HONDURAS

6/20/07
Will get on a bus from Gainesvile tonight and ride to Miami. Plane will depart early morning and supposedly arrive mid-afternoon in Tegucigalpa. But now, I ride to Gators Dockside to watch Carolina get revenge on Rice.

6/21/07
Almost lost my rugby ball (Ugh, Jr.) in the stream running through the church yard last night. Got wet and dirty but found her, smelled worse but it was worth it. Couldn't leave the country without my best girl! Rode all night on the bus. Tried to sleep on the floorboard, didn't really work out. Spilled my agua caliente all over Catherine Howell's blanket (a quadrant of it anyway). Got to Miami (after briefly getting lost then receiving directions from a drunk fellow who apparentlah smelled really bad) around 4:30. Hung out in the airport. MET THE COOLEST KID IN THE WORLD, Ben B. We played as hard as we could for as long as we could - I had to get on the plane at 9:15. He taught me how and why to eat boogers (HAHA, he said his mom tells him not to do it at school but he does it anyway). I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he told me I could "be EVERYTHING - Do you wanna be COP!?!?!??? I'm gonna be the BADDEST cop and arrest EVERYBODY!!" He went on to say that I look like an alien cause my face was green (I think it was at that point I told him he had bats in the cave, haha). We played with his two stuffed cats at first, then he told me I was better with my ball cause he'd seen me kicking it around, so we kicked Ugh, Jr. for like an HOUR. He was SO NEAT. So when we had to leave I hugged him. Then I cried cause I'm like that, but I wouldn't let him see me. I got one more hug when I ran to the bathroom at the last minute. Gave him a CD and had him sign my ball - his momma and NaNa were all about me entertaining him, but the fun was had all by me. And him. We're teammates.

So we landed in Tegucigalpa smoothly (stud pilot I guess). Went to the Baxter, showered, walked around. FOUND THE CHORUS ROOM AND PLAYED THEIR LITTLE CASIO KEYBOARD. Not long enough, but the ACOUSTICS WERE INCREDIBLE. As a singer I had to linger and listen to the resonances, you don't get that everyday. Walked to the ampitheatre and Donny and I found a cat with AN EAR CHEWED OFF - I MEAN IT WAS A FESTERING MESS. El gato was all, "Don't hate cause half my brain is hanging out." Sadness. So I walked up to the top of the thingie and fell asleep on a picnic table before Brittany woke me up, sorta. It's all good. Read some crazy story Jefe gave me to read, felt all enlightened, sorta. Sat with Wess chillin, got on the bus, rode to the mall, had dinner with ocho other like-minded souls feelin' like some Argentinian food - YEEAAAHHHH. I'll probably get sick but I don't care. K gotta go.

6/22/07
First work day is always slow. Got up and ran around the Baxter Institute, hiked up the side of a steep mountain thing, ended up on the same platform where I napped yesterday. Did yoga with a view of the city. Pretty sweet. Had corn flakes (with the best leche in the WORLD), CAFE (mmmm, life-giving caffffe), and one tortilla with huevos y frijoles negros, and of course LOTS of chile sauce, heh heh heh. Got to the church building (they've poured a concrete slab since we left! they have windows with hinges!) and waited to get organized - the construction team went to build houses and the medical team got stuff together and went on with them. We set up the Carnaval, the climaz of tomorrow's VBS. The grass needed mowing (um, 10-inches at least) so Brittany grabbed a machete and I got a hoe and we hacked it down. It looks soooooo much better. Some of us went down to the waterfall, I LOVE that place. It'd be a great place for a first kiss (heehee). Wrote a song, took a nap, I was spent by 3pm. I gave Dupree a hard time for misspelling my name in an email on the way home, loserpants. :) We went back to the Baxter, got showered up and ate dinner at Pizza Hut. Apparently they tricked Mr. Holway and sung happy birthday to him (instead of his wife, last year we sung Happy Birthday to her every night cause she turned 50 that week, so cruel!) and one of the waitresses danced with him. Well aight, we gotta go hit up the grocery store so I can get some Honduran coffee, oatmeal, honey (with the comb in of course), and a mango.

