Adios, La Ceiba!

My final days in La Ceiba were spent buying souvenirs, saying goodbyes, and relishing precious quality time with the McCanns. Wednesday night was a huge soccer game between Honduras and Costa Rica. The entire McCann clan and I got decked out in our blue and white Honduras jerseys (even Ellie, a Costa Rican citizen) to watch the game and enjoy a homemade pizza dinner. Our spirit clearly enabled the Honduran 4-0 victory.

Afterwards, Lindsey and I decided to satisfy our curiosity about a certain La Ceiba post-game tradition. After any semi-significant soccer victory for Honduras, residents drive to the main drag downtown to experience "the caravan." From motocycles, truck beds, bar balconies, and sidewalks, fans cheer, wave blue and white Honduran flags, honk, and throw water at one another. The caravan was so loud that we couldn't even hear our own car horn! Lindsey and I (two white chicks in a 13-passenger van) probably stood out a little, but we didn't care. We were too busy chanting, "Hon-du-RAS! Hon-du-RAS!" to notice. We returned home pumped with adrenaline and very proud to be living in Honduras (even if only for another 24 hours).

The next morning we piled my bags (exactly the max weight limit) into the car and headed into Armenia one last time (for a while, anyway). Lindsey and I had made a big batch of snickerdoodle cookies the night before and were excited to pass them out to a few of my favorite friends. It's really amazing how many children will come running once they see the big blue van pull in, and so we didn't have to look far to visit with Vilma, Jorge, Walter, Marcos and Hacey's family, Estela and Gabby's family, and Yami. I didn't anticipate I'd have such a hard time saying goodbye. After all, these people had been complete strangers to me just a month before. When Yami told me she loved me very much and I'd always be close to her heart it nearly brought me to tears. I was also incredibly touched by Vilma, who held me close and couldn't stop crying. She told me that the gringos were her only friends and so when we leave, she has none (wow).

Our final visit was with Estela and Gabby's family. I know it's cruel to have favorites, but with Estela, it was kind of impossible not to. Just like always, we pulled up in the van and she ran to me and jumped into my arms --now THAT'S a celebrity greeting! No sooner had I handed her the bag of cookies was she ripping it open and stuffing one in her mouth. She was eager to show off her dog's newborn puppies, picking them up by the front legs and spinning them around. Before I knew it, she bolted into the house, yelling, "tenemos un gato tambien!" (we have a cat too!) As soon as she stepped out on the porch again, the poor feline went flying out of her arms and onto the ground for us to admire. As we turned to leave, I gave that sweet seven-year-old one last hug and told her for the thousandth time how pretty her long hair was. At this, she raced off to the washing basin and completely immersed herself in water to show me how long her hair REALLY was. She's sassy and I like it. The only peace I felt in saying goodbye to Yami and the kids was convincing myself that I'll be back again someday.

My street...not a bad view, huh?

My house

Where the chaos ensued each day.

What a blessing my time in La Ceiba has been, and how much I’ve learned! This past month, living under the mango tree in the McCann’s backyard, I’ve learned to say, “Taking care of children is not always pretty, but it’s real.” Parenting demands unnatural amounts of patience, cheerios, and fresh clothes, but the payoff is a lifetime of free entertainment! I’m going to miss the simplicity of life in Honduras, where frizzy hair, grubby clothes, and no make-up reign and where most problems can be solved with a pacifier and cheerios. I’ve loved every minute of my time in La Ceiba and, Lord willing, I’ll be back again. In preparing for my trip several months ago, I had a plenty of misgivings about living in a foreign country, not being able to raise enough support, and the political unrest in Honduras, but God continued to provide and made it extremely clear that I needed to go. I experienced first hand that authentic joy comes only from the Lord, and I’ve never felt so blessed.

