November & December: The abridged version.

I've been a bad blogger. Here is a recap of the past two months. Enjoy!

November 3-December 12: Field work and interviewing at La Estanzuela.
My research has been taking a lot turns and detours over the past few months, but I've primarily been working in a local village and interviewing parents, teachers, and students about their personal experiences with the school system and education in general.

November & December: Graduate School Applications: Round 3!
I applied to nine graduate programs in Public Policy and Administration and shelled out a painful amount of money in application fees. Happily, the process is now over and now I can devote my time to figuring out how the hell I'm going to pay my tuition.

November 20-23: Tegucigalpa Trip.
Graham and I traveled to Tegucigalpa with Nick & Nikki, Tyler & Paige, Megan, and Mario (Graham's co-workers at Mayatan Bilingual School) for the Discovery School Conference. I chilled out in the lobby of the swanky Teguc Marriott Hotel and analyzed my field notes while they hit up workshops on classroom strategies with teachers from the most elite schools of Honduras. The Honduran Secretary of Education, Marlon Brevé Reyes, whose children attend The Discovery School, opened the conference by informing the audience of educators that "Honduras has a very low-quality education system." I can't help but wonder if that would change if some of the people in power started sending their children to public school . . .

November 27: Thanksgiving!
We hosted a Thanksgiving potluck at our house. Graham and I were committed to having the Thanksgivingy-est Thanksgiving ever. So, we adorned the house with historical information about the holiday (in English and Spanish, of course), paper Turkeys, Thanksgiving comics, we tracked down A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and we cooked a ton of food. We ended up with a ton of food and a good chunk of the local ex-pat crowd at our place.

November 28-29: Border Crossings Bicycle Style.
Graham participated in the Travesia Montecristo, a three day bike ride through Honduras and Guatemala. Graham and our friend Nick quickly became notorious among the Honduran bikers for their use of locally purchased $75 Bacini bikes. Check out Graham's blog for more info.

December 5-6: Un Año!
To celebrate one year of dating bliss, Graham and I decided to splurge and stay the night at Hacienda San Lucas, an awesome locale just outside of Copan Ruinas. Though the prices are a bit steep (at $120 a night Hacienda San Lucas provides the most expensive night's lodging in Copan) our experience was well worth it. Our five course dinner was made of all local food and prepared using traditional cooking methods. It was delicious.

After I woke up and did some early morning yoga at the outdoor meditation space, Graham and I took some time to explore the extensive grounds surrounding Hacienda San Lucas. We had to check out Los Sapos (the toads), an area thought to be an ancient fertility spot for the Mayans. All that remains is a carving of a toad, a man's face, and something that is undeniably phallic in appearance. The experience made me think twice about touching any toads in the near future.

December 16: Return to the USA!
Graham and I woke up painfully at 3:20AM to the incessant howling of a cat in heat outside our window. By 4:45AM we were on our way to the bus station, Graham hauling my suitcase packed with Christmas gifts over his shoulder and me dragging Graham's 55 lb suitcase over the cobblestones. The 2km walk was pretty unpleasant, but we caught our bus and were at the airport by 10:00AM. We parted ways at the airport and I finally arrived home in Sodus at 1:30AM EST, a mere 21 hours after my day of travel began. Then, it started snowing!

December 17-January 1: Home sweet home.
After four months in Honduras, I got to return home to spend some quality time with my family. It went by way too quickly and I can't wait until everyone comes to visit in May!

And the winner is . . .

Barack Obama!!!!!!!!

This week has been so fantastic in so many ways, it has been difficult to decide how to begin this week's blog. The truth is, one event superseded all others this week. Watching Barack Obama win the presidential election was one of the most incredible moments of my life.

Obama's election was the not the first historic moment I've experienced from overseas. On September 11, 2001, I was sitting in a classroom in London when the director of our study abroad program rushed in to tell us that the World Trade Center had been hit by a plane. A year and a half later, on March 30, 2003, I was in Costa Rica watching television with my host family, when I heard the announcement that the United States had invaded Iraq. On Tuesday, November 4, 2008, over five years later, I sat in a pizza shop where an enormous Honduran flag served as the backdrop for epic words that flashed across the television screen "Barack Obama Elected President!" The crowd that had gathered erupted in cheers and I felt a glimmer of hope that maybe this man could start to heal the wounds caused on 9/11 and 3/30.

