January 12, 2007

Big day today. Several new adventures:
1.Cindy talked with her mom and found out the paperwork for our resident visas arrived at her house on Thursday. We haven’t sent he paperwork yet but we are amazed something even showed up. Yes, I admit it (Brad), my faith that we would ever see anything from our trip to Chicago was very weak. I’m still learning.

2.We went for our first solo drive today. We drove to El Progresso (haven’t tackled the big city San Pedro Sula yet) without incident. Ok, for those that have never been to a developing country driving here can be like the pictures you see of China, Vietnam, Africa, or any Latin American country. Vehicles, pedestrians, dogs, cows, horses, and anything else that is in the area are everywhere. They pass on both sides and the person passing seems to have the right of way. If you are making a left turn you must yield to anyone who wants to pass you before you turn. While doing all this you have to find the road signs so you know where you’re going. They seem to hide the signs just to make it more interesting. They also pass on curves which is always interesting.

3.We went to a new mall so we could go to the hardware store and the grocery to stock up on our weapons to battle the odor problem. While we were there we decided to eat lunch. We chose Popeye’s chicken because we had some idea of the what the pictures on the menu represented. We spent about five minutes discussing between us what we wanted and how to order in Spanish so we could get this done without too much hassle. We went to the counter, ordered our combo meals, our drinks, and chose our side item. Everything was going smoothly and we were feeling pretty good about ourselves. Then the young lady taking our order begin to ask us questions that didn’t follow the script we had rehearsed. It quickly went down hill fast. Cindy did pretty well at figuring out what she was asking. Brad on the other hand got completely confused. After having the young lady repeat herself several times he final figured out she was giving him several options but what they were he had no idea. So he used one of the few Spanish words he knows “primero” (which means first) and simply asked her for the first one she listed having no idea what he was going to get. The meal turned out ok. We didn’t get anything that was a real surprise.

4.Tonight we moved all of our stuff to another house and have begun the treating of the floor. First mop it with a bleach/water mixture. Follow it with a vinegar/water mixture. Then cover the floor with baking soda and leave it overnight. Next a peroxide/Palmolive mixture. Concluding with a new coat of wax. Brad is somewhat enjoying the challenge and Cindy just wants it to be done and fixed.

5.Cindy’s first patient didn’t return today. Not sure what to make of that. We’ll it to you.

6.Our granddaughter sent us her first email which I have included (she’s 21 months or meses (in Spanish). Our daughter her it would have been longer but she had to go to timeout for hitting. Here’s the email: vgggfthjiuytgfgfkghhjhgvgfgfh vvnbc (probably only grandparents will appreciate this)

7.We will be tackling a trip to the big city early this week because we are about out of Limpera (Honduran money) and we have to go to the bank to finish getting approved to write a check and exchange money. Definitely motivation to battle the traffic.