Stitches in Honduras Round 2: The Drama Continues...

Greg was working out at the gym on military base on Monday night when he was approached by a fellow lifter. The man introduced himself and asked Greg if he was playing on one of the base intramural basketball teams. (Apparently the guy remembered Greg from flag football and was impressed with his athletic ability.) Greg told him he had not been recruited yet, so the guy asked Greg to join his team (the Fire Department on base). There were only a few games left, and several makeups, but he wanted Greg to play with them. Greg accepted and found out they had 3 games this week (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday). I went and watched his game on Tuesday, and for a minute felt like I was at the NBA championship! The crowd was BRUTALLY intense, chastising the players, ripping the referees, and being just plain rowdy! And of course about 90% of the fans were there cheering for the OTHER team! I seriously was scared and barely even clapped when Greg´s team scored or rebounded. The other team and fans talked a big game, but fortunately didn´t bring one, because Greg´s team won by 12 points!

The best part of the night though, came after the game. The Honduran referrees offered to give us a ride home, back to Comayagua (about 15 minutes from the base). We gladly accepted, as a car beats the bus any day! So on the way home, one of the refs asked Greg to play on his basketball team! Supposedly it is the ´best basketball team in all of Comayagua´so they said! Another opportunity to play sports? Clearly, Greg accepted!

Last night, Greg had his second game. I couldn´t make it (I had other obligations in Siguatapeque) but Greg was there and rearing to go. Apparently the game was pretty one sided again, and his team had a decent lead near the end of the game. However, Greg´s intensity did not waver...he keeps it going till the last buzzer sounds! So with a couple minutes left, he went up to block a shot and collided with a player on the other team. He jumped up and when he came down, he landed on an opponents head...with is chin! Greg´s chin busted open along with the other guy´s head! Of course, Greg´s the only one that came out with stitches! 4 to be exact! I guess it had been a good 5 - 6 months since the last ones, so he was due! They stitched him up at the Medical Unit on base and send him home with some band aids and antibacterial cream. He said he isn´t in too much pain, the worst part is his tongue. He bit it pretty hard from the impact of the collision and it is bloody and swollen. Poor guy!

So, today Greg has a soccer game and another basketball game. He is determined to play. I am not in support of this decision, but hey, I´m just his wife not a doctor, so my advice is not credible enough to stop him! I think God is on my side though....because the weather is overcast and rainy today (and both games are supposed to be outside!) It seriously has not rained here (at least not in the morning) for months! Moreover, it is the ´dry season´ right now! I am keeping my fingers crossed that the rain doesn´t let up anytime soon! :)

Random Happenings

The rest of our visit with my dad was great! We tried several new restaurants (and none of us got sick - thank God), explored Comayagua, and spent a lot of time at the orphanage. Greg and I helped my dad (who is a veterinarian) pregnancy check and worm a herd of 37 cattle, put a nose ring in a bull, and further develop the agricultural development plan at the boy´s orphanage (which is located on a farm).

We also visited a farm close to Siguatepeque where my dad also helped with livestock. The people that run the place are an American couple fromTexas. They moved here about 2 years ago with their 4 children (ages 4-14). On top of their own kids, they are currently providing foster care for 8 Honduran boys (ages 2 - 22) all under the same roof! It is pretty amazing! They grow all kinds of fruits and vegatables, raise animals for food and homeschool all the kids. The lady has to prepare enough food to feed 14 at each meal! I can´t imagine - I barely have enough food to feed Greg! (She does have some hired help though to provide some much needed support.) All the kids are pretty much bilingual and they all get a long great. It was so cute watching all of them cuddle up on the couch and watch Hight School Musical 2 (Friday night is movie night there...it took them at least 15 minutes to agree on which one to watch!) Each of them have responsibilities for maintaining their property and doing housework. Besides the fact that there are 12 kids, it is a very ´normal´environment for all of them. It is very impressive and amazing to see this family in action!

On the last night of my dad´s visit, we went to the recreation center of the Fransiscan Friars (here in Comayagua) for a concert. (Visit the following link for more information on the Friars: http://www.cfrhonduras.com/, they are truly amazing people!) A group from Tegucigalpa provided the entertainment, and were made up of both males and females ranging from ages 10 to 25. It was pretty awesome because all of the performers were blind! They wore brightly colored traditional Honduras clothes and played and sang classic Christian folk music. There were about 300 people in attendance, all singing along and dancing. It was really fun and awesome to see them all with their hands lifted high praising the Lord! After a tearful goodbye on Sunday morning, dad headed back to dreadfully cold Ohio. We had a fabulous time together and were reminded of what a wonderful family God has blessed us with!

