Yet Another Holiday (September 30, 2023)

 We just recently found out that the coming Wednesday afternoon through Friday is a National Holiday in Honduras called Semana Morazanica. It is in honor of General Francisco Morazan, a hero of Honduras who lived in the early 1800s. I am not sure why notice of a national holiday and corresponding days off should be a last minute surprise, but that seems to be the way of life here in Honduras. At first I thought the lack of communication was due to the language barrier as I am still having a tough time understanding the language. However, these days off seem to catch everyone unaware! Or maybe Hondurans just don’t see the need to plan too far ahead. Normally this would be our “work” weekend (aka spend time with the kids), but today I found out that the teachers have the whole week off next week and because of this, many of the children will be able to visit family the whole next week. Starting tomorrow morning, there will only be one child out of the 11 in my hogar. I plan to check in tomorrow and find everything rearranged, but I bet there will be something that I can do!  Allen is not sure what he will find, either.

We hope to take advantage of the long weekend to spend time at Lake Yojoa which is the largest lake in Honduras and supposedly has some great trails with waterfalls nearby and kayaking on the lake. We just need to figure out how to get there.

This last Wednesday, I went to a water park for another Padrinos’ sponsored birthday party. This one was for younger kids (under 12) with birthdays in May, July, and August. The combination of months is mainly chosen to give an acceptable child count. We ended up with about 15 youngsters who had a lot of fun at the water park. It was fun for me, also, as the water was just the right temperature to keep us all cool and the surroundings were relatively bug-free! We had the help of several extra adults to keep an eye on the kids. Allen says that he wants to volunteer for the next time we need extra help.

The Water Park (Before)

A Big Goldfish Pond at the Waterpark

Hammocks for After the Swim


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