Navidad

Needless to say, Christmas felt a little different this year...

Rudi, Lars, and I celebrated the last day of work before the holidays on Monday the 23rd by going out to lunch with don Marcos at a soup restaurant -- also since he's retiring at the end of the year, so we wanted to celebrate him as well (we'd also given him a gift and sang to him at our team Christmas on the 14th). That evening, we were also invited to Rosita's mom's birthday party, which was fun. After that, we went to see the new Star Wars!

On the 24th, the Christmas Eve service started at 5pm, after which we attendees shared a small supper. I headed over to Aurora and Gustavo's daughter's house where our Nochebuena celebration started around 9pm. We were chatting and hanging out til around 10:30, when the tamales came out to tide us over until dinner at 11:30. Then at midnight we watched the fireworks going off all around and threw diablitos (bang snaps). By 12:30 it looked foggy from all the smoke! Our gift exchange started at quarter til one, and Karinita, who was my amiga secreta, went first so I knew then I would be last. But she was thrilled with her pack of Dutch Blitz cards, so I was happy! Amigo secreto is a game a lot like Secret Santa, but instead of the recipient opening the gift and then having to guess who gave it to them, the giver of the gift has to describe who their secret friend is and everyone else needs to guess who it is before the person receives the gift. (And the name of the game refers to the receiver, not the giver.)

Valeria and I entertain ourselves until tamal time

The clan sits down for dinner

Near the beginning of the party, all of the family units had their pictures taken by the tree. Here I am with my host parents

Me and Tía Vilma

I missed the memo that everyone usually takes a nap before the Christmas Eve-early Christmas Day party (even though I probably could have figured that out for myself... oops!), so by the time the gift exchange was done, I was really ready to head to bed. Aurora and Valeria were still going strong as Gustavo gave Karinita and her parents a lift on our way home through the "neblina."

Slept late-ish on Christmas Day (9:30 or so?) before desayunando with a couple of tamales before joining my fam for the gift exchange via video chat. It was lovely to get to see everyone's reactions to what I sent them! I did sense myself feeling a little uneasy with the extravagance of the gift exchange compared to the one the night before. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed hanging out with my family for a couple of hours, even if only virtually... and really missing being able to hug them. 

My host family had talked about heading to the beach at Puerto Cortés in the afternoon, maybe around 1ish, but it didn't happen. Instead, I chatted with Keyla and we planned a two-night getaway to Tela for just before New Years'. 

I enjoyed getting to experience the Christmas holiday from a Latin American perspective. There's something beautiful about staying up until the date we celebrate Jesus' birthday and ringing it in with excitement. I also found myself missing the "Silent Night" aspect of Christmas Eve that I'm used to, where the night is devoted to remembering and pondering the Advent and Nativity stories in the evening service, singing hymns and carols, and lighting candles (by comparison, the message and songs weren't specifically Nativity-oriented at the service at the church here). I'm also used to the presents being symbolically separated from the religious celebration by a good night of sleep, and it was a bit jarring to just head straight to the party, but probably not as much as if the service had been the reflective, candlelit service I'm used to. I noticed I chafed a bit at the noise and sheer amount of firecrackers and the smoke they caused, but that may have been because I was already trying not to be cranky due to my tiredness. I was, however, a fan of eating seven tamales in a little over 24 hours. It was wonderful to be included so fully and warmly in the celebration of my host family and their relatives, but at the same time difficult to be so far away from my family knowing the rest of them were all physically together. I noticed things I like and don't like about both ways of celebrating, and I'll continue processing the experience. I'm already realizing that I'll cherish future Christmases with family all the more. 

Language

Things I've been thinking about... how Spanish helps me think about concepts differently, especially the concept of "you"... how I've learned since I got here that you don't always have to use the same "you" with people... In the past, I assumed "formal" or "familiar" was more of a ser kind of quality to the relationship, but now I see it's more of the estar quality of the interaction. I may get called usted, tú, and vos by the same person but in different contexts, or even as the same conversation progresses.

Just the idea of having these different ways of saying "you" makes me think about human interaction in a way I never had to before... and it's another thing to analyze about how people perceive me. I may get warm fuzzies when my host sister or a friend from church calls me vos... and wonder if when an older doña or don calls me tú if that's permission for reciprocity or if they're just allowed to use that form with me since I'm younger so I should still call them usted out of respect (I've been opting for the latter). I also wonder why my host parents never use tú or vos with me, even though they do with Valeria. Is it a lack of closeness they feel with me or is it just that they want to always be respectful when speaking to their host children?

