out & about

We've been adusting to being here, having spanish lessons everyday, and exploring the town we are in! We've made friends and were even invited to a Mennonite wedding! We actually didn't personally know the couple, but we knew the bride's sister, so somehow that counts! The bride was 16 and the groom was 18!  Here are a couple pictures from the wedding. It was a typical Honduran wedding, it started an hour and a half late, rained, and the power was out the whole time! What a great memory for the rest of their lives! The cake was made by our spanish teachers mom. I would love to say it was as delicious as it was beautiful... but  they didn't cut it, what a total waste in my opinion!



Sandy and JoAnn with the bride



me and Cynthia, our spanish teacher

A couple days later there was a Miss Guaimaca beauty pageant for the high school girls. After the pageant was over and a winner was announced there was a "Miss Guaimaca Parade!" It was a really neat parade, I might even say my favorite ever, simply because of the coolest munecas (dolls) I've even seen! They were way more than dolls though! They were 2 story tall puppet-like things. People were underneath the clothes the dolls had on carrying them down the street. They were dancing with them and twirling them all around! They had  paper-mache faces, mops as hair, facial hair... I was so into them, they were so darn neat! In the parade there was a local school marching band, men on stilts, motorcycles, horses and severl neat floats with girls in suits and elaborate head-dresses! We watched it from our spanish teachers balcony in downtown! I'm so glad we got to see it!

"Miss Guaimaca" 
notice the kid hitchin a ride!

We are enjoying getting to experience and learn so many things about this culture everyday!

-brooke & daniel

Casa nuestra!

So when the group left after their week here Gary, Donna, Daniel & I setteled into our new house! :) We are staying right beside the Baptist Hospital in Guaimaca. We met with Sandy Cheves before we came down here and worked out a house for us to rent and it is fabulous, way beyond our expecitations!! We have full access to anything on the Hospital grounds, a key to the gate and were told to just make ourselves at home!
 Gary & Donna stayed in Honduras another week to help us get the house is working condition! I can't imagine how we would have managed without them!! In the very first day we accomplished so much! Over the span of a week we... bought appliances (refigerator, stove, pots and pans..etc),  beds, fans, put screens on windows, hung hammocks,  Daniel and Gary bought wood to make shelves for the kitchen and closet, then organized the kitchen and closet, Donna sanded and stained our table we had made, bought 3 widow-makers for hot water in the shower, third one's a charm ;) we bought fabric for curtains, found a lawn maintance guy; takes him about 2 hours cutting the entire yard w/ a machete, and we borrowed 2 dresser drawers, 2 mirrors, 2 chairs, a microwave and a little desk from our friends Sandy & JoAnn! Everything fell perfectly into place, and this "little" casa feels so much like home you wouldn't believe it!

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makin' my first tortilla!

 


hangin' hammocks!

                                                                                                                                     

 Hammocks & Curtains!!

This is our kitchen!

Esta es nuestra la cocina!





-brooke & daniel

Alas!!

Finally we are creating a blog! We had planned to do it from day one, but the internet provider we had (Tigo) made it virtually impossible. You might could load 5 pages in 30 minutes, VERY frustrating!! We've since purchased a new provider (Claro) and it's the real deal! However, now that we are more than a month behind it makes it difficult to find a starting point, already so much has happened, and the fact that we're new to the blogging world makes it all overwhelming! I guess we will just start at the beginning, and hope we don't skip too much!

We arrived in Honduras on July 30 with a group of 11 people from LaGrange, Ga. The group stayed for one week at the facilities in Gualaco. Lynch, Lee and Elizabeth were first timers, and I think it's safe to say they loved it and it won't be their last trip!

The group project for the week was to add to Virginia's house! Virgina is a longtime friend of the church in Gualaco. A few years ago she was in a terrible vechicle accident, involving a logging truck. Her legs were all but crushed, she has had several surgeries and thankfully was able to keep her legs, gets around very slowly and isn't able to go up or down steps without pain. We were adding a kitchen and bedroom onto Virginia's house and going raise her pila to a height she would be able to use it.  We started the project on her house, and made a good amount of progress but given the weather, work conditions and size of the project we weren't able to finish. Pablo and Daniel are seeing to it that it gets finished for her!

One of the most favorite parts of coming to Honduras for everyone is going to the caves! It's such an awesome thing to do! The hike up to the cave is gorgeous! Up and down a little trail through the jungle beside the river! Once you reach the cave and get inside it's pitch black dark, of course, but still amazing!! Some parts of the cave you are on you hands and knees crawling through, but then when it opens up it's probably 35 feet! We usually sing a song to hear the echo, it's absolutely beautiful! After we finish there is a body of water in a different cave  that we swim in! The water is FREEZING COLD, but its super fun to do!

 

This week we also had the chance to go to San Pedro. San Pedro is about 10 miles from Gualaco, and one of the poorest communities in the valley. We went to give out clothes and some sandwiches at the church we have there. It's beyond overwhelming with all the people who show up just to recieve a shirt and a sandwich, and you would think you had given them pure gold. Everyone leaves with a heavy heart from this place. The people are so touching and you can't help but feel like you didn't do enough and want to do more.

This week was such a blessing for everyone! Virginia, the people in San Pedro, all the kids around the compound, and definitely for all the North American's who came! To hear about it is one thing, but to experience it is indescribable!