High Society

Part of Union Christian Church's self-definition is "international." The church sign (which you can see in an earlier post) shows the flags of many nations giving the perhaps misleading perception that all of those countries are represented in the congregation. At present, we are "international" insofar as we have attenders from multiple nations, mostly the U.S. and Honduras, though a few other foreign countries are represented from time to time: Canada, England, Arkansas.

One of the true internationals that attends at present happens to be the ambassador to Honduras from the Republic of China-Taiwan. It further turns out that this year is the centennial of the founding of Taiwan. Accordingly, the Taiwanese embassy, which has had a long presence in Honduras, hosted a celebration to commemorate the anniversary and the ambassador invited his pastor and spouse, yep, that's us.

So last night found us dressed to the nines to attend a reception held at a swanky (or perhaps the swanky) hotel in Tegucigalpa. We were greeted at the door by the ambassador himself and received commemorative pins (see below). The festivities included speeches by the ambassador and the Honduran president (no we didn't meet him personally), national anthems of both countries sung by an excellent a capella choir, and a traditional dragon drum dance. Then there was time to mingle and enjoy the tasty buffet.

Those of you who know us would probably agree that we are not exactly high society people. I don't think we betrayed ourselves bourgeois except that we repeatedly rejected beverage offers during the speeches so as not to be disrupted only to be unable to find any liquids at all once the buffet lines began. Of course, we were conspicuously gringo but there's not much we can do about that! (Fortunately, we weren't the only gringos as the ambassador had also invited one of the elders and his wife.)

Here we are in all our sartorial splendor.

And the aforementioned commemorative pin (which you may be able to tell is actually magnetic).