El Año Nuevo in a Familiar Place

After basking in the sun for a week on the beach in La Ceiba, my holiday travels continued further south. I hopped on a plane and jetted down to Ecuador for a quick visit with my old host family! I hadn’t seen them since my semester abroad ended a year and a half ago. The anticipation was building up inside of me all over again with the thought of seeing more of my family.

My multiple plane rides to get there could not have gone quick enough. I flew from San Pedro Sula to San Jose, Costa Rica (comfortably alongside 10 other people on a normal-sized plane, aka we had 3 rows each to ourselves) to Panama City (where we were delayed almost 2 hours because an obscenely drunk man tried to get on the plane and another woman apparently did not have the right documentation to be allowed into Ecuador) then finally to Quito. Thankfully I was sitting in the front of the plane so I practically ran off it once it landed because I was not about to wait any longer behind a giant line of people. I forgot where I was and how much I stand out in any Central/South American country as I started to worry that maybe my family would not recognize me after a few years; but I was quickly reminded of my physical appearance when they easily spotted me after my first step out of the doors. There they were: my dad, Balito (the middle brother), and Mateo (the youngest brother). Their smiling faces overwhelmed me and I felt instantly happy, just plain happy, that I got to be with them once again.

Balito has changed the most. He is taller than me now and going through puberty so his voice is changing too. Basically he’s turning into a man. He has plenty of girls interested in him and any number of girlfriends at a given time. I no longer beat him in our simple games like a thumb war and light sabers. But other than that, he is still my little brother. We still had tickle fights and snuggled together while watching movies. I still don’t stand a chance when we play video games and our love for coconut juice is as strong as ever.

Mateo is thankfully still littler than me. He is quite big for his age (in height and weight) but not too big for holding his sister’s hand. It took him about 12 hours to get used to me again, and then he was back to loving me with every ounce of his being and being glued to my side. He had an endless list of things he wanted to do together but we didn’t get a chance to cross off too many. Instead we just enjoyed every minute together playing all sorts of games, eating treats, and also snuggling during movies.

Both of them are attending a bilingual school where they are learning English so that was a new dynamic to our relationship! Balito liked it when I talked to him in English so we could have ‘secret’ conversations in front of the family. Mateo liked asking me how to say every other word in English. I had to remind them that I was there to be their sister, not their teacher, but it was kind of fun to use English with them! Especially since they have no problem making fun of me when I make a mistake in Spanish, so now the tables were turned.

Dany was the same as I left him, except with longer hair. He is still studying to be an environmental engineer through his university. He still towers over any given Ecuadorian in the country which makes it easy to follow or find him in a crowd. One day our little brothers were at school and the parents were off running errands so Dany took me to the artisan market so I could do my shopping. While he wasn’t very helpful when I asked for ideas of what to buy my boy students, he was more than helpful with carrying my bags and making sure we got everywhere safely. He has always been a fabulous older brother and I loved my time with him.

My mom and dad were also perfectly the same. My mom was still a little on the crazy side and my dad was very loving. They took such good care of me the whole time I was there! They made sure that I never spent a minute hungry; I had more meals in a single day that I have in 3 days when living on my own and each one somehow managed to be bigger than the other one. In fact, for one meal, they refused to leave the restaurant until I ate every last bite off my plate that was not in the least bit empty with the pile of rice, two fried eggs, French fries, salad, a slab of beef, and an extra chicken breast for good measure. They cleaned my desperately-needed-to-be-washed clothes – although my mom was a little worried at first at how to tackle the mound of despicably dirty clothes. Although, I still had to wash my own underwear in the shower because my mom said I could get an infection if I threw those in the mix with the rest of the laundry (should I have taken that as an insult for being so dirty, or a comment of concern from a mother who was just trying to protect me?). Unfortunately while I was visiting I came down with a cold but they took exceptional care of my sick little self and gave me plenty of cough syrup and decongestion pills. I could not have been in better care while traveling.

In general my family is doing very well :) They have more money than when I first lived with them so they have a few new luxuries like nicer cell phones, a car, and they are moving to a new house. It’s interesting to me that people show off how much money they have, not necessarily by the things that they can buy or the nice gadgets, but by how big their bellies are. The more money you have, the more food you can eat and the better diet you have, so the bigger belly you have. We didn’t eat as many home-cooked meals this time around, but rather ate out at restaurants for most meals. My mom was sure to point out that my dad looks much better now than when I last saw him because he has a bigger gut. She also had no problem telling me that I was way too skinny and needed to eat more, so I could be chubby like her. She made it her personal goal to make sure I always had food in my mouth or my hand.

In hind sight I would have planned to go to Ecuador for the first part of my Christmas break and have my sister come visit me in Honduras for the second part because while I was there, all my brothers had to go back to school. We still had a lot of fun together! But I wish we could have had more time. I did get to spend New Years with them and that was a whole new experience. Fireworks, masks, and crazy wigs are the accepted norm and dress code for New Year’s Eve. The tradition in Ecuador is very… odd. They celebrate the passing of the old year by making giant mannequins of the most random characters ever, and then burning them at midnight. Since the old year is then dead, all the men take it upon themselves to dress up as the ‘widows.’ So as you are driving through the street, at night, on December 31, you will encounter men dressed up as women. It’s not intended to be a giant transvestite show, but it ends up being one. These ‘widows’ stop you in the middle of the street and dance for money. Fire and cross-dressed men in the streets… what could be a better way to bring in the New Year?