La Ceiba - Part II

We woke up around 8am on Saturday morning, ready to get our grub on! We hit the breakfast buffet - and we hit it hard! The food was decent, but I think the thing that impressed us the most was the abundance. I always get ´buffet shock´ anytime I encounter one. So many choices, such a small plate! I get so overwhelmed and excited about all the options that I nearly always go overboard at a buffet (I often try to avoid them for this reason alone!) This case was no different! The worst part though came next - putting on a bathing suit after stuffing myself like a Thanksgiving dinner turkey! I still don´t quite get the whole ´beach resort´and all inclusive ´all you can eat´buffet combination?! A ´juice fast beach resort´makes more sense to me. I mean, who wants to get in a two piece after eating so much food! It is a catch 22 because since your food is all included in the price of the hotel, you want to take advantage and fill up! Who knows?! I am just kidding though...I love it!

So anyway, we were out on the beach resting and relaxing (trying to kick our food coma) by around 10:30am. It was so great to just lay back, listen to the waves, and not have a care in the world (for a change!) A few hours later we relocated to on of the private pools where we spent the rest of the afternoon. We retreated inside around 4:00pm, just in time to get in a game of Scrabble before dinner. We decided that we were buffet-ed out, so we opted to go into town for dinner. We settled on a seafood joint called ´Arrecife.´ Everything looked good on the menu, so we chose a seafood sampler platter for 4. The thing was HUGE, could have fed all 6 of Greg´s brothers (and they eat a TON)! It was tasty, but by the end, we had hardly made a dent in the thing! (The photo to the right was taken once we finished eating!) Afterward, we went home and hit the sack. We had a long day ahead - of snorkeling, visiting Cayos C0chinos (13 small islands off the coast of Honduras) oh and of course, the 6 hour intense drive home. Check out the following link for more information about Cayos Cochinos: http://www.hondurastips.honduras.com/english/cayoscochinos.htm

The boat arrived at 8:30am on the beach to take us out to the islands. After a pretty rough 40 minute ride, we landed on the first island. It was beautiful! The powdery sand sparkeled like sugar crystals and the water was transparent aqua. We walked around a bit, then boarded the boat to check out more islands. 3 of them were off limits for the conservation of the natural habitat of sea turtles (one of the few places in the world that they inhabit.) We went snorkeling off of the coast of Cayo Mayor (the biggest island) where we got to see part of the world’s second largest barrier reef system. What a cool experience! After that, we headed over to Chachauate Key where 200 Garifuna people live (Visit this link http://www.garifuna.com/ for more details on the Garifuna. It is very interesting!) Anyway, it was so fascinating! About 200 people ranging from babies to ederly folks all living on this small island in huts constructed from grass, palm branches, and sticks - complete with a natural sand floor. They make money there by selling handmade jewley and food (lobster, fish, rice, and beans) to visitors. There is no doctor´s office, no grocery store, no electricity, only a small community out house-type bathroom, a couple pulperias (little convenience shops that sell necessities, usually the front room of someone´s house) and a homemade open flame oven and stove (see photo left). They had several canoes docked on the shore, for entertainment and transportation. It was really hard to take it all in - I just couldn´t imagine their lifestyle! Sure, it would be amazing to live on a beautiful island and be surrounded by breathtaking views, but I mean, they are basically living in tiny, poorly constructed huts, all connected together and cut off from the rest of the world! They love it though, and they seem very happy there! It was amazing how they just opened up their homes and just let us intervene and watch as they went about their daily duties. We hung out with the local people for about 2 hours then we headed back to the La Ceiba shore.

