Rock-a-by Bus In The Rain Drops

So, Jen and I took a good trip to El Salvador last week to hook up with my aunt and uncle's medical mission team. It was fun and we got to see some stuff that we hadn't been able to before. There were a couple characters in this group, let me tell you. First, we have John. I'd say he's in his 60's, but you'd never know it from the way he acts. If you are familiar with my Dad's father at all, you know that he's a fan of the jokes. Well, John is certainly no different. And he is also quite the talker. I have seriously never heard so many stories in my life... even from a teenage girl. But, the fact that he remembers so many different stories so well is very impressive. He's not senile and just repeating the same story over and over again... which is nice. But, he's also a very wise man who's been working in Honduras for about 20 years. He and Jen had quite a number of talks during our stay in El Salvador, and I think that she benefited greatly from it.

Now, our next friend was someone very... unique. Ted quite the guy. He is a 70 something year old man who is engaged... THAT'S RIGHT! No, this isn't his first marriage, but there's no way that you could tell that when he was on the phone with her in the mornings. Good heavens, you should see how giddy this old guy would get. It was cute and very humorous at the same time. But, he was also not a quite man about it by any means. At one point in the trip, there was a competition established to take place when the team got back to San Antonio. The two married couples in our van were going to have a kissing competition against Ted and his fiance. And since one of the couples was from El Salvador, it was an international competition. So, we deemed it the World Cup of Kissing 2006. There was still a need for more nations to join when we left. Oh, but did I mention that Ted also was basically deaf without his hearing aids? Yeah, and the batteries had died on him by the time that we got there. So, we maaaaybe had a couple of moments of humor at his expense because he couldn't hear anything we tried to tell him unless we yelled at him. But, he was quite the joyful man. Just don't say anything about the wedding, or you might hear something about the honeymoon, no joke. haha.

Now, after we had the pleasure of going on this adventure, we had a memorable experience of the bus trip back to Teguc. Now, let me preface this with the delightful experience that we had on the way in. If you are not aware of what charter buses in Honduras are like, then you have really missed out. I would basically compare it to first class seating on a plane. It's all leather seating with only two rows on seats on each side of the bus. And these seats recline all the way back, not just a few inches, and the padding... OH the padding. It is just flat out comfortable. They even have this little 3 foot piece of padded wood that is attached to the seat in front of you that leans against your seat and allows your legs to rest on it instead of just hanging off the seat. Yeah... it's nice. Oh, and they also bring you food, drinks, and have a movies for you to watch during the trip. So, I think I've described it pretty well. The way down was great with a nice, relaxing ride... which was good because we had to get up at 4AM to go to Teguc to get on the bus anyway. So, it was very convenient. Now, let's discuss the trip back, shall we?

It was a dark and dreary night... ok, well, we actually left at like 2 in the afternoon and it was quite sunny, but the fun didn't really begin until the night. One of the things that we noticed about El Salvador is that it is quite a bit cleaner looking than Honduras is. Oh, and there roads are normal... not littered with holes that eat tires (see previous post). So, the first few hours of the trip back to Teguc was about what we experienced on the way down to El Salvador. So, we came to expect the same kind of trip into Teguc right? WRONG! It seemed like the instant that we entered Honduras, it all went downhill. Well, I shouldn't say everything did.. we actually had a very nice customs lady when we got to the border. She was very pleasant and cheerful. It was nice to see. Little did we know that she would be the last smiling face that would be on that bus for the remainder of the trip! As night was about to fall upon the sky, the light was engulfed by a storm. So, not only was it dark, but it was also very rainy. About this time, we noticed some... oddities in the way the bus driver chose to take turns... or just even drive in a straight line. We came to the conclusion that either our driver was drunk or had a hot date back in Teguc because he was not braking for anyone or anything. Oh, and I should definitely point out that this bus is a double-decker bus with us sitting on the top level. Ever been on a boat before? You know how it rocks back and forth in the waves? Did you know that buses on land can do that too?! Me neither. But boy was I educated. I can remember one time in particular the man was trying to dodge potholes in the road. Now, in a car, this isn't a bad idea because you have small tires and you could easily bust one hitting these things. But we're in a huge honkin bus and this guy's acting like he's driving a Pinto! And if you haven't thought of it yet, yes, these buses are VERY top heavy! During one of these pansy moves, I seriously thought that the man was going to tip the bus over, no lie. I really thought that we were about to take a trip that we didn't pay for... out the window or a side-ways bus ride. It was seriously so bad that I had a planned out strategy as to what I was going to do in case I felt the bus tip to one side or the other. It was THAT bad. Now, how do most people take turns when driving? You turn with the road, right? WRONG AGAIN! This guy decides that he's not all about that "conventional driving style" and turns the bus sharply left BEFORE we get to the turn, then jerks the wheel right to stay on the road, and then yanks it back to the left again to take the turn. The whole bus noticed that one. In fact, the woman in front of me let out a cry in terror. At this point, Jen and I were WIDE awake and just counting down the kilometers to Teguc. As we passed the turn toward Santa Ana, all I wanted to do was jump off the bus and walk to Casa. And the fun thing about Santa Ana is... fog. So, now we've got darkness, rain, and fog. As I was writing out my eulogy and Jen was talking to Karen telling her that we loved her in case we didn't make it, the driver continued to pass and swerve like the road was his. Finally... FINALLY, we made it back to Teguc. The Lord let us live another day.

