Day 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380
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Day 366 - Friday, November 1, 2002
We spent the morning and afternoon translating for the medical brigade in Triunfo, a neighboring community. They brigade brought down 35 medical personnel who saw more than 1500 people in the week that they were there. It was a Christian mission and all the people there really seemed to have a heart for service and Christ. They prayed with many of the people who came to receive medical services and coordinated with local pastors to follow up with the people who they had witnessed to. It was great experience and my only regret was that we didn't come on Monday when the brigade started so we could have been there the whole week.
Michelle came home with and we had soup and home made biscuits. It is always so nice to have people visit us in our site. It makes us feel more like it is our home when we can entertain.
We played "Phase Ten" in the evening and I worked on the website.
Day 367 - Saturday, November 2, 2002
We went to Mass this morning and my little friend Douglas came with us which was nice. I gave him a rosary a week ago and he wanted the priest to bless it for him. He said he likes to take it with him when he has to walk distances out into the fields to work.
In the afternoon we got ready for out trip to Teguz this next week.
Day 368 - Sunday, November 3, 2002
We left for the capitol this morning on the 6:30 am bus and arrived in Tegucigalpa around 11:30 am. The trip seems shorter each time we take it, however 5 hours is 5 hours and it is still a pretty long trip. Jen and I have gotten into the habit of reading on our journeys to the capitol. I read about 100 pages on the bus ride.
We checked into the Honduras Maya hotel and while doing so ran into Matt in the lobby who had stopped by to get money from the cash machine. We checked into our room and went to lunch with him, his roommate, and his roommate's girl friend. We went to a nice restaurant for a Sunday afternoon brunch special. Being in Teguz is always kind of overwhelming. There are so many cars and people. So many other Americans, and at times it is such a drastic change from the little country town we live in that it is overwhelming.
In the evening we went to see the movie "Mr. Deeds" with some of the other volunteers. It was pretty funny. Afterwards we went to TGI Fridays for a snack and to hang out before heading back to the hotel.
We are all in Tegucigalpa (all of the Municipal Development and Water/Sanitation Development workers) this week for our "mid-term medicals". Peace Corps does a 1 year check up to make sure everything is going well and that all of our medical woes are documented properly. They send us to a few doctors to check us out, clean our teeth, and do tests to make sure we are healthy. Jennifer is here too so she doesn't have to come back in two weeks when her sector is doing their medical exams.
Day 369 - Monday, November 4, 2002
I went to the dentist this morning for a cleaning. I was hoping he would put in the inlay I have been waiting about 2 months for now, but he told me they lost it in the mail and would have to start all over again. I don't think they loose teeth in the mail as much as they do down here.
I also went to see an orthopedic surgeon to check my foot out. About 4 months ago I was playing soccer in our small patio with the little kids and kicked the wall of the house stubbing my toe. I thought maybe I had broken it as it is still a little sore at time. He said everything looked fine and was just a soft tissue injury, and would get better with time.
In the evening we went out to eat Pizza and then retired to our hotel room.
Day 370 - Tuesday, November 5, 2002
I didn't really have any medical items to take care of today so I went to Matt's office and used his high speed internet connection to fix up the website. It hasn't been working properly for the last couple of months and I couldn't fix things up with out a fast connection. So now it is all fixed up and working correctly and I am happy.
In the evening Jennifer and I went to the movie "The Road to Perdition" Staring Tom Hanks and then went back to the hotel.
Day 371 - Wednesday, November 6, 2002
I still didn't have much medical stuff going on today. I dropped some cloths off at the laundry mat to be washed as I am out of clean cloths. We usually pack pretty light since we have to travel so far to get here and it is just easier to do a load of laundry than to pack everything we would need for the week we are here.
The modem for the laptop finally arrived today and we now have a modem that works again. We are pretty happy about that.
We went to lunch at a Sushi bar and had a really good lunch of various "rolls". They "rolls" were different kinds of shrimp, crab, vegetables, rolled in rice.
In the evening we went to visit Wilmer, his wife Angelica, and their baby Diego. Wilmer was a Spanish instructor at the training center we went to when we first got here. He now works in the Peace Corps office handling all the mail and taking care of various driving duties. They are such a nice couple and were so nice to invite us over. We took lots of photos of the three of them. They bought take out Chinese food, we took more photos, sang some different songs, and then went back to the hotel. We really clicked with them and they invited us up for Christmas, which will be nice.