It was around 2pm when we got back to the hotel and we knew we should get heading back to Comayagua. As we loaded the car, I noticed that I was misisng my flip flops. One of the front desk staff gave us the villa key (we had already checked out earlier that morning) and told me I could look in the room. We decided that this would also be a good opportunity for us to change out of our bathing suits too, so we grabbed our bags and headed back inside. Sure enough, I found my shoes and after putting on dry clothes, we were on our way out of town. Not even 5 minutes into our trip though, we hit our first police road block. This time we wern´t so lucky....we were pulled over! Thank goodness my dad was driving (since he actually has a valid US Driver´s License) and we had a Spanish speaker with us, Jenny! After dealing with several different officers and exchanging a lot of paper work, the head policeman let us go (about 10 minutes later). Whew! We were all super nervous! God surely had his favor upon us! Most of the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful (just how we like it!) When we got back to Comayagua (around 9pm) we dropped Jenny off, then headed back to our apartment.

Greg popped the trunk and began unloading our things. He then came to the back seat to get our bag (we shared one of his big lacrosse equippment bags). I told him it wasn´t back there - he told me the trunk was empty! Please tell me your kidding me and we didn´t really leave our luggage 6 hours away in La Ceiba! Sure enough, when we went back to change our clothes in the villa, we managed to leave our bag behind! Unbelievable! Leave it to the Bice´s to do such a thing! Howevever, we were so exhausted at this point, that we didn´t really care! At least we got home safely, we told ourselves! That pretty much sums up our La Ceiba trip! We had a great time exploring more of this beautiful country and spending quality time with friends and family (and Alicia too, of course!)

EPILOGUE:
We found out at school on Monday that one of our Honduraño coworkers (from La Ceiba) was going there the following weekend to visit. Fortunately, he was able to retreive our bag and we got it back safe and sound! God sure looks out for us here, I´m telling you! It is truly amazing!

P.S. We still have not unpacked it yet....

La Ceiba - Part I

My dad was recently here to visit! He is our first official guest in Honduras! Although he has been here several times in the past, he is getting to experience Comayagua in a new way as well as doing some sight seeing.

The principal at our school has some connections at an ´all inclusive ´resort in La Ceiba (a beach town located on the north coast of Honduras about 5-6 hours from Comayagua) so we decided to plan a trip! We finalized the accomodations at Palma Real on Wednesday and we were set to go! Since we were getting a special rate, there was a ´no cancellation policy´ on our room. No problem though, we were definitely going! All we had to do was work out the transporation details (we don´t have a car - many people here don´t). We checked at the base, and the Thrifty Rent A Car was willing to rent to civillians and even had a good weekend rate. So Thursday after school I called to make the reservation. Or, at least I tried to. The lady informed me that they had no cars available for rent, they were all booked for the weekend already (all 14 of them)! I was shocked! Who were all these people renting cars and where could they possibly be going? The woman explained that they may get a cancellation, so she took my name and number and promised to call back if anything opened up. I never heard from her again. No problem we would just go for transportation Plan B - call all the other car rental places in town. We quickly found out that no other ones exist in Comayagua (the closest would be an hour and a half away in Tegucigalpa). Okay, by now it is about 4:00pm on Thursday afternoon (we were set to leave for La Ceiba on Friday at 2:00pm) and we were getting a little nervous. We went for it, and called in the big guns! Our friend and neighbor, Shane, works one the base and for the US Embassy. He has been here for about 4 years and has the system down pat. He has connections all over the place and can get you about anything you want or need. If Shane can´t do it, no one can, I´m telling you! He said he thought he might have a couple options for us (including a guy he knows that rents cars privately). He said he would start checking into them, and would call us back soon. In the mean time, we contacted the family that owns our apartment for some backup ideas (they usually pull through for us too!) They knew a couple ´private drivers´and volunteered to call them for price and availability. Okay, we were starting to feel a little more at ease. We soon heard back from both of our ´big guns´and still nothing! AHHH!!! We then remembered one of our friends in Florida had a ´go to guy here´that she always rented cars from. We made contact with her and were able to get her contact´s number. We got in touch with Jorge that evening (located in Tegucigalpa, an hour away) and he said he would let me know on Friday morning by 10:00am if his company could accomidate our request for them to drive a car here for us, then return and pick it up in Comayagua on Sunday. We kept our fingers crossed as this was our last resort!

