So he scrambled around and just in time was able to write his tests before school. Now the next challenge was to get them copied! Our librarian (who operates our school´s only copier) is usually swamped during exam week - especially on the first day! As soon as devotion ended, Greg rushed in to be the first to request copies. Well, lucky for him he beat the crowd and was able to get his tests all copied. He ended up only being a few minutes late to the first period class. I was happy it all worked out for him. Following his success, I lazily strolled into the library and ask our librarian for my tests (I was in no rush as I figured it would be a 30 second exchange at most). She walked back to a table covered with copies and began searching. Every minute or so she would hold up a pack of tests and say, ´Are these yours?´ I kept repeating ´No, nope, not those, still no....´ until I finally got the picture that she didn´t have my tests. By now it was 7:20am (my exam was to be administered from 7:10am to 7:50am) and I was getting a little irritated. The librarian asked me if I had another copy, but I told her no, that I had turned my only copy into administration the previous week. Well, it just so happened that my friend, Jenny, said that one of the administrators gave her the 5th grade language arts test. She wasn´t sure why, but she informed me that she had a copy if I needed it. Thank goodness for that because I was able to get it from her and have the copies made that I needed. I showed up for class at 7:35am, giving the students only 15 minutes to take my 4 page test. I was so upset! I told them to take their time and that I would be sure they would have as much time as they needed to complete the exam.

Fortunatley, in the end, it all worked out. Don´t get me wrong, I am glad that Greg was able to get his tests made and copied at the last minute. I was just a little bummed because even though I was actually prepared in advance somehow I ended up with the short end of the stick! I can laugh about it now, but I was pretty furious a couple days ago! I guess I should learn my lesson by now, as a similar thing happened to me a couple months ago when I ordered food from Pizza Hut for a classroom party. I met with the manager and confirmed our order 5 days in advance of the event. Well apparantly that was just too much time because on the day of the acutal event, they never showed up with the food! All the other classes received their food (even the other fifth grade classes´food came - that I ordered at the last minute) but the one that I actually prepared for, nothing! After multiple phone calls, they finally delivered half of the order! An hour later they returned with the other part. Yet another time preparation in advance came back to bite me! In fact, I can think of several other incidences when this has happened too! Oh well, I guess if it happens again it is my fault because by now I should learn my lesson!

Adventures in Costa Rica

2008-11-05T12:36:00.016-06:00

Greg and I and our good friends Kyle and Crystal planned a trip to Costa Rica in October. We love that country and when we found extremely cheap plane tickets, we just couldn't resist! We were gone for 6 days and really enjoyed ourselves!

On our first day after we landed in San Jose, Costa Rica, we picked up our rental SUV then took off bound for the beach. It was a three hour trip winding through the mountains. The roads were all pretty good - paved and nearly pothole free (unlike here). We finally arrived at our final destination, Manuel Antonio and were very pleased at the sight of our hotel. It had a beautiful view of the beach, yet was surrounded by foliage. In fact many animals (especially monkeys and exotic birds) lived in the trees close by. The room was more like a studio apartment complete with a kitchenette and patio area. All of the furniture was handcrafted of wood and the windows had big screens for air to circulate through. We loved it (except the air - water combo made for the perfect recipe for mildew smelling sheets!) The hotel had a cute little cafe where we enjoyed appetizers and breakfast. Only a few miles away was the Manuel Antonio National Park where we hiked and enjoyed amazing scenery. We saw three-toed sloths, monkeys, deer, raccoons, iguanas, birds, butterflies, frogs and even some indigenous plants and animals too. After our hike, we had a picnic on the beach (there are three beaches inside the park) with some uninvited guest. We walked away from our backpacks for a brief minute, only to return and find a raccoon had busted into Greg´s backpack and was eating our loaf of bread! Good thing it was AFTER we were had already eaten. Later we went for swim in the ocean, then headed back to the hotel.

While we were in the area, we also spent a day at another beach. We rented sufboards and body boards and rode the waves. Fortunately no stiches were needed this time! The waves were pretty rough as a storm was rolling in. We had a great time anyway, and didn´t let the mist ruin our day. We pretty much relaxed in the evenings. We ate at a delicious pizzeria one night and had pasta at an Italian place too.

After three nights in Manuel Antonio, we set off for La Fortuna/Arenal. We left early in the morning as we had a 6 hour trip ahead. It ended up taking a little longer because we did not plan for all of the time that would be lost from being stopped by police officers! I belive the final count that day was three times (5 total for the trip!) Fortunately, only one time was our driver, Greg, breaking the law. He was speeding, so the officer issued him a ticket. However, before he finished writing it, he decided to offer us a deal. So we weren't inconvenienced by having to go to the bank to pay the ticket, the officer generously told us that we could just give him $20 (instead of paying the $40 ticket) We obliged and the officer ripped up the ticket. Definitely not legit, but at least everything was settled on the spot!

After a scenic and confusing drive (roads are not market - but thank God Kyle brough along a GPS) we finally made it to Arenal! We settled into our rooms and relaxed for a while. We then decided to hit the hot tub before dinner. Well, when we got there it was already full. So instead, we went frog hunting! There was a small pond and lots of shrubs and trees oustide of our rooms and we were told that many exotic frogs hang out there. (We could also hear them!) We had so much fun sleuthing around in our bathing suits and rain jackets (it was drizzling) photographing frogs! Kyle got some great shots and we even caught one - a red eye tree frog - for some closeups! It was a lot of blast!

Our hotel was located about 8 minutes (by car) up a steep mountain. It had a perfect view of the volcano nearby. Arenal Volcano is one of the main atractions in Northwest Costa Rica, and it definitely drew us to visit. It is one of the most active volcanoes in the world (top ten), erupting everyday. The volcano also heats several natural hot springs located in the area. (We actually planned to visit them, but when we discovered the daily entrance fees at several different spots were between $45-90 dollars, we opted not to go inside!) Anyway, it was a beautiful site at night to see the red, orange, and yellow colors of the lava seeping out. The hotel's restaurant was positioned to clearly see the volcano through a large glass wall. It made for awesome scenery at dinner!

While in Arenal, we went horseback riding, did some more hiking and visited a butterfly garden. This place was very relaxing! On our last night there, a pretty bad storm passed through, and actually hit a lot of areas in Central America. So bad, in fact, that our path back to San Jose was blocked by a landslide. Even in our SUV, we couldn't pass. Again, we are so grateful Kyle had the GPS because he was able to navigate us through another direction (and trust me, this route was way off the beaten path! There is no way we could have found it on our own. There were even some really flooded areas on that path too, but Greg carefully got us through.) When we arrived back in San Jose we headed up another volcano, Poas. Greg and I had visited this volcano on a previous trip, but remembered that there was a coffee plantation there that we didn't get to see. We went and checked it out, but decided instead to just hit their coffee shop (with an overlook of their coffee fields) for a cup of joe. We indulged in strawberry and Irish cream lattes and hot chocolate then headed back down. At the foot of the mountain we stumbled on a "Denny's" diner. A chance to eat some greasy American food? Yes Please! We all went to town and stuffed ourselves. Fortunately a few hours later (and the next day) Denny's came back to haunt 3 of the 4 of us. We all ended up with some 'digestional complications' (I will spare you the details!) Anyway, we made it back to Teguc that evening that finally back to Comaygua - ready for school the next day! We had a wonderful trip, enjoyed our company, and were blessed to explore more of God's beautiful creation!

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

2008-10-23T10:39:00.005-05:00

I just realized that it has been nearly three weeks since we have posted anything. Lots of things have been happenening so I will bring you up to speed!

First and most importantly (and all I have time to write about now), Honduras is having major flooding. They issued a red alert on several days ago due to all the rain and the overflowing river. On top of that, city officials in Comayagua have had to open the dam at least twice and release some water in order to keep it from breaking. There has has been mention of opening it another time as the heavy rains continue to pour down. Unfortunately, since Comayagua is basically built on many hills, there are parts of the town that are very low and back up to the river. As a result, several neighborhoods have completely flooded out, filling their houses with muddy water. The opening of the dam has also greatly contributed to water washing through homes, businesses, cars and over roads and bridges. In fact on Sunday the bridge through Comayagua on the main highway that goes from the two major cities in Honduras (Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula) was completely flooded out. Traffic was just sitting and piling up until they were able to reroute some of the vehicles. It was pretty crazy! Unfortunately, the same situation occurred again today.

We were informed on Tuesday (after the department of education cancelled school in all of Honduras) that two of my 5th grade student’s houses were in bad shape. They both live in the same neighborhood at the bottom of a big hill in front of the river and sadly, both of their houses were took a big hit. One of the student’s has a two story, so they were able to move most of the things upstairs to safety. However, the other girl’s home only had one floor – and unfortunately, they pretty much lost everything. Water completely filled their house (the water mark on the wall reached 8 feet high) saturating all of their belongings (furniture, beds, electronics, clothes, photos, school supplies, books, and so on.) A crew of friends and family were there helping when we arrived and we stayed to help as well. Unfortunately, most of their stuff was unsalvageable, and I am not sure of what the condition of the house will be, even after it all dries up. Especially since it has rained a lot since Tuesday, and even more yet is expected. In fact, school was cancelled again (we went yesterday and had first period today, then they sent everyone home) so several of us walked down by the river to check its status. The same neighborhood we were helping clean, once again had water just standing in the houses. And that was just one! We saw cars completely filled with water too, and the river was flooding out even more liquid. What a shame! Power has been off an on throughout town, and internet has been spotty. We haven’t had it at our house in a week, and even Pizza Hut’s wireless (our go to when we are without it) wasn’t functioning when we went yesterday! We were able to use it a little at the school today, until halfway through our session when the electricity went out, so no more internet! They have already cancelled school for tomorrow too, as more storms are expected, and again, they may have to open to dam again to release some more water. Fortunately, we haven’t been affected at our apartment, as we live right off the boulevard on higher ground. It is so tough right now because essentially we just have to sit and wait until the rains come again until we can start helping clean up. It is pretty tough – we feel so bad for everyone that are experiencing problems! Its not just here in Honduras, I believe other countries in Central America are having a tough time too. We heard that the last time they had flooding issues this bad was ten years ago when Hurricane Mitch devastated the country.

Classes are already canceled for tomorrow and several schools have plans to help out local residents. Our school is collecting supplies and plans to deliver them to those in need on tomorrow and Saturday. Please keep all of those affected in your prayers. Since insurance pretty much doesn't exist here, for those that lost things will have to pay out of pocket to recover them. Even for affluent families, this tragedy is a major financial setback. Thanks for your support and prayers and I hope to report that things are getting better very soon!

It's a Jungle Out There!

2008-10-03T07:34:00.019-05:00

When I walk into the classroom each day I never know what to expect. Somedays (usually Mondays mornings) the kids are sitting in their desks half asleep when I enter. Other times they are running a muck - and the room is in complete shambles. Then there are days like today, when I just don't know how to react!

As I approached my classroom this morning, I noticed a sort of

funky 'non-human' odor seeping out. My suspicion served me correct when I opened the door to find a room full of furry creatures! Dogs, birds, hampsters, turtles, and my personal least favorite - a pregnant rat - all filled the classroom. So apparently it it 'bring your pet to school day' for the 5th grade classes! All I kept thinking about as I attempted to teach was the liability of this whole situation. All these pets in the room, all day - I could just envision a dog eating a paracete, or the rat biting a student! Fortunately for all of us, none of that happened under my watch, and I was actually quite impressed with how well behaved the dogs were. The birds were a little chatty, but I managed to administer class anyway.

I later found out that the kids were required to bring their 'mascotas' (pets) for none other than Spanish class. Spanish class?! I could understand Science - maybe - but Spanish class? You lost me there. Plus, 5A didn't have Spanish class until 11:30am and 5B until the last class of the day at 1:30pm. It was crazy to have the pets at school all day long! Well, what was I going to do? We proceeded with class - even took tests - all with the student's animals.

It just keeps getting better...because as a reward for always speaking

in English at school (It is a struggle to try keep the kids

from speaking Spanish) the 5th graders were granted the priveledge to watch movie during class - on none other than today! This meant bringing the kids and their pets into the teacher's room to eat popcorn and watch The Chronicles of Narnia 2! So we actally did watch the movie and had snacks as planned without too much trouble. One dog was a little territorial, so we had to separate him from the rest of the bunch, but for the most part the other ones did okay. I thought for sure they would go but when the snacks came out, but they did surprisingly well. Speaking of grub, I told th ekids they could bring their own snacks. They never cease to amaze me with their food selection. One child brought 5 bags of popcorn (for himself!), another a 3 liter of soda (I did see her share it with one or 2 others) and another downed an entire bag of Munchies (doritos, pretzels, sunchips, cheetos combo) on his own! I tried to set an example by eating an apple, but eventually caved and went for the popcorn So it all turned out okay afterall. The kids had a lot of fun, and the animals added an interesting twist to the eventful day! I was nervous again at recess and lunch when a few of the dogs were getting a little fiesty, but I never heard of any injuries. Thank the good Lord! Now we get a long weekend to relax from all of the craziness! Again, thank the good Lord! Have a wonderful weekend...we sure plan to!

Fiesta Patria 2008

2008-09-26T16:15:00.014-05:00

We celebrated Honduran Independence Day on Monday, September 15. Every year they have a parade through the streets of Comayagau. It begins at 7am (or should I say it is supposed to anyhow) and lasts for about 5-6 hours. There are numerous participants, including schools, social organizations, the military, businesses, etc., and Maranatha was lucky enough to be assigned number 3 in the parade order!

Many of the local schools participated in the festivities by including various student groups. For example, this year Maranatha included a percussion band, cheerleaders, color guard, the top 3 students from each class, and the 6th (last grade before high school), 10th (juniors) and 11th (seniors) graders in the march. Oh and of course we had a special section for the gringo teachers

at our school! What a prime time to showcase all of Maranatha´s American teachers to the city of Comayagua. (Having native English speakers is a status symbol and definitely a plus for parents when selecting a biligual school for their children.) This is the first year since we have been here that Maranatha has participated in the festivities. Although we had to meet at the school at 6am on Monday morning it was great to be a part of the celebration. Greg and I were so proud of the kids! The band looked so sharp in their uniforms and did an excellent job playing and marching. Their beats helped keep us energized as we danced along behind them. Greg, Jenny, and I ended up being the official water distributors for the band and a couple other student groups. There was a wagon full of bags of water that we pulled along with us as we all walked around squirting it in the kids mouths - in attempt to keep them from getting dehydrated. It was so hot that day and the poor band kids were wearing heavy uniforms! We had a lot of fun helping them out! Several of my 5th graders were in the band, but the youngest member was an adorable 3rd grader, Jesus. I think he was the fan favorite! He was definitely a trooper - marching through the entire thing!

Participating in the parade this year really brought the student body together and helped build pride among them. They worked hard for weeks preparing for the big day and their dedication really paid off. All of the students regardless of the section they marched in, made a very good showing for our school and did an excellent job! Here is a brief video clip from the start of the march:

The entire time we marched Greg and I (and a couple other fellow Americans) felt a little uncomfortable. We heard a comment like ´why are theses Americans marching in our parade?´ and it confirmed our suspicious that there might be a few people against our participation. For the most part, the people here accept us and treat us great, but unfortunately, not everyone welcomes Americans here. Especially right now with the economy growing a little more hostile and relations with the Honduran president and Hugo Chavez strengthening, we are starting to feel a little uneasy. We know God wants us here though, and are assured that he will protect us.

So a few days after the parade, we found out that there actually was some violence during the parade. It was later in the parade (after our group passed by) one school that apparently has multiple members from one gang, was attacked by a group from a rival gang. Fortunately, no one was killed, but it caused quite a stir among the crowd. People apparently were trying to get away, trampling others and yelling for help. Luckily the police and military forces were close by and were able to break it up pretty quickly (as we heard). Pretty crazy stuff! Overall, it was a great day for us....and we are glad we didn't find out about the fight until after the celebration!

Something Strange Going On...

2008-09-20T11:14:00.004-05:00

Since we have been back in Honduras (going on 4 weeks now) Greg and I have noticed some significant differences, and by differences, I mean POSITIVE changes!

First, the streets seem to be cleaner. We pretty much walk everywhere we go; to school, to the grocery, to our friend's houses, and during our treks, we always see so much litter! Empty bottles, wrappers, cups, broken glass (to name a few) are scattered around the streets and sidewalks. This sight is always a little

disheartening to Greg and I, as we always discuss ways to improve the waste system here. Some of it is not the locals' fault, trash cans are few and far between here - but come on, have some pride in your beautiful country and put your waste where it belongs! When in doubt, find a bathroom, there is sure to be a garbage receipticle next to the toilet! Anyway, each morning on our way to school, we pass city workers sweeping up trash with a broom and dustpan. Apparently it is helping because Greg and I sure have noticed a decrease in litter. (We recently learned that this is part of Comayagua's new mayor's charge - to clean up all the trash!) We nearly passed out when we passed a public trash can (bolted down of course so it isn't stolen) overflowing with garbage. We were so impressed that it was full! What a positive change - we hope it continues!

Another great thing - no taxi drivers have tried to rip us off yet! Maybe it is just because we now have the taxi hailing process down: 1. Hail the cab (often this step is omitted because we are actually stalked by cabbies that want to pick us up). 2. When it pulls up, don't get in. First ask the price per person to your destination. It should be 20 Lempira each for anywhere in town. 3. If the price is right, enter the cab and make nice with the driver. So, we aren't sure why we keep getting fair quotes, but we are very pleased about it! It used to be only 15 Lempira per person, but the price increased by 5 Lemps (about 25 cents) last spring because of the elevated gas prices. At least that is what we heard! Wait, maybe we are getting ripped off afterall... Just kidding!

We are also happy to report that the school seems to be fun

ctioning better this year. Although we still haven't received our official class rosters or our grade books, the administration is more organized. They assigned each teacher a locker in the teacher's room (last year it was first come first served and there weren't enough), we now have 4 new functioning computers with internet also in the teacher's room (and no students are allowed to use them), and we can get our paychecks direct deposited (into our Honduran bank account of course). In addition, Maranatha now has an official student body band, which marched in the Indepence Day parade (we didn't participate l

ast year), and we now have a detention hall! Overall, things are just running smoother and the kids (well most of them) seem to be more calm. We are really enjoying our experiences at the school this year!

And finally, we have been amazed with the power company's ability to restore electricity in record time! Since it is the rainy season now, we have pretty frequent storms. In fact on Friday night we had a pretty violent one, and just as our friends were walking out to their car (they had come over for dinner) the transformer outside of our house started shooting out sparks, then the lights all went out! Well, this left our friends in predicament because our electronic gate (pictured above) will not open without power! They decided to hail a cab and pick up the car the next day, as we figured it would be hours - even days - before power was restored. You can imagine our complete shock when only an hour later the electricity came back on! The next day we lost power again, only for about 20 minutes though. Kudos to the power company for a job well done!

We are super impressed and way excited about all of the great changes happening. It thrills us to write about positive happenings here - and hope to include more soon! Have a wonderful weekend!

Feistas and Futbol

2008-09-12T15:15:00.001-05:00

Well, we survived another ¨Children´s Day¨ here in Honduras. The National Holiday is celebrated every September 10 in Honduras and it involves sugar, sugar, and more sugar. Needless to say, the kids were quite rambuncous! We had classes until noon yesterday, then spent the last two hours of the day partying. Since I am the homeroom teacher or ¨guide teacher¨ as they call it here for both of the 5th grade classes, I was responsible for helping them plan their parties. I let them vote for their restaraunt of choice for lunch, with several American fast food chains around, I was sure they would chose one of them. 5th B went for Pizza Hut - a popular choice among the kids here - but I was quite surprised when 5th A wanted to order Chinese food! Althought it was a strange one, I honored their request - it is their day after all. The portions at Mang Ying (the best Chinese place in Comayagua - whatever that means!) are insanely huge so when I placed the order for the 18 students I got 2 orders of sweet and sour chicken, 3 orders of fried rice, and 2 boxes of friend wontons. Well it turns out that half of that order fed my entire class - and several teachers! (The lady working at the restaraunt told me one order of friend rice would serve 5 - 6 people! Ha!) Needless to say, the kids got their fill....and then some with cake and brownies for dessert. One of the boys in 5A also brought a piñata for the class to celebrate. Well, he didn´t bring the palo, (stick) so we had to get creative to break it. So, between Greg and I, we came up with the bright idea to ¨beat it up!¨ Oh I wish you could have seen it! Each student got the chance the give poor Spiderman an uppercut, roundhouse kick, or jab right in the grill. We were all cracking up, it was quite a sight! The kids mutliated poor Spidey until every last morsel of candy was literally knocked out of him! Now to 5B....I placed my order with the manager at Pizza Hut the previous Saturday. He gave me the total and assured met he food would be delivered promptly at 12 o'clock noon. Well, on Wednesday we waited and waited, but got nothing! Greg was on it pretty quick though and called the store to inquire. Eventually the food made it to the school, however, they forgot the breadsticks! Again, my wonderfully helpful husband took care of it and a half hour later they returned with the rest of the meal. You would think they would have offered some sort of discount since they messed up...but no, they charged us full price! (We didn't have the time or patience to argue! Plus, we were just happy it worked out!) Both classes really enjoyed themselves and I would say the parties were successful!

Later that evening Greg, Jenny, and I (along with 3 other missionaries) went to another teacher's house to watch the futbol game. The Honduran National Team was playing Jamaica in San Pedro Sula, HN, and everyone was fired up! It was great watching the game at Julio's house (with his mom, 3 siblings, nephews, and cousins) because we got a true Honduran soccer viewing experience! Everyone was so into it! Honduras ended up scoring 2 goals in the second half (Suazo and Nunez) sweeping the Jamaicans. The town went NUTS after that! I swear they are still setting off fireworks in celebration (2 days later!) As we walked back from Julio's, people were parading through the streets waving Honduran Flags, blasting music, and driving like maniacs as they honked their horns nonstop. Of course we hooted and hollered along with them as we ventured back to our apartment. My throat is still a little hoarse from the cheering! We really enjoyed it though and look forward to the next game!

Today was the last day of school until next Thursday. We have Monday and Tuesday off for Fiesta Patria (Honduran Indepence Day) and Wednesday off for Dia del Maestro (Teacher's Day). We don't really have any plans, but we have talked about taking a trip to Teguc or going hiking somewhere. We would have traveled somewhere outside of Honduras, except we have to march in the parade on Monday at 6am with our school. Bummer! Oh well, we are thrilled for a long weekend of rest and relaxation.

The Sunbeam...and Other New Goods!

2008-09-08T20:32:00.000-05:00

We love BREAD! We pretty much eat some kind of sandwich every day for lunch, be it veggie, BLT, ham, grilled cheese or the classic PB&J. As you can tell, the Bice's enjoy a good sandwich. However, we decided while we were here last year that we had had enough of the mediocore, nutrient-free bread, and pledged to buy a breadmachine so we could make our own. We made this happen while we were living in the states over the summer and are happy we did! So far we have made 3 different loaves, and each one has turned out better than the last! After we hounded - and befriended - the owners of one of the local supermarkets here, they began selling whole wheat flour at our request. They also carry flax seed, oatmeal, and wheat germ (I was quite impressed) so we are able to bake up a pretty healthy and hearty loaf of bread. And thanks to our handy, dandy new Subeam ($42.99 at Walmart - priceless to us) all we have to do is dump in the ingredients and she does the rest - including the baking! Pictured above is our very first masterpiece. I felt extremely accomplished today when my meat-loving husband commented that today's ham sandwich was amazing..........because of the phenomenal bread!

The Sunbeam isn't the only thing that is new around here! Last Thursday, Greg and I went shopping with one of our school administrators in hunt of some appliances and furniture for our apartme

nt. After

hitting 6 different stores throughout town, we concluded that the best prices were at M & M (no clue what it stands for). We finally selected an oven/stove, refridgerator, dining room table and chairs, and a bed after our 3 hour excursion. They were delivered after school on Friday, so our place is finally starting to feel like home! (You can see the items in our kitchen in the photos, the stove and fridge are about 3/4 of the size of 'American applainces.' Everthing here is just made a little smaller!) We had friends over on Saturday night (I cooked using our new appliances) to celebrate!

