Alison the graduate under her awesome balloon arc, with her new dress and dolly. Also pictured is bro Noel, who was sad because he received no presents.
Ah, the obligatory diploma picture.
Igor's brother Navigante at the dogs' first birthday party.
GIMME THE TREAT I CANNOT WAIT ANY LONGERRRRR
This was the fastest picture I've ever taken.
birthday boy
the peace corpse, a ninja turtle, and a recycling plant
PEACE CORPSE AHHHHHHHhhhhhh gosh im clever.
saturday at the swimmin' hole
igor loves this place...you can tell.
my novio douglas and i.
noel and grandma tina in the agua
douglas loves to swim...aw.10 November 2009
Hey, chochachos!
Dudes guess what? Nicaragua totally saved our back, a little bit. Nicaragua was all like “hells YEAH we got rain, you waaaaant some?” and Honduras was like “I…yes. Please, don’t make me beg.” And Nicaragua was like, “If you want the rain, you’ll have to dance for it.” And Honduras danced (while crying quietly) and rain it did. It was just for the weekend, but it was awesome. I woke up last Saturday morning and was hit with nostalgia like a sock full of marbles…it was COLD. I mean it was probably in the 60s, but to me it felt freezing. It was gray and drizzly outside, which it NEVER is in the morning. I immediately put on socks, and flannel pants, and a hooded sweatshirt, and proceeded to spend the next four hours swaying in my hammock, watching the rain and drinking cup after cup of delicious coffee from Copan. I considered buying a blanket, really I did. It was awesome; it felt like just fall…I pretended I was back in Chicago, gettin’ my autumn on. Then I pretended I was in California, and had even MORE fun. The roads became so muddy the buses got stuck; my grass became squishy, and the river swelled a bit. It was over by Monday morning, but the weekend was just delightful. Thanks, Nicaragua! You guys always know just what I like.
Rain aside, this weekend was also a blasty-blast because it was the graduation for both kindergarten and sixth grade. I’m a pretty popular lady among folks of that age group, so I walked the red carpet at both events. They have a thing here where a family with a graduating child asks a family friend or relative to be the “madrina” or “padrino” of the kid (godmother or godfather) for the ceremony. Basically this entails attending the graduation and sitting at the little plastic table each family has, drinking a cup of coke and taking many pictures. When the kid’s name is called, you go up and take a picture with them, one hand on their diploma, the other on a gift you bought for them (but the kid can’t have it yet!). Then you go sit back down, wait for the ceremony to end, and then go back to the family’s house and have dinner (rice, meat, veggies, lots of soda) and the kid finally gets to open his or her present. Saturday night I attended the 6th grade graduation as my neighbor Enner’s madrina. His mom, Glenda, is a good friend of mine, and his little sister Jessica and I are also bosom buddies (is that creepy? I don’t mean it to be. She’s six). Enner is kind of a punk, but I do love him and he’s a pretty decent pitcher on my baseball team (for his present, I bought him a baseball cap). Sunday, I attended the kindergarten graduation as Alison’s madrina. Alison is my best buddy Nelly’s 5-year-old daughter and my across-the-street neighbor…she’s also one of my favorites. It was adorable, they paid a neighbor (the currency is one 3-liter bottle of Coke) to do her hair all fancy-pancy, and painted her nails, and put on make-up, and her fancy blue church dress. Nelly even spent the better half of the morning making this amazing balloon arc, by tying a million balloons to a plastic tube stuck in two sand-filled coffee cans. Very creative. The parties were a lot of fun…god, I love soda.
