Hello
Four weeks have passed since I arrived here and a lot has already happened. As I am writing, I am sick and laying in bed. Everyone who has been here before can probably imagine what sickness caught me 😀 yes, right, my stomach turned into a washing machine!!! I am glad though, that I brought a lot of charcoal!
But it is already getting better – today I was able to go for a short walk and I will teach again tomorrow. But let me tell you about what happened before I got sick.
Cooking over the fire
I had to cook for the first time here in Honduras. Well, not really the first time. When I was here for the first time in February I had to cook with Adam. But let me just say this: It didn’t turn out so well: the breakfast was burnt and two hours too late! 😀 So basically it could only turn out better this time!
Cooking
Usually the staff has to cook on the weekends, so they always put pairs of two on breakfast or lunch and supper duty or on cleaning of dishes. So on my second Sabbath here I already had the “privilege” of cooking lunch and supper together with Bonny! It was lots of fun to cook together with her and to cook over the fire. We were cooking probably the most traditional Honduran dish: Rice and Beans with Plantain and Salad. After standing in the kitchen for almost three hours we finished cooking successfully and on time.
Candlelight Baleadas
For supper we only prepared Guava Juice, because the students prepared and sold Baleadas to gather money for their Mission Trip. So in the evening we were enjoying a cosy and yummy candlelight dinner.
Also my second week of teaching went very well and I am enjoying it. My children improved a lot in the time I wasn’t here and they are also behaving a lot better. I am a little bit challenged with the task of giving them their final grades very soon, because I haven’t worked so much with them yet, but it will somehow work out as well.
After teaching for two weeks I already had my first week of vacation 😀 It wasn’t a normal vacation though – it was a so called: working vacation. The children just didn’t come to school, but we still had to work and attend meetings from Monday to Wednesday. When we were finally free on Thursday, Bonny and I travelled to “The Valley of Angles”. On our way there we passed by Santa Lucia, to do some “sightseeing”. There is a beautiful view on Tegucigalpa and very pretty lake with many turtles.
After we spent some nice time with friends in The Valley, we travelled back to Tegucigalpa, so I could buy a few things.
Tegucigalpa has a huge amount of churches – approximately 40! So on Sabbath we had a big variety of choice. We decided to go to a church, which has a lot of active young people and on that Sabbath they were celebrating the Lords Supper. I was very curious how they celebrate it here, so it was a very interesting and blessed experience to take part in that. Surprisingly – at least for me – they did almost everything the same way we do. After the sermon we went to wash each other’s feet. Different then at least in my church, the men were basically in the same room as the women, just separated with a wall, but they were standing and sometimes also sitting in the part of the women. The couples also have the possibility to wash feet together, so there were also some couples on the women’s side. Something, which was very different for me was, that it was very loud. They had quite loud music playing and everybody had to walk through the women’s part to enter and leave the “room” – or actually the basement, so it was kind of the place where constantly people were walking in and out. It was very nice though, that even though it was a big church, they waited till everybody was done, to continue with the program. Then the pastor talked again and bread and “wine” was given to everyone. In my church the pastor and the oldest of the church do the distribution of the communion. In this church some of the young men, which had been blessed by the pastor were doing this. Bonny told me though, that usually it is also the pastor and the oldest which are doing it, but at this church it is different, because the older people don’t want to do a lot, and so the young people do everything. It really impressed me how active the young people in this church are. They are also doing many different outreach activities to reach a big variety of people. It really inspired me to do more mission work as well. So my church and communion experience was very interesting and blessed.
After church we went to a friends house to eat and in the evening we went back to the people, which we were staying with, because they invited us to play basketball with them and their friends. Before we went to play – even already before the weekend started – I wasn’t feeling so well on my stomach, but I still joined.
Bonny and I were very scared in the beginning, because we are not very professional about playing basketball 😀 but they assured us, that nobody was very good and that it was just for fun – and it really was! I don’t think I have ever laughed so much, while playing basketball – even without understanding Spanish. The people were really nice and so everyone was just enjoying it. And proudly I can say, that I even managed to shoot two hoops :D. After one hour of playing we had to leave, because they closed the fields.
The basketball crew
Already on the drive back home I could feel that my stomach was not doing well at all anymore. When we arrived at home, I just laid down and it was over with me! I wanted to go to sleep, but I started being really cold, so Bonny went to bring some blankets for me. After maybe an hour I was still freezing and she brought another blanket. When I woke up again I was sweeting and hot like crazy. Just to say this: every time I woke up, Bonny was awake as well and was taking care of me. She brought water, and tea, and blankets and took blankets away again 😀 she brought me to the bathroom, measured my temperature etc. etc. I was very very glad to have her – I couldn’t wish for a better friend. So as you can read, it was a crazy night, and the next day wasn’t much better, but we knew, that we had to catch the bus at 12 o’clock back to the Campus, because the next day we had to teach again in school. The people where we were staying knew about how I was doing, so the husband told us: “I will drive you back to VIDA – The Campus; that will be better for you.” First I didn’t want to accept it, because I knew it was much work for him, but in the end I was very thankful, that he took us back here. With the bus it takes approximately 3 hours – with the car it took 1,5 hours and it was much more comfortable.
So as you can see, even though I got sick, I had a very blessed weekend and I was very blessed by all the wonderful people around me. Also now that I am sick, everyone is trying to take care of me, help me, prepare food/fruit for me and so on. God is good with me!!!
Yours Hanna!