You would think after that, Jen wouldn't be so critical of my driving. But, you hydroplane just a little one night on a wet road, and all of a sudden you're the worst driver on earth. I mean, it's not like I have a bad driving record or anything.... uhhhhhh... lately. Sort of. But even so, if you've driven with Jen down here, you know that she has no ground to say that someone else is a bad driver. Let me say really fast that a "certain someone" drive us over the cement median yesterday in town to do a U-turn to get out of traffic. And my parents were worried about us before. haha.

A Variety of Events

Bedtime Buddies

Alright, so not long after Jen left to go on her "vacation," I was snuggling up to my covers for a good nights rest when it happened.... "Plop!" I don't know if you've experienced something "plopping" right down on your covers next to you, but it's not a good feeling. And I"m not talking about a little "dink" or anything, I'm talking about an all out 2 lbs. object coming down on your bed. Keep in mind I'm halfway asleep, the lights are off, and Mike not too long before had brought in a HUGE spider that was in their kitchen. Therefore, when I felt something weighing down the comforter, I was pretty quick to hop right up out of bed. I'm expecting this massive spider that will freak me out and put me in an institution for the rest of my life, but that's not what I found. When I go back toward the bed, a small frog jumped off of it and into the corner of the room. So, that wasn't so bad. I got it out of my room, and even though it was making its way toward the kitchen, I was ok with that because it was out of my room. :)

But the excitement didn't end there that night, oh no. After I get over the fact that something could apparently fall from heaven onto my bed with me, I fell asleep and all was well... until about 4:30. During one of my many points of waking up in the middle of the night (I'm not a solid sleeper), I turned over and tried to go back to sleep. About the time I was good to go back to sleep, I felt something. At first, I thought it was just like a little breeze or maybe even the hairs on my arm coming back up after being matted down from the previous position. NOPE! I soon realized that there was indeed something crawling up my arm, toward my head mind you. Well, now THAT is something that will also jolt you up. So I shake my arm like it's on fire to get the bug off, look to make sure that it's off of me, and then head to turn on the lights so that I can see what it is that just violated my personal space. And that's where the problem is. I DON'T KNOW! In the few steps that I had taken to turn on the light and come back to the bed, the bug was gone! I looked for it (machete in hand) for a little bit, but to no avail. So, that being the second "friend" I made that night trying to go to sleep, I gave up on that and went to sleep on the couch in Karen and Jen's apartment. Call me a pansy if you wish, but having extra bodies in bed with you twice in one night would make anyway a little iffy about going back to sleeping there.