Another thing, related but distinct, is how related/identical imperative/subjunctive conjugations represent or recognize a level of respect for someone's free will. And how the tú imperative conjugation is the same as the usted indicative represents to me a little more directness in asking someone to do something. That is, it's going to get done (indicative) rather than "better if it would get done" (subjunctive)... but you're still respecting the person you're addressing as tú by moving the command to a more indirect conjugation, that is to say, the usted.

For example:
Wash your clothes! // You wash your clothes.
(Tú) Lava tu ropa // Lavas tu ropa
(Usted) Lave su ropa // Lava su ropa

The form of lavar just shifts over... and likewise, lave as a command is the same as the subjunctive...

E.g.:
It's better that you [would] wash your clothes.
(Tú) Es mejor que laves tu ropa
(Usted) Es mejor que ud. lave su ropa

By "indirect" I'm referencing another thought I've had... that having the usted and ella/él conjugations be the same, it feels like there is a little more distance between the person you're talking to and yourself because it is [closer to] third person; that is, someone who might not even be physically present, so by definition, further away.

A corollary of that: when you talk about someone in the third person in their presence, it's almost like you're still addressing them, but with more respect.

Another related topic is how the language reflects this closeness. For example with fui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fueron... if it's just me or I'm in the group, then it's fui-rooted, and in that way the tú/vos conjugation is closer to me than that of the usted because it's not "fueste" but fuiste. Similarly, the ser conjugations of soy, sos, eres, es, somos reflect this as well. The difference between sos and eres means that vos are closer to me than tú are. This argument doesn't really hold water if you consider "they son" (or vos usage in Colombian Spanish where vos is between tú and usted which is why I continue to use tú with Keyla), but just considering yo/vos/tú/usted/nosotros, I like thinking about it this way in the context of Honduran Spanish.

While we're on the topic of language, an update. My brain now calls coffee hour cafecito. Not sure when the shift happened exactly, but cafecito is definitely what comes to mind first now.

Regional

Me, Rosa, Elieth                               Me, Rosita again, Rudi, Clivia

On Tuesday of this week, we piled into the 15-passenger van of an hermano from church and headed down to Siguatepeque for our meetings with the LACA Central America/Haiti sub-region! And by "we," I mean Rosa, Clivia, and Gaby (friends from church who had agreed to watch all the reps' kids during our meetings); Sam and Emmanuel; don Marcos; Elieth, Rudi, and I. We got to the retreat center in the early afternoon and Rudi and I worked to get everything in order for the others' arrival (matching shirts to nametags and folders). The rest of our team, as well as the Nicaragua/Costa Rica, Haiti, and Guatemala/El Salvador teams all arrived at various points throughout the later afternoon and early evening. We played get-to-know-you bingo (organized by Jenny) which was a fun way to learn who all was having birthdays during the week (Christy, the comms SALTer from Haiti; don Marcos; and Clivia) and other random tidbits!

On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings, we had devotionals followed by workshops on trauma healing. Our team was in charge of devotionals on Wednesday morning, so Joel, Keyla, and I led three songs before Elieth gave the message about spiritual resilience. Wednesday afternoon, Cesar and Lizette gave all of us who are new since the last regional get-together an overview of LACA and how it ties in to MCC as a whole. Then, in the evening, we had a Zumba session led by Abner from the Guatemala team followed by a campfire complete with s'mores (made out of Chiky cookies since chocolate bars are expensive) and songs (some Christmas tunes got thrown in... the lack of both Halloween and Thanksgiving here means there's no buffer! I was already seeing trees up when I went shopping with my host parents back in September).

Thursday afternoon after taking group pictures (you can see the Honduras team photo on my Facebook), we had some free time. Sarah (rep from Guatemala) and I spearheaded a trip to the Mennonite Bakery down in town. I found some granola, pumpkin bread, chocolate, and peanut butter there! Several of the others got ice cream, which I heard was really good, but I thought I probably already had enough of a haul... 😆 After dinner, we had a karaoke night organized by Wendy, the CPC from Nicaragua. One of the kids kicked off the night with "Baby Shark" and I followed next with "Me Enamora" by Juanes. It was really fun to see the variety of songs that people chose! Later on, Keyla and I sang a duet of "Rosas" by La Oreja de Van Gogh. After karaoke, Gaby, Lars, Rudi, Honduras Sarah, Clivia, Rosita, and I engaged in a rousing game of Spoons.

