Home

Home is a situational term to me. And a fabulous Michael Bublé song.

After being in Honduras for a month I begin to reference my house as "home." It's a beautiful thing really. There was a house here with a woman and her daughter. Now there's a home with mi mama and Paola.

I have many homes. Pella, first and foremost, because that's where I spent a majority of my adolescence. Calvin because I live, study, work, and eat there (although I do eat better in Iowa). And now I believe in a few short months I could call Honduras one of my homes.

Home to me is more than a building with people, love, and food on the inside. What makes a house different than a home is what you leave there. The more I invest myself in a new place and culture the more I leave some of me here. When I say goodbye to this home, bits and pieces of my life will be scattered throughout. 

What puzzles me about my own definition of home is that it's ad hoc. Sure, I know that Pella will be my city of refuge for years to come, but where does the line draw between that home and the other? If I am constantly moving, changing, and adapting to my present "home" where can I find some permanency? Do I need to? Is being cosmopolitan better?

This lack of a permanent home can lead to wandering and "soul searching" - if you will. Without a firm sense of identification in a constant there will always be another place, time, or destination. My constant: the fact that I am a beloved child of God. That's how I am able to define many places as my home without feeling like a nomad or incomplete. 

I have this theory that home has to do with identification. It's where you leave yourself for future reference. When I return to Pella I know who I am there. My identity has been shaped and refined. When I return to Calvin, I'm still learning about myself. It's the internal battle of incorporating my past and my present. In either case I look back on events, places, people, or memories which give me a sense of belonging. I begin to identify with what's most relevant and comfortable.

This does leaves me confused though. I began writing this with the intention of ending with a slightly predictable conclusion of roughly "my home is home, but my eternal home is heaven." This is true. What I am searching for here is the constant in my definitions of home. The only thing crossing my mind is how God met me at each. 

It really is a beautiful thing. 

El Salvador

Our directors are awesome and switched some classes around for these two weeks so we could have a four day weekend. Which means traveling. Specifically, to El Salvador.

Getting there took a bit. And by a bit I mean 14 hours. It's normally 8. 

We got held up on the border because our van didn't have plates - just registration. So they had to drive another van from Teguc (about 4 hours away) so we could continue along our merry way. Our group got some quality time in by moping in the van for another 4-5 hours drenched in sweat. It was nasty. 

Once we got into El Salvador it was fantastic. It's lower than honduras, but there's still mountains. utterly beautiful. Some of the most gorgeous countryside I've seen.It's more developed than Honduras and it shows. The houses are painted brighter colors, the little tiendas are nicer, it's just upgraded. Plus they take USD. That's hard to beat. 

Down the road from the hostel that we took over was a little restaurant. We had breakfast, lunch, and dinner there for two days. They loved us. All for about $3 a plate. I love pupusas. Plus they had the best coffee I've ever had in my fully caffeinated life. I had five cups of joe in three days. For $.35 each it knocks Starbucks out of the water. 

The beach was a 5 minute walk from the hostel. We did very little for two full days. slept, bummed around, and I logged easily 12 hours in a hammock. black sand. We were at one of the best surfing spots in central america so it was ripe with beach bums. It was odd seeing non-nationals everywhere, but we met some nice ones. I didn't feel like an anomaly for once. 

That's just a quick run down. I was jawdropping at the scenery so I may have forgotten to take pictures. I got some from another group member. Enjoy. 

Above. Driving and maybe knowing where we were going. 

Above. We got held up by this herd of cows and bulls. That's normal right?

Above. On the way home we stopped at this restaurant that had a little zoo in the back. These two guys were great company for dinner.

Above. Further down the beach was this little gem. 

Above. A five minute walk on the beach brought us to Tunco, a little cluster of shops, restaurants, and hotels. Gringos galore. 

Above. More countryside on the way. 

El Quince!

Yesterday was El Quince (the fifteenth) - Honduran Independence Day! Because of that there were parades everywhere and here are a few snapshots of the day. 

Being the parade junkie that Tulip Time made me, I was quite happy all day. Although it was much different than children in Dutch costumes and tulips, I still enjoyed the parade without blisters from wooden shoes!

Above. Some baton twirlers at the Santa Lucia parade. Every band has these girls in skirts and sometimes heels shaking it. Just looks exhausting to me. 

Above. Little pomperas! There were so cute and their poms were bigger than them!

Above. Children would also dress up as future careers aspirations. These little tikes wanted to be fairies or princesses!

Above. Down in Teguc we caught the part of the parade of men in uniform. 

Above. Look rifles! Took me back to the glory days of color guard. 