Container Craziness

Ok, so the container FINALLY got here on Tuesday. I say finally because it was expected to get here over a week before then. There was apparently quite the issue with getting it in and out of Teguc. Something about a paper needing signed and stuff like that. Blah blah blah. So, we finally got to pick it up on Tuesday. Well, by pick it up, I mean that we drove in front of the semi carrying the container. Pretty uneventful trip out to Santa Ana. Slow. So we finally get to Santa Ana where I figure the truck will like park on the main road and we'll use the trucks to get stuff from the truck to Casa. Nope. Karen and the driver go down the dirt road for like 10 minutes while I wait in the van behind the truck making sure no one decides that they would like to see what's inside the truck. Though I'm sure many would have liked to know, no one tried to see. Anyway, Karen and the driver come back up the dirt road and the driver gets in the truck. I didn't know what took them so long, but they were back, so whatever. Then the unexpected happened... HE TURNED THE 18 WHEELER DOWN THE DIRT ROAD! Now, if you've not seen this dirt road before, it's basically about a lane and a half of a normal road, very bumpy, and NOT straight at all. And the whole "not a straight road" thing wouldn't have really been that big of a deal had those houses not been so close to the road. At one point, the trailer potentially hit the corner of the roofs on one of the houses and bent it. But hey... it bent back almost to its normal shape. So the truck gets down to the "intersection" where the even smaller road to Casa turns. Don't worry, he didn't try to take the truck down THAT road. But when I got down there (I was following the truck from behind), I see that there are two flatbed trucks with people in them. Apparently the portion of Mark Connell's group that didn't go to Roatan (and I don't know why you wouldn't) had already built a house that day but were willing to help up unload the container. Nice, aren't they? However, they had already apparently been waiting for about an hour or so by the time we got there. So, we felt bad about that. But the fun part is that we still couldn't open the container yet. "Well that's odd," you might say, and you'd be right. Apparently, there was some number missing on the paperwork that required an inspector to actually be present when we opened the container and watch us unload it. And guess what? He wasn't there. He was supposedly about 15 minutes behind us. However, 30 minutes later, we were starting to wonder if he got lost or something. So, after several calls to Gina Larios, the head container guy, and many attempts to call the inspector directly (this was a long as frustrating process since he didn't answer his phone), everything finally worked out about 20 minutes later and the unloading process began. It was going just fine with all the help and having a team unloading the truck and then another unloading the flatbed trucks into Casa. Then it happened. We really shouldn't have been that surprised I guess. But, what season is it? Yep.. RAIN! So about halfway through unloading, it really starts to come down. Luckily (for the owners of the articles onboard), a lot of the things were wrapped in plastic and weren't ruined. We used wrapped mattresses to cover up the cardboard boxes. So, after the wet, muddy trip in, the stuff was really starting to gather in the playroom and in the eating area. So, then the boys room was filled, and then the hallways. We had to resort to putting a few things in the girls room, where Nicole is sleeping. But, it wasn't much. Needless to say, there was A LOT of stuff on that container, and the sad part is that about 80% or so was Mike and Janet's... who just decided to move back to the States. So, Mike had to come back to sort through EVERYTHING to decide what he wants to ship back to the States and what will just stay here. And this leads me to my next story....

Traffic Terrors

When Mike and Jen came back on Thursday, we had quite the crazy (yet short) story happen. On the way back from Teguc, I was driving oh so safely, but the pickup truck behind me decided that he was too good for that. So, on a blind turn, he decided that he would pass me and the guy in front of me on this turn. Well, these roads aren't always meant to handle a 3-wide traffic pattern, and ESPECIALLY not on turns. So we're all coming around this corner, and what do you know, someone else in the world decided that they wanted to be heading toward Teguc at that particular moment and was coming around the corner toward us. If I were to venture a guess, I'd say that we missed having front row seats to a VERY bad accident by about... ohhhh..... 3 inches, MAYBE. That was by far the closest I have ever seen to an accident yet down here. We couldn't believe that those trucks didn't hit. It was certainly a "hold your breath" kind of thing for a second or two. Then Mike turns and says "you should put that in your blog."