The end of the talleres yesterday meant it was time for some sightseeing! After lunch, we had one group go for a cave tour and another group go for a boat cruise on Lago de Yojoa. I was part of the second group.

Me, Rudi, and Gaby during snack break from the Friday morning workshop

Views from my seat on the boat

Eastern shore of Lago de Yojoa

We headed back to the retreat center for dinner and a Noche Cultural—our team had brainstormed a skit imagining how the baleada got its name, and Lars wrote a parody of "Sencilla" to make it about a baleada sencilla which we sang after performing our skit. Highlights of the night for me were Guatemala's hilarious dramatization of a trip on a chicken bus and Keyla's performance of "Colombia Tierra Querida"—poignant in light of recent events there and a history of Colombians performing this song abroad during times of turbulence in the country. After the show was over, all of the SALTers from the region (Jenna, Kailey, Christy, Josh, Andrew, Kara, and I) got together and videoed ourselves dancing to a song that our IVEP friends from the Republic of Korea had taught us at orientation back in Akron and posted it in the group. It had been fun reconnecting with all of them over the course of the week, but we had to say most of our goodbyes before bed since many of them had to head out early early this morning.

This morning after breakfast it was time to head back north to SPS. Since getting back late morning, I've been recharging my introvert batteries before Valeria's 16th birthday party this evening!

Pollo

The last week and a half have been pretty busy, so I'm going to split the events into two posts. Starting on the 14th, two of MCC's IT techs, Sam and Emmanuel, joined us in working from the office here in SPS. They were able to work on our computers and do some updates that would've been more difficult to do remotely, like update my graphics drivers to hopefully address a flickering screen issue I've been having.

Meanwhile, I was helping get ready for the regional retreat by making a new nametag template in InDesign, making some of the content that would go in the folders everyone would get, printing out habitación occupancy pages, and other such details.

On Saturday, Emmanuel, Sam, the reps and their kids, and I met at the church for the BBQ chicken fundraiser that the congregation puts on several times a year. I think the last one happened during our miniretiro in Copan, though, so this was my first time getting to participate! Pollo menonita has a reputation for its tasty secret sauce... and each iglesia in the Honduran Mennonite Conference has a slightly different recipe! We had been treated to pollo menonita when we'd met with Pastor José during orientation, but that was with the salsa recipe of his other congregation.

I always thought that was just a counter before... but no! Remove the tabletops that usually cover it up, and it's a giant fire pit used for grilling chicken!

Insulating the chicken after grilling so it'll still be warm when peeps come to buy it

Most folks take the chicken to go, but the seven of us ended up just going upstairs and eating in the office kitchen (AC 😅). You get half a chicken, cole slaw, and 2 tortillas for 100 lempiras (about $4)... So I definitely had leftovers for my lunch on Monday!

The reps were going to take S&E to the Bazar del Sabado, so we said seeya and I took my bike to the shop since the cord connecting the gearshift to the front gear set had snapped a couple days earlier (luckily, the chain was on the middle gear, so with the 7 gears in back, it was still pretty versatile). While he was at it, the mechanic also adjusted my brakes and put on a new, more comfortable seat that I'd purchased back in September but hadn't had the time or tools to install myself.

Bike in the shop

Comfy new seat! Oh yeah, and a bit of spray paint on the handlebar connector. Looks nice!

I was a bit taken aback when he said I didn't owe anything, but could tip him if I wanted, since he'd used spare parts in good condition that had been left over from other bikes—so I tried to pay him fairly for his time. I tried to estimate quickly what that would be, and then later looked up the average hourly wage in Honduras. I think I did pretty well; I probably aimed a little high... but I'd rather be on that side of fair! When I got back on my bike and realized how smoothly it rides now, I decided it was worth every lempira!

Tour

Accompanying the learning tour last weekend was, as you may have guessed, quite informative. I hadn't gotten to visit partner org CASM (sitio en español) yet, so I was grateful to get to learn more about what my CCM compañeras who work there do. Thursday morning, we learned about Elieth's project. She and her coworkers offer services to internally displaced persons (especially kids and adolescents) who have moved to SPS and now live in bordos—communities close to the rivers. Because of their locations, these poorer neighborhoods are more prone to flooding.

