Well, our time here is quickly coming to an end. We are currently at a hostel right across the street from the airport--our flight leaves tomorrow at either 12:20 or 1:20--we´re not exactly sure because Honduras has gone onto an unscheduled time change while we´ve been here.
After leaving Ceiba, we flew into Tegucigalpa where Ana picked us up and drove us into the mountains. We stayed at a wonderful little cabin owned by a German couple (their house is right next door). We spent yesterday afternoon hiking in La Tigra. We were hoping to see some exotic wildlife, but a snake was as exciting as we got. On the way, though, we only saw one other group of people--and guess who it was? That´s right, some mormon missionaries--Elder what´s his face and elder the other guy. Luckily they were in a hurry, so they didn´t try to convert us. The hike was beautiful and we saw some old mine ruins. Back at our cabin we spent the evening laying in our hammocks that overlooked the mountains and valleys, playing crib, and talking about how this was the coldest we´d been in a month--we even put on our long sleeve shirts. Dinner was homemade pizza in a little brick oven by the German couple. We sat outside on their patio as we ate and sipped our lemongrass tea, talking about life in Honduras. As we ate we saw an amazing shooting star.
This morning we had a wonderful breakfast of homemade bread, homemade jams, homemade juice, tomato, cheese, and more lemongrass tea. Then we strapped our packs on our backs and walked about 1 1/2 hours to the main road where we caught the bus into Valle de Angeles. It´s a cute little town with cobblestone roads and lots of little shops. We did some shopping, ate lunch with a woman we met from Quebec, and got on another bus to TEgucigalpa. After searching fruitlessly for some mysterious B & B we read about online, we ended up in this hostel. Soon we will eat our last dinner in Honduras, fall asleep for one more night here, and then catch a plane home.
What a wonderful trip. Don´t stop reading this blog, though, we have many more journeys to journal about (well, not tons, but Julianne will be in three states in the next two weeks, and we might be able to direct you to a site to view pictures from our trip at some point).
See some of you soon. See others of you not soon enough.
Oh--and if anyone from the Guantibitas team is reading this--we saw Adult Baby´s boyfriend!
Glory a dios. si si si.
Julianne and Jon
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Relaxing in Roatan
Hola. We had a great time on Roatan. We stayed in West Bay at Chili`s--in a little one room cabin. We had a nice little front porch, perfect for reading. Our big adventure was to rent a scooter and explore the island. Twice Jon had to gun it to get away from barking dogs whose teeth were precariously close to Julianne´s leg. We met a Canadian on the ferry who now lives on the island--he helped us get through the mass of taxi drivers to find the cheaper minibus and helped us find a place to stay. He even invited us to a party that he was throwing--a party which was the talk of the town! We stopped by, but didn´t stay long. The beaches were beautiful. Julianne went snorkelling today with a couple of students from the other team that met us on the island. Jon opted for the beach instead.
Now we are in Ceiba and we fly out early in the morning for Tegucigalpa for our rain forest adventure.
This is a short entry because how many ways can you say "all we´ve done in the last 3 days is relax on the beach"?
Oh, a highlight---Julianne had her first hot shower today since May 1!
Hasta la vista.
Julianne and jon
Now we are in Ceiba and we fly out early in the morning for Tegucigalpa for our rain forest adventure.
This is a short entry because how many ways can you say "all we´ve done in the last 3 days is relax on the beach"?
Oh, a highlight---Julianne had her first hot shower today since May 1!
Hasta la vista.
Julianne and jon
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Sad Goodbyes and Tropical Hellos
Greetings from the beach in Tela!
Monday morning we worked for the last time on the water project--we got to lay quite a bit of pipe, so that was neat. Monday evening they had a goodbye ceremony/fiesta for us. We received more hugs than we had gotten the first night (which is no small amount). Then we had a special dinner where we kind of felt like we were at the head table at a wedding (and it reminded us again why it was we didn´t have a head table at our wedding).