Day 372 - Thursday, November 7, 2002
We got up this morning and had breakfast together, went over the detail of the next 24 hours, and ran some errands. At noon I got together with David, another volunteer, and we talked about using access as a an inventory control program. I'm not very sold on the idea (which was mine) as it requires some technical expertise that just isn't available in Concepción de Maria. The database would track all inventory coming and going in the cooperative. I just don't think I would be able to build it to be "fool proof" or get it to do everything they would like it to do. We are looking at buying another program, but we haven't seen how it works or if it would serve our needs. There is a business in the capitol that is using it and we are working on setting up a demonstration.
Around 1 pm I left with several other volunteers for Lago Yajoha where there is a large hotel that Peace Corps is now using for "official" meeting of the various support groups. I belong to VAC, which is the volunteer advocacy council. We work with the administration to work out policy and politics with in Peace Corps Honduras. There are about 12 of us that represent the 270 people currently serving here. They have started holding meeting outside of the capitol as they are trying to cut down on volunteer exposure to dangerous situation. Tegucigalpa, the capitol, is very dangerous and is said to be the second worst city for American safety only to Bogotá, Columbia.
On our way to the lake we stopped at a military base that is run jointly by the U.S. and Honduran governments. It was very interesting, and seemed like a little oasis along side the road. The lawns were well kept with real grass, they had roads that were in good repair and the grounds were very clean. We went to the store on base that the directors of Peace Corps get to use since they are foreign service officers and get special privileges. We bought some beverages and chips for the evening meetings.
When we arrived at the lake we relaxed for a little while and then met with the other VAC representative to go over the agenda for the next day and come to agreement on what would be discussed the next day. The meeting took a couple of hours and it was soon time to go to bed.
Day 373 - Friday, November 8, 2002
I got up this morning, had breakfast in the restaurant, and then went to our meeting. The meeting lasted about 2 1/2 hours. We had lunch and then left to go back to the capitol. About 1/2 way back the sub-directory, Jeff, got a call from a volunteer in a community about 1 hour off the road we were on that his life was being threatened by someone in town. Apparently the volunteer has only one month of service left to go and has been dating a young lady in the town. Her father, who had been drinking heavily and who lives an hour away in another town, had came by twice in the last two days trying to start a fight with him. The last time he saw the volunteer he threatened to kill him. Some of the people in the town told him he should take the threat seriously as the man is known to carry a gun and killed someone about six months earlier. Since I have experience with crazy drunk people I was invited to accompany Jeff and the director out to the site to pick the two volunteers up and bring them to Tegucigalpa.
We arrived and got them out with out incident. Apparently they guy left on a bus right after we arrived.
We got home around 6:30 pm. I changed and we went to dinner with Matt and his mom who had come down to visit for a couple of weeks. We went to Alandra, which is a nice restaurant right next door to the hotel we were staying in so it was really close for us.
After dinner we went back to our room. I watched TV. for a while Jennifer did email. Jen ended up staying up until 3 am typing email.
Day 374 - Saturday, November 9, 2002
We got up and went with Matt and his mom to a large market near the national stadium. I with I would have brought my camera as it was pretty cool. There were stalls with fresh vegetables, fruits, meats, fish, everything you could want (at least that is available in Honduras). It was really cool, and the produce was the best I have seen since we came here. We bought a bunch of vegetables and fruits.
Since Matt was taking his mom to visit Concepción de Maria, we got a nice ride in an air conditioned car back to our house.
We ate dinner, cleaned up the house a little, and put things away. After dinner we did our Spanish tapes and went to bed.
Day 375 - Sunday, November 10, 2002
We got up this morning and went to church we were saddened to find out that the mass that was supposed to be held on Saturday morning happened Saturday evening after we arrived and we missed it.
We a nice surprise in that the neighbors got a new puppy. It is the daughter of our guard dog Ranger and is a mix between Doberman and German shepherd. She is really cute and they have given her the same name as our previous guard "Violeta" who died around Christmas time last year from some mysterious disease, bite, sting, or poisoned food; we don't know what killed her.
We worked most of the afternoon on cutting vegetable, making crust, and making sauce for homemade pizza that we later ate at the Mayorga house. The pizza was excellent and Jennifer did an awesome job getting everything together and baking it.
