The town always seems bigger when when driving and traffic...

Thursday was a slow day. It was one of Cristina's employees day off so she had to be at the store all day. Currently the internet did not work at her house so going to her store did not seem so bad. It just made for a very long day. 

After getting breakfast from the market, badeas I'm pretty sure that is not how they are spelled. Badeas are flour tortilla with beans eggs avocado and montaquilla which is a sweet sour cream. They are very good and after we ordered one of the workers had to go buy the avacados because many people do not pay extra for the eggs and avacados normally just beans and cheese. 

I was able to communicate with my family and get some posting done.

Cristina's accountant came by and talked with me. He is very talkative but I am also able to understand his accent better than others.

Cristina needed to buy some high blood pressure medications for one of our village pastors, so we hiked down to downtown from her shop at the bus stop, by car it would have taken us 10 ish minutes maybe a bit more for parking and it took us about 8 minutes waking! It always seemed so far with traffic but I definitely have more mud on my clothes but we got down there and back quick so didn't leave ariselly by herself at he store.

When we got back from the pharmacy the nurse ariselly was there. We have worked with her in previous years at her clinic in San Antonio Valle, her clinic was a 2/ 2.5 hour drive from Las Esperanza and always had really muddy roads, sometimes the buses would not be able to handle them. She has now moved to a different clinic that is in need more. We gave her some of our medication that would be expiring and I gave her some medical supplies that my work had donated. She was very excited for the supplies from my work and the medications. I hope we will be able to do another brigade and go to the new village. We like to go wherever the need is the greatest.

 

Wednesday drive to the mountain!

On Wednesday we drove to a rural school where my friend Keren is now a teacher. It was in the same village as the church we went to on Sunday morning. Marvin is sick so we met up its pastor Edmond and he drove us. While we were driving we passed over a sketchy bridge. I always notice the bridges because I feel like they are going to break under the weight of me and the car/ bus. So when we came to another sketchy bridge I thought it was odd cause I didn't recognize it. And the road became very rough, very unlike it was on Sunday morning. I mentioned to Cristina that roads were very different, she agreed but we kept going thinking we will hit the school eventually, after driving for 30 minutes we should have hit the school but we kept climbing these 4x4 needed roads. And eventually we got signal and got a hold of keren and then we knew we were on the wrong mountain. So down we went then on to the school. 

At the school I taught the children about their heart and I had them listen to their hearts with the extra stethoscopes I had. I then taught them about brushing their teeth, hygiene, and hand hygiene. Cristina had Keren translate which I talk a bit fast for her. :) she needs more English practice.

As we head back down the mountain I asked pastor Edmond what kind of things should I prepare the future teams with. He said all of his teams have been perfect... sigh.... but I eventually got some info out of him.... 

in the late afternoon Cristina and I went to her store. She has two employees Alex and ariselly . Alex helped out at the children's home the past several years so I know him by face and name... especially cause my Spanish is not the greatest. Ariselly is currently living with Cristina and Marvin so I see her everyday. When we got to the store we found out that the cell phones for Tigo had stopped working and the banks all closed early. This made Cristina feel a little better cause she thought her phone was broke. 

I told her the same thing happened in the US when the fiber optics were accidentally snipped or stolen... after closing up shop we went by a store to buy more things for her shop. The people in that store are recognizing me now that I have been there every day this week...

It started raining this evening and it is glorious... except for the mud but falling asleep to rain is nice and the animals are a lot quieter when that happens. :)

Prayer: keep praying for health. Marvin is still sick, his mother told him he has dengue fever and I said no. But he is not doing everything I am telling him... a typical guy... I taught Cristina the words "man flu" she thought it was funny... :)

Went to prison again! I think it's the 3rd time...

Last time I visited this prison there was riot after we left. No riots this time but there have been some changes...

Tuesday afternoon we headed to prison the Cristina's biweekly bible study at women's section of the prison.

