Another week!

It's been another busy week for the Lewandowskis. A happy belated birthday to my mom and Kristin! The days are flying by so quickly that I hardly realize what day it is until it's too late.

United Nations Day at school on Wednesday was a success. We had students dressed up from several continents around the world. One thing I learned is that Honduran Estudios Sociales (Honduran Social Studies curriculum as dictated by the Ministry of Education) only recognizes 6 continents. Here, there is no such thing as North America and South America. The continent that is home to Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Honduras, Argentina, and Brazil is known simply as America. So in the picture below, you'll see the parade in our school gym of students from the continent of America! Lots of cowboys, traditional Honduran and Guatemalan dresses, and a few futbol players from Brazil. Tom and I dressed up from the continent of Asia. I knew that I had moved my traditional Chinese silk outfit down here for a reason! Thanks Matt A. for the perfect gift of the Kung Fu shirt- Tom and I matched perfectly... (Ruby came from Germany- "her people")



As our friends with children share their stories of their babies discovering their feet and putting them in their mouths, we do have our own "baby story" to report. We are happy to report that Ruby has discovered her tail. It's her favorite toy. It's difficult to capture it on "film", but here you can see her playing with her new favorite toy.

Tonight, I'm sitting at home watching the CRILATON 2007 on TV. Crilaton is La Ceiba's version of the Jerry Lewis telethon. It's a pretty big deal here. Tom will be making his television debut tonight at 8:50. As he's been playing around town with a couple different groups, he's making a name for himself! We can't get our vcr working yet, but I'm going to take pictures of the tv screen. (Just added!)


And here's a video of Tom and Jason singing "Hey Ya" on Honduran National TV!

Tomorrow morning, we're heading to Trujillo, a town about 2 1/2 hours east of La Ceiba. Our friends work for an orphanage. It's a small family-style orphanage on a beautiful beach. It's been rainy and cool here the past few days, but we're excited to get out of town anyway. Ruby is coming too- we're renting a pickup and spending the night in a little resort just down the beach from the orphanage.

That's all for now... Going to look for my husband on tv!

Been Awhile...

It turns out that being "puppy parents" is a lot of work! Ruby has been enjoying her rides to school and working in the library. Over the weekend, we left her alone for her first time. She did just fine. We've got a giant crate in the backyard that she's becoming more comfortable in. Her days in the laundry basket are numbered! On Saturday, Ruby got a bath out back in our pila, or outdoor concrete sink. All of us had fun!


As she's getting more comfortable with us, she's also getting braver and a little rowdier. Tonight, she was so good and calm in the backyard, I let her in the house while I was cleaning the kitchen. In a matter of 3 minutes, she had torn a leaf off a plant and shredded it, pulled a blanket of the couch and dragged it all around the house, and attacked her own tail. When she finally caught her tail, she started chomping and chewing on it like it was a squeaky toy. I tried to catch her to make her go outside, but she just kept running away from me. When I finally caught her and carried her outside and put her (not too gently) on the ground, she lay down and went to sleep. She's been sleeping for an hour now. Puppies!

Tom is taking a nap now. Naptime after school is a regular occurrence in our house- the puppy, the kids at school and the weather really wear us out - it's still 85 degrees every day when we come home! I think we're going to play Scrabble tonight. Tom is really good at Trivial Pursuit- I can't compete. But, I'm the reigning Scrabble champ in this house.

Family, Friday, and Fruit!

Welcome to the family, Christopher Ralph Notch!

Our newest nephew was born yesterday and we are so happy that he's doing well. He came a little earlier than expected, and we send our love as his tiny body continues to grow. We can't wait to meet you Christopher!


We've had our hands full with our new pup this week! She's been great though. Ruby has gone to school with us every day in her little improvised crate. We bought a full size rolling travel crate, but it's the right size for an adult German shepherd, and that's just too big to put in the taxi. What's that, you ask? A taxi? Yes, our dog is the only dog in Honduras who gets to ride in the inside of a taxi on her way to "work". We just plop her laundry baskets in the backseat between us and the family is off to school! I know that it may seem like she's spoiled, but we can't afford the hour it would take to walk her to school at this point. Normally, it will be about a 30 minute walk, but she's not leash trained yet, and her little legs only want to walk for so long! We took her to the vet tonight to get her puppy shots. A round trip taxi ride (and our driver came inside and introduced us to the vet) and her office visit and shots cost us only $15.