Greg and I are really enjoying our comfy new bed (we spent our first week and a half here on an airmattress - although it was a really nice one, nothing compares to a mattress)! Greg and I determined that this is the first new bed that we have had! For our first 2 years of marraige we slept on a hand me down from my sister, then had an old one in our apartment here last year. We are really enjoying it, in fact, Greg is passed out on it now as I write this (it is 8:05 pm).

It is raining a ton right now in Honduras, at least once every day. The rainy season will last until about December, when it will really heat up and things will dry out. Although we are getting a lot of showers, all the lively green foilage makes for some beautiful scenery. Needless to say, we are really enjoying ourselves and know that we are extremely blessed! Gracias a Dios!

Settling In

2008-08-30T19:18:00.005-05:00

I am glad it is the weekend! We pretty much got thrown right into the ring when we set foot into Comayagua. We had to report to school on Thursday to meet with administration and the other teachers, to prepare our classrooms, write lesson plans, and practice our schedule. Once again, we were given our limited school supplies - one pencil, one notebook, one red pen, one black pen, white out, tape, a stapler, a ruler, scissors, and an eraser - however, instead of the typical one dry erase marker, we were given two (one red, one black) this year! I guess they had to replace so many so often last year that they went ahead and handed out two. The way it goes for replacing broken, empty, or disfuncional supplies is that you take the old one to our librarian, Michi, she inspects it, then exchanges the faulty product for another one. This can be a bit tricky at times because it is habit just to through a pen with no ink in the trash as soon as it stops working. In that case, you just have to do your best to sweet talk Michi, in hopes for a replacement. (This has happened to both Greg and I in the past!)

We had a half day of school yesterday (although it doesn't officially start until September 1). Yeah, we don't really understand that either....only about half of the kids showed up so the school day (only from 7:10am - 11:00am) was relatively calm. Teachers were free to leave around 12:30pm, however, there was a surprise party for our principal planned to begin at 1:30pm. A few of us walked down to Wendy's then promptly returned to catch the beginning of the fiesta. Well, once again we were fooled by 'Honduran time' and showed up a whole hour before the thing kicked off! The principal was pleasantly surprised and all the teachers serenaded him with Honduran classics (accompanied by our new music teacher's keyboarding skills). They passed around cake, ice cream, of course soda for all to partake in the celebration. We finally headed home exhausted around 3:30pm. We hung out around the apartment for a while (unsuccessfully attempted a nap) then headed over to our friends' house for dinner. Earlier in the day we were able to get our hands on the remote control for the A/C unit in our bedroom! (We live in a two story town home now....there are two bedrooms upstairs and each one has an air conditioner.) It feels awesome, and I am actually wearing long pants and a hoody right now because I am so chilled!

We have many things to do this weekend, and hopefully we will get them all done (or at least most of them!) We´ll give you an update next week....

Greg´s New/Old Hairdo!

2008-08-30T18:49:00.003-05:00

Okay so I realized that I uploaded all these photos last spring when we were here, but never actually posted this entry. Although it is from May, I found it too entertaining to just delete. I hope you do too! Let me walk you through the pictures....the first three are a group of teenage girls from the orphanage having the time of their life putting braids (trenzas) in Greg's locks. They cracked up when they put in the 80's 'side pony' to separate his hair! Next, Greg poses with his stylist then wants a close up to show the detail! And finally, my personal favorites, what Greg's hair looked like - closely resembling the finished product of a krimper- after we took the braids out (He had them for about a week and a half and even wore them to school!)

We're Back!

2008-08-27T21:29:00.009-05:00

HAPPY 60th BIRTHDAY MAMA FARST!!!

We arrived safely last night in San Pedro Sula at about midnight. Once we got in, things went surprisingly smooth! All of luggage was there (and in one piece), we made it through customs in a snap, and the men driving the shuttle from the Hilton were waiting just outside of the baggage claim area, sign in hand! We got into the hotel just fine and were in bed probably by about 1:30am. We had a great night's sleep, a nice hot shower, and tasty breakfast all at the hotel. After we ate, we walked down to the mall to pick up a couple pair of black pants for me. Last year, the school gave us material (probably the heaviest, most uncomfortable they could find) and we had to hire someone to make us homemade slacks. Needless to say, they were less than flattering, so when I got the word that this year we were on our own to get our uniform bottoms, I ran straight to the mall in San Pedro in hopes for a semi decent selection. (I can't ever seem to find clothes to fit me here since I am tall, and just plain bigger than most of the people here.) I lucked out and found 2 pair at Carrion, and plan to have a couple skirts made for me somewhere in Comayagua. We headed out bound for Comayagua around 2:30pm. One of the school's administrators, Loyda, picked us up in her truck. We loaded it down good with all our baggage, and while she was in the big city, Loyda picked up some necessities for the school as well (filing cabinets, bulk paper products, etc.) that we had to squeeze in. Somehow, we managed to fit it all in the bed and on top of the truck cab. We secured a tarp over it all too, in case of rain. Good thing we did too, because we passed through a couple of showers while we were en route. (It is the rainy season!) We reached our apartment at about 6:00pm and were greeted by our good friends Kyle and Crystal Little. Thankfully they brought us an air mattress, sheets, and pillows, as right now our place is pretty bare! (We need to get so much stuff - shower curtains, a fridge, kitchen table, trash cans, food, a broom, etc.) We went to dinner with the Little's at La Casita (they picked up us in their new ride, they bought a SUV this summer while we were gone) and now we are back at the apartment, getting ready to crash. Somehow we have wireless internet, so that is how we writing this blog! Sweet! Although it is only 9:00pm we are feeling sleepy, since Honduras is two hours behind the east coast. I think we are going to turn in now since we have to be at school at 7:45am. (As you can see, Greg is already in bed!) Have a great night - God Bless You!

On note of sadness....we just plugged in Coby (our trusty little 13 inch TV that gave us hours of Spanish TV last year) and he has officially bitten the dust. His picture and clarity were definitely declining toward the end of the year, but I think we have finally lost him for good now. Bummer!

Goodbye USA, Hello Honduras!

2008-08-26T18:43:00.004-05:00

Greg cheesing in the airport!

We are writing this blog from high above the earth! We boarded our plane in Boston and now are bound for Honduras (by way of Florida). We arrive in San Pedro Sula, Honduras tonight, just before midnight. We will stay at a hotel there this evening, then someone from the school will pick us up tomorrow to head to Comayagua (about a 3 hour trip one way).

Things didn't quite turn out as we had hoped in the Major League Lacrosse finals in Boston (Los Angeles lost to Denver in the semi finals on Saturday) but we still had a great time! We got to visit some historic sites, eat some delicious food, and spend time with friends and family (my parents and brother came along, as well as Greg's dad). Since we went to Boston last Thursday, we had to get everything all packed and ready for Honduras about a week ago. That actually made things nice because with all of that taken care of in advance, we were really able to relax during our last few days in the USA. In fact, we even treated ourselves to some spa services! I got a manicure and pedicure and Greg got a full body massage. It was fun to get pamped one last time before heading back. We have been running around a little trying to pick up loose odds and ends (sinus medicine, vitamins, deoderant, stamps) things that are easier and cheaper to buy here. We spent a couple hours at Panera Bread last night using their free WiFi to download Skype (an internet phone service). We plan to get the internet at our apartment this year, so Skype will allow us to make calls and stay in touch better! (We hope!) We tested it last night - headset and all - and it seems to work. Now in Honduras it could be a completely different story, but we are keeping our fingers crossed!

We are looking forward to reuniting with our friends, students, and everyone at the orphanage. Apparently we will see our students sooner than we thought! We were told that school starts on Monday, September 1. However, we just got word that we will actually have a half day on Friday, August 29! Let the fun begin already! I almost forgot how they just switch thing up on us at the last minute - and you just gotta hope you find out one way or another! (Our friend, Jenny, gave us the heads up this time!)

So here we go! Round 2 in Honduras! Thanks for your continued prayers, support, and encouragement! Give us a shout in our guest book (right side of the screen) if you want, we love hearing from you! Next time we write, we will be in Honduras! Adios a los Estados Unidos!

Houston, We have a BABY!

2008-08-11T15:01:00.004-05:00

Alyson Joy Hamilton made her debut on Saturday morning 8/9/08 at 9:50am. Fortunately, I stayed overnight with my sister and brother-and-law on Friday night so I was there on Saturday morning for all the action! It was a wonderful blessing to be in with my sister as she delivered the little miracle. She barely made it to the hospital in time and in less than 45 minutes of our arrival, little Aly came into the world. Today they got to go home and now we are all just hanging out enjoying the new addition to our family.

Oh, and her big brother, Drew, is pretty excited too!

Summertime Fun!

2008-08-07T13:16:00.018-05:00

So, I just noticed that it has been two months since our last post - not to mention, we have only written once since arriving back in the United States! The blog was such a big part of our lives while in Honduras, such a great way to keep everyone updated on our lives, but now that we are back, I guess it has fallen by the wayside a little. Well today, I can finally mark "write a new blog" off of my ever growing to do list!

This summer has been so amazing! From cross country traveling and new hair cuts to visiting loved ones and delicious American cuisine, we have nothing to complain about! Life is good! We have done our best to make the most of our time here and our days have been filled with shopping, cooking (with an oven!), lacrosse, sleeping in, boating, grilling out, playing Wii, napping, spending time outdoors, hanging out with our nephew and Godson, and much more! We also have been working (by we, I mostly mean Greg) and traveling a ton! We spent some time in Texas visiting the Bice clan, and while we were there took a road trip 6 hours northwest to visit Greg's twin brothers at Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas. I have been fortunate to watch Greg play lacrosse for the Los Angeles Riptide 3 times this year (twice in Chicago and once in LA). I am going to get one more opportunity to see him live at during the Major League Lacrosse Championship Weekend in Boston at the end of the month. You can too - the games will be broadcast live on ESPN 2. The top 4 teams in the league get invited, and LA is one of them! (Make sure you vote in our new poll - upper right hand corner of the page.) Looks like we will be heading back to Honduras directly following that weekend. School starts on September 1, so we will be back just in time to start round 2 in Comayagua! We miss our friends there - especially the kids - and look forward to getting back and seeing everyone! I am sure Greg looks forward to actually settling down and staying in one place for more than just a few days! He travels twice, sometimes three times each week to play lacrosse games or work at camps. I know he really enjoys what he is doing, but the travel really wears on him after a while! He officially finishes on August 15 then will return to Ohio for one week before heading to Boston for the finals. We plan to leave straight from there to go back to Honduras.

We have already begun gathering essentials and have started to pack, but we have something even more exciting on the horizon. My sister, Stephanie, is due with baby #2 anytime! Her official due date in August 13, but last week after seeing her doctor, she assured us that it could happen any day now! We are anxiously awaiting the new baby's arrival!

One thing I can definitely say of our trip back to the USA, is that we have really learned to take pleasure in the simple things. I know that sounds so cliche and cheesy, but it is so true! It is funny because all of these sayings, prayers, and quotes that I have heard for years are finally started to make sense! I never realized how fitting the "Serenity Prayer" is and why it is so important to stop and smell the roses! I have determined that true happiness is really a state of mind and positive attitude really makes life so much more enjoyable. Greg and I also have realized how blessed we are to have such a wonderful family and amazing friends! So many that it is impossible to visit them all in our short time home. We have found ourselves getting frustrated because we just can't get out to see everyone, but have to realize what a blessing it is to have so many great people in our lives! That being said, we love you all, thank you for your continued encouragement and support, and apologize that we haven't had the chance to visit with you all personally! Remember, you can always come down and visit us in Honduras - we will even have a spare bedroom in our new apartment! Anyways, thanks to all of you that you have contributed to a wonderful summer and fabulous year! May God continue to bless you richly - just as He does with us!

Home Sweet Home!

2008-06-04T22:23:00.008-05:00

We are officially on North American soil! We have been here for about 12 hours now, and every second so far has been AMAZING! We arrived in San Antonio this morning at about 9:00am. We left from San Pedro Sula, Honduras last night at 1am (after waiting for 8 hours at the airport! Trust me, I am not complaining!) We visited with a couple of mission groups arriving to work for the week, and just hung out and reflected over our past year in Honduras. We landed in Miami this morning around 4:45am where we went through customs and re-entered the country for the first time since December (well, for me anyway!) We are still in a little bit of a daze, since we didn't get much sleep last night, but nonetheless, it is glorious to be back!

After we landed in Texas, we hit of Taco Cabana for some highly anticipated breakfast tacos. When we got back to the house, we slept for about 2 hours (from 11:30-1:3o), then Greg's mom and brother, Tommy, picked us up for lunch. We went to our favorite burger place, Chester's (which we have been dreaming about for months) then went to Marble Slab Creamery for dessert. Delish! Next we went to the movies and watched the new Indian Jones flick (it was good) then followed it up with a trip to Target and Starbuck's Coffee. All of our travel around town was in a big Texas truck....doesn't get more American than that! I figured we could pace ourselves a little better in the future, but today was fabulous! Packing in so many awesome things! And let me just say, the USA rocks! I mean, the access we have to anything and everything at out hearts desire! The safety and security that we have here is something I have so often taken for granted, but now realize how privileged we are to have that! I was able to carry a purse today for the first time in 2008! (A big no-no in Honduras....an obvious target for muggers.) Oh, and I actually got behind the wheel of a car today too! I'll admit, I was quite cautious at first, but it felt so good to drive again....and to actually have order on the highways and roads! I'll admit, I haven't showered in good, clean North American water yet, but there is a 99% chance when I finish this blog I am going to go soak in a hot tub! That being said, I think I will go ahead and wrap up. And if you haven't figured this out already:
Oh, by the way, tomorrow the hunt is on to purchase our Nintendo Wii (we saved up for it all yeah!) After a lot of store hopping and calling around today, we had no such luck. We have planned a 2-station stake out tomorrow (at 2 different Game Stop locations) as they are hoping to receive a shipment of 1-3 Wii's at each of the locations sometime between the hours of 11:00am and 12:00pm(however, not cofirmed). We thought we had one located today about 55 miles outside of the city, and by the time we decided to make the road trip (about 20 minutes after hearing of the availablilty) it was already sold! Wish us luck.....and please let us know if you have any insider information!

Missions Accomplished!

2008-05-27T10:28:00.009-05:00

Well, it didn’t take us long to take advantage of our Hiper Paiz purchases. On Sunday afternoon once we returned to Comayagua, Jenny and I decided it was time to open the can of pumpkin! Let the cookie baking begin! We found a great recipe for pumpkin cookies with caramel icing, so we went for it! I noticed that the recipe called for pretty large quantities of ingredients, however, it said “Yield 3 ½ Dozen” so I figured that seemed like a good amount. Since we don’t have an oven or range, (just two plug-in burners, see photo right) we have learned to make things many things, cookies included, in our toaster oven (see photo left). After we whipped up the batter, we were able to bake the cookies in the toaster oven 6 at a time. It was weird, it seemed like we just keep baking, and baking but we never seemed to make a dent in the batter. About halfway through the bowl of dough we hit 3 dozen baked cookies - that is when we realized we were in for a long night! 4 hours later and approximately 85 cookies later, the bowl was finally empty! Our toaster oven definitely stood the test of time and produced baked the cookies to perfection! Jenny and I both had stomach aches and sugar highs from all the cookies we ate during the process, but it was definitely worth it. The cookies were seriously AMAZING! We took a good portion to school with us today to share with our fellow coworkers…however, we still have at least a couple dozen left! (Email me if you want the recipe!)

Greg arrived back in Honduras on Monday morning. His initial plans for a ride from Tegucigalpa to Comayagua fell through, but fortunately he was able to jump on the military bus. He got back to our apartment around 5:30pm and we didn’t waste anytime before starting dinner. We fired up the griddle and went to town preparing the batter for our highly anticipated blueberry pancakes. They turned out fabulous! We topped them with a touch of butter and honey and downed the whole batch! DELISH! It is fun to take pleasure in the ´little´things in life! So, although we do not have scrumptious North American restaurants here, we do our best to create our own tasty treats…and dream of the delicious food back in the states!

Viaje to the Big City!

2008-05-25T10:27:00.020-05:00

Friday after school Greg, Jenny, and I all hopped on a bus bound for Tegucigalpa. We arrived in the capitol city around 5:00pm and were greeted by our friend, Laurie (a fellow Norte Americana). She picked us up at the Esso Gas Station then we headed for her apartment. She lives at this really, really nice place! It was hotel that is now building an addition of brand new, fully furnished, top of the line apartments. Complete with a flat screen TV, wireless internet, air conditioning, an oven, granite countertops...you get the point! It is nothing like I have ever seen in Honduras before! :) Another thing this place has is a double sink. Double sinks pretty much do not exist here, which does make it more challenging when doing dishes. (Dish washers? Yeah right!) So, we have actually enjoyed doing dishes here, totally different experience with two sinks.

After we arrived at Laurie's place, we dropped our bags and realized that we were ready for dinner! There are several American chain restaurants here, so we were totally pumped for some good old USA grub. We decided on Fridays. The food was pretty good, however, the service was quite lacking (not to complain, just sharing the reality of the experience). You see, most restaraunts (even the American ones) already include the propina (tip, usually about 10%) in the check, therefore, often times servers don't feel the need to be overly helpful or even just plain accommodating. We were prepared for that in advance, so we tried not to let it sour our experience! Overall, we had a good meal and good fellowship, can't ask for much more! Afterward, we pretty much crashed back at Laurie's place. We had to get up early on Saturday to get Greg to the airport for his 7am departure to Los Angeles (for his lacrosse game on Sunday - his second of the season http://www.lariptide.com/).

Once Greg got off okay on Saturday, quality girl time began! :) We hit the mall around noon for some more American eats. I had an awesome salad from Quizno's - so good! Then we walked around and did some shopping. I have literally gone clothes shopping twice since I have been in Honduras (this trip included) since last August - that is HUGE for me! We each bought one thing, I got a dress and Jenny bought a jacket. (See us modeling our purchases, left) It was fun female bonding time!

Later, we hit up Hyper Paiz, a Wal-Mart like department store (it is actually owned by Wal-Mart). They carry a lot of the Sam's Club and Equate brand items and Wal-Mart quality products. They do have a really great grocery area though, which was awesome! I made 3 food purchases that I was super pumped about. First, Sweet and Salty Chex Mix (Honey Nut flavor). I am pretty much obsessed with Chex Mix. Once in a while I can find the regular flavor at gas stations or occasionally at the super market in Comayagua, but never different varieties. I typically only purchase it for road trips (Chex Mix is road trip staple for Greg and I, mainly me) but this time I made an exception! And, as you can see from the photo, the bag is already empty! I shared, I promise! Next, I was able to find canned pumpkin! Yeah, that is a super random ingredient, but it has been something I have been on a mission to find since Thanksgiving! I don't necessarily need it right now, but, I was so excited to see it, that I splurged, spent the $2 and bought it. Every once in a while I have a craving for pumpkin cookies, and now I can actually make them. In fact, I might fire up the toaster oven and make some this week! Finally, my most exciting discovery and purchase at Hyper Paiz....FRESH BLUEBERRIES!!!!!! They had a fabulous produce section, I was truly in fruit and veggie heaven! I picked up some yogurt too, and on Sunday we had granola, yogurt, blueberries and honey (that comes in a water bottle!) for breakfast. So tasty! Greg and I plan to make blueberry pancakes this week...my mouth is watering just thinking about them! I can't wait! We were also able to use a donation we received to pick up some toothpaste, toothbrushes, and deoderant in bulk (at good prices) to deliver to the orphanage back in Comayagua. Hyper Paiz was definitely 'bringing it' on Saturday!!! In the evening, we put Laurie's great kitchen to use and made BBQ chicken sandwiches, corn on the cob, broccoli, pasta salad, and 2 kinds of muffins. It was awesome to cook with state-of-the-art appliances!

Later that night, the Honduras National Futbol Championship Game was being played, live from none other than Comayagua. A team from San Pedro Sula and one from Tegucigalpa played for the title. Olympia from Teguc ended up winning 1-0 and the live footage showed people going nuts, partying, setting off fireworks, etc. all in Comayagua. Jenny and I were glad we opted to stay another night with Laurie in Tegucigalpa because we probably would not have gotten any sleep. Besides, one more night in the lap of luxury? Yes, please! We had a very relaxing, refreshing and fun-filled weekend here in the big city! It was fun to feel a little more 'connected' this weekend too, with access to the internet and modern conveniences many of which are not available in our quaint, colonial town. As great as city life is, I am actually looking forward to returning to our tranquil and calm hometown this afternoon! Of course, after we soak in one more bit of American culture....lunch at Ruby Tuesdays!

Our Barnyard Friends Visit Comayagua

2008-05-20T11:03:00.010-05:00

Tuesday is trash day in our barrio (neighborhood) so the morning air is usually filled with a pretty rotten stench. Well, on this particular Tuesday morning the smell was so bad that it was overwhelming our apartment! Greg and I kept sniffing and moving through the house in attempt to find the odor´s source, but we could not find the cause. It wasn´t until we stepped outside that we discovered the root of the disgusting smell...

In Comayagua on trash day, everyone just drops their bags outside their front door on the sidewalk for the garbage men to pick up. Since there are no front yards or lawns, the entrance to a house is basically only like 2 feet from the street (right off of the sidewalk). Therefore, the stinky rotten waste smell often creeps into the house uninvited. It is even more intense when the garbage men don´t collect the bags until the afternoon because the trash just bakes all day in the sun!

Back to the story---So it was only about 6:40am and the odor had already overtaken our apartment, something was definitely unusual! Much to our surprise when we opened the front door we were greeted by none other than a donkey and a horse, standing their munching on some of the waste. Apparently the friendly duo was taking our street by storm and hitting the garbage piles one by one outside of each house or apartment. The smell was so intense because the animals were ripping the bags open, sorting through the scraps they wanted, and leaving behind those that they did not scattered all over the sidewalk and street. Greg and I could not believe our eyes as the tag team trotted proudly from one pile to the next, eating what they wanted then moving on to the following stack. They proceeded from house to house as if they owned the street! They hit the jackpot when they discovered an uncovered metal garbage can! Needless to say, Greg and I were a little late to school that day as we followed our animal friends around to take photos as they paraded through the neighborhood...it was definitely worth it though! I don´t know what ever happened to the two pals after that day as we haven´t seen them since. But, I venture to assume that they are two of the fattest and happiest animals in the area!

Chapel Hikes

2008-05-14T13:55:00.010-05:00

Occasionally during our stay here we have had the pleasure of going on hikes with the chapel on base. Before hand they raise money to purchase food, then on the day of the event, we fill our backpacks and deliver the items. Last Saturday we went on a short 3 mile hike (I say short because on the previous hike we were told it would be 5 miles, and it ended up being almost 12!) to a village outside of La Paz – a neighboring city to Comayagua. We delivered an estimated 4,000 pounds of food, about $900 worth (which goes a long way when buying rice and beans from the marketplace!)

This particular hike was different than the others as we had some distinguished guests accompanying us…none other than CNN! Reporter Barbara Starr and her camera crew hiked alongside us while taping video footage of the event for an upcoming story. She interviewed participants and filmed the scenery as we hiked. It was really funny it just so ‘happened’ that every time Barbara was recording a segment, my friend Crystal and I ended up right behind her! Apparently the coincidence worked to our favor because Crystal, her husband Kyle, and I all got some face time on CNN´s web video clip. http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/05/01/starr.honduras.food.cnn?iref=videosearch

Throughout our several hikes, it has always stifled me how many of the people to whom we deliver the food, willingly accept our gift however they seem to forget to offer a simple thank you. I am sure though, that is must be pretty humbling to have to accept food from strangers in order to feed your own family! And as Greg said, we aren’t doing this to receive praise from others, our purpose is to serve as the hands and feet of Jesus. I agree completely, and know in my heart that the people appreciate the supplies and hope they see them as a gift from our Creator.

