Dia de la independencia

Tomorrow is Honduras’ 4^th of July – celebrated in September. Imagine that! It is indeed their day to celebrate independence and being on Monday, this has been a three-day weekend packed just as full as any holiday weekend in the states. It began on Saturday with a smallish march by the kindergarten kids. Well, actually it began about 4am with impromptu fireworks. Good morning Copan Ruinas!!!

Today all the elementary students marched from the school to the central park for ceremonies including speeches by adults and selected students. Then the marching began, and I mean serious marching. The students were all decked out in uniforms and in costumes representing the history of Honduras as well as its Central American neighbors. There were even mini-majorettes and cheerleaders and some butterflies. Each school has a serious drum corps that led the classes on a circuit of several blocks around the park. The students marched in step and stopped periodically to do some fancy footwork for the onlookers.

The streets were lined elbow to elbow by observers and by proud parents snapping pictures as well as running out to offer their children water to ward off dehydration. The students wore some really great outfits. Some of the smaller students in particular were really cute. So what the heck, we just acted like we were grandparents and stepped into the street to snap pictures like everyone else. (I prefer the term “grandparents” over “crazy gringo tourists”).

This evening there was a marathon with the runners carrying torches to the central park at dusk for another set of ceremonies. We passed on this one and just watched them come down the valley from our porch with binoculars. Tomorrow morning the high school students will put on their show including another march. We have been told that we haven’t seen (or heard) anything yet – this will be the real thing. So, fresh batteries for the camera, a cleared off memory card, and down to the central park again in the morning.

This week begins our last week of language study in Copan Ruinas. It is hard to believe we have been here four weeks and that our time here is coming to an end. It will be difficult to leave this beautiful place and the good friends we have made, especially now that we can finally communicate so much better with them.

For those of you keeping score – our schedule for the next few weeks is:
Sept 21-24 – travel to Managua, Nicaragua for MCC Latin America/ Caribbean meetings
Sept 25-27 – return to Honduras and visit MCCer’s Josh & Maria at the farm*
Sept 28^th – begin three weeks language study in La Ceiba.

As you may have deduced, we were not called to travel to Haiti at this time for the MCC response to the hurricanes that affected Haiti. It is still a very grim situation there. We would have gone mostly as an orientation to logistics of an MCC emergency response and at this time that wasn’t necessarily appropriate. We have been watching the coverage of the impact of Hurricane Ike on the gulf coast in the U.S. We just cringe when we think of the logistics involved in responding to that disaster by agencies there.

(*) For some of you eco-agricultural types out there, there is a splendid opportunity to join the MCC Honduras team. Josh & Maria will (regrettably for us) be finishing their term soon and returning to the states. Check out the assignment description for their position.