Varones vs. Sapo

Boys see toad.
Levi is a bit cautious of toad...

Daniel comforts Levi and says,
"Toad no eat Levi. Toad no eat Levi."
...
...
Toad jumps.
Dan is done.

The end of boys vs. toad.

Enjoy!
Taylor

Progress

On one of my previous writings/rantings, I commented how our Spanish progress seemed slow. I suppose that my wonderful God hear my moanings and gave me some spurt of wisdom. Today, Sunday, was the first day that I was able to understand most of the speaker's message! At the same time, Glory moved up to different Sunday School (without Alesha and the boys) and she, too returned elated that she understood much of what was said! And if that was not enough, we made a new friend today, Carlos. We had seen him at the chapel building but had not yet talked with him. He too complimented us on our accent; though we knew few words, he seemed impressed at how much we could communicate and at how clear our pronunciation sounded!


Yea for progress and thanks to God for some refreshing encouragement!
Enjoy!
Taylor

Daily Life & The "Finca"

Nothing is new, but at the same time everything is new every day. There is always something going on around here...yet, living here we have just become used to the unexpected being a part of normal life here in Honduras.

Over a year ago, the kids all got a "stick horse" from Grandad Key. (Yes, I mean a literal stick/dowel rod, with a wooden horse head at one end. Something you would expect to see several decades ago.) Our kids have always enjoyed their horses, but we left them at home. I suppose Levi missed his horse, so he improvised. He and Dan had a grand time with their primitive stick horses that day!


I was telling my mom the other day how random events happen and sticking to a schedule is rather difficult. While I think that this is "freeing" for Alesha, it is sometimes "frustrating" for me. I like to have a schedule and stick to it, but I am learning that life is not like Burger King: I cannot always have it my way. ;-)

Even with this randomness, we try go to the orphanage on Saturday's. It is a lot of fun for everyone. The girls tend to stick with Alesha, while me and the boys do...well, boy things! Here is a picture of the boys playing (Levi is in the red shirt), and the following picture is of the girls being girls: just standing around watching and laughing at the boys.



Enjoy!
-Taylor

Glory's First Day

As some of you know, there is a small English-Spanish school next door to the house that we are staying at. Since being here, we have tried to encourage the kids to interact with the school kids, especially since many of them can speak some English, but after Levi more fully realized that this Spanish stuff really was a different language, they both become nervous about trying to even play games with the school kids. Even so, early last week Glory asked me if she could go to the school as a student. Though we were a bit cautious at first, she continued asking every day such that I talked with the Principal and we both agreed to try it out for two weeks. So on Monday Glory attended her first day of "Spanish" school. Glory was humored to know that the kids attending the school go there because their parents want them to know English and at the same time Glory is attending the school to learn Spanish.

Though Glory was excited, she was also very nervous and a bit scared on her first day as she walked out of the house. Alesha accompanied her to the general assembly (where they sing a song about the Honduran flag and say a prayer for the day) and then also to her first class. By the time Alesha and Glory got to the classroom, her future classmates were making quite a ruckus which caused Glory to be even more scared (I'm glad that I was not there). However, the Lord provided some relief for Glory in the form of chickens. While Glory could barely maintain her vision through blurry, teary eyes, Alesha pointed out to her what all the commotion was about. There, in the room, were two "free range" chickens running around, and they happened to be sitting on what would be Glory's table!

Glory quickly settled in to the pattern of her school day. We still get to see her twice a day during "RECREO" or Recess. She seems to be enjoying herself and making friends. The boys typically attend to her when she comes to the gate during Recreo, though as the days go by, she comes by less and less. Yesterday, she just waved at us from a bench that she was sitting at with some other girls.

Bienvenido Honduras!
TaylorH

Meeting at Solidad - by Glory

We went to a meeting in a place called "Solidad". For a while, we rode in the back of a pickup, but for rest of the way we walked because part of the way you can drive, but then the road gets harder for you to drive because there is lots of hills and rocks. We crossed a stream. It was so big that there were stones to help you get across! We also climbed a mountain, and the mountain was pretty. The whole walk was quite long. When we got to the meeting, at first it was dark, but then they turned the light on and we prayed, sang and read the Bible. The little room was almost full. The two people that live at the house are Don Pedro and his sister, Dona Marta.