By about 1pm on election day, I found myself unable to do anything productive work-wise (perhaps due to my need to check cnn.com every two minutes for any potential clues on the direction the election was going in) so I decided to begin preparations for an election night extravaganza. I know that some of you in the more developed world probably hosted fancy election return parties, but I had to work with what I had available. After a little brainstorming I decided to make the following contributions to election night festivities:

1. Cupcakes with Obama flags.



2. Sugar cookies with blue frosting and Obama pictures on top (no photo available).

3. Blank maps of the U.S.A. and blue and red markers (to keep track of electoral wins!)



4. A big poster that read YES WE CAN! YES WE DID!

I received a fair amount of teasing from Graham for my Obama baking spree, but he graciously helped me carry trays of sugary treats across town. We both looked pretty silly traipsing through Copan with Obama cupcakes, but the end result was well worth the walk of shame. The Obama heavy crowd loved the baked goods and other election fare and we all celebrated together when the West Coast returns were announced and tipped the scales undeniably in Obama's favor. It was a great moment and, though I missed being with my loved ones in the States, our election night festivities turned out to be a great bonding experience for everyone involved.

Oh, my aching belly.

Living in Honduras can do a real number on your digestive system. Nasty bacteria and parasites lurk on tasty looking vegetables and fruits, just waiting to attack weak-stomached foreigners. I would love to count myself among the stomach-of-iron, “I can eat anything,” human garbage disposal types, but the belly gods had something else in mind for me last Saturday. Perhaps I didn’t put enough bleach in the water when we washed our vegetables last week, or maybe the ice in my fresh lemonade wasn’t not of purified origins. I may never know the culprit in my digestive tragedy, but I was definitely the victim.

Don’t worry. This is not a Halloween horror story (if you really want to know the details of my symptoms, google giardia); it is a tale of post-sickness renewal. Wednesday morning, I woke up feeling better than I had since my arrival in Honduras. It may have had something to do with my ability to eat something other than oatmeal for the first time in four days, but I felt like a new woman.

Things just kept getting better after that. After weeks of waiting, my absentee ballot finally arrived (I requested it back in August) on Wednesday! Initially, it looked like my vote wasn’t going to count. My district requires that all absentee ballots arrive within seven days after the election and it usually takes three weeks for mail to get to the USA from Honduras. Obviously Obama doesn’t need my vote in New York, but there is a hotly contested House seat up for grabs in my congressional district (a republican stronghold) and the democratic candidate, Dan Maffei, needs every vote he can get. Besides that, I desperately wanted to cast my vote for Obama, even if he is a sure thing in New York. Eventually, I was able to find a service that can get letters to the States in eight days and my ballot is now on its way to the Wayne County Board of Elections.

Halloween is not a holiday typically celebrated in Honduras. Locals observe All Saints Day and a few recognize Day of the Dead, but I wasn’t expecting there to be much action on October 31st in Copan. In fact, at the beginning of this school year, Graham’s bosses at the bilingual school gave specific instructions to staff to keep a low profile on Halloween. Upon some investigation, we discovered the root of the anti-Halloween directive. Apparently, a few years ago, a staff Halloween party caused quite a stir when Mayatan teachers were spotted stumbling home (perhaps slightly intoxicated) at 4am on All Saints Day in strange costumes. People in the community, unfamiliar with the much-beloved American Halloween tradition, suspected the teachers of being involved with some sort of strange satanic rituals. Cultural confusion at its best.

Much to my own surprise, I did end up going out with friends to celebrate Halloween this year. There were nearly a hundred Peace Corps volunteers in town for the weekend – a boon for Copan during the low tourism season. The volunteers flock here annually from all over Honduras and Guatemala (some spend 11+ hours on the bus) for a Halloween party at Via Via, a local bar. It was my first night out since I arrived in August (I’m embarrassed to admit) and throughout the evening I had the sneaking suspicion that I’d somehow been transported back to the States. I was celebrating an American holiday, surrounded by twenty-something gringos, and dancing to a band that sang almost exclusively in English. It was slightly surreal, but all in all a good way to celebrate Halloween. Favorite costume of the night: a man dressed as a backpack. He was literally wearing a hiking backpack - legs through the bottom, head through the top. Bizarre, yet somehow appropriate.