Another REALLY "fun" traffic adventure was not so fun. When we left the Kluge's one night to head back to Santa Ana (while Jen and Mike were gone), we got stopped at a police stop right after we got on the Choluteca road that takes you to Santa Ana. This really isn't THAT big of a deal usually, but tonight, since I was driving, you KNOW that it just had to be an issue. So he comes up to the window and asks for my license and and car registration. That was fine because I can drive on my American license here. But, then he asked about our fire extinguisher. Here, you are required to have one along with safety triangles and flares or something. Anyway, we didn't have one, but I didn't know what he was asking and Karen was playing dumb like she didn't know what he was talking about. However, I didn't know that we were suppose to be playing stupid.... I was just doing it naturally. But, then I just HAD to figure out what he was talking about and say "Oh, the extinguisher!" like an idiot. So then Karen had to say that we didn't have one and that's not good. He then informed us that it's like a 900 lps fine and that he was going to like keep my license until I paid it. Then he told Karen that she needed to get out of the car to sign something. Yeah... that's not a good idea here for a girl to get out of the car with the police... especially at night. So, Karen said "no." Not exactly the best thing to do to say "no" to a police officer, but in this situation, it was definitely better than her getting out of the car. So, after some awkward moments, he just gave me my license back and told me to go. Yeah, I don't know why... but I wasn't about to stick around and ask. I said "thank you" and got right on out of there. So, that was an interesting way to end the night.

Driveway Disasters

Gosh, this blog is getting so long now, I'm thinking about shortening these last few stories. Well, after the flatbed trucks had been in and out of the muddy driveway with all the items from the container, it was pretty darn rutted (if that's a word). Well, those flatbed trucks have that nice thing called 4-wheel drive. Gracie, on the other hand, does not. So, when we were leaving to head to the Kluge's on the fateful night that included the police incident, Gracie got a little hung up in the mud. In fact, she was diggin herself a grave. So after several attempts by Pablo (the night guard) the push the car while I tried to gas it that came out to nothing, he decided to open the back trunk door and stand on the back of the car to give it weight on the rear wheels for traction. And this did help, but it wasn't enough... so I had Nicole get back there too with Pablo. With them jumping on the back of the van like they were on a pogo stick, I rocked that van out of that rut eventually... leaving behind a fishing pond. I also had an issue again the other day, but I eventually got it out without any additional weight on the back. So the moral of this story... Gracie is NOT made for any terrain other than flat pavement.

Hospital Horror

Ok, so in the States it's like this nice thing to take a girl and her baby to the hospital if the baby's sick, right? Well, we thought so too when we took this girl, her baby, two other younger girls, and one 2 year old to Teguc to the hospital. We dropped them off RIGHT in front of the hospital at about noon. Then we went to go do some stuff and then go get Jen and Mike from the airport, assuming that they would just catch the bus back to Santa Ana. Well, at about 9:30 that night, the mother comes to Casa saying that her daughter never came home. And what's more, they were under 21, and in Honduras you have to be 21 before you can do anything without permission... and they didn't have permission to go to the hospital. Yeah, that's not good. So Jen and Karen call Fabiola who has a friend that works at Hospital Escuela (where we took them). She went and looked for them at the hospital and at the Ronald McDonald House next door where a lot of people that go to the hospital stay apparently. But, not only did they not find them, but they found that the baby hadn't even been checked in! They never went in! So, that wasn't a good thing. After quite a long time, Fabiola said that there really wasn't anything left to do that night and we would just have to wait. I don't think that the mom was a big fan of that plan, but there really wasn't anything more anyone could do. But don't fret, Karen got called yesterday (we took them two days ago) and the kids had made it back safe and sound to Santa Ana. But boy, that was a whole lot of drama. Jen said that if that was ever her in that situation, that I would come and look for her instead of just sitting here and being angry. I told her I'd think about it. :)

Kluge Cookies

This is just a nice little story about the best cookies EVER. For anyone who has gone to the Kluge's for some dessert, you know that Melissa knows how to make some GOOOOOOOD desserts. One of these new delicacies was experienced the other night (yeah, the same one with all that other stuff... it was quite the night) were two small chocolate chip cookies with icing in between them. Oh my... now, I'm not really a huge sugar/dessert eater or anything, but these things were awesome. She had some with white icing and some with chocolate icing. Goodness, talk about over-indulging. I potentially had four of them... and a piece of cake.... and just a regular chocolate chip cookie. Too much? haha. But yeah, that was a really fine dessert that I just had to let everyone know about because they were just THAT good.

Why I Love My Mother

So I don't know why, but when I got into bed last night after a riveting game of Phase 10 (of which I lost miserably), the necessity to write a blog about this just seemed to lay itself on me. Therefore, here it is.

