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Day 396 - Sunday, December 1, 2002
We had church at home this morning as there is no Mass this week and it is just the "speaker of the word", also of Jennifer is very sick and I didn't think it would be a very good idea for us to venture out and go into town to go to church. She has what looks like a sinus and ear infection. We stayed home all day. Jen slept most of the day and I took care of her making all the meals then making sure that she got plenty to drink.
My mom sent me an e-mail today and offered to pay half the airfare home if we wanted to come home for Christmas. This is a very exciting prospect, but it is also very confusing and I don't think that we will be going home for Christmas as it was not in our plans.
Day 397 - Monday, December 2, 2002
Jennifer is still very sick today, and I went to us to Azucena's house to see if I could buy some medicine for her. Azucena, the town nurse, was not home and was working at the clinic. I talked to her husband, Raphael, who then called Azucena and described the symptoms that I told him and Jennifer had. She told him over the phone to give me some throat lozenges, and to send me down to the clinic where she would have some other medicine for me. I went to the clinic where Azucena had some aspirin and antibiotics waiting for me. She advised me how many of each pill Jennifer was supposed to take each day and said that they should take care of whatever she has.
In the afternoon I went to the cooperative, where we have been teaching computer classes, and was disappointed to find that we were down to one computer for our six computer students. I spoke with the director and asked him if he would call the director of the high school and ask her if we could use the computer lab at the high school. I told him this would work much better since there are seven functioning computers at the high school and we have six students. He agreed, and called the director of the high school who said that we were free to use the computer lab since school was not in session. So, starting tomorrow we will have the classes for the cooperative at the high school where there will be enough computers for each student. This will work out great because it has been very difficult to share computers.
We are still having a very difficult time with the e-mail that my mom send us and do not know if we're going to go home are not. Yesterday we were resolved that we would not be going home and the thought of packing up and going home for Christmas was just out of the question. But, as the hours have gone by and our minds have wandered, we have started thinking more and more about the possibility of going home. We have had several long conversations and even made a list all of the pros and cons of staying in going home. The list and the dialogs have not help much and seem only to make things more confusing. On top of the logistics of going home there is also the emotional strain that it will cause. There is a complete readjustment that we will have to deal with in order for us to go home and in order for us to go home and come back.
Day 398 - Tuesday, December 3, 2002
Jennifer and I talked about going home for Christmas this afternoon. We're both feeling about the same way in that we would really like to go home and visit our families and friends, but we are worried about the logistics, money, and vacation time that we would have to take to go home. We talked to my mom this afternoon and she was really encouraging us to come home she even offered to pay for half of our airfare. We haven't even thought about it until she had sent us an e-mail several days ago offering to pay for half of our airfare if we decided to come home. Now we're trying to decide if it is even possible if we do go home how long we will stay. One of the things that is troubling us is that this month has been a very difficult months to be living in Honduras, and we don't know if we will want to come back after we go home.
I talked to my mom on the phone and she seemed disappointed when I couldn't give her a solid answer as to whether or not we would be coming home. I told her that we would think about it tonight and get her an answer tomorrow.
we had computer classes with the employees from the cooperative visit evening at the high school, and Lolly were there I had an opportunity to look at different airfare prices online. But found one price on American airlines that seemed very reasonable and if my mother would pay for half of the ticket price it would be very reasonable for us to go home. Now we just have to figure out how we work our vacation time. one of the problems with their vacation time is that we don't get a lot of days off and we have to count every day that we are out of our site as a vacation day . We are hoping to go to south America towards the end of our service and make a tour of Argentina, Chile, and Peru. in order to do this we will need a maximum number of vacation day is available. If we also have other visitors that are planning on coming to see us in the next few months including Jennifer's parents, a trip to South America, and the mother of one of Jennifer's friends.
