Yep, I went back to Honduras in October for a second trip. When I left in May I had this feeling that I knew I would be back. I just loved being there so much.
Dr. Cano and Tyler were being honored by the city of Choluteca for the work they have been doing there over the past five years. I jokingly asked if they needed a photographer to get their picture with the mayor and a few days later I'd purchased a plane ticket to head back.
We left on Wednesday bright and early at 3:30am in order to get to the airport and ready to fly out at 5:55am. With the layover in Atlanta and the time difference, we arrived in Tegucigalpa around 1pm Central Time. On this flight from Atlanta to Honduras, we did the traditional landing that I had heard about, but didn't get to experience in May. There is only one runway at this airport, so if a plane is landing and taking off at the same time, the landing plane has to circle the airport and wait. In May, we were able to land. This time, we had to circle and land. At one point when we get ready to land, the plane is so close to the houses next to the airport that someone could not stand on top of these houses. It's a dangerous landing, but the same pilots make this landing every day, so I'm not really worried at all.
Kelly and I chatting with Bri at the Columbus airport.
We flew over Cancun!
A pretty rainbow greeted us at our hotel.
We met the Minister of Education, as well as the curriculum department that is working on the curriculum for the nursing high school. After a very long drive from Teguc to Choluteca, we arrived at the hotel. Vanesa and Joel were outside when we pulled in and were excited to see me. I was greeted with a big hug, followed by "Amanda?". Haha. Thanks Vanesa. I only flew thousands of miles and you ask for Amanda!! haha. We did dinner that evening at the steak house and then later I gave the kids the bags we had made up for them. It was cute to watch them open their gifts. Joel immediately snapped all of his glow sticks and Vanesa painted her nails. We played Jenga, which was a huge hit.
Vanessa was excited to see me!
Opening gifts that evening.
On Thursday we headed to the school in Apacilagua. This is where we had served one of the lunches in May. A church in Upper Sandusky had raised more than $30,000 to put water wells in this village. At the current time, they don't have wells, therefore they can't have gardens, water their livestock, etc. The school and mayor had a little ceremony. That afternoon, after we had Pizza Hut for lunch, we went to the vocational school. We walked around and visited with some of the staff. Luvine was there, but I don't think he remembered me, as he didn't speak or do his little 'beep beep beep' thing that he did when we were there in May. We also stopped at a house to make a visit to a family that they Byrd's have sponsored. Esmelda bakes the most delicious bread. We could smell it when the van door opened. She bakes these loafs, then her older boys walk the villages and sell it. The church purchased an oven and deep freezer for her to help with the baking so she can earn money for her family. That night we went to the mall and ate at the food court. I went for traditional honduran food.....Subway. ;) I also got TCBY ice cream. That evening I played a little soccer with the little ones and their neighbor, and then we ended with a few games of Jenga.
A pretty rooster that is probably someones dinner now.
Cute little piggies.
The mama pig. Her name is "Princessa".
Esmelda's kitchen with the new stove and deep freezer.
The bathroom at Esmelda's.
I found kittens.
In their USU soccer jerseys.
Playing soccer in the street.
Vanesa got all of the letters and photos I have sent and she has saved.
Friday morning we went back to the vocational school for the advisory committee meeting. During the meeting, I helped get things set up for lunch. After lunch, we went to Siete de Mayo and visited with Don Veronica and other people we had seen in May. It was great to see people again that I had met in May and see how different the landscape was after a rainy season. There was so much more green! I didn't realize how many trees and plants were in this community until I was walking around and ducking so I didn't run into these huge leaves.
This slab of concrete was one of our projects from May. It's now a weight room.
That afternoon when we got back to the hotel and rested a little bit before dinner. My boss had flown in that day, so he arrived to the hotel shortly after we did. That evening we all went to an Italian restaurant at the mall. It was a really nice dinner and were joined by several friends from Honduras, a few that were very fluent in English, which is always nice for me since I speak no espanol! :)
When I got back to the hotel that evening, I headed back out to visit with the Gomez family. Joel had on his baseball uniform and we ended up playing baseball for an hour or so, followed by a few games of Jenga. I wasn't sure if the kids knew how to play baseball, but they ran in and got a large tree limb that we used as a bat and they had four bricks that they used as bases. Because I speak no Spanish and they speak no English, we have to communicate thru body language. So of course I really over exaggerated my baseball playing. I tapped the bat on the ground and really swung it around my head before trying to hit the pitch. Then when it was my turn to pitch I really wound it up. I even attempted to teach them how to do a softball pitch, because that seemed to be a more controlled pitch for all of us. If either one of them end up playing baseball or softball, I get some credit for their skills! Especially if it's pitching in softball. And of course in the rare occurrence I hit the ball, I would scream and yell as I ran. They thought it was hilarious. Of course they're probably saying "Why does this lunatic act this way! She's nuts!"
