the end

so my mother has informed me that my blog needs closure.

well i am home. or at least one of my homes: biola. im having fun.

i told you at the beginning that i wasn't always good at keeping up with these things. the last month of the program got a little crazy, and so the blog was one of the first things to go. brushing my teeth was next. just kidding.

after i got back from the final week in San Pedro Sula, we only had a few days to compile and give our class presentations. i did mine on immigration. i sort of developed an interest in the issue of immigration this semester. then we all dispersed for holy week. i was tired and stressed, so i stayed in Teguicigalpa. it turned out to be a good thing, because i got to see the biola short-term missions team when they came. it was really great to see friends and be with people from my school. a little bit of home. the next week my parents came to visit me. this was fun for me and them. over the weekend we went up to the mountains to see what was up there. in the mean time, we started our third and final class on development practice. the weekend after my parents left, i went to el salvador with some friends. i surfed for the first time. it was great, but getting out of the ocean was a little rocky, if you know what i mean. i was pretty scraped up and sore, and i lost my toe ring, but it was great.

the next weekend i went to a small rural village called Guanabano to do my field practicum. 9 days. 80 hours. 1,000,000 degrees under the sun. 2 showers. here is an excerpt from an email about what happened:

The field practicum went well. Or as well as could be expected. It was really one of the hardest weeks in my life, but also a very rewarding one. Since my project required that I approach strangers and ask for their time and put myself out there (things that I find uncomfortable and usually avoid), I was made to experience things that I usually don’t. Remember how I wrote before about being social and if it is a requirement or an opportunity? Well I really saw how getting to know people can be so rewarding and enlightening. I met and conversed with and connected with these rural farming men and women, who are so completely different than people with whom I am accustomed to interacting. While approaching them in their houses was hard for me every time, every time I was blessed with their kindness and openness, and talking to them gave me insight into who these people were and what this community was like. They invited me to eat with them, they joked with me, they gave me their stories when I asked them. I was so tired every day, but every day when I came back to the place I stayed I felt rewarded by the people I had met.

i got it done. now im going to write it up.

the final days in honduras were weird. a little stressful, having to get homework done, presents bought, farewell parties gone to, time spent with the fellow students who had become my brothers and sisters in the past months...mother's day was the last day in honduras, which is pretty much the biggest day in latin america next to christmas. and as all the hondurans were partying, i just sat there with a completely different mix of emotions than the people around me. i stayed at the celebration as long as i needed to, kissed them goodbye, then left to meet some friends. we sat at the feet of a statue of kennedy (our neighborhood was named after him), and soaked in the weirdness of our last night. nothing really significant was said. it was just the being there. and then the last walk back through the empty streets. the quiet cool air, the tight feeling in our chests, the anticipation of Home. that was our last night.

let us not even talk about the weirdness of the next day. but it culminated in joy.

im not sure if im ready to write about what i learned, or "how it was." so im leaving this entry as is. maybe i will write about it later. for now, i will let you read something i wrote as a sort of summary, or a farewell to honduras. i read it at the goodbye session for our group. i barely kept my voice steady by the last paragraph. anyway, i hope you like it. if you don't, that's cool too.