happy birthday doña maría

carla (on the right) and her family live across the street from our office. carla is a "host mom" for students who come to copan to study spanish and also runs an informal catering business out of her house (two weeks ago i went with her to serve meals to a WorldVision group who was doing a training here -- reminded me of serving food to the groups with Tomasa in Mexico). almost every volunteer who has come through copan to work with UPH has stayed or eaten at carla's house. she has a mothering spirit and loves having people in her house like a revolving door. she teases and jokes and just plain has a good time when people are around.

doña maría (on the left), carla's mom, turned 64 today. she lives with carla and is an opinionated, hard-core catholic, hard-working, wonderful woman who speaks VERY quickly. just about all the gringos i've talked to say that they never understand her. for some reason, she's taken a liking to me. she gives me hugs and kisses when i see her and calls me chula and preciosa (both very nice things). today she turned 64 and she is sporting a new dress that her son sent her from the US. I must say, she looks pretty sassy!

both of these woman make my days here happy. they show me love and i am thankful that God placed them right across the street from the office so that i get to see them almost every day. it's nice to have these lovely women around.

animalito

The rainy season has commenced. in rainy season, the frogs and toads of Copan and the surrounding area come out to play. Because EVERYTHING is wet after it rains, they can go virtually anywhere and be safe. Unfortunately, though, they have a tendency to get themselves into places when it's wet, the places dry, and then they have no way of getting back to water.

Last night, we got back to the office after 8 from a youth event. It had rained cats and dogs earlier. I walked into the front room to turn on the lights for a friend. I switched the light on and turned around, greeted by this little frog staring at me from on top of Rachel's travel mug. He was so still that I couldn't figure out if he was plastic and a practical joke. BUT, a friend decided to try to TOUCH him and wound up jumping off the cup and onto the wall. He wound up on the screen of another friend's camera... which is how this picture came to be.

All in all... it was interesting and something I had never seen before! OH... and we got him back outside to safety. Fear not.

cafe yat b'alam

on a semi-regular basis, the electricity in Copan Ruinas goes. sometimes it's due to rain and storms, sometimes it's due to scheduled maintenance, sometimes no one has any clue as to why we don't have electricity for days at a time. today is one of those days.

days that i work, this causes a bit of a hardship, so most of the staff packs up and comes to yat b'alam. here, they have a generator (so we can plug in our computers and their router works, so there's internet capabilities) and just as important, their internet company has a generator (which means they are able to transmit the internet here... to the router here... to my computer here...). it's amazing how many things need to come together in order for internet to work. so many things that we take advantage of in the US.

the cafe is "open air", as most places are here in Copan. there's a nice balcony/patio area that's right on the street and a VERY friendly staff who I think I am beginning to regard as friends. :)

the UPH team has off this week and everyone (except me) went home to the states or canada. in all honesty, i have mixed feelings about being here "on vacation" by myself, but i'm hoping to take full advantage of the time to get settled in my new apartment and relax before the craziness of summer and bilingual camp descends upon me.

this afternoon i'm heading out to a "free garage sale" as the bilingual school teachers are heading out after their year of service. they leave behind all the things they either don't want, don't need, or just plain can't fit in their suitcases... us UPH-ers get to pick through for things we need. this comes at an especially convenient time for me since i'm just setting up shop. i'm sad to see my new friends depart, but i'm VERY thankful for their generosity!

[currently reading] Utopia, Thomas More

One of the blessings about being in a small town with few options for social night life is that I catch up on reading I've been meaning to do for years. I picked this book up from a second-hand book store, or maybe even a rummage sale years ago and I've carted it around with me from place to place, promising myself I would read it. I have a secret love for it borne out of my love for the movie EverAfter (Drew Barymore quotes this book and my interest was sparked). So yesterday, after the usual Saturday cleaning, I cozied up with Utopia on my couch, enjoying a nice cross breeze between the front screen door and back door.

Now that I'm an adult and read for pleasure and not because my Hon. English III teacher is telling me to, I took the liberty and risk of reading the introduction. I'm not an introduction kind of person. In high school, when it was our assignment to read it, I never did because I thought it was a waste of time. I'm also the type to not read instructions before putting things together. If it looks easy enough, I just start piecing (I'm a hands-on learner).

This is what I've learned: READ THE INTRODUCTIONS! Although it was a good 30 pages, I enjoyed every moment of it. It included historical background and theory on the book. It explained the nomenclature and satire behind a great portion of More's work. It delved into what other books came to be that are similar to this, books that I would have never guessed to be a part of the same genre, books that I now also want to read. My understanding and appreciation for the actual book itself has been heightened exponentially because of the background information the introduction afforded me.

It's a wonder to me that I'm just now figuring this out. I am deeply sorry Ms. Gellar-Clark (Hon English III teacher) for not participating in that portion of the reading and lesson. I would have been a far better student had I read the introductions.

The funny thing is that I know I am the kind of person that likes background. When listening to sermons, I greatly appreciate it when the preacher puts the story or biblical passage in CONTEXT. Context adds volumes to understanding and analysis. Why should these books be any different?

Thank you Paul Turner (author of intro and translator of text from LATIN). I am a smarter person for having read your introduction. You are quite an intelligent human being.