First things ...

Nearly a week now in Honduras, we're still working on getting settled in and figuring out our way around. We have rented a house in Gracias and have spent most of the week cleaning and painting. That, and learning how to function here.

One of the biggest challenges so far is driving - the streets in town are narrow, single-lane, cobblestone affairs, generally one-way, with parking on one side. Actually, the cars are often parked on both sides, and people (usually) park staggered far enough apart to allow a car to pass through between. A normal-sized car, which around here means a Toyota pickup. There are times when you meet someone coming the other direction; when this happens, someone has to back up. Driving here reminds me of driving in Europe, except that I didn't try to drive a Ford 747 in Europe. And there are people in the streets - people standing, talking, walking, riding bikes, riding motorcycles. People everywhere, with bundles of sticks on their backs and big baskets and trays balanced on their heads. People and horses and burros. I can't believe how crowded it is.

The road in front of the house where we have been staying has been under construction this past week, for paving. Actually, for pouring concrete. We got the trailer into our friends' driveway Friday night, by using the 4x4 on the truck. We then took the truck out at about 6am the next morning, but the trailer has been trapped in the driveway all week by piles of dirt and concrete frames and workers. Hopefully this weekend we'll be able to get the trailer out and move into our house in Gracias.

This week a training session for local area pastors was held outside of Gracias, put together by the Sowers family. They had about 80 pastors from anywhere within about a 4 or 5 hour motorcycle ride arrive. The session was quite successful; I didn't get a chance to spend much time there with all the moving-in going on, but I did get a chance to visit. This is the last session for a few months; most of the pastors make most of their yearly income over the next few months related to the coffee crop harvest. The next session is scheduled for March.

Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras

We made it!

We arrived Friday evening after a bit of run-around involving roads shown on the map that don't actually exist, and yet another border crossing - I'm really looking forward to pulling money out of the ATM today or tomorrow and actually being able to keep some of it, or spend it on something we need, rather than giving it all to the border officials. Although our final destination is a town called Gracias, about 45 minutes from here, we are staying with missionary friends here in Santa Rosa while we get housing set up in Gracias. The people we are staying with actually moved here from Bend, Oregon, where we used to live, and we have had fun figuring out we actually have mutual friends there. They also have roots in Portland and Vancouver.

Yesterday we drove to Gracias and looked at a house that was available to rent there. The house is available immediately, and we're going to take it - it's small and modest, as most here are, but a nice house, and with a good cleaning and some paint it will work well to start out here. Faith, of course, is now trying to figure out how to get the kitchen to work with NO drawers and NO cabinets.

We'll post pictures in a day or two. Right now we're trying to rest a little and get oriented in the new surroundings.