An adorable little beisball player.
Grandma/Mama sat outside with us while we played in the dark. This family is so thoughtful and kind. I was sitting on the sidewalk while Grandma/Mom was in a chair. Vanessa ran into the house to get me a chair as well. I was fine on the ground, so I offered it to one of the kids, Joel took it. Then they went into the house to get me a pillow to sit on so I wasn't sitting on the ground. And when I was downing my water (because at 9pm at night it was still hot as could be, plus I had just played a solid hour of baseball), I got choked on the water and couldn't quit coughing. Grandma/Mom was putting my hands above my head and the kids were patting me on the back. I was coughing more because I was also laughing from embarrassment and, and also because I was choking on my water. It was funny and I can just imagine what they were saying about this silly American girl.
Saturday morning we got up and went to the mercado (market). We had been there three times in May, so I knew what to expect, but we also got to visit a few areas that we had not been before. First we got our donut, which I was so excited about! I have never been a huge donut person. I just started eating Tim Horton's Honey Dip donuts in the past few years and they're the only ones I like. But then I had one of these sugar donuts at the mercado and oh my lanta they are the best! We visited the basket lady where I bought a huge basket for $7 and then my favorite part....we went to a fabric shop! I was going to get fabric to use in a quilt, but they didn't really have any that I loved. But I did find cute Christmas fabric that I bought to make a tablecloth and pillows for Christmas. I'm going to get some red pom for around the pillow. We walked past the meat and my favorite cheese booth (sarcasm), overall it was a great visit.
My sugar donut!
Fish in the mercado.
Meat, just hanging up for purchase.
We met Pati's mama.
Fabric store!!!!
We had a little time to rest at the hotel before it was time to head over to the WGM house for the award ceremony. The mayor of Choluteca presented Jamie and Tyler with "Citizens of the Year" awards for all of the work they do for the citizens of the city. It was a nice informal, but formal presentation.
Talking with the mayor.
The Ohio State group.
Before we had walked over to the church, I talked to Vanessa outside of their house. She shared that they would not be home that evening or able to play because they were going to a music show. This made me a little sad because it was our last evening in town. When we came back from the award ceremony she had notes to give me. She had written thank you notes to everyone she remembered from our trip, thanking them for the gifts that I had delivered. To be just 9 years old, she's very mature. In a good way. Very motherly towards Joel. She's just the sweetest.
Chatting with my littles. (They were locked inside the fence while Mom was at work.)
Vanesa sharing the letters with me.
With the letter she wrote me.
Saturday evening Ohio State was playing Wisconsin. A big game! We couldn't miss it! We had plans to go to Pizza Hut and watch it, but they didn't get ESPN. So instead we went to Larry's and everyone crammed into their room. We all joked that it was like our days in the dorms. Eight people crammed into one small room. About 5 minutes before the halftime it started to storm outside and then the power went out. It eventually came back on, but the cable did not. We spent the rest of the game getting texts from my sister. She sent play by play. And the game went into overtime! Do you know how stressful it is to follow a game via text message when you're in another country? Aaahhhhh! But we won!
Cramped in a small room watching the Buckeyes.
Sunday morning we headed to the island. This is my favorite village to visit. This village is an island when the tide is in, but you can walk to it when the tide is out. When we got there the tide was out. I could not believe the difference compared to when we were there in May! We got to see some of the same people and that made me so happy! We visited this family that we met. The baby that is 9 months old is smaller now that she was back in May. That made me so sad. The mother also offered her to me to bring back to the United States. If only that was possible. Can you even imagine handing your child over to someone else because you knew that person could give them a better life just because of where they live? I was heartbroken for that lady.
Group picture before they headed to church and I went to the island.
This was all water in the spring.
Little Samulito with Dr. Cano.
Passing out hugs.
The baby that could have been mine.
We also went down to the ocean, which was out so far compared to May. We probably walked a half mile to get to the surf. Then we got to see the baby sea turtles! This was so interesting. These men from the island do this just for conservation efforts. No money, just love. They dig up the eggs and move them to an area where they are protected by a fence from other animals. Then when they hatch, they move them to another container so they can loose their umbilical cords (who knew turtles had those?) so large fish don't think they're worms and eat them in the water!! I got to hold one and they were so soft and leathery. Very, very cool!
A baby turtle.
The sea turtle farm.