The people’s outward lack of appreciation caused me to do some personal reflecting. It made me realize how many blessing and gifts God gives to me each day. Many of which I don’t even recognize (some of which I even expect!) let alone extend a mere ‘thank you’ for! I also thought about how much he must love me in order to continue blessing me abundantly when so often my gratitude is lacking! Which led me to my next thought…How long is someone willing to continue “doing” for someone else that is ungrateful? I don’t want to find out….I realize that I really need to start identifying my blessing and glorifying the Lord in return, everyday! Now I don’t have any kids yet, but I have a feeling that is what moms go through a lot too. Lack of appreciation for all they do for their family. This probably won’t make up for my 27 years of neglection, but I’ll try anyway: THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING MOM! I LOVE YOU!

So at the end of the journey, as I was grabbing all my gear to head back to the bus an elderly woman approached me grabbed my hands looked me in the eye and said, “thank you so much for all of this, please share my appreciation with the others too.” This was the moment that ‘made the day’ for me. I soaked it in for a minute, then, thanked the Lord for the opportunity to participate in the chapel hikes. It really is a pleasure and a gift.

Crystal and I posing with the ´famous´Barbara Starr!

The rest of the photos included in this blog are shots from the hike!
Oh, and yes, that is toilet above, and yes, I used it.

Not Your Average Science Fair

2008-05-04T07:29:00.007-05:00

On Friday, our school had its annual science fair. Classes were canceled and instead, the kids displayed and demonstrated their projects from 8am to 12pm. Of course, the first bit of the morning was quite chaotic (as to be expected) - there weren't enough display tables, some of my 4th graders had to relocate their displays up to four time after they had already set them up, and half of them forgot their materials! After some tears, phone calls, and direction from leadership, everything was finally ready to go around 9am. The 1st and 2nd graders did class projects lead by their teachers, then from 3rd to 11th grade the students were on their own to work individually or in groups to develop an experiment. I wasn't really involved with helping the kids, since I only teach Language Arts, but I was pretty impressed with some of their projects. One boy in my class made hair gel (a staple in any man's toiletry kit here) in a variety of scents and colors, then sold it to classmates after the event (business man in the making). Another group made electricity using clorox, salt, water, and vinegar, others showed how and why things flot in salt water, and yet another demonstrated how gravity works. However my 2 personal favorites or maybe I should say, the most shocking experiments that I encountered, were both done by elementary students and they both involved alcohol! The 2nd graders whole project was actually making and an alcoholic beverage - Kahlua! I was pretty much surprised at that alone, but when they started handing out samples of the stuff blended into smoothies and baked into a cake (which I tasted by the way and it was delish!) I couldn't believe my eyes! Let me tell you, it was quite a popular booth amongst visitors! Then, take a short walk to a 4th grade group and find a booth with a bottle of Honduran moonshine sitting on their table! The girls' project actually did teach a good lesson, but still, it involved moonshine - at school! The purpose of their display was to show the negative effects of consuming alcohol on the liver. The girls placed a piece of cow's liver (that they picked up at the local grocery store) in a glad bowl and poured the moonshine on top. As the liver absorbed the liquid and began to filter it, it turned white and became discolored. It was a good message, however, bring alcohol to school - questionable! Wow, chalk it up to cultural differences again - that is what we do when we can't figure out something here. Overall, the science fair was successful and there were many impressive projects. Neighboring schools came and toured the booths and the local news even visited and filmed the event. I didn't see anyone stumbling out of the school at the end of the day, so I will consider the 2008 School Science Fair a winner!

The Bicecreamman´s Birthday Celebration

2008-04-28T13:58:00.007-05:00

Greg has officially joined the ranks with many other distinguished and mature 27 year olds. Happy Birthday! After my week long celebration in January full of surprises and fun events, I couldn´t let Greg down.

The first celebration of the day (on April 15) began at 6am. 5 good friends helped start Greg´s day off right with a breakfast of champions at none other than Comayagua´s own Dunkin Donuts! (It opened here about a month ago). After pumped our bodies full of sugar and caffeine (we were literally shaking) it was time to go to school. We had ´gate duty´that morning - which involved standing at the entrance and welcoming kids into the school - and I really think that we scared some of them with our hyper active actions!
Anyway, after the crash when our blood sugar plummeted, it was time for our next rush, I mean, party. My 4th grade class and Greg´s 7th grade class planned a joint suprise party for him. However before it began, Julio, the computer teacher, had his own surprise planned for Mr. Greg. You see, here in Honduras life revolves a lot around soccer - or futbol as they call it. Of course, being the sports guy that Greg is, he jumped on the fan train and has self proclaimed himself to the #1 fan for Hispano - Comayagua´s professional futbol team. And it just so happens that there is an Argentinean player on the team named Sergio Diduch, that people say resembles Greg. Diduch has light skin and long blonde hair like Greg, however, he is about ½ his size! Random people at the games and even driving down the road yell out ¨Diduch!¨ when they see Greg. Of course, he loves it and hoped to one day meet his local hero twin. Okay, so back to Julio - apparently he has some major connections in the area because he actually invited him to come to the school to surprise Greg and attend his birthday bash! Sure enough, he came and completely blindsided Greg! Julio hid him in the computer lab, while I guided Greg in (not before accidentally slamming him into the wall first). The look on Greg´s face when he opened his eyes was priceless, I think he was in the beginning stages of shock! They chatted for a little bit - meanwhile the kids and I were preparing the classroom for the party.

The students brought sandwiches, chips, tacos, candy, soda, ballons, streamers, a piñata (shaped like shark in orange in blue to represent the LA Riptide), and a huge strawberry cake. The children went nuts when Greg and Diduch entered the room! It worked out perfectly too because I got Greg a Hispano Diduch jersey for his birthday gift, and he was able to get it signed by him while he was there! After lunch, we brought out the cake. After being serenaded by all the attendants, Greg blew out all 27 candles. Before we served it to eat though, one more thing had to be done - the traditional Honduran ¨cake to face!¨ Sure enough, we snuck up behind him and gave his head a good shove, right into the frosting.

He said he opened his mouth and took a huge bite! After he got cleaned up, it was time to bust up the piñata. With the help of Mr. Greg and the kids, they had that thing raining candy in no time!

Not soon after, it was time for class to resume. I felt bad for the teachers that had to teach the kids that attended the party all sugared up and hyper. Fortunately, there was only an hour left of school. Afterward, Greg and I went home and crashed. We slept for a good couple hours, then got up recharged for one more celebration. We got take out (barbeque) from La Casita then went to Kyle and Crystal´s house. We finished out the day hanging out with great friends, then hit the sack around 10:00pm. Greg said that he had a fabulous birthday! He wondered if it was a little creepy that he was Diduch´s #1 fan (since they are both are grown men) but I assured him that it was okay. I did think it was strange though when he slept in his jersey though…. Just kidding!!!

Las Alfombras

2008-04-17T17:51:00.000-05:00

Use your imagination if you will and travel back with us to Semana Santa (Holy Week, post surf board smackdown!) Easter week is huge in Comayagua. Semana Santa’s festivities here are really what put our city on the map. Good Friday is the culmination of the events. On Thursday night beginning in the evening, some are even started as late as midnight, construction of the “Alfombras” begins. What is an ‘alfombra’ you ask, well, in English it means carpet - that word does no justice to the beautiful landscapes created on the alfombras during Holy Week. These carpets are very unique as they are typically made of sawdust, rice, beans, eggs, leaves, hay, bark, and other natural materials. Some of the supplies used are dyed in bright colors to create picturesque biblical scenes and murals in the carpets. Each carpet is sponsored (for lack of a better term) by a family, organization, business, or institute (Hogar de Nazareth – the orphanage even had one!) Each group is given a designated area on a specific street surrounding the town’s square. All of the roads are blocked off on Thursday evening and the work begins! The images are often chalked on the street before hand then string and cardboard cut outs are used to help separate the different colored materials when filling in the design. People work for hours on the carpets, many staying up all night and barely finishing before 9:00am when the ‘Station’s of the Cross’ parade begins. (Here is a click from the parade.)

Ultimately, the carpets are made only to be trampled over, so people get up early to walk around and admire the amazing vivid images that were so delicately fashioned. The Good Friday procession that lasts for several hours and marches slowly around the town’s center, is filled with symbolic scenes and traditions from the different Station’s of the Cross all representing the events that lead to the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The march begins at the designated first carpet, then ends after it has slowly crossed over each one. In addition, there were many stationary sites along the path too, mainly with children acting out the different scenes. There were also a number of males, ranging in age from about 18 months to grown men dressed in robes, sandals, and a crown of thorns baring a cross and marching through the streets. It was a pretty moving experience, different than anything we had ever seen before, that is for sure.

From what we’ve heard the tradition of creating alfombras, or sawdust carpets, in the street started many years ago in Guatemala. Comayagua adapted the custom about a decade ago and it has been a huge hit here ever since. In fact, people travel from all over the world to Comayagua to view the beautifully designed carpets. We have never seen so many people on the streets here - especially of so many different nationalities. The Good Friday traditions here were a pretty amazing occurrence, and we were very glad to have had the opportunity to experience it

God´s Purpose for Ants

2008-04-08T12:23:00.009-05:00

It seems like not matter how much we clean, our kitchen continues to be over run by ants! Tiny little things crawling around in search of the smallest morsel of food to heist and take back to their colony. I Clorox Clean Up all the counters (we have 2) at least twice a day, but still, the ants attack! I guess ´safety in numbers´must be one of their mottos though, because there is never just one. When I spot one, within eye shot I seem to find at least 5 more. They all seem to just be running around frantically with no direction, swirling about on the tiles scaveging for something worthy of taking home. They crawl everywhere over everything - they know no boundaries. Every once in a while I bust them all crowded around in circle honing in on something so tiny that I can´t even tell what it is! This is what I call an opportune time to get out the Raid and go to town! Another time when I have the advantage over them is when they travel. They all line up and just follow the ant in front of them. I usually can´t find the beginning of the line or the end, but when I see the middle, I RAID! However, I have discovered, I am fighting a losing battle. No matter how many I kill, they just keep coming back....and bringing their friends! So as my annoyance with ants continues to grow, I have been questioning, what is the purpose of ants? Why do they exist? They must have a reason here on earth...but what? A couple days ago when I was reading a specific passage in the Bible, I just glanced over to the page before and the word ´ant´caught my eye. Ants, even in the Bible? I can´t escape these things! This is the passage that I read:

Proverbs 30: 24 & 25

Four things on earth are small, yet they are extremely wise. Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer.

So apparently, ants are here to teach us about preparation for the future. They also set a great example for working together. There you have it, even God gave ants a purpose for living. That doesn´t mean that I have to like them though right? God has such a sense of humor! I was questioning his motives and he lead me to the answer!

Sometimes in this confusing, mixed up world I wonder what my purpose is. Although I may never know or discover it during my life on earth, I truly believe God has a unique purpose for every single thing in his creation, just as he does for the those tiny little ants that are invading my apartment!

Did you know this about Ants....
*In the Amazon rainforest, ants and termites make up nearly a third of the total animal biomass.
*About 20,000 species of ants are known. Scientists believe at least twice as many species of ants have yet to be discovered.
*The queen ant lays all the eggs in the anthill.
*The queen ant lives up to ten or twenty years.
*Some ants sleep for seven hours a day.
*Some ant nests can have up to three queens.
*Ants can lift 20 times their own body weight.
*When combined, all ants in the world would weigh about as much as all the human beings in the world.

http://www.animalcorner.co.uk/insects/ants/ant_trivia.html

Playa Tamarindo, Costa Rica

2008-04-02T17:16:00.006-06:00

Happy April! Wow, how the time flies! It is unbelievable that we been here for 8 months already! The school year is winding down, with only about 10 weeks left (June 6 is the last day). It seems that when we finally get a handle on our schedule, writing lesson plans, and grading papers, it will be time to head back to the United States. We are still unsure of our plans for next year. We would appreciate any prayers for divine direction and guidance! God has not left us guessing yet in our journey, so we feel confident he will continue to lead our hearts to where he wants us to be. However, we do know that we will be in the USA for approximately two months this summer (from June to August). Not quite sure where we will be, but we at least plan to be on North American soil for a while! We aren´t concerned with the details, we are just looking forward to good quality time with friends and family. Greg will be all over the place, as his lacrosse season begins May 17, with their first game at Denver.

Okay, below is a video of our recent trip to Playa Tamarinda, Costa Rica, in a nutshell! Greg created this great video that will put you in all the action of the latest ¨Bice Adventures¨ in Central America. We had an entire week off school for Semana Santa (Holy Week - the week before Easter). We took advantage and planned a trip to Costa Rica, this time in an airplane (not 20 hours one way on a bus) and this time to the beach! We had an awesome trip...check out the footage below for all the details! We hope you enjoy!

One final thought....As my sister reminded me, Easter is a time for new beginnings. In light of this ´second opportunity´Greg and I have decided to make some positive changes in our life. We have clung to the following scripture, and hope in your quest to live a fulfilling life that you will too!
Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. Proverbs 16:3
GOD BLESS YOU!

Some Food for Thought

2008-03-08T10:23:00.005-06:00

Here are some pearls of wisdom from Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life and past of Saddleback Church in California, in an interview by Paul Bradshaw.

People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.

One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.

I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.

We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.

Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.

The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort.

God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.

We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.

This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.

I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.

Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.

No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.

And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems.

If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness,"which is my problem, my issues, my pain." But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.

We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her.

It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.

You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.

Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.

It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.

So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72

First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.

Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.

Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?

Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?

When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do.
That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.

My cousin, Jen, sent me this interview and I thought it was very profound. I love Rick Warren´s positive outlook and attitude admist adversity and success. May God bless you! Have a safe and wonderful weekend.

Comayagua Sightseeing

2008-03-05T16:30:00.010-06:00

Here are some random shots taken around town. Exhibit A (to the
right) is a prime example of taken full advantage of the ´truck bed.´ In this particular photo, it is full of plastic soccer balls. However, we have seem them loaded and packed to the gills in the same manner with eggs (uncovered, literally cooking in the brutally hot sun), mattresses, furniture, produce, and people (see photo left). I personally have never seen anything fall off or out during transportation, so clearly there is some premeditated skill associated with loading the bed. In Honduras, trucks aren´t just used for your ¨average apartment-to-house move¨ or night at the drive in theater. If you can dream it here, you can put it in you truck bed. It is sad how many truck beds (especially in the United States) are truly under utilized!

This next photo (below) displays the elecrical wiring right outside of our apartment. It is really refreshing to walk out of our front door each morning and gaze into the maze of wires. It is pretty amazing that we even have electricity with that tangled mess! Maybe that explains why we so freqently lose power..... Sometimes I like to think of all the wires and cables hanging low, and draped across the roads as decorations for some sort of celebration. Like banners or crepe paper. Just makes it less of an eye sore, and it really compliments all of the random fireworks!

I didn´t even have to leave my apartment for these next to pics. To the left you have Greg modeling our empty economy-size box of rice krispie treats (40 in all). We thought it would take forever to get through them...but who were we kidding, I am addicted to sugar! I have no idea what inspired Greg to model the box on his head after eating the last one, but nonetheless, he did!

And finally, in the last photo, Greg is offically putting our first deposit in our Nintendo Wii savings fund. We decided to add a new line item to our budget this year after our long time obsession with the Wii. We have played it several times, and then decided to start saving for one. At least now we have one ´fun envelope´when we divide our money out each month and distribute our predetermined funds to each budgeted item. (We are definitely on a tight budget, but using the envelope system has been amazing! We took a Financial Peace course by Dave Ramsey at our church here, and learned so much about budgeting, saving, and spending.) I think we are on target to make the purchase in 7 or 8 months or so. (And if we factor in a couple more meals of rice and beans, rather than eating out each week, we might even hit our goal faster!) Problem is though...we only have a tiny 13inch TV! Guess we might have to wait till we get back to the states after all! And maybe by then, the price will drop a little!

Stitches in Honduras Round 2: The Drama Continues...

2008-02-28T08:36:00.006-06:00

Greg was working out at the gym on military base on Monday night when he was approached by a fellow lifter. The man introduced himself and asked Greg if he was playing on one of the base intramural basketball teams. (Apparently the guy remembered Greg from flag football and was impressed with his athletic ability.) Greg told him he had not been recruited yet, so the guy asked Greg to join his team (the Fire Department on base). There were only a few games left, and several makeups, but he wanted Greg to play with them. Greg accepted and found out they had 3 games this week (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday). I went and watched his game on Tuesday, and for a minute felt like I was at the NBA championship! The crowd was BRUTALLY intense, chastising the players, ripping the referees, and being just plain rowdy! And of course about 90% of the fans were there cheering for the OTHER team! I seriously was scared and barely even clapped when Greg´s team scored or rebounded. The other team and fans talked a big game, but fortunately didn´t bring one, because Greg´s team won by 12 points!

The best part of the night though, came after the game. The Honduran referrees offered to give us a ride home, back to Comayagua (about 15 minutes from the base). We gladly accepted, as a car beats the bus any day! So on the way home, one of the refs asked Greg to play on his basketball team! Supposedly it is the ´best basketball team in all of Comayagua´so they said! Another opportunity to play sports? Clearly, Greg accepted!

Last night, Greg had his second game. I couldn´t make it (I had other obligations in Siguatapeque) but Greg was there and rearing to go. Apparently the game was pretty one sided again, and his team had a decent lead near the end of the game. However, Greg´s intensity did not waver...he keeps it going till the last buzzer sounds! So with a couple minutes left, he went up to block a shot and collided with a player on the other team. He jumped up and when he came down, he landed on an opponents head...with is chin! Greg´s chin busted open along with the other guy´s head! Of course, Greg´s the only one that came out with stitches! 4 to be exact! I guess it had been a good 5 - 6 months since the last ones, so he was due! They stitched him up at the Medical Unit on base and send him home with some band aids and antibacterial cream. He said he isn´t in too much pain, the worst part is his tongue. He bit it pretty hard from the impact of the collision and it is bloody and swollen. Poor guy!

So, today Greg has a soccer game and another basketball game. He is determined to play. I am not in support of this decision, but hey, I´m just his wife not a doctor, so my advice is not credible enough to stop him! I think God is on my side though....because the weather is overcast and rainy today (and both games are supposed to be outside!) It seriously has not rained here (at least not in the morning) for months! Moreover, it is the ´dry season´ right now! I am keeping my fingers crossed that the rain doesn´t let up anytime soon! :)

Random Happenings

2008-02-20T16:37:00.004-06:00

The rest of our visit with my dad was great! We tried several new restaurants (and none of us got sick - thank God), explored Comayagua, and spent a lot of time at the orphanage. Greg and I helped my dad (who is a veterinarian) pregnancy check and worm a herd of 37 cattle, put a nose ring in a bull, and further develop the agricultural development plan at the boy´s orphanage (which is located on a farm).

We also visited a farm close to Siguatepeque where my dad also helped with livestock. The people that run the place are an American couple fromTexas. They moved here about 2 years ago with their 4 children (ages 4-14). On top of their own kids, they are currently providing foster care for 8 Honduran boys (ages 2 - 22) all under the same roof! It is pretty amazing! They grow all kinds of fruits and vegatables, raise animals for food and homeschool all the kids. The lady has to prepare enough food to feed 14 at each meal! I can´t imagine - I barely have enough food to feed Greg! (She does have some hired help though to provide some much needed support.) All the kids are pretty much bilingual and they all get a long great. It was so cute watching all of them cuddle up on the couch and watch Hight School Musical 2 (Friday night is movie night there...it took them at least 15 minutes to agree on which one to watch!) Each of them have responsibilities for maintaining their property and doing housework. Besides the fact that there are 12 kids, it is a very ´normal´environment for all of them. It is very impressive and amazing to see this family in action!

On the last night of my dad´s visit, we went to the recreation center of the Fransiscan Friars (here in Comayagua) for a concert. (Visit the following link for more information on the Friars: http://www.cfrhonduras.com/, they are truly amazing people!) A group from Tegucigalpa provided the entertainment, and were made up of both males and females ranging from ages 10 to 25. It was pretty awesome because all of the performers were blind! They wore brightly colored traditional Honduras clothes and played and sang classic Christian folk music. There were about 300 people in attendance, all singing along and dancing. It was really fun and awesome to see them all with their hands lifted high praising the Lord! After a tearful goodbye on Sunday morning, dad headed back to dreadfully cold Ohio. We had a fabulous time together and were reminded of what a wonderful family God has blessed us with!

La Ceiba - Part II

2008-02-11T13:39:00.004-06:00

We woke up around 8am on Saturday morning, ready to get our grub on! We hit the breakfast buffet - and we hit it hard! The food was decent, but I think the thing that impressed us the most was the abundance. I always get ´buffet shock´ anytime I encounter one. So many choices, such a small plate! I get so overwhelmed and excited about all the options that I nearly always go overboard at a buffet (I often try to avoid them for this reason alone!) This case was no different! The worst part though came next - putting on a bathing suit after stuffing myself like a Thanksgiving dinner turkey! I still don´t quite get the whole ´beach resort´and all inclusive ´all you can eat´buffet combination?! A ´juice fast beach resort´makes more sense to me. I mean, who wants to get in a two piece after eating so much food! It is a catch 22 because since your food is all included in the price of the hotel, you want to take advantage and fill up! Who knows?! I am just kidding though...I love it!

So anyway, we were out on the beach resting and relaxing (trying to kick our food coma) by around 10:30am. It was so great to just lay back, listen to the waves, and not have a care in the world (for a change!) A few hours later we relocated to on of the private pools where we spent the rest of the afternoon. We retreated inside around 4:00pm, just in time to get in a game of Scrabble before dinner. We decided that we were buffet-ed out, so we opted to go into town for dinner. We settled on a seafood joint called ´Arrecife.´ Everything looked good on the menu, so we chose a seafood sampler platter for 4. The thing was HUGE, could have fed all 6 of Greg´s brothers (and they eat a TON)! It was tasty, but by the end, we had hardly made a dent in the thing! (The photo to the right was taken once we finished eating!) Afterward, we went home and hit the sack. We had a long day ahead - of snorkeling, visiting Cayos C0chinos (13 small islands off the coast of Honduras) oh and of course, the 6 hour intense drive home. Check out the following link for more information about Cayos Cochinos: http://www.hondurastips.honduras.com/english/cayoscochinos.htm

The boat arrived at 8:30am on the beach to take us out to the islands. After a pretty rough 40 minute ride, we landed on the first island. It was beautiful! The powdery sand sparkeled like sugar crystals and the water was transparent aqua. We walked around a bit, then boarded the boat to check out more islands. 3 of them were off limits for the conservation of the natural habitat of sea turtles (one of the few places in the world that they inhabit.) We went snorkeling off of the coast of Cayo Mayor (the biggest island) where we got to see part of the world’s second largest barrier reef system. What a cool experience! After that, we headed over to Chachauate Key where 200 Garifuna people live (Visit this link http://www.garifuna.com/ for more details on the Garifuna. It is very interesting!) Anyway, it was so fascinating! About 200 people ranging from babies to ederly folks all living on this small island in huts constructed from grass, palm branches, and sticks - complete with a natural sand floor. They make money there by selling handmade jewley and food (lobster, fish, rice, and beans) to visitors. There is no doctor´s office, no grocery store, no electricity, only a small community out house-type bathroom, a couple pulperias (little convenience shops that sell necessities, usually the front room of someone´s house) and a homemade open flame oven and stove (see photo left). They had several canoes docked on the shore, for entertainment and transportation. It was really hard to take it all in - I just couldn´t imagine their lifestyle! Sure, it would be amazing to live on a beautiful island and be surrounded by breathtaking views, but I mean, they are basically living in tiny, poorly constructed huts, all connected together and cut off from the rest of the world! They love it though, and they seem very happy there! It was amazing how they just opened up their homes and just let us intervene and watch as they went about their daily duties. We hung out with the local people for about 2 hours then we headed back to the La Ceiba shore.

