Gato Prohibido!

Well today was a whirlwind of activity and excitement. We woke up and went to the school and saw J's classroom and E's office, both of them need some sprucing up but we think it will be fun to start working on making the spaces ours. Both kids spent some time in the daycare and were a bit slow to warm up but having three great daycare staff all to themselves ended up making all the difference and by the time we came to get them they wanted to stay! We found an apartment that looks good (more on that tomorrow) had some orientation meetings and then went to the mall food court for lunch. The mall is more like an amusement park here than a mall!

When we were returning our group got a call from the hotel... turns out one of our fellow teaching couples was hiding their cat in the hotel room... the cat was discovered and kicked out! Gato Prohibido! In the end they were allowed to stay in one of the adjacent apartment like dwellings but for a couple of hours we all thought that they were going to be kicked out of the Honduras Maya all together.

After that we all spent some time relaxing at the pool and having a few Salva Vidas (Decent Honduran Beers) and then we went to one of the High School Principals houses for Pizza. The Pizza "Place" was classic! It looked like a family converted the area in front of their house into a pizza cooking area and now they make great pizza. It was enjoyed by all!!

Oh Yeah I almost forgot we are in the paper!!! Link to the article in the Sonoma West Times.

Arrival!

We have arrived in Tegucigalpa! After a couple of long flights we were picked up by the school and taken to the Honduras Maya. The Maya is certainly a very nice hotel in Honduras and we love the pool! Tonight we are having dinner with about 20 people... new staff and school people, should be fun.

The kids did great on the airplanes and all in all the travel went pretty smoothly. Here are some pictures of us in transit. We have yet to see the school but the staff that we have met so far are all pretty awesome!

La Caja China and Travel Day!

The Caja China is the coolest way to cook a pig!  We borrowed this one form Paul Schroeder at Monti's Rotisserie in Santa Rosa.  We were able to cook our pig from Gleason Ranch in about four hours.  It came out perfect! (Thanks Malcolm)

It is such a luxury to have the opportunity to eat a pig that was raised locally in such a sustainable way.  Not only did it taste better than any pork that I have ever had but we felt better eating it!  Check out Nancy at Gleason Ranch www.gleasonranch.com

Nancy Rocks!

The going away party was awesome and thanks to all who came and made us feel so loved.  It is so nice to have such special friends who we will miss so much.

Straight from the party we left the house we were staying at and came over to Jennie's parents house to stage and pack all our luggage.  Today we get everything packed up and we all will head for San Francisco for dinner before our 11:59pm flight!  Excited is an understatement. 

Third World Ready!

I know that referring to other nations, especially nations that are perceived as being less developed, as third world is not very politically correct, but the titles "Non-Western Ready!" or "Newly Industrialized Country Ready!" or "Developing Country Ready!" were not as catchy...

This is what has come our way in the last 2 weeks...

1. Our daughter came down with a significant fever and cough 2 weeks ago. From our doctor, we learned that influenza is not going around these days, and if a patient presents these symptoms, it's H1N1. Yes, Swine Flu. It only lasted about 4 days, and then she was well again. Thank goodness we took the opportunity to get out and hike Mt. Tam the day after she was better because the next day, our son came down with it and it lasted 7 days. What a drag.... we were so excited about out last few weeks in Sebastopol where we would get together with friends, ride bikes around town, and generally enjoy our last few weeks here in pure West County style. But we were quarantining our kids and Eric and I were sucking down Maitake mushroom immunity booster from Selena. (THANK YOU Selena... that stuff saved us!) I am really glad that our kids got it here and not there. I know that when we initially move, I will most likely be hyper-vigilant and paranoid about any sniffle, cough, insect bite, fever, bout of diarrhea, etc. that they come down with.

So - check H1N1 off the list!

2. Presidential ousting. Not much needs to be said about this one... we've covered it already in previous postings.

Check political instability off the list!