AFter a night of very little sleep due to late night talking and worrying about Frasier (the friendly bat we shared a room with), we pulled out of Guanabitas on a school bus at 6:30. There were lots and lots of tears and hugs as we left. The first 1/2 hour of the ride was quiet as we all dried our eyes. We then said goodbye to Santos, our wonderful and fearless translator, about an hour later. The rest of the day was spent on a very bumpy road through the mountains, with a few stops to pee in the woods. We had lunch at La Ceiba and met up with the other team. It was different than most of us had been expecting--the teams had each become so close that to mix with each other seemed strange. Then it was onto Tela. We went for a swim in the ocean last night, had a great dinner, and then a wonderful sleep on a real bed, took a real shower, used a flush toliet--we are living in the lap of luxury! Today we took a boat to a national park where we hiked through a rain forest, went snorkelling, and had a wonderful lunch of fresh fish (so fresh that they were still swimming in the ocean when we were on our hike). This afternoon has been relaxing as well as figuring out what we are going to do next.
The rest of the group (other than a handful who are also staying later) heads back to Tegucigalpa tomorrow and flies home on Friday. We are going to say goodbye to them and then take a bus to Ceiba, where we´ll get on a ferry for Roatan. We´ll stay on the island for 3 nights--hopefully in a cool hotel. Then we´ll head back to Tegucigalpa, where we´re going to head up to La Tigra, a national park that´s a cloud forest. There´s a little B and B that we´ll stay at for one night and do some hiking. Then to Tegucigalpa for the night before we fly out (on the 31st).
Today on our hike we saw monkies (though we were hoping for a closer view--in fact, Jon was hoping they would be hostile and throw things at us), lots of crabs and spiders, and a tucan. They have boa constrictors, but we didn´t see any.
That´s the news from here.
Mom Fraley--Julianne is SO excited about June 1--you´re awesome!
Jules and Jon
Monday morning we worked for the last time on the water project--we got to lay quite a bit of pipe, so that was neat. Monday evening they had a goodbye ceremony/fiesta for us. We received more hugs than we had gotten the first night (which is no small amount). Then we had a special dinner where we kind of felt like we were at the head table at a wedding (and it reminded us again why it was we didn´t have a head table at our wedding).
AFter a night of very little sleep due to late night talking and worrying about Frasier (the friendly bat we shared a room with), we pulled out of Guanabitas on a school bus at 6:30. There were lots and lots of tears and hugs as we left. The first 1/2 hour of the ride was quiet as we all dried our eyes. We then said goodbye to Santos, our wonderful and fearless translator, about an hour later. The rest of the day was spent on a very bumpy road through the mountains, with a few stops to pee in the woods. We had lunch at La Ceiba and met up with the other team. It was different than most of us had been expecting--the teams had each become so close that to mix with each other seemed strange. Then it was onto Tela. We went for a swim in the ocean last night, had a great dinner, and then a wonderful sleep on a real bed, took a real shower, used a flush toliet--we are living in the lap of luxury! Today we took a boat to a national park where we hiked through a rain forest, went snorkelling, and had a wonderful lunch of fresh fish (so fresh that they were still swimming in the ocean when we were on our hike). This afternoon has been relaxing as well as figuring out what we are going to do next.
The rest of the group (other than a handful who are also staying later) heads back to Tegucigalpa tomorrow and flies home on Friday. We are going to say goodbye to them and then take a bus to Ceiba, where we´ll get on a ferry for Roatan. We´ll stay on the island for 3 nights--hopefully in a cool hotel. Then we´ll head back to Tegucigalpa, where we´re going to head up to La Tigra, a national park that´s a cloud forest. There´s a little B and B that we´ll stay at for one night and do some hiking. Then to Tegucigalpa for the night before we fly out (on the 31st).
Today on our hike we saw monkies (though we were hoping for a closer view--in fact, Jon was hoping they would be hostile and throw things at us), lots of crabs and spiders, and a tucan. They have boa constrictors, but we didn´t see any.
That´s the news from here.
Mom Fraley--Julianne is SO excited about June 1--you´re awesome!
Jules and Jon
Saturday, May 20, 2006
The Home Stretch
Hi Friends! Our time in Guanabitas is almost over. We leave on Tuesday morning for Tela. Since we last wrote, we have done lots more picking and shoveling, lots more getting to know new people, and lots more church services.
The rainy season started this week, which has cooled things off considerably, as well as brought out all kinds of new creatures--suddenly we are not only hearing dogs barking and roosters crowing, but also frogs croaking at night. In just the few days of rain we´ve had, things have begun to get greener. Fireflies are also around now, as well as lots more spiders and scorpions. One of the girls on our team got stung by a scorpion a few nights ago as we were all sleeping and Jon had one fall out of his pants as he was getting dressed. The same night of the scorpion sting as we were all freaking out about what had happened, another member of our group began throwing up. Yep, the sicks just keep on coming. But, I think we are all healthy at the moment, and hopefully we will see no more illness.
