In planning this blog, I had troubles thinking of a title… ‘Back to Something’ seemed appropriate, but back to what? The “Future" was already taken by Hollywood, so I decided to use a somewhat similar word, though its meaning is completely different! And truly, one thing for us to look forward to here was the new piece of furniture we had bought just before we left: an Ottoman with a pull-out bed. And it has a memory foam mattress! ‘Being in the doghouse’ will be more like a reward than a punishment, so Shelagh can’t kick me out! Haha! Anyways, not that she usually does or has to...

Since we arrived, it pretty much has been busy from the get-go, what with baby showers and all! Funny I should mention such a "shower" while a new mother discusses bathing her baby for the first time... And yes, it's the same baby who was showered with gifts a day after we arrived home!

(Even the boys participated in the baby shower games!)

Arriving home...there was a bit of an adventure! Because it involved a bus. Buses here...ugh, always looking for an adventure! In my favour, I was dead tired, and so even the driver's crazy "hey-let's-speed-at-any-given-opportunity" attitude couldn't stop me from sleeping! We weren't even sure how we'd be getting home...we got picked up at the airport by friends, but their van got a flat soon thereafter, so we had to catch a taxi to the bus depot.

Fixing a flat. Just the other side of the overpass on the right is the bus depot. But we had to take a taxi that took the longest way possible to get there…because there’s no other way!

A week after we had arrived, we went to our Circuit Assembly on Honduran Sign Language. It was in a new facility (well, new to us), but in the same city we used to meet in: Siguatepeque. It's pretty much in the centre of Honduras, making it an ideal location. And it lends itself to a great bilingual joke! If Siguatepeque is in the heart of Honduras, shouldn't it be called "Siguate-pecho"? Hahaha, ok calm down all that laughter! For those who don't know, "pecho" means "chest" in Spanish. (More laughter for those who just got the joke...ok, ready to proceed. Oh wait! Another thing bilingualisms will find funny is the sign: “Hay for sale"...) At the assembly, the department Shelagh and I worked in was missing a key item before the assembly began, so another brother and I had to make a 1.5 hour round trip trek to nearby Comayagua to pick it up. At least I was able to get some Burger King fries and cookies... Fun fact: Comayagua actually used to be capital of Honduras, and in fact, of several states in Central America before Honduras officially achieved independence. It was founded by a dude whose last name was Cáceres, and there's a brother from the sign language congregation there named Cáceres...and he's very white...hmmmm....

(In our circuit, which encompasses all of Honduras, there are few gringos…3 of us are named Matthew! Here’s 2 of us and our wives.)

Well, a funny thing about me calling an important historical figure "dude"...I once had my English class do a little project about Canadian Prime Ministers. The student who was the most fluent referred to Sir John A. Macdonald as "this guy"! After a little chuckle, I told him that that's not quite the politest way to refer to someone of note!

Did I digress? Anyways, somewhat still on topic because I am working at teaching again. Same school as before: the half-coffee shop, half-school place. We sit on mugs and I write on the board with a burnt coffee bean... Ok not really, the two businesses are technically separate. But it's going well there, I teach two classes for now, and Shelagh teaches some pretty advanced kids. One of my classes is of mostly teenagers whom I enjoy teasing, and the other is a conversation class for adults.

(At work and in uniform. Wow I make that t-shirt look bad!)

We've also been a little more diligently doing search work for deaf. We try to systematically go from house to house in the nearby villages and towns, asking if they know anyone deaf. Then we explain why, and try to show them a video in Honduran Sign Language, preferably one that has a scripture from the Bible in it. So far we've encountered some new individuals we previously didn't know about, some of whom live right on the highway! Ok fine...'beside' it. And to find her, Gladys, we actually went on quite the wild goose chase through a coffee plantation! All we were told is that she lived on a ranch called "Apazote". So we hiked down a big hill through the jungle, got to the highway, found the ranch, and looked for a way in. The big locked gate said "No Trespassing", but the open little gate didn't. So guess which one we took. Yup, the open one! And we walked for quite a while, past recently harvested coffee plants, and heaps of the de-beaned and discarded coffee cherries. They kinda stunk. And there were flies... Anyways, after quite a walk, we finally chanced upon someone who gave u further misleading directions, but nevertheless helped us find the very pleasant and good-humoured Gladys!

(Walking through the plantation. Yes, it had been sweater weather! I bought 2 wool sweaters for here and they’ve worked out great!)

So all in all, it’s been a good yet busy 3 weeks back. A lot of walking, a lot of signing, and a lot of coffee. The coffee keeps me awake, the signing keeps me active, and the walking keeps me tired. And that’s good, because when I’m bad, I at least got the memory foam to look forward to...

(The town in the foreground is La Entrada where friends of ours live and support a sign language group. In the background is Santa Rosa de Copan. And the peaks in the back by the tip of the wing is where Celaque, the tallest peak in Honduras resides.)