It was around 2pm when we got back to the hotel and we knew we should get heading back to Comayagua. As we loaded the car, I noticed that I was misisng my flip flops. One of the front desk staff gave us the villa key (we had already checked out earlier that morning) and told me I could look in the room. We decided that this would also be a good opportunity for us to change out of our bathing suits too, so we grabbed our bags and headed back inside. Sure enough, I found my shoes and after putting on dry clothes, we were on our way out of town. Not even 5 minutes into our trip though, we hit our first police road block. This time we wern´t so lucky....we were pulled over! Thank goodness my dad was driving (since he actually has a valid US Driver´s License) and we had a Spanish speaker with us, Jenny! After dealing with several different officers and exchanging a lot of paper work, the head policeman let us go (about 10 minutes later). Whew! We were all super nervous! God surely had his favor upon us! Most of the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful (just how we like it!) When we got back to Comayagua (around 9pm) we dropped Jenny off, then headed back to our apartment.

Greg popped the trunk and began unloading our things. He then came to the back seat to get our bag (we shared one of his big lacrosse equippment bags). I told him it wasn´t back there - he told me the trunk was empty! Please tell me your kidding me and we didn´t really leave our luggage 6 hours away in La Ceiba! Sure enough, when we went back to change our clothes in the villa, we managed to leave our bag behind! Unbelievable! Leave it to the Bice´s to do such a thing! Howevever, we were so exhausted at this point, that we didn´t really care! At least we got home safely, we told ourselves! That pretty much sums up our La Ceiba trip! We had a great time exploring more of this beautiful country and spending quality time with friends and family (and Alicia too, of course!)

EPILOGUE:
We found out at school on Monday that one of our Honduraño coworkers (from La Ceiba) was going there the following weekend to visit. Fortunately, he was able to retreive our bag and we got it back safe and sound! God sure looks out for us here, I´m telling you! It is truly amazing!

P.S. We still have not unpacked it yet....

La Ceiba - Part I

2008-02-09T18:09:00.000-06:00

My dad was recently here to visit! He is our first official guest in Honduras! Although he has been here several times in the past, he is getting to experience Comayagua in a new way as well as doing some sight seeing.

The principal at our school has some connections at an ´all inclusive ´resort in La Ceiba (a beach town located on the north coast of Honduras about 5-6 hours from Comayagua) so we decided to plan a trip! We finalized the accomodations at Palma Real on Wednesday and we were set to go! Since we were getting a special rate, there was a ´no cancellation policy´ on our room. No problem though, we were definitely going! All we had to do was work out the transporation details (we don´t have a car - many people here don´t). We checked at the base, and the Thrifty Rent A Car was willing to rent to civillians and even had a good weekend rate. So Thursday after school I called to make the reservation. Or, at least I tried to. The lady informed me that they had no cars available for rent, they were all booked for the weekend already (all 14 of them)! I was shocked! Who were all these people renting cars and where could they possibly be going? The woman explained that they may get a cancellation, so she took my name and number and promised to call back if anything opened up. I never heard from her again. No problem we would just go for transportation Plan B - call all the other car rental places in town. We quickly found out that no other ones exist in Comayagua (the closest would be an hour and a half away in Tegucigalpa). Okay, by now it is about 4:00pm on Thursday afternoon (we were set to leave for La Ceiba on Friday at 2:00pm) and we were getting a little nervous. We went for it, and called in the big guns! Our friend and neighbor, Shane, works one the base and for the US Embassy. He has been here for about 4 years and has the system down pat. He has connections all over the place and can get you about anything you want or need. If Shane can´t do it, no one can, I´m telling you! He said he thought he might have a couple options for us (including a guy he knows that rents cars privately). He said he would start checking into them, and would call us back soon. In the mean time, we contacted the family that owns our apartment for some backup ideas (they usually pull through for us too!) They knew a couple ´private drivers´and volunteered to call them for price and availability. Okay, we were starting to feel a little more at ease. We soon heard back from both of our ´big guns´and still nothing! AHHH!!! We then remembered one of our friends in Florida had a ´go to guy here´that she always rented cars from. We made contact with her and were able to get her contact´s number. We got in touch with Jorge that evening (located in Tegucigalpa, an hour away) and he said he would let me know on Friday morning by 10:00am if his company could accomidate our request for them to drive a car here for us, then return and pick it up in Comayagua on Sunday. We kept our fingers crossed as this was our last resort!

I think we all slept sorta light that night...wondering if we would actually be able to go on our trip. I was nervous all morning at school and by 10am on the dot when I hadn´t heard for Jorge, I called him. Hallelujah! He pulled through for us! Even gave us a great rate! Finally, we had officially secured transportation for our trip (less than 4 hours before our planned departure)! He assured us that he would be there with the car by 2:00pm, and it was our until Monday morning. What a relief! In true Honduran fashion, he showed up with the car about 2 hours late, at 4:00pm. Whatever, we were just happy to have a ride. So finally, around 4:30pm on Friday afternoon, we were off – bound for La Ceiba and no one could stop us! Okay, so a restroom/coffee break stopped us about literally 2 minutes later, but after that, we were making a Bee line!

As a newly established ‘Bice’ tradition, we listened to the new Alicia Keys CD “As I Am” on a continuous loop for the entire 6 hour trip. You see, we heard one song from it while were in the US for Christmas and it convinced us enough to purchase the album. We have an IPOD here that we listen to daily, but that CD is the pretty much the only one we have here. We have been on two road trips in Honduras since we bought the CD (one 4 hour round trip and the other 12 hour round trip) and since we could only pick up crappy local Spanish radio stations (we assumed) we didn’t want to risk it, and just listened the Alicia the entire time. She has been a quite a good road trip companion-she never gets hungry or has to stop for the bathroom. For those two reasons alone, we will continue to bring here along with us on our travels.

Anyway, back to the journey. So, driving here is pretty terrible. I take that back, I it is either really bad or really good. Here’s why… The roads here are extremely dangerous. People driving at outrageous speeds, passing on BOTH sides (not just the left), blind passing, passing on curves, passing on hills, passing when there is an oncoming car only 20 yards ahead…okay you get the point. It is seriously intense anytime you get behind the wheel here. Basically anything goes, and one rule I have found to be true, is that the ‘biggest car wins.’ Which pretty much means when there are three cars driving side by side on a 2 lane highway, the smallest car has to pull off to the side of the road. Does that make sense? So pretty much, since we were driving a Toyota Corolla we were in the ditch a lot! I know this is hard to imagine, but a couple times on the drive there, Greg got a little overconfident and we ended up sandwiched between two cars going different directions on the two lane highway. We had one extremely close call, when a semi actually ‘tried’ to hit us (he swerved toward us) because he was mad that we were in his lane, but thank the good Lord we made it out alive. After that, my dad pretty much drove the rest of the way! You see, all over the highway here the Honduran police force sets up check points. They are checking to make sure people driving are sober, have a valid driver’s license, and are driving a registered vehicle. If you get caught not complying with one of those stipulations, there is a 90% chance you are headed to the slammer. I would hate to go to jail in the United States, think about that for a minute, multiply its harshness and uncleanliness by whole lot, and you might have an idea of what jail is like here (so we’ve heard….) Okay, so its either that or pay a lot of money….if the cop rolls that way. (Again, just what we’ve heard.) After Greg drove for a while and we made it through a couple check points unscathed, we agreed that since Greg doesn’t have his US Driver’s License here with him (long story) that my dad should drive. Okay, back to my point about the really bad good driver versus really good drive debate. So, although we have passed many accidents and vehicles on the side of the road, I always think that if they were tat bad of drivers, there would be a whole lot more! I mean, they are pretty talented to drive as wreck less as they do here and survive! I’ll probably never come to a conclusion – but I do think it is a semi valid argument!

Okay, so it is 10:30pm and we finally arrive at the Palma Real All-Inclusive Resort in La Ceiba! We got all checked in to the hotel, then decided to go relax and unwind ocean side for a while. We were desperately in search of food (although not really hungry, just in the mood to eat) but sadly, there was nothing to munch available. We hung out for about and hour or so then headed back to our villa. We got already for bed, flipped on the A/C and jumped into bed. We laid there for a while and thought it was weird how the air conditioner was so loud, yet, not producing any cold air. We flipped every switch, adjusted the temperature, everything, but we got nothing! I was so tired, I didn’t care, but our friend, Jenny, and Greg decided to go tell a hotel staff member. Since it was now about 1am and there were no maintenance people working at that hour, our only option was to relocate to another room. Again, for the record, I was half asleep and fine to just stay, the rest of the crew was all about switching to an ice box. We repacked and relocated and were sound asleep by about 2:00am.

I realize this is getting a little long...so, the Bice adventures in La Ceiba are to be continued.....
(I feel like this is a double episode of Saved by the Bell...like the one when Jesse starts taking no doze so she can stay up all night and cram for finals....I´m sure you are on the edge of your seat!) More later!

The Supermarket Challenge

2008-01-31T10:39:00.000-06:00

So, we haven´t quite figured out our grocery store here, Jumbo Supermercado. It is so random in what it carries - there is no rhyme or reason to it! (Or if there is, us ´gringos´ don´t know it!) We were on a search for bacon for the longest time - on a conquest to make BLATs (Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, Avacado. Avacados go for about 7 Lempira each here, 30 cents). We searched and searched, and NOTHING! Finally one of our friends volunteered to pick some up for us during a trip to Tegucigapla (the capital city - and a shopping haven). We were thrilled when he returned with it and finished every last bacon dripping in the package. On our next trip to Jumbo, we did our normal routine of looking for bacon again - planning to leave disappointed as always. However, to our surprise, there was actually a VARIETY of bacon available. Regular bacon, thick cut bacon, even turkey bacon! Unbelievable! We have learned to ´stock up´ when they actually have something we want, because we may never see it again! I think everyone else here has learned that trick too because it is crazy how many aisles will have open shelves - completely sold out of every last item. For example, there have been several occaisions that we have walked down the bread aisle, and there will not be a single loaf on the shelf (completely sold out of buns and rollls too!) I can´t imagine what would happen is there was natural disaster (hurricane) heading this way! The place would probably be sold out of select foods for weeks!

Current Mission - Right now, we are scavaging for yogurt. We tried to pick some up on Monday, but there wasn´t any. They told us the expected to have it by Tuesday, or Wednesday. We continue to stop in (fortunately, we walk by Jumbo every day on our way home from school) but they are still lacking our desired product. I´m keeping my fingers crossed for today´s visit!

Thanksgiving 2007 - When November rolled around, it was impossible to find sweet potatoes or stuffing. Fortunatley, Jumbo had Turkey and cranberry sauce (random) but those were about the only traditional ´Thanksgiving´ fare available. Literally the week after Thanksgiving, the canned goods aisle was stocked full with cans of sweet potatoes and at least 3 different kinds of stuffing. Unbelievable! I have noticed that there is about the same amount of stuffing and sweet potatoes still on the shelves today. I bet the only people that buy that stuff are Americans, and since Thanksgiving is over, they don´t have much a reason to buy it anymore! (I will admit, I bought 1 can of sweet potatoes - still haven´t eaten them yet, but I do have them in case I ever have a hankering!)

Transfat - I have recently found out how to say (or read, rather) ´partially hydrogenated oil´in Spanish (the really bad ingredient found in many foods that is the code name for Transfat). Okay, so that is a good thing, but a little disheartening at the same time. Sadly, we have found the ingredient in several of our ´semi-regular´ shopping list items. Oh well, knowlege is power so in return, we can be a little healthier!

Butter - Truly an American delicasy! Their lather of choice here is margerine! Either that or this runny white cream stuff that tastes a little like sour milk and cheese. YUCK! Anyway, Jumbo carries at least 10 varieties of margerine. Nearly all ladden with heart stopping transfat! After having a real butter craving (of should I say, butter-like craving) Greg and I scoured the section at Jumbo. We read every single margerine and butter substitute package in desperation to find one free of partially hydrogenated oil in the ingredient list. When we were about to give up, we FINALLY, found one! Fat Free I Can´t Believe It´s Not Butter pulled through for us. Greg and I both agreed that there were probably other things in it´s make up that weren´t healthy for us, but we had officially found a transfat free semi-butter tasting spread....and we were happy! (Real butter anywhere in Honduras is quite limited. We have had friends look in Teguc for us and on the military base - No dice!) So smear some delicious real butter on a warm slice of bread tonight and enjoy the indulgence in honor of Greg and I!

Food Surplus - There is one thing that is for sure though, there is never a shortage of rice and beans here. It is comforting to know that butter, yogurt and bacon aside, I can always fall back on the hearty meal combination of white rice and red beans!

Party like it´s 2008!

2008-01-16T12:42:00.000-06:00

Our first week back in Comayagua was nothing less than extremely eventful! In fact, we attended 5 different parties in just 6 days! The fiestas began on Wednesday, January 9 – my birthday! Just getting back from our long trip to the states and getting readjusted back here, I figured my birthday would be pretty low-key. Apparently, I thought wrong! I was told by one of my fourth grade classes (I teach two, 4A and 4B) that they were going to have a surprise birthday party during lunch for one of their classmates, Allison, who also had a birthday last week. They asked me to ‘distract her’ during lunch time, then when they had decorated the room, they would come find me and I would escort her back, just in time to celebrate! Their plan worked to perfection, because when I walked in the room they screamed “Happy Birthday, Miss Emily!” They had tricked me – they were planning the party for me all along! I was so amazed. The kids themselves had come up the idea and coordinated for all of the things needed – pizza, chips, cookies, cake, ice cream, soda, decorations, plates, cups, utensils! I was very impressed! It was a wonderful surprise and the kids really made me feel special! Toward the end of the celebration, Greg brought his 7th grade class down and they sang to me as well! Then, it was time for the cake! They have a tradition here that they like to shove the birthday person’s face straight into the cake. Often times people will even buy two cakes for a party here, one for smashing and one for eating. Well, the kids were all hyped up and kept begging me to put my face in the cake. To humor them, I bent down and got close, acting as if were going to comply with their request. However, just as I was about to bring my head back up and holler “Just Kidding!” one of my students (who still won’t fess up to the deed) pressed my head down, smack dab into the middle of the cake! It was hilarious! The best part of it, was that it was a marshmallow icing so the only way to really get it out of my hair and off my face was to take a shower! Oh well, I laughed it off and had a good time anyway!

When we returned home after school, the surprises just kept on coming! Greg had sketched out a design for a large wooden trunk (one of the typical souvenirs of Honduras) and had a local woodshop craft his creation. He had picked it up earlier in the day and positioned it in the front room, so when I opened the door, I couldn’t miss the beautiful chest. It is carved with all sorts of memories, past and present including: my birthday date, the Ohio State logo, my name, special Bible verses, the address of our first house, our dog’s name, the state of North Carolina, Maranatha, and more. It is so cool! What a sweet and thoughtful gift. Now, we just have to figure out how we are going to get it back to the United States! That evening, our friends Kyle and Crystal treated us to a delicious dinner at the best steakhouse in town, “El Torito.” It was a wonderful birthday…turning 27 turned out great!

On Thursday night, we headed out to Pizza Hut (yes, we do have a couple fast food restaurants here - believe or not!) to bid farewell to Chaplain Bellamy. His four months serving at the “Friendship Chapel” on the Soto Cano military base was up, and on Friday, he was bound for home. He shared that during his visit here he had lost 15 pounds….there is a good chance he gained about 10 of it back though during his ‘last supper here’ because he downed an entire large pepperoni pizza on his own. Following that, he shared that just the week before he had eaten a whole extra-large in just one sitting! Amazing! Greg and I got the only the salad bar….really! Only because we had to hit another party afterward! Around 7:30 we arrived at Evan’s birthday party (sister in law to the owner of our apartment). We hung out with the family and ate cake for a couple hours then retreated home for the night.

After a long day at school on Friday, the weekend had finally arrived! I decided to lay down for a nap, and about 2 hours later at 5:30pm, I woke up. Greg instructed me that I had about 30 minutes to get ready and then we would head out to the base for Crossroads. I knew something was up, as Alex (the boy we tutor, and son of the owner’s of our apartment) mentioned comments to me a couple times during the week about “Miss Emily’s surprise party on Friday night.” I always tried to play it off though, because I LOVE surprises! So at 6:00pm, Greg and I gave each other a look “as if we both knew he was trying his best to cover up that he was taking me to a party.” (I knew the party would be downstairs in the house beside ours…that is where the Lagos family – owners of our house - always parties!) We walked out of the door to our apartment and into the stairwell where we both got a big unexpected surprise….We had shut the door without the keys….were not locked in our stairwell! Just earlier that week, our landlord gave us the second set of keys to our apartment…the ONLY second set of keys! Clearly the party had to be postponed a bit! We finally got out when our neighbors used their key to open the stairwell (there is one other apartment that shares the same stairwell as us – lucky for us, they came home not soon after we locked ourselves in!) The excitement for the party waned a little as we conspired on how to get into our apartment! After about 20 minutes of attempting (Greg and some of the male partygoers had made their way onto the roof, trying to break in through the patio window) they finally were able to reach through the window and grab a set of our keys. I guess it just gave us one more thing to celebrate! (Above are some photos of our guests.)

We had a wonderful evening! Greg along with the owners of our apartment and their rest of their family had planned a great party! Lots of delicious grilled food, dancing, chatting, and just hanging out with friends! Almost all our good friends from Comayagua were there, even a few of my students attended! Luckily, the didn’t attempt to smash my face in the cake – they just dabbed some frosting on my nose for good measure! I truly enjoyed my first birthday celebration in Honduras! Thanks everyone!

Our party going streak culminated on Saturday night as we attended our first Christmas party of 2008! Before we left for break, all the missionaries decided we would celebrate Christmas with a dinner and gift exchange after we returned (since most of us left in mid December). So we had a fun and relaxing evening together. Greg and I made out with a bottle of ranch dressing (highly coveted here) and a pack of plastic hot dog holders from the white elephant gift exchange. We were hoping to score the bag of Hershey kisses and American flag stickers, but were happy with our gifts nonetheless! Of course, at the end of the night, we had to put some sort of Honduran twist on the party… So, we headed outside and with fireworks and matches in hand we celebrated in true Honduran fashion! (Although, we did it at a reasonable hour…not at like 3am which is typical here!) Secretly, I hoped we at least woke someone up….just kidding!

We surely kicked off 2008 with lots of parties! It was a fun first week back, and all the celebrated really helped smooth over the bittersweet departure from the United States just a week earlier. After all the celebrating, it made me think about how much we have to celebrate ever day! Each day God fills our lives with gifts of life, health, work, family, and friends that we need to celebrate and be thankful for! I encourage you to take a moment and celebrate all of the blessings in your life!

Long Time No Write!

2008-01-07T13:57:00.000-06:00

Happy 2008! WOW! I can´t believe 2007 is over already! Anyway, just wanted to apologize for the long blog writing dry spell! We were extremely fortunate and were able to go to the United States for a couple weeks and visit our families and a few friends during the holidays! I didn´t mention it in the blog before we left because it was a surprise for some of our family members (and we didn´t want them to read it on here!) I had every intention of writing a blog while were were in America, but between a combination of busy-ness and lazyness, it didn´t happen!

We arrived safely back in Honduras on Saturday night or should I say Sunday morning (we landed in San Pedro Sula - one of th e most dangerous places in Honduras, especially at night - at around 3:00am). And, as Greg and I work, we had absolutely no plan on what we would do that night, or how we were getting back to Comayagua (about 3 hours away). Thank God (literally) that he always looks out for us and knows just what we need! There was a driver from the Hilton hotel waiting in the lobby of the airport to pick up several other guests to shuttle them to the hotel for the night. Greg and I were able to hitch a ride and ended up booking a room too. By 4:30am, we hit the sack in quite possibly the most comfortable bed in all of Honduras! Along the way, we found out that Loyda (one of our school´s administrators) was actually flying into San Pedro Sula on Sunday afternoon. We were able to jump in here truck and by about 5:45pm yesterday were were back in our apartment in Comayagua. Greg and I kept saying how weird it was to be back. It almost felt surreal....at least until we went to bed. The fireworks started around 8pm and went well into the night - a sure reminder that we were definitely back in Honduras. To make matters even better, the cathedral (in the picture below - which is pretty much the most famous landmark in Comayagua, located about 2 blocks from our house) now has a bell that dings every fifteen minutes. Now, thanks to the new and improved clock tower, I can wake up at any hour of the night and within fifteen minutes tell you what time it is! Another thing that the city felt important to invest in while we where gone is painting bright yellow crosswalks randomly on some streets as well as ´no parking´yellow curbs. Greg and I decided that we might spend our money on something else had it been up to us, but nonetheless, we now have some new artwork! :)

Here are our ¨Happy New Year¨wishes for you....Honduran Style! (Click the link - you´ll see why!) http://web.icq.com/friendship/swf/0,,16961_rs,00.swf

Okay, more later, just wanted to write quickly and give you a brief update. Thanks to all of our friends and family that were so generously opened up their homes and made time to visit with us while were were back. We wish we had more time and could have seen and talked to all of our loved ones and special friends, but please know that you are in our thoughts, prayers, and hearts! May God bless you all and bring you peace, joy, and happiness in 2008!

Come One! Come All! Everyone (including animals) is Welcome on the Soccer Field in Honduras!

2007-12-02T15:53:00.000-06:00

Greg has gotten in to a routine of playing soccer pretty regularly with the boys from the orphanage. They play in an organized league (well, as organized as you get here) with games each Sunday. Last night while hanging out with the kids, they informed Greg that they desperately needed him to play in their game on Sunday at 9:00am. They were playing against a team much older and bigger then them, so they needed him to add to their intimidation factor…oh, and he’s good at soccer too! Greg gladly accepted the request and sure enough, we met up with them about an hour before the game. After squeezing into one of their uniforms, he was set to play. (The referee requires them to all dress alike, even if the shorts are really tight and short! That is Greg in the silver shorts on the left before....and on the right in the spandex....after he changed!)

The game drew a big crowd. Even farm animals were getting into it. I counted 3 dogs that ran across the field at separate times during the game. A donkey paced up and down the field behind the goal, and a big cow even made a cameo on the field (click on the box below to watch the video!)

However, this did not interrupt the game at all. They just kept on playing, acting as it if it were perfectly natural to have Mr. Ed and his fellow barnyard friends getting into the action on the field. Too funny! Sadly, the game ended and we were down one goal; we lost 4 – 3. However, if it weren’t for the support of our jungle friends, the deficit could have been greater!

I don´t know about you, but I sure fear the Bicecreamman! :)

HAPPY DECEMBER….Only 22 days until Christmas!

Dia de Gracias aka Thanksgiving

2007-11-25T09:23:00.000-06:00

We celebrated our first Thanksgiving in Honduras this week. Well…we actually celebrated about four of them! We definitely were not lacking in the eating department this week! We have so much to be thankful for, we decided to make it a week long celebration! We started on Wednesday with a ½ day of school. The kids got out at about 11:30am so the teachers could be freed up for the afternoon. Around 12:30pm a bus came and picked us up and we headed out to the military base to indulge in the first of our Thanksgiving feasts. I think all the Honduran teachers thought we were crazy because all of the Americans were going nuts on the bus. We were so excited…anticipated all the great food! We were singing, carrying on, and laughing for no reason the whole trip out there! Once we got clearance (at the entrance gate to the base they checked each person’s ID with their list of passes), we were headed straight for the dining facility. Greg and I got off the bus and started out toward the front of the stampede. However, once we got to the doors to the building, the other people had basically pushed their way in front of us. I guess the American teachers don’t know how the ‘line system’ works here…or should I say, how it doesn’t work here. You pretty much just ramrod your way through the crowd here….they conveniently forgot to tell us that before we arrived! Oh well! J It brought back fond memories of our honeymoon in Italy when the Europeans would mull over women, children, and elderly people just to be in the front!

Anyway, any hostile feelings we might have been harboring instantly vanished when we reached the start of the buffet line (we waiting about 20 minutes to get to the front). Shrimp cocktail, roast beef, ham, turkey, 2 kinds of stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, a plethora of veggies (including my favorite - baked sweet potatoes with marshmallows), rolls, eggnog, all kinds of fruit, mixed nuts, apple, pecan, and pumpkin pies…and more! It was amazing! There is a 95% chance that between Greg and I both, we at least sampled each dish available! Greg was determined when he sat down that he would finish every last morsel of mounded food on his completely overflowing plate. About 7 minutes later….the mission was accomplished! (Well, maybe it was more like 15!) I was quite impressed! (Before and after photos of Greg´s plate are to the left and right respectively.) By the time it was said and done, his face had turned an unusual shade of red and he was sweating profusely…but nonetheless, he was victorious! I didn’t do quite as good as him, but I was uncomfortably full once I finally retired my fork.

