Christmas in Hondu

I would like to mention some important things about my Christmas:

* This is me with my roommate Catherine.

* I had an AWESOME stocking from my mom, and Catherine and I also exchanged presents, which was lots of fun, although definitely not the same as being at home. Catherine's dad is here visiting too, which is fun.

* We had coffee with Bailey's for breakfast, and we had french toast. It was a wonderful morning, until I started feeling sick to my stomach. I decided to ignore it, and we went to the beach to chill out for a while.

* While at the beach, we saw two jellyfish in the water, that were heading straight for us, so we screamed like little girls and ran out of the water! Then, as I went to suntan, I suddenly felt the urge to throw up. So I did. All that great breakfast, down the drain!

* I got to talk to my entire family on skype, and to Sarah on msn. It was SO NICE to hear from loved ones

* The rest of the day I didn't eat, and I ate "Christmas Dinner", but hardly ate any. We had a pretty good dinner, corn from a can, mashed potatoes from a box, cranberry sauce, carrots, Stove Top stuffing, green olives, and...sausage! We wanted chicken, but couldn't find ANY CHICKEN in our whole village. All in all, a good meal.

* It was sad to be away from family, but at least I had other English speakers to be with. We listened to Christmas music on the computer all night. It was very relaxing.

Thank you to all who wrote me notes of encouragement, emails, etc... I really appreciated them. Aaron Hoos, thanks a ton! You really encouraged me on a day when I really needed it!

This is the scorpion that Catherine's dad killed this morning...AFTER IT STUNG ME ON THE WRIST. It hurt like a bugger. Now I can officially say that I have been stung by a scorpion, and survived to tell the tale! Don't worry mom, I'm fine!

Feliz Navidad!

Merry Christmas from my side of the world.
This is my beach. It is so gorgeous. I went swimming all by myself yesterday, and I had a really good time relaxing. Today I made homemade chocolate chip cookies, just like home.

I saw the Nativity movie in the city. It was very good. It is hard to think about Christmas sometimes and remember the real reason. I mean, it is easy, but hard. Because it is always easier with family. This year I have to equate Christmas with CHRIST ALONE. All the trappings are gone. Just me and him. I hope you have a good Christmas.

Have you ever been to a real volcano?

This is lava! Yesterday me and my roommate Catherine hiked up a volcano (with a tour) in Guatemala...the volcano is called Pacaya. This is real lava...that has been hardened and stuff. It is really really cool...and there was heat coming up from it and everything. And there was this one part, where you could look into the crevice, and there, like three feet below where my feet were, there was red hot molten lava! It was such a cool experience...definitely not something you see everyday.

This is the view from the lava crater. The dark part is the lava, and the rest of the mountain, and then there are just mountains and mountains in the distance. Pictures will never do it justice, but it was absolutely breathtaking. We were standing in the middle of a volcano, surrounded by clouds rushing over us. Wow.

This is me, standing amidst the lava. We had to wake up at 5:30am to go and do this, but it was definitely worth it. Worth every second of being out of shape during the climb (which was only 3km) to the top...for this unforgettable experience.

Today I took a bus for 15 hours. I´m back in Honduras. I loved Guatemala, but it´s nice to be back too! I think tomorrow I´m going home...to Ciriboya.

I HAVE A NEW NEPHEW!! Jonah Alexander Yang, born December 16, 2006, at 11:30pm. I haven´t seen pictures of him yet, but I can hardly wait. I am an auntie again!!

Merry Almost Christmas...

It's almost Christmas. I'm sad. I'm far away from my family and friends, and I want to come home. It doesn't seem like Christmas at all, except for the 100 versions of "feliz navidad" that I hear every day. I want to go home. To cold. To snow. And most important, to family. I am lonely here, even though I am with my roommate Catherine, who has been a great travel companion.
I am in Guatemala! This has been the last few days:

