Month 1 ends, but the journey has just begun...

Hola, mis amigos, y lo siento! I know I've fallen woefully behind on the blogging. But I'm back with action-packed slideshows and even an attempt at a photo/movie compilation. I couldn't upload the soundtrack, but click on the Youtube video of Fireflies and play the page simultaneously with the movie of Honduras Weeks 2-3. At the end, it will synchronize into live film of evening sounds in Honduras. Sorry guys, I know it's lame but that's the closest I come to techie for now. Still workin' on it...!

For gorgeous Caribbean waters and islands, check out the North Coast trip pics. The long weekend at the coast was a much needed refreshing and rejuvenating journey after the first few weeks of my life here in Honduras. Sunday morning I woke up before 4 am to a star-blazened sky and waves crashing onto the shore 15 paces from my open cabin window. I sat there on my bed, wondering in awe at the glory of this Universe. Then we all pulled chairs to the shore and sat for over an hour in the silence to watch the glorious sunrise over the Caribbean waters and mainland Honduras. Captured in this experience, I muse, how could there not be a most amazing God, who has created all things beautiful? The song that came to mind for this trip is Matt Maher's Alive Again...

I woke up in darkness, surrounded by silence...
I can see the light, before I see the sunrise

I also listened to The Shack on my iPod on the long bus ride up and back. The allegory in this tale reminds me that God takes all pain and suffering and uses it for Good if we will only let Him. He loves each one of us infinitely beyond our limited human imagination. The weekend left me with an incredible sense of peace and abundant joy for life-- simple, undemanding, ever-patient, content-with-being life.

On a completely different note, for crazy cutie Honduran kids in full parade regalia, check out the Parade Photos. Of course, the soundtrack for the Honduran Independence Day desfiles has to be Tú Bandera, their National Anthem. The elementary school students sing only the first verse and chorus at school each morning, but that alone lasts about 10 minutes. I think our students sound better than the Pavarotti wannabe in this Youtube video, but it was either this or the woman singing the karaoke version into her computer microphone. I'll post the lyrics & translation in a later blog.

Also check out Padre Ricardo Donahue's September blog for more photos from Dia del Niño (Day of the Child) in Jutiquile, a neighboring village where Padre celebrates Mass and works with the parishoners each week. I went to Mass with him that weekend and turned into the photographer of the day! Thanks to his rockin' camera, I got some good shots of the kids with the candy he passed out. The kids were lined up in the church like he was Santa Claus!

For those of you who have been following Michael's surgery story, here is a recent photo of him with Padre, as well as more Parade photos on Padre's October blog.

I'll be back soon with updates on events of the past few weeks. I'm currently just so busy living them that I haven't had much chance to write about it. But with the impending possible Saturday of no electricity, not sure when I will have the next chance to upload photos, so go ahead view away (since I don't think many people actually read my ridiculously long blog stories anyway).

¡Ojalo que ustedes les disfrutan!
Muchas gracias para siguiendo me en esta viaje increíble,
Carrie