Update

As I logged onto my blog today, I realized that it has been two months since I wrote an entry. I cannot believe that two months have passed so quickly or that I am as busy as I am. The funny thing is that I have had to change my definition of "busy" because I am not busy with work but busy with meeting people in my community and talking to new friends. Hondurans are overwhelming to have as friends and since there are about 10 Hondurans who consider me their best friend, I am always occupied with being their friend. I moved into my own house and I barely spend any time in it. When I am in my house, its usually because people in my community are over and I am cooking for them. I have become the person that people come to when they want pizza or cake. Everyday someone will ask me when I am going to make pizza again! I never thought that making pizza would be such a big hit when I first bought the ingredients last month, but it has become somewhat of an obsession!

Unlike some other volunteers, I do not have periods of boredom or depression. I usually crave the seclusion of my house due to the lack of personal time I have. My community is wonderful and generous and in my opinion (as of now), one of the best communities in Honduras. I feel integrated and loved by so many people that I find it hard to miss being in the US.

I spent Christmas here in San Antonio del Norte, which was a completely new experience for me. It was the first Christmas I have spent away from my family. In Honduras, they celebrate the 24th more than the 25th. There are no gifts to be given or received; however, food is given to everyone in mass quantities. I ate more tamales than I have eaten in my entire life. Unfortunately, these tamales are not the Mexican tamales. No. They are made of equal quantities of lard and corn and filled with chicken, rice, and potatoes. They are wrapped in banana leaves and cooked for hours. I will not say that I hate them...but they are one of the most disgusting things I have eaten in Honduras. They cooked lard and corn mixture turns into a gelatin-like goo that is not only disgusting but horrible for your heart. People came to my house to give me them. When I went over to someone's house, they gave me them. I could not avoid the damn tamales! Then, I went on vacation for New Year's Eve. We only have garbage pick up once a week on Sundays and I left on a Monday. I emptied my tamale-filled fridge on Sunday night after the garbage truck passed. Needless to say, I left tamales in my garbage bag for about a week and when I cam back my house smelled like roadkill and vomit. When I opened my door, I honestly thought there was a week old dead animal in my house that had been rotting in the sun. Next year, I will make sure that I give my tamales to the dogs or the garbage truck. There is no way I am leaving tamales in my house again!

Anyways...besides tamales, Christmas is mostly a religious celebration in my site. Mass starts at 7pm and goes until 12am. After mass, everyone goes to their houses and makes a huge dinner. I went to one of my friend's houses and we ate dinner at 1 am. Thank God tamales were not served for dinner! We ate dinner and then sang Christmas songs while someone played the guitar. I got home around 3 am. On the 25th, people barely celebrate anything. There was nothing going on in my community. It felt like any other day which bothered me a little bit. The entire Christmas rush was lost because the celebration takes place a day early and only at night.

On the 28th, I left my site to go on vacation with some PC friends. We planned a trip to Celaque--the tallest mountain in Honduras. It was a blast. We climbed half way up the mountain the first day and set up our campsite. On the 31st, we climbed to the top of the mountain and then returned back to our campsite. It took us about 5 hours to hike to our campsite the first day and about 8 hours to hike up to the top and back to our campsite on day 2. Day 3 was the shortest day and mostly a downhill hike to the park entrance. It was so much fun hanging out with PC friends that I hadn't seen since our swearing-in ceremony. Sometimes I get too wrapped up in my community and I forget how awesome it is to hang out with my friends who speak English, are educated and enjoy the same things I do. For example, when I told Hondurans I was going to climb Celaque and spend two nights camping, they looked at me like I was crazy. Hondurans are not very interested in leaving their communities and think that climbing or walking is extremely difficult. However, they would have been right about the extremely difficult part. It was a very intense hike to the top of the mountain and I honestly didn't think we would ever make it! Once we got to the top, I thought we were going to die hiking down the trail. The trail was sooooo steep that hiking up was easier than hiking down. I think I slid down most of the trail! I also fell about 8 times and even considered just rolling down the side of the mountain. When we got back to the city of Gracias (near the mountain), we spent the night in a hotel with hot water and awesome beds! We ate at a restaurant that had regular US-style food like fettuccine alfredo with shrimp, hamburgers, nachos, chicken fingers, etc. I left on the 2nd and spent about 11 hours on buses getting back to my site!! My life seems to switch rapidly from being very Honduran to American and back again to being Honduran!

All in all, I am happy! I love being in my community and I am already thinking about how sad I will be when I have to leave!

Love always!