It started to rain heavily and Cristina says sometimes she waits in her car until the rain stops because it is hard for everyone to hear in the prison during the rain. We are not allowed to take our cell phones into the prison so I will have to explain everything and hope my words can give a good picture. As we walked rapidly  from the truck we went to the market to buy the ladies bananas. Hoping the rain would lighten and instead it became heavier. We had to cross six inches of water just to get to the side of the street so my shoes were soaked. When we entered the prison the female guard was a bit unhappy because she would have to let us in. After I surrendered my passport and they searched my bible, we went back out side and around the side. The side entrance to get to women's sections. Since the last time I was there, which has been about 3 years there is a new fence around there kitchen area. Cristina says it was to separate the inmates from the guards as the guards dormitory is there on the left as you walk in. This makes sense because many of us brought up in the brigade we had in 2014 that the guard seemed really sweet on one of the inmates which we thought it was his daughter at first until we learned she was an inmate... lightbulb.... so as they unlock the gate, there three waterfalls from the ceiling, one was planned going straight into their water storage the other two were leaks from the ceiling. Because of these great waterfalls there was about 5 inches of standing water we must cross to get to the room where an old women is greeting us with a huge smile. We cross the water and enter a cell. The cell has two bunk beds and then a slab of wood for the third row of beds. Between the bed and the wall is not enough room for me to walk in straight on, i had to turn sideways and even then my head still hit stuff. I think the most room was in the bathroom. The cell I believe is a 8x8 cell and then a 4x4 bathroom. There was a 6inch tv playing the new jungle book. There are currently 10 female inmates in this cell. The floor in the cell was completely wet from the rain/ I'm sure something leaks, there was only room for one of the immates and Cristina to stand between the beds. The old cheerful lady stood in the door way of the bathroom. We proceeded to have bible study. Most of them participated and a few were able to read the passage from their own bible.

It was very nice and they thanked us several times for coming. One woman in there started crying because she believes she will die there. She has been struggling with diabetes and high blood pressure. She missed her court date because she was in the hospital with high blood sugar. She asked me what she can do because they are not giving her insulin like they were in the hospital. She doesn't have much control of her food she gets but we did go get her some cheese for instead of her plantains. And the Honduran diet is all carbs with a wee bit of beans. So we will RBI g her some stuff on Friday when we go. I told her to drink a lot of water, she says she does but it is from the sink. I told her needs to get excelencias which she says she tries but there is not exactly a lot of space to walk. I told her to go ahead and lift things if she can't walk, she liked that.

Of course when we left the rain had stopped and a lot of the standing water gone. We had to wait a bit for them to let us out, Cristina says that sometimes she waits longer to leave than to get in. 

We have not had brigade there since 2014, I hope if we can get a team together do one next year.

Currently Pastor Marvin is sick so please send prayers his way!

Monday = shopping

Today Cristina and I went all over la esperanza shopping for her store and me shopping for things to make on the weekend. Which it is really hard to find enchilada sauce in Honduras or even canned chilies. So I will see how everything tastes on Saturday...all I will say is the amount of vegitables I got for $3 would have cost me $10 in the states. We eat a lot of vegitables here. 

We also went to the bank were I could exchange my money. They are sticklers on the bills! They have to be in pristine shape or they get denied. So I exchanged some of my money and noticed that they put the big bank right next to the prison.. coincidence? I think not!

Photos 05/2017

Cause for some reason photos are not uploading... I feel this is my problem every time I'm here!

You thought your coffee grinder was bad! This guy is grinding coffee!!!

 

  

The weekend in La Esperanza

So Cristina wanted me to rest on Saturday which I did. I had set my alarm and didn't realize it was in Miami time so it woke me up way early. So a nap was also due... around 3 I went to Cristina's store and hung out there. I had forgotten how much people stare and without a group with me all of the stares are focused on me and me alone. It can be very unnerving. I miss being able to hide with in the group.

Norma's son brought more mushrooms! I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that Cristina had bought some mushrooms. These mushrooms are native to this area and only grow when the rainy season has been good. She cooked some up to go with the chicken. These mushrooms are red and look like all of the artistic mushrooms seen in paintings and sculptures. Well and now we have more mushrooms! I am normally a hater on mushrooms but these aren't too bad, and they are picked in the forest!

Sunday was a day!

First we traveled to a church and Marvin preached. It was a small chapel. And we were given more mushrooms! Then we drove to San Antonio to drop of rosa and Perot Carlos, the chapel is at rosas mothers house. Marvin preached there twice a month. Lots of mountain roads! 