We officially left the dining hall at about 2:30pm. We waddled over to the chapel and our familiar hangout place, Crossroads, for a little R & R. Around 5:00pm we headed over to the recreation fields to watch Army take on the Air Force in a base-wide football game (yet another opportunity for us to sit around and let our gorged bellies have more time to digest). The Air Force (for whom we were cheering) came out on top at the end of the game. Following the game, we went over the firehouse to watch the “Tops in Blue” perform (a U.S. Air Force entertainment group, made up of all active duty personnel that travels all over the world to entertain military troops and their families). It was a great show, commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the USAF through song and dance from each decade starting with 1947 to 2007. It was truly a great day! By the time we got home (at 10:30pm), we were both still full!

On Thursday, each teacher was responsible for coordinating a ‘Thanksgiving Lunch’ for their classes. Many of the students would celebrate Thanksgiving for the first time in 2007. Miss Emily’s 4th grade class celebrated with food from Domino’s (Pizza, cheesy bread, and brownies) while Mr. Greg’s 7th graders indulged in Wendy’s Super Value Meals. Not your typical Thanksgiving cuisine, but nonetheless, it was still time spent eating with a spirit of thankfulness! That evening we headed back to the base for yet ANOTHER meal! Several people from the church volunteered to cook a Thanksgiving Dinner for anyone interested in joining them in the meal. They figured maybe 25-30 people would come. Little did they know that approximately 150 people would show up to eat! The buffet line had a steady wave of people in it for about 45 minutes! And somehow, there ended up being plenty of food for everyone to fill their plates (I am telling you, it was like the story in Matthew when Jesus feeds the crowds with only a few loaves of bread and a couple fish…truly amazing!)

Which brings us up to Saturday…..our last Thanksgiving Supper! Before we knew they school was making any plans at all to celebrate Thanksgiving, all of the missionaries got together and decided we would cook a dinner together. Greg and I, being the oldest and wisest (ha!) got stuck making the turkey and stuffing. Luckily, good ‘ol Jumbo Supermarket actually had some Butterball Turkeys! A friend brought me a Rachel Ray magazine from the states (with a roast turkey recipe) and our neighbor allowed us to use her oven (we don’t have one) and Wuh Lah! Thanksgiving #4!

It actually is pretty suiting that we would celebrate this holiday four times this year here! In fact, it makes me realize that we should really take the time to celebrate Thanksgiving everyday. We have so much to be thankful for…God provides for each and every need that we have! It is very easy to get caught up focusing on the things that we don’t have, rather than realizing all of the abundance that we do have! Take time to count your blessings, naming them one by one, and you will have many reasons to celebrate Thanksgiving each day!

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY, STEPHANIE!!!

Weekend Getaway

2007-11-12T13:41:00.000-06:00

We recently had the pleasure of traveling with a crew of people from the military base to Lake Yahoa. In that same vicinity is a small local hangout, called D & D Brewery, (owned and operated by a man from Oregon) nestled in the beautiful natural setting surrounding the lake. On its grounds is a small restaurant, several cabins for overnight travelers, a pool, several patio areas, and many plants, flowers, and animals. The owner brews several different types of beer (including fruity flavors such as a mango brew, apricot brew, and raspberry brew). He also makes a variety of homemade sodas (root beer, vanilla soda, strawberry soda, etc.) all served in frosty mugs. We arrived there on Friday evening, just in time for dinner. The group sat outside in an open-air dining area decorated with plants and Christmas lights. We all enjoyed the Honduran cuisine and spent the rest of the evening relaxing, telling stories, and laughing! The boys even broke out some ´fine Honduran cigars´to set the mood! :) That night, Greg and I shared a cabin with our good friends, Kyle and Crystal for L400 (about $20). The accommodations were actually quite nice! There was even a cable TV in room! We didn´t stay up too late because we planned to get up early the next morning and hit the Lake for some boating and water skiing. Greg was about to fight me though, because as girls do at a sleepover, Crystal and I stayed up talking in our room as our husband´s tried desperately to tune out our voices so they could sleep!

We woke up around 8:00am on Saturday and were bound for the kitchen. The owner mentioned ´fresh blueberry pancakes´the night before and we all had our heart´s set on a tall stack! Fortunately, they delivered! We all gorged ourselves on the tasty treats...and of course, washed them down with several cups of delicious Honduran coffee! Sadly, the weather didn´t look to promising. The sky was overcast and there was a light drizzle. We figured we could just relax a little longer (while hanging out in a little piece paradise) and wait for the weather to improve. In the mean time, the owner gave us a tour of his property. The grounds were so beautiful - as you can see from the photos, it was very green with a splash of color from the flowers and buds. It was an interactive tour because along the way, he pointed out many plants, flowers, and bugs that are used for eating, making products (lotion, hair conditioner) and making beverages. As we would go along, we would pull a flower off a plant and say ¨Try this, it is delicious!¨ He showed us a plant that if you squeeze it, it produces a thick, fragrant, milky substance that is used for hair conditioner (one of the girl´s with us actually used it!) We also got to eat ´root celery,´the plant that is used for making root beer. (I don´t know if that is the name of it, but it look exactly like celery, but tasted exactly like root beer!) And, the most odd thing we experienced would have to be....eating termites! Yes, we ate TERMITES! Okay, so I really didn´t want to, but everyone else was....and then I thought, when will I have this opportunity to do this again....and I went for it! They actually weren´t bad, believe it or not. They tasted like pepper. Our friend, Kyle, who grew up in Africa (his parents were missionaries in Kenya) said they would often gather termites in bulk and deep fry them for a meal! Crazy! After the tour (and snack!) we ended up just sitting around, talking, listening to music, reading, and hanging out together! Several people even started ´arts and crafts hour´ by making things out of Panamanian palm branches. (The material that they use in to make hats in Panama). Greg made me a friendship bracelet....that I preceded to lose about 5 minutes later...sorry honey! :) (See photo) It was very tranquil and relaxing! Next thing we new it was about lunch time, so they brought out the menus and we ordered lunch! Sadly, the weather still wasn´t clearing up! It was quite cool outside, so after we ate, the crew in my cabin decided we would go take an afternoon nap! We hibernated for about two hours then hit the road around 4:00pm to head back to Comayagua.

We stopped in Siguatepeque at this place we read about in a Honduras travel guide. Apparently this guy from Italy moved there and started an Italian restaurant. We got a huge salad and several different kinds of pizza....It was very good! I would have to say the best part though, was the fact that there was a huge screen set up in the room playing music videos, pre-recorded from MTV. Every once in a while, the guy running the projector would come to our table and ask if anyone would be interested in singing karaoke. Sadly for everyone else in the place, we had a couple takers. The worst, I mean, best, was our friend Tim´s rendition of Journey´s Separate Ways. Fortunately, Greg was so busy enjoying the food that he didn´t get the opportunity to ´show his stuff!´ It was a great night! We got home around 9:00pm and were so worn our from doing nothing for the past 24 hours that we went to bed! :) We had a very fun trip!

Christmas came early this year!

2007-11-06T09:05:00.000-06:00

Care packages are truly a wonderful thing!!! What a blessing! We were very fortunate to get three within a short amount of time! Its funny because sometimes back home we would leave the mail in the mailbox for a couple of days before we were inspired to walk all the way to the end of our driveway to get it (literally about 20 steps from our front door!) Now, anytime we hear we have mail, we wait anxiously in anticipation before we have it delivered. You see, if you get mail here, it goes only to the post office. Since there are no official street names (let alone addresses), all the mail goes to a central location where residents must go pick up any packages or letters that they receive. Similar to a PO Box in the United States, from what I understand, that is the only option here. Fortunately, Greg and I haven’t had to go there yet, but from what we’ve heard, this is the process: Say someone sends something to a teacher in care of Maranatha Escuela (their PO Box). One of the school administrators will go to the post office and they will give her several slips of paper. The papers have names of the people they have received packages for (obviously people employed at the school). Then, the administrator will come back to the school and hand out the slips to those with packages back at the post office. Next, each person has to go back to the post office (which has very limited hours and long lines), show identification, sign for the mail, then they are free to leave with the item(s)….as long as they can find them! Wow, crazy! We haven’t had to do this yet because we are having things sent to another one of our friends here, that receives the items, then drops them off at our house! (Lucky us!)

Anyway, so about two weeks ago, our friend called and said he would be dropping by with a package. Although Greg wasn’t home, I figured I could do my best resist the temptation of opening the box before he returned. I mean, it was addressed to both of us! I carried the box up and set it on the seat next to me, admiring the thing and pondering it’s contents. Then, I stumbled upon the ‘international shipping label’ pasted on the outside. I noticed that it required the sender to write a brief description of the items inside. When I saw the words “small blender” I broke under the pressure. Could it really be….THE MAGIC BULLET??? I swiftly tore at the corner to reveal “Does any job in ten seconds or less!” and I knew our dreams had come true! We had admired this fine piece of machinery for years as it cycled through the ‘infomercial circuit’ on multiple channels. I screamed excitedly, thought about all of the wonderful things we would make with it, then the guilt set in. I officially opened our first care package…addressed to both of us....without the company of the other recipient! I smoothed over the torn area of the box and tried to rough the rest of it up a little to look like it had a tough trip getting here (hey, that’s believable!) I decided I would be ‘really nice’ and wait to open it until Greg got home, so we could both enjoy the gift together (obviously, I would not tell him I already took a sneak peak). As soon as that thought left my brain, my cell phone rang and startled me. It was Greg…Act cool, you didn’t do anything wrong, be natural…Then like word vomit, it just came out…”Greg, I’m so sorry I opened our first care package and we are officially proud owners of The Original Magic Bullet.” Apparently when he heard the words “Magic Bullet” roll of my tongue, he totally ignored the first part of the sentence (Lucky for me!) I could hear him smiling on the other end as we both celebrated our new piece of culinary equipment! I decided in my mind that I would let him open the next two items we receive in the mail in attempt to make up for my preemptive strike!!!

Not soon after I had my chance! We got two more packages….on the same day!!! AMAZING! Contents included: A library (literally about 20 books and 5 magazines), tea, hot chocolate, cider, cookies, jelly beans, gum, mints, flip flops, a box of Cliff Z bars, a manicure kit, facial products, toiletries, and several other very useful odds and ends. Greg and I seriously felt like kids on Christmas morning! We were so psyched…and still are! It truly is the little things in life that make your day!

Anyway, thanks to you for all of your support! Your prayers, emails, guest book messages, letters and packages are extremely appreciated and provide us with renewed spirit and joy. Everyday is a blessing as we grow closer to the people here, each other, and especially to God. Have a wonderful week, and don’t forget to take pleasure in the little things God gives you every single day!

We are the CHAMPIONS!!!

2007-10-30T12:22:00.000-06:00

If you know Greg, you know he can´t go for very long without somehow getting involved in some sort of athletic activity. Well, once we gained access to the base, a couple of the men sized him up and realized he had the body of an athlete...then they learned about his lacrosse career...then they recruited him to play on their flag football team! He was happy to join them! Now, this wasn´t your typical flag football league - this was VERY intense. They strategized, had practices, and the QB even wore a wristband inscribed with plays! Apparently, it paid off though, because Greg´s team went undefeated, won the tournament, and was named the Champion of Soto Cano Flag Football Fall 2007. CONGRATULATIONS!

Okay, a quick funny story...during one the of the games, a player from the opposing team reached out and went for Greg´s flag (he was carrying the ball). Well, the guys missed the flag, but got a hold of Greg´s atheletic shorts....ripped those things clean off his body! :) TOO FUNNY! He had to borrow a pair from another guy on the base in order to finish the game!

One last thing....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BILL BICE!!!!

Pura Vida

2007-10-24T15:56:00.000-05:00

So we made it to Costa Rica! We spent more time traveling to and from Costa Rica than we actually spent there, but nonetheless it was a great trip! I feel like we really redefined the meaning of the word ´roadtrip.´ Forty hours on the road in only three and a half days! However, we did ride in style! At about hour 17 on travel day 2, we officially named our vehicle ´The Bun.´ You see, we could never really figure out what to call the thing...Was it a bus? Was it a van? Leave it to Greg to morph the two words together and bestow the name ´Bun´upon our ride! (See her in all her glory to the left.)

Anyway, so we departed the school around 12:30pm on Friday afternoon. They cancelled school for the rest of the day and the students got to leave early since 10 of the teachers (all of the missionaries) were skipping town. We drove to Tegucigalpa (that capitol of Honduras, about an hour and half away) where we met the father and son team that would be driving. We all piled in the Bun and we were off! About that same time, several of us requested a bathroom break. Little did we know that almost 2 hours would go by until ´the drivers´were willing to stop. That should have been our first sign that we had a long trip ahead! This ´unwillingness to stop´ for basic human needs (bathroom and food) was a constant theme throughout the entire trip! For example, on the way home, we ate breakfast at about 7:00am. Around noonish, which is quite typical, we (meaning everyone besides the drivers) were ready for lunch. We voiced our request, and around about 2:15pm we finally got our wishes! Half of us were about ready to pass out! If the Bun only had a bathroom and a microwave we would have been set!

So we stopped on Friday night in a town in Nicaragua called Esteli. There we ate dinner at a gas station restaurant called ¨Tip Top.¨ It was okay for most of us, but sadly one of the missionaries got sick! I guess 1 out of 10 isn´t too bad... Anyway, so that is when we adapted our group name ¨Team Tip Top¨ or ¨T3¨ (T cubed) for short. (See photo left) We stayed in a pretty nice hotel that night. Greg and I felt like royalty since our entire room was painted in a very loud lavender color. Even the silk curtains matched perfectly! (See photo right) We got a good night´s rest, then set off the next morning around 8:30am. We reached Managua, Nicaragua (the capital) around 12:00pm. We stopped at the mall to look around and grab a bite to eat. That is when we were blessed with a taste of America....SUBWAY! (See Greg posing with his foot long to the left!) It was truly fabulous! About 12 hours later we finally arrived in Alajela, Costa Rica! We rolled into our dorm room around midnight at the Adventist College ´Unideca´ and passed out soon after! We were determined to ¨Carpe Diem¨on Sunday so we could make our trip worthwhile! (Oh, one more note worth mentioning...we got Papa John and Burger King for dinner that evening. It was delicious! We ate at this place called the Auto Mall in Costa Rica. It was basically a free standing mall food court...with no mall attached!)

And seize the day we did! We were up at 6:00am and around 7:00am we zoomed off in the Bun, bound for the mountains. Our final destination was Volcan Paos (an active Volcano in Alajela). It took about 45 minutes to get to the parking lot and from there it was about a 15 minute hike to the ´look out.´ The drive through the mountains was absolutely gorgeous! Rolling hills full of coffee plants, beautiful flowers (my favorite were the wild hydrangeas), and lush green foliage. Of course, by this point we were craving some freshly ground brewed coffee. Fortunately, they were selling some at the entrance to the national park, so Greg and I indulged and enjoyed as we hiked up to the volcano. (It was very tasty!) The park was a very beautiful natural wonder. Almost surreal in look because it was so scenic. After visiting the volcano, we were off to the natural laguna (about a 15 minute hike away) that was formed from an extinct volcano. We reached it just in time, because about 10 minutes after arrival, the normal morning fog (think very thick like San Francisco) began to roll in and disguise the scenery. By this time, it was around 11:00am and we had scene all there was to see there. We decided to head back down the mountain and head about 30 kilometers south to San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. However, along the way, we stopped at a coffee plantation´s coffee shop to grab a mid morning pick me up. The coffee was so fresh and delicious, and the view was gorgeous! It overlooked their miles and miles of coffee fields. I had the pleasure of indulging in a strawberry latte (strawberries and coffee are two of the main exports of Costa Rica). It was fabulous!

Then we were off to the shopping mall in San Jose. We headed straight for the food court when we arrived (we heard rumors that there was a Taco Bell!) It was true!!! However, Greg and I both opted to eat at a some local Costa Rican restaurants. I got a nice big salad with avocado and smoked salmon, and Greg got fresh lamb tacos. It was quite a treat! We shopped around the very Europeanesque mall for about an hour and a half then retreated back to the Bun. Costa Rican people tend to have lighter skin and hair. The country clearly has more money as well (the
mall had shops like Oscar de la Renta, Lacoste, Sony, etc.). They don´t have any military forces in Costa Rica....instead, they use the money that they would have spent on armed forces to preserve their natural resources and create an inviting tourism atmosphere. Obviously it worked because Costa Rica seems to be flourishing! It is far more developed then most of the other Central American countries! Each of them share the same natural beauty, but Costa Rica really focuses on keeping their country clean! Following the mall experience (where the only thing we purchased was some gum and batteries) we went to the Museo de Oro (Museum of Gold). It was neat because we got to learn a lot of Costa Rican history. (See Greg, left, posing with one of the exhibits.) It also had a lot of information of their development of the countries money (and its evolution through the year). The currently use Colonias....and the exchange rate is 518 colonias to $1 USD! Crazy! Things looked so expensive...I paid 900 for a one pancake! However, it was really less than $2. The cost of living was definitely a lot higher in Costa Rica though. For dinner we went to a typical Costa Rican restaurant. It was so cool...they served all their food on banana leaves! (See photo right). The food was really good! We got back to the dorm room (it sounds so weird saying that) at about 9:30pm. We felt pretty accomplished with the ground we covered in one day! We hit the sack around 10, because we had to get up at 4:30am on Monday morning for our 5:00am departure back home to Comayagua. We all took bets on what time we would actually leave and what time we would return to Comayagua (we had to push through that day because we had to be back at school and teach on Monday). We officially rolled out of the gates at 5:12am (pretty impressive). Clearly the drivers would get a bonus if they got us home early or something because he was driving ultra aggressively. At one point, he passed a car on the right! I was seriously scared (Greg was too!) We nearly rear ended several cars and almost picked off a motorcycler! I mean yes, the rules of the road are very different here, but this craziness was just not going to fly! After much complaining to our bilingual school representative, the two men finally rotated responsibilities and things calmed down a little bit (Thank God because I was truly worried about our safety!) It was crazy! Around noon time, we requested a stop for lunch....so as usual, at a little after 2:00 we stopped! We were all famished! The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. (See some of the scenery in the photo to the right. Can you see the faint volcano in the background?) We stopped at a little buffet once we got into Honduras around 9:00pm for dinner (the drivers must have been hungry because we didn´t even ask!) And around1:00am on Monday night (20 hours after departure from Alajela) Greg and I set foot in our apartment! What a relief, we were home! Then, we though about getting up at 5:45am to start our week at the school...AHHHHHH!!!!! :) In the end, 40 hours in the Bun was definitely worth it! It was a great bonding experience, we got to eat some good ´ol American fast food (I can´t believe I just said that!) and we were able to visit 2 beautiful Central American countries! It was truly a¨Pura Vida¨ experience! (Pura Vida, or Pure Life, is the national saying of Costa Rica.) Thanks to God for safe travels and new memories!

3 Days Notice

2007-10-19T09:10:00.000-05:00

Sorry we haven´t written in a while. Our computer has been out of commission. One of our friends that works on base is reformatting and cleaning it up and will get it back to us this weekend. Well on Tuesday....when we return from Costa Rica! We were told on Tuesday (from the one of the administrators) that the school is taking all the missionaries to Costa Rica. Sounds fun right? Well, I am sure it will be...but they told us only 3 days before departure...crazy! (Who cares about our other plans this weekend!) We have to leave the country every 90 days to renew our passport stamp. You have to go at least 2 countries away and stay there for at least 3 days. Then you can be readmitted into the country for another 90 days. Well, Monday is the last holiday we have before Christmas break (and of course they don´t want us to miss school) so they decided at the last minute (which is pretty much the norm around here) that we will go this weekend. It is between 16 and 20 hours...ONE WAY...in the car. They rented a van so we can all fit (there are 10 missionaries and 2 administrators going). It is going to be pretty crazy since we are leaving today at noon, and will return on Monday! They wanted to take us all (and our luggage) in a dual cab pick up truck to Tegucigalpa, the capitol (about an hour and a half away) and then we would get the van for the rest of the journey. It is legal to ride in the bed of pickups here...however, definitely NOT SAFE! Thank goodness Greg defended us and talked them into bringing the van here to Comayagua so we can at least be in a closed vehicle! Anyway, we are staying in a dorm room at an Adventist College somewhere in Costa Rica...that is about all the details we know of the trip. I´m sure we will return with lots of new blog material! If you don´t hear from us for a while, it´s probably because we got stranded somewhere in south Central America...Kidding! Hopefully....

Everything is going well! We are finally getting in the flow of things are getting adjusted to our schedule. Anyway, just wanted to give you a heads up with what we are up to these days. More later...Please pray for our safety! We hope you have a wonderful weekend of relaxation!
God Bless You!

Karaoke: Breaking Down Cultural Barriers

2007-10-09T11:13:00.000-05:00

Nothing says I love you like karaoke! Greg and I celebrated our 2nd Anniversary yesterday (October 7) singing a duet of the Bice rendition of Bryan Adams’ “Everything I do, I do it for you!” (Es verdad!) We had a ball! Yesterday was the 10th birthday of Alex (our landlord’s son and one of our favorite Honduran ninos!) We celebrated big style with a fiesta on the base. I would say there was around 50 people present. As always, they had delicious food (shish kabobs, beans, rice, tortillas, salsa, cake, ice cream, and it wouldn’t be a party here without sodas and chips!) So lunch was great! After eating, they broke out the piñata! The victim this time…Winnie the Pooh! He took a pretty good beating (even Greg took a few blows) but in the end, Pooh didn’t take it personally. (See photo right) We planned to go to El Torito for dinner in honor of our anniversary…it is rumored to be the fanciest and tastiest restaurant in all of Comayagua (priciest too). Well, lucky for our budget, we (mainly Greg) ate so much at lunch, that we decided we would have to go another night if we actually wanted to the enjoy the food! (Actually, we passed the restaurant on the way back in to town from the base and it was closed! Greg felt like he was ‘off the hook’ because that was now his excuse for not taking me out on our anniversary!)

After the party, Alejandra and Jony invited us back to their house to continue the celebration (basically a time for the adults to kick back and relax). We gladly accepted! We had no idea what we were in for! We sat around and chatted for a little while, then, the computer came out. They wheeled the whole desk out onto their patio, hooked up the microphone, and Shazam! our very own karaoke machine! One by one each person took a turn and belted out a familiar tune (well, to them at least, most were Spanish hits!) They actually had some songs in English too (think 80’s and early 90’s jams…Mr. Big, Ace of Base, Michael Jackson). It was awesome! We were all up dancing and whaling on the microphone for hours! Finally around 10:00pm we remembered we had school the next day. Sadly, we had to leave…however, we feel confident that last night was only the first of many more karaoke nights to come! J Besides, karaoke is a local favorite here in Comayagua….karaoke bars are about a dime a dozen! Good ‘ol karaoke…crossing cultural boundaries and bringing people of every race, nationality and religion together! I love it!

We also had the great pleasure of watching our first Ohio State football game this season on Saturday night! It was so good to see then tear up Purdue! We got to watch it on base on the big screen TV (no offense Coby). It was quite a treat! The next morning, Greg lead the church service at the Friendship Chapel (on base) because the chaplain was out of town. He delivered a great message on be willing to take risks (inspired by Matthew 14:22-36 when Peter walks on water with Jesus). This was his second weekend in a row delivering the message at church. God is definitely using Greg and speaking through him!

Thanks for all of your prayers for our missionary friend, Mark. He is out of the hospital now and is recovering well. He is still weak, but said he should be back to school later this week. Praise the Lord he is feeling better and will return to school soon!

As always, MAY GOD BLESS YOU!

The Apple of My Eye

2007-10-02T10:52:00.000-05:00

I am really pumped! So, I feel like an official teacher now. One on my students actually brought me an APPLE today! You better believe I downed every edible piece on that thing! It was so awesome to get a piece of fruit for my snack! Don´t get me wrong, we willingly accept any gift (especially food!) from the kids (they are always so sweet and sharing!) but it was refreshing to have something natural today...not fried or man made! Definitely a treat...and definitely made me feel like a real teacher! Greg was jealous to say the least!

