Temporary Escape

Got up early today and went to La Tigra with some local folks (one is an ice skater!?!) for a hike. I packed up a bunch of sandwiches and "churros" (which are like potato chips, but they are fried platanos with chile y limon), gatorade, water and apples.

We hiked from about 9am - 2:30pm and went higher into the rainforest than I have been before. The trees were at least as wide as the giant redwoods in California and everything was dripping with moss. It was awesome!

The red mushrooms I took a photo of on Monday opened up and grew several inches. I took a bunch of pictures of mushrooms (red, yellow, orange, blue, green, brown, beige), but I wasn't fast enough to get a photo of the poisonous snake that crossed our path as we first entered the forest. I would like to note for the record: That was the closest I have come to danger since I have been here. :-)

It felt great to get away from the news. I didn't watch or listen to any news today.

The breakfast program is cancelled. I was told that Jairo would prefer all of the children stay in their homes today and tomorrow. So I will sleep in tomorrow and do a little reading.

Several people have asked if I plan to stay in Honduras until my planned return date on 8/13. The answer at this time is yes. I see no reason to leave. I pray about it every day and I have not had any feelings that God is done with me here, or that I am unsafe. Or course, this could change, but at this time I do expect to be in Honduras until August 13th.

Good night, buenas noches!

Hurry Up and Wait

Went to the breakfast program as normal today. 38 kids.

On the way home Muncho, my cab driver, (who now listens to the news on the radio so loudly that I can't hear him half of the time) told me it is not safe for me to go to church tomorrow. He said he is staying in his house, which means I would not have a way to get to the breakfast program.

I called the church and told them I can not be there tomorrow. Eunice said she was going to talk to Jairo because in her opinion the kids should not leave their houses and nobody should be asked to come in my place.

Then later we learned that ex-president "Mel" is not returning to Honduras until Saturday. I'm not sure if they already cancelled the breakfast program or not. Things should be fine tomorrow and Friday. Now it's a matter of waiting until Saturday.

I think I kind of know what a woman would feel like when she is planning to go through childbirth on her due date, but then the due date passes and she doesn't have the baby. I am sick of waiting. I am ready for Mel's return to this country. I want to get it over with. It is hard to wait for what could be a horrible, horrible day(s).

I am still very safe. My neighborhood functions as normal. Although today there were long lines at the bank with the rumor that the banks are going to run out of money.

I am disappointed that K2 will not be coming. I was looking forward to building stronger relationships with people from my church. But of course I agree they should not come. It doesn't make sense since everything is so unpredictable. As you can tell from what I've already written today, we are making plans hour by hour. And even then our plans turn out to be wrong.

If it were a realistic request, I would ask that everyone stop worrying and just pray. We know (and sometimes need to remind ourselves) that everything is in God's hands.

P.S.

Ends up "pan de pan" is bread pudding. We are making it with pineapple. Mine was the top one. Karla was shocked at how much mine rose. I told her it rose higher because it was made with love ; )

I also wanted Dina to know that since there has been no school this week Karla has been working hard with Valery to use the signs. Yesterday evening Valery knew almost all of them! There are only about 5 that she doesn't do consistently. Now we are teaching the family and her sister so everyone can use the signs. When school resumes we will ask the teacher if she is willing to integrate signs for Valery. That would be so awesome.

Valery looooves to talk, but you can't understand anything she says so these signs are great for her. And they are also great to show her parents how quickly Valery can learn things. The only down note is that with so much use, the cards are not in the best shape anymore. Last night Valery curled up on the couch with her mom and me and went through them all. She'd look at the pictures, then make the sign and we'd clap for her. It's exciting to watch her learn so much so quickly! Right now they are having their third "class" for the day.

Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Today I got up and watched the news. They said that the borders are closed and that you can't travel from city to city. That accounts for the milk shortage my cab driver was speaking of yesterday. And Karla's father is stuck with a lot of fresh cheese that he can't sell because it can't be transported from Olancho, where her family lives.

We hear planes flying overhead sometimes, but not too much.

I made it to the breakfast program and back just fine, and found plenty of milk at the big supermercado Karla suggested. My cab driver was very happy to get some for himself as well.

