March

Well March has been a busy month.

With love, in the Valentine month!

February has been a difficult month for Hondurans.  Last weekend, as you probably know, the world's most fatal prison fire in the last 100 years happened in Comayagua, killing over 350 inmates.  There is a lot of information online right now about the fire, but it is still unclear about the origin of the fire.  The reason the fire was so deadly was that the prison was severely overcrowded and outdated (built in the 1940s), plus the guards didn't seem to understand that there was a fire at first, and thinking it was a riot they refused to let the firefighters in for about a half an hour.  Also, there was some problem with the keys and a lot of cells didn't get opened in time.  Unfortunately, this is spreading more bad publicity about Honduras, as the state of crime and criminal justice is coming to light internationally.  Many of the prisoners had not yet been tried (some for such simple "crimes" as killing an attacking dog) and had been housed there for months or even years.  As to the state of crime, Honduras' dismal record as the most murderous nation in the world is in the spotlight.  There are so many good things about Honduras, and Hondurans were hoping to benefit from this year as a big year in the Mayan calendar in order to gain more tourism.  Looks like that might not happen.  Two of David's sisters have souvenir shops in a tourist town near the captial city and their biggest profit is with foreigners.  (In fact, when the locals come around they have to be on  guard for shoplifting, plus they rarely buy anything, what with the economy as it is.)

Then this weekend, there was a fire in a public market in the capital city, which spread from one stall to the next, and into two adjacent markets, burning down most of the three markets.  Many of the city's lower-class try to make a living selling fruit, hair clips, or something in those markets.  Others who are a little better off had invested all they had in buying merchandise (clothing, shoes, kitchenware, etc.) to retail in those markets.  It's quite a shame, but I think no lives were lost.

To top it off, this afternoon we had a fire in our neighborhood.  Some kids were walking through our neighborhood on their way elsewhere and were tossing firecrackers as they went.  Well, it's the dry season and the vacant lot was overgown with weeds, so it went up pretty fast.  At first the neighbors stood around watching it while they telephoned David on their cell phones.  Once he got there and got them organized, they got it put out fairly quickly, even before the fire truck showed up (of course, they didn't even manage to call the fire department while they waited...he had to do that too!).  It's a good thing it didn't happen yesterday while he was still in Guatemala!

David spent the past several days in Guatemala City at a second conference about greenhouse farming.  The specialists at the conference were Canadian and gave their talks in English.  There was translation available for those who needed it, but fortunately David has kept up his English and was able to understand without translation and also ask the questions he needed answered for his real-life practice in the now three greenhouses he is farming.

In other news:
The rest of us are busy preparing for the annual Open House at school, which will be held this week.  Also, Nancy is busy preparing for World Day of Prayer, Corita is preparing for Joel's 10th birthday party, Raquel and Joel are preparing for their yellow-belt test in karate class, and all of us are anticipating a new member of the family:  Nathan and Andrea in Alamogordo, New Mexico are expecting a baby boy!!  Our little guy should be born in May!  We'll keep you posted.

Merry Christmas!!

Thanksgiving and other news

Our Thanksgiving was triply blessed as we had a triple celebration.  First was the school celebration.  Our school has the tradition of inviting the children who attend a public day care center for children of poor single mothers (where they go to give their moms the opportunity to work).  The students of our school (a private multilingual school) are the upper-crust of the town, and it's important for them to learn to reach out.  Our students bring donations of good quality hand-me-downs, plus they donate some money to buy the kids a new toy each.  Also, we do a fund-raiser to treat the kids to a hearty snack.  Then we invite them for a half-day (our students also only come for half a day) wherein we have a program with dances, puppet show, songs, skits, etc., both by our students and by the visiting children who also prepare an act or two.  After the program all the children have snack together, then play games organized and run by the secondary students for all the children.  This has been our pattern for the past nine years and the teachers at the child care center tell us that the kids are so excited the day before coming to the Thanksgiving celebration that they can hardly sleep.  When they leave, their trucks are loaded down with bags of donations that they will distribute among themselves later according to which family could use each item.  I imagine that it is more exciting for them than Christmas, since they get more goodies.  Sometimes in the past we have treated them to a snack and a full lunch (Thanksgiving style but with roasted chicken instead of turkey).  A few years back, however, we went to a half-day celebration for several reasons and had to cut out the lunch.  At first, we just gave them stuff and did stuff for them, but little by little we started to include them more in the activities and now we try to do everything together.  My ninth graders were in charge of a game and brought along face paints just for fun.  Well, the face paints were such a hit that we never got around to doing our game.  As usual, I made pumpkin pie for my homeroom grade, and with only nine students (one absent), we each got a nice big slice.