Readjusting to home life has had it's ups and downs. I now freeze in my own home and often have trouble falling asleep because it's too quiet here...no dropping mangos, neighbors with chronic sneezing problems, crazy birds, or loud AC box next to my head at night; I can actually sit on my skirt in church now...I used to lift it up and drape it over the back of my chair in Armenia services so I wouldn't sweat through! (gross, I know, but it's true life); and it seems my sand fly bites have resurfaced and are itchier than ever!! The delicious steak dinner (God bless you, mom) and seeing family and friends once again made being home well worth it! So goes the transition from Honduras, to the States, to JMU tomorrow! Until the next adventure...

Snorkeling in Cayos Cochinos

The McCanns are so good to me! On Saturday, Lindsey and I enjoyed a day off snorkeling with the team. Our adventure began at 7am at the Pettengill's, where a tour guide van picked us up. Thirty minutes later, we were boarding small motor boats led by the Garifuna people (black natives who live on the islands). After a very bumpy 50-minute boat ride, we arrived at our first island for an informational video. While this 6-minute video was not so helpful and pretty unnecessary, I did learn that turtles who migrate each year to Cayos Cochinos mate 24 hours a day for 3 months...AND that 95% of the males die in the process (the females survive because they can eat at the same time). After the guide made sure that all of us had "made snorkeling" before, we boarded the boats once again and made our way to the premium snorkeling destination. On the way, we passed starfish, crab, and volcanic rock.

On the boat, headed for Cayos!

El Arbol Solitario (the lonely tree)

Snorkeling was amazing. The clear, turquoise blue water, made it easy to see various schools of colorful fish and coral reef. Once I got the hang of breathing normally and stopped choking on saltwater, I recalled the brutal oceanography course I took fall semester. This was the first time I found this class to be remotely useful (and probably the last time too).

All decked out and lookin' goooood

Lindsey and I

After about an hour of snorkeling bliss, we hopped in the boats to check out another island. Surrounded by volcanos, huts with thatched roofs, crystal clear ocean, and white sand, we enjoyed jumping off the pier, wading in lukewarm water, lying on the beach, getting heat rash and eaten alive by sand flies. The entire time, Lindsey and I couldn't stop saying, "Can you believe we're here right now!?" Everything looked so fake, like I was trapped inside a postcard or a Corona commercial.

Just another day in Paradise

Phew, being a nanny is tough!

Next stop was lunch. We boarded our motor boats once again and headed to another small island. We stopped at the only local restaurant and ordered their specialty: a plate of fried fish, rice and beans, and fried plantains. In preparing the fish, I imagine they did little else than season it with salt and throw it on the skillet because that's exactly the way it was served: eyes, head, teeth, and tail all still intact. I felt right at home since I'd had nearly four months practice with the same kind of seafood-prep in Spain. Besides, it's amazing what one will eat if it's fried. For me, the only downside of the meal was the woman openly nursing her 3-year-old just a few feet away. I guess this is normal here too.

Delicious lunch!

Mike, Lindsey, and I

From here, we got in the boats for the last time and headed back to the mainland. In the entire one and a half of traveling, I'm not sure that more than three words were spoken between the team as a whole. Everyone was beyond exhausted from a fun-filled day in the sun.

As usual, team dinner was at 5 at the Pettengill's. Afterwards, everyone came over to the McCann's for dessert of chocolate cream cheese cookies and coconut cookies. Yum! Lindsey and I found ourselves in bed soon after the girls...around 8:30. Yikes, I'm old.

I woke up Sunday with stomach pains and a fever. Lindsey was very accommodating and let me sleep most of the day. What a useless nanny! Thankfully, I've felt a lot more like myself today. I'm praying that I continue to get better and am able to be a blessing to the McCanns during my last few days here.

Vamos al Rio!

Yesterday, my sweet, surrogate family gave me the day off. Erin Pettengill picked me up and we headed into Armenia for a team lunch of baleatas at Teresa's house. Teresa lives next door to the house Sovereign Grace Church built a few weeks ago and cooks lunch once a week for the teams. It's pretty incredible how much this woman can do in her makeshift outdoor "kitchen" (below). Some of the girls and I tried helping Teresa make tortillas. I say "tried" because in the time it took me to make just one small, deformed tortilla, Teresa made 5 or 6 large, perfect ones. She enjoyed a good laugh over our stupid gringo attempts. I am more humbled here everyday.

