Cold Showers, Warm Hearts

Where do we even start???  Sorry for the long wait on the blog, but as the saying goes we are now on Honduran Time J  This works great for my schedule of always being late.  Here I am actually on time.  Needless to say, this blog will be very long.  The last of our trip was successful, obviously.  Getting through customs went smoother than we anticipated.  And right as we walked out the door, Ronald and his family were standing right at the exit calling our names!  They greeted us with hugs, smiling faces, and English which was a huge blessing.  To spare you from some of the less interesting details, we did a little bit of shopping and had some final “American” food before heading out to Jovenes en Camino in Zamarano – about 40 minutes from Tegucigalpa (1 ½ with the traffic which they have every day). 

This is the view from our window, can you believe it??

The drive to Zamarano was just as beautiful as we had remembered.   The colors here in Honduras are so vivid, especially all the different shades of green.  By the time we got to Jovenes en Camino, we had been awake for 14 hours.  But this did not stop us from being so very excited to get our first glimpse of the campus and meet all the staff.  After meeting most of the staff we both realized that learning, remembering, and pronouncing names was going to be one of our most challenging tasks as interns.    Walking up to the dorms, we noticed all the boys standing around anticipating our arrival.  After being here almost 4 days, we realized that when they first saw us they were shy (just like little boys are sometimes) but this morning we have already heard them singing in the shower, cracking jokes, messing around with each other and talking a hundred miles a minute!  One of the funniest comments that has been made so far was when Baýron couldn’t get us to understand what he was saying he said, “Aye Gringas!” (such an endearing term, I know). 

Day 2 consisted of meeting more people and continuing to learn all 55 of the boys’ names.  We got to meet with Ronald and he passionately told us what our main job is here: to love on the boys and become their family.  To love is our main job here, and what an exciting job that is!  We feel like God has equipped us with the means to do this because we have been taught what it means to love as a family.  Already, we feel like we have gained 55 more brothers!  We also got our first experience in the kitchen shredding cheese and cabbage.  It was great to get to meet and talk with the kitchen ladies but no air conditioning as they were deep frying tacos was definitely noted.  From the kitchen we quickly moved on to our next adventure: Allison school (a bilingual school that 6 of the boys attend).  We can tell that the school is doing its job because those 6 boys LOVE talking to us in English.  We could also tell that the security was doing its job because to get into the school, they took our passports (condense freaking out; we got them back).  The rest of the afternoon was spent getting to know the boys better by playing all sorts of games with them; like “One” (yes, that is English for Uno). 

3 of our new brothers: Gustavo, Fernando and Pancho!

Showers have been the most interesting experience so far.  They are cold, and I mean they are “take-your-breath-away cold.”  And then sometimes, the water just turns off for several minutes at a time.  But after taking 3 showers we have learned a little trick: if you turn the sink faucet on and then off, for some reason, the shower comes back on.  So, as you have probably figured out, this requires 2 people in the bathroom to keep the water coming.  In addition to the starting our morning with a cold shower, I decided it would be a great idea to spray bug spray in my eye, about 2 minutes before we were supposed to meet Ingrid (the boys’ tutor and the lady who is taking us to the market to buy 15 days-worth of food for 55 boys).  Don’t worry, I toughed it out and took Hannah’s eye drops with me, although I did look like I was crying the whole way there (so much for the make-up).  We didn’t realize before we left that going to the market was an all-day affair.  We were accompanied our “guards” Adonay and Emeleth from Casa Verde (the oldest boys’ house).  We learned a lot of conversation skills because this was the first time that the people we were with only spoke Spanish.  But I have to say that Hannah and I kept a pretty steady conversation going the whole time (even though understanding one phrase sometimes took 20 minutes).  Adonay, proving to be one of the most talkative boys we have ever met, constantly tried to get us to say yes to something we had already said no to 5 times.  Best quote of the day by Hannah, “Adonay, no comprendes NO!”  This got quite the approval from Ingrid with jumping up and down and laughter.  Needless to say the market did not quite meet the standards of Health and regulation from the US, but so far the food we have eaten has not made us sick.  They must be doing something right.  After a quick trip to the mall for pizza and a soda, which we welcomed readily, we made the trek back to Jovenes.  As we were walking back to the room, Fernando (one of the most precious boys you will ever meet), called out my name and asked me to help him with his homework.  This reminded me so much of Gavin.  This may not seem like a big deal, but here, it means that you are on your way to becoming family.  Ten pages later, we had finished all the English homework.  While I was helping with homework, Hannah was being interrogated by about 5 boys being led by Adonay, on how to ask a girl to marry you in English.  We decided this was probably not the best thing to teach them right now so she changed the subject and had him teach her how to make a bracelet. 

Fernando beating Hannah in arm wrestling!

Johan, Hector and Baýron after a long afternoon of swimming!

Ok, so we should probably wrap this up now.  Of course, we could write several more pages of details but right now we are missing breakfast and an open shower.  Hopefully we will get our internet cards sometime in the next day or so, and we will be able to post more frequently which means you won’t have to read a book each time we post.  So, on that note, “Hablamos luego!”

LauraBeth and Hannah