Day 399 - Wednesday, December 4, 2002
I went for a long walk/run and it felt great. I'm in much better shape than when I got here over a year ago. I've lost 30 pounds and hope to loose another 15-20 before we leave in July to go home. I'm still feeling really down about life in general and life in Honduras. I feel like we are trapped here. The cooperative project and future vacation plans are the only thing keeping me here.
Jen and I came to a final decision on going home. We are going to try it and see what happens. I found tickets for $595.00 but the dates are not very good for what we wanted to do. We will be gone longer than we would like to be;. We will have to make due. The deciding factor is the fact that my dad is sick (emphysema/asthma) and we don't know how much longer he will be around. His health has been deteriorating lately and we would feel awful if we never got to see him again.
Jen is feeling better today and went to library to work with the reading club. This is a group of kids that get together at the library to do color sheets that encourage reading and work on character building.
We had another computer class with the employees from a cooperative today. While we were teaching a class I purchased tickets for us to go home for Christmas. This was very exciting in that after we made the decision to go home this afternoon, we both felt very good about the decision. We know now that this is the best decision that we could have made, as we are both feeling very burnt out and really need to recharge our batteries back in the states. Jennifer was so excited this evening that we were going home that she couldn't sleep. She was up until almost 4:00 in the morning doing e-mail, creative memories, and thinking about all the fun things that we would get to do when we go home. We also called my mom this afternoon and told her that we were going to buy the tickets and she is very excited also. She said that she just knew that we needed to come home for Christmas.
Day 400 - Thursday, December 5, 2002
Jennifer left this morning to teach her English club. She is doing a club for kids interesting in learning more about English. It is supposed to be an advanced class for kids from the high school, but I don't know how she is going to swing that. She said they have to pass a oral exam with her to be in the club, but she is not very good at doing things that exclude individuals, so it will be interesting to see how she cuts her numbers down, as there were a large number of students who wanted to be involved. She told me when she got home that her kids from the reading club are also interested in taking her English classes so she is going to do a second English class with many of the kids from the reading club and focus on more basic English skills. She said this is a great group of kids to work with because they are younger and absorb the language more quickly and have less problems with pronunciation. In January we will start team teaching the classes for the month.
In the evening I went to the high school where I am teaching a group of employees from a cooperative basics and computer skills. Today we worked on copy cut and paste in Microsoft Word and tomorrow we will be moving into Microsoft Excel. It is an interesting group of people to work with in that none of them have very much experience in using computers. Some of them are very good and pick up the skills very quickly others are not doing so well. And I have one person who I am pretty sure it can't read very well. His reading level is so low that it's severely inhibits his ability to understand the commands on the computer and follow directions that are written out for him. He told me a few months ago that he was leaving to go to Tegucigalpa (the capital) to find different work as he was not happy with his job at the cooperative. He is basically a stock boy, and not a very good one at that.
Day 401 - Friday, December 6, 2002
I worked on the Roatan video that I'm making for my mom to give to her as a surprise for Christmas. when she visited us in October we went to the island of Roatan, and I am creating a short video of her visit. In the afternoon Jennifer I worked on the Spanish tapes (Master Spanish Level 3 - Foreign Service Institute).
in the late afternoon I taught computer classes to the cooperative employees. Today we started using Microsoft excel and learning the basics of how to make spreadsheets...I can already tell this is going to be interesting.
Day 402 - Saturday, December 7, 2002
We got up early this morning and went to El Peñon to visit a family that we have visited a few other times when we have gone up there to work at the elementary school. They live along the road that goes to the elementary school and have been very friendly and when we have passed by before. They are an extremely poor family and live day to day on subsistence farming, which is just enough to keep them alive. Currently they have run out of beans and are living off of corn tortillas with salt. We went up there to get their children's ages as we have a group of elementary school kids and Jennifer's family that want to send some items down for them. We took some photos of them, and their house.
In the afternoon I worked on the Roatan Video.