I love my Mom because she has ALWAYS been:

... the healing hand that makes me feel better when I'm sick
... the helping hands that have made me many a meal
... a comforting place to rely on in times of heartache and pain
... the sweet arms to be hugged by when you don't feel like you'd been hugged in years
... the gentle voice that woke me up in the morning as a child
... an example of joy about even the most lowly tasks
... a source of knowledge about women that I still have not yet seemed to grasp a bit of
... a great example of genuine worship to the Lord in all situations
... the comfort to help me sleep no matter how sick or scared I was
... the superb mother figure for more than just her three sons
... an example of humility and kindness to a great many people (now even outside the US)
... honoring and non-judgmental to everyone, even people that I feel might not deserve it
... the tender heart that listens when my heart and soul are heavy
... an obvious child of God that loves Him dearly and follows Him closely
... the constant encouragement to me in whatever I choose to do
... a woman that truly makes a house a home, in which anyone feels welcome
... a kind of moral reminder to keep me focused when I start to stray
... an example of strength and forgiveness during the hardest times
... the loving woman who will stop and pray with anyone who may need it
... the one who taught me how to fold laundry and cook
... the supermom who somehow could make food, take all three of us to different practices, and still have the energy and time to make dinner when Dad got home
... an exceptionally accepting person who never "turns her nose up" to anyone... ANYONE
... a constant reminder to be honoring and respectful to others (I'm a slow learner)
... a faithful source of hope when those she loves are choosing poorly with their lives
... the loving spirit that reaches out to the most troubled person
... a source of Godly wisdom that many respect and inquire of
... the voice that told me Bible stories as I drifted off to sleep
... the on-call nurse when anyone was sick

... the person you should blame for having me ;)

This is just a short part of a long list of things that make my Mom so great. I'm gonna go ahead and say that anyone who reads this knows exactly what I'm talking about on several things I've listed. You can't help but be affected by this woman... I don't think that she'll let you not be. haha. The amazing thing is that even though she is all these things (and more) to me, she is certainly the one that I show the least appreciation to. For all the things that she's done, I feel that I've done a very poor job of showing that I truly love and fully appreciate the many contributions she's made to my life (including me having any life at all). God has blessed me SOOOOOOO very much by allowing me to grow up in the home that I did with the parents that I did. I know so many people who were not blessed as I was, and they let me know how "lucky" I am all the time. I'm sorry that I don't see it as much as others do. Not because I don't believe that it's true, but because I so easily forget.

I don't want this to come off as I'm trying to suck up to my Mom or anything. Because if you know her, you know that I have no need to suck up to her. And that's not because I'm the "favored child" or anything. Lord knows that I have made plenty of mistakes of my own, and some of which I still feel the consequences of today (I would be more than willing to list them here, but 1. Probably too long of a list and 2. I don't think it would be respectful to the other people involved). Even so, the fact remains that there is no need to suck up to either of my parents because they both love me unconditionally. Whether I make tons of horrible decisions or only a few little ones, they will not love me more or less. I think that is one of the best things that I have been taught by them throughout my life; no matter how anyone else chooses to act towards me, it is always my decision to love them regardless. Mom didn't do all those things for me because she felt obligated to. She did (and does) them out of a spirit of love that is unending. If we, as men, are suppose to look for women that are like our mothers, then that would explain why I am so picky. And I guess that's what makes... well... let's just say that there aren't very many women on earth that could fit this mold... so screwing up with someone that could fit it is... pretty major (Yeah, that's about the most indirect way to say that). But I'm not going into that. If you would like to hear about 3,000,000 different stories about why my Mom is so great, you could go down to Belpre church and ask just about anyone, you could go to several churches around the country that she speaks at, you could ask the many OVC women who have had her for class and always tell me that they love her, you could ask the two daughters that my parents "adopted" (but not really since their 25 and 29), you could ask around Charton (where she works), or you could ask many mothers and children in Honduras (if you speak Spanish that is). I guess all this is really just to say that... I love my mommy. :)

