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Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving to our dear Family and Friends!
November 15, 2001
From Shawn:
First of all, my apologies for those of you that received 7 “Update letter #8’s”
I guess I got a little excited about how much fun we were having here in
Honduras, and I sent a few extra copies so you would have enough to share with
friends and family. Truth of the matter is that our internet connection here is
really bad! Not like “oh no, I’m not connecting faster that 28.8” that’s just a
given, but that in the afternoon, well anytime between 8am and 4pm Monday
through Friday, the entire internet backbone of the country is so jam packed
with users that is grinds to a halt (considering the internet backbone here is
the size of small mouse compared with the tyrannosaurus rex backbone of the
U.S.). We tried sending the last group update letter as a full group to 136
recipients on Yahoo and Hotmail, which apparently have limits on how many people
to which you can send email. I guess
it sent the letter to some of the people and returned a big list of others that
did not receive the update. This little glitch combined with the fact that we
kept getting disconnected every couple minutes due to a bad phone line (they are
all bad here) means that you get lots of copies to share with your friends, read
twice, or fill up in your “deleted items” folder. We have attempted to remedy
the problem and hopefully this issue will go more smoothly this time around.
Second of all, thank you to all who inquired about our safety from the
Hurricane. We are safe.
The hurricane was on the north coast and we are in the deep south.
Ironically, we were talking to my mom (in
Minnesota
!) and she updated us on the whole
event! Sometimes news travels a
little slowly for us. But, as the
Hondurans would say, “Gracias a Dios” (Thanks to
God) we are safe.
My Thanksgiving
thought for the week is…be safe, travel carefully, and be thankful for the ones
you love the most. More thoughts on
traveling: We went to church on
Sunday, November 4th,
2001
in Corpus, which is a neighboring town 2 hours by bus from Concepción.
After mass we went to introduce ourselves to the priest and share with
him our purpose for coming to
Honduras
.
His eyes lit up when he learned that I have experience with computers and
he asked if I would take a minute to look at his.
Not only did we have a minute, we had an entire afternoon and were
actually on a hunt to find something to do.
We went next door to his house and I checked out the problem.
It looked like he got his computer second hand and whoever had it before
him inserted a 1 page formatted paragraph, on purpose or on accident, into the
auto correct catalog of his Microsoft Word processing program (auto correct it
what changes commonly misspelled words while you are typing). So, every time he
typed the word “con”, the Spanish word for “with”, which is used often, a whole
page of information would appear.
The priest was very thankful that someone finally knew how to fix his computer
and very thankful for the help. He kindly offered us to stay for lunch, which
was a treat as it was our first invitation to someone else’s home for a meal.
His house attendant offered us toast with our baked chicken because they
know that we “North Americans” aren’t used to eating tortillas yet with every
meal. A kind gesture.
She also made the best rice pudding for dessert.
It was definitely a good trade and a fun afternoon of conversation.
Meeting some good friends is our goal for the next couple of months.
It isn’t always easy when you are new.
People not only think you are odd for being foreign, but also think you
are odd for coming to live here and not just passing through.
The language is yet another barrier.
Our limited Spanish makes it difficult to talk about any one topic at
great length. In time, we know
things will come together. Now is
when we are most thankful to have each other and not take our friendship for
granted.
On the ride back we had to ascend a steep, narrow, rocky pass (think
San Francisco
streets with a sheer of rock on your
right and a sheer drop of 100+ feet or so on the left); Jennifer turned to me
and asked, “Shawn, what would happen if the bus stalled right now?” I responded
with, “Well, I guess we would stop.” Then she questioned, “Ok, but what if the
brakes didn’t work?” I stated smartly, “Then the bus driver would use the
emergency brake.” Followed by, “Oh Jennifer, I don’t think that would ever
happen.” Later as we pulled into town, I noticed that the driver’s helper jumped
out and threw a rock under the wheel to keep the bus from rolling away…so much
for the “emergency brake” theory. Truth is I pray every time we get on a bus
here, especially since we started riding them from Concepción, which has the
ricketiest most run down busses I’ve seen in this country. The good thing is we
rarely get over 20 mph on most of the roads, and I sometimes think I could ride
a horse faster, if not walk faster to Choluteca (our department/state capital).