We had just a few minutes to shower and get ready to head back to the Teguc after returning to the hotel. I hurried and packed and then visited with Vanessa and Joel and little bit. I tried my best not to cry, but I shed a few tears. I know I won't be back to visit in the near future, but I know I will go back one day and hope to see them then! I tried to share my username with Vanessa for WhatsApp because she had shown me that she had it on her mom's phone a few nights earlier, but I think the language barrier hit and I haven't heard from her. But it was so good to visit with her and Joel and meet Mom/Grandma.
One last photo! (Joel got a haircut that day!)
The trip to Teguc was long and it rained a lot! When we arrived we had a dinner with all of the WGM missionaries and the WGM president. I also played a little with Max and Lucas, who funny enough of are the great-grandsons of my grandparents neighbors. Tim grew up just down the road from my grandparents in Chillicothe and our grandparents knew each other well. Tim moved to Honduras as a missionary when he was 30 and met his wife. They now live there with their two boys. Such a small world, right?
Monday morning we listed to Larry present to the WGM group about the programs he and Angie have been working on, especially the nursing high school which will begin in February. It was really wonderful to see all of these missionaries at work and how their work is helping the country and its residents.
Before long it was time to head back to the airport and begin our day of travel back to Columbus. We had a long layover in Atlanta, but first I had to get searched in customs because of the underwire in my bra (embarrassing). And at dinner my coworker told me I was single because I wanted to be, because there is no reason why I should be. Thanks, I think. ha.
Overall it was a great trip. I was so sad to leave, but happy to be home. Such a conflicting feeling. But I was also excited to come back and head to Indianapolis for National FFA Convention. Until next time Honduras!
Here is a short highlight video that I put together from all of the video footage I took on the trip.
Thanks to a hurricane, Molly was able to visit Ohio for a few days and I was ecstatic to have her home. She was going to come home for a wedding, then she couldn't get off work, then the hurricane shut down her city and she had to evacuate. Talk about good timing for her to need to leave SC.
I think I was a little excited when she called to tell me!
She and Lauren got to my place around 12:30am after driving 9 straight hours from SC. We had a little slumber party and Thursday morning we headed home. Molly, Tyler and I went to Emma's for a footlong hotdog and a milkshake in the Jeep. It was the first time we'd been together since August, and other than that one evening at the Ross County Fair, we hadn't been together since April!
It was hard to be at work on Friday knowing that my little sibs were hanging out back home without me. That morning when I got a sweet tea I thought about getting one for my friend Caitlyn that is a graduate student here in my department, but I just wasn't sure of her schedule these days. I occasionally treated her to a sweet tea over the summer when she was a FTE. Well that afternoon she walked into my office with a McDonald's Sweet Tea! That girl is the sweetest.
Friday evening I went back to Piketon and Moly and I went to the football game. It was All Cheerleaders' Night and Piketon won! Yay. We got to watch Avery cheer and then left shortly after halftime. It wasn't that exciting of a game.
Post high school football game, we did what any normal adults do, we laid on the couch and filmed snapchat videos with ridiculous filters.
Oh my deer.....
Saturday we traveled north for the wedding of our friend Jake. He and Molly were buds during their undergraduate days and I advised him in both student council and the fraternity. He was actually very influential in getting me to advise the fraternity. I was really glad that Molly was home to go to this wedding with me because the week before I had a bit of a pouting fit about not wanting to go because I didn't have a date. Thankfully it worked out wonderfully because Molly and I went together, we danced all night, and had a great time. There were a few awkward moments but for the most part, it was fun!
The best date.
How are the three of us single?
Photobombs.
Molly and her bud Ben. They claim to hate each other.
Sunday morning we got up pretty early and headed back to Columbus. Lauren picked Molly up and just like that she was gone and back to SC.
Luckily, event though parts of SC were damaged and flooded, her apartment was just fine. The pictures she sent us from around town showed damage and flooding debris, but she was safe!
That Sunday afternoon I drove home and visited Papaw in his new temporary crib, as he's doing a cardio rehab bootcamp. He's spent most of the summer just laying around and not moving, so it caused his leg muscles to weaken and a little fluid to build up again. We watched the Browns lose (no surprise!) and chatted about his favorite politician, Donald Trump (100% sarcasm). I also had to deliver Bowie to my parents because a few days later I headed for Honduras!! More on that soon.
I'm way behind on life updates, but rather than get further behind, I'm just going to update on this most recent weekend, then I'll try to backtrack a little and get other summer updates posted.
This past weekend was homecoming at both Ohio State and Piketon. For laughs, here is a picture of me at my high school senior homecoming in 2002.
I'm in the front on the left.
