Well, we FINALLY got back to Honduras.  Tom and I changed our flight from Wednesday to Sunday so we could start AND finish our new patio and sidewalk.  Anyone who said I was the driven one of the family can now say Tom is.  Well, at least on this particular project he was.  But, thanks to the help of a couple of our grandsons, son and friends, we got it done and it looks nice.

One of the changes that came with the United- Continental merger is now United does not serve ANYTHING (other than water and soft drinks) for free on international flights.So we got to the airport at 0415 and left Columbus for Houston at 0555.  We get to Houston and had a little over an hour to get something to eat. Boarded the second leg of the trip and got to Honduras on time.  Manuel was there to pick us up and he took us to his parents house to eat lunch and see Berenice's new baby girl, Paulette. Got a few things done for the next group coming in and cleaned our apartment. Out to the store to get some food for morning and we had dinner at CoCo Baleadas (oh how we missed those baleadas!!) and then home to crash.

6/11/12 - Time to get serious about getting ready for the team that comes on the 12th.  The Work and Witness house needed cleaned, and 2 other portents needed cleaned.  The grey van needed picked up from storage, groceries needed to be bought, laundry needed done, serious money needed to be withdrawn in cash from the bank, and we needed food for us to eat. Tom went to the bank and 3 hours later he came back with no cash.  The bank withdrew the money for him and then decided that he wasn't a signer on that particular account, so they had to put the money back into the account (one would think they would have checked that first, but….). Next, we went to get the van from storage.  The van wouldn't start. This is a Nissan Hiace, which is not sold in the states.  We couldn't find the battery.  It wasn't under the hood.  We looked everywhere.  Finally , one of the guys at the storage place said he thought it was under the front seat.  Another half hour was spent trying to figure out how to get the seat unhooked so it would rise up. Gosh, there is a LOT of stuff under that seat; the oil stick, the oil reserve, the transmission fluid thingy, the battery, etc. Huh, who would a thought?  But, no jumper cables. So we leave to go back to our house to get them. Then, back to the van.  Between the bank and the van, it pretty much killed the day and we were still not sure the battery in the van would last.  I still had all that cleaning to do AND go grocery shopping for the team. I saw the lady who lives across the street and asked her who cleans the church.  I asked her if she could get that woman to clean the 3 places for me because I had officially ran out of time.  She said she would ask.  Got the groceries at Pricesmart, which is like a Costco. Tom and I ate a hotdog there (no food in our place) and a group of Mormon missionary teenage boys sat down beside us.  They started asking us questions and we asked them questions and a couple of hours later, we leave Pricesmart after promising the boys I would have them over for dinner sometime in August.  After unpacking all the groceries and doing some work to prepare for the team coming we headed to a hardware store for needed plumbing parts because one of the apartments had a broken toilet seat and it was leaking. Well too late for that. The stores were closed by the time we got there. Another wasted trip and chore to put off till tomorrow.One of the toilets the team needs to use was out of commission. The day is shot and we still don't have any money (we kinda borrowed some from another account to buy what we did). Pizza Hut for dinner (we don't eat fast food at home!)

6/12/12 - The team arrives today. I get all the linens out and the house set up (the lady got it cleaned late the night before) with tables and chairs.  There are 22 of them. Tom and the District Superintendent go back to the bank to get the much needed money. While they are gone, I take the grey van (new to us) and go get fresh fruit at a local stand. While I was backing up to get out, I hit a truck with a low trailer (OBVIOUSLY didn't see it). The crash was deafening to me.  I get out of the van and go look at my busted tail light.  There were 4 Honduran men all standing there looking at it too. Boy did I feel like an idiot.  I asked them if the truck was ok; they said it was.  BUT, they were pointing out to me that my tail light and the large dent in the back door were not ok. Geeee, so GLAD they pointed that out to me. I get back to the house and cut up all that fruit I bought; probably sticking the very sharp knife a little too hard into that fruit….  Tom comes home and I tell him what I did.  His response was perfect.  He didn't laugh.  He didn't yell.  He just looked at me and said he was sorry. Now THAT is a great husband!!!! Off to the airport to get the team and Bob and Evelyn.  They came in on 3 different flights. Manuel takes all the luggage in the pick up and leaves the airport.  I get 12 people into the grey van and Tom gets everyone else into the red van. The grey van won't start. (sigh). No jumper cables.  They are in the pick up (since that was what we used to jump it the first time).  We went up to a few people to see if they had any cables; nope. no one carries those.  I called Manuel and asked him to come back and jump the van. He does. After we get everyone back to the work and witness house, Bob and Tom go to buy a new battery for the "new" van. Oh yeah, the red van's transmission was slipping, too.  But, after it got warmed up, it seemed to be fine.

Oh forgot to mention that two people on this team didn't make the flight in Ohio.  When the girl (she is 16) presented her passport to board the plane, they refused her because her passport was due to expire in July. So, she and her dad DROVE from Dayton to Detroit right then to get another passport.  The airlines called the passport office for them in order to get her an appointment. NOTE TO EVERYONE WHO TRAVELS ABROAD!!!! You are NOT permitted to fly if your passport is due to expire within 6 months of your departure date.

6/13/12 - we left for the mountains.  Everything went well. The plan was to get to the hotel, eat a quick lunch, then go to the work site to work half a day.  Well, it started raining right after lunch, so work was out.  That gave me this opportunity to bring everyone up to date on our travels so far.