This week has been very full of activities. On Saturday morning, the children left for camp, and we were left at the Children's Home with the high schoolers and nursery children who didn't go to camp. We tried to have some fun, even though it was so quiet and sad without all of the little ones here running around and making noise!
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| Sala Cuna (nursery) childrens wishing they could go to camp! |
On Sunday after church we had a fun and interesting cookout by the soccer field. While the men were doing their thing on the grill, the kids on the team from the States taught the children how to Shag. That was so funny, and although it was hard for the Hondurans, I think they really enjoyed it! When I say that the cookout was interesting, what I really mean is: who knew Hondurans wrapped their hotdogs in plastic?! Yes, plastic. After cooking a few hotdogs (aka almost all of the hotdogs), we realized that something wasn't right... After learning that each individual hot dog was wrapped in a plastic wrapper, we had to go back through and unwrap them all... talk about time-consuming and just plain weird! After eating all those hotdogs, we took a hike up the mountain across from the Children's Home to see the gorgeous views.
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| Wendy, Anita and I before church started |
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| Dancing with precious Yolani (blind since birth, but doesn't let that stop her from a good time!) |
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| peeling plastic off of the hotdogs.... |
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| This mountain is called Noah's Ark- such a pretty view! |
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| Jimy and I at the top of the mountain |
On Monday, we took a day trip to a park called Pulhapanzak. We always laugh at this name because it sounds like you're saying "pull your pants up." haha. It was about a 3-hour drive out there and towards the end of the journey it was gorgeous! It was like a mix of Charleston and Lake Jocassee: mountains, marsh grass, water, and seafood restaurants. Talk about the best of both worlds.
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| the view from the bus window on the way out. |
When we arrived in the park, we explored and found some awesome views of the waterfall. The waterfall was maravilloso, but the best part was the beautiful rainbow that appeared at the bottom. Moments like this are what truly take my breath away.
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| rainbow under the waterfall |
While pondering over the beauty of what we were seeing, people began zooming across the top of the waterfall on a zipline. Of course we weren't going to pass up that awesome opportunity. We found the tour guides, gave them our money, and hit the ropes. For my first time every zip-lining, it was really fun! After going back and forth over the river, the canopy tour ended with a ride over the big waterfall... Another moment that took my breath away.
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| that little speck is me zip-lining over the falls! |
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| yet another rainbow to cap off our day |
On Tuesday, we went to City Mall, which is the biggest mall in Central America. This mall makes no sense to me. Inside there is a Timberland and North Face store, Nautica, and many other expensive designer brands. And the weirdest part is that this massive mall was built a block away from one of the poorest and most dangerous barrios in Honduras- Flor del Campo. While at the mall, we decided to go to the movies. We tried to get into the Despicable Me 2 movie, but they only had VIP tickets which were outrageous. Although Monsters University was completely in Spanish without any subtitles, we decided to see that one. It was discount day, so the movie was only L55, about $2.60 in US money. We got our popcorn, found our seats, and right as the movie was about to begin, we saw some familiar faces walk into the theatre. It was the children from our Children's Home! We were both VERY surprised to see each other there, but we took advantage of this fun time, bought lots more popcorn, and laughed our heads off at the movie.
Yesterday, we went into Flor del Campo for the devotional at the school that LAMB has there. It is always a special time with those children. We spent the morning in Flor, interviewing various women from our microcredit program and visiting one of the micro-businesses. The business that we visited was that of a 20 year old girl who works with her mother, has almost 15 employees, attends university, and is in the 99th percentile of her class.... talk about a rockstar! She sells dried bananas and they are DELICIOUS! After leaving Flor, we headed to Valle de los Angeles, a tourist shopping town up in the mountains. We spent most of the afternoon there, eating, walking, and doing what girls do best, shopping!
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| precious daycare boys |
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| Alyssa snuggling with the baby that peed on her. |
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| 20 yr old business owner and college student- impressive! |
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| Picasso and I with the painting I bought from him. Yes, he calls himself Picasso... |
Last night we had a fogata (bonfire) with some of the kids. It took us a while to get the fire going, but it turned out to be a blast.
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| Moises fueling the fire |
Needless to say, this week has been a busy one, but so much fun! It is hard to believe that I have been here for almost a month and a half. Although this summer has been hard in many ways, I am thankful for the constant reminders from the Lord that I am where he has me and that's all that matters.
