It really doesn’t feel like Thanksgiving has come and gone. Thanksgiving isn’t a holiday celebrated in Honduras, so for all the Hondurans it was just another work day. Some of the things I associate with Thanksgiving (besides the food – liver dumpling soup, bread dumplings with sweet and sour cabbage, cranberry drink and of course, turkey and stuffing) are waking up early to freeze while watching the guys in my church play flag football, time with family, searching the ads after the meal (but usually before dessert) and deciding yet again it’s not worth waking up super early on Black Friday. It’s still not cold here (not that I'm complaining, mind you), my family is in another country (though fortunately just a phone call away), and Black Friday probably would sound evil to most people down here (though we did see a poster advertising Black Friday sales...in English...wonder who their target audience was...).
This Thanksgiving was a little different. I slept in, first of all. Then I went into the city to an English-speaking church to celebrate. This church is comprised of a lot of missionaries from the States, as well as Hondurans, and people of other countries too. Think church potluck Thanksgiving, and you probably won’t be too far off. There were the traditional dishes (though sadly no liver dumpling soup), and then there was fried rice, some sort of pureed fruit casserole, and a few other dishes I would never think to see at Thanksgiving (though they were good).
After lunch, because I was in the city (read as “great cell phone coverage”) I called home, and talked with family there for about an hour. It still didn’t feel like Thanksgiving, necessarily, but it was nice to talk with people, and I know I get to see them all soon (in three weeks I’ll be in the States).
Things I’m thankful for…well, I’m definitely thankful that I got a chance to call home and talk with people. I’m thankful for technology, which has made living in a different country so much easier, because I can still stay connected with people back home. I’m thankful for the friends I’ve made here, the people I interact with. I’m thankful that God guided me here, and made it very obvious that I’m supposed to be here. Strange as it seems, it’s only been a year (and four days) since my first phone interview for coming down here. I’m thankful for my school back home – that they gave me a year off and guaranteed me a job when I return. I’m thankful for all the details that God worked out to get me here. I’m thankful for the friends I have back home who make an effort to keep in touch. I know how difficult that is, because out of sight really is out of mind sometimes. I’m thankful that I get to go home in a few weeks and see people there. I’m thankful that Spanish is starting to come a little more easily.
On that note…this past Wednesday night I went to a prayer meeting at my pastor’s house. My pastor speaks very little English, so it was run in Spanish. I actually understood most of what he said without translation, and was able to join in the conversation by the end of the night. This morning I didn’t have a translator for the service either, and I probably caught 80-90% of what he was saying (there were a few times my brain shut down, but I was usually able to pick up the train of thought shortly afterward). And I had a short conversation with the cashier when I purchased more “minutes” on my phone. [His comment, after explaining that he had to do separate transactions, was that I was spending a lot more than most people do. I explained that most of my phone calls are to the States, at which point he nodded and said it was a good reason. Calling home is cheaper using Tigo (the phone provider I have here) than it would be using my phone from home, but still an hour phone call goes through slightly more than L120 ($6.50)…so the L500 credit I got today gives me about an hour of phone time a week for a month. Comparatively speaking, an hour phone call using Verizon would be more than $100…probably close to $150, so I’ll take the $6.50.]
And now the question is whether I should write curriculum or write in my novel. I’m getting close to being done, which is good, because I need to be done by Dec. 1 (according to Nanowrimo rules). I’m over the word count I need, now I just need to finish the story.
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