El amor ya se acabo...

I am back now, living in the usa. Obviously there are a mix of emotions upon leaving my beloved Victoria after having been there for two years, but I must say it is nice to be back. No, living in my parents house is not the dream of every twenty nine year old, but it is what I am doing at the moment, and really for the rest of the calendar year if things happen as planned. That’s right, if things happen as I have planned them…I will be living with my parents for the rest of the year!! Haha, but after two years of being not only away from them but away from everyone I know and love, it will be a nice change to be home again and have a chance to have some conversations with them that we, up to this point, have not been able to have.

Yes, I loved Honduras and maybe it is more accurate to say I loved where I lived, Victoria, Yoro. I loved the people there, who always made me feel at home and welcomed; I loved the work there, which was far and away the most significant of my life so far; and I loved being outside of the United States, seeing our country as people who have never been here do. I would not change the last twenty seven months for anything. And yet, it is never the most difficult adjustment in the world when the place you are moving to does not have carnivorous mosquitoes who bite ANY exposed flesh but does have consistent and reliable electricity; does not have people burning trash as you try to dry your sheets on the line outside but does have carpeting; does not have roofs that leak but does have washers and dryers. These are trivial differences to be sure, but they do add up to make a stressful transition less so.

I have not reached out and been in a hurry to get in touch with most of you, dear friends of mine. That will definitely happen in the days and weeks (and maybe months) ahead, I just did not feel rushed to do so immediately upon returning. Do not feel slighted, the three non-family readers of El Amor Prohibido, if I have not written or called yet—I will and very soon. In the meantime, let me count the ways in which Tek is enjoying his new surroundings. He has been made to learn the ways of the leash, something he had a little experience with in Honduras but never really became part of his daily life. And his run-without-supervision-through-the-town days are long gone; first world countries do not look kindly upon free roaming dogs and gated communities even less so. But whereas his food in Honduras was a dry food of questionable quality, here it is of excellent quality and is mixed with the canned stuff as well. A mélange of brown rice, organic turkey, chicken and vegetables is part of his daily meals now and his enthusiasm for chow time is noticeably higher. Climate control in the house is also a favorite—there was no escape from the intolerable heat of Victoria but that is not the case in New Mexico. He absolutely loves carpeting and the rugs that my parents have in the house—he rolls around on his back like he has never known anything but concrete and tile and dirt his entire life. And although it was Tek, and not my alarm clock, that woke me up 90% of my days in Victoria, here in my parents house I have to practically drag him up from his cushion-bed in the morning.

We go running three or four times a week and while he does not have chickens to chase or stray dogs to meet as we go, there are ducks and geese and the occasional horse to stare down here by the Rio Grande. And most important of the changes, he now has a consistent companion in Homer, my parent’s dog. They were both a bit stand off-ish when Tek first arrived, but now they are buds. Oh, and he gets a milk bone before going to bed every night. All in all I think Tek is happy about the changes, and I am too.

Anyway, that is about it for El Amor Prohibido. I thank all of you who read and commented occasionally, it was fun to see what you guys had to say. Now that I’m back State-side I hope to begin more consistent communication with everyone. You should all have my email address, so send me an email when you can and I’ll respond MUCH sooner than the three to six months I typically took while living in Honduras. Thanks again everyone, I hope you enjoyed the small taste of life in Victoria I gave! And now, a final slideshow (or really long column of pictures) of the past couple of years.
Hasta entonces…