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.

Nancy Back from Las Vegas visit

Dear blog readers. Sorry for the long silence. I am not sure that I am entering this in the correct place, so I will just write this sentence to check it out. Then, hopefully I can fill you in on my most recent experiences. Nancy

Back in contact, Nancy in Longmont

Hi blog readers.   Corita, Raquel and Joel returned to Honduras on August 1 and Nancy went to Ames, Iowa for a week.  I will continue on in first person.  I visited  my good friend Mary Sawyer in Ames, who has been storing boxes of our stuff for nine years now!  I spent the week mostly sorting through this memorabilia, including boxes of old photos.   I through away a lot and pruned down to the amount I thought I could get in suitcases and take with me.  Quite a job.   Mary was a good support person.

Next I returned to Colorado and spent several days with Wally and Mary Finley in Boulder.  We had time for wonderful conversations, a bit of shopping, and some special celebrations as I was with them over my birthday.  They took me out to eat at an Ethiopian restaurant (the food was fantastic!) and then a stroll through Boulder's downtown pedestrian mall--alive with street artists, music, and energy.   I especially was fascinated with some live statues--people who had spray painted themselves and stood motionless for long periods with the visual effect of a statue, until they made a surprise move!   We experienced two different street artists with this act, and it was truly hard to tell if there was a person standing there or not!  Also, we enjoyed a wonderful digerido player (with a fantastic homemade digerido) and an upside down guitar player.  Wandered through a terrific local  independent bookstore  (especially a joy after witnessing the going-out-of -business sale of Borders in Ames, which store had previously driven out of business the best Ames local bookstore).     The next morning, Mary and Wally took me in their little camper up into beautiful Eldorado canyon to cook our breakfast by the river, with towering canyon cliffs as our backdrop.   There were several groups climbing on the rocks, including some elementary-school age children. 

Now, I am back in Longmont at the house where I grew up.  Last evening, I was really homesick for Joel and Raquel.   It seemed so empty there without them.   But I got a good night's sleep and this morning had energy for a little yard work and a walk to the library where I finally (!!!) figured out how to make a blog entry, or so it seems. 

I am back to the previous phone number, as the lost phone was here at the library.  So my phone number is 210-701-7342. 

All for now.   We hope I am able to enter this successfully into the blog!   Nancy

Day 32, July 31, 2011

Raquel's TWELFTH birthday!

After a nice breakfast and a few gifts, we headed off to church.  This Sunday the pastor was in costume, personifying his sermon.

One of the most innovative things about this church was actually its toilets.  The toilets use less or more water to flush according to which button you press.  If anyone is looking for a new toilet, you might look into these toilets by Toto.  I found them fascinating!

After church we packed up everything in the house into the van and headed out for the Ashbaugh family picnic.  There were 48 people invited to this wonderful annual family reunion, complete with organized games for kids and youthful adults.

 It was a great time to meet relatives we had never met before.

We shared our Honduran games as well: enchute (catch the ball on in the cup), honda (slingshot), and trompo (top).  Too bad David wasn't there to really demonstrate the Honduran top game.  It's quite intricate!

This page will be finished later.

Day 31, July 30, 2011

Today, Saturday, was a very unusual mix of activities.  First we went to the local parade, held in honor of the Boulder County Fair.  Unfortunately, the fair was to begin on Monday because it would have been nice to have taken the kids.  We got a nice seat on the edge of the sidewalk where we got lots of candy thrown at us.

There were lots of great floats and other entries, of which Corita took many photos for ideas for the annual Southwest School participation in the Honduran Independence Day parade.  I’m sure we could get more ideas at a 4^th of July parade, but we missed that this year.  One of the groups was a theater group who was passing out announcements for a free Shakespeare performance that very same night.  Boy, were we lucky!

So that evening we took a picnic lunch over to Loveland where we saw Shakespeare's "Love's Labor Lost".  It was quite a performance, even including the audience (us!) in their performance.

It was a little after dark when we pulled into Longmont and we were mystified as to why whole families were sitting out along Main Street in their lawn chairs.  The parade had been that morning, after all!  Well, it turns out we drove into the middle of the annual Hot Rod Cruise down Main Street.  Our rented luxury van did not meet the bill so we pulled over to watch the cars drive by for a while.  It turns out Longmont hosts an annual ColRODan Hot Rod show and competition which was to start the next day, but the previous evening everyone takes their souped-up cars out to show them off, revving their motors while paused at the lights.  Some drive into parking lots and pop their hood to show off their fine work.  It was a dramatic change of activity from the Shakespeare play, but that's what made it so much fun!  We cruised for a while with Joel waving at everyone and shouting, "Nice car!" before calling it a night.

Day 30, July 29, 2011

Today was just an errand day, buying things we need to take home to Honduras and starting to pack.

