The long awaited day has finally arrived. We made it to Honduras in the middle of the night. We were very nervous as we came through customs as we did not know what to expect. We had hoped that the hotel would send a shuttle for us, but they did not. Thankfully there were plenty of taxi drivers waiting at the airport. We were able to catch a cab. I had to use some of my very poor Spanish skills to get the taxi. I'm pretty sure they charged us an exorbitant amount, but when you hot and exhausted in a foreign country in the middle of the night, you just want to get somewhere and lay down.
So all of us plus the taxi driver and our tons of luggage stuffed ourselves into a station wagon and headed to the hotel. We checked in and settled down at about 2:00 AM. We only have a small window unit air conditioner in our apartment, so I slept in the living room with that.
We had a great breakfast provided by the hotel. I had eggs, toast and fried plantains... Jer and the kids had pancakes. I'm hoping that they'll branch out while we're here.
After breakfast, we spent a couple of hours at the pool and decided to take a taxi into town to have lunch. San Pedro Sula is one of the biggest cities in the country, and still there are people living in what we would say is squalor. The main streets through town are pavement, but most side streets and any residential areas are dirt roads. So we're driving through this area that is all run down and dirty and then suddenly we're on a street that looks more like downtown Atlanta or something. Tall buildings, a mall, the Hilton... By the time we made it to town and looked around the mall a little we were so tired and hungry that we just ended up eating at Applebee's... Maybe next time we will try something more authentic, but for today it was nice to have something familiar.
I have already developed a new appreciation for non-English speaking people in America. It's really hard and frustrating for everyone when you can't communicate properly. I'm trying. Jer knows zero Spanish, and I know very little. We're managing though. I'm hoping that we'll both speak it much better by the time we leave.
The chairman of the board of directors for Such Is the Kingdom Ministries (http://www.sikm.org/) has been coming here multiple times a year for 10 years though and still can't speak Spanish! Oh well, he gets by. He even traded some pigs for a generator once!
We will be leaving San Pedro Sula and headed for the farm and Project Talitha Cumi where the girls live on Saturday. Jer's parents are bringing a team to meet us and we'll be taking the 4 hour bus ride up the mountain on Saturday morning. Jer will be driving a bus load of supplies. Pray for him. He's never done anything like that before and the Hondurans drive like maniacs. They take traffic rules as more of a suggestion than an actual mandate! They will pass anywhere they think they can squeeze their car through and honk if you are in their way. There's a lot of honking going on!
After we head up to the farm, we will not have constant internet access, so I will try to update everyone at least weekly!
Thanks for your love and prayers... keep sending them our way! We could still use some financial donations to make sure we have enough to get back home... haha! If you're interested in contributing, contact me and let me know!
~Linda
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