Honduras: Day 4

On our forth day in Honduras we visited Pantaloen, which is an agribusiness organization dedicated to the processing of sugar cane to produce sugar, molasses, alcohol and electricity. When we first arrived we listened to one of their administrators talk about the business and the foundation they have. Social responsibility is one of their key areas, so they have a number of different things going on to give back to the community.

Following the talk at their headquarters, we traveled to a health center they have that provides a maternity ward for women to deliver their babies. I have only been in a few maternity wards, but this one was not one that I would want to go to deliver a baby. However, Angie shared with the group once we got back on the bus that this kind of clinic was very nice compared to the public hospital where women cannot enter until the baby is crowning (!!!) and they have to go home after 12 hours. This facility gives women the opportunity to have a dignified birth, and as someone who would be mortified if I had to lay on a mattress on the floor naked to give birth without meds, I appreciate their concern and care for other women.

This is the rom where the women would labor.

This is the room where the babies are delivered.

This is the room where the women recover.

Everyone in front of the clinic. (I do not know why I'm leaning back!)

Our next stop were the fields! We were able to see how sugar cane is planted and then we even got to try a hand at it too! These men and women who work in the fields do so during 12 hour shifts, in the scorching sun, and get paid about $10/day. Our guide did talk about the workers and how they have a special drink (similar to gatorade) that is available to the workers, but other than that, I feel like they aren't treated the best or paid fairly.

Fields that have been plowed and are ready to plant.

Bundles of sugar cane stalk to be planted.

A field worker covering up the planted stalk.

Grown sugar cane.

Once we got back from the fields, we enjoyed a wonderful lunch by the company. There were already a few employees outside playing volleyball, so our group joined them. I just took a few pictures because I could not think about playing volleyball in the 100 degree weather.

Volleyball game.

We came back to the hotel and a few people went to the pool, while others hung back at the hotel and napped/got caught up on social media before going to dinner!

A few more tour days ahead, then we have work days for a bit, then a few more tour/rest/relaxation days.

Official trip blog: Day 4 post

Honduras: Day 3

I've started a running list of things I should have brought with me. Most of them aren't practical to take around the world, I realize this. And many of them are wants, not needs.

1. hangers - there were four in my room, but I have at least 9 shirts.

2. a bag between a backpack and a cross body bag - there are times when i don't need the whole thing, but have more stuff than can go in my cross body.

3. my clarisonic charger - I feel stupid for even writing this because the people we are helping don't even have running water, let alone a special tool to help exfoliate their skin. 

4. bobby pins - i'm going to bum some off of a student, but seriously, there are only so many ways to do hair in this humidity.

5. dirty laundry bag - luckily I had a spare target bag that has been used to transport my dirty laundry to and from Larry and Angie's.

.....this list will continue to grow over the next two weeks I'm sure!

So by this point I'm 4 days in and starting to make friends with some of the students, but no BFF's yet. I'm also trying to stay in the adult roll and not confuse the students on how to address me. So I'm keeping to myself a lot and hanging out with the adults more. I also go to bed at 8:30 our time here, and they all stay up laughing and talking until 2am. Not me. I can't do that. Trip Mama needs her sleep.

At the beginning of the third day on the trip, an our second day in country, we started out the morning with pancakes for breakfast and then headed to Siete de Mayo to make lunch for the school children. We were again at someone's house using their outdoor 'grill'. We were told that each of the villages we went to the living conditions would get a little worse. This house was right across the street from the school and the students cut up vegetables to be cooked for the lunch.They were served a potato type base with cole slaw and sliced tomatoes. Each of the meals we fix are nutritional, as they go along with a lesson that teaches the village residents how to create nutritional dining options. Diabetes is really common here because many of the residents eat cheap junk food instead of cooking nutritional things (sound familiar USA?). The difference is here in Honduras they don't have the opportunity to purchase fresh fruit, vegetables and meat. They also don't have a way to control the diabetes disease. They just eventually have to amputate a limb. 

We also went over to the school to serve to each of the individual classrooms. The kids were really excited for the "kool-aid" and the lunch. It was really sad to see some of them hiding their plate under their desk so they could get a second serving. Dr. Cano shared that some of these kids probably hadn't eaten in days and this might be the only meal they have for a few more days. 

Social studies information on the wall. (Also, they serve 3 liter bottles of pop here, not 2 liters like in the USA.)

A class waiting on their plates!