Then Cristina, Marvin and I went to San Juan and had lunch at a cute little comedor which is a little eatery. We talked and visited. Then we went back to San Antonio and picked up rosa and her children and we went to Valle. These roads were crazy and I wish we had a Go pro for the end of the truck. Some of these road angles I have only seen on roller coasters!

There Marvin preached on Galatians taking about what not to do and the fruit of the spirit.

the picture below is of the Sunday shook at this church. The servic starts at about 4:20 and the the children below have been ther since 1pm! They go for Sunday school/ discipleship. They have been given children's bibles from Samaritan's purse. I can't believe the children go there for 4+ hours!!!

As the service let out the children started running to marvins truck they wanted to make sure that they got a ride home! As we left Marvin had about 20-30 people in the back of his truck! We were so lucky that it had stopped raining for this trip. Four wheeling out there is serious!

After making our various stops dropping people off we made our way back to San Antonio and dropped rosa and her children off. They invited us to their church service but we were exhausted and we will try next week!

Sunday was a very long day and Monday will be our day of rest. 

Prayer requests:

Health for Marvin, Cristina, and I as we travel to different villages and shake a lot of hands. :)

That as Cristina, Marvin, and I talk that we will be able to think of ideas to raise money for the ministries here.

And of course safe travels everywhere!

Until the next post! I think I will be going to the prison on Tuesday but we will see. We have a big day on Wednesday traveling to different villages and taking in the schools.

¡Adiós!

 

 

The Lone traveler

Well who would have thought I would be going to Honduras without a team? This trip to Honduras will be a a lot of firsts for me.

First checking in and not being given a seat. My trips are booked through a travel agency for nonprofits and I normally get a decent seat either a aisle or window and sometimes I randomly get economy plus. None of this happened. I kept asking for a seat, I didn't even have an option to upgrade and I totally would. Right now I will pay to about of pain. So after our boarding time I was finally given a seat. A middle seat or as another guy called it, "the conversation seat".

When I boarded, I got to my seat, it was like someone played a prank,  the amount of space between the two seats was so tiny. It looked to be about 6inches but as I measure it it appears to be 12 inches, judging with my fingers and my arm..my feet are longer than the space between front/back seat. And since it's an  older airplane, they added charging outlets so less space under the seat. My backpack barely fits side ways and doesn't fit length wise, so that means absolute no leg room for me my knees are in the seat ahead of me and of course the person lowered their seat so it's practically in my face. So my knees are screaming and all I can say is this is going to be a long day. And I immediately used my spending money on upgrading my other seats on the flights cause I guess that's how American Airlines does it. You got pay extra for the preferred seats!

Then to Miami, I could not just leave my luggage with the team and go explore, I had to lug my heavy backpack and bag sound the whole airport. And then there was no one to talk to, which was probably good cause I was tired and not in a pleasent mood.

My flight from Miami to Tegucigalpa was a better experience, no one sat on the aisle seat so the middle seat guy moved to the aisle and I found out that there is less leg room on the window seat dure to the charging pack for the outlet. So I awkwardly sat with my legs in the next space over. I kept repeatedly thinking, "why can't southwest fly to Tegucigalpa?" 

The guy on aisle was a dentist from Boston who was coming for a brigade. He was worried about the heat. I told it wasn't as bad as the Dominican Republic but he said they were by the ocean so maybe it is as bad. 

I was one the last ones to get off the plane and of course the one time I am not with a team the line for foreign travelers is longer and slower. So by the time I got out of customs Cristina and Marvin were waiting for me and they thought I had maybe missed my flight.

The trip to La Esperanza was longer then I remebered, more pot holes and we stopped more. I miss the bus but I didn't miss the bus. We stopped at stand on the side of the rode about an hour and half from La esperanza and we got some edible flowers, hopefully in a pic below or the next post. They cost $.50! Cristina says they are good with eggs we will see. Another reason to stop there was for the fresh piña! The lady ended up chopping up two different ones to prove the two different kinds of pineapple were tasty, and they were!! I am hoping Dennis will buy some when he comes up on Saturday or we will have to find some good ones at the market. I don't think the pineapples in America ever get this yellow.

Once we got to town Cristina and I stopped at Walmart. Now it didn't have a big sign saying Walmart but the plastic bags do and they charge for the plastic bags! The one time I really need my reusable bags!

And that was it to my long travel day... I feel like I did not need to do as extravagant as a post cause I have no team but there you go!