Day 376 - Monday, November 11, 2002
We worked on Spanish all morning using our Foreign Service Institute Spanish tapes. We are working on mastering the subjunctive. In Spanish the subjunctive there are 14 different tense conjugations and each one of those has their own sub set of 6 (we only use 5 of them) person conjugations. The tense conjugations deal with the way the word is used and the time it is used like present, past, and future. the person conjugations deal with who you are talking about be it I, you, he, she, it, them, or us. Each one uses a different conjugation of the verb. In Spanish the subjunctive is used mostly for showing doubt, desire, or imposition of will. It has been the most difficult thing to learn so far.
After Spanish we went to the high school to print and copy our final exam for our English classes. The kids are getting out two weeks earlier than they had told us they were only two weeks ago, so it really throws our lesson plans into a difficult spot. They did not know that school would be ending early until last Friday, and now they have 5 days to complete everything. They kids have no time to study and have been caught totally off guard.
In the afternoon we went to the cooperative to continue our computer classes.
Day 377 - Tuesday, November 12, 2002
Today is our 30th Month-a-versary! In the morning we walked with Ruth and then went to high school to give our final exams for English classes.
In the afternoon I walk a half hour in the 100 degree sun so I could go find some month-a-versary flowers for Jennifer. I found some wonderful orange daisy looking things that she really liked. Douglas came over and we cut firewood together so it was small enough to fit into our grill. While we were cutting wood Jennifer prepared us a wonder pasta for lunch. After lunch I played cards with Douglas for a while and then worked on the journal and some other work stuff.
At 4 pm we went to the cooperative to do our computer classes and revisit the goal that we had put forward for them the week before, namely keeping the store clean and in a neat order. They have almost got it down and are really close to having a nice store. In the mean time someone else in town is competing with them in a big way. I went to look for some chicken earlier in the day and was directed to a small store that I have visited in the past. I was surprised to find that they had expanded their store and now had a ton of stock, stacked up, and looking very clean. It was the picture of what we wanted our store to look like. It was very nice. The people in the cooperative are still having a difficult time with the idea that stock gets tucked away or put in the "stock room" until it can be put on the shelf and the isle in from the products is not a good place to store things.
After computer classes we went to Spanish classes at Ruth's house.
In the evening we tried to contact our neighbors sister on yahoo chat, but she wasn't around.
We had a great dinner that Jennifer had planned and prepared. She made kung pow chicken from a box mix she had found in Teguz the week before and is was really good. We had it with pea pods and it was very tasty.
Day 378 - Wednesday, November 13, 2002
We went for a walk this morning with Ruth and Yami (the librarian). The morning walks along with everything else are tiring and I am continually wondering why my energy level is so low. Usually when we exercise we have more energy, but here everything is so much work. Just to get to level ground we have to walk 15 minutes out of town, otherwise we are walking on uneven rocks. My feet have been killing me lately and I am wondering if it is from the rocks or if I need to spend more time stretching. I stubbed my big toe a few months back and my foot still occasionally has a lot of pain if I step on a rock the wrong way. I went to an orthopedic surgeon last week to check and make sure everything was in its proper place and he said nothing had been broken, but that I probably had a soft tissue injury.
We then had a breakfast of Chocolate pancakes, grapefruit, tangerines, and home made star fruit juice. It was yummy and I love the chocolate pancakes. After breakfast we went to the high school to finish our final exams for our English classes. the exams went pretty well, and you could definitely tell those who studied and those who didn't.
We came home and ate the leftovers from our month-a-versary dinner and then had some quiet time. I have been feeling really exhausted lately and think I may need more sleep at night.
Day 379 - Thursday, November 14, 2002
We were supposed to go to el Peñon this morning and got word at the last minute that they have decided to wrap up their classes a two weeks early as well and today would be their last day. Disappointment and relief both came at the same time as it is 2 hours uphill, but we had really looked forward to visiting them one more time before the end of the school year.
We spent the day reading, doing Spanish tapes, and relaxing.
Day 380 - Friday, November 15, 2002
With Christmas only a month and a half away, school out, and several projects in only the infantile stages we are finding our schedule slowing down. I had planned on going to Choluteca (4 hours away) to buy a propane tank as ours is empty. I told my neighbor about it and she told me that Benito was now selling propane. I was pretty excited about this for two reasons: I actual knew who Benito was, where he lived, and have talked to him several times (he made me a grill a few months back) and because my 7-8 hour trip to buy propane just turned into a 30 minute trip across town on foot to get what I needed at the same price. So I hiked over to the other side of town and bought a new propane tank. I was excited to find when I got home that the tank valve made a really good seal with my regulator, I was not so excited to find that the internal safety valve that keeps the gas from escaping when you remove the regulator was really sticky and when I pulled the regulator off gas rushed out of the tank at 500 psi hitting me in the side of the head and scaring Jennifer pretty badly. Being the "why did that happen" kind of guy I did it again and sure enough it is a constant problem. It only happens for about a second, but it seems like a lot of gas gets out in that time.