The classrooms were a lot different than I expected. I knew there would be limited resources in each of the rooms, but I was actually surprised to see the classrooms decorated with posters, maps, times tables, and bulletin boards similar to how they are back home. The kids also had text books that they were using that were similar to the workbooks we had in elementary school before we got hardback books. Some the teachers were very strict while others had no control over the class at all. When we were outside, they would come outside. We were very much a distraction to the students.

These are the houses these students live in. They are one room houses with hammocks.

After we left this village, we went on to see the vocational school that is kind of like Larry's project that he focuses on. We ate lunch there and then got to see their five buildings which include an administration building with a large classroom, the admin offices, and a computer room (all laptops from the late 1990's), two auto mechanics classrooms/buildings, a welding building, and a sewing building. These buildings are similar to a pole barn and are just one big room. They're divided up into different areas by paint on the floor and one area is the "classroom" and one area is the "shop."

The classroom part of the welding room. You can see the stations in the background.

I was really excited to see the sewing classroom and I wish we could do more with them. Each girl has their own sewing machine in the classroom. They learn to use the 'old' pedal style, a modern machine like what I have at home (almost the same one) and also an industrial machine. It melted my heart when our guide shared that some of the girls wore the dresses they had made to graduation last year!!

The industrial machines.

The old pedal machines.

We left the vocational school and headed back to town. We had dinner at Larry and Angie's, then went to get smoothie's at a little place near the hotel. One thing I noticed as soon as we got into town, and it continues to bother me is the trash that is everywhere! No one throws away trash and they definitely don't have recycling. I just want to spend hours cleaning up the streets and areas around here! IF there is a trash can anywhere (there was a very small one at the smoothie place) it usually doesn't have a trash bag in it.

We have tours scheduled for the next few days and then we will be working a full day at the vocational school, followed by a rest day! Looking forward to day of worshiping Jesus (in Spanish) and sitting by the pool!

Official study abroad blog: Day 3

Honduras: Days 1 and 2

Surprise, I'm in Honduras! I've been here for a handful of days with a study abroad group that I'm chaperoning/taking pictures of everything they do. (Because of that, I'm usually behind the camera and not in front of it, which is not a bad thing considering make-up melts off as soon as I leave my hotel room and after 'fixing' my hair one day I said "forget this" and it stays in a top knot.) I'm going to try my best to document my trip because this is truly a once in a lifetime experience that I want to remember forever.

Our flight took off earlier this week at 6am, which meant we had to be there at 4am! I didn't have a ride there, but luckily one of the students going on the trip had stayed all night in town with her parents the night before and they picked me up. Bright and early! I haven't flown since last summer, so I was somewhat nervous for the flight and just the overall trip to a country that wasn't America, but I was surprisingly calm the night before and didn't have any panic or anxiety attacks like I thought I would. (I packed a wash clothe in my carry on just in case I needed it, but nope!)

We flew from Columbus to Atlanta and then Atlanta to Tagucigalpa, Honduras. In Atlanta we met up with my former boss and five students from Utah State. This was my first flight over water, but I didn't even know that because I was on an aisle seat. The flight was 3.5 hours, but since it was an international flight, we had individual tv's. I watched a little bit of "How to Be Single" and thought it was really stupid, so I turned it over to "Sisters", which wasn't much better. I was worried about the landing at the airport because I had heard they really have to spiral down to land since it's in the mountains, but surprisingly we landed and didn't have to do that landing. Praise the Lord! I was so worried about getting motion sickness, despite have 3  Zofran in me!

The entire group, minus me because I'm the photographer. 

I snuck this picture while the girls by the window went to the bathroom. You can't tell here, but that's the ocean and I could see ripples in the water. 

We had to wait in line forever to go thru customs, which is totally acceptable. I am not complaining at all, but it was a long time and really hot. It's 100+ every day we're here. Once we got thru customs we exchanged some currency - $100 for 2200 limps. I've yet to use any of it. But we will be buying souvenirs on our last day here. After we loaded our luggage in the vans, we walked across the street to the mall where we had lunch at the food court. The mall was really nice! And the foodcourt probably had 20 places to order. I chose Wendy's. :) I figured I'd be getting a lot of true Honduran food while I was in country, so I might as well get a JBC and a Frosty while I could! The mall is where I saw the first armed security guard, which is now a common thing at police road stops, banks, and basically any store that has things of value.

The local news was in the lobby. For a bit, I was in the background while we moved in a line. Just into the country and I was on the news!

