Highlights from Honduras - Part 2

Children's Home - Honduras

Sunday morning at church, Mama and I stood at the back of the church to welcome those who rode in on the bus. About half the church members are bussed in. Many do not have transportation of their own. Several families have only a motorcycle. Not a good way to get a family to church. We were obviously the visitors, but they enjoyed the welcome none-the-less. Sometimes I wish I did not look so American, but it is unavoidable. I started to translate for Mama during Sunday School, but she told me to just soak up the language and enjoy myself. After service, we had lunch at home. Since there are no services Sunday evening, we planned to supply dinner for the Children’s Home. Mama, Victoria and I were anxious to meet all those living at the home. There are nineteen children ranging in age from just under two to about sixteen. Mostly boys. With the workers and their children, Cori and Nate, the grandkids and us, we added fourteen to the mix for a total of 33 for dinner. We bought a huge tray of Chinese food for the gathering. The twenty pounds of food was more than sufficient for the meal – with at least one other meal of leftovers. We supplied soft drinks (five bottles) and ice cream (three gallons). All of which was consumed in one sitting. We spent a couple hours after dinner talking with the older kids (They all speak very good English.) and playing with the younger kids. Mama read a book to them before we left.

Kitchen and Living Area in the Home

Monday was our market day. It was a pretty typical market. Nothing caught my eye and the prices seemed a bit high for the goods being sold, but Nate found a hammock for a good price. I avoided buying one – just barely. We will be back at some point and we already have two hammocks at home that we never even look at. Other than that, we came home with a few souvenirs. Mama and I would later discover that a better quality of the same type of items could be purchased at the airport for less money. On the way out of town we ate at Power Chicken. The place was packed, and the meals offered were not cheap – even by American standards. The fast food restaurant offered a good variety of open-flame grilled chicken, pork, beef, shrimp and fish. Sides included yucca, plantain in several forms, fried rice, French fries, etc. The main cook, who you could watch from the front counter was coordinating the grilling of about sixty whole chickens on the huge grill. I was impressed. The food was delicious. Even the yucca.

Tuesday was First Christmas. Cori and Nate moved the date up so we would have time to watch the grandkids enjoy their presents. I even got to buy and wrap two gifts for Mama. Blake was especially happy with his presents. We brought him a full block of Velveeta Cheese. Savanna got her Cinderella dress. That was put on before anything else was opened. She wore the dress every day, all day – until her mama declared it too soiled to wear. Whereupon it was washed and returned to her the very next day. Since we were home that day, Mama and I walked down the street to a local souvenir shop, but we did not get much. As we were coming back, we had to cross the very busy street just in front of the neighborhood where Nate and Cori are renting. A local policeman was sort of directing traffic and saw us ready to attempt to cross. With Mama’s lack of mobility, it was going to be a challenge. When he stopped the cars and Mama and I began to cross, it was only then that we realized that the motorcycles do not necessarily stop when the cars do. One almost hit Mama because she hesitated, and I kept going. He deftly threaded between us and continued on his way. If the driver knew any English, he did not let on that he knew what Mama was saying to him. That night we had dinner with the Goins family. We stayed quite late talking. I spent a long time talking to Joash, the eldest son. He was solving three-dimensional graphing problems using matrices.

Here last night, as soon as I got home, I changed and went out to clean the coop. It was a bit overdue, but not horrible. Mama was supposed to help me, but I was done by the time she got home from her third trip to Walmart. Mama and I sat down later that evening and addressed envelopes, so Christmas Cards could be mailed out for Cori and Nate. There gave us a list of 79 recipients. We did not get them all done in one sitting. Since I do not have a program or material to print labels, we addressed them by hand. My hand wore out after about thirty. Mama should have that done this morning so they can be posted and on their way.

After all, Christmas is coming.