Life, Death, and everything in between

We've been here long enough that we're experiencing different stages of life with people. amazing that we've already lived in Comayagua almost 2 years.

Carlos - a guy that wants to learn English and hangs out with Tristan on his days off, doing whatever Tristan is doing that day - just had a baby girl. Unfortunately he's no longer with the Mom but Tristan speaking into his life and encouraging him to be a good dad and to be present and to provide for his daughter. It's neat to see. And, since the babies a girl - we have lots of clothes to pass along to them :). After having done some ultrasounds with ladies a few months back, there are quiet a few expectant moms around EA that I'd like to figure out a way to support them. I met a mom 2 days ago that is guessing she's around 4months along and has yet to have any vitamins or prenatal care - I'll be dropping off vitamins next week :).

Antonio is our contractor that we hire to do most of the construction work at El Ayudante. He's a good man and we all love him. He's a hard worker and we have a mutual respect for each other. He calls us "catrachos" (Hondurans) which is a big complement to us and Maddy even asks about him and loves to go and see him work. The week before Christmas Antonio's oldest  - Paula -  and his niece - graduated from high school at a private school. Now you have to understand how huge this is -  they are probably one of the very first to have graduated high school in their entire extended family - and much less from a private school. Antonio has 3 children and has worked so hard, sacrificing in big ways, to put his kids through better education. He invited us to her graduation (our kids did pretty good sitting through this long ceremony) which was at a school that we have done lots of work at - painting, VBS's, attending their Sunday morning service, and supporting the orphanage that's run by the school. So it was a really neat thing to be a part of that - and then we were invited to their house for a dinner and that was fun as well. We took pictures for them - they don't have a camera and wouldn't have had these pictures to remember this momentous day.

us on our way to the graduation / below: Paula & her cousin at graduation

Antonio (on the right) and his daughter and family.

3 days ago I received news that the President of El Ayudante's father passed away. So the next morning I went to the velorio (wake) with our friend/treasurer of EA. Now this is a part of Honduran culture I don't like so much - when someone dies, for the immediate next 24 hours the body is prepared and then put in their house and it's an open house where it's pretty expected that if you know anyone in that family - even if not the person that died - you'd better make an apperance. Honestly it makes me uncomfortable, but, that's what you have to do. So I went and hugged my friend and we sat and made small talk and Ali brought joy to the room as she was lighting up the room with her smiles.

For Christmas we bought 2 piglets and dropped them off as gifts for our 2 guards. They were surprised and very excited. Maddy thought they were pretty neat as well - and Sigel stayed as far away from them as possible :) lol.