Mother’s day is a big deal in Honduras.  The shops are decorated and I woke up to greetings and giggles as family members dropped in to say “felicidades!” to my abuela and give her presents. I then attended my first Spanish church service celebrating mom’s everywhere!

I.understood.every.word. MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENT.

It was all about the mothers of the bible, raising their children in the Lord and being faithful to Him all of their days. It was a very powerful and moving experience as I realized the treasure that moms are, and how big of a deal it is here. In class one day, Nelly and I were comparing the US to Honduras. Many girls here get pregnant as young as 12 and its very common for the boys to disappear, leaving themnto be single moms. The rest of their life is a dedication to their children. I love how appreciated they are here, especially on their special day.

After church, all of the men cooked a meal for the women. We ate and then headed home. I got to skype the familia at home and they passed me around the dinner table, conversing with me one by one. LOVE THEM.

Here is the best part! We loaded vans and headed for AguasCalientes, hot springs, about an hour into the mountains. Here, the water is naturally a hot spring, that they almost made it a sort of spa. You have to cross a rickety bridge (like one from Shrek. I kept thinking of donkey, “don’t look down, don’t look down, I’M LOOKING DOWWWN!”) And they ask that you mentally leave your problems behind and enter a place of tranquility. To this, I say heck yes.

After crossing a bridge, you go through a stone tunnel and come up into the forest with steps leading to multiple places. The water running near you gives off steam and the entire atmosphere feels like those sound cds people buy to sleep easier. There is a waterfall with 5 levels of pools, each one hotter than the next. There is a mud pool where you can cover yourself with mud. There are cool pools of cool water, a foot , massage pool filled with rocks, and a waterfall that pounds so hard,  it massages you. It was a beautiful place full of tranquility. I never want to forget that feeling. I didnt want to take pictures because I didnt want to hurt my camera, but I also think that the pictures wouldnt do it justice. Beautiful. God’s handiwork.

After a long bus ride of out of tune country songs, we all went out for pizza, at Copan Pizza. Afterwards, we went all touristy and went shopping. It was a beautiful sunday.

Honduras observations
1. Mother’s day is a big deal with a weekend celebration filled with parades, flowers, parties, special church services, and a mariachi band.
2. They sing menno hymns at church – in spanish of course.
3. There are no song books, everyone just knows all of the words. A few select people have a book.
4. At church, there is lots of amens, children talking and running around, and singing.
5. There are no bulletins.
6. It is weird that I am 20 and don’t have children yet. Atleast, thats what they say when they ask and find I have none.
7. It is not unusual for a woman to whip out a boob and breastfeed in public.
8. Soda comes in 3 liters.
9. I haven’t seen any Hondurans with tattoos or nose piercings.

-Alyssa Cable