Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone is having an amazing Thanksgiving. Abby and the rest of the foreign teachers left for Antigua, Guatemala yesterday, but I'm still in Copan because I don't leave until tomorrow afternoon for the great U.S. of A. It's strange to be here basically by myself, but it has also been good because I have quite a few things to prepare before departing.

Last night, after tutoring Miguelito in English, his family and I went over to Elisa's (the girl who Abby usually tutors) house because she was having her birthday party. It was a lot of fun. I talked the most with the grandfather of the family mainly about fruit and politics as we were continually brought Cokes and plate after plate of food.

After the presents but before the cake, we all sang "Feliz Cumpleaños". Well, we sang several birthday songs in several languages including the emergent creole they call Spanglish; one of which was "Sapo Verde to You". This literally means "green toad to you", but they sing it to the tune of "Happy Birthday" because that's apparently what the English words sound like to Hondurans. Then, Miguelito's dad, Miguel (there are at least 5 Miguels in their immediate family), and I took on the boys in a little game of futbol, the All-Honduran pastime. We played until about 10PM, but we fell defeated to the youngsters because we were badly outnumbered, 'm not the goalie that I once was, and these people live for the sport.

Today, the missionaries Bill and Mary have invited me and a few other people to have a Thanksgiving lunch at their house, so I'm headed off to that. These people are so amazing. Because of them, I won't be eating celebrating Thanksgiving in a comedor by myself. This day has been great to reflect on all the blessings that surround me daily, such as Abby, absence of loneliness, support from my family, and the means to accomplish anything I've been called to do.

I'm sorry I'm not able to post any new pictures from our recent adventures including a trip to Esquipulas, Guatemala because Abby left with her camera that has them all. However, I promise we'll make a media-rich post next week though. I appreciate all of you. Thanks for your prayers and support.

butt buddies

We've all heard of butt buddies...but today we actually saw some butt buddies.


Never know what you'll see in Copan.



and yes....they were really stuck like that.

more of the cutest baby in Copan

Diana should be on a commercial or advertisement or something. She is so beautiful and so happy. Her brother is a student of Allan's and her mother, Eva, is a house-keeper at Mayatan. I have fallen in love with this family. Eva is such a sweet, hard-working, joyful woman. I have never seen her without a smile on her face and that smile has transferred to her children! This past week, Eva cleaned Allan and the other boy's house and I got to hang out with Diana and Jose. Allan broke out his camera and took some amazing shots of these beautiful children :)






I think Crest should use this to sell floss. I would buy it!

Every week, we take Spanish classes at a local Spanish school here. Through Allan's teacher, we were introduced to two families that were interested in their children learning English. We now teach 2 children English every Wednesday night in exchange for a home-cooked meal complete with dinner conversation in Spanish! (so its good practice for us!) Little did we know that these families (the mothers are sisters!) happen to be the nicest, most-inviting families in all of Copan. Seriously. We love hanging out with them and they really treat us with good ole southern hospitality.

The first week, Allan and I tutored separately at different houses, but the next week, they wanted us to tutor together so my family could meet Allan, and Allan's family could meet me. They have been so nice to us. They invited us to hang out at their church one Sunday afternoon and watch the inter-church futbol games. Then they invited us to celebrate a birthday with them the next night. This was so fun. One of their siblings own a local bakery in town so we met at their house (because the bakery is in the basment of the house, see picture below!) and hung out, ate pizza (some of the biggest pizza I have ever seen!), sang happy birthday, and just talked for a while. We both are really excited that we have had the chance to meet families like this is Copan. We were thanking them at the end of the night and said that we always felt so invited by them and that meant a lot to us, and one of the fathers replied "You are always invited." That is so nice! :)

Happy (belated) Halloween!

So this post is a little late, but that's ok :)

My kids wanted to wish all of you a.......




Nothing like a 48 cent costume :) We should have spent a little more money and bought a few more balloons. I think we would have looked more like the grapes we were trying to be :)

Where the Wild Things Are

My class is so cute. We read Where the Wild Things Are and made our own wild things that day for art! The kids loved it and I was so happy with how the monsters turned out :) One monster even had high heels and a purse :) So scary!