Many of her coworkers have psychology backgrounds so can offer support to children and teens who have experienced violence, especially bullying they may face in school because of their economic status. Elieth is part of the the team that offers fun workshops to the children in which they learn games that help them process and regulate emotions, learn alternatives to violence, and develop self-protection skills.

Elieth teaches a member of the learning tour how to play one of the games

The Dado de Saber with the roulette wheel on top

I wish I had gotten a better picture of the Dado de Saber (🎲 of Knowledge), one of the teaching tools used in the games. To show us how the game works, Elieth had members of the learning tour come to the front of the room and learn the games as one of the children would. For example, they would spin the roulette or toss the dado, and based on the resulting color or number, the child would be asked a question or get to read a situation and then need to respond appropriately. For example, "How do you react if a classmate pushes you?" or "What are some of the consequences of bullying?" are some of the questions which give kids a safe-space opportunity to talk about these issues, practice their responses, and process past experiences.

 

The hanging flowers outside of the CASM conference room are beautiful! Also, here's a picture I took of the tour participants with Elieth's team.

In the afternoon, we visited ERIC in El Progreso where Sarah works. It was my second visit (we had gotten to visit in August during our in-country orientation tour of partners and I mentioned it briefly but not by name at the end of this post) but since the learning tour was focused on migration, it was interesting to hear a different presentation of theirs about the current context in Honduras which illuminates reasons why so many people are driven to migrate. One that stuck with me was that the country-wide 90% impunity rate rises to 97% when you look at crimes against environmental protection activists (one of ERIC's focuses is accompanying community groups who are protecting their lands and waters from extractivist activities).

On Saturday I got to learn about Rudi's project with CASM, which offers job training for returned migrants. Jill, the SALTer who worked in this digital media specialist position last year, wrote an article about this program which I encourage you to read.

In the welding workshop, we got to see some of the projects the students had created (some had actually already sold, and the CPCs even decided to purchase one of the grills). These skills enable graduates to work in talleres, start their own small businesses selling commissioned items like the ones you see here, or work in roofing.

There are several vocational tracks the students can choose to follow here, including welding, machining, electricity/AC repair, and cooking.

Students learn how to use lathes to fabricate items like screws and pulleys

The graduating culinary class made lunch for us!

Since I was due a comp day on Monday for accompanying the tour on Saturday, I decided to spend the night with Sarah in El Progreso on Sunday night (we'd talked on Thursday about the possibility of spending time together). She told me the bus route to get there (it's just a little bit further from SPS than Longmont is from Boulder), and I was able to catch the bus down easily on Sunday afternoon (¡y por tan sólo 30 lempiras!). We shopped for dinner ingredients, made ourselves some tacos, and did some watercolors, all the while having some great conversations.

Chia pudding, cinnamon-ginger tea, breakfast tacos, and good conversation... the best way to start a week that I can think of!

On Monday morning after a leisurely breakfast, I was able to visit ERIC again and pick up some materials that will hopefully help me write an article about their MCC-supported project. Caught the bus back up to SPS; stopped at the office to pick up my bike and—since I happened to be arriving just in time—stayed for cafecito with Jenny, Joél, and don Marcos; and then headed home for lunch... and a 6-hour nap!

Equipo

This past weekend, we had a noche del equipo (team night) which—for Keyla, Kara, and I—meant we got to have an entire day to hang out, as well. They came up from Tegucigalpa on Friday night and left SPS on Sunday afternoon.

Keyla and I had been pumped about potentially hiking to the Coca-Cola sign on the mountainside overlooking the city, but Saturday morning greeted us with rain. So we YALTers headed to the mall where we browsed the shops, got lunch, saw a movie, got some ice cream... It was good to catch up with those two!

There's a Ferris wheel inside! We didn't ride it, though

I was not expecting to see an ACE Hardware store in Honduras...

In the evening, we convened at the reps' place for a potluck dinner: tasty tacos courtesy of Lars, perfect guacamole gracias a Eliette, a yummy salad of ramen and cabbage contributed by the reps, and Rudi's glorious galletas of the chocolate chip and pumpkin-spice chocolate chip varieties!

Gotta love this crazy team!

After dinner, I made popcorn (well, popped maicillo technically) in coconut oil and we watched Ferdinand. A good movie for a group of pacifists to watch 😊

Sarah was the only team member who—unfortunately—couldn't make it to the gathering on Saturday, but she did come to SPS on Monday and stayed over so she could renew her residency on Tuesday. She took this photo of me making popcorn in the office; I wanted to try to make up for the fact that she'd missed the movie night!