Last night we felt like true ´hunters and gathers´ as we attempted to get dinner. We have made several attempts to meet our friends Kyle and Crystal at Sabor Azteca (a delicious Mexican restaurant) but due to last minute interruptions (like trips to the hospital--GREG, and loss of electricity) we had to keep cancelling. Finally, last night we were able to coordinate our schedules. We met there at 7:15 on the nose, only to find that it was closed! Oh well, we would go elsewhere. Since it was dark, we opted for a cab. However, there were none in sight! That is something VERY rare here as cabs are CONSTANTLY circling the streets, especially prowling for Americans so they can rip us off for some extra Limps. Well, not last night for! After walking about 5 blocks, we bartered with a station wagon cab and finally settled on a semi-fair price. We decided to go to a new restaurant Bhoyas outside of town (in a more rural area). We have met one of the owners (American) so thought we would give it a whirl. Thankfully, it was open when we arrived. We were seated and given menus...then were informed that the cooks did not show up for work that night (it was about 7:45pm by this time). Flustered, we realized we would yet again have to find another place for dinner. We all concurred...Pizza Hut was a sure bet so we were off to potential dinner site number 3. Since we were on the outskirts of town, we weren´t sure how we would find a cab to get there though. Luckily, right after we walked outside, a cab pulled up and unloaded some people. Perfect! However, the cabby was trying to charge us an outrageous price for driving us literally about 1/2 a mile down the road. I mean, the ball was in his court, it was dark, we were in a rural area, and we didn´t have many options. However, the strong, tough, prideful Americans that we are though, we were not willing to let this guy take advantage of us! After several bargaining attempts we turned him down and he sped off. (He drove right by Pizza Hut with an empty car...he could have made a couple bucks for doing the exact same thing he did for free.) But oh well! So we set off by foot. There were four of us so we felt a little safer. Plus, we were super hungry, and people do crazy things when they are hungry....I think we could have defended ourselves if need be! Anyway, so we trudged up the road, alongside the highway with dim lighting for about 10 minutes. We only passed one other pedestrian (a non-threatening woman), I nearly lost my flip flop in a mud pile, and our lungs suffered a little from all the pollution, but by the grace of God, we made it to Pizza Hut! We were greeted at the door and never felt so happy to have some wings and a gigante supreme pizza! It was fabulous! Just another story to add to our adventure arsenal here! It was a really fun and random Monday night!

Please pray for one of the other missionaries from our school, Mark. He is in the hospital with Dengue Fever (contracted from mosquitoes). Poor guy! He went yesterday and they plan to keep him for a few days. He doesn´t have any family here so it must be rough! Also, another one of the missionaries from our school (there are 10 total) was mugged on Friday night (She was out walking by one of the parks after dark with two other people). A man on a bicycle rode by and ripped her purse off her body. Sadly, she lost her camera, credit cards, cash, and ID, but somehow was able to recover her passport (a person brought it to the school when they say here Maranatha lanyard). Fortunately though, she is okay and was not harmed. Thank God! Anyway, some of our amigos are experiencing some difficulties so if you would be willing, please say a prayer for everyone´s safety and health! Thanks so much! God bless you!

Always Something There to Remind Me!

2007-09-30T17:48:00.000-05:00

This has been quite the eventful week! 7 days filled with 5 stitches, 4 days of school, 3 church activities, 2 nights without power and 1 day without water. Just another week in paradise!

On Tuesday after school, our landlord gave us a ride home. I was telling her how badly I wanted to learn how to make tortillas, so she invited us over that even and she would give us an official lesson. We were pumped! After teaching at the orphanage then doing some tutoring, we headed over to her house. Right about that time…we lost power. It didn’t stop us though! Alejandra gave us tortilla making lessons by candlelight! It was so much fun! She even taught us how to make pupusas (a typical food here…basically, you put a hunk of cheese in the middle of the tortilla dough, then smash it with the tortilla press and cook it on the preheated tortilla pan. The cheese actually cooks into the tortilla…genius! Then you add fresh sautéed veggies and it is quite the treat!) She also gave us a recipe for Honduran enchiladas (very different than Mexican enchiladas) and showed us how to make beans. Honestly, I think she gave me the Honduran 101 cooking lesson because she felt bad for Greg. You see, they go all out here for every meal. I mean, they will make pork chops, fresh tortillas, rice, and vegetables for lunch on a random Tuesday. They cook it up big style for every meal here. There is no heating up leftovers or making a having cereal for lunch. I think I mentioned before that parents actually bring fresh cooked meals to their children at school every day for lunch. Greg and I, we keep it simple…PBJ every day! Yeah, I get a little jealous watching the kids chow on their grilled chicken, barbecued beef, beans, cheese, rice and tortillas, but whatever, peanut butter and jelly is fine! Alejandra, cracked up when she found at that is what we ate everyday for lunch. She was stunned that Greg was okay with that and assured me that her husband would definitely not be! So, in turn, she willingly gave me a cooking lesson and some traditional recipes in hopes that I would change my ways…at least for Greg’s sake! So, I did start to feel bad and I actually cooked lunch for Greg the next day. After all the work it took, we just picked up Wendy’s for the other two days!

When is the last time you had a candlelight dinner?

Wednesday was pretty uneventful. Greg and made dinner by candlelight again. Greg and I whipped up some delicious tuna salad to accompany the Honduran version of saltine crackers. Oh, and we also bought the biggest lemon in Central America from the Pulperia by our house (small little convenience store…there are at least 2 on every block). I asked Greg to pick one up, and he came back with this monstrosity of a fruit! The best part is, Greg has made such good friends with the owners there, that they just gave it to him! Anyway, we made like 2 cups of fresh lemon juice from the one lemon! Amazing! Here is a photo for proof (look at it compared to the size of Greg´s hand!) :

On Thursday, after a rough morning with my feisty fourth graders, I was delighted when the bell rang for recess. As I opened my class room door for 30 whole minutes of sitting down and resting my voice I was greeted by a swarm of kids. “Miss Emily! Miss Emily! Mr. Greg had to go to the hospital - he hit his head!” They shouted. Confused and completely blindsided, I started to cry. I scoured the playground with my eyes and sure enough, there was no sign of Mr. Greg. I began walking to the main building and as I did, I could feel everyone just staring at me as my eyes welled up with tears. Finally I ran into and administrative staff member and questioned Greg’s whereabouts. “Oh, he’s at the hospital” was their reply. Then, I did manage to get a little more information….that he was bleeding out of his head. Of course, I am freaking out by this time! Especially when they told me that everything was taken care of, that he was at the hospital and I should just stay at school. I was not down with that and after a few minutes was able to get one of the school’s head staff members to drive me to the Hospital Colonial (one of the private hospitals in town). When we arrived, I got to go straight to the emergency room where he was being treated. There I found out that during High School recess (the period right before elementary recess) Greg got an elbow to the eye during a game of soccer. The impact split open the skin right on his brow bone above his eye. It literally looked like he had a third eye opening! I don’t know what freaked me out more, the huge gash on his face or that dried blood that was stained on the wall from previous patients…. Anyway, the doctor came in and gave him several shots in the wound and then put in five stitches as four bystanders (including me) all stood around and watched. It was a pretty painful sight, but as to be excepted from him, Greg was a good sport, cracking jokes about it the whole time. He even claimed he would give bonus points to his student that did it for giving him such a good hit! About an hour later, Greg was discharged. He was given pain pills, some topical solution, and 6 vials of fluid that required an injection in his rear ever 12 hours. I perked up when I found out that I would be the one administering the shots! I assured the staff that I had given our dog vaccinations in the past, so giving Greg a shot in the butt twice daily would be a piece of cake! (If fact, something I would take pleasure in….I mean, when would I get this opportunity again!) You better believe that every twelve hours on the dot, Greg got his injection by his cheerful enthusiastic home health care nurse, Emily. J Due to the accident, the doctor told him to take Friday off school and prohibited from playing soccer for at least 7 days (of course, I busted him later that night kicking a soccer ball around with our neighbor!)

In all seriousness though, we are SO thankful that the accident was not more severe. The doctor said that had it been a little deeper he would have done surgery (since it was so close to his eye). PRAISE GOD that wasn’t necessary! In fact, his eye is healing so well and so fast I can‘t believe it has only been 3 days! The swelling went down within 24 hours and he doesn’t have any pain! God is so good! Please pray that it fully heals with no complications! Our biggest fear has been infection, but so far so good! We have faith that God will completely heal him with no problems. So brace yourself, here is a picture of what he looked like about 8 hours after the injury. Now we just joke that he is wearing purple eye shadow (because that it was it looks like!) Greg has such a positive attitude and is just thankful that he is recovering so quickly. I can assure you, we will never forget our time here in Honduras as Greg now has a permanent souvenir!

We hope you are all doing well! We miss you! May God continue to fill your life with blessings as he is with ours! Thank you so much for your prayers and support!

The Brightest Baños in all of Comayagua!

2007-09-24T15:55:00.000-05:00

Thursday was quite a treat! Mommy Carmen (the founder of the Hogar de Ninos orphanage) asked Greg and I to select the tile for the bathrooms and kitchens in their ‘under construction’ transitional housing building. They are in the process of building 6 apartments at a new site in Comayagua to serve as home for the grown kids of the orphanage. Somewhat like a halfway house to help them get started in the ‘real world’ outside the walls of the orphanage. Needless to say, Greg and I were very honored to fulfill Mommy Carmen’s request. So after school on Thursday a van with 2 of the ninas and 2 of the workers picked us up to head to the Famaco store to make the selections. We stopped by the construction site first and were very pleased to see the progress that has been made on the 2 story building since we were last there about 5 weeks ago. Next, we headed strait to the hardware store, into the ‘tile’ room. Literally, the room had all different floor tiles and wall tiles in place on the floor and walls so we could see exactly how it would look. It always had a line of toilets and sinks ranging from maroon to green and all the colors in between. Greg was bored after about 15 minutes, so I was basically in control of the making the decisions….that is why it ended up taking about and hour and a half! All of the floor tiles had some sort of colors and patterns, all of the wall tiles had different ones and since they were fixed to the floor and walls already, it was impossible to tell if at colors matched (or at least blended!) So after careful consideration and much deliberation with my fellow girls, we made the final decision. It felt good! Soon after, an employee told us they no longer carried the flooring that we selected. We went with our second favorite and called it a day. Or at least I thought we were going to call it a day, then I learned that each bathroom would different, so we actually had 5 more to go. We started out quite conservative, with calm colors that seemed to match relatively well. By the end, we were selecting blue and pink toilets to match the brightly colored tiles. I tried to get light pastel colors that blended, but the other ladies advised me that bright colors were more important that matching patterns. Plus, our options were limited. It was a really fun experience! I can’t wait to see the tiles in place in the finished bathrooms and kitchens…what an honor!

That same day, the group also invited us to go with them to Puerto Cortes on Saturday. Mommy Carmen was sending a the workers of the Hogar to the beach for the day in honor of El Dia de Maestros (The Day of Teachers). We enthusiastically accepted the invitation. It was a 4 hour drive and we were just going for the day, so the group planned to leave Comayagua at 5am. The staff told us they would pick Greg and I up at our house around 4 or 4:30am and we would return around 7. Saturday morning came quickly and I hopped up 4 to the sound of our alarm. Greg got dressed, threw his stuff in a bag, then returned to bed. I took my time as I packed and got ready (we couldn’t shower though because we had no running water). Once I finished, I figured I would watch a little TV while I waited. Little did I know that I would watch an entire Hallmark channel movie before the van arrived at 6:15am! Greg was smart for staying in bed! I was quite impressed that they were an entire 2 hours late! I mean, at least 30 minutes was to be expected, but over 2 hours---unprecedented! I must admit though, it was well worth the wait (plus I got a watch a whole movie in English). We had an excelled day! The six women that live at the group home (another site operated by the Hogar for women with special needs) accompanied us on the trip. It was so good to get to spend time with them as we don’t often have the opportunity. One of the older girls from the Hogar (that was came along) even got to visit her family while in Puerto Cortes. I am not sure what her story is, or how she ended up in the Hogar, but it was very emotional to see their reunion after quite some time! I don’t know how often she gets to see them, but I thought it was so amazing that the Mommy Carmen helped arrange the visit. I know she was very grateful!

When we arrived at the beach, Greg and I were amazed at how dirty it was. It truly was unbelievable. The coast line was so beautiful, but all the bottles, plastic ware, bags, wrappers, and junk really tainted the view. The group said that it normally wasn’t as bad, it was only this dirty because the rain washed all the junk ashore. Nonetheless it was really cool to see Central America’s largest shipping port. We had heard about it before as it often makes the news due to major drug trafficking problems. Greg and I opted not to get in the water, but relaxed on the beach under the palm trees. I wanted to just put my feet in, but Greg said if I did, there would be a good chance I would come out with a spork stuck in my leg. I took his advice and just felt the water with my hand! Before we left, I gathered some pumice rock that had washed up on the beach. The women told me there were great to use for pedicures and also for cleaning. We had a wonderful day, and after 8 hours round trip in the van, we arrived back home in Comayagua around 7:30pm.…I was in bed soon after!

Holiday Weekend Fun

2007-09-20T16:32:00.000-05:00

We woke up on Saturday morning at 6:45am to the sound of airplanes flying overhead. We ran outside to our little patio to see what all the commotion was about. There were about 6 small planes circling in the air above performing stunts an tricks. (The photo to the left is a view from our rooftop.) Next thing we knew, we were hearing music from a band. Then we remember, it was Fiesta de Patria…Honduran Independence Day! We rushed back inside to get dressed then hurried up the street to the main boulevard. People surrounded the street to watch the parade of bands, dancers, performers and floats. Nearly all of the schools in Comayagua had a band in the parade, followed by a group of female dancers (All the girls had baton’s in the hands, but they never twirled them for some reason.) Everyone in the parade was in costume. Some dressed up in traditional native garb, others dressed up like the Lempira tribe, and a group of boys even dressed up like donkeys! (Comayagua is known as the city of donkeys: Ciudad de burros.) It was quite the production. Following the march through the streets, each group in the parade would do a brief performance - for the grand finale - in the Central Park. I have never seen so many people in the square - it was so crowded! The parade lasted for 5 hours! (7am to 1pm) I felt bad for the kids that were dressed up in heavy, long sleeved uniforms because I was wearing a tank top and capri pants and I was sweating….and that was at 8:00am. At first we thought it was crazy that the parade started so early, then realized it was because of the heat! However, if you didn’t want to brave the high temperature outside, you could watch the parade live on TV from the comfort of your own home! It was a neat experience and we were happy to get to see it!

We had another really cool experience on Monday. We went with some people from the orphanage to a nursery here in Comayagua to help them purchase some trees to plant and grow at the farm. We were planning to only buy mango trees, but since they were less expensive than we thought, we ended up with some guava, nance, and noni trees as well. The owner of the nursery was very nice and asked us if we wanted a tour. We gladly accepted. He took us all around and gave us samples of the difference fruits from each tree. We tasted a lot of different fruits, many that we had never heard of. It was really cool! He also told us that this nursery is the only one in all of Honduras that genetically alters plants and trees. So basically, they had many varieties of the same type of tree (avocado, pomegranate, guava, etc.) all just a little different based on how it’s make up was altered. To sum it all up, he sent us home with 2 bags full of fruit (some of which we don‘t even know how to eat!)

Monday was the Day of Teachers. I must admit, I wasn’t expecting anything, however, I was pleasantly surprised! The high school students at our school put together a program for all the teachers complete with dancing, singing, a skit, food, cake, and my personal favorite….a pinata! So for Tuesday afternoon (we didn’t have school on Monday) we got to skip out on classes and celebrate! I think the highlight was when they picked 6 teachers (3 female, 3 male) to come up on stage and dance. The kids sang this song, and when they got to the part “suave, suave, suave” the teachers were supposed to break it down (basically shake your pelvis). Naturally, Greg was one of the participants. He was the first male contestant to go, so he tried to be as conservative as he could be when shaking your hips. I mean, he was in school, performing in front of all the students and administration. He also did a ‘Hulk Hogan’ motion to try to get the crowd pumped up and earn some more applause. Well, little did he know that the head counselor (the school’s disciplinarian) being so “suave” would end up on the ground thrusting and swaying like we had never seen before! Needless to say, Greg did not win. However, he did get a consolation prize (a lamp….I know it is super random, but we needed one for our house, so it was actually perfect!) Clearly, we don’t have the natural hip shaking, pelvic thrusting ability that the Hondurans are born with. After that performance though, I am not sure that’s a bad thing…:) It was quite the sight to see and not one I could ever imagine seeing in a school back home!

America, Honduras

2007-09-15T17:16:00.000-05:00

Our friends invited us to go with them to a Christian fellowship gathering, called Crossroads, at the military base on Friday night. So after a productive morning of running errands and eating lunch at our favorite restaurant, we accepted the invitation. About 3 miles outside of Comayagua there is a ½ American ½ Honduras military base. Approximately 500 American soldiers are stationed here along with another 500 civilian contractors (American and Honduran). Our friend, Kyle, is one of the civilian contractors and his wife is a teacher at bilingual school in Comayagua. We met them several weeks ago, and they kindly helped us secure passes to get on the base to attend church there (since it is in English!) Our passes were just cleared for use, so we went with them last night to attend Crossroads. We took a cab out to the base (went through several cabs trying to agree on a reasonable price…like we said before, they always try to rip off Americans)! Anyway, once we arrived the cabby dropped us off at the front gave and sped off. We were greeted by Honduran military personnel to check out identification. Kyle and Crystal got through the gate immediately simply by flashing their base ID cards. We had to show our passports, then the guard looked through the binder of issued passes to find our names and clearance level. He found our names alright, however, we only had permission to be on base on Sundays from 9am to 5pm. It was Friday; therefore the Honduran soldier would not allow us to enter. We tried to plead with him, explaining that the Chaplain must have made an error, that we should be able come to the church functions on Friday nights also. We even had a US soldier helping us, trying to convince the Honduran to let us pass. However, he wouldn’t budge. Although Americans and Hondurans share the base, ultimately, the Honduran military has the upper hand (since we are in their country and all). Greg and I were prepared to turn back and hale another cab home, when we remembered….the husband of our landlord works security for the Honduran military! His wife told us earlier in the week that Jony would be residing on the base all weekend as part of his supervisory duties. Greg whipped out his cell and gave Jony a call. Fortunately he answered and within minutes, he met us at the front gate. Using his Capitan status, he walked up to the gate and told the other Honduran soldiers (that wouldn’t let us in) that we were with him. The soldier gave a salute to Jony, and we were in. In disbelief, the four of us followed him in, hopped in Jony’s car and headed to the chapel. Again, God has connected us with some truly amazing people here! J

It was so amazing to be on base! We actually felt very safe and stared out the window in amazement as we drove through streets. There were all kinds of American luxuries! Restaurants, coffee shops, laundry mats, restrooms with toilet paper (at school you have to bring your own), a gym, swimming pool, tennis courts, etc. all with signs written in English! Once we arrived, Crystal asked me to walk to the PX with her. It was awesome! Nearly all the products (food, clothing, appliances, electronics) were American name brands! They had a multitude of things impossible to find anywhere else in Honduras! I didn’t buy anything (I only had 30 Lempira – about $1.50), however, window shopping was still quite fulfilling. We plan to stop there and pick up a few things after church on Sunday.

Crossroads was great! There were about 12 people that attended (8 American soldiers and then the 4 of us). They cooked a great dinner (sloppy jo’s, potatoes, and corn) and for dessert we had root beer floats! I don’t remember the last time I had one of those!? It definitely hit the spot though! The Crossroads building was filled with activities. At one end of the room was the kitchen and pantry, then tables and cabinets filled with board games. The other side of the room had several couches, a HUGE TV (with American Cable) and a Christian Library. There were also a ping pong and foosball tables. After we enjoyed the scrumptious meal and thought that there was no possible way this night could get any better, they unveiled they Nintendo Wii. We all put on our game faces and boxed, bowed, and played tennis for hours. How fabulous!

I really felt like I was back in the US when I was actually able to flush toilet paper down the toilet! You see, everywhere else you go in Honduras, you have to throw your used toilet paper in the trashcan next to the toilet. (Trashcan to the left in the photo.) I guess you get used to it after a while, but it is still sorta gross. Anyway, it felt so good to be on base. For a little while, we actually felt like we were in the United States. It was such a comforting feeling! We are definitely grateful and proud to be American citizens!

Greg and I both agreed that last night was truly a gift from God. He fills everyday with blessings small and large, and it is up to us to recognize each gift and give thanks. “In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:6
May God bless you richly today!

Dia del Nino

2007-09-14T12:08:00.000-05:00

What the heck is Dia del Nino (Spanish for The Nino, for all you Chris Farley fans)? It is a national holiday here in Honduras where you celebrate being a kid. Brilliant! Another opportunity for fried food and sugary treats! I had to do nothing since I teach the older kids (7th- 11th grade) but, Emily had to take off the afternoon and throw a party for her class…cakes, sodas, chips…so it was pretty much like every other day. (Apparently you once you pass the 6th grade you are officially cut off from kids day). These kids eat and drink nothing but junk food! I think it would be better for these kids to just get an IV filled with sugar because it would be more efficient….no time for digestion, the sugar goes directly to the blood. So anyway, Emily learned from our landlord (whose son is in her class) that she would be required to organize the party, delegate which student would bring what, and host the two hour party. Oh, and Emily found this out 2 days in advance. Fortunately, she pulled it off…well sort of! She managed to have another teacher help write a letter in Spanish to send home with the children indicating what each student was responsible for bringing. I would say about 75% of the children managed to bring their assigned goods - piñatas, sandwiches, churros, ice cream, catrachitas (fried corn tortillas with a smear of beans and a sprinkle of cheese), cups, plates, spoons, etc. Once the party began, complete chaos broke out (What´s new?) It worked out for Emily because the kids ended up entertaining themselves. Really, she was just responsible for distributing the food and beverages, and working the piñata (Poor Sponge Bob didn´t even see it coming! See photo.) Two hours later, the final bell sounded and Emily would no longer be responsible for the kids and their sugar highs (or crashes)! Apparently redemption is near, as we learned that National Teacher´s Day is Monday, September 17!

We also found out that late notices to parents or students (telling them the day before or the day of that they have a meeting, or their kids have to bring something to school etc.) is a typical and planned course of action here. One example (although I have man) - The teachers found out on Monday that we would be having school on Thursday (originally we were supposed to have it off for their independence day, but since we missed two days for Felix, they made us go). The teachers knew all week, but it wasn´t until Wednesday afternoon that a note was sent home to parents informing them there would in fact be school the following day. Sorry if you had vacation planned for the long weekend, your kids have to come to school. Apparently this practice is effective though, as all of Emily´s 4th grade students (32 total) were present on Thursday!

Have a great weekend! We know we will as we are off from school Friday and Monday! =)
Again, thank you all for your support and prayers. The Lord is definitely present in this place! God Bless You!

Oh...and GO BUCKEYES!

It Pays to be Honduran!

2007-09-14T11:11:00.000-05:00

We have a Honduran friend named Kevin who went to high school in the states and speaks better English than we do. He hailed a cab from our apartment to go home and the following conversation took place…in Spanish -

Kevin: “How much to Tres Caminos?” (The neighborhood where he lives.)
Cabby: “40 limps” (about 2 bucks)
Kevin: “40 limps, to Tres Caminos!?!?”
Cabby: “Yeah, you are American, right?”
Kevin: “No, I am Honduran!”
Cabby: “Oh, so sorry, only 20 limps!”

I know what you are thinking, we are only talking about a buck difference…remember we are in Honduras where the average salary is 3,000 U.S. dollars a year! It is funny though, because you can get so caught up trying to get a bargain, that you realize later that you spent 15 minutes arguing over 10 cents. But in actuality, that´s two bags of water, 9 tortillas, or 5 minutes at the internet cafe...time well spent trying to save a dime!