Our second Thanksgiving was with the school staff.  We had a three-turkey dinner with 50 people, with all the extras being pot-luck style.  It's another of our traditions here.  This was in the evening of Thanksgiving day.  We all met at the Principal's house and had games for the children of the staff, plus tons of fabulous food.  We foreign staff are in charge of the pies since those are not known in Honduras.  That lasted well into the evening; I believe we got home around 10 p.m.

On Saturday morning we had our second annual Thanksgiving family medical check-up and we all got a clean bill of general health (a few details with colds and intestinal parasites to clean up but nothing major).  (Who wudda thought intestinal amoebas could be normal, eh?)  We continue to be thankful for our health.

Finally, on Saturday (a day's respite between turkeys), we had our family turkey dinner.  It has become our custom to make our full Thanksgiving dinner and invite over either someone from David's family or, when they can't make it (they all live at least four hours away), we invite some local friends.  This year we enjoyed the evening with some new friends whose children we have known for a while but not the parents very well.  It was a lovely evening, plus it gives us the opportunity to have turkey dinner left-overs...a very important part of the dinner!

While the friends were visiting, we had a little marimba play-a-long.

Oh!  And no shopping for Christmas presents and no "Black Friday", so I guess we were really quintupply blessed!!

We hope your Thanksgiving was equally blessed. 

In other news, Joel and Raquel have enjoyed their first month in karate class.  Raquel often misses for other responsibilities with school, especially now that the Christmas program rehearsals have started, but Joel is very faithful.  Both enjoy practicing their techniques on each other around the house, requiring a few new family rules about high kicks and such.

Also, Joel has gotten a dental trainer, a plastic dealie he is supposed to wear in the evening and during the night.  We always remember at night, but remembering during the day has been tricky.  It's supposed to help his teeth get aligned, thus avoiding extensive braces use.  Raquel might be getting one soon.

David continues building greenhouses and his grape tomatoes are such a hit that he cannot meet the demand.  Next month he is taking out the tomatoes in the first greenhouse to start with strawberries in it.  At the start of November, David took a trip to Guatemala with a Dutch seed company and learned a lot about how they are working over there, ideas which he has been implementing successfully since returning.


Our annual Halloween party was a blast, as usual, with our traditional guava bobbing contest.  This year we had the addition of  a homegrown REAL pumpkin since we bought seeds while in the States.  No one here has seen pumpkins (only hard-skinned squashes) so they are fascinated by the ease with which a pumpkin cuts.  We enjoyed our pumpkin as part of the party instead of decoration.  We had everyone guess the weight, circumference, and number of seeds, with the winners getting prizes.  A few kids who stayed a little later got to try their hand at pumpkin carving, with the result of six faces on one big pumpkin.  I'd be surprised if that's not some sort of record in itself.

This year Nancy went in Chinese attire, David was Abraham Lincoln, Corita went as a bunch of grapes, Raquel and her bf Vicky made their own costumes as the twins on Alice and Wonderland, and Joel went as a samurai.

The last week of October, Southwest School celebrates United Nations Day.  This year we focused on Oceania and Southeast Asia.  Joel's fourth grade class studied about New Zealand, Raquel's eighth grade class studied about Vietnam, and Corita's ninth graders studied about Indonesia.

We have a family Bible study/prayer time most Sundays and in early November we were studying saints (in the wake of All Saints Day)... how the Catholic church determines who was a saint, how the Protestants differ in their beliefs, etc.  During that time, we dramatized Juan Diego (indigenous Mexican) meeting the Virgen of Guadalupe.  Nancy dressed as Hernán Cortez, David played the role of the bishop, Joel was Juan Diego, and Raquel was the Virgen de Guadalupe.  Corita narrated.

