Day 4 -- Into the groove

Dia numero cuatro


¡Feliz Navidad! It's Christmas in the arid heat of La Paz as we Americans teach our beloved Honduran children about the birth of Christ. Today's Vacation Bible School involves opening the greatest present of all (a small nativity set symbolizing Jesus' birth) and a ridiculous amount of Spanish Christmas music that was very out-of-place in this environment, but led to copious amounts of laughter by both Hondurans and Americans.
For lunch, the amazing Mama Doris made us some very tasty, yet intentionally mispronounced, quesadillas with pico de gallo. We happily chowed down as the wind blew. While we ate, the kids giggled, and the resident chickens wandered around our feet; better than any restaurant.
After lunch, I was fortunate enough to go along with David, Matt, and Marc Jr (aka Winston), as well as two of the men who help out at the Foundation, to the banana plantation about 25 miles outside our gates. The four Americans road in the bed of the pick-up truck, just absorbing the scenery and the 60 mph+ speeds. After winding through the mountains and waving to every Honduran walking along the road, we were greeted at the plantation by about 25 Hondurans picking and sorting coffee beans. Onto our mission, we followed our bilingual, machete-wielding guide Zias into the plantation, which was less a farm and more a dense forest of coffee bean and banana trees balanced on a 45 degree angle on the side of the mountain. Despite the lack of an actual path, us four very different Americans dove into the trees behind our guide, on to slide down the slippery slope of the mountain, chop down banana trees with Swiss army knives, and snack on fresh-as-it-gets bananas while sitting on rotten logs. After climbing our way back to the truck, we careened back down towards the Foundation along with about 100 bananas. By the time we returned to La Paz, we were windblown, but thankful to be alive and smiling.
After some chilly showers and excellent dinner of ground meat, rice, and yucca, we joined the kids for the nightly devotions and songs, made much more entertaining by some can-can dancing and hokey pokey. So do the hokey pokey and turn yourself around, 'cause THIS is what it's all about.