6-23-07
Woke up tired, didn´t kick much, only pilates. The mountains were covered with fog. Had a memorable breakfast...they tell us every year that no breakfast is prepared for us on Saturdays, but then Maria la Saint de Cafeteria always makes pancakes. VBS ROCKED. The skits were hilarious... Rich Howell our preacher read from the Bible in Spanish to the niños, who were remarkably still and attentive, as our theatrical brethren acted it out. Guess you had to be there, your loss, sorry. For our classes I got to play with the 0-5 year olds... woo hoo! Rich Hanks played my mandolin (or attempted I should say) while we made bead necklaces with the youngens. I sat down to paint and a chica pequeña named Rizi came over to see what was up, so I let her take over. It was pretty amazing...she liked bold colors and broad strokes. Then we had the Carnaval which was a huge success!! My booth was the "pin the rock on the Philistine´s forehead" HAHA. I got Lindsay Scaggs (big firefighting dude from Colorado) to wear the armor and helmet and stuff, bless his heart. I blindfolded the kids and spun them around. Then of course they threw "the rock" (my hacky-sack) as hard as they could. He´d say "uh, back this one up", cause the kids really were trying to nail him, but he was a great sport. Sergio eventually came to relieve him. We got done early cause we ran out of prizes. Catherine and I were handing out kazoos, which some of them couldn´t make work, so of course I had to be careless and show them how after they´d put their little third-world mouths on them. Hope I don´t get sick, ugh! Had a nice relaxing shower (cleanliness, although I shun it in the States for the most part, haha, jk, is not to be taken for granted) and we came to the old mall so we ate in the good ole food court. Found THE BEST DRESS EVER! SOULMATE DRESS OF THE MONTH! AAAHHHH! GOT TO HAVE IT AAHHH! okay sorry. But have to borrow some dolares to get it. What a deadbeat am I, but the dress is SO FRICKIN GREAT! Kirsten and Giovanni were my heroes and gave me some just now, WOO HOO! K gotta go. Oh yeah, mañana we have church in Las Casitas and then go down to Los Valles de Angeles for ghetto flea market shopping, but I´m probably gonna skip it and do the zip-line-down-the-mountain thing like last year. Anything that requires headgear is cooler than shopping in 100 degree heat, but shopping for THE PERFECT DRESS AAAHHH (YOU SHOULD SEE THE SLEEEEEVES AND SAAAASSSSSHHHHHH!!!) in the air conditioning is alright. K gotta go make her mine.

6/26/07
Got the dress, wore it to church Sunday morning. Was a big hit, yay :) Man, there's something about worshipping God in a third-world country in a very humble building we constructed for them last year, which they were so grateful to receive. Yesterday I worked in the medical clinic, and between three stations (and one dentist from the Honduran Army) we saw 100 patients (mostly children) in 4.5 hours. Brian did an amazing devo this morning on I Corinthians 13 - "if I build the best houses for these people but have not love, I just sound like a chainsaw...if I can speak Spanish fluently but don't love the people I'm speaking to, I'm just another Gringo". It all comes down to love, such a nice thought. :) Today I worked construction and we completed two more houses. The site was pretty gross, basically a landfill covered with chickens and children running around barefoot. They were so grateful for the houses we built for them, which are smaller than my parents' bedroom, with one window and a tin roof. I'll never not be amazed at how wealthy we are in the States compared with here. Makes crashing on couches in Chapel Hill for a whole summer seem pretty dadgum cool (not that I was complaining at the time, heehee). Tomorrow I'm back in the clinic in the morning then get to go over to the school to play with the kids when they get out at 1pm. Hurrah! Their faces can't be described, so content, so happy to see us. Brittany taught them a handshake that ends with the dap explosion - they're all so good at it! Can't believe this is all over Friday morning. :(

7/2/07
Back now, and am grateful to flush TP down the toilet rather that throw it in a stinky trashcan, take showers without fear of getting water in my eyes or mouth, brush my teeth in the faucet rather than with bottled water, etc. Hurrah USA! I wish I could go back and take dog food to all the skinny perros we saw running around all pitiful.
Wednesday night we ate dinner at the Baxter and I put away waaay too much pollo, beets, SALAD (stuuupid), and arroz. But it was so GOOD! Somehow I got a wild hair and went back in the kitchen and asked Fernando (a boy who works back there and plays the recorder) to dance with me! (Giovanni instructed me on how to ask for un baile in Spanish) It was so cute! He had no idea what he was doing but I made him dip me and everything! Then he sat with me during the devotional and we held hands for the prayer. :) We exchanged emails and got pictures and stuff, such a sweet boy.
Thursday morning I woke up with a belly ache. Went to the bathroom and let's just say about a 1/2 gallon of beet-colored fluid came out. Not cool. Then I puked four times. Mrs. Holway brought me Gatorade and Cipro and I passed out for the rest of the day. It SUCKED, but could've been much worse from other Montezuma's Revenge horror stories I've heard. I might've eaten a bad tomato, mango, or just had too much water build up in me from showers and such. Whatever. I felt better by the afternoon, and we all went to El Patio for dinner, an authentic local Honduran restaurant. I didn't eat much of anything but enjoyed everyone (I missed them badly through the day while they were building bathrooms and painting the church out at Las Casitas). There was a mariachi band and everything! We had so much fun and sang some spirituals on the way home.
Friday we headed back to the States and arrived in Gainesville around 2:30am Saturday morning. We said a little prayer thanking God for giving us so much success and watching over us while we were gone. It really was a great success. All in all, I made some great new friends and enjoyed myself while I did some good work for the Lord and the people down there, bless their hearts. Everyone should do a mission trip at least once, it's the most worth-while thing I've ever done with myself and can't wait to go again next year! :)