Christmas starts here at the end of October when Christmas trees and decorations begin appearing in public spaces.  The malls in particular seem to be trying to outdo each other with the size and decoration of their trees – these two toy-covered trees are at two different malls in Tegucigalpa.

Decorations in Honduras are not all about the trees however, and nativity scenes (nacimientos) are very traditional.  This one was also at a mall.

While I am used to nativity scenes of the stable, Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus and the animals et al, Honduran nacimientos are often large and show multiple scenes.  The mall nacimiento showed village and town scenes, and a series of scenes related to the current political events.  This one shows President Zelaya being removed from his bed by the military, with the plane waiting to take him to Costa Rica.  Others showed Micheletti accepting the presidency, the elections, and the resistencia.

Being here only temporarily we didn’t want to invest a lot in a tree and decorations so we had fun improvising.  Our tree was a small live pine from the vivero (plant nursery) next door, decorated with small ribbon bows, Ferero Rocher balls, a set of cheap lights and a $1 corn husk angel. Other decorations included paper angels and snowflakes made by myself and Maya, and a beautiful poinsettia, also from the vivero next door.

Of course being temporary here didn’t mean we weren’t able to enjoy some other Christmas traditions like baking and eating.  This is the non-ginger gingerbread house Maya and I made (I couldn’t find ginger in Tegucigalpa so we made the gingerbread from spice cookie dough – it was very yummy and might well become a permanent substitute in our house!).

The nacimiento above is in the home of a relative of Luis’. On Christmas Eve we spent most of the afternoon and part of the evening visiting friends and relatives.  This is actually a very traditional way to spent Christmas Eve, going from house to house visiting (and eating nacatamales!).  We started early, travelling an hour to Danli to visit with Luis’ family before returning to Zamorano to visit friends here.

Another family nacimiento complete with blown egg people (named after relatives!) and other hand-made decorations.

After the visiting we returned home and joined our neighbours for the rest of the evening.  Hondurans celebrate on Christmas Eve and celebrate we did.  I don’t have many photos of this, but it included plenty of food, alcohol, dancing and fireworks!  The food was an interesting mix.  The family is mixed Honduran -American and so there was turkey with cranberries and mashed potato alongside a Honduran ‘carneada’ (bbq) with plenty of meat and tortillas.

We almost missed the midnight celebration (hugs and kisses, fireworks and present exchange) as Maya finally crashed just before midnight despite the noise.  The party was still in full swing when I went to bed at 3am.

Despite the late night Maya was up at 6:45 and looking for her presents from Santa.  We managed to squeeze another half hour or so in bed while she emptied her stocking and watched a DVD, but eventually we had to get up.  While Hondurans open presents on Christmas Eve, we kept most of our family presents and a couple of “Santa” ones to be opened on Christmas morning as is the NZ tradition.  The rest of the day was very quiet.  Very very quiet, with most part-goers only crawling out into the sunshine sometime around mid-day.  We didn’t do a big Christmas lunch, but I had managed to find some good ham and enjoyed that for lunch with lots of fresh vegetables, in a semi-traditional kiwi way.  Maya enjoyed hers with tortillas, and Luis ate and enjoyed more nacatamales.

While I still find it hard to be away at Christmas, and miss my family in NZ (and Christmas mince pies and pavlova with real cream) this was a good Christmas and a lot of fun. I feel blessed to be able to share in the traditions of another culture and we will certainly be keeping both Honduran and Kiwi traditions each Christmas as much as we can. Now to get lots of rest and prepare myself for a real Honduran New Years…

As a family the situation is causing some difficulties but we are quite safe. I am supposed to be at the conference on Honduras starting tomorrow, and I will, but it has been shortened and will be small as conferees may not be able to get here. Luckily we came early, before the return of Zelaya, as Ruth (my sister) was visiting and we wanted to show her Copan. However it wasn’t so lucky for her as she arrived in San Pedro Sula to catch her flight home just as all airports were closed. She is still in SPS, holed up in a guesthouse and waiting for the first plane out.  Luis, Maya and I were planning to be in Copan until Sunday anyway so don’t really feel trapped here (and it is a wonderful place to be trapped anyway), but we are hoping and praying things resolve enough for us to get home to Zamorano early next week.