Day 403 - Sunday, December 8, 2002
We left at 10:00 AM this morning with our friends from town and drove to Choluteca where we went to the fair. The fear reminded me a lot of the of Anoka County Fair near my home town back in the U.S.. they had food stalls, stalls for selling different kinds of machinery, stalls for selling different commercial items, stalls for selling different items from various cooperatives in the area, in the area for livestock including cows and bulls, and horses. we enjoyed a nice lunch at one of the food stands, and purchase several small gifts for friends and family at home.
we sat for about 1/2 an hour in stands set up to allow us to watch makeshift horse races. If the horse races consisted off two or three riders who would ride around an oval track bareback on horses and compete to see who could run faster. It didn't seem like there were any prizes that we're going to be given out war that there was anyone watching to see who won. It was just a demonstration for the people in the stands to watch people ride by on their horses at full speed.
After the horse races we went to the area where they had the rides set up, as the children were getting restless and wanted to go on rides. We spent about two hours in this area while the children one rides, we went on rides , and we went on rides with the children.
Day 404 - Monday, December 9, 2002
We went to the high school to check email and print some material for a summer school English class at the library this morning. The school hadn't paid their phone bill, so we weren't able to check or send email. This I found very interesting since the school treasurer had asked us if the internet was working right before we went up to use it. Kind of ironic that the phone had been cut since she is the one responsible for paying the bill.
I went to our neighbors house to use their phone to call and they hadn't paid their bill either so their phone line has been cut also. So, I went to the cooperative, who are pretty good about paying their bills on time, and was able to send and receive email. I also had the opportunity to talk to the director of the cooperative about a computer program called "Monica" that we have been researching to buy for the cooperative in order to improve their inventory control, accounting practices, and the accuracy of their sales staff when totaling people's bills. I tried to call a vendor who sells computers as well as the "Monica" program but he was not home.
I came home and worked on the Roatan video, e-mail , and this journal.
Day 405 - Tuesday, December 10, 2002
More time on the video this morning. It is going ok, but I'm really getting frustrated with the video editing software I have as it is continually crashing, and I'm not too happy about that. It makes everything go soooo slowly. When we go to the states I would like to look and see if I can find another program that is more stable and has some more features.
My director stopped by to visit me this morning. She originally was going to come out this way because of problems I was having with my community partner, but she only mentioned that in passing. Due to some recent miscommunications with Peace Corps and the fact that Jennifer and I have separate directors, yet the same work, we suggested that they consider moving one of us to the others sector in order to streamline the communication process. This seemed to be all she was interested in discussing and never asked how any of our projects were going or how we were doing. Which is fine I guess since the decision was made for me to move to business development, Jennifer's director is now my boss too.
Grilled a whole chicken on the grill, saving some for our month a versary in two days. Had hotdogs too.
Taught computer classes to the cooperative employees.
Day 406 - Wednesday, December 11, 2002
I got up early this morning and worked on the Roatan video. I think it is ready for a final run. We are working frantically to get a long check list of things done before we go home for Christmas. We have a long check list of things to finish and have done before we go home.
We went for a walk this morning and then worked on the finishing touches of the Roatan video, Jen is sure it will make my mom cry when she sees it. In the afternoon we did an art project at the library making Christmas ornaments with about 25 kids.
I taught computer classes for the cooperative employees. It went well, I am trying to get them to start working on conceptual thinking instead of wrote memory learning. They are memorizing and taking notes on how to do each step of the process involved in the various functions, but they are not understanding the reason why we are doing what we are doing. Some of the problems come from them being simple people to begin with who haven't had many educational opportunities. So a simple formula like products a to f= subtotal times the tax, then adding them together you get the total, is a really hard concept, as we had to learn how to add the products multiply the tax and then add the two together. In computing the why is important as it is helpful in the future for solving other similar problems. It has been a challenge to try to relative themes to help in the learning process.
