Feliz Año Nuevo

Since we last wrote, we have been preparing our house and have celebrated Christmas and New Years. When we moved into the house, all it had inside was a pile of duffel bags, a bed, and a bad interior paint job. Since that time, we have painted, gotten a table and chairs, hung a hammock inside, and started to make the house look like a home. The process of buying household necessities has been a long one – with many to-do lists and whole days devoted just to running errands – and has left us reminiscing fondly about one-stop-shopping at Target.

Dan painting on the lop-sided ladder

For Christmas, we headed to La Esperanza to celebrate with friends. Miguel, who traveled 7 hours from his site in the south, met us in Siguat and, after eating a lunch of baleadas (flour tortillas with refried beans and sour cream, which go for as little as 25 US cents apiece), we hopped on a bus for the hour-long trip to La Esperanza. Once there, we enjoyed relaxing at Mark and Lauren’s house on Christmas Eve. Miguel brought his guitar and my (Emily’s) grandmother sent a book of Christmas carols that she had found in a thrift shop, so we gathered around and sang together. On Christmas day, we did a bit of walking around the city, cooked dinner, and at different times someone would slip out to talk to family back home.

The Nativity scene in La Esperanza

(who knew there were cheetahs and giraffes in Bethlehem)

Christmas dinner consisted of a turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and sweet potato pie. Whenever cooking in Honduras, creativity is a must. My original plan was to make the sweet potato pie before we left Siguat and take it with us, already made. When I was reading the recipe, however, and the pie crust instructions stated “place dough in refrigerator for 30 minutes,” the plans changed, as we do not currently have a fridge. Fortunately, Mark and Lauren were kind enough to lend us theirs. The next step was to “place the dough between two sheets of Saran wrap and roll it out.” Since we didn’t have any Saran wrap, I put it inside a plastic grocery bag, which worked just fine. When we peeled the sweet potatoes, all of which looked the same on the outside, only one of the four was orange and the other three were tan. They all tasted the same, but the pie wasn’t nearly as pretty as usual. But, as the Irish Night Before Christmas ends, “´Tis ne´r a Christmas when everything’s right, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.”

After returning home for a few days, we headed up to the North Coast to celebrate the New Year with 10 other H13ers (11 of us are from Municipal Development and Lauren is a Youth Development volunteer who has Muni-D envy). We spent New Year’s Eve swimming in the Caribbean and eating fresh fish and tajadas (fried green plantains with salt that are the French fries of Honduras). When we rang in the New Year, the ball had already dropped in New York, so Dan held up a balloon and slowly lowered it as we counted down to midnight.

On New Year’s Day, we hiked in Parque Nacional Pico Bonito. We hiked for about an hour and a half to a waterfall, where we went swimming and ate PB&Js before heading back. The water was cold and refreshing and deep enough that we could jump off a 10 foot rock. Natán, who had formerly been a gymnast and diver, flipped off the rock, but the rest of us were satisfied with simply jumping. The vegetation was lush, verdant, and tropical, so while admiring the beauty of it all, it was hard to convince ourselves that it was the first of January. It certainly felt like a good way to start off the New Year, though.

Emilia saltando (Emily jumping)

A natural knot

Our final day of vacation was spent swimming and walking on the beach. For lunch, we decided to splurge and go to a beach-side restaurant to take advantage of more fresh seafood. We shared Camarones al Ajillo (Garlic Shrimp) and Sopa de Caracol (Conch Soup). Both were excellent, but the conch soup, made with fresh coconut milk, was superb! The camarones came with arroz y frijoles (rice and beans) and tajadas. The conch soup also came with tajadas and rice that we mixed into the soup. With a cold beer, good company, and a view of the ocean, it was a perfect meal.

Dan, Emily, Natán, Ana, and our awesome food

After a bit of R & R, it´s time to get back to work! We will continue to work with Aldea Global and are also preparing to work with other NGOs and schools. We´ll keep you posted as that unfolds.

Whether you were buried in snow, worrying about getting sunburned or somewhere in between, we hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thanks for the letters, emails and packages. We always love hearing from you!

Dan watching the sunset from our livingroom