And we had ANOTHER party the Thursday before, on November 5th, celebrating Igor’s first birthday! At about 4:00pm I decided we should have a fiesta, so I sent some neighbor kids with bikes to go invite Igor’s three litter mates in the area and their respective kid owners. I got busy making little ground-beef birthday cakes for each dog, while my little buddy Nuria deftly created a million crepe paper streamers. Her mom (and my landlord) Mirian raked the sand and leaves in my yard, and Douglas helpfully peed on my floor. Nelly and her mom Tina (proud owners of Kaiser, Igor’s brother) brought over a bunch of plastic chairs. By 5:00pm the kids and dogs had arrived, and Nuria placed a crepe paper garland on each dog (one of them, Princesa, is her’s). Kaiser is, of course, Nelly’s dog, and another kid on my baseball team Samer owns the fourth, a white one named Navigante. I gave each kid a hamburger patty with a candle stuck in it and we sang Happy Birthday. Then I told each kid to make a wish out loud on the dog’s behalf (I went first, and said in a dog voice, “I wish I could eat my birthday treat now!” and all the kids copied me…unimaginative bastards). Then we blew out the candles, removed them, and placed the plates on the ground. In about two seconds all the meat was gone and the dogs were left to rip the crepe paper off one another while we humans had several cups of Coke and cookies. It was perhaps the best dog birthday…ever?!?
Yesterday was my first baseball practice of the season…we picked up right where we left off. We have a handful of newcomers but the team is pretty much the same. We met at the field right at 2:00pm, ran our lap, did our stretches, and did throwing and catching exercises until 4:00pm. Today was more of the same but we did batting and fielding instead. I spent a fair amount of time yelling at the kids—they’re such PUNKS, always throwing rocks and cussing—but after I sent one cocky 13-year-old home they calmed down. I think this year will go a lot smoother, but it’s a bummer because there is no national championship as a goal. The Peace Corps has sort of sold out to the Dodgers, which is great because they’re funding this awesome week-long clinic for our Honduran coaches. Awesome, but not for me, because I don’t HAVE a damn Honduran coach. One of my kid’s dads is interested (also my landlord), but by interested I mean he likes to come and watch, when he feels like it, and doesn’t want to adhere to the rigid time commitment. He’s out of work at the moment due to an injury, actually, and I think he might just be bored. But he’s a good guy, and not a creep with young girls, so I’ll see if I can entice him to commit to being our coach for REALS.
Oh, yeah, Halloween! Dudes. Halloween was AWESOME. We stayed in this rad hostel called La Iguana Azul and just had wonderful dang time runnin’ around the cool town of Copan. The first night there was this great party at a local bar Via Via (which I showed up at in my dog food costume, only to find NO ONE else was in costume except for three dudes dressed as Drugs, Sex, and Rock ‘n Roll, respectively). But it didn’t matter, because it is hellsa fun to run around dressed up like dog food. Saturday, Halloween proper, was even more fun…I looked pretty good as the Peace Corpse, and we went to parties at several different bars before ending up at this one with an awesome live band. Oh, to dance like a dorky white girl with face paint….such a treat. It was fun because the whole town seemed to welcome this onslaught of gringos (or at least, those who could profit from our presence seemed to welcome us) and it was wonderful to catch up with all my old buddies I haven’t seen in a year. I also met a bunch of volunteers for the first time, some of whom were Excellent. So hooray and hot damn. Saturday afternoon, before the party began, a bunch of us went to this place called Macaw Mountain, which is basically a glorified nature park with a wide collection of exotic birds in large outdoor enclosures, as well as a bitchin’ swimming hole. There was even a section where the birds were loose on perches, and you could have them climb on your head and nibble your earlobe…which I enjoyed….perhaps too much. (Though at one point I had enticed this green macaw onto my arm, and was enjoying his heft, when a park employee came running up and was like “dude that’s the bird that claws people’s eyes out when they least expect it!”, which kind of killed the moment). I opted not to check out the ruins, since I’ll be headed there in about two weeks with Wendy and Andy Kercher (who arrive in Honduras in exactly eight days!!!!). Man. I had fun.