I think we all slept sorta light that night...wondering if we would actually be able to go on our trip. I was nervous all morning at school and by 10am on the dot when I hadn´t heard for Jorge, I called him. Hallelujah! He pulled through for us! Even gave us a great rate! Finally, we had officially secured transportation for our trip (less than 4 hours before our planned departure)! He assured us that he would be there with the car by 2:00pm, and it was our until Monday morning. What a relief! In true Honduran fashion, he showed up with the car about 2 hours late, at 4:00pm. Whatever, we were just happy to have a ride. So finally, around 4:30pm on Friday afternoon, we were off – bound for La Ceiba and no one could stop us! Okay, so a restroom/coffee break stopped us about literally 2 minutes later, but after that, we were making a Bee line!

As a newly established ‘Bice’ tradition, we listened to the new Alicia Keys CD “As I Am” on a continuous loop for the entire 6 hour trip. You see, we heard one song from it while were in the US for Christmas and it convinced us enough to purchase the album. We have an IPOD here that we listen to daily, but that CD is the pretty much the only one we have here. We have been on two road trips in Honduras since we bought the CD (one 4 hour round trip and the other 12 hour round trip) and since we could only pick up crappy local Spanish radio stations (we assumed) we didn’t want to risk it, and just listened the Alicia the entire time. She has been a quite a good road trip companion-she never gets hungry or has to stop for the bathroom. For those two reasons alone, we will continue to bring here along with us on our travels.

Anyway, back to the journey. So, driving here is pretty terrible. I take that back, I it is either really bad or really good. Here’s why… The roads here are extremely dangerous. People driving at outrageous speeds, passing on BOTH sides (not just the left), blind passing, passing on curves, passing on hills, passing when there is an oncoming car only 20 yards ahead…okay you get the point. It is seriously intense anytime you get behind the wheel here. Basically anything goes, and one rule I have found to be true, is that the ‘biggest car wins.’ Which pretty much means when there are three cars driving side by side on a 2 lane highway, the smallest car has to pull off to the side of the road. Does that make sense? So pretty much, since we were driving a Toyota Corolla we were in the ditch a lot! I know this is hard to imagine, but a couple times on the drive there, Greg got a little overconfident and we ended up sandwiched between two cars going different directions on the two lane highway. We had one extremely close call, when a semi actually ‘tried’ to hit us (he swerved toward us) because he was mad that we were in his lane, but thank the good Lord we made it out alive. After that, my dad pretty much drove the rest of the way! You see, all over the highway here the Honduran police force sets up check points. They are checking to make sure people driving are sober, have a valid driver’s license, and are driving a registered vehicle. If you get caught not complying with one of those stipulations, there is a 90% chance you are headed to the slammer. I would hate to go to jail in the United States, think about that for a minute, multiply its harshness and uncleanliness by whole lot, and you might have an idea of what jail is like here (so we’ve heard….) Okay, so its either that or pay a lot of money….if the cop rolls that way. (Again, just what we’ve heard.) After Greg drove for a while and we made it through a couple check points unscathed, we agreed that since Greg doesn’t have his US Driver’s License here with him (long story) that my dad should drive. Okay, back to my point about the really bad good driver versus really good drive debate. So, although we have passed many accidents and vehicles on the side of the road, I always think that if they were tat bad of drivers, there would be a whole lot more! I mean, they are pretty talented to drive as wreck less as they do here and survive! I’ll probably never come to a conclusion – but I do think it is a semi valid argument!

Okay, so it is 10:30pm and we finally arrive at the Palma Real All-Inclusive Resort in La Ceiba! We got all checked in to the hotel, then decided to go relax and unwind ocean side for a while. We were desperately in search of food (although not really hungry, just in the mood to eat) but sadly, there was nothing to munch available. We hung out for about and hour or so then headed back to our villa. We got already for bed, flipped on the A/C and jumped into bed. We laid there for a while and thought it was weird how the air conditioner was so loud, yet, not producing any cold air. We flipped every switch, adjusted the temperature, everything, but we got nothing! I was so tired, I didn’t care, but our friend, Jenny, and Greg decided to go tell a hotel staff member. Since it was now about 1am and there were no maintenance people working at that hour, our only option was to relocate to another room. Again, for the record, I was half asleep and fine to just stay, the rest of the crew was all about switching to an ice box. We repacked and relocated and were sound asleep by about 2:00am.

I realize this is getting a little long...so, the Bice adventures in La Ceiba are to be continued.....
(I feel like this is a double episode of Saved by the Bell...like the one when Jesse starts taking no doze so she can stay up all night and cram for finals....I´m sure you are on the edge of your seat!) More later!