It Was A Cold Day In H... onduras

Doubt my mother appreciated that title, but I thought it was somewhat humorous. Of course, she probably wouldn't appreciate my driving here either... as I don't think the passengers in the van do either. But you win some you lose some, right? Anyway, I got to build my first house yesterday since I got back here. I know, it's about time, huh? So Joe gets around to calling us at about 11 or something when he finally has the team to the work site. Luckily, it was just down the road from us about 5 minutes. But, it was a late start nonetheless. So, as you may know, it's the "rainy season" here right now until about August or so. And this term, rainy season, is no lie. We got to the site and they were finishing up clearing out the remains of the old house which was built completely of old tin. A funny thing that happened, though, was that when we (Karen, Nicole, and I) walked up the small hill to the actual site, we could here the sound of baby chicks. Now, that doesn't sound wierd in and of itself, but the odd thing was that we couldn't see them anywhere. I was looking all around me and then I figured out where they were; inside the woman's shirt that we're building the house for. Needless to say, we got a good laugh out of that. There were two small dogs and some chickens running around the construction site the whole time that made it interesting to build. Basically, they were like moving landmines.

Now, the construction itself was eased a little by the fact that it had been raining a lot over the past several days in a row because the ground was so soft. Therefore, the hardest part, digging out the post holes, wasn't as bad as usual. Granted, there were quite a few rocks... some rather large ones actually... but all in all, the digging was a lot easier than what I'm use to being down here when there is not a drop of moisture in sight. So, about this time, we felt something... can anyone guess what it was? Yep, raindrops. And they kept fallin' on my head. Get it? Ok, bad joke. Anyway, the rain came down, but no floods came up (I'm on a roll). And the rain just kept coming, and then it got harder. Needless to say, everyone, with the exception of one girl who was smart enough to bring a pancho-like thing with her, was totally soaked from head to toe. And this was just at the digging stage. But, since I reminded Karen on numerous occasions that we were giving someone a new home, she stopped complaining eventually. haha... of course I'm kidding. Well, I really did say it (anyone surprised), but it's not like anyone was really complaining about the rain... except one girl who I thought was going to go into hypothermia from how bad she was shaking. But, she made it, so on with the story. Now came the fun part of getting the wood up to the site. It really wasn't that far from the road to the site. I mean, we're talking like 100 feet or something like that. But, what made it exciting was that there was this small incline about halfway that was completely muddy. So, it was entertaining to see everyone trying not to slip and bust themselves while carrying the wood. One unfortunate gentleman lost his footing while carrying a 2x4x10 by himself... ouch. But, I had a new friend, Taylor, that carried wood with me... we decided that it wasn't good enough to limit ourselves to a certain number of siding pieces on our trips. Therefore, we though it would be a good idea to increase our load during our trips. Some might call it showing off... but I think that we were merely lightening the load for others and cutting the overall time for construction. :) We got up to 8 pieces of siding before we ran out. Good times though... I mean, we just almost only killed one person. No big deal. I'm kidding... it wasn't even close... from my angle. haha.

The fun thing that we found, and this is true no matter where you are, was that when you're wet and there's a breeze, you feel about 30 degrees colder. I remedied this by moving around and lifting a lot of wood... as previously stated. This, the coldness, became more and more of a problem as the day went on and the temperature around us went down. We got everything up in the normal fashion... well, there was one Honduran step ladder used which apparently this group had never heard of before. I call it a step ladder when someone light, in this case a girl, gets on a guys (or bufftruck girl's) shoulders to get high enough to nail the upper siding panels on the high side of the house. A full Honduran latter (someone standing on someone else's shoulders) was not necessary here because the guy was tall enough so that the step ladder was sufficient. So anyway, we got all the walls up and got some guys up there to start on the roof. Nothing more terrifying for mothers than to see their sons getting up on a roof and balancing themselves on the siding and the 2x4's I'm sure. But they had an extra good time since it was all wet. But, they were troopers and got the 4x4's, 2x4's, and then the 1x4's on without a problem. Ok, so I might have almost speared one of them with a 1x4 when I was heaving them up there, but I really don't think that it should be held against me. Right? I mean, I didn't jetison him off the roof or anything.

