A Taste of America

God sure was looking upon on with favor on Friday! He blessed us with some good ‘ol American Chili Cheese Dogs! I mean, honestly, when is the last time that you praised the Lord for giving you a hotdog? It was Friday afternoon (our crazy first week of school had finally come to an end) and we decided to hit the internet café for a little R & R. Not long after we began surfing the net, we got a call from our good buddy, Bill. They had just gotten a shipment of hot dogs and chili in at the base and he invited us over to indulge with him. We enthusiastically obliged! And a treat it was…. 8 dogs later, we were doubled over in pain! (Greg – 4, Bill – 2½, Emily – 1½) Oh, and we also had some Cool Ranch Doritos and baked beans. We felt like it was the fourth of July! The neighbor kids even helped us celebrate by setting off firecrackers! (Seriously! Hondurans have a habit of doing that…all hours of the day and night, for no apparent reason you will hear the sound of fireworks!) After several hours of rehashing our week, talking on the phone (Bill always insists that we call our parents from his internet phone when we are at his house) and relaxing, Bill had an idea. Every time we are together he raves about yucca (an indigenous root vegetable that is similar to a potato). He has threatened to take us to his favorite place and get some several times, and this was the night his dreams would come to fruition. Next thing we knew were out, eating more food! He ordered two kinds….yucca chimichurra (boiled yucca with a garlic pesto sauce) and good ‘ol fried yucca (Honduran style). It was delicious! I have no idea how we had the room, but we slammed the entire thing! It was a great night….well….until about 3am when I woke up to the sound of Greg’s 4 hotdogs being resurrecting into the toilet! Poor guy! He said it will be years until he can eat another one. He had a similar experience with apple juice when he was 5 and hasn’t touched the stuff since!

Saturday was a great day! It was our first day to teach at the orphanage! We were pumped! Right on time, a truck from the farm picked us up at our apartment. We picked up about 8 girls from town, then headed out to meet the rest of the group at the boy’s orphanage. Fortunately, one of our bilingual Honduran friends volunteered to translate. It was a blessing because I don’t know how we would have been able to communicate as effectively without him. We had about 20 alumnos (boys and girls) and learned that 17 more would be there next week (they had a school activity that morning). We were thrilled! On Saturdays, we will teach high school and college students. The kids were given the option to come to class IF they wanted to learn English. So think about it, approximately 40 students ages 14-22 are voluntarily coming to our class for 2 ½ hours on Saturday mornings! Even one of the staff members is attending. We are so excited! We did a brief assessment to determine their skill level, then hit the ground running. It was a great class and we could see the enthusiasm on their faces! I am sure they could see it on ours too! I am confident that God has wonderful things in store for the future!
That evening we attended church at La Vina (The Vineyard) – a wonderful experience as always!

Sunday was filled with LOTS of work. We made lesson plans for hours and ran errands to prepare for the week ahead. Later in the day Greg was reminiscing about his days in Raleigh when he would get a Bojangles Tailgate Special complete with a gallon of sweet tea and go to town in front of the TV watching Sunday afternoon football….and then he somehow convinced me to go. Yes, for all you North Carolinians out there, you read correctly…there is a Bojangles here in Comayagua. Trying to recreate Greg’s familiar atmosphere, we decided to get Bojangles takeout. He excitedly ordered one of the fried chicken combos and ordered his favorite dirty rice and fries for sides. Needless to say, he also ordered a large sweat tea. Several minutes later, we were home preparing for the feast. Disappointment #1: No Texas Pete. Fried Chicken without Texas Pete? Un-American! Greg shakes it off and uses a Honduran brand. Disappointment #2: Greg carefully places the straw in his coveted cup of sweet tea and to his surprise discovers it is Sprite. He pouts, but is determined that it will not get him down. Disappointment #3: Greg opens the container of dirty rice to find a mound of coleslaw. This was it. He was disgusted. However, it did not stop him from eating ever last morsel in the bag. Coby saved the day when he was able to produce 3 NFL games on Sunday afternoon (with Spanish commentating of course). Oh, and Greg dominated his fantasy football league this week. (p.s. Greg is playing in a league with a bunch of random dudes since none of his friends would let him in theirs….he made me type that). All in all, it was a wonderful weekend filled with lots of good food and new cultural experiences.