Estamos Aqui! (We’re Here!)

Our house was decorated when we arrived. We think Katherine (one of our AMAZING Providence teachers) broke into our house to surprise us. I’m sure she had some help too. We feel so loved!

ARRIVAL

We are here!

WE ARE ALIVE!!!! (so don’t worry, for those of you who are prone to worry :-))

We arrived safely Thursday evening and stayed the night in a hotel in San Pedro Sula. Friday morning we were picked up by our dear friends, Mizael and Douglas, “Los Jefes” (the bosses ;-0) at La Providencia, who then brought us safely to our new home in Siguatepeque. Sigua is in the mountains (about 4000 ft above sea level and 2 hours from the airport) and it is absolutely beautiful! Lush and tropical! If any of our senses have been lulled to sleep, I think I can safely say they are all wide awake now!

The sights, smells, tastes, noises, textures, patterns, language, rhythms of life, and everything in between are all very different and new to us. In a third world country like Honduras (according to “THEY,”  now the second poorest in the Western Hemisphere), these awakenings are not necessarily all pleasant, but certainly not all bad either.  There are lots of literal and figurative “pot holes” here, but the country and its people are beautiful and we are excited to DIVE IN!

Micah (top right), our new friendly neighbor, shows the kids his treehouse and zip line. Poor Justin has been banned from the fun. Surely he will find a way to zip when no one is looking 🙂

HOME

We are so blessed to be able to rent a small (but quite large by Honduran standards) 3 bedroom house on a local seminary property. It is safely guarded, has running FILTERED water (HUGE, HUGE, HUGE!), and awesome neighbors! (doubly HUGE) 🙂

The family next door is from Texas and the father helps run this seminary full time. They have lived here for 11 years and will be invaluable to us in many ways. They already have been incredible hosts to us. They have 4 young children (ages 9 yrs – 4 months), whom our kids have already attached themselves to.  We’ve already enjoyed their hammocks, playhouse, random swinging things, and a new  zip line in their backyard.

Yes, a zip line!  The kids have graduated from the School of Hard Knocks and now know to JUMP OFF before they slam into the tree at the end of the line 🙂   Micah Fittz (9 yrs) reassured Drew that the zip was totally fun and safe and only 15 out of 100 times has someone gotten hurt (and that was just one week)!

We ain’t at Family Camp anymore kids! Gotta love it!

Basically, our “compound” is a kids haven where they can run around and be free to slam into, fall off of, hang on to, jump into, pick from, swing from, and hide in things!

GOD is GOOD and KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT OUR KIDS NEED!  (Well, of course, He made them!)

The other homes are filled with temporary missions teams that come through weeks at a time or Honduran families who go to the seminary or work here in other capacites. Its a great mix and we look forward to meeting everyone.  Currently our other neighbors who just arrived for the week are from Georgia so we’ve already connected over all things Georgian 🙂 Que Bueno!

SETTLING IN

The last couple days have been spent “setting up shop” and getting the lay of the land.  Figuring out the internet has been somewhat frustrating as the faint signal we do get comes and goes unless Phil is willing to sit a certain way on the corner of the roof in the middle of a downpour – ;-0.

Shopping and learning to cook with Honduran products (minus the Prego that I picked up at Pricesmart (“Costco”), before eating at Burger King in San Pedro ;-)) has been a fun adventure for me. We  spend considerable time convincing our children that the food is not only edible, but GOOD here, unless otherwise told; and yes, often we tell them not to eat certain things.

We have been picking up some Espanol here and there and will officially start tutoring this week. I took a try at hand washing laundry on the “pila” and decided I preferred the newly installed communal washer and dryer when someone had an accident on the bed (No names will be released).

We also have been enjoying and even playing in the daily thunder storms that come through and DUMP heaven’s waters on us. Such a treat for us who live in hot and dry climates!

These are just a few things that stand out at the moment.  Slowly we are adjusting and truly trying to savor every minute.  I will share more on La Providencia later.

Now, It’s off to a birthday party that we were just invited to for someone we know nothing about.  I think I will bring some banana bread that just came out of the oven.

Parting shot of Justin. Seriously, you turn your back for 2 seconds and your kid comes back like this!

Hasta Luego!