While all that was going on, there was an army or people putting the floor down, and some others finishing up the high pieces of the short wall. I got to help put in (or take out I guess you could say) the window inside the house. I had never done this before as I am always on the roof at this point. It was a lot easier than putting the roof on, that's for sure. And speaking of the roof, the fun part came about the time that the window had been finished being cut out. As I've noted, there was a fair amount of moisture in the air... and the groud... and the wood... and on us. This really wasn't that big of a deal... until the roof guys had to get down. As some of you might know, tin isn't exactly the easiest thing to walk on normally... but this tin was wet. So, just think ice rink. One kid, upon his dismount, broke the end of a 1x4. That wasn't good because it dented the tin and could have allowed water in. After some attempts by Joe to fix it from underneath, we ended up supporting someone while he put a new nail through the top of the board to support it. That worked out well. Kind of felt bad for the last roofer to get off the house, though, because he was on the side of the house with the broken 1x4 and wasn't big on the idea of trying to walk on the slick tin downhill to the other end where we got the 2nd roofer down. But, they had been up on the roof the whole time with the wind and he was shaking like a leaf. So, before he froze to death, we convinced him to come to down to the other end and get down the way the other guy had. He got down just fine and is alive and well. Then, the last boards were cut down and the house was complete.

We all gathered in the home to pray with the woman who we built the house for. This house was for her and 8 other members of her family. So there are now nine people that are going to live in that house. NINE! In a 16x16 house. And these aren't all just small children either. While we prayed with the woman, and had it translated for her, she was crying. She came around and hugged everyone that had helped build with tears in her eyes... so very grateful for this new home. Certainly assures anyone that all their work was for a good reason. And then you realize that this is what they've got. We get to go back to our abode and get in a hot shower and change into any of our big selections of clothes while they move their now wet belongings into their new home. But, they couldn't be more grateful or happy about what they've just received. Love it.

Oh, I would also like to say that I had to name Joe "Bob Villa" since he was all about marking off boards for perfect fits. I guess when you just have to tell people what to do and not do much of the actual work yourself, you have the time for perfect measurements. haha. I'm just kidding, if you know Joe, you know that he's a very hard worker. Just had to share though. Maybe you had to be here to think it was funny... but oh well.

Be sure to pray for Jen as she is "roughing it" back at home in the States. Yeah, I come down and she catches the first plane home. I guess I'll just put the huge spiders that Mike finds in her room while she's gone. :)

Choluteca.. the HOT spot

So on my first full day here, we all (Jen, Karen, Nicole Tindall, Mike and Janet, and I) all packed into the rented truck (Karen got the "fun" spot straddling the shifter) and headed out on the road. Oh yes, we were in a rented truck because good old "Gracie" decided that she wanted to do more shaking than moving, and so we had to take her to the shop. Anyway, on our little adventure down there, we had the great opportunity to give a few police officers (one with a nice, large shotgun) a lift down the road. I mean, how do you say "no" to those guys, huh? But, it's good to know that if you needed them, they would have to catch a ride to come to your aid. Very comforting. Now, this truck that we're in has something very precious that Gracie doesn't have.... Air Conditioning. Oh yeah, that was NICE to have. :) So, we drove down to Choluteca basically without any problems... other than directional... but nothing major. Then it happened. Jen rolled down her window. Wow. Talk about a 30 degree temperature hike in about 2 seconds. Jen had mentioned that this was suppose to be the hottest place in Honduras, but who knew that it was apparently the hottest place on the planet?! I would compare it to living in a sauna. Because it wasn't just hot... nono. The people there probably don't have to drink water because there is enough in the air to just absorb into their skin. It is THAT humid. Crazy.

So, after the shock of going from 85 degrees in Santa Ana to 135 degrees (ok, maybe not quite) in Choluteca, we headed to the Lazarus Mission's office in town. They have acquired a 700 acre piece of land outside of town that they use in their mission efforts. But, before we headed out there, we looked around their office and warehouse. Jen and Karen were very jealous of this warehouse because it is pretty darn large. Just think small airplane hanger... made of block... with no planes... yeah. It was very impressive. They also had their pharmacy (might as well call it) in that building as well, and they were definitely stocked. So, after that brief tour, we got directions to get out to the property. As a side note, on the trip out to the property, I was right about two things while Jen was totally wrong about them.... no big deal. You would think that she would know better than to challenge me by now. ;) Ok, just had to throw that in there. Anyway, we got out to the property and met Jarrod, the main man at Mission Lazarus. We talked to him for a bit about what was going on out there, what they did, and other things about the structure of their organization. Then, Jarrod was nice enough to take us all out in his big F250 around the property. Now, if you're thinking that this is some nice, flat land... you'd be dead wrong. We were in the mountains. But, this worked out well because it was much cooler up there than down in Choluteca. Anyway, let's just say that the "tour" was more of an offroading adventure. Did you know that trucks can go up a 90 degree hill? Ok, it wasn't THAT steep, but I was very surprised at the steepness of the path (yeah, not even close to a road... and sometimes not really even a path). I would tell you about how nice it all was, but I'll leave that to Jen who also has pictures to go along with the story. But, it was very very nice.