Now I'll tell you about coming back. When we were coming back, it was dark and we had to use flashlights. When we got to the stream, Papa carried me across, but then I walked by myself. On downhills I held Mama or Papa's hand. There were still lots of hills! Up hill, down hill, hills, hills! It was fun to walk there. When we got home, we got ready for bed and went to sleep. THE END.

Stressfully Exciting

Just to give a bit more of a balance and to perhaps encourage those of you are struggling and think that we are not...today we went to Valle de Angeles...alone! No locals. No missionaries. No friends. No help.* It was suppose to be an exciting "lunch date". Drive in to Valle, have lunch, get some needed groceries, and come back. Sound easy, right? We did it in Tegucigalpa. Well, I suppose that in my overconfidence in myself, God was going to use to humble me a bit.

Let's start off with the vehicle that was graciously lent to us. It works great...after it gets started. I think that the starter is about gone, so the "easiest" way to start it is to park it on a hill and roll in down in 2nd gear with the clutch in, then once moving fast enough, pop the clutch out and pray that the engine starts up...it usually does...just don't find yourself at the bottom of a hill without the engine running. With all of this in mind, it took me 20 min driving around to find a place where I felt comfortable enough to park the Land Rover: headed downhill, reasonably clear street, long enough or steep enough to start the engine.

After I finally killed the engine, we walked around a while trying to find a place that someone had told us about. I never found it. So we stopped in at a nice looking place that was probably designed for tourists in mind...and so were the prices! Not especially high for the US, but certainly high for other Honduran places we had been to. This was a bit of a disappointment for me.

After the stress of the drive and the unsuccessful hunt for a particular eating place, I was beginning to feel hungry; I was not a happy camper and was a bit glum that everyone was having a horrible time. Well, thankfully I have a wife who is not so easily set back by setbacks. She observed that the kids were having a grand time at the table waiting for the food and she, herself was delighted to be in Valle with just us. So after slapping me around for a while (i.e. smiling at me and telling me how wonderful it was to be there), I had to agree that things were not as bad as I had imagined. We all ate our lunch happily, bought some groceries, prayed for the Land Rover to start (and it did!), and headed back home!

Enjoy!
Taylor

*Of course, we had each other and are precious God who knows us. And yes, we (including the kids) were praying at every corner.

Different Sames

Sure, living in a different country has, well...differences. Due to the large US influence in Honduras, there are many US products available. So, theoretically, we can make many of the same foods that we are used to cooking. They have flour, sugar, salt, and other such ingredients used for cooking...but these ingredients are not *exactly* the same as what can be found in the US.

• The salt is different and we have not quite figured out why. Perhaps it has more moisture in it or possibly it has some other minerals still attached to it. I guess the product manufacture's process is not as refined as the US.

• The sugar is bigger and probably has a very small amount of molasses still in it. It is more like something that you would expect to find in a "health foods" store in the US, except here it is not overpriced!

• The flour is also a bit different. We cannot exactly say what is different about it, but it is different. Bread-based products that Alesha is known for making so well turn out *almost* the same and after repeated attempts we have decided that the flour is also just a little bit different. Not different enough to make the bread, etc. bad, just slightly different, slightly unique,...slightly Honduran.

Enjoy!
Taylor

P.S. - Yes, that is an ox cart on the road.

Settling in

The kids are beginning to get braver here at the camp...it's taken the better part of this week for them to decide that this is home, but they really like playing here and are beginning to talk to people some. I asked Glory yesterday if she wished we would have stayed in Texas or if she liked our crazy life; she cocked her head and thought for a few seconds before deciding that she "likes our crazy life!"

..because I have been lousy at posting pics

It was quite infuriating trying to take pictures on the road up to Valle de Angeles...the view is absolutely beautiful, but the road twists and turns so much that just as I took the picture, we would careen around another corner. After we got settled here, I deleted a whole fist full of pictures, mostly of the trunks of pine trees. However, I did get a few worth looking at. :)

-Alesha