Above. This is what a typical marching band looked like. They would stop in the middle of the parade and have a jam session then proceed along their merry way. There were no Steering Committee members to usher them along. 

Above. This is not what a typical band looked like. Nonetheless, they still knew how to break it down with banjos and even a double bass was thrown into the mix. 

Above. La Bebida del Peru! We stopped in a grocery store, I saw this and then immediately wanted to call my brother and his fiancée.  

The Good, the Bad, and the Tasty

sight: fireworks! It's independence day tomorrow and they had a little parade to kickstart the festivities and capped it off with fireworks. and the marching bands here have a lot more style and better foot work than I could ever muster while carrying quints.

taste: here's what I had for dinner the other night. This is pretty typical: beans, fried plantains, over easy egg, salsa, ham, and tortilla. I was hungry y la comida.. ¡que rico! mi mama is one fantastic cook. 

touch: I am now feeling culture shock. I have the greatest urge in the morning to want to pour myself a bowl of cereal. After venting to Kurt and Jo Ann, I have been diagnosed with a classic case of culture shock. It manifests itself in different ways. Mine: breakfast cravings.

smell: for a while I couldn't. some allergies caught up to me and I spent Wednesday being "that annoying person in the back of the room constantly sniffling or blowing their nose."

hear: awesome class discussions. We've been getting into theories of development this week. This always sparks debates over pros and cons and puts us in some need grace and patience. 

There will be pictures to follow soon of the Quince parade in Teguc tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Amapala & the Five Senses

The title sounds a bit like a 50s du-op group.

I know everyone was waiting in anticipation all day Friday for my "Five Senses Friday" post only to be sorely disappointed. My condolences.

No hard feelings because we had a gorgeous, relaxing weekend in southern Honduras on the Pacific coast at a little island - Isla del Tigre/"Tiger Island." The surrounding town is Amapala.

Here's a recap of what I experienced throughout the weekend.

sight: John Grisham and a hammock. I have successfully finished two of his novels (Pelican Brief and The Accused) in about six days. Dad would be so proud!

taste: saltwater. Gotta love when waves catch you off guard with your mouth open.

touch: black sand between the toes. It's a bear to get rid of and I looked covered with chocolate sprinkles for a day, but oh so worth it!

smell: Fresh fish! Having the whole catch (eyes, tails, the works) of the day served up on a plate to go viking style on it. I would've taken a picture, but only thought about that after I was finished. 

hear: Karoke. The restaurant where our hotel was apparently has this little ritual every Saturday night. The owner came out and sang his best versions of spanish love songs circa 1960. 

For dessert, pictures with captions on top.

 

Above. Four smiling faces as we were within eyesight of our destination. 

Above. This is the little boat to shuttle people from the mainland, Coyolito, to the island. The approximately 90 lb. man collecting fare would walk along the outside of the boat. It was pure skill. 

Above. This is the scene as we propelled away from the island. 

Above. Another panoramic. I'm slightly abusing this camera function.

Above. Adios Amapala. 

Hope this post finds you all well and, if you're at Calvin, enjoying your second week of classes!

Geeking Out

The past couple of days in class we covered two of my favorite things: Politics and Economics. Who doesn't love a little corruption and free trade agreements?!

Our class has diverse opinions on the subject of politics and we got into a great discussion yesterday. It was cut short by a fantastic guest speaker who gave us more background on why Honduras is the way it is politically. One word: history. 

Plus Kurt made a suggestion to watch the West Wing - checkmate. Already done. 

Two visits we have gotten to make as part of class are to the US Embassy and the Honduran Congress. The Embassy was awesome and loaded with information and lots of seeing what they are there for. Honduran Congress was my personal favorite (the group is divided). They brought us through the building and then we went to the legislative floor, sat in the chairs, talked on the microphones, all that jazz. Even took a vote to see if we should applaud for our speaker! 

If you are geeking out at this two paragraph summary let me know and I'll gladly get you some the readings we've done.

This past Saturday a few of us went up to Valle de Angeles for the day. It's a cute little touristy town with lots of souvenir shops and a great central plaza (pictures below). It is a pretty well known POI for mission teams or other gringos in the area. Which was odd spotting other non-Hondurans and being able to understand them. I will buy a hammock there someday. 

My older sister, her husband, 3 year old, and 6 month old have been visiting for the past few days from Southern Honduras. Sunday I got some bonding time with the baby in a hammock. Life was great until his abuela came along and I had to give up Jorge. 

I hope everyone's Labor Day weekend was a relaxing success! Take care. 

Here are some pictures of our little excursion to Valle. 

above. little plaza park thing we found. super cute. 

above. aren't they cute?! Yay for candid photos!