Here in Copan the streets are quiet, but the curfew has not been enforced so we are able to get out and about (and I am able to do my work and blogging from a sun-drenched rooftop cafe!). I am enjoying the relaxed pace here, and the personal and cheerful service from businesses who are so grateful for my custom, but I would far rather things returned to normal as quickly as possible. Honduras, and Hondurans, can’t afford this shut-down.

It proved to be a good decision – we made it and did avoid some disruption on Thursday – but also a bad one, it was a looong trip with a small child and very tiring – it took us 9 hours of driving, 100km of road works, one forced detour through the countryside, 2 broken bridges, 2.5 meal breaks and 5 toilet stops before we finally made it to La Ceiba. But it was good to get the North Coast, and get started on the business of this trip, gathering data for my research.

Of course it’s not all work.  Today we took a drive to Sambo Creek, where we ate seafood, and Maya was able to have her first splash in the Caribbean.  She as convinced it would be cold (and that there might be sharks!) but it didn’t take her long to realise it was not a kiwi beach… it was nice and warm and only a light shade of brown (lots of rain here yesterday). In the next few days we’ll be sailing over that water to Roatan, where she and Luis can spend all the time they want in clear blue water, while I keep working (ok, yes I’m sure I’ll have a few swims myself!).

We are of course watching the political situation carefully.  At the moment all the action is near the Nicaraguan border at Las Manos, ironically not too far from our little casa on the hillside but far away from where we are now.  I think we made the right decision after all.

Politically the country is still in a stand-off.   The international community yesterday gave the coup leaders 72 hours to reinstate Zelaya or face sanctions.  Zelaya initially stated he would return today but now seems to be waiting for the 72 hours to pass before making a move.  The interim government has declared Zelaya will not be welcome here and, amongst those who have a voice anyway, it is clear much of the population does not want him back either, although both pro and anti- Zelaya marches and protests continue.  So most of us wait.  No-one really really knows how this will play out.

Of course this tension and political unease in the background has an impact on daily life.  We don’t have a TV but listen to the radio, and read newspapers, blogs and twitterers online.  We have prolonged discussions about the situation, and are constantly reassessing our plans taking into account the political events each day.  But the reality is that life goes on.  I go to university.  Maya and Luis spend thier days playing on the porch, going for walks to collect fruit and swimming in the pool.  The people around us also carry on as normal, the workmen next door rebuilding another little casita, the staff and students at the university all still working.  The pulpurias (small dairy-like shops) are open, as is the local supermarkets and petrol station.

All appeared normal in Tegucigalpa on Tuesday when we finally took a much needed trip to the supermarket and to have a look at a few cars (we are reliant on others for transport at the moment but are looking for a car of our own). People were out and about on the streets as usual, and the malls and supermarkets are all open. The only evidence of the political strife was a handful of soldiers on the road into town, and a small, peaceful pro-Zelaya march (about 300-400 people I would guess) passing by the mall.

Our biggest worry so far is the potential effect of trade sanctions.  Already there are rumours of prices rises in some places.  We are well stocked for rice and beans, and have a whole fruit orchard to enjoy but it is a concern when we really still are here on a student budget.  It is even more of a worry for the 60% or so of the population who are poor.  Petrol shortages are also likely as Chavez cuts the flow of Venezuelan oil to Honduras, and our neighbour has already experienced significant difficulty filling his car in Tegus. earlier this week.  While I’m not sure if it is linked with the political crisis, I have also had difficult accessing my Visa and NZ bank accounts from the ATM we usually use, the message stating that my istitution was not connected to the bank at this time. I’m hoping that is just a normal ‘travel in Honduras’ related issue otherwise we’ll be very short of cash for a while – although the Visa works fine for normal in store payments so we won’t starve.

The other impact this crisis is having is on my planning.  I should be well into making plans and appointments for my research trip to the North Coast later this month, but have put it on hold until things are a little clearer.  At the moment things are safe, and people are travelling normally, but the threat of the escalation of violence exists and if so, we will be happier and safer on our mountainside than on the road.  It isn’t a big deal except that it delays the data collection, but I do have my supervisors permission to stay home and make chocolate cake should I be unable to travel!

So, life goes on.  We wait and see.  We eat, sleep, work, swim… and hope and pray this passes quickly and peacefully.

After a month of organising, packing, travelling, holidaying (vacationing) and settling in we are now officially, properly here in Honduras.  This trip is a little different to our past visits here. We have a home, I have an office, and we are working on getting a car. Simply having a home base and a kitchen makes life in Honduras a lot easier, and we feel we have hit the jackpot with our little casita (pictured).

