Latest things that are happening

We have been pretty busy the last few weeks. Last weekend we went to Lake Yojoa for a going away party for one of our good friends who decided to head back to the US a year early. It was our first good friend who had early terminated and it was sad to see him go. We’ve lost a couple of people from our training group in the past month. It’s always sad to see them go but we’re happy that they are doing what’s right for them. It was nice to relax at the lake for the weekend and spend time with friends that we hadn’t seen in awhile. Then Kevin went on to Tegucigalpa for his mid-service medical exams. He went to the dentist where he was told that he didn’t have any cavities but they did not even take x-rays so who knows… He was given a clean bill of health so that’s good. He came back the night of our anniversary and Shannon made a nice dinner. We have now been married three years!

We had our annual regional meeting last week where all of the volunteers from Olancho meet with the safety and security director of Peace Corps Honduras, the country director, and a nurse. It was an all day event and we both had to do presentations of what projects we have been doing. It was a long day but good to see everyone and we got to meet the two new volunteers in our area. It is the annual feria (fair) of Catacamas right now so we all went there after our regional meeting. It is pretty big with lots of booths, games, food, venders, and of course, rides. Last year we were afraid to go on the rides but this year we braved them. They are all just set atop wooden blocks and some have hand cranks to make them move, definitely not safe. The ferris wheel was actually scary…we thought they were supposed to be relaxing! It went really fast and was rickety and creaky but we survived it.

The political situation continues to be complicated as the ousted president is still in the Brazilian Embassy. Representatives of the two presidents have been meeting for “dialogue” but nothing has changed. The teachers found out last week that school is ending this coming Friday, the 16th. School is supposed to end at the end of November but since this is an election year it was well known that classes would end a little early like mid-November. Apparently they are ending a month earlier because the classrooms are needed for the elections. Nobody seems to understand why since the elections aren’t for another month and a half and they are on a Sunday… The teachers were also told that all kids have to pass which means that there are going to be a lot of kids next year who are behind. It is also a little crazy because this coming Monday is a holiday and Catacamas never has classes on Thursdays or Fridays so that leaves two days of classes for them to finish everything up. It also means that Shannon will, once again, not have anything to do.

On a happier note, the U.S. and Honduras played soccer against each other last night and the U.S. won! We had originally planned to go to the game but a week before the game the U.S. Embassy decided that it may not be safe for U.S. citizens to attend and prohibited any U.S. citizens who were affiliated with the “U.S. mission in Honduras” from attending. We were sad but had a few people over here instead and watched it on a projector on our wall. It was a good game and the U.S. is now qualified for the world cup! The downside is that Honduras will now have a hard time qualifying but they will at least be in the playoff spot to play the fifth place team from South America in a two game playoff to determine which one will qualify for the World Cup.

Shannon heads to Tegucigalpa this coming week for her mid-service medical exams and pretty soon we will head to Copan for Halloween and then on to Guatemala and Belize where we will explore Mayan ruins, climb active volcanoes and explore some Belizean beaches. Let the fun begin!