Final Days in Honduras..

Hey, all,

I made it home late last night (Monday, March 9th) but my luggage was delayed. That was the only travel glitch in a full, long day of traveling so I can't complain.

Our final days in Honduras were great but it is also SOOOOO good to be back home and closer to loved ones.

Just to complete the record of our trip I will post a little about our last few days.

Thursday night at the Crab Races at Bay Island Beach Resort there was a really big crowd of resort people as well as a whole new batch of volunteers for the Clinic so it was a really lively night. Judy and I were recognized for our service at theE Learning Center and Camilla gave us both shirts with the E Learning Center logo monogram. It felt very special to be part of a great program.

Friday was our last day with the kids but we just had a normal day and did not make a big deal about it but encouraged all the kids to keep up the good work until we come back next year. We also had a special guest at the Center. Luma is a young man from the Garifuna culture on the Island. The Garifunas are a mix of native Caribbean indigenous people and former African slaves who developed their own language, culture and villages on Roatan. Luma is an amazing artist (painter) who shared with us and the kids his work that he is doing for a book on the Garifuna. Then he spent the afternoon with another volunteer, Kristen, doing an art project with us and the kids. It was an afternoon that the center was chock full of people ranging in age from just a few months (Maria managed the daycare corner!) to parents so it was exhausting, hot and crowded but Luma was amazing. On our way home we ran into lots of the kids from the morning sessions who were just getting ut of school in the afternoon. I think I could get used to be addressed "Miss Maria" by everyone I meet!

We had a quiet evening at home and Judy even got a fresh mattress after hers had been soaked early in the week and we had been bunking together!

Saturday morning we went into West End and did a little "shopping" for the very few things we are bringing back. Everyone can lower their expectations as I am NOT a shopper and I hate all the touristy stuff anyway. Then for the afternoon we headed back to Bay Island Beach Resort for an afternoon of snorkeling and in the hammocks reading our books. For dinner we needed to finish up what we had left in the refrig so we had an amazing meal of garlic sauteed shrimp and tabouleh salad and then our favorite big bowl of chocolate pudding for dessert while we watched HBO. Decadence! Vacation!

Sunday, another gorgeous day, so we just decided to snorkel off of the pier in front of the house and were pleasantly surprised that, after crossing about 150 yards of sea grass, there was lots of lovely coral and fish in the reef area just in front of the house. Current was VERY strong but we enjoyed exploring the extensive area for more than an hour underwater. After lunch we were totally lazy on the front porch with our books and watching the neighborhood hang out on the pier. When the doors on the piers are left open word gets out to the locals who clearly tell everybody in the neighborhood and, before you know it, there are 30 people (families, dogs, teenagers and their friends) all out on the pier with picnics and swimming and jumping into the water. It was really busy and attracted the attention of the local Tourism Police who stopped by (these guys are packin' heat which always amazes me!) which caused about 8 of the young men to jump straight into the water and head out deep into the reef rather than meet up with the local authorities. I am sure there are a few stories there but we did not know the details.

Maybe one of them was the kid we saw yesterday hightailing it down the beach in front of the house with a machete-wielding adult man in hot pursuit screaming "I am going to kill you!!" in Spanish. Or another really annoying young guy who always manages to be tearing up the neighborhood on his motocross at sunset while we are trying to enjoy the lovely view and think lovely thoughts.

Then our friend, Guy (a French Canadian volunteer from Toronto) stopped by for an afternoon snorkel and I just could not resist the invitation to go out one final time. So we headed out for what turned out to be the Mother of All Snorkels! We went way out into the reef which was fabulous until I realized that the current was unbelievably strong and if I did not want to be heading out to sea I needed to TURN BACK! Guy was ahead of me and even farther out but I figured he was stronger so I followed a couple of young guys who were headed back in. I had several minutes where I really had to manage my panic as I was swimming as hard as I could and not moving AT ALL. I felt like those crazy cartoon characters that just spin their arms and legs in the air and don't move forward! Finally, I was able to make a little forward progress and get back into manageable water and saw that Guy had also turned around, Thank God! We both confessed that it was more than we planned for and that we needed to stay closer in. So we continued snorkelling parallel to the shore but against the current for a loooonnnnnggg way until we turned back toward the shore. After all that time fighting the current, I felt like Michael Phelps powering myself back to the pier with the help of the current at last. When we got back to the house Judy had already had a nap as nearly 2 hours had passed while we were gone! I was exhausted and all of my poor little toes had blisters from my fins but it was great. The highlight was seeing a school of about 20 or more squids just floating together through the water in perfect choreographed movements.

Sunday night we packed and, poor Judy practically scratched her skin off as between the sun, the bugs, the saltwater and whatever else she had a big time reaction. The whole month we have felt like a couple of 7 year old kids with our arms and legs all bug-bit and with scratches and welts, but this was on a whole new scale. In spite of constant applications of hydro-cortisone cream, cold packs, claritin and fans she was just miserable.

Our travel day on Monday was long but uneventful starting at waking up at 530 a.m. and my arrival at home in Eau Claire at 11:30 p.m. without my luggage. But it is great to be home and closer to all my loved ones. It was a great adventure and my final thoughts are:

Things I will miss about Honduras:
1. the people, especially the kids, who were so lovely and kind and happy in spite of tremendous poverty and lack of resources,
2. the gorgeous, sunny days and looking out at the sparkling turquoise water with the waves breaking in white foam on the reef,
3. warm, moist air that makes me think I will not dry up like an old leaf and just blow away in the winter,
4. being completely OK doing almost nothing because there is no electricity or no water or I did not have a computer or a cell phone or a car.

Things that I WON'T miss:
1. the constant noise of dogs, roosters, noisy birds, people shouting, noisy cars and motorcycles...
2. being covered at all times with a not-so-thin layer of sunscreen, saltwater, sweat and bug dope,
3. termites, mosquitoes, sand fleas, no-see-ums, and every other biting insect that found us all month,
4. the garbage and plastic waste that are everywhere,
5. the toilets that are so marginally effective that I took up saying the rosary every time I used one,
6. and, finally the Navy showers.

Things that I am more-than-ever grateful for:
1. my beloved family and friends who I missed so much while I was gone,
2. the peace and quiet of my home and neighborhood and city,
3. fresh clean air and water and streets and buildings and public restrooms,
4. a wonderful public education system that gives every kid a chance for success.

I had a chance to read and read and read and I finished Women Who Run With The Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes which is a "must read" for all feminists, The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood which is a semi-autobiographical story about a woman who takes up knitting after the death of her daughter, Housekeeping fiction by Pullitzer Prize winning novelist Marilyn Robinson, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Nobel Prize for Literature) and which is still my #1 book of all times, Abundance by Sena Jeter Naslund (who wrote Ahab's Wife) a historical fiction about Marie Antoinette, and The Beak of the Finch by Jonathon Wiener about Darwin's Theory of natural selection and the current research that is occurring now on the Galapagos Islands.

My next adventure will be 2 weeks in the Galapagos Islands in June. Stay posted.

I am glad to be back and hope to catch up with everybody soon.

Love,

Maria