Day 407 - Thursday, December 12, 2002
To day was our 31st Month-a-versary. We celebrated with a grand feast. A friend of our from the states sent us a thanksgiving dinner care package that had everything in it but the Turkey. Jen fixed us wonderful meal and for the turkey we had grilled chicken instead. It was wonderful and we decided the turkey on Thanksgiving is important, but it is really just kind of secondary since it is all the other things that make the dinner.
I have her some fresh cut flowers from our garden.
After our wonderful lunch we talked about our "transition plan" for visiting the U.S. Since it will undoubtedly be a big change to be going to MN where the temps will be about 90 degrees colder than where we have been living the last year and a half, and driving a car, and speaking English all the time and everything else that will just be kind of different is bound to cause stress; we have been working on a plan for how we can more effectively deal with some of the stresses and reverse culture shock problems that we may face.
In the late afternoon I taught computer classes for the cooperative employees.
In the evening we started packing. Jen has been packing all week, but we got all our cloths together and started making piles of all the stuff we wanted to take home.
Day 408 - Friday, December 13, 2002
We worked on Spanish tapes for several hours this morning we are working hard to finish "Mastering Spanish Level 3" a mammoth book of Spanish accompanied by 16 cassette tapes. We are on the last couple of chapters and working hard to get them done.
We spent more time editing the Roatan video for my mom and packing some more, and emailing and organizing our plans for the trip home. We also had a Spanish tutor session with Ruth.
Day 409 - Saturday, December 14, 2002
We left early this morning to go visit a small town called "Las Pintadas" or "the painted" they have a few ancient carvings believe to have been left by the Mayan Indians who traveled through the region. Some of the images were interesting, but I had expected a little more than what we saw. The area we went to had about 4 figures etched into solid rock and most of them had been etched over with chalk or something. there is no preservation and the children in the area like to express their own "Mayan art". The town is about 1 1/2 from our town by horse, so Yami (the librarian and a friend of ours) got us a few horses and we rode out to check out the rocks. On the way back Jen was getting pretty saddle sore and luckily Azucena and Rafael were driving by and offered to give Jen a ride back into town. So I took her horse and caught with Yami and Carlito (a boy from town who accompanied us) and Carlito rode the horse as he was riding double with Yami. We did a lot of running with the horses on the way back and I ended up with a callus on my butt since I don't ever ride horses. Overall it was a lot of fun.
We are starting to put the finishing touches on packing and preparing. We spent several hours at the library transferring our videos (of our vacations and our first year in Peace Corps) to video tape so we can play them with the need for the computer when we get home. We are going to give a copy to our parents as a Christmas gift so they can show to friends and other family, and went to mass.
Day 410 - Sunday, December 15, 2002
We finished packing, making presents, and transferring the videos to VHS tape this morning. Time just flew by during the day and in the late afternoon I started making picture frames for a cross stitch Christmas ornament project Jennifer decided to do. The frames took me a long time to do and I finished the last one around 9:30 pm. While we were packing the lights went out, so we had to finish everything by candlelight. It took a little longer to do with only candle light, and we didn't go to bed until 1:00 am.
Day 411 - Monday, December 16, 2002
We traveled to Tegucigalpa on 6:30 am bus this morning. The 8 hour trip seems shorter each time we make it. I can spend 30-45 minutes just looking out the window with out giving it a second thought.
Jen went to the doctor and found out that was before diagnosed as mite bites is really heat rash. I hung out at the hotel while she ran to the doctor.
When we she got home we ordered pizza, yahoo chatted for a while and went to bed.
Day 412 - Tuesday, December 17, 2002
We leave for MN tomorrow and are really excited. We spent the day just relaxing and went to Valle de Angeles looking for a gift for 2003 that we wanted to buy, but they didn't have what we were looking for. We were hoping to use one of the ever valuable "checked baggage" spots to take home a larger item to the states with out having to worry about paying additional fees.
In the evening we went to see the new "Harry Potter" movie, which I give a mixed review to. It was entertaining, but there was a definite "dark" undertone to the whole movie and I am concerned for where the next movies will lead.