Day 381 - Saturday, November 16, 2002
Jen left on the early bus to Choluteca to go visit a new volunteer and do some grocery shopping. She met with Camille, did her shopping and was home by 4 pm. In the mean time I organized the neighboring families to clean up our common backyard which has become strewn with dead leaves, weeds, and garbage. since there is no garbage service here all of our trash is fed to the animals (chickens mostly) or burned. I burn my garbage in a makeshift incinerator which is in desperate need of repair after the rainy season tore it apart and it is just a pile of rocks now. The neighbors just pile everything into a big loose pile and burn it. Today's garbage was still smoldering when the sun set. Douglas came by and helped us clean up. He was especially useful as he brought his machete and did quiet a number on all the weeds and nasty plant life that had sprung up.
Douglas is at times a challenge. Today he showed up about 2 hours early, then came back 45 minutes later and told me he would just watch TV (our neighbors have a TV on the patio) and wait till I was ready. I didn't see too much wrong as our neighbors opened a new store on the patio and people are constantly out there watching TV, so no big deal. He came into the house twice with out saying anything looking for a glass of water, which we've told him before he needs to knock or ask for permission to enter the house as a mater of courtesy, and because you can see into the bedroom from the rest of the house (there is no door) and you never know when one of us might be changing. The second time he came in he helped himself to water in the fridge. This would be an odd enough situation to deal with in English, but it is even more difficult in a non confrontational culture and doing it in Spanish.
In the afternoon I worked on an instruction manual for teaching computer classes.
Day 382 - Sunday, November 17, 2002
We went to church this morning. Douglas joined us and made the effort to ask to join the youth group there. We also said we would like to participate in activities in the future as well.
I spent most of the afternoon reading with a short break to do a Spanish tape.
Day 383 - Monday, November 18, 2002
We were supposed to go to Douglas' house this morning, but he never showed up to take us there. After an hour or so we called it a wash and worked on Spanish. I did some more reading and Jennifer made home made soup.
In the afternoon we taught computer classes at the cooperative then did some visiting at a few different neighbor's houses.
Day 384 - Tuesday, November 19, 2002
We got up nice and early and went to Ruth's house where we made American style waffles with real Aunt Jemima syrup and bananas. She really seemed to enjoy it although getting out of bed wasn't so fun as I met her with a camera flash.
After breakfast Jen and I went for a walk.
Douglas stopped by in the middle of the day to let us know that something came up yesterday and he couldn't come by to get us.
In the late afternoon I went to the library to print some photos for a creative memory page Jennifer is working on putting together. I had my mom bring us a printer cartridge and some photo paper so we could print some of the 1000's of photos we have from the digital camera. The quality is excellent and I can't wait to buy a new printer when I get home and print of these photos. The library has an older HP printer that prints good pictures, but I knew there are some new printers out now that print outstanding photos.
After the library we went to the Mayorga's house to have dinner and eat birthday cake.
Day 385 - Wednesday, November 20, 2002
We got up and went for a walk today with Ruth and Yami today. We had a little more time so we walked a little farther than usual and did more running along the way. When we got home we went into overdrive to finish some of the things we would like to have done this week. We had some readings from our Spanish exercises to finish, some other reading in the Bible to take care of (we are working our way through the entire bible), cloths to pack for an upcoming trip, the house to clean, cloths to get ready for the laundry lady who came this afternoon, and email to be sent.
We are planning a short trip to the northern island of Roatan. I'm hoping to do some more S.C.U.B.A. diving while we are there. We are meeting a few other friends there and making a long weekend of it. It should be fun and a much needed get away after the overly stressful times spent teaching lately.
Around noon I went to the high school to send email and find out what was wrong with their printer. They sent me a message that they were having problems with the printer in the computer lab. I cleaned it out and it seems to work pretty well now, I think there a staple stuck in it somewhere causing it to jam.
When I got home I didn't feel very well and was wondering if I got food poisoning or something along those lines. My stomach doesn't feel right and I can't tell if it is from our new abdominal workout or something I ate. I haven't had any of the tell tale signs like diarrhea or vomiting so I'm holding out that it's a 24 hour flu bug. I had no energy and took a 3 hour nap when I got home. As I write this I've just finished a bowl of soup and some crackers. My stomach still feels funny, but I feel like I have a little more energy. I guess we'll see.
