Amber!!

Amber is here! And with her Amber brings knowledge, an extensive knowledge of Honduras and how things work. For example Amber knew that last night was half price movie night, $1.25 a ticket, she knew where we could get some awesome Honduran Chinese food, then, the best thing of all, Amber knew where we could find the sweet nectar of life, Dr. Pepper!

It had been three weeks and one day since the sugary mix had touched my lips and it was a beautiful moment in my life to reunite with the beloved.

It really has been great to have Amber back. She is so helpful and encouraging to us. We can´t wait to make some big plans together.

Things I did not expect to find in Honduras:

Things I did not expect to find in Honduras: 80s soft rock from the US is really popular, there is Wal-Mart, and mullets are cool.

One of the things that we have learned in our HIM classes was that we should try to fit in with the culture and “be all things to all men”. So we listen to Michael Jackson, shop at Wal-Mart, and Will let Darwin give him a hair cut…

I can say no more, you only need to see it. In this example a picture is well worth a thousand words :). My husband is a good sport.

Yes, wow.

Where can you wash you car, do laundry, take a bath, and swim?

Where can you wash you car, do laundry, take a bath, and swim? The river in Mateo of course! We found out at Friday night church that we were the surprise “sponsors” of a youth group swimming trip at the river in Mateo. We went up to Mogote and picked up a few of the teenagers. Jairo, the preacher, also took a truckload full of people.

Then we headed out to Mateo, through the countryside, past the military base, past a little league baseball game, past a cattle ranch, past a chicken farm, and down a little dirt road to the river. When we got there there were women washing clothes, a man washing his truck, and kids swimming in the water. We started with jumping into the river off a ledge (don’t worry Will made sure it was deep enough) and then played some chicken fighting, and volleyball. We really had fun and it was a cool way to get to know some more of the teenagers and people in the Mogote church. We would like to see if this might become a weekly event while there is water in the river.

Rabbits, Gecko’s, and Bananas. (A few stories from two Gringos)

Hello from Honduras. This is my first post and I’m a little nervous, but do to intense pressure from my wife and sister and mom I am more nervous about not posting than anything dumb I Might say. It feels like we’ve been here for a long time and some things are starting to seem normal which experts say is good. But there are a few things that are just going to take a little more time. Since we moved into Amber’s house every night every couple of hours I would hear the neighbors working late into the night banging a hammer, after about the 3^rd night I commented to Rachel and said, “those guys are some hard workers, working late into the night till 9 or 10 every night.” She said, “Will… don’t you know what that is, that is a Honduran bird!” So the issue was settled and for the next few evenings we marveled at the interesting, “hammer bird”. As we were about to go to bed two nights ago I noticed something on the kitchen wall moving real fast. Getting focus I was glad it wasn’t a snake, but realized it was a gecko. We decided it was good and ate bugs so we left it alone. The next morning, talking to Darwin, he told us that it was the gecko making the hammer sounding noise. Definitely not a normal thing in Bristow, Oklahoma, but it is slowly becoming more normal to appreciate the service a wild pet gecko can bring.

On the next issue we included a picture. The fruit here is awesome-different colors and shapes. There are some things in the store that we don’t even recognize. But we think the miniature bananas are our new favorite. They taste a lot like a normal one but not quite as strong and are a much better snack size and for some reason are just fun to look at.

Finally, I would like to finish with a story about two young boys about 8 or 9 years old. After working on the church for most of the day we went to the local dirt soccer field behind the church to watch some soccer. As we sat there two boys came up and started talking. They made their way into our laps and were just kind of talking when in mid-sentence the boy in my lap said, hey and made me stop talking. He made me open my mouth and looked at my teeth then talked to his buddy. The boys were clearly examining our teeth pretty intensely. I said, “Yes, I have a bad tooth on the bottom.” But that isn’t what they noticed. The scrutiny of Rachel’s teeth was getting intense by this time. Finally, the boys hollered something I didn’t understand and both fell to the ground laughing. Rachel explained to me that they had said, “THEY LOOK LIKE RABITTS, THEIR TEETH ARE HUGE!” Rachel and I laughed for 5 minutes and still laugh talking about that story. Honduran teeth are a little small than Rachel’s and I’s… as you might have guessed. In all these differences we encounter it is clear to see that God has a great sense of humor and we are continually blessed to be working in Honduras.

Pictionary in Spanish

Thursday September, 18, 2008

We worked on the wall in Mogote again today and after a little rainstorm, and some kids playing and showering in the gutter runoff from the church, it was Darwin’s idea to bring some kids with us. So we brought three kids home to Amber’s house just to hang out till we went back for church. They were some kids from the family that has twelve kids, two bothers, Alan-9, Selvin-8, and William-6 who is their nephew, all put on their shoes and climbed in the back of the truck with us.

We had some macaroni and cheese for lunch, played some games, and watched Bob Esponja (Sponge Bob) on TV. Will showed them his Rosetta Stone Spanish language learning program and they loved figuring out which picture went with the words on the screen. Then we played some Pictionary Junior in Spanish, that was pretty interesting and usually ended in just making up your own picture and letting everyone guess what you were drawing despite what the card said, which was still fun. Then after a little mishap with getting locked out of our room without a key, (Will was able to pick the lock thankfully! ( I knew I married a man with skills, but I didn’t know he had this one up his sleeve!)) we walked to the mall for some ice cream cones and let the kids go crazy in the play place in the food court. It was cool to see them playing and waving to us every 3 or 4 minutes while Will and I sat and watched and waved back smiling.

