Estamos Ocupados

We are Busy!

Yesterday we went to Tegucigalpa to buy 30 more days on our visas (you are only allowed to stay 90 when you first enter the country). I cannot believe we have already been here almost 3 months! We took the "chicken bus" at 7:00 a.m. from Guaimaca and arrived in Teguc around 9:45. That was quite an experience. The "chicken bus" is an old school bus (yellow with green seats and all) that rides all over Honduras. It was packed so full that there were people standing, crammed in the aisles. Since we arrived early, we had a seat. People literally stood for hours. And if you remember from your childhood, there are no air-conditioners on the old yellow school buses.

We made it to the Immigration offices safely, bought our 30 days, stopped by the Multi-Plaza (mall) to eat and buy some groceries that we can't get in Guaimaca, then headed back home on the chicken bus, once again. Our bus left around 1:30 and arrived in Guaimaca about 4:15, just as full if not more so, than the first time. On our way back, however, we couldn't see as well from where we were sitting and missed our stop. Someone told us there would be one more stop for Guaimaca... they lied! We figured out about a 1/2 a mile away and yelled for the bus driver to stop. I'm sure everyone on the bus got a big laugh out of us (silly foreigners who don't know where they live). We had to walk that 1/2 mile on the highway back to town... The highways here are not like the highways back home. The highways here make Oklahoma Roads look like a luxury street! (If you can imagine that). The highway is more like a somewhat paved road with livestock all over the place...
But we finally made it back, exhausted.

We will have to return to Teguc next week to pick up our passports (you have to leave them there to approve your request for extra time). Once our 30 days ends we will have to leave the country for 3 days to renew our visas and start over on another 90 days stretch. But, you can't just go to a bordering country, Oh no. It must be 1 country away! So we will be leaving in October to go to Costa Rica!!! Derek wants to leave a little early so that we can arrive in Costa Rica by my birthday. Hopefully that will work out.

My art class has been going great! We had Honduran ladies from Guaimaca teach us how to make baskets out of thread and pine needles last week. They are beautiful! My fingers hurt and I think I had more splinters in one hand than imaginable, but I love this new hobby! Soon we will go on a "field trip" to the mountains to collect more pine needles.

Derek is staying busy at the dairy barn and helping with the pig barn as well. A couple days ago he helped kill, clean, and cut up a pig. I think they ended up with 100 pounds of meat, if you can imagine that! The man who was in charge of the dairy barn will be returning Sept. 21 from his furlough and Derek will be reassigned somewhere else. I think he's pretty ready to learn something new.

That's about all. I will try to upload some pictures of our baskets if allowed.

Blessings from Hondo!

P.S. Derek caught the "rat" the day after I posted about it. He said it was a mouse because it was too small to be a rat. Whatever it was, I'm glad the rodent is gone!!