Not as good a pop ratio as over the gas stove at the reps', but it worked!

This week, we have a learning tour visiting some of our partners. Lars is leading the tour along with Michael, the CPC from Guatemala, where the tour will be next week. There are about 15 participants from the US learning about migration. This morning, they visited the office and got to see the bulletin board I finished last week:

Tada! An overview of all the MCCers and partner organizations

Tonight, the whole tour group is descending on the reps' place for dinner; tomorrow and Saturday I'll get to accompany them on some partner visits with the hope to garner material for another feature or two.

Events

So, I promised a post on the events I attended the weekend of the 19th/20th, so here ya go~

Ever since I moved in, Valeria had been practicing for her school talent show, and one of our first conversations was her inviting me to it! During the following weeks leading up to the show, she told me that each grade level at her school had been assigned a country and given the task of preparing a dance to represent that country at the talent show.

Last Saturday evening, we finally got to see the fruits of their labor. Aurora, Kari, David, and I were in the audience to support Vale.

Before the show

Here's Valeria's dance! They won first place in their category (sorry, I missed what category that was 🙃... you understand I was a bit distracted that weekend!). Most of the dances had a similarly constructed soundtrack to the one in that video: a medley of songs that more or less represented the country (or region -- two grades had Africa and Puerto Rico 😅).

Then there was the Mennonite youth conference on Sunday. The previous Wednesday, Lars had asked if I would help represent MCC at this event, since it was a good opportunity to get the word out about YAMEN and IVEP and it would be good to have a participant representing the exchange programs.

Gotta be at a new place by 8am on a Sunday morning? Okay, I'll try!

So I got myself up in time, and Gustavo and Aurora were nice enough to take me in their pickup first to the office (so I could pick up the banners, flyers, and clipboard) then to El Arca where some of the other jovenes from Central helped me set up the table just before the event got started. (Lars was en-route from Tegus where he'd been visiting the others and helping Keyla get her visa extended.)

I enjoyed the singing and first message of the morning (Pastor Luis is a very engaging speaker!) from a spot pretty close to the front:

See me? I'll give you a hint, look for my white headband 😆

There was a short break where we staffed the table and talked with a few people interested in learning about the exchange programs. Then it was time for more singing and another message. However, we got news that we would have the opportunity to pass out flyers to all 400+ young people in attendance...! If only we had that many flyers! So we went to the office, printed some more, and some of the other people involved in the event helped us fold them.

This gives you an idea of the scale of it. MCC's table was set up to the left of the stage underneath where that projected red pattern is.

So we got to pass out our flyers and show the Spanish version of our YAMEN promo video, which was pretty cool that we could at least plant the idea of serving abroad in the minds of that many young Mennonites!

After the program was over, there was enough food for everyone! Cooked green banana, regionally-famous Mennonite chicken (super tender and delicious, with a secret sauce), and rice. Lars, Eliette (who had come as an attendee), and I sat in the courtyard and chatted over lunch before taking down the banners and sharing a cab.

So there you have it, a summary of my full weekend! Something I noticed right away at both events was how prominently the Israel flag appeared... no direct mention of it at either event, but it made me somewhat uncomfortable since its display evinces Zionistic sentiment and my own views on the conflict in that region are quite close to MCC's.

DOG BITE !

This post's title is a tribute to this masterpiece crafted by Zoe during our family service/learning trip to Palestine/Israel.

Yes, my friends, I was bitten by a dog. Fortunately, I was wearing jeans and it didn't get a super good hold on me; my only wound was a small scratch on my ankle left by one of the teeth that pushed down my sock, but yikes! did it give me quite a scare.

Biking home from the office last Thursday the 17th, I was about four blocks from home. I noticed I was coming up behind a kid walking two puppies on leashes and that there was another medium dog, not on a leash, next to the puppies. I made the decision to go around and bike on the left side of the street since it was in a residential area without much traffic. Swinging around and giving a wide berth, all of a sudden I saw a tan blur in my peripheral vision and felt something clamp down on my ankle! I screamed and biked home as fast as I could.