I left Jennifer go off to attend a meeting we had planned for a group of families that would like to create a community bakery and to teach computer classes at the cooperative. She has been working really hard while I've been sleeping. I'm hoping I can make it up to her.
Day 386 - Thursday, November 21, 2002
We celebrated our god daughter's birthday today. Jennifer Maria turned one year old and we celebrated with a traditional birthday party. We help decorate and set everything up. Many of the neighbor children were invited and there was a piñata and food for everyone. We took lots of photos and at the end of the night we had a slide show of all the photos that we took on the digital camera. This is a new tradition here with us taking lots of photos and then showing them at the end of the evening. Jennifer was very cute and they had her all dressed up in a nice white dress.
In the afternoon we had computer classes in the cooperative.
Day 387 - Friday, November 22, 2002
Left for Roatan early this morning arriving in Teguz around 11:30 am b y bus and then by plane to the island arriving around 3:30 and getting the resort about 4 pm. We had some problems with the room arrangements (at "Foster's Cabins" in that one of the rooms that we were supposed to be sharing with some of the other volunteers was locked and they were not able to locate a key for the room. So the son of the owner put us in another room and told us he would go look for the key. We were under the impression that because of the inconvenience of it we were receiving another room. The owner showed up and told us to get our stuff out of the room he had put us in, which was a bit of a disappointment as it was a really nice room. Our friends arrived around 5:30 and they still didn't have a key for the other room they also told us that we were short one bed for the sleeping arrangements that we had made. We waited around about 45 minutes for the key and decided to go to dinner at a little restaurant called "Bite on the Beach".
Dinner was good we had chicken fingers and french fries. In the middle of dinner I went back to the rooms to check on the situation and met with the son of the owner who said they weren't able to locate a key and would put us in the room under the one that we were currently in. This was great as we now had enough beds and a really nice room with a living room where we could all hang out and eat together. We moved some of our things into the new room, got the key from the owner's son, and went back to dinner.
About 45 minutes later one of the owners employees showed up and told us we had to come back to the resort as there was a problem. When we got back he proceeded to tell us to get our things out of the really nice down stair room and move them into the room upstairs where they had gotten to door open. I protested and said we like the down stairs room and didn't understand why were kept getting shifted from room to room. I was especially unhappy that one of the people in our group was giong to have to sleep on the floor on a thin mat. I told him that it was not an acceptable bed and they had to rectify the sleeping arrangements before we would vacate the down stairs room. After arguing for more than an hour he left and return a short time later with a single bed for us to use. I told him that this was not a very professional way to run a business and that he should deliver a message to the owner that we were not very happy with the way we had been treated and were very disappointed. When he got the keys back for the down stair room he stormed off and said a few thing in Spanish that were not so nice. When we asked him for the keys to our new room he said there weren't any and they had "jimmied" the door to get in. So we had no key to secure they items in our room if we decided to go out.
Day 388 - Saturday, November 23, 2002
Jen and I got up early and went for a walk along the beach. We had a beautiful view of the beach from the patio of our rooms.
We waited around in the morning for the owner to arrive, but by 9 am we were pretty anxious to get out and explore the island. We walked to half moon bay which was about 45 minutes away by foot. It was nice walk as we just followed the beach front for a couple of miles until we ended up in the West End.
We checked out dive prices and signed up for a couple of dives at "Coconut Tree Divers" and then went out for ice cream at new shop that had their grand opening last time we were there. The owners are a couple of Americans and have a huge National Geographic map on the wall where they put pins in all the places where their customers are from all over the world. They have pretty good ice cream and pizza.
In the evening went to Mass at an outdoor church (photo) that was located behind the bamboo hut laundry. It was an outdoor church located in a bamboo grove. The bamboo grove was home to several humming birds which was cool as they were flying around and sucking sugar water from a feeder the owners of the grove had put out.
After Mass we went out to dinner at the Argentinean grill with several of our friends. The food didn't seem to be as good as we remembered to from last time. After dinner we went to dancing with most of the group. I'm getting kind of old though as around 10pm I was worn out and didn't have the energy to dance and just wanted to go to bed.
Day 389 - Sunday, November 24, 2002
We got up and went to the dive shop this morning. Jen and did our first dive together. It went pretty well and we saw a medium sized sea turtle while we were down there. I went on two more dives while Jen lounged on the beach. The second dive was really cool and we covered a lot of area underwater. It was drift dive along a coral shelf and the current was pretty strong so we moved along the bottom at a pretty good pace.