Besides welcoming 2013 in such a unique way, I spent the majority of my trip there just having quality family time with everyone. The few days that my brothers were not in school were spent traveling around the city. Anywhere we went turned into a photo shoot of me, with maybe the addition of a brother or two. I started to feel uncomfortable, but I just giggled it off and grabbed Mateo whenever he was within reach so I wouldn’t be alone. We visited the Christmas lights down a main stretch of Quito. There was a Nativity scene, giant toads, a snake, Santa and his helpers, and some traditional art pieces. It was quite the eclectic Christmas set-up, but I liked to walk around and take thousands of pictures of it all.

They took me out to their new house to see where they will be living. It was still under construction so I did not get to see the finished product, but it had the potential of being a beautiful home! (Unfortunately the days that my brothers were in school and I was feeling deathly ill, I had to accompany my mom and dad to the construction site where we just had to sit and wait all day, supervising the workers. I was miserable.) They are moving to a valley just outside of Quito which is much closer to all of the boys’ schools. The new house is part of a gated community (so much safer than where they are currently living) and has its own pool and gym. Mateo is especially thrilled about the pool!

I revisited the artisan market to shop for my friends and students back here in La Unión. For all the teachers I got some combination of a mug, scarf, or Ecuador pants. With coffee season in full swing everyone uses their mugs almost on a daily basis. Thankfully we have had a few cold days since being back so the girls have been able to get good use out of their scarves. And who can honestly resist wearing Ecuador pants? Once you put them on, you will never want to take them off. For my munchkins I bought all of the boys and shirt and a souvenir pen. They wore their shirts for the whole day when I handed them out. For the girls I bought them little Ecuador purses and satin headbands. Wendy has not taken off her purse since then!

We went up to the Panecillo, which is a giant statue of the Virgin Mary overlooking all of Quito. I never visited this when I studied abroad because I had always been told that it was much too dangerous to go as a tourist. Luckily, this time, I was in the protection of my family and their car so I would not be in any kind of danger. You have to pay to climb to the top of the statue, so we did not do that. However, the view is spectacular from any point so we didn’t miss a single photo op. Since it was during the Christmas season, a giant Nativity scene (made of lights) was set up next to the Panecillo too. It was truly beautiful!

I also had the chance to see an old friend while I was there! Eric, one of the people I studied and was neighbors with, has since returned to Ecuador to work. We got to reunite back on our old stomping grounds and reminisce on our crazy adventures together. We met for dinner and drinks one night and just spent the whole time telling old stories. Unfortunately we could not coordinate our schedules to meet until the night before I left so we didn’t stay out for long, but it was great to see him again.

I felt like my trip was too short but I loved every minute of it. I did not realize how much I truly missed them until I got to be with them again. And now, everyone is assured that I will always come back to them; they are my family and I will always find a way to come visit them. They may be a little quirky, but they are still my family and I am deeply in love with those crazy Ecuadorians.

The journey back to Honduras was less than desirable. I got to the airport and waited forever in the check-in line (which I found out later that I was seated in First Class so I could have skipped that line all together). Once I got to the counter the woman not-so-politely told me that I was not going to be allowed to travel to Honduras that day. See, when you enter the country of Honduras you get a 90day traveler’s visa. To renew the visa you must leave the country within those 90 days and stay outside of it for 3 days until you are allowed back in. Working with Vida Abundante qualifies me for residency under missionary status. Our group of teachers was scheduled to travel to Tegucigalpa the day after we all returned to Honduras to get our residency cards. But since we could not exactly prove our residency, we all had to rely on our visas to get back in the country. Sometimes the airline companies get fussy with travelers who do not have a return flight within those 90days, so naturally they decided to pick on me that day.

I was traveling on January 5^th which was the precise date that my visa was good until. After waiting for the airline staff to decide to let me fly and return to Honduras since I was still legally allowed to be in Honduras, they threw another bomb in my direction. Apparently, when traveling from Ecuador to Honduras, you need to show proof of your yellow fever vaccination. While I have my yellow fever vaccination, I could not tell you where the card is that proves it. This is the point where I lost my composure and started crying. The woman behind the desk offered me this solution: my plane was leaving in an hour which would be “enough” time for me to find a taxi, go to a nearby clinic, get the vaccination, beg the nurse to set the vaccination date for 10 days before the 5^th to make it legal, and make it back to the airport. She would hold the plane for me up until the very last minute but I was going to have to run! By the grace of God, her plan worked! The woman even ran through the airport with me to catch the plane – it was like having my own personal cheerleader.

The other legs of my journey were refreshingly smoother. I flew from Quito to Bogota, Colombia back to Panama City and then finally landing in San Pedro. I will have you know that not a single person ever asked to see my yellow fever vaccination. Once I landed and made my way through security and customs, I discovered that my bag did not make the journey with me. I should have known that just barely making the plane all the way back in Quito would mean that my bag would probably not be so lucky. I went through quite the chaotic mess to track down my bag and have it returned to me. The bag took a couple of days to make it to San Pedro where it took a few more days to be shipped to Tegucigalpa. There, (unfortunately we had already left Teguc after getting our residency cards) Jake was able to pick it up and bring it back to La Unión. It wasn’t until an entire week later that I confidently knew where my bag was because it was finally in my hands!

I know this blog post is quite overdue, but I have been very busy with getting back into the routine of school. My prayer request is for wisdom and patience. My students, both 3^rd and 9^th graders, have been quite the handful since being back. They have challenged me in many ways and have sadly left me feeling very defeated. Their grades are slipping and their behavior has become unbearable. They finally broke me last week and I could not take it anymore. I spent the weekend trying to relax and seek God’s help, but I still need a lot of help. I have to try new ideas to help them learn and keep progressing academically, and mold them into respectful little kiddos. Pray that I do not give up and find some new ways to overcome these obstacles.