At home, my host family and I checked out the damage and found that luckily, my jeans had protected me. I cleaned the scratch, which just had the tiniest dot of blood, with rubbing alcohol and then called the reps. They WhatsApped the doctor who recommended cleaning it with hydrogen peroxide, so I did that, too. Gustavo drove me back over in the truck to look for the dog to see if we could find the owner, but it was already dark and we couldn't find it (official sunset time was 5:30 that day, but the mountains in the west make it a bit earlier than that). Since the scratch was small and I was mostly just shaken up, I had some dinner and then proceeded with my plans to go see Maléfica: Dueña del Mal with Valeria.

When we'd purchased tickets the night before, I'd thought it'd be a great idea to see the dub instead of the sub (that was a new experience: having to pick the language of a movie I'd be seeing in the theater!) to practice my Spanish, but the adrenaline made it difficult to concentrate. I still enjoyed the movie; it has some beautiful animation and an engaging (da dn tss) but pleasantly easy-to-follow Disney storyline. Although I caught most of the dialogue, I probably could have caught more if I hadn't been so shook.

Friday morning, Jenny took me to a private clinic and the doc said it was nothing to worry about, but I still couldn't focus on my work very well; of course after the movie I'd gone down the Internet rabbit hole and learned that it's possible to get rabies even from a scratch. That evening I was more nervous about my mortality than my public speaking gig.

The events of last weekend (Valeria's talent show and Sunday's youth conference) deserve their own post, and I tried to be fully present for them. I knew the chances that I'd come in contact with rabies were super slim, and talking to Dad on Saturday, he was able to remind me that a lot of my nervousness was probably due to being in a completely new context that puts me on alert, even if somewhat subconsciously. I even learned between Friday and Sunday that getting bitten by a dog is almost a rite of passage; all of the service workers who've been here over a year (Sarah, Eliette, Lars, and Rudi) have all been bitten by Honduran dogs too. "But," the nervous little brain subprocess said, "they all knew the dog had an owner..."

The other dog bites the team has experienced fell into the blue category, but mine is in the purple category. Table from the CDC website

Monday I made this case and the reps and ADs helped me track down the closest public health center. On my way home that evening, I looked again for the dog, but again found no trace. Tuesday morning, Lars accompanied me to the health center and we figured out the steps for how to get me seen by the right people. There was an outdoor window to check in, a room several hallways away to get weighed, a wait to talk with a nurse who heard the story and took a look at the scratch. From there we were directed to talk with a public health official who⁠—upon hearing the dog was an unknown⁠—recommended I get the prophylaxis series and wrote down a list of appointment dates. Then I went to the vaccination room, received shot #1, and was told for the next four in the series I could just return directly to that room.

The whole process didn't actually take that long, and we were back in the office by 10a. Peace of mind is priceless (and hey, so was the vaccine! Thanks free public health service) and I was able to concentrate again. A couple days ago, I returned for my second dose and, despite waiting behind several babies receiving their routine shots, was only there for about 20 minutes. I have 3 more doses at increasing intervals over the next few weeks, and will get the last one right before we leave for our next retreat. And in the meantime, I can focus on the exciting communications work I've been up to. I'll write a post about that, too!

Answer

Since y'all were clearly on the edges of your seats 😉🤣

Oratoria

Yesterday evening, we had a Noche de Oratoria at church, and I'd been encouraged, and agreed, to participate with a 3-5 minute speech. The theme was Matthew 4:19:

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”

I'm pretty comfortable with public speaking, but I'd never given a speech in another language before. But hey, I thought, it's a great way to get involved in the community and practice my Spanish in a different context than the day-to-day.

As I was preparing my speech, I struggled a bit to accurately reflect my Christology in what ended up being a four-and-a-half minute presentation. What I ended up saying is somewhat more traditional than what I might have given a longer form (and let's be honest, English) opportunity to present on the same topic. But the conclusions are the same.

There were about 15 participants, and⁠ I went third or fourth from last

During the refrigerio (refreshment time) afterwards, me di cuenta que from the comments I recieved that it had gone over well. ☺️

So I wanted to share it with all of you. I'll paste the English text here, but if you'd like to read it in Spanish (which I like because the word redes means both networks and nets, and pescar peces isn't as redundant as "fish for fish"), it's here.