Our team has had lots of great moments together and lots of laughter. Last weekend we went to the caves near here--a great chance to be in cool weather for a while.
The two of us had the chance to sit in on a community meeting yesterday about the water project. It really cleared some things up for us, as well as helped us understand our role here a little better. It was amazing to see the community leader´s love for the people and desire for them to have clean water. They have a long way to go and have had some discouraging things along the way. Please pray for this community--that they will continue to work on the project after we leave and that the resources they need to finish it will continue to come in.
We´re off to get ice cream! We took the bus into Catacamas today--our team´s big attempt at being independent (except that the community members were so worried about us that they sent a truck along to bring us home in case the return bus is too crowded).
Mike Moffitt--I almost cried when I read your email--CONGRATS! We are so happy for you and can´t wait to talk to you when we get back.
Courtney and Alec--Congrats to you, too! I guess we won´t be seeing you in Seattle in August, but we have lots of hope of seeing you more often--you´ll be a day´s drive away! YIPPEE!
We miss you all and hope you are doing well. has anything big happened in the world?
We´ll write more from Tela....ah, the beach.
Julianne and Jon
The rainy season started this week, which has cooled things off considerably, as well as brought out all kinds of new creatures--suddenly we are not only hearing dogs barking and roosters crowing, but also frogs croaking at night. In just the few days of rain we´ve had, things have begun to get greener. Fireflies are also around now, as well as lots more spiders and scorpions. One of the girls on our team got stung by a scorpion a few nights ago as we were all sleeping and Jon had one fall out of his pants as he was getting dressed. The same night of the scorpion sting as we were all freaking out about what had happened, another member of our group began throwing up. Yep, the sicks just keep on coming. But, I think we are all healthy at the moment, and hopefully we will see no more illness.
Our team has had lots of great moments together and lots of laughter. Last weekend we went to the caves near here--a great chance to be in cool weather for a while.
The two of us had the chance to sit in on a community meeting yesterday about the water project. It really cleared some things up for us, as well as helped us understand our role here a little better. It was amazing to see the community leader´s love for the people and desire for them to have clean water. They have a long way to go and have had some discouraging things along the way. Please pray for this community--that they will continue to work on the project after we leave and that the resources they need to finish it will continue to come in.
We´re off to get ice cream! We took the bus into Catacamas today--our team´s big attempt at being independent (except that the community members were so worried about us that they sent a truck along to bring us home in case the return bus is too crowded).
Mike Moffitt--I almost cried when I read your email--CONGRATS! We are so happy for you and can´t wait to talk to you when we get back.
Courtney and Alec--Congrats to you, too! I guess we won´t be seeing you in Seattle in August, but we have lots of hope of seeing you more often--you´ll be a day´s drive away! YIPPEE!
We miss you all and hope you are doing well. has anything big happened in the world?
We´ll write more from Tela....ah, the beach.
Julianne and Jon
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Working Hard
Hello! We are in Catacamas--about 45 minutes from the community we are working in. We came into town for the afternoon to do email, get ice cream, and see the booming metropolis of Catacamas. We, of course got here in the back of a couple of pick up trucks.
We`ve been in our community for almost a week. we are staying in an empty house--apparently the owners moved to the city. When we arrived there were lots of people there to welcome us, as well as streamers, balloons, and signs. We have a wonderful group of women from the town who cook for us and do our laundry. They taught us how to wash clothes (you rub them over these concrete washboards) and hopefully we will learn how to make tortillas soon.
The town we are in is very rural--we were all picturing more of a town, but the houses are pretty spread apart. Nonetheless there are always people around--sometimes we´ll have 40 people or more hanging out on our porch. They are very eager to learn English and hear about what life is like in Canada, and we are just as eager to practice our Spanish and ask them questions about what life is like here.
We are here in the dry season--which means it´s REALLY hot. Apparently the rainy season should start about when we are leaving and everything turns bright green--that would be quite the scene.
As for the work we´ve been doing...it´s hard work! we start working at 6 a.m. and work until 11. After that it´s too hot to work. We dig ditches for all of that time (well, and we take lots of breaks). The pick axe and the shovel are our new companions (I don´t know if I´d call them friends yet). The Hondurans work circles around us--this morning we even had some young teenage girls in skirts out there pick axing!