Teresa's kitchen

While Teresa worked, her baby slept...in a hammock on the front porch. I risked being viewed as a huge stalker because I had to get a picture. I'm pretty sure you'd get arrested for this in the States.

Waiting around for lunch

We also had fun playing with Oso's new puppies! Oso ("bear" in Spanish) is the family dog and just had 7 little ones a little over a week ago. They enjoyed a big bowl of rice and beans (apparently, even the dogs keep up with Honduran culture) and a long nap under the pick-up truck.

I guess the rice and beans were a hit!

After lunch, we piled in two truck loads of children and headed to the river to swim at a spot called "tres piedras" (3 rocks). Once again, I was blown away by my picturesque surroundings, which give beauty to even impoverished Armenia. As I spent a fabulous afternoon jumping into the river off the rocks, swimming in pouring rain with some of my favorite little Honduran friends, and soaking in the misty green mountains behind me, I had yet another "this is my life" moments. I did, however, feel pretty pathetic as I watched six-year-olds effortlessly shimmy up the tallest slippery rocks with hardly any footing to do back flips. Where were these kids' parents!? ;) Equally amazing was the 8-year-old girl who had brought her 1-year-old sister to the river to play. The way she held the baby and watched over her made it pretty apparent that this definitely wasn't a first time occurrence either.

Walter and I, riverbound in the bed of the truck

A pretty typical scene in Armenia Bonito

Oneida, Wilma, and I taking a little break from swimming (I'm the pasty white one on the right)

Wilma

No bigs.

After a fabulous day off from nannying, I headed home to enjoy a delicious jambalaya dinner (sausage, red beans, green peppers, and rice) and later, a team meeting over chocolate chip oatmeal cookies with the Pettengill's.

Today, I spent the earlier portion of the morning with the girls while Sean and Lindsey rode out to Armenia. After Ellie's morning nap, the McCann girls and I made our way into downtown La Ceiba to run some errands and take advantage of our favorite lunch special at Pizza Hut :) I marveled at all street vendors selling exactly the same things (probably not the wisest business plan), the chaos in crossing the street with two small children (where the pedestrians definitely do NOT have the right-of-way), nauseating open-air meat markets, and the fact that, to Honduran women, bras seem entirely optional. And of course, it's nearly impossible to go anywhere without countless nationals smiling, commenting, and poking at Ellie's fat white skin. Downtown La Ceiba was indeed a cultural experience :)

Back home for naps, we plan on heading downtown once again for team dinner at Masapan later this evening.

One week from today I'll be home. I feel like I've only just begun to get familiar with La Ceiba and be able to answer team member's questions. I've only just begun to establish relationships with the kids in Armenia, and I already have to go! As I think back to all the preparation it took to get me here, I can't believe I'll be turning around to leave again so soon. Please pray that I take full advantage of my final days here!

Weekdays when teams are here mean waking up extra early...for everyone. Each morning, Sean leaves at 7 am to transport the team to Armenia, so I typically find myself awake and in the house around 7 too. Yesterday, we spent the morning picking up smelly, rotten, fly-infested mangos in the mango graveyard (Lindsey and Sean are REALLY ready for mango season to be over!), "playing church" led by pastor Lucy (aka "praying" in gibberish Spanish, opening our "Bibles" and chanting). Some might call this sacrilegious, but Lindsey likes to think she's just being raised a Honduran Pentecostal. And of course a morning wouldn't be complete without "walking" the sleeping babies all over the house.

"Cheese sam-mich" for Lucy's lunch and naps like clockwork (although, now that Ellie is teething, her sleeping patterns are more like a normal baby's instead of her previously narcoleptic self).

