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Monday, December 28, 2009

Christmas Times and More...

Greetings again from Honduras. I guess I can say a late Merry Christmas. I did spend it here in Honduras. It was the first time I was away from the family for the Holidays and it felt different. Nonetheless, I had a great time with friends.

Christmas Eve here is really the big day to celebrate. Families go to mass and then come home to a feast and a fiesta. Then, at about 11 o’clock, the madness that is the fireworks starts. No kidding, all kinds and all sizes of fireworks blasted until 1 in the morning…two hours straight. It was pretty impressive.

On actual Christmas day the streets were quiet as most people rest from an eventful night before. Us gringos made it our big day though. My good friends Mo and Rachel visited along with Rachel’s dad and sister. Other volunteers came into town as well. In the morning I took the guys on a walk and mini hike to the back country of my town, then at night we feasted on a fantastic Christmas meal. The night was topped off with some dancing at a local bar with live Honduran music.

For the last week and a half I have taken off work to just relax and enjoy the holiday break. For new years a group of 7 of us are going to the North part of the country to a small Hotel in the Jungle. We will spend New Years Eve there then river raft and hike for 3 days. Another out of the ordinary holiday celebration but I am looking forward to it.

In Honduran news, all is pretty tranquilo (calm) as we say here. Everyone has pretty much accepted that the elections are over, the new president will come into power, and former president Zelaya is all but without options.

I also read a very interesting article on the coup and the effect on business here in Honduras. You can read it (here). It talks about how since the coup nearly 180,000 jobs have been lost (in a country of only 7.5 million) and during the times when nightly curfews were imposed the country lost nearly $50 million a day (with a GDP of only $14 Billion). In a country that is already the second most poor in all of Latin America, the argument of the effectiveness of the coup continues.

I also want to remind people of the Podcast for Peace Corps here in Honduras. You can find it on iTunes by searching Peace Corps, then clicking on “see all” in the podcast section. Its called “La Vida Hondureña.” You can also click here (you will need to open iTunes and be connected to the internet). We explain a little bit of what life is like as Peace Corps volunteers in Honduras. There are 3 episodes up. But for some reason iTunes only shows 2. If you click the subscribe button on the iTunes page however, the latest episode does show up. Subscribing is better because the updates come faster. I am also going to paste the latest podcast below.

So just wanted to say Happy Holidays, even though it’s a little late. I know there will be some crazy New Years parties back home so have a great time. Right now I am just loving things down here…living for the moment and soaking up what I can. Tough times come and I think just accepting that they will is the best thing I can do for those times. Its all a great journey…learning, loving, living.

…Until next time.


LA VIDA HONDUREÑA - EPISODE 3...CLICK HERE

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