Advertisement
Published: November 27th 2008
Edit Blog Post
No, I didn't leave the country this month, but my church did make a 40 minute hike up the mountain to visit a new family in the church. The little "Aldea" (burg) they live in is called Tashikstal, and when they first started mentioning going to visit, I was almost sure they were talking about visiting Tajikstan.
To start out, this month has been EXTREMELY busy and has flown by. Which, at the beginning of my travels I was wondering if time could go any slower and now it seems that every day goes by and I wish it would stick around a bit longer. But being busy has its advantages.
The first event of the month was a beautiful wedding. The couple courted for some time before, so the wedding was extra special to me because I really like the idea of courtship. There were several traditions that differ from an American wedding, but it was more or less in form the same. They walked down the isle, the pastor talked, they kissed, and we all ate food afterward. The most important parts were the same!!! What was interesting is that the vice mayor of the town,
and the secretary were present to have them sign the paper work after they married. They said they wanted to be married before God first, and then before the law. Very interesting. It was all beautiful and I really enjoyed myself.
What happened the same day as the wedding was the Day of the Dead. It is the first of November and it is celebrated in most latin countries. Here in Honduras they don't believe that the dead people come back to visit or anything like that, but they do make a full day of visiting the grave. The ice cream man even came to make a profit (it was a hot day). I went when all the families were going, and tried to take pictures, but everyone was staring at the white girl in the graveyard and I couldn't handle it so I left and came back the next day when things were calmer. It is really pretty there after people get through decorating the graves. They don't come visit the graves on the anniversary of the death, just this one time a year. So the graves are unkept and they clean, then put flowers and other decorations
The wedding party
They had kids in the wedding, not close friends and family. Another different tradition but I liked it. on the grave. Since no one is there to enjoy it afterward, I think it is kind of wierd, but it is a tradition just like any other tradition and it was very interesting to watch. Not a sad sort of feeling at all, more like a family holiday.
The next big event was the church's visit to Tashikstal. We went to visit a new family in church, and help them celebrate their daughter's sixth birthday. Only five of us ended up going, and we started out late from the church, about 6:30. Here it gets dark about 5:30 or 6:00 in the winter. So we left, flashlights in hand and the pastor with his guitar. As we walked up the mountain road, the pastor played his guitar. It was beautiful, the moon and the stars were out and when we went really high the lights from the town shone in the distance. About 40 mintues into the hike, we stopped next to a road that we THOUGHT was their road but weren't sure. It is hard to tell when there are no road signs, no lights, no anything. So we called them from my cell phone and sure
The Family Grave
This is the grave of the family I live with. They have one of the nicer plots in the cemetary. enough we were close. The dad came to help us find the house. He arrived about 1 minute after we called but it took 5 mintues to walk to the house. I think he must have run. ;-) The house did not have any electricity, all it had for light was the fire. They are pretty poor people but they did decorate their house with greenery for their daughter's 6th birthday. We held a service and after we sang a few songs their neighbors woke up and came over to see what was happening. We had songs, testimonies, and a mini sermon. Then we celebrated the birthday with tamales, coffee, and cake. The girls had a blast using my camera, I figured I would get more pictures if they ran around with it. Unfortunately they were learning how to focus a camera, so not too many pictures turned out. But they had a good time shooting pictures. We left late and as we walked down the mountain, skirting the mud pit, pastor played his guitar and we chatted and joked. It was a really wonderful evening, one I love to remember.
Our church decided to have a seventh anniversary
party but the church is still unfinished. So a memeber of the church donated quite a few bags of cement, some other members donated what they could, and we were able to put in more than half the floor. Up until now it has been dirt. One Saturday a bunch of guys came and worked from 7 in the morning until 5 at night. Those who could come from the church did and those who couldn't paid a worker to work for the day. It is HARD work putting in a floor, it is not like working in the states. All is done by hand. Some of us worked in the kitchen, and in the end we fed about 25 people, there was barely enough food to go around. But in the end we left tired but happy because of the job accomplished.
The next Saturday was the anniversary. The ladies of the church worked from 7 in the morning to 5, making tamales, rice andencurtido (like, vegetables with vinager). More than 125 people arrived from our two churches and three other like minded churches in the area. We had a missionary couple from Copán who brought a video,
and a national missionary from Gracias who brought the message. Several couples brought their children to be dedicated and a few of us put on a drama about a Jairo's little girl being raised from the dead by Jesus. When the movie was going, we set up a line in the kitchen and filled plates and ran them from the house to the church. By the end of the night, I was so tired I think I slept for 10 hours. But everyone really enjoyed the night and we praised God for 7 years of the existence of this church.
Last but not least, today is Thanksgiving. Although Hondruas does not celebrate it, the school did, which I was thankful for. The pre-K and K were Indians and 1st, 2nd and 3rd were Pilgrims. Every child brought a plate to pass and we ate until we got sick. Some kids brought money to the food line, thinking it was like the cafeteria. The teachers told them, put the money away, the food is free. EAT. EAT MORE! So they did. One little girl's stomach was quite a bit larger when she finished eating and she was complaining of a
sick stomach. I as well ate a little too much. But there were so many kinds of food I had never tried before. So I HAD to try a little of everything!!! A sad thing happened this morning however. The newborn baby brother of a little girl in the school died. Before class we prayed for them, that is so sad because she was very excited to have a new brother. Please pray for Sayda and her parents if you think about it!!
Well, that completes my very busy month. This month is a little less full but we still have a Christmas event to put on in three weeks and we just introduced the songs in English this week. I hope these kids are fast learners!!! School is going well, I have finally gotten accustomed to things and am doing better. I still struggle with classroom management, communicating English to the children, etc. but things are much easier for me now than they were in the beginning. I can't wait until after Christmas to get some incentive programs going for the kids. It takes a prize at the end of the month to get some of them to
talk English!
I hope you all had a wonderful November, and that you will have a great December (and Christmas and New Year's)! Thanks for reading and sharing the blog with me! God bless you all, take care for another month!!! - Anna
Advertisement
Tot: 0.051s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 6; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0275s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb