Bienvenudos a Honduras!

That's right, we're in Honduras. (For anyone who is shocked by this news, please read the next post down – it will explain this very quick turn of events.) We have been here for nearly a week and are greatly enjoying it. Our adventure started on September 22nd. We had nearly finished packing our 5 suitcases, 2 carry-ons and 2 backpacks when we received word that our flight out the next morning was cancelled. The ousted Honduran President Zelaya had smuggled himself back into Honduras and was seeking asylum in the Brazilian Embassy. All airports in the country then closed for 2 days, bumping our flight to Saturday. Although, we were saddened by the continued political unrest in this country we were very thankful for a few more last days in the states with no packing left! We got to hike Camelback one last time, saw The Imposter (it was ok), and went to the Citizen Cope concert (such a good show!) Bright and early Saturday morning we dragged a years worth of luggage to the airport and were on our way! (This is one of those places where I would like to insert a picture. Darn missing camera cord.)
We arrived in Canchias (the small village where the School of Discipleship is) around mid afternoon on Sunday, then hit the ground running on Monday! We went with German to San Pedro Sula (big city that we flew into) to buy a vehicle. Now shopping for a vehicle in Honduras is very different than car shopping in the US. In the states you will probably do some research about the type of vehicle to want, spend a day going to various car lots and test driving the vehicles. You then go home and think about this major purchase you are going to make and maybe run the VIN# through car fax to make sure this vehicle hasn't had any major problems. On the other hand, in Honduras, you go to a few car lots (which is a fenced in parking lot with cars parked 3-4 cars deep), ask a few questions – including which part of the vehicle was damaged (since the vast majority of cars in this country were totaled in the US) take it for a little spin, then buy it that day. So that's what we did. Bought ourselves a nice little black KIA Sportage. Drove it back to the village that day (Sean was actually gutsy enough to drive through the CRAZY Honduras traffic!) When we got to San Isidro (where the Heart to Honduras office is) the car wouldn't start. No worries, he just had to tighten the battery terminal and we were on our way again. (What is that you're saying? You think it should be a red flag that the first time we try to start the car after leaving the lot we are having problems? Nah, we'll be fine...) Tuesday morning – wouldn't start again. No matter how much tightening of the terminal happenend – still wouldn't start. Sergio (HTH mechanic) came to Canchias and he and Sean worked on the vehicle with a screwdriver, pliers, crescent wrench and one open ended wrench. Worked on it for quite some time actually. Somehow, those 4 tools weren't quite enough to get it going again. So Sergio and a teacher from the school towed it all the way back to San Pedro through the mountains and dirt roads. We got it back last night and it's started up twice with no problem. We're going to be leaving in about an hour. Hopefully it'll start again!