So yeah, T-minus ALMOST NO TIME AT ALL until my folks get here. I’m so excited, I could just barf. All ova this keyboard!!! But I won’t, cause this is the only one I got. I feel like the luckiest dame in the world…I can’t wait to hug my mom and dad. I haven’t seen them in like 17 months, and it feels more like 18. Which is nearly 20! It feels like it’s been nearly 20 months…which is nearly 24, which is two years. So you understand my excitement.
Time for bed, dudes…I am so exhausted from yelling at children about Sports.
Love,
Hayley
Hey, chochachos!
Dudes guess what? Nicaragua totally saved our back, a little bit. Nicaragua was all like “hells YEAH we got rain, you waaaaant some?” and Honduras was like “I…yes. Please, don’t make me beg.” And Nicaragua was like, “If you want the rain, you’ll have to dance for it.” And Honduras danced (while crying quietly) and rain it did. It was just for the weekend, but it was awesome. I woke up last Saturday morning and was hit with nostalgia like a sock full of marbles…it was COLD. I mean it was probably in the 60s, but to me it felt freezing. It was gray and drizzly outside, which it NEVER is in the morning. I immediately put on socks, and flannel pants, and a hooded sweatshirt, and proceeded to spend the next four hours swaying in my hammock, watching the rain and drinking cup after cup of delicious coffee from Copan. I considered buying a blanket, really I did. It was awesome; it felt like just fall…I pretended I was back in Chicago, gettin’ my autumn on. Then I pretended I was in California, and had even MORE fun. The roads became so muddy the buses got stuck; my grass became squishy, and the river swelled a bit. It was over by Monday morning, but the weekend was just delightful. Thanks, Nicaragua! You guys always know just what I like.
Rain aside, this weekend was also a blasty-blast because it was the graduation for both kindergarten and sixth grade. I’m a pretty popular lady among folks of that age group, so I walked the red carpet at both events. They have a thing here where a family with a graduating child asks a family friend or relative to be the “madrina” or “padrino” of the kid (godmother or godfather) for the ceremony. Basically this entails attending the graduation and sitting at the little plastic table each family has, drinking a cup of coke and taking many pictures. When the kid’s name is called, you go up and take a picture with them, one hand on their diploma, the other on a gift you bought for them (but the kid can’t have it yet!). Then you go sit back down, wait for the ceremony to end, and then go back to the family’s house and have dinner (rice, meat, veggies, lots of soda) and the kid finally gets to open his or her present. Saturday night I attended the 6th grade graduation as my neighbor Enner’s madrina. His mom, Glenda, is a good friend of mine, and his little sister Jessica and I are also bosom buddies (is that creepy? I don’t mean it to be. She’s six). Enner is kind of a punk, but I do love him and he’s a pretty decent pitcher on my baseball team (for his present, I bought him a baseball cap). Sunday, I attended the kindergarten graduation as Alison’s madrina. Alison is my best buddy Nelly’s 5-year-old daughter and my across-the-street neighbor…she’s also one of my favorites. It was adorable, they paid a neighbor (the currency is one 3-liter bottle of Coke) to do her hair all fancy-pancy, and painted her nails, and put on make-up, and her fancy blue church dress. Nelly even spent the better half of the morning making this amazing balloon arc, by tying a million balloons to a plastic tube stuck in two sand-filled coffee cans. Very creative. The parties were a lot of fun…god, I love soda.
And we had ANOTHER party the Thursday before, on November 5th, celebrating Igor’s first birthday! At about 4:00pm I decided we should have a fiesta, so I sent some neighbor kids with bikes to go invite Igor’s three litter mates in the area and their respective kid owners. I got busy making little ground-beef birthday cakes for each dog, while my little buddy Nuria deftly created a million crepe paper streamers. Her mom (and my landlord) Mirian raked the sand and leaves in my yard, and Douglas helpfully peed on my floor. Nelly and her mom Tina (proud owners of Kaiser, Igor’s brother) brought over a bunch of plastic chairs. By 5:00pm the kids and dogs had arrived, and Nuria placed a crepe paper garland on each dog (one of them, Princesa, is her’s). Kaiser is, of course, Nelly’s dog, and another kid on my baseball team Samer owns the fourth, a white one named Navigante. I gave each kid a hamburger patty with a candle stuck in it and we sang Happy Birthday. Then I told each kid to make a wish out loud on the dog’s behalf (I went first, and said in a dog voice, “I wish I could eat my birthday treat now!” and all the kids copied me…unimaginative bastards). Then we blew out the candles, removed them, and placed the plates on the ground. In about two seconds all the meat was gone and the dogs were left to rip the crepe paper off one another while we humans had several cups of Coke and cookies. It was perhaps the best dog birthday…ever?!?