So, yes - we plan on getting on the plane on July 28. By the way, when we board the plane in San Francisco on the 28th, our daughter will be 3 and when we get off in Tegucigalpa on July 29, she will be 4. We have already told her that she will be having her b-day party on the plane. She's quite excited. I didn't think we would ever be able to top the b-day party we had for our son's 5th b-day at the fire station, but this one may rival it! No real candles though - we're thinking battery operated tealights and rice krispie treats.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to meet with Zelaya

Check out this speech, hopefully Secretary Clinton will before she meets with former president Zelaya today...

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Thanks Tom for your post

What's going on in Honduras?

This has been a crazy week for the country that we will shortly be calling home. The president Manuel Zelaya has been forcibly removed from power and exiled to Costa Rica. We all thought that political stability was one of the perks of living in Honduras, guess not. I am saddened by the international reaction to the events and outraged by how one sided and our news media has been. The USA seems intent on Zelaya returning to power. Apparently most of the population of Honduras is happy that he was removed, it is said that he broke the law and that his removal from office was legal. It is shaping up to be a big mess. My biggest concern is how Honduras will cope with the loss in World Bank funding, local trade sanctions, and the loss of aid. Honduras is already very poor. How will making the people of Honduras any poorer help anything?

So, what does this mean for us?
We still are planning to move to Honduras. This is scary, yes. Dangerous? doesn't seem so at this time. We refuse to be governed by Fear and will not drop this dream for a bit of political drama.

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be

We are exactly a month away from leaving and I have been thinking a lot about our move. So hard to imagine what our life will be like there. I can imagine what our jobs might be like (because we have had them here), I can slightly imagine what our home might be like (because we had one here), I can kind of imagine shopping for food and things at the market (because I have done that here). But all the in-betweens are really hard to imagine. The city of Tegucigalpa? Never been there - can't imagine it. Having to communicate in Spanish with someone who does not know English? I haven't done that in 12 years - a little nervous about that one. How we get around the city? I have always had a car and the freedoms that a car brings.

SO... where does that leave me? It leaves me feeling really nostalgic about all the comforts I am enjoying here. Bear with me, but I am going to brainstorm a list here of all the things I love about Sebastopol, in no particular order...

1. Farmer's Market on Sunday morning - Javier's goat cheese, Hector's honey, torpedo onions, kale, peaches, Paul's smoked salmon, heirloom tomatoes

2. Living within walking distance from one set of grandparents and a 10 minutes drive to another grandpa

3. My dog, Milo

4. Going to the market for a quick shopping trip and having it take a half hour because I keep running into people I know

5. My colorful neighborhood - Maureen's purple house, Rick's chili van, kids flying down the hill on a skate board, roller blades, or bicycle

6. Our great community of friends

7. The sound of a red tail hawk

8. My Friend Joe's

9. The smell of rose geranium in my garden

10. Lagunitas IPA

Feel free to add to the list, I am sure I left out a lot.

I guess my reason for getting all these things out of my head is to acknowledge them for the important and great things that they are and then realize that all of these things will have substitutes in Tegucigalpa. Of course, grandparents, great friends or a dog can never be replaced, but all those other in-betweens can. I'm sure we'll find a new favorite restaurant, place for coffee, new smells and sounds. But for now, I can only appreciate these things now and savor every last one of them before we go.

Preparation Update

We are quickly ramping up our preparation for our departure to Tegus. Our plan is to take the summer off and travel and visit family during June and July before we leave the country at the end of July. We have to be out of our house by June first and we are spending most of our time doing the odd house repairs and maintenance that we have been neglecting to do. It is sort of funny that we are motivated to do all this work to our house and we are not even going to be living there.

Garage sales are such an amazing event. We had our first one a couple of weeks ago and it was crazy! It seems like the entire community comes out to these events. We figured that our sale was especially good because we are not just selling the stuff we do not want anymore but we are selling cool stuff that still like.

Having a garage sale has reminded us how cluttered our lives had become. For some reason we tend to accumulate stuff in our society, stuff that we don't actually need. Children tend to exaggerate the stuff accumulation. All that stuff creates a clutter problem and the clutter tends to take over. It is nice to get a leg up on all that clutter. I am imagining that our lives in Honduras will be simpler on many levels and hopefully less cluttered!

Next job: Paint the picket fence!