The husband of the host family where I have been living since my reassignment in August from the North Coast is named Fredy (first picture, top left).  His mother died Sunday.  For this Cuban celebration of his birthday and  Christmas Day there was no music.  But we did gather to give thanks for another year past and for the hope of a better year forward.  Those of a religious bent also gave thanks to their spiritual deity.  We were all thankful that the family’s son, Fredy Jr. (USA flag on his chest), was home from his medical studies in Cuba for the holidays.  He graduates next year.  The lady in the hot pink blouse at the barbeque pit, Nixia, Luz’s sister, is a teacher and wants the world to know that she is an available single mother of three daughters (bottom right picture).  Luz is my host mother and in the same bottom picture with her youngest son, Chico.  Dr. Durades in the yellow shirt, a surgeon, helped with the cooking.  And Caterin, the little pixie, is shown opening the gift I gave her.  And I give my personal thanks to Gaea and Grandfather for having allowed me to be here in the company of friends who have provided me sustenance in a land I have grown to love.

Today, Christmas Eve, I took the two boxes of clothing donated by my daughter Andrea and her co-workers Pam Schorman and Jennie Lorenz who work at Seattle Genetics to the orphanage.  I arrived in the morning to give my usual twice a week English class to the three oldest children.  Afterward, while the nacatamales were cooking, I transplanted some tomato seedlings into the garden.  After all the children ate, we opened the two boxes of clothing.  Everyone received clean wearable items including one each for Sister Edith’s mom and dad and her twin sisters.  Tonight my host family is hosting a birthday/Christmas dinner for the husband of the house, Fredy, with the Cuban doctors as guests who are cooking a traditional Cuban dish called Congri.  As well as nacatamales, of course.  Tomorrow, Christmas Day, I will return to the orfanato in the evening to watch a Christmas movie with the kids.  I cannot express the feelings I have in my heart for having been welcomed into the bosom of these wonderful Honduran folk who have unconditionally accepted me into their lives.

I have to separate the holiday gatherings in order to differentiate the donors and participants.  Last night, the 23rd, Reggie, my Peace Corps Volunteer friend posted to Cane, a small aldea about 20 minutes from La Paz, brought her two children to the Fundacion Senor San Jose with gifts from the states.  They had flown in that day arriving at 1PM to Tegucigalpa’s Toncontin airport.  Reed and Devlin, tired as they were, joined right in and distributed the presents to the eager children who had been waiting for them.  Many thanks to the children of the Vail Mountain School in Colorado who bought the gifts and sent short notes written in Spanish to each child residing at the orfanato.  And a big thank you to the teachers who surprised Sister Edith with the digital camera for which she had been praying. 

I was invited to a Christmas party last Saturday the 19th where a couple of dozen of my Honduran friends and I ate and danced and drank the night away.  And I forgot my camera!  From the bottom right corner in the pictures above can be seen how my host family goes all out to decorate their home for the holidays.  After I took these pics I walked over to another Christmas party that our hospital volunteer support group hosted Tuesday the 22nd at this really nice little restaurant right next door to an apartment where I will be moving on January 1st, 2010.  Finally, my own two-bedroom place to call home.  Tonight I go to another Christmas party at the Fundacion Senor San Jose to help distribute gifts brought by a Peace Corps friend of mine’s family from Vail, Colorado and tomorrow the 24th to yet another Christmas gathering at the orphanage to eat nacatamales and distribute gifts sent by my daughter Andrea and her co-workers Pam Schorman and Jennie Lorenz from Seattle Genetics in Bothell, Washington.  Bless all these wonderful persons for their generosity and goodness of heart.

The Saturday after I returned from Tela to La Paz I was scheduled to play in a futbol (soccer)  game.  The hospital volunteer group I belong to meets every two weeks and we had been planning the game for a couple of months to raise money to help renovate  the hospital’s birthing center.  Sixty players poneyed up L500 each to buy uniforms at cost.  Most of the players were doctors, nurses, lawyers, teachers and other professionals.  And me, except I couldn’t play because of my painful foot.  So I asked Sulma, at 13 years old one of the oldest girls at the Fundacion Senor San Jose, to play in my place.  So along with her 10 y.o. brother Marvin, and 10 y.o. Leroy, off we went Saturday afternoon to the Police Academy soccer field.  The original idea was to have the 3 alternate playing times, Sulma first.  When she put on the uniform she moaned and complained that my uniform was too baggy for her, that she looked terrible, and she insisted that she did not want to go out onto the field.  I told her she looked great and pointed out a couple of other girls already working out.  Reluctantly she went out and began participating.  To make a long story short, when it came to the boys’ turns to go out and play she refused to relinquish the uniform, she had made friends and happily played the entire game, the boys moaning and complaining all the way home.  We lost: 5-2.

What a  crown jewel of the caribbean is this small city nestled at the edge of the sea.  Tela was chosen to host our PVVA taller (Personas Viviendo con VIH/SIDA) and an excellent choice it was with the sound of waves breaking in the background every moment we were there.  Our three-day Peace Corps-sponsored workshop attracted folks from all over Honduras who are involved in the world of HIV/AIDS.  Members of my team included two from Jovenes Sin Fronteras in La Paz and two from Jovenes Sin Fronteras from my former site of La Masica.  It was like old home week renewing friendships with Peace Corps Volunteers and contrapartes from all over the country.  Besides all our well-planned classroom activities we were taken on a field trip to a natural forest called Lancetilla that is the second largest natural botanical reserve in the world, the largest being in Malaysia.  A truly remarkable collection of forest species from all over the planet.  On our way home our team stopped off at Lago Yojoa for lunch at a restaurant overlooking the lake, Honduras’ largest.

In the mountains, nine kilometers above the city of Siguatepeque, is a wonderful organic farm called CEASO (Centro de Ensenanza y Agricultura Sostenible) that offers classes in organic farming methods and that next year has been certified to offer a bachillerato diploma as a secondary instituto educational facility, the only one in the country.  I took the nun and the orfanato’s seven oldest children there today to learn the principles of self-sustaining gardening in a half-day session whose results went beyond my wildest expectations.  The kids, captivated, learned about organic ecological methodology and about the importance of chemical-free food products they can raise themselves.  Their prayers to Don Rene Santos Aguilar, the director of this marvelous place, at lunchtime thanking him for his presentation brought tears to my eyes.  Please follow our journey from the bottom right pictures until our departure.