I bought 5 gallons and that ended up to barely be enough! Lots of kids showed up today. Since they don't have school they expected to just wander in at any time, but I told them that I need them to come promptly at 10 am tomorrow and we will all leave at 11 am. They were super about praying today - 2 kids volunteered before we were even circled up! That was really great! And when it was time to go they all saw my cab outside waiting for me and hurried out so that I could leave. In the meantime we ate and played games like normal. It was fun to be around them again. I haven't seen them for breakfast since last Wednesday.

I came home and registered with the US Embassy, mostly to please my Aunt and y mother. Then we had a nice big lunch. And now Karla is going to teach me to make "pan de pan", which interests me mostly because of the name - bread of bread. I'll let you know what it's like.

Oh, and I should add, the streets from home to the church were perfectly normal. It's only downtown where there are huge crowds.

I know my family and friends are worried. I wish there were some way they could be here to see that the situation for me as an individual is fine as long as I stay away from downtown. I have really great friends and smart people around me here who would never allow me to be in a dangerous situation. And I am really trying to be conservative and wise in my decisions. My concerns are more for the well being of this country as a whole, than for myself right now. It will be interesting to see what happens when good old Mel returns.

Time to start dinner - well, I think pan de pan is dinner. Maybe it's desert? I'll keep you updated on the pan de pan situation, maybe even take some photos.

La Tigra

Today we went for a hike in La Tigra. It was so nice to get out of the city. It was one of the most fun days I've had since I got here. I love the mountains. I was so excited to write a fun, uplifting message in the blog about what a great day we had but coming back into the city really popped my bubble. Haven't heard from the Utila folks, but I'm sure that no news is good news and they are safe and feeling as relaxed right now as I felt this afternoon in the mountains.

Passed by the place where I stayed last year and thought about all of the ladies at home.

I tried to label the photos, but couldn't get the words to correlate with the photos. Notice how huge the fern like plants can grow - larger than a person! But at the same time they come in all shapes and sizes as another photo illustrates.

The red mushrooms made me feel like Alice in Wonderland - no I didn't eat one, I meant just looking at it.

The beige steps are all naturally formed of stone. In real life they had a lot of colors on them.

The shelter has a tire on top. Nobody has been able to tell me why.

I forgot the name of the little animal that scurried in front of us, but Walter was excited to see it so I'm guessing it was something cool. It looked like a woodchuck to me.

We got home to find the streets packed with cars. It took hours to drive what should have been minutes. I'd like to report differently, but after a perfectly serene day in the mountains, the city feels pretty sketchy.

We called Jairo to ask him if the church will be open for the breakfast program tomorrow. From what Karla understood, Jairo was at the church today at prime time for the breakfast program. She said either no kids, or very few, were there (she didn't know which). To me, this is very strange because school is cancelled indefinitely. I figured they'd all head to the church. All of the kids in Los Pinos must have been house bound or something.

Jairo told us to watch the news in the morning and make a judgement from there as to whether or not it is safe for me to travel to the church to run the breakfast program. I have already talked with my cab driver. He has agreed to drop me off, then pick me up at 11 am sharp so I am assured an early ride home before the city becomes too active. I just have to call him in the morning if I decide to go. I feel obligated but unsure. Jairo said it was a very "ugly" day in the city today and for me to be careful if I go.

I'll watch the morning news and make a decision from there. My cab driver says there is no milk in the city. Without milk the breakfast program cannot happen. So another obstacle could be finding milk in the morning. Karla told me to try one certain store and if that store doesn't have milk then no store will. We'll see...

Please continue to pray for a peaceful ending to this political mess.

Safe and Sound

Today was an experience. I'm not sure how else to put it. Last night we had a going away party for The River Church. It was a nice get together at a local home. We made plans to stay together after church today and leave for Utila tomorrow, very early in the morning in order to avoid any possible political/military problems. As we tried to leave the party Jose realized that his tire was completely flat. The girls were crying and exhausted. We popped off the tire in the dark, dropped the girls off at home and went to the same tire place we just visited a week or so ago, to repair the tire. Since we didn't have the metal interior ring we couldn't buy a whole new tire. Jose said that would have to wait until morning after church.

I got home and washed all of my clothes, then woke up at 5:30 am to finish and get them dry before church. All of my clothes were hanging on the clothes line and I was reading in my bed when Karina's phone rang next to my head. She woke to answer it. She only talked on the phone for a minute, then jumped out of bed and headed for Karla and Jose's room saying something in Spanish and putting her wrists together as though she were in hand cuffs. I thought maybe one of her friends had been arrested and needed help so I kept reading. Then she came back and said that there is no electricity and no water. I said there was an hour ago. That's when she explained that the president had been taken from his home this morning by military force. By this point it was about 7 am.

