Happy Thanksgiving!

            Just under 400 years ago, some brave souls left the Old World for the New World for better opportunity, a new start and the dream of riches.   They landed on the eastern shores of the New World in the cold of winter and these city slickers that had inhabited the Mayflower for nearly 3 months were now were faced with illness, lack of food, and inadequate shelter.  They were not farmers by trade and therefore were ill-prepared to farm in the poor soil of what we now know as New England.  These were the Pilgrims, or pelegrenos (according to my Spanish teacher).  They sought refuge in the kindness of strangers, the Wampanoag, to help them through the harsh winter.  These kind indigenous people taught them how to plant crops successfully, find ripe hunting grounds and prime berry patches.

             Jump to 2009.  An unassuming family of four from bucolic Northern California hops on an airplane to a foreign country.  Only seen on a map and on the wondrous internet, this family blindly sets up house in a large, Central American city.  With only work contracts and the hope of adventure, the family lands in the new world in the midst of political crisis and strife.  Poco a poco the family meets new people,  known as Hondurenos.  The Hondurenos take this family in and provide important information; like how to navigate a city where only 1% of the roads and streets actually named and how not to be afraid of men on motorcycles with huge shotguns - because after all - they are guards, not robbers.   In fact, we are feeling increasingly safe with the pervasive presence of weaponry.  Maybe that's not such a good thing, but I digress....  Over time, this North American family starts to feel more a part of the new world.

              Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  We have celebrated Thanksgiving twice already - the first was last Saturday at the high school principal's house.  We ate all the traditional foods.  Someone even made creamed green beans and broccoli with fried onions sprinkled on top.  I ate some, that was a first.  Yumm.  And as you can imagine, the principal lives in an outrageous neighborhood with a view of the city I had never seen.  I thought we had a great view from our 4th floor roost.  But this was amazing.  Wish I had my camera.

               The second Thanksgiving feast happened today.  Our school celebrated the first meal of the pelegrenos and the indios.  A little strange, if you ask me, that we are celebrating this event in Central America, but at this point I'm not going to complain about getting 2 days off of work.  From kindergarten to grade 12, each student in our school partook in the traditional feast of turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and corn bread.  The room moms organized each class's feast.  I wasn't sure how the kid's would respond to the food, but they went crazy for it!!  Our class ran out of turkey and my students were going to the other 4th grade classes to see if they had extra turkey!

The picture at the left is our Thanksgiving spread, with some room mothers dishing up the food.

Instead of pumpkin pie, we had turkey shaped shaped sugar cookies.

               So many Hondurenos have asked us if we will be celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow.  We will not be celebrating it in the traditional sense.  We haven't had a day off of work since Sept 18, so no, we will not be cooking a turkey tomorrow.  We are heading for the mountains of Nicaragua for some rest and relaxation at a beautiful coffee plantation.  We will, however be celebrating the spirit of Thanksgiving.  We are thankful for our health.  We are thankful for a roof over our heads and good food on the table (I won't rub it in that it is cooked by the maid).  We are thankful for a supportive family that didn't disown us when we told them we were leaving our cozy life in Sonoma County for the unknown life in a not-so-stable country.  (*NOTE: The presidential elections are on Sunday.  Keep your fingers crossed that all goes well.  Just remember not to double cross your fingers - that's bad luck.)  We are thankful for hope that Honduras will be able to return to "normal" and that the play-ground politics that have plagued this country for too long will give way to a more even handed government.

                We are also thankful for our family and all our friends who have kept in contact with us as we have chosen to travel so far from home and set up a life in a new place.  You may not know it, but even a little message from home goes a long way.

                GobbleGobble.

Quick Post

Today Linnea asked if she could wash the dishes in the sink.  She started sudsing up the dishes and she said "I'm washing dishes, just like our maid!"  Aaaaaahh, the perks of living in Central America.

Linnea at last week's pinata.  This one was for her friend, Diego.  Today, we went to another one for Hernan.  She loves pinatas.

 

Dempsey's futbol team finished in primer lugar.  Their final game was on Friday, they beat the Lions 7-1.  He has been wearing his medal all weekend.  He is already talking about signing up for Eagle League Basketball which starts in January. 

Last Friday, Dempsey was honored for his integrity.  Each teacher in the elemetary selected one child from class to be honored for one of the three values we have focused on since the beginning of the year; pride, integrity and loyalty.

Last week, we had a six day work week.  We had to work on Saturday to make up for all the days we have missed since school started (h1n1 and Mel Zelaya).  It was a long and tiring week, with 3 of Dempsey's futbol games after school, progress reports due, first quarter grades had to be entered into the new online grading system and writing assessments had to be scored and turned in on Friday.  We are glad to have only a 3 day week ahead of us.  Our plan is to go to Selva Negra in Nicaragua.  Check out www.selvanegra.com

The elections are next Sunday, November 29.  So far, things in the city have been calm and quiet.  We were planning on being gone the whole 4 day weekend and returning to Tegucigalpa on Sunday, but we have been warned that traffic getting into the city and all throughout the city will be messy because of all the people voting, so we decided to not take any chances and return on Saturday.  Keep your fingers crossed that things go smoothly on election day and this country will begin to mend the damage that has been done over the last few months and years. 