We headed back up to Mogote for Wednesday night church. The lesson was from a young man in the church that spoke from 1 Peter 4, a chapter on living for God. He talked about people in our lives that we looked up to so much we wanted to imitate, and then how we should be imitators of Jesus so that others are able to see him in us, which sometimes includes being ridiculed or questioned for not joining in with the world’s evil desires. It was a great lesson and always interesting to hear the bible from another culture’s perspective and listening to the things that they have to deal with here as Christians.

Pollolandia

Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Yesterday was independence day in Honduras so we didn’t go to work up in Mogote because we were advised that most of the roads would be closed. Darwin and Ariel were in the parade that went from the mall multiplaza all the way to the stadium that we watched on TV.

Today we went back to work in Mogote to keep working on the wall. There are five boys, along with Darwin, that have been helping us everyday ranging in ages from 7-12 named, Josue, Ariel, Joel, Cristian, and Wilson. Today when we left for lunch we took them with us to Pollolandia (chicken land) at the bottom of the mountain. I used to think that I knew how to clean my plate, but these boys made me feel wasteful, they didn’t leave anything, not ketchup packets (those were dessert), a couple didn’t even leave bones.

These boys at lunch made me want to be more like Paul who “learned to content whatever the circumstances.” I have a lot of room to grow in this area of being content in every situation. I have seen that Hondurans don’t complain about much of anything and I could learn a lot from them.

Kids Day at Mogote Church!

El día de los niños.
We celebrated children’s day at church last night. We go to church at 4:00pm on Sundays which is awesome for me since I am still not a morning person... The church members had planned some fun stuff for the kids at church and kids in the community to do. After the church service with quite a few visitors the festivities began. They separated the kids into groups by age and the first activity was a piñata Honduras style, then into a classroom for some bracelets, stuffed animals, and bible class songs, then some home made donuts and juice. It is hard to explain how crazy it was and how fun it was. All I know to compare it too is VBS on steroids then multiplied by 10. It was awesome and some more people got introduced to the church by it.

God in the little things and We´re not so good at the metric system.

Making a volcanoe of conrete to start on the wall.

The church ladies making donuts in the class room.

Kids Day at Mogote church.


Fixing the tire.

We went to start a construction in Mogote today. We’ll be attempting to finish the classroom walls all the way up to the ceiling so it will be less noisy during bible class. Luckily Darwin didn’t have school today so he could help us round up materials. We went to the ferreteria (hardware store) and on the first load picked up 50 cement blocks and 4 bags of cemento. We drove up the mountain and dropped off our supplies at the church building. We returned to the ferreteria to buy some sand to mix with the cemento to make the mortar.

Oh the metric system… so we ordered a meter of sand, not really knowing what that meant exactly, backed up Shakira (Amber’s Ford Ranger truck) to the sand pile and they started shoveling it in, and shoveling, and shoveling… So a meter of sand was a little more that we had planned, Shakira’s bed was overflowing with wet sand. We headed back up the mountain with Darwin driving and about half way up Shakira didn’t want to keep going. (Let me try to explain the road up to Mogote… It is like rock climbing in a car. I’m still impressed that cars still work after going up this road.) So we rolled back down the bumpy road to get a head start.

At this point I was praying that we would make it to the church. It would have been a mess to try and unload sand in the middle of the road, on a huge hill, with no shovels. We tried again and with horn blowing, and dogs and chickens scurrying out of the way, we made it up the worst part. The water truck was in the road at this point blocking our way so we got out to check on Shakira. One back tire had a huge bubble on it. Another prayer, “God, just let us get to the church.”

We made it around the water truck up another rough patch and made our way back around to the church. Relief! We had made it! We parked, went to get our shovels from inside and we hear a POP! Shhhhhhhh. (that’s the sound of air rushing J) I was so glad that God got us up to the church before that tire blew. I’m starting to see God in the little things. I’m not sure I would have ever asked God to just help get me somewhere in a car before Honduras, but I really think He is there all the time and He wants to be a part of the little things in our lives.
Raquel.

HONDURAS!

We are in Honduras now! I will try to get some pictures up soon. Things are going well, we are getting settled in, finally found where I had packed everything. We are learning our way around the culture for example, where things are in the grocery store, like the juevos (eggs) are on the non-refridgerated aisle 3 with the flour... :)

Church in Mogote (Nueva España) was good last night. Jairo, the preacher, was sick. Darwin (one of Amber´s boys) led singing, then we went with him to the children´s class. It was so cool to see how much he has grown up in the last couple years. The kids in the class really seemed to like him and respect him, it was encouraging for us to see.

My new name here in Honduras is Raquel, I think it is pretty cool anyway, and easier for people to say. We are still working on a name for Will. Maybe we´ll bring back Trey from when he was little. We´ll see what sticks.

We´ll try to keep this updated as much as we find time to be on the internet.

We are excited to be here. Thanks for all your prayers.