Oh, but there were some humorous parts about the little tour. Karen made up a new car manuver, "tailfishing". Never heard of that one before. Janet said that she saw a Jaguar... which turned out to be a black stump. Apparently when American women come down here, they see large cats wherever they are. The hunt is still on for Jen and Mary Ann's mountain lion. The other humorous moment was Janet's flight. No, not the airplane flight down... though I'm sure it was very interesting since she hates flying at all, and she wasn't notified of the very abrupt landing in Teguc. But I digress. Since the cabs of those F250's aren't really big enough for all the people we had, Jen, Karen, Mike, Janet, and I all were in the truck bed riding around. Now, as I said, this was NOT smooth terrain. The bumps and holes were plentiful. However, on one particular hole, right near the end of the tour, the rear passenger-side tire went into quite the large crevass in the ground. However, with the truck still moving, it popped right back out rather quickly. Because of this, Janet, who was seated at that corner of the truck bed, caught some serious airtime before coming smack down back in the bed. Have you seen the cartoons when a character is very surprised and their eyes pop out of their head? That's about what happened in the back of that truck. I thought that Jen was going to pass out from laughing so hard. Good times, and definitely worth the drive down there. But the fun isn't over...

So now it's time to head back. But first, we gotta eat dinner, right? So we went back into hades, as I'd like to call it, and went to Pizza Hut. I love the person who invented the stuffed-crust pizza. Just had to share. So then we get back into the truck (MUCH smaller than an F250) and get back on the road to Santa Ana. Now, as you may or may not know, the roads here are... well... "rough" to say the least in some areas. Well, at night, these rough spots are a little harder to see until you're right on top of them. This is especially true when you're traveling as fast as we were.... I mean... we were traveling at a very safe and reasonable speed. Ahem. So, we're driving along, listening to some music, when all of a sudden... WHAM! We DRILLED a huge pothole in the road with the front passenger-side wheel. It was very deep and wide... don't start singing the song. So we're still amazed out how huge that pothole was when... WHAM! There was ANOTHER huge pothole that the front DRIVER-SIDE drilled. So now we're a little concerned. Neither tire had blown, but we were pretty sure that we could eaisly lose one. And then we did. The driver-side tire went out. So, after deciphering the the way to lower the spare tire down from under the bed in the back, Mike and I get the spare tire on. Oh yeah, and this is OF COURSE on a turn in the road where people don't exactly take them nice and slow, and we didn't have a flashlight. However, I found that Jen's iPod can really put out some light. So, we got a spare tire on the driver-side... oh, but it had a nice big bulge in it... that's always good. That's what you want to see in a spare tire. So, we had a spare tire with a bulge and a front passenger-side wheel that was bent and could go at any time. What is there to do but drive and pray that God puts his hands over the tires to keep them inflated? So, driving about 40 kph behind a slow truck for a while, and then getting up to a whopping 65 kph when we finally passed him, we FINALLY got back home after about and hour and a half or so... maybe more. But, this would have normally taken about half as long (if not less) if we had had two good tires. But hey, we made it back. So that was Wednesday.... what an exciting day, huh? Oh, and I didn't mention the part where Jen blew past a checkpoint and the policeman (or military guy, I can't tell them apart sometimes) reached for his gun while looking in shock as Jen didn't even tap the brakes. In fairness, it was hard to tell that he wanted us to pull over because it was so dark and he just kinda shined his flashlight at us when we were like 20 feet away and going quite fast.... I mean nice and slow. How can you not love Honduras? haha. Wait for a picture-filled version from Jen.