¡Feliz
Navidad y Prospero Año Nuevo! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! As
Christmas approached in Tela, a lot of people asked me if I was going home. And
a lot of people were surprised to find out I was staying here for the holidays.
At first, I was worried about spending Christmas away from home. I was going to
miss so much. I didn’t sing O Holy Night
at the Christmas Eve service at St. Michael’s. I didn’t go to my grandpa’s
house in my pajamas Christmas morning for breakfast and a gift exchange. I didn’t
have turkey or ham for Christmas dinner. Was it hard to be away from home for
Christmas? Did I miss my family and their traditions? Yes. But although I
missed home, I was blessed to experience Christmas in a whole new way.
The Christmas celebration began with the lighting of the
Christmas tree earlier in December (see my last blog post), and it just
continued from there. On December 20th the school put on a play. The Christmas and Epiphany story was broken up into 12 scenes, each with different
students and directed by different teachers. I got to co-direct the story of
the angel appearing to the shepherds, and the shepherds going to see Jesus. It
was a lot of fun!
Christmas vacation began the next day. In the morning I
hopped on an early bus to San Pedro Sula to meet fellow YASCer Claire for a weekend
trip to Lago de Yojoa, the largest lake in the country. It was a wonderful weekend
of hiking, tubing down the river, cliff jumping into the lake, and just relaxing
after the big push through finals and grading before break.
We left Lago de Yojoa on the 23rd, and after an
interesting day of travel, we made it back to Tela and wrapped some presents
for my friend and her two daughters who were coming over the next day. In
Honduras, Christmas is celebrated on the 24th, and there is no ‘Christmas
Eve’ as we have in the United States. But, being from the United States, Claire
and I decided we would still have a traditional North American style Christmas
dinner on the 25th.
On Honduran Christmas day, my friend and her daughters came
over. We made tortillas, ate lunch and opened presents. The evening meant church
and a potluck dinner. We sang some songs with familiar tunes, and had a
delicious Christmas dinner, complete with tamales.
On North American Christmas day, we had roasted chicken,
mashed potatoes, and steamed vegetables with a few friends. It was a lot of fun
and really delicious. Shout out to Claire who made her first whole roasted
chicken! I had grand plans of making a pumpkin pie until I realized I didn’t
have a pie tin. I improvised and made a pumpkin cake instead, and it turned out
pretty good!
The next day Claire and I rented a cab to take us back to
San Pedro Sula. We dropped Claire off at her apartment, and picked up my
parents from the airport! My parents and I have spent the last week exploring Tela
and playing a lot of card games. It was so much fun for me to hang out with my
parents and show them where I’ve been living. Plus, I was able to be with my
dad to celebrate his birthday on the 31st. It was the first birthday
he ever spent out of the country! Today, on the 5 month anniversary of my time
in Honduras, and after a very short week together, I took my parents back to the
airport. They are currently waiting in the Mexico City airport for their flight
to San Diego.
This holiday season has been filled with lots of new experiences,
and I wouldn’t trade it for the world! And now, as I look forward to a new
year, I am excited to see what God has in store for me.
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