A Taste of America

2007-09-11T10:41:00.000-05:00

God sure was looking upon on with favor on Friday! He blessed us with some good ‘ol American Chili Cheese Dogs! I mean, honestly, when is the last time that you praised the Lord for giving you a hotdog? It was Friday afternoon (our crazy first week of school had finally come to an end) and we decided to hit the internet café for a little R & R. Not long after we began surfing the net, we got a call from our good buddy, Bill. They had just gotten a shipment of hot dogs and chili in at the base and he invited us over to indulge with him. We enthusiastically obliged! And a treat it was…. 8 dogs later, we were doubled over in pain! (Greg – 4, Bill – 2½, Emily – 1½) Oh, and we also had some Cool Ranch Doritos and baked beans. We felt like it was the fourth of July! The neighbor kids even helped us celebrate by setting off firecrackers! (Seriously! Hondurans have a habit of doing that…all hours of the day and night, for no apparent reason you will hear the sound of fireworks!) After several hours of rehashing our week, talking on the phone (Bill always insists that we call our parents from his internet phone when we are at his house) and relaxing, Bill had an idea. Every time we are together he raves about yucca (an indigenous root vegetable that is similar to a potato). He has threatened to take us to his favorite place and get some several times, and this was the night his dreams would come to fruition. Next thing we knew were out, eating more food! He ordered two kinds….yucca chimichurra (boiled yucca with a garlic pesto sauce) and good ‘ol fried yucca (Honduran style). It was delicious! I have no idea how we had the room, but we slammed the entire thing! It was a great night….well….until about 3am when I woke up to the sound of Greg’s 4 hotdogs being resurrecting into the toilet! Poor guy! He said it will be years until he can eat another one. He had a similar experience with apple juice when he was 5 and hasn’t touched the stuff since!

Saturday was a great day! It was our first day to teach at the orphanage! We were pumped! Right on time, a truck from the farm picked us up at our apartment. We picked up about 8 girls from town, then headed out to meet the rest of the group at the boy’s orphanage. Fortunately, one of our bilingual Honduran friends volunteered to translate. It was a blessing because I don’t know how we would have been able to communicate as effectively without him. We had about 20 alumnos (boys and girls) and learned that 17 more would be there next week (they had a school activity that morning). We were thrilled! On Saturdays, we will teach high school and college students. The kids were given the option to come to class IF they wanted to learn English. So think about it, approximately 40 students ages 14-22 are voluntarily coming to our class for 2 ½ hours on Saturday mornings! Even one of the staff members is attending. We are so excited! We did a brief assessment to determine their skill level, then hit the ground running. It was a great class and we could see the enthusiasm on their faces! I am sure they could see it on ours too! I am confident that God has wonderful things in store for the future!
That evening we attended church at La Vina (The Vineyard) – a wonderful experience as always!

Sunday was filled with LOTS of work. We made lesson plans for hours and ran errands to prepare for the week ahead. Later in the day Greg was reminiscing about his days in Raleigh when he would get a Bojangles Tailgate Special complete with a gallon of sweet tea and go to town in front of the TV watching Sunday afternoon football….and then he somehow convinced me to go. Yes, for all you North Carolinians out there, you read correctly…there is a Bojangles here in Comayagua. Trying to recreate Greg’s familiar atmosphere, we decided to get Bojangles takeout. He excitedly ordered one of the fried chicken combos and ordered his favorite dirty rice and fries for sides. Needless to say, he also ordered a large sweat tea. Several minutes later, we were home preparing for the feast. Disappointment #1: No Texas Pete. Fried Chicken without Texas Pete? Un-American! Greg shakes it off and uses a Honduran brand. Disappointment #2: Greg carefully places the straw in his coveted cup of sweet tea and to his surprise discovers it is Sprite. He pouts, but is determined that it will not get him down. Disappointment #3: Greg opens the container of dirty rice to find a mound of coleslaw. This was it. He was disgusted. However, it did not stop him from eating ever last morsel in the bag. Coby saved the day when he was able to produce 3 NFL games on Sunday afternoon (with Spanish commentating of course). Oh, and Greg dominated his fantasy football league this week. (p.s. Greg is playing in a league with a bunch of random dudes since none of his friends would let him in theirs….he made me type that). All in all, it was a wonderful weekend filled with lots of good food and new cultural experiences.

One and Done, Baby!

2007-09-07T17:11:00.000-05:00

I don’t know if words can even describe the first week of school. Although it was only 3 days, thanks to Felix, it felt like 3 years. I will try to muster up the last few fibers of energy that I have to give a brief summary.

The first day, Monday, was complete chaos. No one knew what they were supposed to be doing or where they were supposed to be. Lucky for us, it was only a ½ day. We were all fried by 11:30am. Fast forward to Thursday and Friday…two full days of havoc! Actually, things got a little better toward the end of the week, but nonetheless it was a lot crazier that we were prepared for. I think we can all agree, regardless of the location or culture, that teachers are overworked and underpaid!

The school day here consists of nine 40 minute educational periods, a 30 minute recess and a 40 minute lunch. It begins at 7:10am and ends at 2:10pm. In realty though, I would say at least 10-15 minutes of each period is spent doing one of the following: disciplining the students (they are constantly talking, making noises, bothering each other, not paying attention , etc.), answering questions like How old are you? Do you like cats? Can I go to the bathroom? Can we play now? Can I pass Mary a note? Can I tell John a secret?, or telling kids to put their churros (chips) and sodas away until lunch or recess. Chalk up another 5 minutes to interruptions from other students, teachers or administration (uniform check, announcements, meeting notices, snacks or messages for siblings) and basically, you are down to about 20 minutes of pure teaching time. Really puts a cramp in your lesson plans, let me tell ya! Greg and I have already determined that we will have to restructure our class and develop a new approach if we want to cover

We have been packing our lunch (peanut butter and jelly and a piece of fruit) but have been getting a snack during recess from the cafeteria. The selection consists of 4 or 5 varieties of fried food items either filled with meat, cheese, beans or a combination of the 3. In addition, their menu includes a plethora of individually packaged churros (at least 15 different kinds, seriously) and cookies. They also sell soda, juice, and water. Yesterday, I bought 2 big tortillas (plain) and a bag of water for 5 Lempira (about 25 cents. (They sell ½ liter bags of water here. You bit off the corner and add a straw – genius! Greg refuses to drink them though because the same company that makes them also makes fertilizer. It doesn’t stop me though…When in Rome!) Today, we got a little crazy and went for a fried thing filled with chicken and topped with red sauce and cabbage. I let Greg eat most of it though because one of my sweet students brought me a piece of cake from her mother’s birthday party the night before. In fact, for some reason I must give off this “I love sugar vibe” because in the past two days, 5 different students have given me cookies, cake, candy, dried fruit, and pastries. I can’t quite say that makes up for the mayhem that has occurred in school over the first week, but it definitely softens the blow!

Greg and I have already planned to go for dinner tonight. Neither one of us is willing to cook and we have had enough peanut butter and jellies for one week. Tomorrow we will go to the orphanage and begin teaching! We are very excited! We sat down with some of the administrators there on Wednesday to finalize our plans and our schedule. We are interested to see what our teaching experience at the orphanage will be like….

May God bless all teachers everywhere! Also, we life up prayers and thanksgiving to the Lord above for keeping us safe from Hurricane Felix. We didn’t get more than a light rain here in Comayagua! God is definitely looking out for us here! Everyday is an adventure and a blessing as we do our best to follow the Lord’s plan for our life. We are so thankful for the opportunity and ability to freely and openly serve the God of all creation!

WE ARE SAFE!

2007-09-05T11:57:00.000-05:00

Thank you all for your concern! We have received many emails questioning our safety regarding Hurricane Felix. Please know that here in Comayagua (central Honduras) we have only received a light drizzle of rain for the past few days. No strong winds or heavy downpours. In fact, the drop in temperature and slight breeze has been nice for a change! Fortunately, we have not been affected at all by the Hurricane. However, we have gotten a dose of ´hurricane fever´ being confined to our apartment for the past 2 days, but that is about it! So for all of you that have been wondering, WE HAVE NOT BEEN FELIXED! Our prayers are being answered, God is protecting us and keeping us safe. Thank you for your prayers and support! God Bless You!

Hurricane Felix Update

2007-09-04T08:32:00.000-05:00

Apparently people are being airlifted out of Honduras...no, not us. We are sitting in the computer lab at school checking email. Outside, some of the other teachers are setting up a net to play volleyball (It is currently 7:30am). When we arrived at the school this am, we were greeted by an administrator that told us school would be cancelled today and tomorrow due to Hurricane Felix. It is supposed to hit Honduras today around 10:00am. Since we are pretty centrally located, we don´t anticipate actually getting hit by the hurricane (but who knows!) However, we are prepared for major storms and prolonged flooding, loss of power and loss of water. (By prepared I mean that we bought some candles and matches, charged our cell phones, stocked up on ice and water and purchased some canned goods). Of course, we just went to the grocery store a couple days ago and filled our fridge with lots of perishable items too! Oh well! The temperature has definitely dropped and the sky is gray and overcast. At least we have Coby to help keep us semi updated on the weather situation. (I say semi because the news is in Spanish...we can only figure out so much from the pictures!) It seems a little surreal that a Category 5 hurricane is heading straight toward us, but I know that God will protect us. Fortunately, we have a second floor apartment, but I am very worried about people that live in make shift, poorly constructed homes built with less than quality materials. Please pray for safety and protection of those that will be affected by the hurricane. We will post an update as soon as possible! Take care and may God Bless You!

Weekend Wrap Up

2007-09-03T13:16:00.000-05:00

T-minus 24 hours until our first day of school! We have been very busy preparing! From writing lesson plans to decorating our classrooms, the past few weeks have flown by! We have to report to school at 6:50am where we will have a short worship session including songs and devotions with all the school’s employees. Then, school officially starts at 7:10am and ends at 2:10pm. Unfortunately, Greg and I are on totally difference schedules as he is teaching secondary (junior high and high school) and I am teaching primary (elementary). My schedule is very full, only a little down time each day. Greg’s original schedule had a lot of free periods, until the school asked him to also be a counselor. Basically, a counselor at our school is a disciplinarian. Instead of going to the principal when a student misbehaves, they go to the counselor. I am sure Greg will be really intimidating since physically the biggest guy most of the kids have ever seen.

Even though school doesn’t start until tomorrow, we have to make a pit stop there today. You see, as a homeroom teacher, you are responsible for decorating your classroom. I am homeroom for both 4th grade classes and Greg is homeroom for one of the 7th grade classes. I completed the decorations for my rooms on Friday, and sadly, Greg has not even started his. However, it isn’t has fault – his classroom is still under construction! School was supposed to start last Monday (August 27) however, since the new building addition wasn’t going to be finished in time, they had to push the first day back a week. Supposedly the crew finished his room on Friday evening. We will go later today to find out for sure and put up some decorations.

We also have to pick up our uniforms today. About two weeks ago, they gave each teacher some khaki fabric and some black fabric (I am pretty sure it is wool…it is so thick and heavy!) Then they asked that we take the material to a tailor and have them make us 4 pair of pants. It cost us both 600 (about $30) Lempira to get 4 pair of pants made. Pretty good deal right? We will soon find out! In addition to the pants, we will wear a polo shirt (a difference color for each day) with our name and the school’s logo on the front.

Greg and I had a new experience yesterday; we went to the Comayagua Mercado for the first time. It was extremely packed, and people from every direction were trying to selling us things. We ended up leaving with some potatoes, tomatoes, a cucumber and a pineapple all for about a $1.50. Then last night we went to church with another one of our missionary friends. Her church (The Vineyard) in Phoenix started 2 new church branches here in Honduras (one in Tegucigalpa and one in Comayagua). She moved here a little over a year ago to help get them off the ground and be the liaison between the home church and the branch churches here. We both really enjoyed to both the service and the fellowship at La Vina.

I will have to admit though, that the highlight of our weekend is our new friend Coby. Who is Coby you ask? Our brand new 13 inch television. Let me explain…. We met with our friend, Bill, on Thursday night. In our conversation, Greg brought up his itch to watch some college football this weekend since the new season was kicking off. Next thing we knew we were at Bill’s house disassembling the TV that he ‘never uses because it is so small that he can’t see the screen.’ We rushed back to ours, screwed in the cable, and plugged it in, and VWLAH! Direct TV before our very eyes! Even a few of the channels were in English! We also discovered that we get Wyoming’s regional programming. Yeah, that is weird, but we aren’t going to complain…Greg was actually getting to watch some college football! I don’t think I will ever get used to Barney speaking in Spanish, but it is a little price to pay for the gift of cable television in Honduras!

Oh, and by the way, I finally redeemed myself from the horrible Honduran cooking attempt with some good ´ol fashion No Bake cookies! I could only contain my sweet tooth for so long! I had to get creative though since we don´t have an oven! They were a hit among the locals! :) (See photo right)

The Lone Taquito

2007-08-30T14:17:00.000-05:00

Since it was Greg’s first night back, I attempted to make some Honduran Tacos (or taquitos as we call them in the states) as his ‘welcome back’ meal. I discovered tonight that I have no idea how to actually ‘fry’. (Could be a blessing in disguise, fried food can’t be good for you!) Here is what happened… after boiling and shredding the chicken and preparing the corn tortillas, I rolled up the individual tacos. I heated the oil in a pan and carefully placed each taco inside. This is where the disaster began. They tortillas started breaking and falling apart, unleashing the already cooked chicken to be fried in addition to the shell. I tried and tried and kept getting the same results (see photo left)…even the Bicecreamman himself couldn’t pull it off! We (actually only Greg) ended up eating about 7 fried corn tortillas topped with guac, chicken, sour cream, and salsa. He claimed it was tasty, but I am afraid all I did was clog his arteries! So, on my last attempt I was finally successful in making 1 Honduran taco. Afterward, I made myself a quesadilla….in the microwave!

The Bicecreamman Returns!

2007-08-29T14:09:00.000-05:00

It was an interesting weekend, no doubt! I flew up Rochester, NY for the MLL championship weekend…getting out of Honduras, no problem…getting out of Chicago, big problem. I spent Thursday night and most of Friday in Chicago with about half my team trying get to the Roch. We had weather issues, mechanical problems, air traffic control problems and too much fuel. That’s right, too much fuel…I don’t think Ken Jennings could even figure that one out! Once we got out of Chi-town everything went smoothly. The weekend was a ton of fun and it was great to be reunited with my teammates…even Spencer Ford! We won our first game and made it to the championship game only to fall short to Philly…but it was a great weekend none the less!

I arrived back in Honduras just in time to catch the begging of a nation wide protest. What they were protesting depended on who you asked…I heard everything from teachers wanting increased salaries, privatization of Hondutel, the phone company (which by the way, the owners of our apartment waited 5 years to get the phone line installed our place and for some reason, we can only receive calls, not make any), lower prices on purified water, and the return of the Bicecreamman! They did not want this hombre back in the country because he is rumored to be the notorious Chancharro de la vincha….a mysterious gringo who plays soccer with a head band and is an extremely dirty player! He is also strappingly handsome, extremely romantic and his charm is surpassed by none, or so I hear...

I was told that I would not be able to leave the airport because protests are known to become violent. I had no clue what I was going to do…but then our good friend Bill came to the rescue yet again! Who is Bill? He is Emily and I’s surrogate father/guardian angel who continues to save us day after day. The same man we met on the plane on our way to Honduras. This guy is right out of a movie…think any movie where some wide-eyed youngster is embraced by an old man, that through completely ridiculous methods, opens his eyes to the world…a Mr. Myagi of sorts (I am Daniel LaRusso of course and Emily is my Elizabeth shoe…I don’t have a nemesis like Johnny Lawrence yet…on second thought, I am Johnny Lawrence). Bill sent one of his friends/co-workers, a Honduran native familiar with the back roads of Tegucigalpa, to pick me up. When I say he knew the back roads what I really meant is that he is not scared to drive the wrong way down a one-way street with an 18 wheeler comin’ head on…seriously! We managed to avoid all protests and get out of the city and back home in one piece.

It was fantastic to get back to Emily, Comayagua and our apartment. Our A/C even got fixed! That night, Em and I got the best sleep we have had in a while…I brought back some bed sheets (Thanks Dave and Ava) from the US that don’t scratch your face when you lay on them and thanks to our fully operational cooling unit, it wasn’t above 100 degrees in our house. Everything was coming up Bice!

And then we went to school this morning…I still don’t have any clue what a lesson plan is supposed to look like and I have to have my room decorated by this Monday, the first day of school. Did I mention that my room has not yet been built? Hopefully, it is finished when school is supposed to start or we might have to push back the start date another week, again. When we got home our A/C had crapped out again…

While all this sounds bad, it is fantastic…I wouldn’t have it any other way! Everything is great and each day is a blessing! Remember to be thankful for all that the Lord has given and remember that He will fulfill your needs! Dios le bendiga!

Greg is back in Comayagua!

2007-08-28T09:31:00.000-05:00

Thanks for all your prayers! Greg made it back safely to Comayagua yesterday amidst all of the craziness here! Praise God for travel mercies and protection! More later from the Bicecreamman himself...I just wanted to give a quick update! Have a blessed day!

Oh...several people have asked how to contact us so here are our email addresses:

Greg: bicecream44@yahoo.com
Emily: efarst@hotmail.com

The Adventure Continues...

2007-08-27T10:21:00.001-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA FARST!! WE LOVE AND MISS YOU!!

I really hope Greg makes it back today. He has been in the USA since Thursday to play in the Major League Lacrosse Championship. (http://www.lariptide.com/news/?id=2421) He left Houston this morning and should arrive in Tegucigalpa (the capitol of Honduras) today at noon. He is supposed to be catching the military bus back to the base here in Comayagua, however, I got a call this morning that the bus will not be making its daily run. People are striking in cities all over Honduras today due to the rise in the price of water. When they strike here, they shut down roads and no cars can travel through. Roads were blocked beginning at 6:00am this morning! Our friend that arranged for Greg to ride on the military bus is sending a Honduran friend to attempt to get him in Teguc. Please pray that he gets back to Comayagua safely! Fortunately, we have already talked to someone in Tegucigalpa that has offered to let him stay with their family tonight if he is not able to get out of the city. I will keep you posted!

So, TV is crazy here. Sometime they get ESPN, sometimes they don´t. Yesterday was one of those days that they didn´t! Since Greg´s team won on Saturday, they advanced to the championship game where they played against the Philadelphia Barrage live on ESPN 2. We went to Pizza Hut in attempt to watch the game on their large flatscreen in the waiting area, but unfortunately channel 23 (ESPN 2) was blank. Channel 22 worked, as did 24, but not 23. Out of desperation I called another friend with cable and internet and he invited us over to try to get the game there. Same thing...no channel 23! He swore he had it just a few days prior! So we went to the net as they were showing the game live on ESPN360.com. We tried to download the flash player the ENTIRE game and for some reason, the computer would not allow it! We were able to find a site that just gave the box scores every couple of minutes, so that is what we watched! I was going crazy the whole time because I so desperately wanted to watch the game! At least we got score updates every few minutes! Sadly, Los Angeles lost 16 - 13.

The weekend was good here in Comayagua. On Saturday night, I went up on top of a mountain with my friend and her boyfriend. He works for a phone company and had to repair the towers (on top of a mountain) so he took us up. It was crazy! It was about a 30 minute drive to the top, very rugged terrain with lots of curves and turns. Once we got up there though, it was a beautiful view! We were a little nervous on the way down though because after dark, there are banditos in the mountains that try to rob people and cars. For this, we had to drive pretty fast on the windy and rough roads. I definitely had an upset stomach once we got to the bottom, but that was a small price to pay for a safe return home! You can see the mountains with the towers on them from Comayagua, so now when I look up at them, it is hard to believe that I was actually up there - it look so high!

Last night as I was finishing up my lesson plans in Jenny´s room, the power went out. I heard lots of screams and screeches and as calm as I could, I retreated to the living room of the house to be in the company of other people. One of the family members was in the shower when we lost power - poor thing! The moon was very bright so we all went outside to look at the sky. There was beautiful heat lighting up in the clouds. We decided to be crazy and go out and drive toward it. We jumped in the truck and headed off! We felt like storm chasers or something. It was fun - definitely made the evening more eventful! Finally after the power had been off for about 3 hours, it came back on. Literally as I flipped the switch in the bedroom to go to bed (so the light wouldn´t come back on if power was restored) the fan started blowing. It was a miracle!

Week 2 in Comayagua down! Praise the Lord for our safety and comfort here! One week until school starts...

A Victory and a Battle

2007-08-23T11:14:00.001-05:00

YEAH! Another organic food item spotting! Jumbo Supermercado is really coming through! I found organic soy milk...vanilla, chocolate and strawberry! This was great because the milk we bought before tasted funky...also, there is a good chance it was whole milk (YUCK!) We splurged and bought both the vanilla and strawberry. Cereal never tasted so good! hehehe! We are now up to two organic food sightings...pasta sauce and milk. (Yes, of course we bought them both!)

Apparently in all my bliss after having a big bowl of cheerios for breakfast yesterday, I made a terrible mistake. I LOCKED OUR KEYS INSIDE OUR BEDROOM! I know that doesn´t sound like a big deal, so let me explain. We really only have two doors inside our house...both are off of the living room. One is for our bedroom and one is for our office (the bathroom is located between them and is accessed from either room). We were having some servicemen come to work on our air conditioner, so we decided that we should lock up the two rooms before departing for school. So I locked and shut the office door, walked through the bathroom and into the bedroom, locked the door then pulled it shut. Immediately after doing so, I realized that I left the keys inside the bedroom (along with the spares). Not a big deal, right, we could still leave for school and just deal with getting the bedroom door open later in the day....WRONG! You see, every door to the outside of our house (front door and patio door) requires that you lock it using a key....from both the inside and outside. There is no knob you use from the inside of the door to turn the lock, you must use your key. Since keys are required to open the lock to get outside, we were literally locked INSIDE our house. Fortunately, we had our cell phones so we decided to call the 3 people we know here that could help us....our landlord, her son, and her nephew. Sadly, we could not get a hold of any of them. Two of their phones were off and the other one went to voicemail. So, we sat...and sat...and sat... Greg made the comment 'So this is what it feels like to be in jail.' We both cracked up! Maybe an hour later (and much stalking via cell phone) our landlord´s nephew called us back. He was able to get in touch with our landlord and about 15 minutes later, we were free! :) Praise the Lord! It was a little embarrassing explaining why we were late when we got to school, but hey, at least we made it! Oh and by the way, the servicemen never came!

Greg Receives Major League Lacrosse Honor

2007-08-23T09:57:00.000-05:00

Congratulations, Greg!!! :) We are so proud of you! God continues to bless our family!

Check out this article on his team´s website: http://www.lariptide.com/news/?id=2406

ZZZZzzzz

2007-08-22T11:32:00.000-05:00

I thought this photo was hilarious, so I had to post it on the blog.

Here is Greg, exhausted from a day of manual labor, relaxing on the sofa in our living room. (This is the big one...believe it or not!)

No more stinkin´clothes!

2007-08-22T11:00:00.000-05:00

We have been here for over a week now so our laundry has really started to pile up! After not doing so good on the “Pila” (Honduran washing machine) we decided we would have to figure out another way to do laundry. Our landlord has so graciously agreed to purchase a washing machine for us, but we had to do something in the mean time. After asking around, we discovered that there was a laundry mat right around corner from our house. Desperate for some clean towels, we decided to check it out. We stuffed all our laundry in a big bag (as instructed) and took off.

The place looked good, about 5 washer and dryers sets were in the large room. When we first walked in, I noticed that they had Psalm 91 (in Spanish) taped on the wall...that was pretty cool since that is the passage we read every morning-praying for protection! The workers told us that it would be 6 lempira per pound to wash, dry, and fold the clothes. They would even neatly place them all back in the bag for easy transporting. Of course, Greg asked for a discount since we had about 30 pounds of clothes and fortunately for us, they agreed to give us 10% off. I asked them to have the towels ready to be picked up later in the evening, but the rest could wait until tomorrow. However, when we returned to get them around 6pm (only a few hours after we dropped it off), they were completely finished washing all of the clothes. We were quite impressed! The best part was when we got home and I was able to put away 30 pounds of clean, folded clothes without lifting a finger! This is one cultural difference that I could definitely get used to!