One of my students brought me a gift this week. Since we've moved here, we've noticed people selling big piles of these little prickly balls on the side of the road. We've assumed they're to eat, but hadn't actually tried any yet. Yesterday, a girl brought me a bag of liches (sounds like leecheys, but I'm not actually sure how it's spelled). You take the outer peeling off, and put the fruity part in your mouth. It tastes kind of like a sweet grape, except there's a big pit you need to spit out. Pretty tasty though!

Our Dog Loves to Read!

Ruby got a job working with Tom in the library at school. Her qualifications....she is really cute and she loves to read! She's just a junior library assistant right now, but she has a lot of potential. She likes to hang out under Tom's desk and read Magic School Bus during the day.

Super Dog, Pizza Night

Karine is making awesome pizza tonight and we're enjoying a quiet evening at home with Ruby. Karine is becoming a master pizza maker. Maybe someday we will open up a library that serves pizza.


Here's a short video of Ruby nosing around the backyard.

Ruby!!!!

We are very excited to announce the newest member of the family. Her name is Ruby and she is an angel. She is a beautiful nine-week old German Shepherd. She's very cute and very affectionate. And smart as can be.
We took her to a really fun little dinner party. Where some of us played music.
Then some people got tired. And they cuddled with Ruby on the floor. What could possibly be cuter??!!

Update II: La Casa Lewandowski

The painters have been working for almost 2 weeks. Today, when we got home, it seemed that our painter had only finished about 20 minutes of work in the 8 hours he was here. Fortunately for us, they get paid by the job and not by the hour. I am confused as to why someone would choose to waste so much time! Anyhow, they're finally done painting and it looks great! I just took the picture at dusk, so I'll post a better one tomorrow from daylight.

I'm posting this picture of my sister Anne here as she prepares to deliver her third child. We are really excited for the new baby. Sometimes its easy to be so far from home and sometimes its more difficult. This is one of the difficult times. We love you!!!

Surviving Honduas- with music!

Exciting musical developments here in Honduras...

Tom has been practicing with the computer teacher at our school for their new Wednesday night gig. Tom plays bass and his friend plays acoustic guitar and sings some favorite covers. Last night, we went down to Expatriates Bar for the big show. At first, there were only 15 or so people in the restaurant/bar. Around 9pm, a group of about 20 people piled in and sat at a long table. As we were talking with the owner of Expatriates, he was excited to let us know that the table was the Italian production crew and the whole cast of the new season of "Lost in Honduras," the European Survivor-type show. The cast is in town before being shipped off to their new "home" for a couple months. Last year, the same show came in and rented out the bar for a private party and brought in live entertainment, set decorators, and a sushi chef.
After seeing our guys playing music last night, the producers decided that they wanted Tom and Jason to be in the band for this year's send off party...

Tom is currently at band practice with Jason and a few other local musicians getting ready for this weekend's big show. I'm not going to give too many details now, as this is supposed to be kind of a secret in town. Luckily, I will be allowed to go too- and the producers told Tom last night that the theme this weekend is supposed to be Caliente- hot music, hot food, hot people, and lots of hot dancing. It's sure to be a fun night! Here's a picture from last year's season of Perdidos en Honduras...

http://www.todocorazon.net/supervivientes.html

In other news... We have 2 functional shower heads, the lady formerly living in our backyard has vacated the premises, our house is half yellow, and our puppy is anxious to come home. We've had to postpone our weekend plans to head to Utila tomorrow, but we now have a connection with someone who owns a house on the island and has offered for us to bring our dog and stay at his house anytime. We're making some good connections down here and starting to enjoy some of the perks of knowing people in the right places!

Update: La Casa Lewandowski

We had a very exciting day today. We came home from work to find a flurry of activity at our house. At one point this afternoon we simultaneously entertained a painter, an electrician, the owner of our house, our lawn trimmer, our real estate agent, and the woman who lives in our backyard. We thought this was as exciting as things could possibly get. Then our electric shower head burst into flames. The electrician sorted everything out and he’s coming back tomorrow to fix the problem. The painter and the yard trimmer are coming too.

Karine made some awesome fajitas tonight. I was going to post a picture of her in the kitchen, but she made a funny face. Maybe next time.