     Jesus called the disciples: come, and I will make you fishers of human beings. Peter and his brother Andrew left behind their boats; James and John left behind their nets and their father. If we follow the example of the apostles, we drop everything and choose to walk with Jesus. But it can be difficult to leave everything behind, including our families and our livelihoods.
     Recently, Jesus said something similar to me, calling me to Honduras to help work for peace and justice by amplifying the voices of MCC’s partners here. Like my father before me, I was working as a computer programmer, and here God was asking me to work with stories, language, and people. I could have questioned the call, and said, “No, thanks. I’m more comfortable translating code between Java and Python than I am translating articles between English and Spanish.”
     The disciples could have said “No, thanks. I’m more comfortable in the profession of my father. I know how to fish for fish and that’s what I’m good at. Why would I want to fish for people?” But they didn’t. They left everything and followed Jesus. This is what we must strive to do.
     Although walking with God gives beautiful fruits, it can be frightening and it can be dangerous. As followers of the Way, we go against what people expect, and that can cause them to get angry with us. Matthew 5:11-12 tells us we should rejoice when this happens; it means we’re doing something right. And we don’t have to be afraid. Through Jesus, God has shown ultimate solidarity with women and men by becoming human.
     The Pharisees made life difficult for him, and in the end, Jesus experienced one of the most awful forms of oppression: murder at the hands of the state. We still see this happening today, especially to activists working to protect people and the creation. But since God understands what this is like, having experienced this and all the other aspects of being human, we don’t have to be afraid.
     Matthew 1:23 tells us that God’s purpose in becoming human was to walk alongside humans. Jesus experienced the joys and sorrows of being human, even to the point of painful death. Since God has walked alongside us, isn’t it the least we can do to walk alongside Jesus in the same way?
     So when God asked me to leave my network programming job and follow Jesus because doing so would make me someone who strengthens networks of people? I said yes.

Morazánicos

"Um, so, Lily, why exactly did you have a five day weekend?" Semana Morazánica, my friends. The Honduran national holidays of Fransisco Morazán's Birthday (October 3rd), Discovery of America Day (😬, but traditionally October 12th), and Armed Forces Day (😬😬, October 21) were bundled to the last Wednesday-Friday in October in 2014 to encourage tourism. In 2015, the long weekend was moved to be closest to Morazán's birthday. Hence, the Morazán Holidays!

"But who's this Morazán guy?" Well, let's step back a little bit. Central America declared independence from Spain in 1821 and formed the Federal Republic of Central America in 1823. Francisco Morazán was from the state of Honduras and served as the president of this nation from 1830-1839, enacting freedom of speech, religion, and the press. The nation was disestablished into its constituent states in 1841. Ever wonder why the flags of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica all look so similar? It's because they're all modeled off of the flag of Central America. If you're interested in more FRCA history, it makes for an interesting Wikipedia sesh.

So, Wednesday I headed down to Tegucigalpa. Keyla and ASJ had the whole week off, but Kara didn't have any holidays given that week (odd, since AFE is a school and most students in the country had the whole week off including Valeria, Kari, and the reps' kids... but AFE'd had all of Independence Day week off so I suppose it evens out). Keyla had invited me to stay at her place, but the first night her friends invited us to a pizza party/sleepover!

Construction

It turned out super tasty

Noche de muchachas!

The next day, Keyla and I explored the centro. We went clothes shopping and found some nice articles at good prices.

Armed Forces Day display in the center plaza. They were just standing there all day!

On Friday, we headed up into the mountains surrounding the city to another coworker friend of Keyla's who lives near La Tigra National Park. We went on a nearly seven-kilometer hike and saw some great vistas of the city.

La Tigra National Park

Kirsten, Katie, Allison, Comfort, me, Keyla

In the pines, in the pines ❤️

View of Tegus from the mountain

As the weekend proper arrived, we could finally meet up with Kara! We spent Saturday in El Picacho National Park, known for its statue of Christ.

Some nice panoramas from this park, too

They have a plaza honoring Confucius

"Hemos llegado a los pies de Cristo" — Keyla

At 150 lempiras each, the Canopy (zipline) was a deal not to be missed!

Wheee!

The next day, I headed back up to SPS. This past week I felt rejuvenated from my vacation and found that I'm no longer feeling the need to just zonk out at 9pm, which is nice. Maybe my brain is finally getting used to the constant interchange between languages, or maybe it's a temporary stamina boost from a relaxed vacation. Either way, I'm grateful for it!

Highlights from this week are that I bought a bike (Gustavo actually offered to sell me his at a pretty decent price, so I just opted for that) and finished translating the CODESO article (Spanish will be available at the same link pretty soon).

Gotta get ready for church now! Catch ya later.