Jon and I thought that to be good leaders we shouldn´t expect the team to do anything we wouldn´t do. So, we led the way in getting sick. Not wanting to be left behind most of the rest of the team followed within a day. We´re all doing much better and are almost done with the round of antibiotics we got from an American doctor who lives here. We´re praying for no relapses because it was no fun!
We´ve gone to church 3 times in the week we´ve been in the community-quite a different experience. And eveery time they want us to sing for them, and i they´ll get us to preach at some point.
Other than that, we are trying to get used to the food (I have discovered the beauty of ketchup), trying to enjoy the latrine, loving our form of showering (no sarcasm), and getting along just fine with no electicity--they actualluy hooked up a generator and turn on a string of lights for us for about 2 hours each night.
We hope alll is well at home. Happy mothers day to our moms and adopted moms.
Jon and Julianne
sorry about any typos--this keyboard is hard to use.
We`ve been in our community for almost a week. we are staying in an empty house--apparently the owners moved to the city. When we arrived there were lots of people there to welcome us, as well as streamers, balloons, and signs. We have a wonderful group of women from the town who cook for us and do our laundry. They taught us how to wash clothes (you rub them over these concrete washboards) and hopefully we will learn how to make tortillas soon.
The town we are in is very rural--we were all picturing more of a town, but the houses are pretty spread apart. Nonetheless there are always people around--sometimes we´ll have 40 people or more hanging out on our porch. They are very eager to learn English and hear about what life is like in Canada, and we are just as eager to practice our Spanish and ask them questions about what life is like here.
We are here in the dry season--which means it´s REALLY hot. Apparently the rainy season should start about when we are leaving and everything turns bright green--that would be quite the scene.
As for the work we´ve been doing...it´s hard work! we start working at 6 a.m. and work until 11. After that it´s too hot to work. We dig ditches for all of that time (well, and we take lots of breaks). The pick axe and the shovel are our new companions (I don´t know if I´d call them friends yet). The Hondurans work circles around us--this morning we even had some young teenage girls in skirts out there pick axing!
Jon and I thought that to be good leaders we shouldn´t expect the team to do anything we wouldn´t do. So, we led the way in getting sick. Not wanting to be left behind most of the rest of the team followed within a day. We´re all doing much better and are almost done with the round of antibiotics we got from an American doctor who lives here. We´re praying for no relapses because it was no fun!
We´ve gone to church 3 times in the week we´ve been in the community-quite a different experience. And eveery time they want us to sing for them, and i they´ll get us to preach at some point.
Other than that, we are trying to get used to the food (I have discovered the beauty of ketchup), trying to enjoy the latrine, loving our form of showering (no sarcasm), and getting along just fine with no electicity--they actualluy hooked up a generator and turn on a string of lights for us for about 2 hours each night.
We hope alll is well at home. Happy mothers day to our moms and adopted moms.
Jon and Julianne
sorry about any typos--this keyboard is hard to use.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
We have arrived
Greetings from Hondras! We fly into Tegucigalpa without a hitch. We were greeted at the airport by the people from CRWRC. They took us to a retreat centre a little ways outside of the city. The ride in the vans was quiet--everyone was too entranced by the views outside of our windows to talk. What did we see? Lots of buildings, houses built upon houses, people everywhere, lots of vibrant colours, stray dogs, more people, crazy traffic, shacks, etc. The ride itself was quite an adventure--lots of near misses (or so it seemed to us inexpereinced drivers).
At the retreat centre we had our first orientation session. A professor from the university in Tegucigalpa taught us about Honduras history, culture, and the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
Today we went to a park and now are downtown. We have more orientation this afternoon and tomorrow morning we leave for our village. We found out that our village has been waiting for 10 years for this water project--what a gift that we get to be involved in it.
This is our last post until we leave our villages. I´m sure we´ll have lots to share then.
Julianne and Jon
At the retreat centre we had our first orientation session. A professor from the university in Tegucigalpa taught us about Honduras history, culture, and the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
Today we went to a park and now are downtown. We have more orientation this afternoon and tomorrow morning we leave for our village. We found out that our village has been waiting for 10 years for this water project--what a gift that we get to be involved in it.
This is our last post until we leave our villages. I´m sure we´ll have lots to share then.
Julianne and Jon
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