alive and well

Howdy from Honduras! I am alive and very well. I'm chillin' outside on the porch listening to the rain and enjoying the breeze on my laptop. Its real tight.

Honduras, at least Siguatepeque, is not what I expected it to be. There is a Wendy's (yes Wendy's the fast food) and a Texaco not far from where I'm staying, there's a mall in San Pedro Sula MUCH MUCH nicer than almost every mall I've been to in the states, and I've ate much more than rice and beans since I've been here. The Bible school I'm staying at is very comfortable and has internet, so I'm living pretty decently here. Life is still much different for Hondurans though. From what I've derived about the population so far from locals, there's a very small wealthy section of society, a very small middle class, and a very large proportion of people in poverty. The mall was obviously very wealthy, but just about every other part of the town the poverty was very evident. Anyway, you could probably read this kind of stuff on Wikipedia or something... I'm not the expert.


The first full day I helped build a wall around the Bible school I'm staying at because recently one of the missionary's house got broken into. Its not uncommon to see shards of glass glued to the top of the wall and layers of barbed wire encompassing the property. Its nuts. It was really tight because we got to work with some Hondurans, one of whom thankfully spoke some English. I learned words like concreto (pretty easy... concrete), susio (i don't know if i spelled it right but it means dirt), palo (i think it means bag but they called the buckets the palo), aqui viejo (down here), and a few other random ones. I put together my first sentence too: Concreto es en me boca. I don't even know if that's correct, but some concrete did sling into my mouth and the sentence is supposed to say "Concrete is in my mouth". Whoops. Hondurans are very laid back and work at an easy pace, and we enjoyed many breaks while we were working. No one is around to tell them to meet a deadline or maximize efficiency. Hondurans are more concerned about building relationships and just enjoying each others company rather than being super awesome workers. I enjoy that. 

Today was the second full day I've been here and it was awesome. The pictures I posted above were all from today. Before I elaborate, I have to relate the fact that I drove a bus of 21 people through Honduran traffic/up the side of a mountain. I didn't think it was a big deal, but then everyone started saying things like "Wait are you seriously driving?" "This is a joke right? I'm beginning to think this isn't a joke..." "So you've been here for 2 days and you're already driving?" All with total look sof horror on their face. We seriously had someone pray for my driving before we left haha, but it did not go unanswered so I'm glad we did. It was alllllllllll good. Hondurans drive REALLY aggressive, so I just drove aggressive haha. And I just totally zoned everyone out int he car while I was driving up the mountain in order to keep us all actually on the road. It was pretty sweet. I was honestly really scared until I got onto the road and started doing it. It was a victory fasho. We only drove half way up the mountain and hiked the rest. It was a pretty steep hike, and it had just rained and all of the dirt had been overturned by a tractor. It was reallllly muddy and really slippery, but it was so awesome. The views were breathtaking with the combination of jungle-escq, lush plant life on top of the mountains. We went up the mountain to deliver some supply packages to a school for kids of families who live in the mountains. They live the simple life as many of their houses have dirt floors and they survive off of their sustenance. The last picture is of a chicken coup (i guess that's what its called?) next to a house way up the mountain. We got to the school after about an hour and a half and gave a little presentation about dental health to the kids, gave them some supply packages (I honestly don't even know what was in them), and they gave a little presentation of Jesus to them. It was tight. Coming down the mountain we stopped at the waterfall picture I posted, which WAS AWESOME. And we'll be seeing a bigger waterfall tomorrow. I'm PUMPED. There are tons of crazy, awesome, beautiful flowers around, so I just posted my favorite one.

Anyway, Honduras is awesome. Its tough with the whole I don't speak Spanish deal, but that whole deal just presents so many awesome opportunities for growth. God is taking me on a journey here. It's gon be krunk. My laptop is about to die, and I already wrote much more than I was anticipating haha. I'll come back sometime soon. Lata!