Obligatory Smoke Post

Well, if you are a blogger in Honduras eventually you will write about the smoke.  We figured that we would be the type to always frame the challenges of living in a developing country in the most positive way possible.  It is always better to be positive right?  Well... you would not believe the smoke!  It pretty much sucks! How's that for positive?  Truth be told the fires are very beautiful at night.  Actually it is not that bad, you learn to deal with things that might have seemed out there but when you are faced with it... it's not really that much of a big deal.  We are happy, we have electricity, water, we are all healthy and tomorrow we all drive out of the smoke to the beach because we are on VACATION!!!

Obligatory before and after pictures:
It is hard to see the smoke but as a blogger in Honduras it is our duty...

Before:

After:

Celebratory Haiku!

Tomorrow's Friday

Semana Santa here we

come!  Sun waves beach fun

Father's Day in Honduras

March 19th marked Father's Day in Honduras.  Eric was quite busy visiting Dempsey and Linnea's classes last week.  Here are a few pictures to fill you in on the happenings...

D reading a book he wrote aloud to Papa.

L's gift to Eric

On Sunday, we went on a hike to Ecos de la Montana.  A short drive outside of the city, we go there about every other weekend to play, hike, eat, jump on the trampoline, etc.  Linnea spotted a rare black stallion and wanted to get a closer look.

Air plant that we found while hiking.

An old barn that is now used as housing for the staff.  You can't quite see it, but these plants are lantana, which grow easliy in Sebastopol.  

Our dinner in the restaurant.

Empty Bowls - Part 2 and a New King Bed

We went to the Empty Bowls fundraiser last Thursday night.  We purchased 2 masterpieces made by young, budding artists.  The green bowl is Dempsey's and the yellow and blue is Linnea's.  The Annie's pasta is only thrown in there because we were so excited to see it at the store the other day that we bought a bunch of boxes.

Here is another picture from the night...

There was a bit of a bed fiasco last weekend...Eric went across the city to El Hatillo to get a king size bed from some Americans who are moving back to the states.  He made arrangements with some guys from the school to use a truck to haul the bed back down the mountain and to our house.  About 20 minutes into the excursion, the truck broke down.  Phone calls were made, a mechanic was summoned, I was on call in case I needed to use our car to go pick him up from this aborted bed mission.  After they all waited three hours the mechanic was unable to fix the truck.  It turns out the truck was in pretty bad shape; low oil, no water, electrical problems etc....  It was decided that a school bus would be sent to pick them all up! Best part of it was that the school bus also went to pick up our new bed!  Beds do not exactly fit in the door of a school bus, but somehow they got it in and twenty minutes later...

Up comes the school bus and our new bed pops out of the emergency exit, good as new... well almost good as new.  Total time it takes to buy a new (used) bed here... just over 6 hours!

Empty Bowls - Part 1

Tomorrow after school, there will be an auction to raise money for Day Care centers in Nueva Suyapa, a colonia on our side of the city.  Each student in the school, from elementary to high school, made and glazed a ceramic bowl that will be sold for 100 lempiras (about $5).  The price of the bowl also includes a delicious scoop of tortilla soup.  So, we know where we will be eating dinner tomorrow night!  Most likely, a majority of the students bowls will be bought by students' parents.  We will certainly be looking for L and D's to buy.  Also, artists and artsy people around the city made bowls that will be auctioned off for a lot more money.  All the proceeds go to providing nutritious food for the kids of the day care centers, who would normally eat lesser of a meal.


A teacher/reporter at our school made this news piece to show who will benefit from the money raised from Empty Bowls.  She works in the elementary and her husband is the middle school art teacher.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWBASicRYYo

Monday Haiku

fast little buggers

multiply near fallen food

our world's smallest ants

Birthday Fun

This is me, coming back from my birthday celebration, according to Linnea.  It wasn't raining here last night, that's just her creative license.

This is how we actually looked before going out to celebrate:

Last Saturday was Family Day at school.   The kids found themselves at a Parisian cafe.

Things We Love About Honduras

We are loving some things about living here.  Some of them we have just discovered.  Some of them are things that we have noticed all along, but we are just beginning to appreciate them.

This is the feel good.  Our grocery bags are 100% biodegradable.  If you've seen all the plastic garbage bags that are a normal part of the "ecosystem" here, you would know why this is so exciting.

Last night we went to a Jazz Festival.  Great music at a great outdoor venue.  We sure do miss seeing/hearing live music!  Gotta love it, it only cost $3 to get in!

Caramel made with goat's milk.  Mmmmmm... super tasty in my latte.

Monkey Licker (pretty much goes without saying why we like this!)

A herd of horses (there were about 6 or 7 of them) on the side of the road.

It's hard to see these little beautiful flowers because they're covered in dust.  This is at the side entrance of another bilingual school just outside the city.  We've seen this climbing vine growing in Sebastopol, and now we've spotted it here, decorating the chain link and concertina wire.  Gotta love the contrasts of nature and security.

We saved the best for last.  The thing we love most about living on Honduras is that our kids have discovered that their greatest playmate is each other.  They can play and play for hours making forts, playing with Legos and Playmobiles, Dempsey reads to Linnea, drawing and painting.  Yes, there is of course, fighting.  But that's all a part of being siblings, right?