We landed in Teguc around 1pm their time and then had a 3.5 hour drive to the city we're staying in. Luckily I got to sit very close to the front because that road had so many winding curves up and down mountains. I didn't sleep on the trip, but I may have lightly dozed off a few times. The only way to describe the houses that we passed are small shacks. Since we're in mountains, they're all along the road we were driving and right next to the road. So there were people just sitting 2 feet or closer to the road where people were driving. Also, this was my first taste of driving in Honduras. People don't obey traffic laws, they're just suggestions. Red light, NBD. Someone going slow, pass them. Passing is a really common thing here. For a culture that is so laid back and relaxed, they are always in a hurry when a car. There's no driver's ed courses here, just pay a fee for your license, or even drive without a license, because who is going to stop you?

All of those buildings are houses. Including the one in the middle that looks like a storage shed.

There are also a lot of animals here just roaming around - dogs, cats, chickens, goats, horses - all which look malnourished, and since there is now spaying/neutering, there are lots of babies and mommy's that are nursing (animals that is, but also nursing humans too!).

Random horse.

Welcome to Choluteca!

When we got to the hotel, we got sorted into our rooms and then had a little free time before heading to the mission house for dinner and orientation. It's walkable distance from our hotel. The hotel is really nice, which I was not expecting considering the areas we saw on the drive. It's by no means a 5 star, but it's clean and has A/C! I get my own room, which is great. I will need my alone time after being with 30 people all day every day in very tight quarters.

Dinner that night was a traditional Honduran chicken taco dish type thing, but it was good. I was banking on sweating off a few pounds on this trip, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to gain weight from the amazing food we keep being fed. I actually feel a little guilty having so much to eat, when 40 minutes from here there is a school where kids won't eat all week. 

We got to bed pretty late that first night. Even though it was only 7pm here, it was 9pm in Columbus and I had been up since 4am. I worked on our group blog a little bit (www.studyabroadhonduras2016.wordpress.com) and facetimed my mom before heading to bed. I took a much needed shower (who knew flying could be so sweaty!) and literally did not move all night! I was so tired.

The first morning in country we were here we had to be up by 6:15am for breakfast at 6:30am. They served toast and scrambled eggs. I ate few pieces of toast and some juice. We left and traveled to the mercado (market), which was a crazy experience. Not only do they have shops along the street, but they also go back these alleys. It's a lot like a flea market. Every booth has different stuff, but also the same stuff over and over. You could sell shoes, toiletries and vegetables all in the same 10x10 booth. And then the merchants that sell meat.....eek! It's just hanging in the booth. It smells and has flies on it, but people buy it! We did get donuts at this little bakery shop and the sugar donut that I had was delicious!!

Selfie on the bus and headed to the mercado.

Seeds and spices that were being sold in the mercado. Along with a bunch of other things in the background.

My donut and cold coke. Still an instagram girl even when I can't post. 

We walked back to Larry and Angie's and waited on lunch. While the group was preparing guacamole, a few of the boys and I went to the hardware store with Angie. It was a completely different experience than the mercado. It was just like an ACE Hardware back home! 

Traveled all the way to Honduras for a picture at the hardware store.

After lunch, we traveled to a village where we helped prepare food that would be served at a community education event. The group we're working with is creating a health education program and two of their male educators (which is really unheard of) spoke on nutrition education for the teens. A lot of the material they were covering was stuff that I learned in elementary school - like how many servings of vegetables to eat, etc. The food was prepared on an outdoor stove, which was really a fire pit. The house was a small, small house with trash and animals all over the place. The people were really friendly and welcomed themselves their home.

Cooking dinner outside the house in the 'kitchen.'

A pig in the backyard.

In line for the bathroom. Seriously, that's their bathroom.

 At the health program event there were a ton of neighborhood children there. One little girl they kept calling "Ag Comm" because she filmed the entire event on her phone (every has a phone, even if they don't have much else) and was taking a lot of pictures of us with it. We had a photo shoot with these kids and didn't even speak the same language. They would pose, then the kids would want to see the photos. Then they'd motion us to a different location to pose by a tree, then a bush, then a bench. It was so fun. These little kids were precious.

With Abbey and "Ag Comm girl"

These are all of the health educators, along with their leader in the front.

Some of our girls cheesing with the little girls.

At the health program event there were a ton of neighborhood children there. One little girl they kept calling "Ag Comm" because she filmed the entire event on her phone (every has a phone, even if they don't have much else) and was taking a lot of pictures of us with it. We had a photo shoot with these kids and didn't even speak the same language. They would pose, then the kids would want to see the photos. Then they'd motion us to a different location to pose by a tree, then a bush, then a bench. It was so fun. These little kids were precious. 

