Lately, Honduras has been getting a lot of attention in the media, and maybe not in the most positive light. But I am going to share with you our positive experience.

Bryan and I recently traveled to Honduras.  Why you ask?  Well, as I have written in my past blogs, my parents have started and opened a boys home in Puerto Lempira, which is in the northeastern region of Honduras.  Puerto Lempira is a very small town, but is considered the largest town in the La Mosquitia region.  How small?  SMALL…and I mean small!  To put it into perspective, there is only one paved road in “El Centro” and it’s not even a mile long. Other than that, all the roads are made from red dirt that gets slippery when wet, dusty when dry, and very bumpy, which makes for an interesting ride that’s for sure!

Also, the trip to get to Puerto Lempira is not a walk in the park.  It does take a couple days to get there since you have to catch multiple flights and the planes kept getting smaller and smaller.  We started our journey by driving from San Diego to LAX after work on Thursday evening and caught a redeye to El Salvador.  We landed very early in the morning and then we had a small layover to catch our next flight to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. From there we had a few hours until we caught our last flight for the day, which was to La Ceiba.  We soaked up the AC, grabbed some food, and enjoyed a nice cold smoothie.  We finally boarded our last leg and we hopped on a small 20 passenger plane.  I was not sure what I was getting myself into.  Funny story, we sat righttttttt behind the pilot and co-pilot on this flight.  Mind you, it’s not like the big commercial flights that we are used to in the states.  These planes are very old and very small. So yes it was kind of cool we got to be so close to all the “action,” but there were some things that I wish I didn’t see….such as our pilot reading a page titled, “How to Perform an Emergency Landing”  in the safety manual. I gently tapped Bryan on his shoulder and nodded in the direction of the captain so he could see what I saw. We both looked at each other terrified with a small giggle, but needless to say we landed safely. Tinki Dawan (Thank you God in Miskito).

Once we landed in La Ceiba, we felt the humidity as soon as we got off the plane, but I wasn’t thinking about how hot I was because I was completely surrounded by luscious green mountains.  La Ceiba’s airport has to be one of the prettiest I have seen. I was in awe of the natural beauty that surrounded me. Once getting our bags, a very sweet German lady named Barbara picked us up who happens to be the owner of where we were going to be staying for the night.  My parents recommended for us to stay at the Rainbow Village which is a cute little hotel across the street from the airport making it very easy and convenient.  Bryan and I felt very safe and secure here and would recommend it to anyone who is traveling to La Ceiba. Barbara is fluent in German, Spanish, and English. Once getting settled, we ate dinner and began soaking in the Honduran heat.  On a side note, what do you think we had her make us for dinner?  GERMAN FOOD!  As weird as it was to eat German food in Honduras, we felt like we had to because that was her heritage.  It was soooo good and will definitely order more German food next time we return!

Next morning, we got up at 4:30am to arrive at the airport by 5am to take our last leg to Puerto Lempira.  When it was time to board, we got on an even smaller plane.  This one was probably about 12 passengers.  The flight to Puerto Lempira is only about an hour and 15 minutes of flying time making it a fairly easy flight.  Once in the air, I could barely contain my excitement knowing that I was about to see my parents and meet the boys that they had graciously taken into their home. When it came time to landing, my heart started to beat out of my chest.  I was getting so nervous about landing in such a small plane on a DIRT landing strip! But again, needless to say, we landed safely. Tinki Dawan.

Once we  landed, I immediately saw my gringo parents standing there so patiently with some of the boys.  I ran off the plane to give them a great big hug.  There were definitely tears of joy in this moment.  After giving lots of hugs and meeting some of the boys, we drove into town (El Centro) to go to the bank where my dad had a couple of the boys wait in line since 4:30am.  Apparently there is only one bank in town, and it was the last day the bank was going to be open because we were about to enter Semana Santa, meaning Holy Week, as everyone was preparing for Easter.  During Semana Santa, no one works or goes to school.

