Thanksgiving and Visitors

I realize that is has been an abnormally long time since my last blog post...but the last few months have been incredibly busy. I would try to catch everyone up on everything that has happened in the last two months, but it would take too long. Instead, I want to summarize the two weeks of wild and crazy adventures my parents had here with me (by "wild and crazy" I mean pretty average by Honduras standards) :)
They flew in the week of Thanksgiving, and we spent the first few days of their visit up on the North Coast (yes, Honduras has a north coast, look at a map) trying to enjoy some sun and snorkeling…unfortunately it rained the entire time so what we really ended up enjoying was our hotel room. I am still really dissapointed that we didn't get to do the wildlife tours and things, but I think my parents were just so excited to be here, and overwhelmed by all the new sites that it didn't really make any difference to them what we did.
After the days of rain, we came back to Gracias to celebrate Thanksgiving, and prepare for World Aids Day. Our Thanksgiving celebration involved mashed potatoes, chicken and pumpkin pie….it was delicious, and my parents were very great and patient with me as I had to be running around town preparing stuff for World Aids Day (which was December 1st). They also tried very hard to use Spanish and improve their vocabulary (I will refrain from making any jokes about this…they did good). They got to see me do a number of different projects and presentations, and participated in our World Aids Day activities; which included a march around town and a testimonial given by a women living with HIV. In a side note, I must say that I was generally impressed by how well everything turned out for the Aids Day activities, it never ceases to amaze me how things can get planned in what can only be described as veryvery last minute preparations…and yet turn out spectacularly well.
As for the rest of my parents visit, we tried to see all the important sights around town here, and took a trip up to a town in the mountain where they make traditional pottery. Although I didn't take them to many places around the country, I really enjoyed being able to show them my life here. It’s very weird having a life here that people at home have never seen, having visitors come down creates a cool bridge between two very distinct parts of my life. (That being said, I should also add a quick thank you to Maureen for making the trip down a month ago, I can’t begin to explain how much it means to have people from home come here.) It was sad to see each of them leave, but very satisfying trips all together.
If you want more details, or want to hear about the trip from my parents' point of view, I'm sure they would have some interesting thoughts! Hopefully they feel like they got a good feel for life down here...and I don't think they were just teasing me when they said that they hope to come back!

Other Important News in my life:
I will be in DC in January! Sarah, Matt and I decided that the inauguration was just too exciting an event in our country’s history to miss. We are flying in for four days to celebrate with the 4 million other people who will be in DC. If anyone is planning on being there, let me know! Im going to try to have a prepay cell phone or something that I can be reached at. Yea!!

Christmas/birthday wish list: Granola, granola bars, chocolate, art supplies, dried fruit, movies, magazines, books, candles, lotion, nail polish…. (stay tuned for more updates)
My address (as a reminder) is as follows:

Voluntaria de Cuerpo de Paz

Gracias, Lempira

Honduras, Centro America