We found the house through a client of a friend of ours here last year.  At the time we looked at it last year it was an empty concrete shell which the owner was planning to finish and furnish for rental.  We took a risk agreeing to rent it before seeing the final result but we are very pleased.  It is slightly upgraded traditional Honduran style – tile floors, painted concrete walls, concrete kitchen and cold running water.  But it is comfortably furnished, has a coffee maker and hot shower (shower head water heater) so I’m happy.  It also helps that it is on a small farm surrounded by mango, orange, lemon, mandarin and avocado trees, and banana, coffee and corn.  It is very quiet ( a small miracle in Honduras), very safe and absolutely beautiful. The only problem at the moment is transportation, we are reliant on others for rides or it is a long walk to the main road for buses.  Hopefully in the next week or so we will find a car, and we’ll be properly mobile again.

We have arrived here in Honduras just in time for the big news of the year, that is of course the (rumoured? currently underway? attempted?) coup in Tegucigalpa.  I’m not going to go into detail in this post, my feeling is that while I can’t really see any sort of good outcome for the Honduran people, I also do not think it will escalate into the kind of violence seen in this region in the past.  We are very safe where we are, all is quiet and life goes on as normal.

While mindful of the potential for civic and political unrest, I am continuing with my research plans.  I am lucky enough to have been offered office space at a nearby (and respected) university, and am making the most of both the facilities and the contacts.  Over the next few weeks I will be meeting with people around here and in Tegucigalpa, then in late July will be taking the family to the North Coast for another round of interviews and a few days on the beach in Roatan. Apparently fieldwork is supposed to be rough and challenging but political instability aside, so far I think I’m going to enjoy the next few months.

Yes, we are off to Honduras again, for another, longer round of PhD fieldwork.  We plan to leave in the first week of June, although we haven’t booked yet due to  a slow travel agent and constantly changing ticket prices (with the swine flu paranoia airfares to LA and Central America have been dropping fast).  We will be there for six months this time, and have found a home, office space and a kinder for Maya in the Zamorano valley, near Tegucigalpa. I’ll tell you more once we’re there!  

In the meantime I have been plodding on with my PhD work, and in March had a successful confirmation (see my research website for more info and updates).  Luis has finished one more paper for his degree.  Unfortunately he has had difficulty finding work, not helped by his limited availability as he needs to look after Maya when she is not in childcare, and because I am taking him out of the country for 6 months this year.  He has however found a niche assisting some of the Latino community here with computer problems (he’s quite the techie now), doing radio shows and playing with a local Latin band.  Both Maya and Luis have ad this nasty flu also, which has made the past 2 weeks a little miserable.

Maya is growing fast, and loves being our “little big girl”  Don’t ever call her a baby!  Check out some of her favorites on her blog.

Luis makes the cover of our local newspaper - performing with a Latin band at the Festival of Cultures in March.

However the holidays are now over and today we are back into routine.  Maya went to childcare, I went to university (mostly to sit in fount of this computer screen and read blogs- which lead me to remember I should be updating this one but really didn’t add anything to the PhD process) and unfortunately Luis stayed home with a stomach bug (although that’s not exactly part of the routine!). 

So what will this year bring for our little family?

Obviously I want to make significant progress on the PhD- I need to complete the university confirmation procedures in February which means finishing the proposal and literature reviews, and then get into the data collection.  This will require about 6 months in Honduras, as well as significant amounts of online research.  By the end of the year I’d like to have the data collection completed, analysis underway and be thinking about some serious writing.

This means another year of hard work and travel.  It also means another year of changes and potential instability for Maya and makes things tricky for Luis.  He is looking for work, but given the economic climate and our travel plans he is not having a lot of luck.  However he is enjoying being able to spend a lot of time with Maya (as primary caregiver when she’s not at childcare), and working on computer and other projects at home and in the Latin community.  He’s also been able to host a few radio shows and is becoming a popular DJ in amongst Latinos here.  

So it will be another busy and challenging year.  I’d like to say I’ll blog more and keep you up-to-daye but I say that every year and it never happens, so we’ll take it as it comes.

Anyway I must get back to cleaning and packing. This is just a quick note to say Merry Christmas to all my friends and readers. I hope to ‘see’ you back here in 2009!