We Have Arrived

As I write this message, the students are outside playing soccer. They’re using up the rest of their energy so they can rest well tonight and be ready to go to work early tomorrow. I hear them outside my window and from the sounds of it, they’re getting their butts kicked by little Honduran students.

Our day began early in Omaha – around 2:30 a.m. Holiday Inn Express had a nice breakfast for us; then we were off for the airport. Unloading our bags train-style was a sight for the other passengers. Delta checked us in very efficiently, and we were through TSA and at our gate in record time. Both flights were uneventful. There were plenty of ooohs and aaaahs as we circled the mountains around Tegucigalpa and came in for a landing. Of course, the traditional applause was given the pilot for a perfect landing.

Another positive: all the bags arrived! I believe two of them were the very last ones unloaded from the plane, but they were all there. Our greeting committee of Francis, Julio, Marta, Carlos, Fabio, and more welcomed each and every one of us to Honduras. We definitely noticed the heat the minute we left the airport. 83 degrees was 50 degrees warmer than we experienced when we left Omaha this morning. We’re enjoying it right now. However, I have a feeling we may not appreciate it as much once we start our physical labor.

The missioners witnessed the impressive poverty so apparent in Nueva Capital the moment we turned onto the dirt road up the mountainside. Santa Teresa De Jesus school sits atop the mountain and has a picturesque view of the valley below. We had a brief welcome we unloaded the black bags from the truck. We feasted on cooked beef, rice with chopped carrots, green beans mixed with eggs, and machitiadas (fry bread dessert). We then worked out proper sleeping quarters for everyone, sorted our belongings out of donated items, and learned a few of the rules for the building. For example, which is the girls’ bathroom, which is the guys, how to use the bathrooms in Honduras, etc. There is always much to learn on the first day. Many of the missioners had time to write in their ‘junta’ books, reflection journals, that we’ll use every night for our ‘junta.’

After our 7 p.m. supper we’ll have our junta to process what we’ve experience thus far. The chaperones will go over the groups for our jobs  tomorrow because we know everyone will want to get right to work.

We’ll let everone sleep in until 6 tomorrow with breakfast at 6:30. I can hardly wait to tell you our first work experiences and hopefully post our first pictures. I’ll do my best to blog as early as possible, but we are one hour behind you so it might be around supper time or later before I can get to the computer each day.

Know that your prayers and good wishes helped us to have a great first day. Parents, you should be very proud of your sons and daughters and their actions and attitudes thus far! I know all the Hondurans have been happy to see us here!

By the way, Seivert, Daniel from Marcala now lives at the school and attends school in Tegucigalpa. He asked if you were here so he could do the “South Dakota Slide” with you.