Goodbye Honduras, Hello America

Sorry for the lack of blogs recently.  As you all could probably guess, we have been very busy!  In short, this is what we have been up to since the New Year:

• Soaking up our last few days in Trinidad – including several delicious home cooked meals with Lourdes; a farewell lunch with some our work friends, Juan, Karla, and Flor; a farewell party organized by the mayor with all of the municipality workers; and of course all of the dreaded goodbyes.

Dinner at Lourdes' with Lourdes Maria and the newest member of the clan

Our despedida with the Mayor and Vice-Mayor

Goodbye lunch with Juan, Flor, & Karla (carne asada - yum!)

Lourdes with her mom, her two daughters (in front of me), her sister (in red), and her niece (in black), and Paco the parrot

Lourdes and I with a gift I embroidered for her

• Packing things to bring home, selling the big items (bed, stove, fridge, and 2 dressers), and giving away everything else.

Goodbye house

Goodbye Pulgui (neighbor's dog)

• Loading up with the other PCVs from the Santa Bárbara department and heading to Teguc (on a private, chartered bus).

PC chartered us a really nice bus. Leather recliners, wow.

• Attending a four day conference in Teguc put on by PC Washington staff (aka The Big Dogs).
• Enjoying our last few nights with our PC friends.

David and Carlos, PC staff

• Saying goodbye to Honduras and heading to RDU via Miami.
• Saying goodbye to our closest PCV friends (who all had connections in Miami as well).

Miami airport - $8 beers with friends (Mark and Christine in the background)

• Arriving home to our families and our long lost puppy dog (who was overjoyed, to say the least).

We'll miss you, Honduras.

Many of you have probably seen Honduras in the news these past few weeks.  Although many things are true – Honduras does have the world’s highest murder rate, narco trafficking is out of control and highly to blame for the violence, and there is a high level of poverty – we also want you to remember the stories shared through our blog.  The stories that showed good, honest people living their lives the only way they know how.

David and I were lucky (and hyper-vigilant).   We never had a security incident in Honduras although we knew many other people who did.  We love Honduras and the people we met there who shared their lives and their homes with us.  We hope that with the increased awareness about the situation in Honduras that the country can receive the help it needs.

For now we are home in Raleigh on a 30 day Administrative Hold.  Towards the end of February we will be heading out on our “Big Trip” through Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.  We’ll be blogging a bit more in the meantime and then more consistently throughout our trip.  Thanks for all of your support throughout our 23 months in Honduras!