I said to Jose, we have very little water, no batteries and we still need a tire for your car. Plus we hadn't had time to shop for food this week. He said let's hurry up and do all of that stuff before church because we don't know what might happen after church. I asked should I wear my church clothes or clothes I can run fast in? He said running clothes. We left the girls with Karina and got out of the house as quickly as we could, thinking the earlier we get back home, the safer we would be. On our way out the door we got a call from Jairo saying church was cancelled.

The gas tank was on empty so we stopped and got gas as soon as we found an open gas station. Later the lines for gas were way out into the street. We saw several spots (I'm guessing where the voting poles would have been) where there were paper fliers or ballots (not sure which) strewn all over the streets. After getting gas it was 7:45. While we got a new tire I noticed there was more traffic on the streets. We saw a helicopter and a military plane flew low and fast overhead.

Our timing was great - we got to the store soon after it opened at 8 am. We packed the cart with everything we could think of - ice, batteries, and lots of food. (We failed to think about the fact that both the stove and the microwave run on electricity.) By the time we were ready to check out it was really hard to find the end of the cash register line because the lines for each cashier twisted into the aisles. People who were still trying to shop couldn't use the front aisles of the store. There was a lot of tension in the air - people were starting to freak out. They were talking about the military closing the streets. An announcement came overhead saying to please be patient in line, but please help the baggers to bag your groceries as quickly as you can. The shelves were full of food and workers were restocking, packing more food tightly onto the shelves.

At one point it was nice to be a gringa. Jose had gotten 3 bags of ice, but I thought we needed more. (Turns out we didn't.) Anyway he said it was impossible to get back to the area with the ice because the aisles were all blocked with people waiting in line for the cash registers. I thought back to my days of being a cocktail server in crowded bars - I knew I could make it through this crowd easily, especially since I was not carrying a tray of drinks. So I headed back toward where he said the ice was. There was no ice "in front of the juice" as he had said so I asked a guy who was stocking the shelves where the ice was. Not only did he lead me to the ice, he asked how many bags I wanted, then grabbed them and proceeded to carry them to the exact register where we had been standing in line for the past 15 minutes. I was chasing after him as he pushed through the crowd, but people let him through because he had a store uniform. I tried to tell him where to take the ice, but before I could catch up with him to say anything he had already dropped off the ice at the correct cash register and told the cashier it was for me. Later he was the one who helped bag our groceries and take them to the car so I gave him a big tip.

As we drove home there were many, many police lining the sides of the road. Jose and Karla saw a lot of military men bearing their weapons around the president's residence. I missed it because I didn't know where to look.

We got home safe, put all of the groceries away and I went back to bed since there was nothing else to do. When I woke up the lights were on and they were having a picnic lunch in the back yard. We spent the afternoon/evening watching the news until we couldn't take it any more, then we watched movies. (Gran Turino is just as incredible in Spanish as it is in English, but there's nothing that compares to the tone of Clint Eastwood's real voice.)

At one point all of the news stations were off the air except the one supporting the (now)ex-president. That was a little strange. And they announce a curfew for the next 48 hours from 9 pm- 6 am. At about 8:30 pm the new president announced that everyone should go about business as usual tomorrow.

Throughout the day we discussed/prayed about whether or not I should go to Utila with the group tomorrow. At one point the whole trip was cancelled, but at this time they are planning to leave in the morning. I made a personal decision not to go. I can see both sides. If there are problems in this country, the safest place you could be is a remote island, but for me the concern was driving the 6 hours to the port city and then getting onto the boat safely to get to Utila. I know that all of us feel good about our choices and have prayed hard about it. I feel strange to be the only one who is not going but I believe I was told several times that it was not the right choice for me. Who knows what God has in store for me this week, but I do my best to listen and do as He tells me, so we'll see...

Please pray for the safety of those who are traveling tomorrow. And if you are the praying type, please also pray for peace in this country as they settle in with a new president. As for me, I'll be staying home for one more day to feel things out. Then I'm going to do the breakfast program for Tony for the rest of the week. That's all for now. So nice to fall asleep listening to the rain. Especially since all of my clothes are clean and dry.