Thoughts on dogs

I though my dog barked a lot.

However... my dog Milo is a sweet, quiet, peaceful canine compared to the viscous beasts that live in our colonia.  Milo is the Marcel Marceau of dogs.  Yeah, High Street, take that.  I know you're thinking that you're happy that the black barker is gone, but do you know that he would be considered a horrible watch dog, a mute, by Central American standards?

The dogs here are loud.  They bark at all hours of the day and night.  No, I have not seen said beasts, but they have deep, throaty barks that only lead me to believe they are German Shepherds, Dobermans,  Rottweilers, or worse.  It's obvious when it's a foo-foo yapper making noise behind the wall, but when one of those 90+ pound dogs begins barking, you know it's a big dog.  

I have been missing Milo a lot lately.  He went to live with Kathleen, John and Shelby before we came south.  Our only collateral damage.  I am thankful beyond words that he lives with a great family that has a daughter that lets him sleep on her bed and eat cupcakes at her birthday party.  Well maybe she doesn't let Milo eat cupcakes at her party, but he sure did help himself to one.  And although I don't want Milo to be scaring any kids by stealing their cupcakes, I am glad that he in enjoying the pleasures of one.

This is a tribute to Milo and the 6 great years we spent with him...

Milo at his new home.

Milo in his old garden, literally laying in the garden bed.

Celebrating Milo's 6th birthday.  Yes, Milo is kissing him IN the mouth.  We really love this dog.

Linnea and Milo about 2 years ago.

Typical Milo.

Korzybski's Maxim

The scientist/philosopher to the left is Count Alfred Korzybski, the photo is from Life Magazine, 1944.  I have been thinking about this guy for the past few days...

Korzybski's maxim states "The map is not the territory".


I imagine that you were not expecting to read a post about a man who is considered the father of general semantics, but here it is...  I don't know about you but I am thinking that this guy is pretty cool.  He also said that a "word is not the thing."  He would start his lectures by banging on the table and shouting "Whatever this is, it is not a table!"
Cool, isn't it?

So why the post on this eccentric semanti-hipster?  Well, we have been looking for a good map of Tegucigalpa for a few months, they do not seem to exist.  We have used the google maps the iphone and whenever we do we get more lost!  Like the rest of the world Tegucigalpa refuses to be reduced to the simplicity of a map.  As we spend more time in the "real" Tegucigalpa we are creating a map of our own in our heads. Everyday we learn more and our new city feels more familiar.  Our mental representations are not the real Tegucigalpa of course... but as we are in Tegucigalpa, it seems that there is some Tegucigalpa in us.

Going to the fair - Honduras Style

Last Halloween (2008), L dressed up as a brown dog. This dog costume really must have spoken to her because she continued to wear the costume until April. She wore it downtown. She wore it on our bi-weekly (or tri-weekly) treks to My Friend Joe's. She wore it to the library, to the market, and to friend's houses. People would honk and wave at us as we walked down Main Street.

This costume not longer fits and we left it at home before we made the journey south. But Linnea has a new "dog costume". It is her Seleccion jersey. As if a little gringuita didn't already stand out in a crowd, she insists on wearing her jersey where ever we go on the weekends.

So, last Sunday, we headed to the fair. To the Feria Internacional del Caballo y la Cultura. Both kids donned their jerseys this day. It was just a short drive from our house. There were, of course, horses. Also carnival rides, food, beer, and a lot of REALLY loud music. I am just going to let the pictures speak for themselves.

Mel Zelaya??? (in white)

                            Fair Booty













NOTE: The Ferris Wheel is powered by an actual tractor and is held in place by railroad ties. No, we didn't let the kids ride on it.

Catch-up: Halloween

We are a little We are a little behind on getting pictures put up from our Halloween festivities. Although the school said that they were "scaling down" the Halloween party this year, I didn't notice. There was a parade and class parties. Dempsey and Linnea came home with gobs of candy, enough to last through Thanksgiving. We were invited by some neighbors (an American family) to go trick or treating in our neighborhood on Saturday night, with Marine escorts. We passed on the invitation, in part because our kids didn't need any more candy, and Eric and I were headed out to a Halloween party that night. But, I wanted to know, would the Marines be in costume? Camouflage? Mind you, I really don't think the escorts were necessary... sometimes the Embassy folks are a little over-cautious. They are very nice, but they freak me out a little.

Today is Thursday, and that is the day our maid goes across the hall to Colin and Elisa's house. She goes over to clean, do laundry, iron. This means we are on our own for dinner. But what is funny is that we can tell that she's been over to our place too, because our breakfast dishes are done and our beds are made. About cooking dinner, I really don't mind... cooking a couple nights a week isn't difficult at all. So tonight I dug up a recipe that my mom gave me years ago. It's spicy peanut noodles with shrimp. All ingredients were readily available at our usual grocery store... egg noodles, soy sauce, rice vinegar, cilantro, cucumbers, red and yellow pepper, peanuts, shrimp. The kids loved that we got to use chop sticks and slurp noodles. We also got to eat a meal that was familiar to home. I probably made this dish twice a month when we lived in Sebastopol.

I also think it is funny that, now that we are bloggers, we take pictures of ourselves eating dinner, then write about it to our friends. Life is strange...