On the other hand, we had another cultural experience today that didn’t turn out as well. We decided to get out of the house and have dinner at a nearby restaurant. Alex, our landlord’s semi-bilingual 9 year old son joined us as well. We had eaten at Senorial previously while visiting Comayagua, and really enjoyed their typical Honduran cuisine. However, when we dined at the restaurant previously (during mission trips), a Spanish speaker from the group would always order the same plate for everyone. Now, it would be up to us to read the menu and decide for ourselves. Alex did his best to help us, however, some words were definitely lost along the way. So, we took a deep breath and ordered. I ordered the grilled chicken served with typical Honduran sides (rice, beans, eggs, tortillas, cheese) and Greg asked for a chicken empanada. Well, at least that is what we thought we ordered. Mine turned out to be pan fried chicken with toast, salad, rice and french fries and poor Greg ended up with breaded, deep fried chicken and the same sides (definitely not an empanada). Not quite what we were expecting to say the least! We just chalked it for another reason that we need to learn Spanish!

Week one down!

2007-08-20T10:18:00.000-05:00

What a great weekend! We got a fabulous introduction to Honduras cooking, family style, on Friday night. The family that owns our apartment (and lives below us) invited us over for a family dinner (grandparents, cousins, uncles, aunts, the whole gang!) It was delicious! They grilled 3 or 4 kinds of meat - the chorizo and pork were our favorites. The meat was accompanied by tortillas, avocado, salsa, beans, corn on the cob and cheese. I made some brownies with the help of Alex (our landlord´s son). We had to bake them in their house though since we don´t have an oven! They enjoyed them!

We spent Saturday with the group from Chicago. We began the day with devotions then did a tour of the new female group home. It is a place for the emotionally and mentally disturbed girls and women to live in order to get some special attention. They currently have 6 girls living in the home and two tias (care takers). Be thankful for all you have.

After visiting the house, we headed over to the construction site where we moved approximately 1000 bricks (about 25 pounds each) from the ground to the top of a two story building! It was quite a feat, but we did it! Needless to say, we were quite sore the next day! After refueling with some Wendy´s, it was time for the boy´s soccer game. There were several of us at the girl´s orphanage with no vehicle. Mario (one of the older orphans in college) suggested that we take the bus. I was adamantly against it from the horror stories that I heard. Worst of all, we would have to walk through the neighborhood outside of the girl´s orphanage to get to the bus stop. (My first time here two years ago, I was warned NEVER to walk in that neighborhood). So, after much nagging and begging and against my better judgement, I was somehow convinced that it would be okay to move forward with this plan. So, Greg and I, 2 junior high boys, another American girl, and Mario...or fearless Honduran guide...were off. By the grace of God (I truly mean that) we made it safely to the farm. There we met with the rest of the boys that would be playing in the game. We prepared to load up to head out, and realized, there was no vehicle for us to take! Again, we were forced to ride the city bus! I did feel a little better this time since there were about 15 Honduran boys with us, but nonetheless I was not happy about it! Finally we arrived in La Villa de San Antonio to play the futbol game! The boys wanted Greg play, and the other team allowed it! Greg was so excited to play in his first ´official´ Honduran soccer game! He was so fired up that he scored a goal and had an assist! The boys in yellow, the orphans, won 7-3. It was a great game! Fortunately for us (well, me at least) the rest of the group met us at the game. That meant NO MORE BUS!!! I was excited! Greg also was excited because he was given the keys to a brand new Toyota Hilux to drive the kids back to the orphanage! This would mark his first time driving in Honduras (I swear, they should require a special clearance to drive here. There are COMPLETELY different rules ....or maybe the problem is that they don´t have any rules...who knows!) Anyway, so with 6 people in the front, and rest of the boys in the truck bed, we headed back to the farm. Greg did a great job driving, and actually got a little too comfortable and started passing cars and speeding. We were so exhausted when we finally got home that we decided to just go to bed! We had a big day coming!

We met the our landlords and their family at 7am to depart for San Pedro Sula. Neither of us had been there before, so Greg and I were excited. I was really surprised that the little ones don´t have to ride in car seats here. The 18 month baby that was with us rode up front with her mom. Occasionally, she would lay on the floor, or jump into the back seat for a change of scenery. It scared me at first, but then I got used to it - it is their custom here! It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive, but we stopped halfway to get some breakfast. They ordered us a typical Honduran meal (eggs, avocado, fresh butter, a slab of meat, beans, and huge fluffy tortillas) and coffee with fresh cream. It was super tasty! On the way, the family taught us new Spanish words and we helped them practice their English. (Funny story...I will have to tell you later!) After much anticipation, we finally arrived at Zizima, a new water park in San Pedro! It cost L150 per person to get in (about $7.50). The park had water body slides, inter tube slides, a wave pool, a lazy river, a children´s area, lots or refreshments and a cabana area. We had a great time!

We headed back to Comayagua around 4:00pm. On the way, we stopped at one of their favorite seafood restaurants, Power Fish. It is located right on Yahoa Lake and had a beautiful view! As always, the family ordered for us - but we got somewhat of an idea what we would be eating when they opened up cooler to selected the fish they wanted to have cooked. After a few minutes of waiting, they presented us with our meals. The plate contained an entire deep fried fish (eyes, fins, skin and all) accompanied by some plantain chips. The family taught us to peel back the skin of the fish, season with a little lime and salt, then dig out the meat with our fingers (Greg and I used forks). After I got past the fact that there was a whole deep fried fish on my plate staring at me, I finally decided to dig in. Greg and I both really enjoyed it! Once we had skinned and consumed one side, we flipped it over and dug in to the other side. I was proud of myself for participating in this new experience! :) We were all exhausted by the time we got home around 8:00, bedtime came about 30 minutes later! It was a wonderful day, and a great ending to our first week here!

Greg and I are so thankful for the wonderful people God has put in our lives here. The family here has been so generous and kind to take us in and treat us like family...and we have only been here for 1 week! They are truly good people! We want to always remember how open and inviting they have been to us and treat others the same way. We have seen God through their actions this week and are extremely grateful! And don´t worry, we won´t taking the bus or walking through the girl´s orphanage neighborhood anymore!

Psalm 91

2007-08-20T10:13:00.000-05:00

This is our daily prayer for protection. We have committed to saying it every day, asking the Lord to keep us safe in all that we do. Several of our friends and family join us by also reciting it on a daily basis. Connect with us by saying it too! Thank you for your continued prayers and encouragement!

Psalm 91 1-13
You who sit down in the High God's presence, spend the night in Shaddai's shadow, Say this:

"God, you're my refuge. I trust in you and I'm safe!" That's right—he rescues you from hidden traps, shields you from deadly hazards. His huge outstretched arms protect you— under them you're perfectly safe; his arms fend off all harm. Fear nothing—not wild wolves in the night, not flying arrows in the day, Not disease that prowls through the darkness, not disaster that erupts at high noon. Even though others succumb all around, drop like flies right and left, no harm will even graze you. You'll stand untouched, watch it all from a distance, watch the wicked turn into corpses. Yes, because God's your refuge, the High God your very own home, Evil can't get close to you, harm can't get through the door. He ordered his angels to guard you wherever you go. If you stumble, they'll catch you; their job is to keep you from falling. You'll walk unharmed among lions and snakes, and kick young lions and serpents from the path. 14-16 "If you'll hold on to me for dear life," says God, "I'll get you out of any trouble. I'll give you the best of care if you'll only get to know and trust me. Call me and I'll answer, be at your side in bad times; I'll rescue you, then throw you a party. I'll give you a long life, give you a long drink of salvation!"

The Message Bible
www.biblegateway.com

God continues to provide!

2007-08-17T12:29:00.000-05:00

We definitely slept better last night – thank heavens! We spent most of the day at the school today (Wednesday) from about 8:00am to 2:30pm. We learned more about the requirements for our classes, got some instruction from fellow teachers, and received our classroom supplies.

Here is what each teacher received:
1 glue stick
1 dry erase marker (which I learned that when it dies, I just exchange it for another one) l
1 pencil
1 eraser
1 black pen
1 red pen
1 tube of white out
1 one subject notebook
1 pair of scissors
1 set of rulers
1 dry eraser

The last three items on the list must be turned it at the end of the year, as they will reuse them. The librarian, Micha (pronounced Meecha) generously snuck a manual pencil sharpener in my plastic bag of supplies. She made me promise not to tell anyone she gave it to me though…not even Greg. I will be really impressed with myself if I don’t loose ½ of the supplies by next week. Well, maybe I’ll be more careful since I only have 1 of each item (or I’ll just steal Greg’s).

Our two foot wide closet and 2 drawers!

We finally had some time this afternoon to actually unpack! All of our luggage is officially empty! Although we don’t know where to find anything, we at least have it all put away! With only 1 armoire (think small), 2 drawers, and 3 shelves I must say that I really impressed myself by packing all our stuff into those tiny places! (Greg just happened to be really tired and in need of a nap when I mentioned the word unpack.)

Our three shelves...view from living room. Our bedroom is to the right.

Later this afternoon, Greg ran into our landlord, Alejandra (the mother of one of my future 4th grade students) and asked her up to our apartment to help us with our phone. It has a dial tone, but we cannot make phone calls (and no, people can’t call us because we don’t know the number…so we can’t give it out!) Of course, we got nowhere with that except that we will have to go to the Hondutel (phone company’s office) to find out the problem. However, she did give me lesson in washing clothes…Honduran style! We are very fortunate (no…that isn’t sarcasm in my voice!) to have our very own Honduran washing apparatus (see photo). What you do is fill the concrete basin (on the left) with water until it is nearly full. Next, take an article of clothing and place it on the left side where the built in scrubbing board is located. Wet the shirt by filling the bucket with water from the filled basin and emptying it on the piece of clothing. Then use the handheld detergent bar to lather up the article of clothing along the rough area of the scrubbing board. After a few minutes of scrubbing, rinse the piece of clothing with water (again from the basin reserve), ring out several times, then hang on the clothes line. Alejandra reminded me to spend extra time and work extra hard on the ‘armpit’ area of the shirts…as stink tends to build up in that area…especially in this weather! After she left, I did a couple more clothing pieces, then called it a day. I’m sure I’ll be back to do more tomorrow while the water is still semi-fresh as I was informed that you only drain and refill the water contained in the basin once a week (remember…it is outside and uncovered!)

Following that new experience, we joined Alan and the group at Mang Ying for dinner. It was great to be in the company of fellow Americans and learn about their path to Honduras. God continues to connect us with people here as while we were at dinner we met the Chaplain at the church on the base! He was having dinner with a young woman that we met yesterday at the school (she was there looking for a job). We recognized each other and she invited us over to meet her dining companions. The Chaplain said that he can get us clearance to enter the base on Sunday’s for church! We are very excited! It is so amazing how God keeps leading us to people that can help us! He truly is taking care of our every need! It is really cool to see His hand in everything! Greg and I pray that we continue to rely on the Lord everyday no matter where we are as much as we do while we are here! We were discussing earlier today how it is so easy to give yourself credit for the things that you have (I worked and made money, so I provided this food for myself! Or, I went to college and got this education, so I was offered this job because I deserve it!) Here, we are so unsure of everything that we have really have to rely on God to be our supply. We know He will not let us down!

Dia Tres

2007-08-17T12:24:00.000-05:00

I can’t believe day 3 is already here! Time sure goes by quickly! A lot has happened in the past 48 hours! Greg and I had a tough time sleeping our first night here (due to several things…heat, scratchy sheets, a new environment, excitement, etc.) Fortunately, we were able to sneak a nap in later in the afternoon to make up for it a least a little! We got up at 6am and took to the streets in search of coffee. About two steps down the street we ran into a school girl who informed us there shops will not open until at least 8! Going on adrenaline, we decided to plug on! We walked around for about an hour and a half checking out the neighborhood and learning our surroundings. We headed to the school at about 7:45am as we needed to be there by 8:00am to begin. Once we arrived, we were greeted by the other teachers where we sang praise songs and had a brief Bible lesson (too bad all Greg and I could understand was Jesu Cristo!) Next, we met with one of the administrators, Norma, so she could go over some basics with us. She gave us more information about the subjects we will teach and sent us to the library to pick up our text books. We headed back to our apartment at around 10:00am. We dropped off our stuff, had a snack, the decided to do some more exploring. We also dropped by the Hotel Quan to see if we could meet with Alan, the head of All God’s Children (one of the organization’s that supports the Hogar de Ninos.) No luck, but we left a note for him, saying that we would come by later in the day.

Next task, get cell phones. We hiked over to the mall, only have a break down in communication with the saleswomen. They didn’t speak English, we don’t speak Spanish. We decided that it would probably be in our best interest to come back the next day with a local to make sure we weren’t getting ripped off! We then went across the street for a delicious meal at the La Casita Asado (a cute little Log Cabin restaurant that serves tasty barbequed meat with about 4 side dishes…all for only L60 (about $3)!

Later in the day we ended up meeting us with Alan. He invited us to have dinner with the group on Wednesday night – so we planned to meet then at Mang Ying for some good eats (and Gringo company!) For dinner, we headed over to Bill’s condo. He cooked up some yummy spaghetti and shrimp followed by some Kraft cheese and crackers. He also loaded us up with about 2 grocery bags full of “American” food that he purchased at the base! The prized item….real butter! Sure, all the packages in the supermarket say ‘Natural Butter’ but what they really mean is margarine! We were thrilled that Bill was so kind to fill our fridge and pantry with some items that reminded us of home! We are very thankful to have met him, as he has done so much for us already! Oh, and I can’t leave out one other important staple he provided for us…a coffee pot! He gave us his, complete with filters and some beans! He said he’d just pick up a new one at the post! Our life here is improving everyday!

We Have Arrived!

2007-08-14T17:46:00.000-05:00

Comayagua, Honduras officially has two more gringos! We are exhausted, but I really wanted to jot down today’s experiences. I am writing this from our new apartment…pictures soon we promise! It is located on the second level of a typical house, the owners live on the first floor. The stairs are quite steep and uneven, chances I will definitely be taking a spill down that at some time or another! Come to think of it, I actually fell up then on my first time using them – won’t be the last time I am sure!

Anyway, so Greg and I met in Miami yesterday (he was coming from Los Angeles after his final regular season game and I came from Ohio) for our last night in the Estados Unidos for a while. We had a nice dinner then headed back to the Springhill Suites to relax for the rest of the evening. We woke up this morning, both us in disbelief that we were actually moving to Honduras today! To be honest, it still hasn’t hit us! All went well at the airport in Miami this morning, our suitcases equaled 49, 50, 50, and 52 in weight after we did some major adjusting and shuffling items into our carry-ons.

We boarded the airplane right on time and at 1:40pm, we were off to Tegucigapla. There were definitely less than a handful of gringos on the plane (including us) but we just so happened to be assigned seats next to a fellow American. We got to talking with him, and he is a working as a contracted project manager on the military base in Comayagua. (½ American and ½ Honduran). He was extremely insightful, gave us his contact information, and even offered to try and get us clearance to have privileges on the base. We knew it wasn’t a coincidence that we met him – God continues to be faithful as he has since we decided to follow his call.

Upon arriving in Tegucigalpa got through customs with no problems. We grabbed our bags then were off to the waiting area to meet the school representatives picking us up. I was so excited because they were holding a sign with our names on it! I have never experienced that before, so I felt pretty special! There to meet us were Pastor Trundle (principal) and his two children (Eduardo and Nicole) and the school administrator, Loyda. We loaded up the vehicles and were Comayagua bound! Greg and I rode with Pastor Trundle so he could bring us up to speed on the game plan for the next few weeks (school doesn’t start until August 27). I found out that I will be teaching 4th grade homeroom. He said I will be very busy with a full schedule and will be teaching a new Language Arts program that incorporates grammar, spelling and reading. I am excited as I really enjoy those subjects – I do have a degree in Communications! Greg learned that he will be teaching algebra and geometry. However, Pastor Trundle asked if he would be comfortable teaching physics instead as that is an area of need for the school. Greg agreed to look at a text book to be sure he felt confident that he could do it, but is up for the challenge either way! He also expressed and interest in teaching physical education, and discovered that there is need for a teacher in the subject! So looks like he may be teaching physics and PE! We are both so excited! We also learned that there will be 8 more missionaries coming. Greg and I are the first 2 to arrive, and the more will be here on Wednesday.
We finally arrived in Comayagua around 4:30pm. We came straight to our apartment after a brief tour of the town. (We drove by the Hogar de Ninos – orphanage!) Our apartment has a bedroom, kitchen, sitting area and office. It is a nice place, but will take a little time to get used to. We definitely have to but some Bice touches on make if feel more ‘homey.’ I am sure you will hear a lot more about our humble abode as days go by! J I can already tell you that storage space is going to be an issue! (That’s just part of the adventure though, right!?)

After dropping off our stuff at the apartment, Loyda shared that as a welcome to us, they would take us to the Supermercado Jumbo to pick up groceries and other necessities….on them! Before we were off though, Pastor Trundle a work of prayer – it was very kind and we really appreciated his kind words. Next, we loaded up the truck and Greg, Loyda and I were off to the store. That was quite an experience! J I had no idea really what we needed, since we had only been in our apartment for a short time! We got some cleaning supplies, paper products and laundry soap then headed for the food! Again, not knowing what were really needed, we picked up a random plethora of groceries. I was quite proud of myself though as I was able to spot the only organic item in the place – of course I bought it! Ragu spaghetti sauce – certified Organic! J We bought brand names we recognized as much as possible and did our best to read the nutrition facts and ingredients (most of them were in Spanish, and some items didn’t even have them at all!) I am sure some trans fat snuck into our cart somehow, but ignorance is bliss! Oh, and I am about 90% sure we bought whole milk (we normally drink 1%). 5,250 Lempira later, we were outta there! (Approximately $280 US dollars) I felt sorta bad letting them pick up the tab for the hefty spending spree, but Loyda assured me that it was fine and they were happy to do so! She encouraged us to take advantage of the opportunity as it only happens once! Oh, and while we were there, we met 2 other teachers (locals).

Loyda then took us to Mendel’s so we could purchase some sheets for our sweet double bed. We found some for 585 Limps (around $30) so we grabbed ‘em. We walked back to our apartment (about 7 blocks…1 block makes up 2-3 city blocks in America). It was getting dark and everything was closing by that time. We tried to stop at an Internet Café so we could notify the fam that we made it here safely, but unfortunately, it was closed. So with no other options, we decided to head home and start unpacking. I did my best to clean the kitchen and organize the appliances (blender, toaster and electric burners) and cupboards (again, we have minimal storage space). Greg toasted up some grilled cheese sandwiches, and then the unpacking started! Well, sort of. I got out most of our toiletries, emptied our carry ons and electronics, then decided I was worn out! I wanted to record today’s events, so I sat down and just started typing! It is now about 9:45pm (11:45pm in the states) and I think I am going to call it a night! Greg has been reading in bed, and has already warned me that the sheets are quite itchy – I can’t wait! hehehe! We have to be at the school tomorrow morning at 8 am…I look forward to what day 2 will bring!

Good night!

The Farewell Tour

2007-08-08T14:26:00.000-05:00

Wow...only 4 days until lift off! Crazy! It is unbelievable how fast time flies! Fortunately, much progress has been made since we last blogged. One major occurrence - we closed on our house in North Carolina! Yeah! Not that we know any of the details since the buyer insisted on having the closing at 10:00am (our flight arrived in Raleigh from Austin at 11:15am) and they were not willing to make an exceptions. All we know is that the money was wired to our account, so we assume that everything worked out! It has been over a week now since the closing and we haven't heard anything. You know what they say, no news is good news!

We have been in Ohio since Wednesday, August 1. It has been great to spend time with this side of the family and see our Midwestern friends. The family had a going away party for us in Columbus on Sunday and since then we have been making the rounds in Darke County. We found a storage unit and have been slowly but surely filling it with the few belongings we have left to our name. A special thanks to Stephanie for all of your help in getting us organized! :) Also since we last wrote, Greg's lacrosse team (Los Angeles Riptide) made the playoffs!

So, as I was laying in bed last night (well, every night for the past few weeks for that matter), feeling as if my body had been brutally abused (due to all of the grease I consumed at the state fair earlier that evening) when I finally realized why so many artists and bands do it! Do what you ask? The Farewell Tour....then The Farewell Tour 2, The Farewell Tour One More Time, then The Final Farewell Tour...and on and on...you get the point. Basically, one decides that this will be their 'last hurrah' or their 'final mission' before going separate ways, or parting to embark on new challenges only to discover that they just had the time of their life, and they must do it again! I mean, honestly, I used to make fun of Cher who has had at least a dozen Farewell Tours over the years, but now, I must apologize for those snide remarks as I understand her desire to want to wear the feathered wig just one more time! I mean, what is not to love about life right now! Since July 7, we have been straight up nomads. Traveling from state to state with not much more that the clothes on our back telling ourselves that we have to do this or we must do that because we don't know how long it will be until we get the opportunity to do it again! We could definitely get used to this lifestyle...fortunately for our family and friends across the family (who we have been living with), we do have booked airline tickets marking the official end to the tour. We could start a 'Welcome Back Tour' though when we return.....

Thanks to all of you who have done so much for use and made our Farewell Tour so much fun!

God Blessed Texas

2007-07-10T22:48:00.000-05:00

We are in Texas! Time to get fat. Seriously. Burgers, Mexican, Barbecue - the triple threat. It has been great trying to build up a fat reserve for Honduras. We have been spending time with the fam, the original Bicecreams, splitting time between Austin and San Antonio. What does spending time with the Bice fam include? Babysitting our newest edition, Courtney - 4 months, wrestling with the bros (Billy, Tommy, Andrew and Zach), eating, and trying to keep up with Mom who definitely has adult onset ADD. When we said wrestle with the bros, we actually meant completely dominate them..."Go to sleep or I will put you to sleep!" Everything has been good as to be expected as Texas is the best place on earth...

We are currently trying to figure out what to take with us to Honduras, and this means Greg has been giving the "Needs vs. Wants" lecture on a daily basis. Why can't Emily understand that we do not need to have candles, toe nail polish, our wedding album, and her entire wardrobe, of which most of her "outfits" have not been worn in years! On the other hand, Greg can find an argument to defend that nearly every suggested packing item (SPI) is a want (he somehow was able to even create a case against bringing deodorant...have you seen how much he sweats?) At this point, we have agreed on about 4 SPI's...sunscreen, bug spray, wristwatch, and a backpack. At least our skin will be protected, we will always know the time, and we will have a place to store our prized possessions. With only 19 days to go, we better get a move on in creating the SPI list! Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

With only 7 days left in Texas (three of which will be spent in LA), we are rushing around trying to tie up any loose ends. We have been attempting to get our permanent residency changed to Texas....which involves securing new Driver's Licenses, changing our mailing address (with the USPS, bank, etc.), transferring/canceling bills....and most importantly, memorizing our new address! So far, we have knocked off a couple of the tasks, but still have more to go. Speaking of, we better get a move on!

The Final Countdown

2007-07-05T15:08:00.000-05:00

HERE WE COME!

39 days until the BIG MOVE! This week marks our last official week of work in United States. Then, after a series of cross-country excursions (Massachusetts, North Carolina, Texas, California, Texas, North Carolina, Washington D.C., North Carolina, Texas, Ohio, Florida...in that order...and those are only the trips the Bice's are taking together) we will depart for our much anticipated relocation to Honduras.

We spent the past five days selling off our furniture (by Tuesday afternoon we started a buy two items, get one free policy), boxing stuff for goodwill, trashing lots of junk, and sending whatever was left in a trailer bound for Ohio. During that whole process, it became evident how stressful 'stuff' really is! There is a sense of freedom that comes with getting rid of things. At least for now...until I reach for something I need and realize the family two doors down now own it. Oh well! All the big stuff is gone, now it is just a matter of collecting the few things we have left laying around and preparing them for the road trip ahead.

We are sleep deprived and a little stressed, but have one more thing checked off the to do list! Thanks to all of you who helped us!