That evening we had dinner (grilled hamburgers!) and got smoothies after we got back to the hotel. I was so beat! I facetimed my mom when I got back and then I was out! Seriously, so tired from a full day!

Nightly debriefing at the hotel lobby.

It's so hot here! We are constantly drinking water. You have no option. If you don't you'll get so dehydrated and sick. I brought along those flavored water packets to use in my water bottle, which helps when the water that was once ice cold is now hot. For some reason, hot kool-aid is better than hot water! :)

We have wifi at our hotel, but when all 30 of us are using it, it gets a little slow. I'll try to update every few nights so my mom can see my pictures :) and I don't forget things. Surprisingly, even after just a few days have gone by it's already hard to remember everything we have done and on what day! 

Hasta Luego.

Official trip blog: post for day 1, post for day 2, pictures for day 1, pictures for day 2

Spring Time Stuff

I feel like there is a series of things I need to document that I just haven't had time to do, so I'm just going to do it in a bullet/paragraph form. And of course, miss things too.

Quilting

I've talked about all the quilts I did in January and February - I finished two and did two from start to finish. I was on a roll. I haven't touched my sewing machine since I finished Charlie's quilt at the beginning of March! I have a few more that I want to work on this summer from this list I have saved on Pinterest. One for me and a few for friends! :)

Extra Cat

For three weeks in March and early April, Molly and I watched Wembley, Brittany's cat. The first day they hissed at each other, but they became best friends and basically annoyed the crap out of me from the hours of 10pm-7am. Then they would just sleep all day. Usually in a chair together. I felt really bad for separating them when Brittany came to pick him up - he ran from us and hid under Molly's bed, while Bowie walked around looking for him for a few days. While I was home one weekend, someone asked me when I was going to get married, which is obviously not anytime soon. Later I got to thinking, "I'm single, but my cat's boyfriend has moved in." Molly and Wembley really took to each other, so if she would have been able to take a cat with her to Charleston, she would have.

Charleston

Speaking of Charleston, my 'temporary' roomie is moving out. 14 months of living together has been great and hard, but it will soon come to a close. Molly's moving to Charleston. I'm so excited for her and I think it will be a really good opportunity for her to truly be on her own and do a little growing up without relying on parents and older siblings to do so much for her, but I'm also really going to miss having her here this summer to go to county fairs, festivals, concerts, runs, walks, ice cream dates. I wanted her to get her own place so we could each have our personal space back, I just didn't wanted it to be 10 hours away!!

31!

I had a birthday in early April and turned 31. I can't even believe it. 30 seemed like a fun age. 31 just sounds old. The last handful of years I have been surrounded by college students, so I haven't felt like I was in my 30's. I felt like, and sometimes acted, like I was still in my early 20's. Something about this birthday makes me want to me more settled and less involved in the college life. So I've stepped down from several of my advisor roles on campus and am going to focus on a few more adult like things that I haven't paid much attention to over the past few years....like laundry, staying organized, sending birthday cards on time, eating dinner before 8pm, maybe having time for a boyfriend. #adultingsohard

On my actual birthday I had to work - from 8am to 8pm. Total bummer. But it was actually ok because it was a Monday and what was I actually going to do on a Monday. Plus, so many people at the banquet wished me a happy birthday, so I just felt the love all day long. A few days later I went to dinner with my girlfriends. And the day before my birthday I went to my grandparents' for a birthday dinner (Arby's!) and cake (DQ ice cream cake)....it was a perfect Sunday afternoon! The pictures are all on my mom's phone, so they'll have to be added later. (Mother, email them to me, please and thank you!)

Out for Abra's 31st birthday a few weeks before mine!

Brunch after my birthday.

Garth & Trisha
Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood brought there world tour to Columbus. Since I had just seen them in October, I didn't plan to go again in April. But a friend called the night before their first concert and asked me to go and I couldn't turn down the opportunity! The show was great (I think it was just a little better in Cleveland though) and I had a lot of fun. Then a week later I got to "meet" Garth when he and Trisha came to campus and did a "conversation" with students. There were about 100 students there and it was so cool to just listen to them talk and tell stories. And they sang Trisha's "Walkaway Joe" for the group. I was never a huge fan, but after seeing his amazing shows and then listen to him talk about music, his family and his faith, I'm sold!

I was this close to Garth.

