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!
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Party like it´s 2008!
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 nee
ded – 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 the
y 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 comi
ng! 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!
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 nee
ded – 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 the
y 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 comi
ng! 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!
Monday, January 7, 2008
Long Time No Write!
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!
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!
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