Whither Roatan? and other FAQs

As friends and acquaintances have heard about this upcoming trip, we often get asked the same questions:

• Where is Roatan? It’s part of Honduras, one of the bay islands about 80km north of the mainland. 
• You can see it on a map here. 
• Is this a vacation? Yes
• Roatan is a Caribbean island!  Have you experienced the weather in Calgary lately?!
  
• Is this just a vacation?  No
• We have three purposes for the trip: vacation, visit, and volunteer. In some way, it's the ideal vacation for us a family right now.  We feel like we could really use a break and some time to relax.  We all love the ocean and the beach.  But we also want something more purposeful than your standard tourist destination. We wanted a trip that each of us would enjoy and where each of us could feel useful.
  
• Who will you be visiting? Cathy's brother Ed and his wife Jami, as well as our niece Stephanie.  
• We are also looking forward to meeting Steph's new husband Carlos and his family.
• What kind of volunteer work? We are looking forward to simply joining Ed and Jami in whatever projects they are involved in.  They moved to Roatan over a year ago to become part of the community and have a positive impact.  I'd encourage you to peruse their blog (listed under LINKS on the right), especially the entry from 19Feb2009 that gives a good overview of their approach.  
• I (Dan) am particularly looking forward to seeing the washroom project they are currently working on.   
  
• And if it works out, I know that Cathy would love an opportunity to put her 2nd year nursing training to use doing some basic medical work while she is there. 
  
• Is this where you sent the container?   Yes
  
• Many of you heard about and even donated your time and resources towards the container that we began filling over a year ago. After many delays, it shipped a few months ago.  The great thing (for me) about these delays is that it now looks like we will now be able to be involved in some of the unpacking and distribution of these items.