Monday, January 23, 2012

Monday Part 1

Yesterday you read that our clinic site was at the compound where we are staying, and that there is a nursing home on the premises.  This morning, as we were waiting for the bus to start (see below), Michelle shared her thoughts briefly on what a cool place it is.  Click here to hear her brief description.

Saturday, as we prepared to leave our clinic site, it was discovered that the bus wouldn’t start.  Most of found another way back to the compound, but several of the guys stayed with our crates.  Eventually a mechanic came to our site and rebuilt the starter.  All arrived back at the compound safely (about 1 ½ hours after the rest of us) and we thought the matter was solved.

This morning we were told that we would be traveling our farthest distance and that we needed to get an early start in order to beat the traffic in Tegucigalpa.  We gathered in the dining hall at 6:00 (the time we were told breakfast would be served) and we began eating at 6:00 Honduran time (about 6:15).  Beth Ann said we needed to be on the road at 6:45.  By the time we finished eating, brushed teeth, had our devotion,  and loaded the pickup trucks, it was almost 7:00 a.m.  We piled on the bus and but instead of the roar of a diesel engine, all we heard was the classic “rnnnnn, rnnnn,rnnnn” of a dead battery.
 
Once again the men removed the bus’s battery, and tried to jump start it using another battery and one of the pickup trucks.  They worked diligently for almost an hour, and finally, success!  The bus started!  We cheered, climbed on the bus, and silently dreaded the rush hour traffic waiting for us in Tegucigalpa. 

But we were wrong.  Though the traffic slowed our speed (maybe a good thing?!), we were not caught in the city gridlock we had feared.  We arrived about an hour later than expected at the school in Mateo, but the people gathered were patiently waiting for us inside a building, out of the intense sun.  

Read more about today’s clinic in Part 2.

Regarding other matters:

Not sure how the weather is where you are, but it is just about perfect here.  Each morning it was been a little overcast, and that has kept the temperature down.  Each day we’ve enjoyed a delightful breeze, and my guess is that our temperature is around 80 degrees each day so far.  It does cool off at night, though.  Jackets have been welcome!

The Honduran countryside is a mixture between the beauty of God’s nature, and the squalor of man. Beautiful mountains rise all around Honduras.  Many of those mountainsides are covered with squatter shacks.  Unfortunately, these shacks are often washed out during heavy rains. But, the people return.  Where else do they have to go?

So we do what we can.  We help ease today’s pain.  We offer love, and we offer hope in the name of Jesus.

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