No lions, No tigers, No bears...OH MY

The CIRCUS is here! (and has been for about 5 weeks) Apparently when the one-ring circus comes to Copan, they set up shop for an extended stay. Not knowing this, we made plans to go as soon as we could in fear that it would leave, and we would have missed a unique cultural experience. The first available time was a Monday night after school. I'm not sure about in the U.S., but Monday night is not the preferred circus night for most Hondurans. Abby, our friend Chris, and I bought our tickets with giddy anticipation not knowing what to expect, and as we entered the circus tent, that anticipation turned into hilarious disbelief of people in the audience, which consisted of...NO ONE! Laughing, we took some time deciding which seats to pick since we had the entire stands (or gradería) to ourselves. The circus was supposed to start at 8PM, and it was already 10 after, and it didn't look like anyone else was showing up. Having time to contemplate the circus and the fact that these people were going on with the show (well, we assumed they were) even with an audience of 7 people, we decided upgrade our seats to the next level (equivalent to $4 instead of $3 for the "grand" stands). These seats were nicer, had backs, and were about 8 feet closer to the ring that our previous ones. We were excited to be able to see everything because no one was going to sit in front of us, and we were only about 10 feet back from the ring.

At 8:30, the show started after 8 more people trickled in. The first act consisted of a scantily clad cowgirl dance sequence to capture the male attention from the get go. Applause. The second act was a unicycle riding juggler who had a nearly flawless set. The only mis-haps were dropping a ball, hitting himself in the nose with a spinning bowling pin, and then falling off the unicycle. Tremendous applause from the gringo section. Next was a 5 minute clown dancing routine. Applause. Then, the magician came out (who also dubs as the door man) and performed an almost perfect show. He only accidentally showed one false bottom, but performed the pull-the-cloth-out-of-the-red-

bag-that-has-a-handle-and-a-zipper-on-the-bottom-and-a-switch-under-the-handle-that-hides-the-contents trick that we've all owned at one point. Still followed by roaring gringo applause though.

Skip ahead past more clown and cowgirl dancing, and we get to the monkey part. In short, the monkey was on a leash and was allowed to run back and forth while doing tricks like somersaults and holding a gun. Somewhat less noisy applause from the gringos. When the lights went out we could see the silhouette of a lion in a cage pacing back and forth in a crack in the curtains, but then a spotlight suddenly illuminated a man dressed in shiny, tight clothing in the middle of the ring. He raised the microphone to his mouth and proceeded to lip-sync and pantomime the entire song. The ridiculous part was that he actually started directing some of his actions...dirty, dirty gestures...to me (we know they were to me because we were the only ones in the section, and at 10 feet you know when someone is looking at you). Nothing like feeling extremely uncomfortable at the circus. It gives me chills to think about it. Confused and hesitant applause from the gringos. Next is the trampoline: the circus cast brings out a giant trampoline and starts taking turns jumping and doing flips on it. Remember, we are only about 15 feet from this rusty, rickety trampoline, and since having a very similar one at Merritt Mill, I've grown an apprecation for the dangers posed by trampolines, even for bystanders, like springs flying off at any moment. Chris gives me a funny look when he sees me crouched down and shielding my eyes, but after the grown-man-clown jumps, and a spring actually snaps loose and flies off, he is right with me, praying for the jumping to stop. Finally, after a little audience participation in which a young girl nearly breaks a leg jumping on the trampoline and after a baby of no more than 1.5 years old jumps too, we hear on the speakers, "Llegamos al final!" which means "That's the end!" The lights come on and people file out (to make sure they don't get stuck in the parking lot traffic :). Very confused and sparse gringo applause.

We stay seated asking ourselves: Are we missing something? What about the lion? I saw it! I know it's there! We call a worker over to ask him, and he tells us to come back tomorrow to see it. So we leave. Tired, entertained, confused, enlightened, saddened, disappointed, and satisfied. The Copan circus was the most bizarre and entertaining cultural experience to date and wouldn't have had nearly the same effect if it had been any other way. We've done some pretty sweet things with little money here (coke=$0.45, orange-$0.03, maid=$4), but this was one of the best. We were scared to take pictures (because of something we thought we heard in the opening announcements), so we only got a few, but we hope they help you understand what we're talking about a little better.

Here is a video we took waiting for the circus to start :) Enjoy!



and here is a video of the grand finale :) (yes, that is a baby)