Graduations

Tuesday December 8th 2009 2:00pm

There is a possibility that the funds for a new laptop will come through before leaving for Christmas break. I might be the proud new owner of a work laptop by the end of the week. At this point, I can only hope.


Friday December 4th

Friday at work I did a lot of translations. I translated power point slide shows into English. I translated budget request forms into Spanish. I translated different request forms into English. I was tired of translating by the end of the day, though I was pleasantly surprised to find that I rarely had to try and find an online translator for help with certain phrases.

After work, I went back to the apartment and began making dinner. In the middle of my attempt at pizza making, there was a knock at my door and my neighbors Belkis, Gretel, and their cousin all came in to visit with me for a while. As I finished up dinner preparations, they headed out to have their own dinner, but invited me to go out to a club with them later that night.

The pizza tasted better than I had expected, and when I had eaten my fill, I got ready to go out. Belkis´ uncle drove us to the club around 9:00 in what I can only describe as the most terrifying ride of my life. When he went a little fast on one of the back roads, I thought nothing of it. When he sped through the first red light, I became very nervous. As we approached 40 mph, and dodged back and forth across the double yellow line, I saw my life flash before my eyes.

We were fortunate enough to make it into the club unscathed, though it took a while for my heartbeat to return to normal. My neighbors could see that I was physically shaken up by the drive, and laughed to themselves. "What is that not how you do things in Ohio?"

"No...In Ohio, we value stop lights, speed limits, double yellow lines, basic traffic laws, and above all our lives!"

The whole night was kind of awkward from there on out. I wasn´t much in the mood for drinking or dancing, and the music was too loud for a conversation. I was grateful that my neighbors invited me out to experience something new...it just wasn´t really for me. At the end of the night, I refused to get back into the car with their uncle driving, and decided to take a taxi home.

I got home around 1:00am tired and grateful to be alive.


Saturday December 5th

Saturday morning, the Comunidad Theologica de Honduras (CTH) where I teach held its graduation services at 10:00am. I got to the office around 8:00, and was told that my job was to be the camera man. I spent the rest of the morning talking with students and setting up my camera. It was nice to interact with some of the students outside of the classroom atmosphere.

The ceremony was long. Too long. Too many students spoke. Too many teachers spoke. Too many board members spoke. Too many students presented giant acrostics of the director´s name and took a half hour to painstakingly explain how and why each word corresponded to some benevolent characteristic of the director.

Hours later, the ceremony ended, and Freddy and I headed out to pick up some lunch before going back home. We stopped at a KFC, which I have had more often in Honduras than I have in the US, and ate some chicken while discussing graduation reform.

I took a nap for a while in the afternoon and took some time to do some laundry. I made some plans for my brother´s visit, and read more of Cornell West´s book before watching some Christmas specials on TV and heading to bed. Shrek the Halls was pretty funny.


Sunday December 6th

Sunday I woke up around 10:00 and made some breakfast. I read a little and did some more laundry before watching the NFL action. I was surprised when almost halfway through the Eagles/Falcon´s game, Fox Sports in Spanish just decided to switch to the Saints game. Don´t get me wrong, the Saints game was far more exciting, but I just found it interesting that the network would switch in the middle of the game. Not at half time. Not after a quarter. After the third quarter had started.

I was happy to see that the Bengals had won, and took the rest of the afternoon to finish up laundry, read, and check scores periodically.

That evening I made some Chicken Surprise. I decided it would be a good idea to get creative with some dinner options and just kind of threw a bunch of things together. The taste certainly was surprising, though not in the best of senses. It was fun to try something new though.

I found a tv channel that played Christmas music, and listened to that for a while. As I was listening to it, I remembered that I had an extra can of pumpkin pie mix, and all of the ingredients. I was bored, and decided to make another pumpkin pie. I´ll probably eat all of it before Nathan gets here, so he shouldn´t expect any. At all.


Monday December 7th

Monday, everyone from the office met at Plaza at 7:30 in the morning. We got in a bus and drove to Talanga, where we held another graduation for the students graduating from technical school. We got there around 10:00 and the cereomony started around 10:30.

This graduation was much better. And by better I mean faster. It was over within an hour. No long speeches, no extra long speeches, no uneccesary acrostics. It was a thing of beauty. After the service, we stuck around for lunch and then helped clean up.

I got back to my apartment around 3:00 and remembered that I had forgotten about advent. I did not go to church the day before, and had forgotten that it was the season for advent. I went out and bought some candles, and did some research at an internet cafe to put together a little personal service for later.

I went back to my apartment and got started on dinner. I decided to take less liberties with my creations, and enjoyed the sophisticated taste of kababs. Absolutely stunning. "Santa Clause is Coming to Town" was on television, and I watched one of my favorite Christmas specials after I had cleaned up my dishes. That Burger Meister is just not a nice character.

After Santa ended up building a workshop, marrying Jessica, and selecting December 24th as the night to deliver his toys, I set up my own little advent service, and enjoyed the comfort that Christmas brings. Normally advent is something I share with my church family and then later with my parents and siblings. It was nice to feel a connection to them as I lit the candles.