Honduran Birthday # 2

Bienvenidos,

Thanks for tuning in again. So what's new? Well, it has been about a week since the new volunteers' arrival and during that time there has been plenty of adjusting, getting to know life in Juticalpa and preparing for the upcoming school year. Some are adjusting more easily than others partially due to personal dispositions and tolerance, but also because some houses have more consistent water, internet and less bugs.

In general things are good, especially since we have had 3 birthdays in the last week. We wouldn't let a chance to celebrate escape, so we had to have 3 parties. My birthday was yesterday and so myself with the other volunteers had a gathering.




We grabbed baleadas at the nearby street stand (a sort of burrito type food special to honduras) and enjoyed each other's company.


Here we are.
We had cake that Andrew made too. Andrew has turned out to be quite the cook. He has made cakes for all the birthdays and a couple rico (delicious) dinners. He's winning because he loves cooking and we're winning because we love eating. Here he made cake covered with chocolate sauce and marang topping.

Que rico!

There was plenty for the 14 of us.

We still are getting to know each other, so we had a good time chatting on topics like "first cd ever owned" and "movie that always makes you cry."

After a couple drinks we enjoyed a lively set of relay races. Here is Andrew with his tin cup of rum and coke showing how the relay is done. I don't want to go into details about rules of the race, but it involves dropping a quarter into a cup between your legs and you can't use your hands....yea....Here's the Instituto's (junior high) directora, Maki. She was actually the one who brought up the idea of this relay and showed all of us how to do it. I am sure the parents of our students would be glad to know their children were in the hands of such sophisticated and upstanding people.

We all got in on it...here's Bridget (1st grade teacher)

and Anne (pre-school)

Jeff (6th grade)




and yours truly complaining about how the quarter kept bouncing out of the cup.

Here is our guy's relay team.

And after that, Andrew who is British, decided to unveil his college drinking songs. We all enjoyed the him about the great pubs of Yorkshire.

It was a great birthday, even though I wasn't home with all you in the States.

Tomorrow school starts for the Escolar (primary school) and the following week for the Instituto. Also, I will be going back to the San Diego on Thursday for a friend's wedding, Brendan Summers, but returning quickly for the beginning of school.

More to come later.

Te bendiga (bless you)