Every year the fraternity I advise builds a float for the OSU homecoming parade. They get so into it and I love it! It's like the worlds largest craft project. Some of the boys who are engineers work to get all of the mechanics down - how is it going to move, etc., while other boys help pomp, design signs, film, etc. They put hours and hours and hours into the float. I pop in for a few hours each evening to help pomp, paint signs, and provide encouragement and support. And leave around 10pm while they all stay there till the wee hours of the morning. #noti
pomping the wheels of the cannon.
pomping the actual cannon.
i painted the shield for the side banners.
Ellen and I (the house director and the advisor.....aka Women of FarmHouse) before we called it a night.
Some the boys and our king candidate.
They were interviewed by NBC 4 on the live news.
Brutus kicked the Rutgers cannon and then it "fell apart."
They ended up placing second to the College of Dentistry. They did a great job and put so much work into it! We just need to start gathering ideas for next year!
Saturday morning I helped clean up the alumni fall fest and then headed home to Piketon for the evening. I visited with Mam and Papaw a few minutes, then headed home to take pictures before Piketon's homecoming dance. Some of the dresses were pretty, but some where not. Some girls had pretty make up, while others did not. Some guys were dressed really fancy, while others were not. Ha. It was all over the board. After pictures I went to Bob Evans and had dinner with Payton and Shanon, so I was caught up on things going on at Morehead for Payton.
Sunday I got up really early and headed to Ripley to meet up with Cara. She gave me a tour of her farm and I played with the kittens, then we headed to downtown Cincy to watch The Sound of Music. It was so good! The girl that played Maria talked weird, kind of like the way Kate McKinnon sometimes talks on SNL. Anyway, it was great and I was singing "the Hills are alive with the sound of music...." all evening until I met up with some friends and went to a Jake Owen concert. :)
The Hills are alive......with the sound of music.....ahhhhh haaaaa ahhh.
Jake was playing at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium at the Brighter Days Foundation fundraiser. Jason and Ellie Day were there, along with Colt Ford, Justin Moore, Jake (obviously). I saw Brian Hardline and some other NFL players that I couldn't place. There was a guy from The Office there, along with Elaine's boss from Seinfeld. I thought Cole Swindell was going to be there, but he was not. :(
Jake played for about an hour - he played some good ones, but not all of my favorites like "American Country Love Song," "Alone with You," and "Eight Second Ride". But I have no complaints about watching him sing for an hour! :) Colt Ford and Justin Moore performed a few songs with him too. (PS - I had no idea who Colt Ford was prior to this event!)
And while I didn't get to meet Jake, Thom did give us a ride to our cars and I got to sit in the seat where Jake had sat a few hours before me, so there's that! ha.
I started a new quilt project a while back, and as I typically do, I tried to work ahead so there wouldn't be any last minute stitching, but I was totally up till 1am a few nights before the wedding trying to get it done.
Quilting is really simple, but sometimes I forget that it's not as simple as I think and that certain parts of it do take up a lot of time.
So I quilted a throw for Stacie and Derek's living room and since I'm not sure how it's decorated, I made it a bunch of different colors. It turned out to be the most favorite quilt I've ever done. (Yes, I say that about all of them, but they just keep getting better I think!)
I originally found this picture below online and really liked it, so I decided to do something similar.
I started to go to the fabric stores and buy fabric in colors and patterns that I wanted, but first I went threw my scraps I have at home and I am so glad I did. With the exception of two fabrics that I ordered online, everything came from my stash! I liked it so much that I cut out double of everything so that I can make my own quilt just like it - or similar, since it won't be exactly the same.
The fabrics are all leftover from other quilts I've made, pillows that I made when I first moved in to my apartment 6 years ago, my sister's baby shower (I had sooooo much extra fabric for that), and a baby shower at work.
I forgot to take a picture at home, so I did at the reception hall! :)
For the back, I like to use extra fabric from the pattern on the front and sometimes I end up liking the back more than the front. For this one I used the two fabrics that I had ordered online, the purple to match their wedding colors and the aqua because they have aqua and greens in their house, and because it had Dogwood Flowers and I like them!
And as always, I did a little personalization in the bottom corner.
I hope they liked it. It's by no means perfect. It has a lot of places that the binding didn't catch and I had to go back and touch up. I should have hand stitched it on instead of machine sewing, but I ran out of time! It will still serve it's purpose and keep someone that sleeps in their attic warm at night (because I froze the last time I stayed up there!).
And here is a picture of me with the babe of a bride. It was actually the only picture of us together somehow, but I do make a few appearances in this sneak peak video from their wedding day. A whole post to come soon.