Dogwood 5K
This is the race that I've ran every year since I started my journey in road races, so I made sure to head home for it again year. Unfortunately, it was freezing and there were only 20 people who ran. I will never understand why they don't advertise this race more. When I was little it was such a big event. There was a giant start and finish balloon arch and so, so many people. I keep make suggestions every year about things that could improve the race - advertising on racing websites, putting it in the newspaper, social media, your own festival Facebook page!! I also have suggested that it start/finish line in the middle of the festival since it's not busy at that time of the day and to work with local organizations (scouts/church groups, etc) to staff a water station and along the course where people need to turn (someone got lost this year). So Dogwood Committee members who are reading this, here are a few suggestions from a frequent 5K runner! :)

Payton and I ran together and she beat me by :02 seconds. We walked for just a few minutes, so of course after I finished I was bummed because I could have kept going and probably cut off 5 minutes of my time!! I finished at 35:37 and got second in the 18-39 category. 

Dogwood Festival

To go along with the 5K, this weekend was our annual Dogwood Festival. My little Avery was crowned queen! I missed her crowning, but I was there to see her in the parade. And my dad spent is 47th year frying fish at the fire department. Since Mom, Molly and Tyler were all out of town, I spent most of my weekend hanging out in the back of the fire house with my dad while he thawed fish. It smells, but it's fun to hang out with him and get a little one on one time.

Isn't she lovely?

Nobody fries fish like my daddy!

Pike County Murders
My hometown has been on the local and national news a lot lately. I love my hometown. Like, I love, love, love it. But there are some not so great things about it and those are usually the things everyone else hears about on the news. We're known for the Atomic Plant from the 1950's, the house that got washed away in the flood in 2010, the hometown of Zack Farmer, and now what we'll be known as  the home of the Pike County Massacre. I have no idea what happened, but no matter what, it's crazy! I'm sure there are so many pieces of information that haven't been shared with the media yet, and I'm totally fine with that. Let the police do their investigation!

I didn't know the family at all, but I do know of other extended family members and I had friends and family that had the boy as a student. I had lots of friends and internet friends (Hi Brandi!) reach out to me when the news broke about this and days after. I'm so thankful for friends that care about me, the safety of my family, and my little town. Hugs to you all.

I know one of those deputies on the CBS evening news!

Honduras
This summer I'll be traveling to Honduras with a group of students. I'm really excited for this study abroad/mission trip that I'm going to experience. I will post lots of pictures when I get back!

A Night to Shine

I'm going to rewind back to Valentine's Day weekend. I never blogged about it and it's definitely a weekend I want to remember.

Last year Molly found and volunteered with an event called "A Night to Shine", which is put on by the Tim Tebow Foundation. This event is a 'prom' for teens and adults with special needs. The TTF organizes the event and likely provides some financial support, but then churches around the country actually host it in combination with a lot of volunteers and support from the community.

Molly went to Cincinnati last year, but this year a church in Newark was hosting and we decided to go help with that one. I signed up to be part of the 'paparazzi' and Molly was a a helper with the board games and non-dancing activities. We had to go to a training event a few weeks prior, and have a background check run, of course. 

Because it's a formal event and all of the guests are encouraged to wear fancy formal dresses and tuxedos or nice suits, we dressed up too. Molly had a sequin skirt and I wore a black dress with some sparkly beads.

As the guests arrived, they were introduced and then walked down a red carpet. My job was to take pictures of them as they walked down the carpet, just as a celebrity would have their picture taken multiple times on a red carpet. It was fun to cheer for them as they walked to the end, which then went into the gymnasium where the food and dancing was located. 

Molly ended up not needing to work at the games because the guests were all dancing and not  one bit interested in playing cards or games, but they were in need of a few more buddies (even though they actually weren't), so Molly volunteered for that. She was paired with a girl who was there for her prom. :)

Once I got done taking photos on the red carpet, my new friend Devon and I grabbed dinner and hit the dance floor with Molly and her buddy, along with a few other girls and boys and we danced and danced and danced. Before we knew it they said "that was our last song of the evening." 

We still got in line for the photo booth and got a few group photos to remember the evening.

If anyone has the opportunity to volunteer with an event like this (this one is always held Valentine's Day weekend), I would highly recommend it. It was so much fun and a great way to spread love during a weekend that was completely focused on love. It would have been easy for me to sit down and complain about being single on Valentine's Day, but instead I got to hang out with these awesome people and help them have the night of their life!

Decorations in the gymnasium.

All guests got a crown because we are all princes and princesses in God's eyes. (Molly's in the back left)

Molly and her guest Nora dancing. :)

Molly and Nora doing a line dance with all of the guests.

Me dancing with my friend Josh.

Molly and her buddy Nora.

Fun the the photo booth with Devon, Stacey and Nora.

Fun in the photo booth with my service loving sister.