Hope you all are well.  Drop us a line!

Nancy back home in Honduras

Dear blog readers,
    Just a brief message to tell you I got home safely on Tuesday (Sept. 6). What a joy to be reunited with my family here!   On Wednesday and Thursday I went to school.   As the first hours in the mornings are taken over with marching practice right now, preparing for the Independence Day on Sept. 15, I had a very light schedule.   A nice way to ease back into the school routine.  Friday was Children's Day, so there was only a half day with activities, games, piñatas and other treats.  (I opted out, in favor of a chance to continue my unpacking.)  On Friday evening, I shared with the family some of the many things I brought home in my fully loaded suitcases.  Little remembrances from the house at 609 Bross (our Ashbaugh family home, now being readied for sale) and many other stops along the way. 

    I will add in here one last photo, of the Fort Collins Pipe Band.  It seems a bit thematic of my last days there, as I also took in a local performance of the musical "Brigadoon", performed by the Jester's Theater in Longmont.  There were several Scottish events going on in Northern Colorado.

    The three day  high school reunion in Longmont was a lot of fun.  Thank God for name tags!!  We had to look at each other's tags to help jar the memory, as many of us had not seen each other for 50 years!  And sometimes that didn't help us, as some of the attendees were spouses, not classmates, often someone we had never met before.  Several people brought food treats from their various home locations or their hunting trips, ranging from elk, buffalo, venison, salmon (just caught and smoked that week) to Hawaiian macadamia nuts and applets-and-cotlets from the northwest.  This fancy fare was enjoyed on Sunday at the Breckenridge home of Gene and Mary Pflum, where our family was fortunate to visit way back on July 17.  So it was like closing a circle in my circuitous itinerary. 

    My brother Alan came to take me and the many suitcases to the airport on Monday.  We, and his wife Mary, had a really good time getting reacquainted during this vacation. I am hoping he will be able to come visit us in Honduras in February when there will be a Rotary meeting regarding their Central American water projects in Tegucigalpa.   I even packed one extra suitcase for him to bring me, in the event he is able to come.   If not,  well, I guess it will stay in Colorado till the next time, whenever that might be. 

      We love hearing back from you readers.  We hope to stay in touch, though daily tasks our consuming most of our time.  We are extremely thankful for having this wonderful vacation, full of rich experiences, connections with family and friends and treasured memories.   Thank you to everyone who helped us along the way.   Love, Nancy

More news from Longmont

Hi blog readers.  This will probably be my last entry before returning to Honduras, as the library will be closed for the Labor Day weekend. 
This past week I attended another rehearsal of the Ft. Collins Pipe Band and they sent me a photo which I will attempt to pass on to you.  See below.
On Monday, I visited the 100 year old mother of my high school friend Linda, who is in a senior retirement center very close to our house.   I will see Linda and many other friends at our reunion which begins today.   Then I hopped on a bus and went to Boulder where I had another nice visit with Wally and Mary (overnight).   Tuesday evening, before returning to Longmont, they took me to one of the many cultural opporunities that Boulder residents enjoy, a free concert by faculty members of the UC Music Department.  The concert featured a flute professor, in collaboration with a piano professor and later with a small ensemble of French horns, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons.   The music was marvelous.

On Wednesday, my classmate Ron Grooters picked me up and we drove to Estes Park where we had lunch with his brother Jay.  We went to the local Catholic church to view the stained glass windows that Jay made and installed in the church--three large ones and about 20 smaller ones.   Quite beautiful and the result of many months of labor on Jay's part.   I have some photos, but none digital.  Maybe Jay can send me one.   I'll ask. 

Ron drove me up over Trail Ridge Road for a real treat--how incredibly beautiful that area is!   Then back to FortCollins where we had dinner with my brother Alan and sister-in-law Mary, aamidst lots of laughter about various memories Ron had to share with us --various pranks he remembered from Boy Scouts, life growing up  in the parsonage, etc.   The previous pastor's son at that Methodist Church of our childhood had been a good friend of Alan's, and Ron and Alan had a lot of other connections despite a few years difference in age.
I spent the night with Al and Mary, then hopped another bus to complete  that travel back to Longmont.  I managed to introduce Al and Mary to the public transportation opportunities they had not known about.