For dinner we had Italian take out from a new restaurant near the peace corps office. It was pretty good food, we had spinach gnocchi.
Day 413 - Wednesday, December 18, 2002
We worked out at 7 am this morning to get a good start on things.. Afterwards Jennifer got her hair done and a manicure and pedicure. We had a nice breakfast of bread and fruit and then headed to the airport. At the airport we ran into a bunch of other peace corps volunteers and Matt who were all going to the states for Christmas.
We flew to Miami, then to Chicago and then to Minneapolis. All of our flight transfers went well and we had to run in both Miami and Chicago to reach our gates on time. When we got to the gate in Chicago our flight was delayed and we had an opportunity to sit and relax for 20 minutes and have a snack. I had Cinnabun, which was what I had right before we left to go to Honduras.
In Miami and Chicago I was amazed at how organized everything was and how clean smelling everything was. Scott met us at the airport and once on the freeway heading away from town I was amazed at how big all the streets were and how "nice" everything was. I was completely amazed as I looked out of the airplane window as we flew into Miami. To see all the lights of the city and to think that everyone who lives in the houses below me had electricity, clean water, and probably a vehicle or two in their garage was pretty amazing to me. I was reminded how large and incredibly organized the U.S. is. I marveled at this when we flew into Chicago as well. For as far as the eye could see there were lighted streets that ran as straight as an arrow and looked like someone had drawn them onto the ground. In Tegucigalpa the city looks kind of like a giant sink hole that used to be a city, that just kind of fell into this huge valley.
We arrived at Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport with out any problems and were met by our friend Scott who we would be staying with for a day. We were also met by Jen's parents as a surprise and said hello to them before heading to Scott and Jami's house.
As we exited the airport I was speechless looking out the car window at the expansive highway system that we were on. In Honduras the widest roads are two lane undivided highways, so when we got onto an 8-10 lane divided highway I was amazed at how big the road was and at 12:30 at night the empty road looked even larger than it would have if it would have been filled with traffic. The drive was smooth and I don't remember feeling any bumps in the road. It was such a pleasant experience to be driving on such a nice road.
Day 414 - Thursday, December 19, 2002
We spent the day with Jami and Scott and visited some of the different areas of their town. They now live in the same town where Jennifer went to college. We had a wonderful dinner and before eating Scott and I made a trip to the emergency room as one of his daughters ran into a door knob and cut her head open. The trip to the ER took about 1 1/2 and their daughter got her head fixed up with some Durabond a superglue kind of thing to glue the cut back together instead of stitches.
We chatted until midnight and caught up on some of the many years that we have been apart. We also showed them some of the videos we have made about our service in Honduras and vacations we've taken.
Day 415 - Friday, December 20, 2002
We drove to Coon Rapids this morning and had lunch with Jennifer's Family. In the afternoon we went to my mom's house to celebrate my mom's birthday. We surprised my sister, her fiancé, my brother, and his wife, which was very fun as they had no idea that we were coming home and all were very excited and surprised.
For dinner we ordered Chinese food and had ice cream cake for desert. It was very fun.
Day 416 - Saturday, December 21, 2002
We spent the morning visiting with my brother and taking a tour of where he has been working. He just finished a project working on a cool inventory picking system that uses a car that move vertically and horizontally in a large shelving unit to pick and store inventory.
For lunch we went to Jennifer's parent's house. For dinner we went to Jeremy and Cindy's house (good friends and parents of one of our God children). We also went to mass with them and had a wonderful night catching up on the last year and a half and enjoying one another's company.
Day 417 - Sunday, December 22, 2002
We went for a walk with Jen's parents this morning, which was very cold. We walked about 3 miles in the cold winter wind and got a cup of coffee at a new Cub Foods near their house. I was overwhelmed when we got into the store. there was just soooo much food. I couldn't imagine them selling all the food in the store. All the shelves were packed so full.
Jennifer hasn't been feeling well today and I think she is getting sick. Either from our cold walk or just from the major climate change that we have experienced coming from 90 degree days to 15 degree days.
