It’s been awhile since we have written but we have been busy! We went to California for Christmas and although it was a short trip (only one week), we had a great time and got to see a lot of people and eat a lot of great food! We got to play in the snow with our nephew and, of course, see our cat Spike. We brought back so much food with us to Honduras that the guys in customs laughed at us! We were only back for one night and then we headed up to the North Coast to spend New Years there with a few friends. We stayed in Tela right on the beach and rang the New Year in watching fireworks on the roof of our hotel. It was very tranquilo and nice. We also went to a nearby Garífuna village. Garífuna are an ethnic group in Honduras and they are predominantly black and live along the North Coast. They have preserved their native language although many speak Spanish and even English as well. It was nice to be in such a cultural location and to eat some of their traditional food like riceandbeans (made with coconut milk) and pan de coco. We stayed right on the beach and had a nice relaxing time.
There are still no classes at the public schools and the University has been out for Christmas break but we have still managed to keep busy. We took a trip up the mountain to a small village where we are trying to help build a school. They had raised money and spent a month building a school but then (we have heard various versions) someone took off with the money and the rains came and destroyed the structure that was made of dirt blocks. One of the new volunteers lives close to this village so he organized this meeting (we had one months ago where we made a budget) and about 20 people came. This village, La Florida, is nestled pretty far up in the mountains (there is only one village higher up). To get there we took a bus for an hour, walked a half hour to our friend’s house, and then hiked 1.5 hours (fast) uphill. There are no cars, not even a road. The other volunteer had the great idea of building the school out of compacted dirt which is much cheaper and supposed to be much stronger. Needless to say, the community members were very skeptical of building a school out of dirt. After a long discussion where we brought up topics of cost (a traditional building will cost about $3,500 versus maybe $1000 for the dirt one) and availability of workers (anyone can work on the dirt school whereas a specialist is needed for the traditional) we finally came to an agreement. They were worried about earthquakes and floods and how a dirt school would hold up in such disasters. We finally agreed to build a small structure first so they can see how it works and if they like it, go on to build the school. Right now it is still coffee season and pretty much everyone in this town is cutting coffee so we plan to wait until mid-February to begin when they will be done and have more time. We had to meet on a Sunday at 4 PM (of course it didn’t start until closer to 5) and then hike back down in the dark because it was the only time they weren’t working. Hopefully this will all work out and a school will be built out of compacted dirt and the community could then continue to build structures in this manner and save money and have safe buildings that will last a long time!
We also helped one of the volunteers in Juticalpa, about an hour away, with training for the bilingual school he helped create. We talked about safety and security, dealing with unwanted attention, and working in schools. It was really interesting to meet these people who had only been here a few days and hear their perspectives on Honduras. It reminded us of our own training so very long ago!
A couple of nights ago, one of our cats brought a present for us into the house. Normally this means a cockroach, maybe a gecko, and at first glance Shannon figuredt it was a cockroach. When she looked at it a little better she realized it was a young snake. It seemed to be dead but we weren’t sure if it was venomous or not. It was red with black on it and seemed similar to what could be a young coral snake. When Kevin took pictures of it the yellow really stood out on it as well. Once we got the cats away and Kevin tried to pick it up it moved and we were then sure it was alive. Not knowing if it was poisonous or not, Shannon wanted Kevin to kill it but Kevin, being the snake lover that he is, did not want to kill an innocent snake so he collected it in a bag and took it to an empty lot and let it go. It will probably be caught and killed by someone or run over by a car anyway but he did his part to save it. When he went to the university he looked up the snake and found out it was a Platanera/Viboro de Sangre (Red Woodsnake or Red Coffeesnake in English) and is definitely not poisonous and is perhaps the most common snake around the area but living in the city we don’t see too many snakes.
The weather is a lot cooler (sometimes even cold especially in the mornings and nights) and we are loving it. It is supposedly due to a cold front but we hope that it will stay and make things a little more bearable. Up next: Trujillo and the MARV meeting.
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