My time here is about up, so, besides visiting with these classmates from 50 years ago, I will be primarily trying to fit all the gleaned gems into a couple of suitcases, weigh it all and get it ready for the trip to Honduras on Monday-Tuesday.  It has been a rich time, full of memories.  All from Longmont, Nancy

Update from Nancy: Las Vegas and Longmont

Dear blog readers:  Last weekend I traveled to Las Vegas, NM to visit friends.  I stayed with Phyllis Ludi and we had a lot of time for in depth conversations and dog walks.  On Sunday morning, I visited First Presbyterian, where I saw many friends from our days there before moving to Honduras  (Chad, Judy Long, the Litherlands, Gordy, Carol Linder and Katie, the Manns, etc.).  But the big surprise to me was to find my niece Diane there!   She didn't know I was in LV and I hadn't thought about seeing her either!  She is staying there to keep Bob company while he recuperates from his stroke in April.  Their daughter Lyla has gone back to Texas for school.  On Tuesday, I borrowed Phyllis' car and took Diane and Bob for a ride--up the Mineral Hill road far enough to see Hermit's Peak and then north of town to Storrie Pond  (formerly Storrie Lake).   The drought persists, although (happily) it rained every day I was there!  The city has worked on an improved catchment system to fill up their reservoir whenever they do get rain.  Bob had not been out of the hospital/nursing home since his stroke, so he enjoyed the outing.
      In addition to the aforementioned church friends, I saw Robin, Les, Cordia, Diane and the Martinezes.  Diane is building some marimbas for Janine to use in her music teaching.   Very interesting to see.  Ray Litherland gave me a tour of the new (old, recently remodeled) bank building, introducing me to everyone as "our Honduran loan customer"!  That evening, I watched a video presentation shown outdoors, with various Las Vegas historical characters appearing in the second story windows of the building, each telling a story, then fading away as another character appeared in another window. 

      I rode the Amtrak from LV to Raton on my return to Colo.   From the train we spotted several herds of antelope and several of elk, some of them quite close to the train, with their big antlers and muscular bodies in motion.  Also, some passengers saw wild turkeys and a bear  (I missed those, though I saw the turkeys from the car on the way to LV).

      I spent the night with Larry and Deepa in Colo. Springs and then continued on my bus route to Longmont.   Deepa again served up a feast cooked in their "green egg" with many of the ingredients from their own garden. 

       Back in Longmont, I have had several interesting experiences (not counting the gas leak problems at 609 Bross!).  There is a bagpipe band that practices in the basement of First Presbyterian Church twice a week.   I have been able to sit in on a couple of their rehearsals.  It's quite a thrill, being in a relatively small space with 10 bagpipes and 5 drums playing!  I will ask them for a photo, if possible.

Last night was the annual Festival on Main street fair.  Main Street was closed off for four blocks.  Various business and civic organizations work together to sponsor this multi-faceted family oriented fun evening.  There were several stages, one with a couple of bands performing.   There was a presentation of 10 entries into a competition for kinetic sculptures, or so they are called.  Actually, they are totally crazy vehicles which need to be land mobile as well as water worthy, as the second part is today at a nearby lake.  They were judged on engineering, costumes, etc.   A couple of them were the Nurse Sharks and the Nascargots  (snail costumed folks who walked in slow motion to convey their snail-ness). 

    In addition, there were multi-cultural dancers, my favorite being the Chinese lion dancers (like the oft-pictured dragons, but with only two people in a much shorter but exceedingly beautiful costume).   it took so much energy to do this dance, that the people under the heads (there were 2) had to keep trading places with replacement dancers.  Accompanied by drum and cymbals, they processed for blocks, delighting young and old alike. 
    There was also a big bungee cord area, rock climbing, hula hoops, chalk on street painting, bubble machines, a fantastic juggler, acrobats, fire juggling, cotton candy, snow cones (free), lots of food booths, a 9-foot tall clown, and a display of cars by the ColoRODans that Corita wrote about a month ago. 

    Today I will go with Mary, my sister-in-law, on a tour of an old mansion that is used as senior hous  it has recently been renovated, hence the tours. 

      All for now from  Nancy.