My posts these days are just starting to become a collection of summaries rather than individual posts on specific events. Oh well! :)
So in my last post I talked about the Cavs winning the NBA Championship. I haven't gotten a championship shirt yet, but I probably will eventually. Just so I can show it to my grandkids one day! ;) I saw this post online and thought it was hilarious. Poor Cleveland!
One Saturday we did a girls pool day at Lindsey's. Everyone made something and we had a little potluck type lunch. Lindsey made chicken salad and a few other tasty sides, Callie brought a punch, I brought cookies and spinach dip and it was all yummy. I also got a 12 pack of Angry Orchard to share. I drank one can, I had another can a few days later while I was grilling a burger (I felt like it was the right thing to do) and the other 10 are still in my fridge! ha! We had a lot of fun and I got a little too much sun on my back, but was only a little pink that evening.
A few weeks ago I went to Cincinnati for a regional meeting with a group of teachers from 6 different states. It was held at a place called EnterTRAINment Junction. It has a huge display of model trains that was so cool, so after the dinner was over I walked through the display pretty quickly but it would be so easy to spend hours in there!
This place also has a fun house, which was pretty entertaining too. There was a curtain maze where you literally walk from 3x3 room to room and it was so easy to get lost! One of the rooms had the mirror that make you look really tall or really short! :) There was also a mirror maze, a maze that had strings that you had to crawl through, a space exhibit where you walked through the tube that was spinning and it makes you loose all sense of balance, and a fun house that had a few tilted rooms which totally through you off!
The tilted room.
I'm really tall here.
And really short here.
Since I was in Cincinnati and the dinner just happened to be up 75 from IKEA, I made a pit stop there for a few things I'd been wanting to pick up! And I got to visit Cara and her new adorable townhouse while in the Nati, too!
Then that weekend Kayla came back to Columbus to visit before going to camp and she stayed with me a few nights. Bowie was extra excited for her to be there! ha. We went to Red, White, and Boom. I had never been before. We watched it from Arch Park and apparently I now know that the area around Nationwide Arena is where all of the high school students hang out. I knew I felt really old for a reason! After the fireworks, we hung out on Park Street while the traffic cleared up and then headed home. It was good to visit with Derek and Stacie and other peeps that I don't see that often!
Bowie anxiously awaiting Kayla's arrival.
I got a shoutout in Kayla's official published research.
Fire works.
Girls at Red White and Boom.
I also had a few cookouts that weekend, one with work peeps and one with friends. Tim and Carla both are moving out of state for new jobs and we celebrated that with a cookout at a co-workers house. (Tim's wife is also battling cancer, so prayers for her healing are appreciated by the family!) I made marriage cookies and a peach cobbler. Lauren visited me on Friday while she was in town from SC and brought me peaches. I did't have any idea what to do with all these peaches, so I looked up a few recipes and made my first cobbler. I didn't eat any of it because I don't like peaches, but everyone said it was good! And Dr. Birkenholtz's granddaughter said my cookies were the best she's ever had, so that was a win, too! #workinonthosewifeskillz
Work family
Mom and I headed south to Charleston on the 4th to visit Molly and go to the beach for a few days. Our normal family vacation plans for this year were a little wonky once Tyler had to have his wisdom teeth pulled and dad volunteered to stay home and take care of him. So it was just us girls.
Mom and I got to Charleston about 7pm on Monday and made it down to the harbor for fireworks. Molly was at a coworker thing, so we didn't meet up with her until about 11:30pm. I hadn't seen her in two months!!
Mom and I at the fireworks.
Reunited and it feels so good!
We spent three days in Myrtle Beach, just sitting in the sun. We got in the water a few times, but there were all these warnings about bacteria and sharks so we mostly just sat on the shore in the sun. I apparently also took know photos while we were there. So here is one that my mom took of us at dinner our first night.
When we went back to Charleston, we visited the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens! It was gorgeous. It did't have an oak tree lined driveway like Boone Hall Plantation does, but it was still just lovely! Much bigger and more landscaped. But you did have to pay extra for all the tours, unlike at Boone Hall. I would have liked to have done the boat tour and the agriculture tour, but oh well. Next time.
On one of the paths through the gardens.
The gorgeous house.
Sister Selfie
All the spanish moss!!!
That evening we went back into town and walked to dinner at a BBQ joint that is right beside the jewelry store where Molly works on the weekends. I had the best macaroni with pulled pork on top. We also got to see Molly's store and meet some of the people that we hear her talk about all of the time.
You can't get food more southern than this picture right here.
It was a good trip and I'm glad I got to visit with Molly for a few days. This picture was hanging in her apartment and it makes me sad because this is the last time the three of us were together - April 30. I want her to come back to Ohio!!
