January 9, 2008

Today we slept in somewhat until around 8:00. We didn’t realize how tired we were from the past few weeks of working so hard to get ready. Our new neighbors, Sid and Vicki Smith, had given us some orange juice, bananas, granola bars, and homemade banana nut bread to eat for breakfast.

We then tried to take showers. Cindy went first and the water from the shower head spayed all over the walls as it had many leaks around the head. To make it even better after about one minute all her hot water was gone. Brad went next and had a nice hot shower. Go figure.

We then left with Sid and Vicki and go run some errands. Sid offered to let Brad drive but he declined. Still trying to get his feet under him. First we tried to go to the lumber store and order some lumber for an upcoming MVP (short-term mission) team but the lumber yard was closed for lunch. Lunch is a protected event here. We decided to go eat some lunch ourselves and then stop by the lumber yard on the way back home.

After lunch the next stop was the bank so we could sign up to write checks and exchange our U.S dollars for Honduran limpiras. Entering a bank here is different. There is a guard at the door that checks you with a wand before you are aloud to enter the door. After entering the door you remove everything from your pockets and walk through a metal detector. Then you must give the guard a photo id and they give you a visitor badge which has the floor number you are going to. This is the only floor you are allowed on while in the building. We couldn’t get the paperwork completely filled out because between the four of us we couldn’t read enough Spanish to understand all they were asking. We decided to take the applications back to Hogar de Fe (Faith Home) and get help.
The next stop was the mall so we could buy some cell phones to use in Honduras. We bought the phones but found out later that night that they didn’t work. So far we are zero for three in doing what we set out to do. We understand this can be very normal here.

Next stop the grocery so we can get some food for our home. This went pretty well except we learned that buying food here can be more expensive than the states if you don’t pay attention to what you are buying.

On the way back home we stopped by the lumber yard, ordered the lumber, and most importantly they will be able to deliver it before the team arrives. Overall, we were 50% - we got two of four things accomplished.

When we got back to Faith Home Brad had a meeting with the pastors from the northern part of Honduras. Once again, meeting with these pastors is very humbling, encouraging, and challenging.

Next on the agenda was the baptism of 14 children from Faith Home. It was done at the Faith Home baptismal which is a small cinder block structure located outside. Brad had the privilege of being able to baptize four of the children. Most of the Faith Home kids and house parents along with all the missionaries were there. Two of the house parents were playing guitars during the baptisms and the rest of use were clapping and singing. It was a lot of fun and a great way to begin our stay in Honduras.

To end the evening all of our team went to the Smith’s house for supper and a time of laughing and joking.

We have really been wrestling with strong smell of cat urine in our house and whether we should stay in it or try and move to one of the other houses. Before we went to bed Cindy read our friend of ours, Ashly Guth’s, email about her mission trip to Haiti. She talked about a little boy she was with in Haiti that was dying of AIDs and all the pain he was in. Cindy decided maybe our cat urine problem is not so big after all. Yea, we still need to decide what we’re going to do but it’s really not a life altering decision.