Rainy Season is here!

I think we have officially gotten into the rainy season…it has been pouring rain non-stop.  And of course when I say pouring I mean, we have to yell at each other to hear even ourselves pouring.  It’s actually quite fun.  I just wish we had fireplaces to cuddle up next to and warm up.  We have the wood stove top in the kitchen, but when everyone else is in there as well, (likely blasting music) it’s not quite as cozy. 

Sicily is dying to play in the rain, but it’s just too cold right now to be doing that, even though, she would have a ball.  Plus, when it rains here, the land turns into one giant river and washes stuff away.  Olivia, though, has her rain boots and jacket on and has been walking around in the puddles with her umbrella against her shoulder.

Maybe the more exciting thing is that we are also having thunder and lightning.  We don’t get enough of that in Oregon.  One strike was pretty close, maybe across the river, but the last several have been further away and less frequent.  The rain continues to come down like nothing else though, so I’m still hopefully for more.  My best guess is that it has been coming down for an hour straight while only letting up for a few moments. 

The other awesome thing about today is that we are having baleadas for dinner. I’m sure we’ve explained before, but they are awesome, awesome, awesome!  Who ever thought a tortilla, beans, egg and cheese would be so tasty???

Ahh the rain is finally letting up again…wonder how the roads will be tomorrow for my moto ride?

Update: Didn’t ride the moto today, but will have to tomorrow.  And the rain didn’t actually stop until around midnight.  Thankfully this place hasn’t seen rain like that in a long time, so it’s been really dry and it was easy for the earth to soak up the water.  Roads are ok!

Glad I'm a volunteer

Police Officer pointing at me to pull over after I did an illegal U-turn: Papers please (but in Spanish)

Me: Is there a problem officer??  (just kidding, who says that when they know that the cop knows that they know they did something wrong)

PO: Something in Spanish

Me: No entiendo (I don’t understand)

PO: probably says the same thing but uses hand motions this time

Me: OK

PO: Your license please.

Me: Here you go

PO: I’m going to give you a ticket

Me: No entiendo

PO: I’m going to give you a ticket

Me: Crap

PO: I’m going to keep your license for 3 days until you pay.

Me : No entiendo

PO: I’m going to keep your license for 3 days until you pay.

Me: Double Crap.  But we are volunteers and live in Zambrano.  We are only here for today.

PO: Your volunteers?

Me: Yes, and we are only here for the day

Handing my stuff back, he says: Thank you for your help.  Have a good day.

Rolling up the window I say: Uhhhh thank God I said we are volunteers.   

Sarah: Good job playing dumb too.

Me: I wasn’t playing dumb.

Even if Sarah thinks I’m dumb, we still avoided a ticket with this close call.  Praise God.  And we ended up having a great rest of the day, skyping with mom and Lish, eating at La Princesita (mega-sized baleadas), and some ice cream.

More recently we have the new director that is going to take my job, so this is good as I have 2 more weeks to train her.  Her husband is also here and will be doing some random work for us and helping her.  They seem like they have some really good ideas for improving campus, specifically for the cleanliness, which makes sense, since they studied public health.  We feel that they will have a positive impact on the students, volunteers and campus as a whole immediately.  We are grateful for the new staff that we’ve recently welcomed. 

I drove Glen’s car to San Pedro yesterday and took the bus back by myself, so I had a lot of time to think and reflect without much interruption.  Memories of the school and the country were weaving through my brain.  I kept passing landmarks that have become familiar to me, and I also kept thinking about how this might be the last time that I see this thing or that thing.  As I mentioned in my last post, leaving is beginning to become real…of course this brings a flood of emotions; happy, sad, grateful, joyful, etc.  I’m excited to visit Sarah’s family in New York, and I’m excited to visit mine in Oregon, to find a new place, to eat different foods, go to the park with my girls, and sometimes I’m even excited about the idea of going back to a normal American job.  I wonder if I’ll cry when we leave, I mean I usually don’t do that kind of thing, but I know it’s not going to be easy leaving.  When we left the States for here, I knew I was coming back at some point.  And I will be coming back here as well, but I just don’t feel ready to leave.  Leaving the states was a lot easier.  Saying that I think we are making the right decision by leaving…it’s just a really difficult one.  I feel like I’m just bouncing all over the place here, so I’ll wrap up with saying I wish more people could experience the things that we have here.  

Goodbyes

Sarah and Valerie started crying as we hopped on the moto to leave our friends.  I don’t know why other people crying makes me want to cry, but it does.  Leaving is so hard and usually a little awkward – the goodbyes that turn into something else you wanted to say, to more hugs goodbye and finally someone saying that we need to leave if we want to get home at a decent time (in our case before dark) .  And now that we’ve said goodbye to our new, but trusted friends, the Shuberts, the sense of actually leaving a place we’ve called home for the last 10 months has finally set in.  There is not much else you can do but cry.

It’s funny that the thing that has brought us so much joy and made us commit to longer than a 2 week mission trip, that is wanting to have a larger impact and deeper relationships, is also causing us the most pain while thinking about and getting ready to leave.  But as they say, “it’s better to love and lose, than to never love at all” or something like that.  That is exactly what has happened in the fairly short time while we’ve been here.  Relationships have been built, friends have been made, volunteers and students have come and gone, and fantastic memories have been remembered.  We love the students that are here like they are our own family, the extra time that I’m able to spend with my daughters and wife, the food – ok maybe not the food as much, but the rice and beans aren’t too bad if you add hot sauce – and the beautiful surroundings that we have on campus.  It’s actually difficult sometimes to remember what life was like in the States, or what life will be like when we return, aside from more ice cream.  We do know there will be more of that!

The next 2 and a half weeks will be hard as we pack up and train our replacements.  There are a couple things that do cheer me up when I think of leaving; I know I am returning to friends and family and I know that I will come back to Honduras soon as well. I think that I can stay busy enough to keep my mind off the inevitability of leaving everyone and everything here.  In the moments that I think of leaving I may tear up…there’s not much else you can do.