Day 418 - Monday, December 23, 2002
We spent the day with my mom today and got ready for our Christmas celebration tomorrow. My uncle John (who got stitches in his hand right before coming to our house after chasing his dog and tripping in a field...I'm starting to wonder if we are bad luck), aunt Kathy and their son Brian and his wife came over for lunch and we had fun telling stories about Honduras and seeing family.
Mark and Deanne also came over and we had Lasagna for dinner and played Cranium.
Day 419 - Tuesday, December 24, 2002
We celebrated Christmas with my family this afternoon. We started with a Christmas service at church and then went home to relax, open presents, and fondue.
Day 420 - Wednesday, December 25, 2002
We drove to Luverne, MN to celebrate Christmas with Jennifer's family and celebrated with her grandparents. The drive down was nice and we drove with Jen's sister and her kids. We had a dinner of ham, scalloped potatoes, and a pork cut that was absolutely wonderful. After dinner we sang Christmas carols and opened presents.
Day 421 - Thursday, December 26, 2002
We spent the day hanging out with Jen's family at her grandparents house in southwestern Minnesota. In the evening we drove home in the evening.
Day 422 - Friday, December 27, 2002
We left early this morning to go visit Jennifer's sister's new house. They are moving at the end of January as they have just purchased a new house. We are very excited for them, but I am nervous about being able to afford someplace to live when we get home.
In the evening we went to a party at Mark and Deanne's house and got to visit with some of our friends.
Day 423 - Saturday, December 28, 2002
Jen went to a breakfast with some of her girlfriends, sisters, and her mom. I spent the afternoon with my brother. In the evening we went to visit our friends from Argentina, Laura and Honduras. It was so fun to visit with them in Spanish and be able to understand everything that they said and to be able to express ourselves.
Day 424 - Sunday, December 29, 2002
We went to Mass this morning and it was nice, but different from when we left. There have been a lot of changes in the church since we left and it just seemed different.
We hung out with my mom and dad in the afternoon and in the evening we went to a Brenda Wailer concert at the 400 bar with Cindy, De, and Jim.
Day 425 - Monday, December 30, 2002
We left for home flew from Minneapolis to St. Louis then to Miami. We stayed overnight in Miami in a cheap little hotel. It was ok, and nice not to have to sleep in the airport.
Day 426 - Tuesday, December 31, 2002
We left for Honduras this morning and went to Matt's house. Matt is in the U.S., but we ended up on the same flight out of Honduras and were talking. We didn't have any place to stay when we got back into town and he needed someone to water the plants in his house for him while he was away so he gave us his keys and we decided to pass the new year alone at his house watching T.V. and enjoying a nice take out dinner of something or other.
Ahh, the best laid plans of mice and men... When we arrived at Matt's house the key that opens the front gate didn't work or was missing and we had to go talk to his landlord who had no idea we were coming since we made our plans in the airport. She was pretty reluctant to give us keys to get into the gate, but did after a lengthy conversation. We then went to the mall to check out movies and found that the theatre was closing early that day and all the movies that were in progress were the last ones of the day. So we went to the grocery store and to a warehouse membership club commodity store near the mall that just happened to be having an open house. It is like a Costco or Sam's Club. We don't have a membership so it was nice that they had an open house. We bought a frozen pizza, Sarah Lee frozen cheese cake, and some huge black berries and headed back to Matt's house. We were even more disappointed to find earlier that all the restaurants and other stores would be closing after 4pm so we had to make due. Back at Matt's house more disappointment met us as we found that the telephone and cable were not working so we couldn't call our parents to tell them we landed safely or email or watch the ball drop in New Year for New Years Eve. So we broke out the lap top and one of the movies we got for Christmas "Remember Me" and watched a movie and pigged out on pizza and cheese cake. It was fun, but kind of lonely after the last two weeks of constant attention from friends and relatives.
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