Another Monday Kid's Club, but this time it was led by the Sacramento team. This proved a huge blessing for Sean since it allowed him to stay home and rest to get over his stomach bug. Lindsey and I were also blessed by a far less stressful team dinner and bedtime this evening (except for when Lucy decided to give my chest a goodnight kiss instead of my face). Finding ourselves far too exhausted for a game of nerts, Sean, Lindsey, and I wrapped up the childless portion of the evening with Rummy Cube.

Armenia Bonito

Can you tell a small child took this picture?

Walter, always looking guapo

Making necklaces

A "captive" audience

Team during their presentation at Kid's Club

(sweet Oneida is to the left of me...mentioned in July 27th post)

Making new friends

A few of Ellie's biggest fans

Another day without the "McVan" found us walking to the mall to run some errands, eat lunch, and enjoy a few hours of air-conditioned bliss. With naps out of the way, we'll spend the afternoon enjoying the girls' new pool and baking cookies. Later, we'll meet up with the team for tacos and kebabs at a restaurant by the beach. Me parece bien (sounds good to me)!

Nothing like starting off the morning a little child molestation awareness seminar, eh? Using the "Darkness to Light" guide, Mike led the adults through a very graphic, yet powerful two-hour set of video and discussion time to raise awareness of this epidemic.

The somber mood soon dissipated, however, over a big team lunch of baleatas, watermelon, and salty-sweet fried plantains. After naptime at home, the entire fam returned to the Pettengill's for gringo church and team dinner. Meals with the McCann girls are always an adventure. Lucy will ask for "lots o' drinks," which means 3 sippy cups: 1 with apple juice, 1 with milk, and 1 with lemonade zucco. Ellie needs at least 3 edible options placed in front of her, sippy cup, and sometimes even a toy, to ensure eating success. Half of her food typically ends up on the floor or on your own clothing, while the other half may make it in her mouth or smothered over her face and collar. Juggling the feeding of these 2 active eaters, while trying to eat your own meal isn't a task for the faint-hearted. You've got to plan ahead, move quickly and decisively, and position yourself near plenty of napkins. Many times, it's almost as if Lindsey and I experience shell shock syndrome post group dinners at the Pettengills. Did we even eat? I can't remember what anything tasted like.

The chaotic dinner was followed by an equally chaotic bedtime for the girls. Both exhausted and fussy, Lucy and Ellie spent much of the bedtime ritual crying. As Lindsey started the water for baths, nothing more than a few drops came out of the shower head. Lindsey rushed to heat up two big pots of water on the stove and I worked on entertaining the very upset babes. As I held naked Ellie, waiting to plop her in the tub, I was suddenly overcome with a warm, wet sensation trickling down my torso. If the baby food mush, smeared bananas, chocolate cake crumbs, dog hair, and sweat hadn't already destroyed the day's outfit, Ellie peeing on me certainly was the icing on the cake. After cleaning up her thoughtful mess, Ellie uncharacteristically screamed throughout the entire bath because the water temperature wasn't right and Lucy refused to get in altogether. Midway through Ellie's washing, Lindsey discovered that Lucy had blessed us with an accident of her own...in her bed. Stripping the sheets, reprimanding Lucy, transferring boiling water from the stove to the bathroom (and dumping sink water in to cool it down), getting Ellie out of the tub and into pajamas, nursing Ellie, and changing out of my urine-infested clothing created what may have been one of the more hectic 20-minute periods of my life. With one kid finally down to bed, I raced out the door to be picked up for church in Armenia. All Lindsey and I could do was laugh as I wished her the best of luck with cranky child number 2.