December 10: Left Ciriboya. It was POURING RAIN and we almost didn't make it out. We had to drive through rivers that were at least up to my waist, and the current was strong. I was scared we would get swept right off the road and into the river...but we didn't! Made it to La Ceiba, the city we always go to. It took us 7 hours.
December 11: Got on a bus to go to Guatemala. We got on the bus at 5am, and we got to the city of Guatemala at 8pm. Now count the hours...that is 15 hours on a bus. I was so tired of buses. But we weren't done yet. We got off the bus for like 15 minutes, and got on another bus to go to Antigua, which is the Old City of Guatemala. Another 1 hour on the bus! Had a late supper at an amazing restaurant, and finally felt like we were on vacation!
December 12: Woke up early and explored Antigua for the morning. It is a touristy place, with cool shops, awesome scenery, and quaint little coffee houses. Then got on ANOTHER bus to head to San Marcos, where we were visiting the CAUSE project there. This was another 7 hours on the bus...we didn't get there until midnight.
December 13: We left for Comitancillo, the little village where CAUSE is working. This was not bad, only an hour away, and it was in a car! Spent the day there...it is a cool little mountain village with awesome colors, typical dress, great cheap food, and a great cultural experience! Played basketball for the first time in months, and relaxed. It was a great day!
December 14: Spent another day in Comitancillo, soaking everything in! Went back to San Marcos at night, and hung out. It was a nice relaxing day, with not much travel.
December 15: Woke up at 4:30am. Got in the car at 5am. Drove to Mexico!! Yes, Mexico. We needed to cross the border to renew our passports, so we decided to just drive to Mexico for the day! A place called Tapachula, Chiapas. It was AWESOME! It made me want to go back to Mexico SO BADLY.
December 16: Got on ANOTHER bus, for another 7 hour bus ride back to Guatemala City. Oh my gosh, I'm so tired of buses! Stayed in a bed and breakfast in Guatemala City. Ate at McDonalds, it was so nice to have a Big Mac!
December 17: Today I have been touristy! We are back in Antigua, and am staying here today and tomorrow, just RELAXING. I am looking forward to writing A LOT in my journal, before my next long busride back to Honduras.

Anyway, that's my life in the past week! No pictures this time. But hope you enjoyed the update. Write me an email if you remember...I am very lonely this Christmas.

Geographic Differences...

Okay, so I wanted you to be able to picture my life a little bit more. This scene is what you see as you are walking into one of the main roads in town, coming off the ¨highway¨. Yes, this is the main road. Okay, so as you can plainly see, there are some differences between Ciriboya and Canada. In Canada, if it rained, you would simply walk on the sidewalk, and try and avoid the ¨puddles¨. Yes, I put puddles in quotation marks, because as you can clearly see, in comparison, the puddles in Canada just do not compare! So, in order for me to walk around this puddle and keep going, I know exactly what to do (I know this from many MANY times of doing the wrong thing, and falling in the mud and getting my feet and sandals all muddy and gross). I will NOT take the route to the left, although it looks promising, looks can be deceiving. It is actually a swamp, and I will get muddy for sure. No, if I want to continue on this road (which I do, because it´s the main road into Ciriboya) I have to cross on the right hand side. Someone has graciously placed a log across the water, which I have to precariously cross, so as not to fall in. Then, a little farther up, you can see another log, which also has to be crossed, and from there I can pick my way around the mud, until I come out clean on the other side!
This is life in the rainy season. No one tries to do anything about it, they just get creative and throw logs across the deeper puddles. It is SUCH a different life! I am ready for rainy season to be over. This morning at 4am we were waiting for the bus in the POURING rain, to go to the city, and my sweatshirt was SOAKED...like I could have wrung it out and drank it there was so much water! So this puddle isn´t going away anytime soon!

welcome to my life!

These are my friends. From left to right - Carina, Catherine, Rosy, and me. Carina works in the microcredit program, so I work with her everyday. She is very soft spoken, but once you get to know her, she has such a sense of humor. She lives in a one room house, that is made out of sticks and mud with a tin roof. NO JOKE. Sticks and mud. She doesn´t have a bathroom in her house yet, so whenever she has to use the facilities, she has to walk down the mountain to the store in town that her in-laws own. She has the BEST view of the ocean from her house. I will show it to you someday.

Catherine is my roommate, as you know. We get along great. God has blessed me with her, that is for sure.

Rosy, I´ve told you about. Her family is outrageous...I´ve never met a more giving family in my entire life. Two weeks ago we came to the city with her (she has 8 sisters, and 4 of them live in the city La Ceiba!) and we stayed in their house. We all went out for dinner for a going away party for Rory, and they were so generous...they lent me clothes to wear out, and everything. And then when I got back home to Ciriboya, I opened up my bag, and one of her sisters had given me two shirts. Just given them to me. Just for the heck of it. They had known me for two days. Wow. We have much to learn about life from these Garifunas.

The anticipated Pictures!

So here are the anticipated pictures. The progression from LIVING...

To DEAD (thankfully I wasn´t actually there for that part...I think I would have been scarred for life)

To being skinned (this is when I showed up...it was gross, it´s muscles were still twitching)

To who knows what...

To in the back of the truck, ready to take to Sandra´s house to cook. I know it looks disgusting, and it was disgusting to witness, but the meat the next day...MAN IT WAS GOOD!