Tons has happened since Saturday when I was last able to use a computer. My computer completely stopped working, so Karina´s friend fixed it, but now the keys are all in Spanish, but ofcourse my physical keyboard has not changed, so I have no idea where my question mark is. I finally found the ¨@¨ using ¨alt¨ instead of shift. So my blogging may look a little funny from now on, but I´m sure you´ll get the point.
Sunday I went to 2 church services - one at my regular church, the other at the gringo church. At my regular church the message was all about Psalm 121 which my Aunt Susan and I have been using as a prayer base during this political turmoil. It was nice to think about it more at church. I was sad that day, apparently noticeably, because several people asked me what was wrong. I kept fighting back tears (sometimes unsuccessfully) and told them that I only have three more weeks left in Honduras and I don´t want to go home.
Evelin Michelle´s mother was the first person to approach me. She and I have never really had a conversation before but she always greets me. This time we had a long talk and it was really nice. She told me that I need to pray for peace. I told her that I have been praying and listening very closely for what God wants for me next. Then she grabbed her bible and told me that she was reminded of Psalm 85. She went directly to verse 8 which says ¨I listen carefully to what God the Lord is saying, for He speaks peace to his faithful people. But let them not return to their foolish ways.¨ We both laughed, but I am still wondering exactly which of my ways are foolish so that I don´t return to those ways.
Later I was just sitting and Lourdes said I looked sad. I told her that I am thinking a lot about the fact that I only have 3 more weeks in Honduras. She said we should meet this week, but our schedules didn´t match up. I think it will be better to meet with her next week after I have time away this weekend in Olancho to think things out more clearly.
Right now part of me is trying to accept that I will go back to the US and find a job that pays well and move ahead with my life with this experience under my belt. Another part of me wants to sell everything I own (my Mom has been dreading these words for a while now, I think) and move to Honduras.
Tony and I went out for coffee after the Gringo church. We talked pretty generally about the idea of moving here and that it is possible. So since Sunday at times I have visions of a huge yard sale, and at the same time I am asking for my job back at Benchmark. (Things are not good there - they are over staffed and don´t have enough kids to justify the staff that is already working there. But my old supervisor thinks he can get me some shifts.) I really enjoyed my time with Tony and wish I had started going to the Gringo church earlier. There are good connections there if I did ever want to get a job here.
Monday I was riding high from working with the kids at the orphanage. I got to bring out the toys for the first time that day and ran around with the kids, playing outside. I am assigned to a house of boys ages 4-11. I really like them, but they are very challenging. They have enormous impluse control problems and just start hitting eachother when they don´t get what they want right away. Monday I had to physically hold a kid back from fighting with another kid. And the bully with the half dead bird is in my group. He is a tough one. His first instinct is to raise his fist in response to everything and everyone. It is really hard to do anything organized with him because he is incapable of waiting his turn or playing by the rules, but if you don´t let him participate then you have to deal with him doing worse things... I haven´t figured out what to do with him yet. But I did learn today that he is a good artist, and drawing calms him down, so I think I will bring art supplies with me tomorrow. He also did well in a music therapy class. I was shocked they had music therapy when they barely have school, but they really like it and the teacher is good with them.
Yesterday we went home early because there was no electricity all day in the area of the office, so nobody could do computer get any work done in the offices.
Today there was a huge peace march. Karla said it was tremendous, but peaceful. Tomorrow there is a pro - Mel march, which means that the government employees will not work tomorrow. The people in Anna´s office have decided that since they are still required to come in to work, but can´t do any work, they will play with the kids like I do! I think it´s an awesome idea.
Politically things are pretty hot. Some news stations are reporting tonight that the mediation is over and the mediator decided that he wants Mel to be restored to power. For the safety of the people of this country, and myself, that is the worst thing we could hear. We are still being told that if he enters the country he will immediately be arrested. I asked Jose what he thinks is going to happen. He said, trying to joke but completely seriously, ¨Well, there could be a civil war.¨ He is right. I have read that Mel says he is coming back on Saturday.
I am still praying that the roads will be open on Friday to get to Olancho. We are talking about the idea of being stuck in Olancho for a while, but we are fine with that idea. My personal thought is that Mel will show up in Olancho, as that is his home. He can´t exactly walk into the presidential residence. If he does show up in Olancho, that will be fine - we´ll be way out in the country harvesting corn and riding horses.
So to summarize, things have been very calm up to this point. There are still marches every day. The marches or ¨manifestaciones¨ got bigger today, but that was expected since earlier in the week. They put the curfew back into effect, but it is only from midnight until 4:30 am, which means they are not very worried about things for tonight or tomorrow morning.
I can hear the neighbors next door - a mother and her adult (mid 30´s) son arguing about ¨Zelaya¨and ¨Micheletti¨ outside my bedroom window. It´s on everyone´s mind today, which is new. Friday and Saturday could be interesting.