I’m pretty sure if I had my trusty mountain bike, I could beat it down the hill
by at least an hour. Since we got here I have heard of two bus accidents on the
faster “highways” (think paved country road in the
U.S.
with no speed limits, no laws, no police, and a group of drivers who do a lot of
assuming as to what the other drivers are going to do). I’ve had several “Oh, no
we are all going to die” moments here. Busses passing semi trucks, busses
passing passenger cars, busses racing busses. Several times we have been in the
left lane of on-coming traffic and played “chicken” with the on-coming car with
3 vehicles passing simultaneously on the same stretch of road, everyone just
kind of moves to the shoulder to allow it to happen. The two bus accidents I
mentioned earlier killed a total of 28 people, so you can see my apprehension
about traveling too much in a country where there isn’t much enforcement of the
traffic laws and there are a lot of drunk drivers.
Jennifer’s turn:
On that happy note, I would also like to add a Thanksgiving wish…that
you spend the day doing something you really enjoy with people you really enjoy.
Like Shawn said earlier, we are fortunate to have one another.
Our recent source of entertainment is the cribbage board I managed to
stuff into our heavy backpacks before leaving for
Honduras
.
We have played many games of cribbage in the last month and have now
started tournaments with each other!
Here is a little trivia for you…How many cribbage games can you play when the
electricity goes out and you only have one candle?
Answer: Depends.
Theoretically, you can play 9 games of cribbage with one candle, however
if you need enough light to go out to the “pila”
(wash area) and brush your teeth before bed, then you better only play 8 games
and brush your teeth fast!
I am also very thankful that I will be spending Thanksgiving with my husband,
Shawn. To me he is still, Shawn; but
I do have a story to share about our new nick-names.
I chuckle at how his (our) names are changing in this town.
We are now referred to as the “Silverado’s” because the Portuguese
pronunciation of “Silvera” really confuses our new neighbors.
But, since everyone recognizes “Silverado” is seems to be a new
translation. My name is shortened to
Yenny…pronounced with a heavy “Y” sound.
And poor Shawn has 4 names:
Miguel, Michael, Mitchell and Sh-Juan.
Back in High school Spanish class, Shawn used the name “Miguel” as his
“Spanish name” and transferred the name here because it is so much easier for
people to pronounce and remember.
Well, in
Central America
, there is a deep fascination with “English” names.
All the little kids will ask us, “How do you say my name in English?”
Sometimes it’s easy…Roberto becomes Robert and
Julieta becomes Juliet. Well,
when we got to Concepción de Maria, people already knew from previous volunteers
that the translation in English for “Miguel” is “Michael.”
So, half the town calls Shawn, “Michael” to be polite and say his name in
English. The mayor of the town calls
him “Mitchell” because he informed us that this is the French translation of
Michael. There are a few people who
actually do try to call him Shawn and that is when you hear something sort of
like, Sh-Juan (similar to
Schwann’s ice-cream). I just
giggle at the many names. We were
told to expect quite a few nick-names by the time we leave.
Shawn-Miguel-Michael-Mitchell, is also my mirror…he keeps me in balance.
In addition to our nick-names, people are fascinated with our blond hair.
Our little neighbor girl, Angie, told her mom that she wishes she could
have blond hair like Jennifer.
Everyone’s hair here is black. There
really isn’t any exception to that rule.
I was flattered and a little surprised at the same time because I realized I
haven’t looked at my hair for about a month.
We don’t have a mirror up here!
It seems kind of odd, but I guess it wouldn’t serve too much of a purpose.
Our neighbors had one mirror and then it broke, so that was the end of
that. I have a very small compact
mirror, which makes it hard to truly see myself. It only shows portions.
Shawn and I use each other for mirrors.
Not only on the outside, but the inside.
Being in a small mountain village gives us an entirely new perspective on
life. I truly believe some of our
best lessons here will be the ones we will learn from each other.
Happy Thanksgiving to each of you next week.
We know this is a year to be thankful for God’s many blessings.
Until we write again,
Shawn-Miguel and Jennifer