For lunch we went to the Argentinean grill and had hamburger and french fries. For dinner we hooked up with a couple of our friends who were taking dive lessons and went to a Thai restaurant for cashew chicken.
We got back to our room around 8 pm where we watch a DVD movie that one of our travel companions had brought with them to play on his laptop.
Day 390 - Monday, November 25, 2002
We went on two more dives this morning. the first one was really cool, very relaxed, and Jen had a great time. The second one was a little rough and Jen got really sea sick at the end of the dive.
In the afternoon I got my hair cut.
For dinner we went out to the Half Moon Bay restaurant. The food was excellent and we had about 14 people in our party so there was lots of conversation.
Day 391 - Tuesday, November 26, 2002
We left early this morning to catch the ferry that would take us to La Ceiba, from there we got on a bus and 8 hours later were in Tegucigalpa again. We stayed at the Maya since I had a dental appointment the next day and went out for Chinese food at this new little Chinese restaurant near the Peace Corps office. The food wasn't very good and over priced.
Day 392 - Wednesday, November 27, 2002
We went to the mall in the afternoon and had lunch at TGI Fridays. In the late afternoon I went to the dentist who finally fixed my tooth (I had a filling that came out and after three other visits he finally had the inlay ready and installed correctly). It's nice to have my mouth working again.
In the evening we went to the movie "El Crimen de Padre Amaro" with our friend Debbie. The movie was in Spanish so it was interesting to see if we could follow along. WSe only got lost on a couple of parts.
Day 393 - Thursday, November 28, 2002
We went to a company to look at computer program for cooperative this morning. We met up with Venancio and Feliciano from the cooperative. Venancio is Jennifer's community partner and the new director of the cooperative. The company we went to had told us they had a running copy of the program we wanted to see, but as it turns out they didn't they just had the user's manual.
We went to the retail store where we could buy it to check out the price and finally to the mall where I had noticed that there was a store there that was using the program for their inventory and point of purchase register. Venancio and Feliciano were pretty impressed with the program and said they would see approval to purchase it as soon as they got back to Concepción.
We also went shopping for Thanksgiving dinner stuffs.
Matt and I cooked turkey and Jen and Claire cooked the fixings. We ended up with a pretty good meal by the end of the night despite the fact that we had purchased a frozen turkey earlier in the morning and had to defrost it using boiling water in the kitchen sink. We had dinner at Matt's house and Claire and Austin (another married volunteer couple) joined us.
Day 394 - Friday, November 29, 2002
We slept in this morning and spent the day in Teguz. We opted not to go back to site today as Matt is going to Concepción tomorrow and we can cut our trip down from 8 hours to 3 by riding with him in his air conditioned land cruiser.
We had lunch at another Chinese restaurant that was a little better. We spent the night at Matt's house so we could get a ride the next day and leave nice and early. Jen and I slept on the couch. I'm just happy that Matt was able to buy furniture that had been shipped down from the U.S. as the furniture that is usually sold here in Honduras is very hard and stiff and not very comfortable. The coaches that Matt has are very comfortable and very cushy.
We also got to go to a charity bingo event where we bought bingo cards and food to support an organization that promotes neonatal and children's health here in Honduras. We were very excited as the grand prize was two airline tickets and we were really hoping to win them. Jen almost won and was one space away from claiming the grand prize.
Day 395 - Saturday, November 30, 2002
We left early this morning for Concepción de Maria. Luckily, Matt was going down to Concepción this weekend so we were able to get a ride with him. When we got home we just wanted to rest, as we're both very tired from our visit to Tegucigalpa. Jennifer is also not feeling very well and is coming down with something. There was, however, a graduation ceremony at the high school that we were invited to and kind of expected to attend. So, as soon as we got home we went to the high school where we arrived in time to see the last half of the graduation and even take part in the diploma presentations. This was very interesting in that each of the people who are presenting diplomas was supposed to say a few words about the student. This took me by complete surprise as I did not think that we were going to have to say or do anything, but just sit and watch the kids get their diplomas . Shortly after arriving we had diplomas in our hands and were directed to give them to the students. I think my first speech went something like "congratulations you're going to come back next year right?" everyone seemed to get a pretty good laugh out of that.
We went home and restedmost of the afternoon Jennifer is getting progressively worse and took a long nap this afternoon.
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