Day 29, July 28, 2011

Today we went to the Longmont Public Library again.  There was a free outdoor concert, but it was a bit young for our kids.  Joel spent the majority of the time playing at the side of the building with a vent.  He discovered he could make it rain grass!  Bored with the outdoor offerings, Raquel headed inside to check her email.

In the evening, we went to Fort Collins to visit DeAnn and her family.  "DeeDee" is Nancy's brother Alan's daughter, Corita's closest cousin in age.  DeeDee's husband Garth is a pilot and was called to duty, so we only had a few minutes together, just enough time for a group photo.

It didn't take long for Joel and Mason (DeeDee's seven-year-old) to hit it off.  A homemade "zip-line" in their backyard broke the ice.

For the girls (Raquel, Jenna - 12, and Laurel - 15) it took a little more time and a card game to warm up to each other, but then they were full of silliness.

Alan's two other children (Doug and Dan) were also able to make it, as well as Doug's middle child (Tiffany) and Dan's fiance (Anique).  It was great to spend time piecing together how things "really happened" by joining together all our memories.

Day 28, July 27, 2011

ZOO DAY!!

Today we got up early to head over to the Denver Zoo!  What a day!  We saw all sorts of animals the kids had never seen before, plus the hippo training (he wasn't very cooperative), a bird show, the African Wild Dog (similar to a hyena) feeding/training, and the African penguin feeding/training.  We were quite tired by the end of the day, but it was well worth it.  They are adding a new 10 acre section to the zoo which will be wonderful but will make it impossible to visit the whole zoo in one day, we think.

After buying some souvenirs in the zoo gift shop, we went to Ruth Warner (Marcia's sister of yesterday) and her Nicaraguan husband Moises's house where we had a delicious dinner.  Thankfully, Ruth's mother Natalie was able to join us as well.  The kids were delighted to spend the whole evening speaking Spanish, in fact Raquel commented on it two days later!  We had a great time getting to know each other better and catching up on olden days as well.

new phone number for Nancy

Lost our cell phone.  New phone number for Nancy is 970-324-3340.

Day 27, July 26, 2011

If you are a faithful reader of this blog, you might recall that on Day 12 there were some photos missing.  Our friend Robin has now sent us those photos of our time with Dianne and Cordia and getting on to the Amtrak train.  If you are so inclined, you may go back and see them.  We still haven't (and may never get) the photos taken aboard the train by a friendly stranger.

Today, Tuesday, we headed to Denver for some siteseeing.  First we went to the State Capitol to see the site where the kids’ Grandpa Mack made history.  In 1969, the people in the state of Colorado, and especially in Denver, were frustrated by the number of bills that were getting “killed” in committees without ever getting discussed by the state legislature.  These were primarily proposals that would help the poor, such as health care, housing, education, etc.  First the activists (including both Mack and Nancy) held a mock funeral for those bills in the rotunda area of the state capitol, but there wasn’t really a response to this demonstration.  There were murmurs of wanting to resort to violence (ex. Malatof cocktails) in order to get heard, so the religious leaders (including Mack) and some lay people took more direct non-violent action in order to head-off those who might get violent; they walked into the State Senate while they were in session, went up to the front, took the microphone and read a message.  It doesn’t sound like much, but the Senators were upset (the “Denver Fourteen” were NOT on the agenda!!) so all but one of them walked out and didn’t listen to the message, meanwhile calling the police to arrest them.  Nine months later they were acquitted.

 Here is the Colorado State Senate hall, but they were not in session.

 So, the kids and Corita got to see this important site in our family history as well as tour the building.  There was a quilt show going on simultaneously in the building, so we saw hundreds of lovely quilts as well.

We ate a snack lunch on the grounds of the capitol, where Joel learned the fine art of rolling down a grassy hill.

While in Denver, we had the opportunity to drive by the first home Nancy and Mack had after they were newly wed.

Next we went to Marcia (Warner) Cornejo’s house for a brief visit.  Marcia’s father and Mack met on the streets of Denver demonstrating about public health.  Since they coincidentally had the same last name, the two gentlemen spent some time talking and formed a friendship.  We spent about an hour visiting with Marcia, meeting her husband Pepe Cornejo (chileno), and even getting the gift of a cd with original Latin rap made by her three sons.  You might check out their band called Debajo del Agua on the net.  They have great lyrics!

The kids especially enjoyed getting to know the tortoise Bamboo.

From Marcia’s, we went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  We didn’t have time to visit all the exhibits, so each kid chose one.  First we went to the Egyptian exhibit, as selected by Raquel.  They had several real mummies and a very interesting and informative display.

Joel opted for the dinosaur exhibit, which ended up being extremely extensive, starting with how life formed on Earth.

Unfortunately, Joel got bit by the T-Rex:

Corita’s favorite dinosaur is the maiasaurus, an herbivore who was reputed to be an excellent mother.

 We were hoping to go back to see the space exhibit and the temporary pirate exhibit, but we never had time.  These museums are such a treasure!