Last night, Sean and I joined the team for a church service in Armenia Bonito, different than the one we had visited with the previous group. I saw several familiar faces there, including Walter, Yami and her adorable 3-year-old Carlos. A few other children I'd never met before felt bold enough to run up to me and poke me in the sides, saying the one English word they knew, "Hi!" After the first song, I felt like my hands were on fire, having just completed clapping along to the longest song known to man. Everyone in the congregation was extremely animated as they clapped, belted out praise songs in harmonized voices, danced in the aisles, and pounded on tambourines. I now felt much more comfortable in my environment than I had last time. I only wished I knew the words so I could sing along. Pastor Andrews (from the Pettengill's church in Sacramento) gave the sermon and Ivan (a Honduran University student studying English and good friend of the Pettengills, translated). Walking outside after the service was like a punch in the face. Who knew that the Honduran outdoors could ever feel less suffocatingly stuffy than sitting under fans indoors?

This morning post ends as I'm summoned to sit outside with Queen Lucy and her "honey bunches o' boats" in the mango graveyard.

And just for fun, a picture of some sweet sisters in high spirits:

The last couple of days before the team arrived involved anything we could do with our precious and unlimited car access. This meant trips to the incredible "church park" downtown for some slides and popsicles, blissful air-conditioned grocery store runs, and even Wendy's one afternoon for frosties, the play place, and of course, some powerful AC.

enjoying a little swingin' action with chunk-a-dunk at the park

To Lucy, getting drenched in green sticky slime is a very small price to pay...all for the love of popsicles.

Last night, Josh brought me along to celebrate his final evening in Honduras at the infamous Expats. Gerson and Michelle joined us once again, along with two other friends I'd never met before. Josh, the last of this year's MTW interns, left for the states around lunch time today and we're all sad to see him go (especially Ellie, who doesn't even know life without him).

All of us at Expats

Ellie had her 9-month "birthday" yesterday :) And since Lucy seems to often steal the show with all her quirky mannerisms, Ellie deserves an a little shoutout.

This baby MOVES! A professional army crawler and johnny-jumper, Nancy Elliot (aka Ellie) discovers the world around her through patting, scratching, and sucking anything she can get her hands on. She's getting into even more trouble these days as she's beginning to pull herself up to standing position. Those rolly-polly legs are ALWAYS moving. Ellie loves anything that's NOT actually a real toy (i.e. car keys, cell phones, tupperware, books, dvds, anything Lucy has at the moment, remote controls, shoes, plastic cups, and any hollow object that allows her to showcase her newly discovered voice.) When she's not sleeping, this baby can be found rearranging the ziplock bags and plastic plates in the kitchen, maintaining her perpetually sweaty head, discovering old cheerios on the floor and indulging herself, sucking on her crack pacifier, or pretending to be fussy so she'll be fed.

One of my favorite parts of the day is giving Ellie her evening bath. We call her "buddha baby" because of her incredible potbelly and overall nakedness. It's really amazing all that can be found in between her rolls of fat and underneath her chin, where a neck should be. Second only to eating, Ellie's happiest moments are in the bathtub (and that's saying a lot).

A new team from the Pettengill's church in Sacramento, California arrived yesterday safe and sound (and on a MUCH earlier flight, but everyone adjusted without any major issues). Already, the dynamic of this team of eleven compared to the previous team of fifteen is very distinct. Walking into the pancake breakfast at the Pettengill's this morning, I fully expected the same noise level and crowdedness I had experienced with the last team from Sovereign Grace Church in Charlotte. I waited for the chaos and it never came. They all seem really kind and gracious...just, quieter. This, their smaller number, and the fact that they're all good family friends of the Pettengills will surely make their nearly two week visit manageable and less stressful for everyone.

Concluding the evening by baking a chocolate cake for the team, Lindsey and I became concerned about our own personal lack of dessert. This has become something of an unofficial tradition in this household since my arrival. Between all the baking and hosting events of various kinds, I cannot remember an evening here without dessert. Tonight, however, we baked Brownie Pudding Cake and suffered our first cooking defeat. Even more embarrassing than our disgusting mushy mess was that it had been specially labeled as "easy" in the cookbook. Disheartened and still craving sugar, Lindsey and I should have stopped while we were ahead. We should have stopped with shrimp and grits.