Yesterday was my first baseball practice of the season…we picked up right where we left off. We have a handful of newcomers but the team is pretty much the same. We met at the field right at 2:00pm, ran our lap, did our stretches, and did throwing and catching exercises until 4:00pm. Today was more of the same but we did batting and fielding instead. I spent a fair amount of time yelling at the kids—they’re such PUNKS, always throwing rocks and cussing—but after I sent one cocky 13-year-old home they calmed down. I think this year will go a lot smoother, but it’s a bummer because there is no national championship as a goal. The Peace Corps has sort of sold out to the Dodgers, which is great because they’re funding this awesome week-long clinic for our Honduran coaches. Awesome, but not for me, because I don’t HAVE a damn Honduran coach. One of my kid’s dads is interested (also my landlord), but by interested I mean he likes to come and watch, when he feels like it, and doesn’t want to adhere to the rigid time commitment. He’s out of work at the moment due to an injury, actually, and I think he might just be bored. But he’s a good guy, and not a creep with young girls, so I’ll see if I can entice him to commit to being our coach for REALS.
Oh, yeah, Halloween! Dudes. Halloween was AWESOME. We stayed in this rad hostel called La Iguana Azul and just had wonderful dang time runnin’ around the cool town of Copan. The first night there was this great party at a local bar Via Via (which I showed up at in my dog food costume, only to find NO ONE else was in costume except for three dudes dressed as Drugs, Sex, and Rock ‘n Roll, respectively). But it didn’t matter, because it is hellsa fun to run around dressed up like dog food. Saturday, Halloween proper, was even more fun…I looked pretty good as the Peace Corpse, and we went to parties at several different bars before ending up at this one with an awesome live band. Oh, to dance like a dorky white girl with face paint….such a treat. It was fun because the whole town seemed to welcome this onslaught of gringos (or at least, those who could profit from our presence seemed to welcome us) and it was wonderful to catch up with all my old buddies I haven’t seen in a year. I also met a bunch of volunteers for the first time, some of whom were Excellent. So hooray and hot damn. Saturday afternoon, before the party began, a bunch of us went to this place called Macaw Mountain, which is basically a glorified nature park with a wide collection of exotic birds in large outdoor enclosures, as well as a bitchin’ swimming hole. There was even a section where the birds were loose on perches, and you could have them climb on your head and nibble your earlobe…which I enjoyed….perhaps too much. (Though at one point I had enticed this green macaw onto my arm, and was enjoying his heft, when a park employee came running up and was like “dude that’s the bird that claws people’s eyes out when they least expect it!”, which kind of killed the moment). I opted not to check out the ruins, since I’ll be headed there in about two weeks with Wendy and Andy Kercher (who arrive in Honduras in exactly eight days!!!!). Man. I had fun.
So yeah, T-minus ALMOST NO TIME AT ALL until my folks get here. I’m so excited, I could just barf. All ova this keyboard!!! But I won’t, cause this is the only one I got. I feel like the luckiest dame in the world…I can’t wait to hug my mom and dad. I haven’t seen them in like 17 months, and it feels more like 18. Which is nearly 20! It feels like it’s been nearly 20 months…which is nearly 24, which is two years. So you understand my excitement.
Time for bed, dudes…I am so exhausted from yelling at children about Sports.
Love,
Hayley
