Shelly, Jill and I had a great couple of days in Toronto. The girls got to ride the train, the subway, a taxi, and visit the tallest building in the world and a castle. All firsts! We also museum hopped and visited the zoo. Of course, the water slide in the hotel pool and staying up late to watch movies might have edged out sleeping in a tent after carrying backpacks for five miles.

I expected my trip to Honduras to be fantastic and it was, but not for the reasons I had expected and the moments I had planned. I expected to be amazed by the mountains, jungle, wildlife, Caribbean and all the natural beauty. And I was. I expected to be moved by the poverty, the enviromental devastation and the US policies and corporations contributing to those problems. And I was. But what had the greatest impact was the people, communities and children with which we met and interacted. Humbly, I didn’t plan most of these moments and wasn’t that excited about these activities when planning the trip. I yoyoed for school children at the village in which we worked. The kids were so much fun (how I longed to speak spanish). We visited an orphanage and the kids climbed all over us and played with us with such enthusiam. It was hard to leave. We visited a Garifina village right on the Caribbean coast. We danced, talked and played with people and children in the village. We learned about their difficulties to keep their land. One month after we left, the state took their land from them to develop resorts and hotels, of course owned by US companies. It broke our hearts. But most of all, getting to know the students and Jesse (co-leader) and Srs. Val and Barb who hosted us was extremely special.