El Río y La Boda

I have a great day at the river and a wonderful wedding to tell you about, but before I do I have to share a picture of this AMAZING pizza we had last Friday night for dinner. Typically most of us don't eat pizza because it's expensive and the best pizza in town (until now) has been at the Esso -- a gas station. Well we saw that a new place popped up towards the center of town. When one of Jeff's students said it was his favorite place to get pizza we knew we had to check it out. Lets just say Andrew and I busted out of the doors in song and dance! It was hands down the BEST pizza we've had in Juticalpa. They had a spicy chicken version, hawaiian, and a few others. They even had red pepper flakes and real parmesan cheese. Now we know there's a great place to get some food when we're having an awful week!

You're looking at some extremely happy people right here!

Saturday, Jeff and I went swimming with some of the Hondurans at Stefani's grandparents farm. It took around 45 minutes to get there and the drive was absolutely beautiful. Some of the landscapes reminded me of being out west. The place we went swimming looked like they carved part of the rock out to put a swimming hole in...

The Hondurans love to take really posed pictures! Here are some of us before we got in the water...

Stefani's friend (I can't remember her name), Stefani, Wendy, Me, and Karol

Wendy brought Alejandro with her and he loved playing with Jeff...

He is the cutest little Honduran I know

Alejandro doesn't know how to swim, so I told him I would teach him. When I tried to take him into deeper water to show him a few things he screamed "tengo miedo" (I'm scared)! So we didn't get any swimming lessons in that day, but maybe next time he'll be feeling braver. As the weather continues to warm up I'm sure we'll be going swimming frequently on the weekends.

On Sunday we were invited to Peter and Stephanie's wedding. They both came to Olancho five or six years ago with a volunteer group, reconnected as friends, and fell in love. They had known each other in high school but it wasn't until they came to Honduras that they really made a connection. Since Olancho is such a special place for them they wanted to get married here. I LOVE going to weddings, even when I don't know the people, so I was really excited to be invited!

Padre married them at the Jutiquille mass which is always high energy and filled with so many loving people. After the mass we had a reception for them in the Instituto cafeteria. Peg was the party planner and Maki was the MC. I don't know how those two do it. They both have a million responsibilities but always seem to be picking up extra jobs (always with a smile :) ). Peggy did an amazing job with the reception. It was beautiful and the food was some of the best I've had since being in Honduras. Maki rocked the music and delivered a heart felt speech that had me in tears. I told her she has a gig when I get married. I love a good speech giver. You know, someone who can just bring you right into what their saying? We actually had a discussion about it during lunch. I was telling the other volunteers how much I hate someone getting up at a wedding to read "Love is patience, love is kind..." in a monotone voice. If you're going to have someone get up at your wedding and read something so beautiful in a monotone voice you may as well just not have it read. Can you tell I feel strongly about weddings?!?!

Peter and Stephanie have such a beautiful love story and when I see two people who have found love like that I can't help but be overjoyed for them. I was so happy at the wedding Andrew said at one point that if I was any happier he thought I was just going to burst into a big ball of confetti and glitter on the spot, haha!

Here is the reception venue...

The happy couple...

Stephanie and Peter

Jackie, Me, Anne, and Carrie pre-lunch

A few people from our group in their Sunday bests...

Andrew, Anne, Mario, Carrie, Jeff, Jackie, Lacey, and Me

We had a wonderful time dancing to both American and Honduran songs. Here is a picture of us doing a tunnel dance to Chris Brown's "Forever". The dance moves were very similar to these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

Andrew and Me

I'm missing a lot of my friends weddings in the states so I'm glad I got to go to a Honduran wedding! I have my fix for a little while :).

"Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairy tale"