I had a fantastic time visiting with one of our student’s
family this weekend before I left (on the airplane now). As with most families in Honduras, Johana’s
family is highly valued and many family members live under the same roof or at
least in the same village. Johana’s
brother just recently returned from The States and now lives at the house with
his wife and parents. Though the house
is pretty small comparatively speaking (to the US), it was very comfortable for
all of us to be there and share space, maybe that was cause I got my own bed
and bedroom, but nonetheless, it was comfortable, even when we ate or spent time
together in the living room.
Johana took me on a quick tour of her small community where
most people work in the cal business.
From what I understand cal is like (or maybe is) limestone. Rocks are heating up in a large silo type
thing for about 8 days before they are removed and drenched in water. This causes the rocks to more or less explode
into a white powder that is used in agriculture and in cooking. We also walked to a small dulce
“factory.” Dulce is just the Spanish
word for sweet, which is also used for many candies. Here they extract the pulp from sugar cane,
boil it for a while, then pour it in a mold and sell the “caja dulce” – I think
that is what Joha called – block candy.
We walked right up to the factory on the street and gave ourselves a
tour, including doing some of the work; taste testing!! It was pretty awesome! After we returned to her home I was telling
her that I’ve always wanted to try actual sugar cane, so she got her dad to get
some sugar cane from a farm close by.
Chew on that for a while for a sweet treat! Yum!
Joha’s mother cooked me some of the best food I’ve had in
Honduras, even though it was fairly typical Honduran food and her dad
constantly told jokes to the family and me.
I also got to play video games and watch movies with her brother. I really felt like part of the family. We also visited her ill grandfather and
grandmother who were very sweet. I got
offered coffee, bread and “chi cha,” a homemade jungle juice of some sort. The bread and the coffee were good. We also walked 300 meters into a cave that is
near her house, and I was able to learn a little bit of Spanish while I visited
the family as well.
On a totally different note…I finally get to see my family
today! Well, at least Sarah, since she will
be picking me up at the airport while the girls are hopefully asleep. The time away from my family has really shown
me that life is meant to be spent with others.
And as I wrote in the previous post, maybe we just don’t know that until
we have it, then lose it (or in my case, have a 2 week break). There hasn’t been a day since Sarah and the
girls left where I haven’t thought of them several times. I can’t imagine what life would be like
without them for any longer length of time.
Thank you to Johana and her family for putting me up for a
couple nights and showing me a part of Honduras that was new to me! I loved spending time there.