we made it!

hola!

So i've heard from Taylor-Mary that she checks my blog every five minutes waiting for an update so this is for her:

It's hard to write what's all happened in less than a week, but the five of us from Calvin arrived safely in Honduras after running through the Houston, TX airport with petrified looks on our face & almost screaming when our plane screeched into the Tegucigalpa airport (2^nd most difficult place to land in the world) – thank you captain! (or like mi mama says: Gracias a Dios “Thank you God”)

Also, a special thanks to Maggie and Taylor-Mary for driving Krystal and I to the GR airport at 4:15AM!

I met my family after shoving all our luggage and 9 girls in one van, surviving the crazy traffic/driving here, and getting a quick tour of our university – Universidad de Pedagogica.

My parents are Luis & Betty, my little brother is Luis (o Luisito) and I have 3 sisters: Lily, Dorian, and Sharon. Lily has a daughter Elena that likes to call me Maria – the last Calvin student who lived here, I am a little jealous but i'll give her some time :) Luis loves to play Wii with me all the time, take pictures on photo-booth, or color so i'm never bored here!

food...

A shout out to Laura & Alex: I have officially tried seafood! Mi mama made sopa del mar “soup of the sea” with a whole crab, snails and shrimp – I ate it & really did like it..thought I should let you two know :)

Also, I am proud to say we have a “Starbucks” here – Espresso Americano! And the carmel latte was delicious, it is now our friday tradition after school :)

Lastly, my family has a wonderful tradition that I hope to have the rest of my life, galletas con cafe en la tarde, coffee & cookies in the afternoon!

Retiro a la Tigra – Retreat to the mountains!

This weekend after learning how to take the bus to el centro (downtown Tegucigalpa), by ourselves (thank God for Krystal's sense of direction!) we went on a retreat with Kurt & JoAnn's family – Anna & Noah. We stayed in a hotel that used to be a hospital for miners, it was lovely. We shared life stories around the fire with s'mores and went on a hike through the mountains to see a waterfall!

photos:

so I have few pictures already, but I must say that they are not a fair representation of the true Honduras. I often don't feel it is safe to pull out a camera or cell phone in the streets to take pictures, so enjoy my photos but take them with a grain of salt since they often show places I feel comfortable taking out my camera.

Thanks for all the emails & skypes. Andrea your haircut is beautiful, family I think you are great & Anne Banyai it was good to see you with Taylor-Mary! Love on the snow for me!

“Good-bye, friends. Love mixed with faith be yours from God the Father and from the Master, Jesus Christ. Pure grace and nothing but grace be with all who love our Master, Jesus Christ”. Ephesians 6:23-24 (MSG).

Susana