April 9, 2009

Shmingling with the Wat/Saners at the Rest/Zoo

Wondering where in the world he is (like Carmen San Diego)

Happy Easter Week or Semana Santa! Because this is a holiday week, we get a few days off from training to hang with our fams and check out the local celebrations. The festivities actually began this past Sunday when the Catholic families of Ojojona showcased traditional rugs (más o menos) on the main street between the two Catholic churches in town. (As I understand the process leading up to presentation, the families first create a mold/outline of the religious images/sayings/symbols that are to be showcased inside of the rug. This process could take up to a couple days. Then the sawdust needs to be created and colored, although I am not sure on this specific process. Finally, at about 3am on the morning of the Sunday before Easter, the families go out to the street and lay down the colored sawdust in these molds/outlines to create a huge rug. This is a very labor-intensive process but worth it to create the beautiful rugs. I would Google it for further explanation if you are interested. It is a tradition celebrated by most of the big cities in Honduras during Easter week.) The celebration continued yesterday as we hosted a cultural day for our families. Before the event began, we learned how to and cooked a local dish with our families. The PCTs and families then reunited to share our food and recipes as well as showcase an activity from each language class. Our class set up a piñata for the kids. They dug it (and I know all the PCTs, including myself, were jealous that we couldn’t partake in the fun)! The PCTs were able to reunite, however, and have our own fun last night. We all got together to watch Office Space (you didn’t get the memo?), eat some fruity cake (obvi my type of cake), and play Uno (never goes out of style). The reunion was in celebration of my and another PCT’s birthday this week.

Rug lineup

This reminds me of St. Rose

Bien hecho, ¿verdad?

My FBT host bros and sis: Keyner, José, and Ruth

Well…it was a solid effort

My (somewhat) pregnant host mother: Ana Christina

LMU Alumni: Me and Bryan

Incubate this: Me and José

BZ Ladies

BZ Gents

A fruit cake! Seriously! It’s fabulous!

Those who got the movie memo: Taylor, Brent, Ashley, Reggie, José, Katie, Liz, and Theresa

On that note, I wanted to thank all of you (the fam especially) for the heartfelt calls, cards, emails, and postings on my birthday. Although it was a bit different (and probably better than last year since I spent the majority of my day last year in a cubicle…oh how fitting was Office Space last night!), it was extremely touching to receive local love from PCTs in the BZ and Wat/San group as well as from abroad. You all rock and keep me going! Thank you!

The rest of this week should continue to be delightful. Today I am planning on going on a small hike with the homies and then attending a talent show put on by the Evangelical youth of the community. Tomorrow will hopefully hold some more volleyball and movie fun in the training center. There is talk from my family of hitting the mountains to go horseback riding on Saturday, but I really don’t know if it will come to fruition seeing as there has been a massive amount of traffic accidents this week in Honduras with the huge amount of people traveling. I will probably round out the weekend by trying out an Evangelical mass with my family on Sunday to celebrate Easter and preparing for our camping trip to Amapala on Monday. (THAT’S RIGHT! Bring on the beach!) I see sun (and sunblock), swimming, and s’mores in my future…¡Feliz día!