Wait its December?

Hello all,
I'm still alive and doing well just been a bit busy with everything going on here! I just finished up all my classes and final essays and presentations and now am free!! Its so nice because now I have all the time I want for hanging out with my family here and going to relative's birthday parties (I've got two just this weekend!). I just got back from shopping in downtown Tegucigalpa with my sister and Betsy. Then my little brother, Luisito, and my sister, Sharon, went and got some delicious chocobananas. I'm not sure if any of you have had these before, but they are frozen bananas dipped in this chocolate and covered with sprinkles. Just amazing.

Well I can try to catch you all up on whats been happening, but there is so much to tell! I can't tell you how weird it is for it to be December and I'm walking around in a t-shirt and sandals and the sun is hotter than ever. I look around and there are Christmas decorations everywhere! All the stores and restaurants have lights and Christmas trees inside and garlands hanging above the windows. There isn't anything outside the stores, its all inside, cause otherwise people would take it haha. There aren't lights on the houses like we would see in the states, but most families have a tree they put up with ornaments and lights. There is christmas music everywhere, sometimes in spanish and sometimes in english, and I generally recognize all the tunes. I keep telling myself that its December and Christmas is just around the corner, but it still doesn't feel like it! I think its all going to hit me when I get back and suddenly I have to climb through the snow to get to the car.

Our profs have been talking a lot about "reentry" in the US and how it may be more difficult than we think. We have all changed so much, while most of the people back home have never experienced or learned what we have. Our perspectives have changed and now I know at least for me most of my priorities have changed. I know I want to be different when I get back and hope you all can keep me accountable to that. God has really opened my eyes to so much and I've realized how little I knew about God and the world before Honduras. The US really was a bubble for me, I thought I could see out and I knew what poverty was, but really it was just this blurred vision I had been taught in school and church. Being here, I've come to realize just how, well, ignorant I was. So if I had only one word to describe my semester in Honduras it would be: CHALLENGING. All the things I thought were so bad like Maquilas, turned out to have some advantages and the things I thought were really great like child sponsorship and short term missions, turned out to have some disadvantages. Suddenly my world of black and white went to grey. That makes it frustrating and difficult to come to any conclusions. I have more questions now than answers and am still figuring everything out. I have learned though that I can't just believe anything I'm told or take anything for just face value. I need to look into it for myself to form my own opinions and not just take my opinion from who I heard it from. Everything has another side to it, which makes decisions that much more difficult and time consuming. But I think thats what God wants us to do, be informed and take the time to make a well thought out decision through his guidance. Well anyways I can talk more about this when I get back, but its really been on my mind a lot the last few days. Well I think I'm going to take a nap and then head out to my cousin's birthday party! eric turns 2 today! but I will be writing more later about all our adventures and such since I have a little more time, nos vemos!

-Kelsey