On Tuesday after school, our landlord gave us a ride home. I was telling her how badly I wanted to learn how to make tortillas, so she invited us over that even and she would give us an official lesson. We were pumped! After teaching at the orphanage then doing some tutoring, we headed over to her house. Right about that time…we lost power. It didn’t stop us though! Alejandra gave us tortilla making lessons by candlelight! It was so much fun! She even taught us how to make pupusas (a typical food here…basically, you put a hunk of cheese in the middle of the tortilla dough, then smash it with the tortilla press and cook it on the preheated tortilla pan. The cheese actually cooks into the tortilla…genius! Then you add fresh sautéed veggies and it is quite the treat!) She also gave us a recipe for Honduran enchiladas (very different than Mexican enchiladas) and showed us how to make beans. Honestly, I think she gave me the Honduran 101 cooking lesson because she felt bad for Greg. You see, they go all out here for every meal. I mean, they will make pork chops, fresh tortillas, rice, and vegetables for lunch on a random Tuesday. They cook it up big style for every meal here. There is no heating up leftovers or making a having cereal for lunch. I think I mentioned before that parents actually bring fresh cooked meals to their children at school every day for lunch. Greg and I, we keep it simple…PBJ every day! Yeah, I get a little jealous watching the kids chow on their grilled chicken, barbecued beef, beans, cheese, rice and tortillas, but whatever, peanut butter and jelly is fine! Alejandra, cracked up when she found at that is what we ate everyday for lunch. She was stunned that Greg was okay with that and assured me that her husband would definitely not be! So, in turn, she willingly gave me a cooking lesson and some traditional recipes in hopes that I would change my ways…at least for Greg’s sake! So, I did start to feel bad and I actually cooked lunch for Greg the next day. After all the work it took, we just picked up Wendy’s for the other two days!
When is the last time you had a candlelight dinner?
Wednesday was pretty uneventful. Greg and made dinner by candlelight again. Greg and I whipped up some delicious tuna salad to accompany the Honduran version of saltine crackers. Oh, and we also bought the biggest lemon in Central America from the Pulperia by our house (small 
little convenience store…there are at least 2 on every block). I asked Greg to pick one up, and he came back with this monstrosity of a fruit! The best part is, Greg has made such good friends with the owners there, that they just gave it to him! Anyway, we made like 2 cups of fresh lemon juice from the one lemon! Amazing! Here is a photo for proof (look at it compared to the size of Greg´s hand!) :
On Thursday, after a rough morning with my feisty fourth graders, I was delighted when the bell rang for recess. As I opened my class room door for 30 whole minutes of sitting down and resting my voice I was greeted by a swarm of kids. “Miss Emily! Miss Emily! Mr. Greg had to go to the hospital - he hit his head!” They shouted. Confused and completely blindsided, I started to cry. I scoured the playground with my eyes and sure enough, there was no sign of Mr. Greg. I began walking to the main building and as I did, I could feel everyone just staring at me as my eyes welled up with tears. Finally I ran into and administrative staff member and questioned Greg’s whereabouts. “Oh, he’s at the hospital” was their reply. Then, I did manage to get a little more information….that he was bleeding out of his head. Of course, I am freaking out by this time! Especially when they told me that everything was taken care of, that he was at the hospital and I should just stay at school. I was not down with that and after a few minutes was able to get one of the school’s head staff members to drive me to the Hospital Colonial (one of the private hospitals in town). When we arrived, I got to go straight to the emergency room where he was being treated. There I found out that during High School recess (the period right before elementary recess) Greg got an elbow to the eye during a game of soccer. The impact split open the skin right on his brow bone above his eye. It literally looked like he had a third eye opening! I don’t know what freaked me out more, the huge gash on his face or that dried blood that was stained on the wall from previous patients…. Anyway, the doctor came in and gave him several shots in the wound and then put in five stitches as four bystanders (including me) all stood around and watched. It was a pretty painful sight, but as to be excepted from him, Greg was a good sport, cracking jokes about it the whole time. He even claimed he would give bonus points to his student that did it for giving him such a good hit! About an hour later, Greg was discharged. He was given pain pills, some topical solution, and 6 vials of fluid that required an injection in his rear ever 12 hours. I perked up when I found out that I would be the one administering the shots! I assured the staff that I had given our dog vaccinations in the past, so giving Greg a shot in the butt twice daily would be a piece of cake! (If fact, something I would take pleasure in….I mean, when would I get this opportunity again!) You better believe that every twelve hours on the dot, Greg got his injection by his cheerful enthusiastic home health care nurse, Emily. J Due to the accident, the doctor told him to take Friday off school and prohibited from playing soccer for at least 7 days (of course, I busted him later that night kicking a soccer ball around with our neighbor!)
In all seriousness though, we are SO thankful that the accident was not more severe. The doctor said that had it been a little deeper he would have done surgery (since it was so close to his eye). 
PRAISE GOD that wasn’t necessary! In fact, his eye is healing so well and so fast I can‘t believe it has only been 3 days! The swelling went down within 24 hours and he doesn’t have any pain! God is so good! Please pray that it fully heals with no complications! Our biggest fear has been infection, but so far so good! We have faith that God will completely heal him with no problems. So brace yourself, here is a picture of what he looked like about 8 hours after the injury. Now we just joke that he is wearing purple eye shadow (because that it was it looks like!) Greg has such a positive attitude and is just thankful that he is recovering so quickly. I can assure you, we will never forget our time here in Honduras as Greg now has a permanent souvenir!
We hope you are all doing well! We miss you! May God continue to fill your life with blessings as he is with ours! Thank you so much for your prayers and support!
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