Getting around Puerto Lempira is not easy. Like I mentioned earlier, the roads make it very difficult to navigate. Luckily, my dad has a jacked up Dodge truck 2500.  So when we first got into town, we walked down the only paved road and then went to the pier.  We walked around and enjoyed the hot air blowing by us.  After a while, we all went back into town and while dad waited longer for the bank to open, the rest of us walked around and that is where I enjoyed my first Honduran “orange” and a slice of watermelon.  The “orange” is typically served with salt on it, and the watermelon was so sweet and juicy.  Makes my mouth water just thinking about it!

Once we were all done at the bank, we went to my parents’ property, Casa Del Camino (CDC). I was so excited to finally see my parents’ place after all that I had read, seen in pictures, and heard. It was a great experience to see all of their hard work come to life. Something I learned from an early age about my dad is how exceptionally talented he is when it comes to building things.  When I was in high school, he built this huge awning in our back yard along with a beautiful two-story garage.  So when I finally saw the CDC, it did not surprise me how well it was built and how thought-out everything was.

At the end of the day, I got to watch the boys and some of the neighbors play basketball with the ball we brought them.  I was totally in shock watching those kids run around barefoot on the concrete court. OUCH! And since we had a long day, we ended our night watching a movie. The boys like watching movies, particularly action of course, so we watched Braveheart.  And since my parents didn’t have the solar power running yet, we ran the generator off of propane to watch the movies.

Next day, we woke up and attended church.  Church is not in a normal building like we have here in the states. In fact, they have it under the pastor’s house (remember their houses are built on stilts for the rainy season). The pastor’s name is Pastor Ludy and it was fun to listen to him go back and forth talking in Spanish and the native language, Miskito — such a beautiful language.  Once church concluded, we went back to the CDC to have lunch, then drove out to a little swimming hole my parents had found.  Other people were at the swimming hole when we arrived, and it was fun to come together as a “community” and hear my parents and the boys talk to the other people that were there.

To top off our night, we came home and had some dinner. That particular night oatmeal, donuts, and cereal was served for dinner.  And I will add that the donuts are reallllyyyyy good because they make them from scratch with no preservatives.  And again, we watched another movie, but this time Coco.

On the third day, we did not do much.  We relaxed around CDC.  We played some board games (the boys like Monopoly Deal, Sequence, and Qwirkle) and then lounged around in the hammock under the coconut trees on my parents’ property.  It was quite relaxing and much needed after the long travel and busy first couple of days.  We then went to Mama Tara’s Orphanage. It is a local orphanage that provides shelter and helps the children develop a solid foundation in their faith. We were able to get a tour of the facility, hear what their vision is for the future, meet some of the children, etc. Such a neat place!

On the fourth day, we had another relaxing day at the CDC.  My parents have one house dog, named Chico who is a red Doberman pinscher; he’s the sweetest and most loyal dog ever.  Then my parents also have two other dogs named Poolha and Nala which are Rottweilers.  They are the night time guard dogs so they would sleep all day, then come out at 4pm and guard the property with the night “watchee” (similar to a security guard) till 7am.  Lisa and I decided to give a little TLC to Poolha and Nala by giving them some flee baths since we realized the flee medicine they gave them did not work and the poor things were itching to death.  During my inspection, I found some gnarly ticks in Nala’s poor little ears.  I had never seen so many ticks! She was so compliant with letting us get them out (for the most part), even though she was crying and yelping. Felt so bad for her, but I had to keep thinking about how much better she would feel with them out. Once all was said and done, we counted about 25 ticks taken out of her ears.  GROSS right?!  After bathing the dogs, we then ran into El Centro for some groceries and our first Honduran milkshake, “licuada.”  It was so yummy and refreshing since it is one of the only cold frozen drinks you can purchase. Not to mention, they also add condensed milk so it makes it even more delicious!! We returned back to the CDC for another game-filled night.

The next day, we ran back into El Centro to get more groceries and supplies knowing we were going to be exploring the next couple days. While we were out, we stopped at House of Hope (HOH). It is another home for disabled, abused, neglected, and/or malnourished children.  HOH provides a home, care, warm meals, and education for these children.  This place was really fun to see because this is where my parents’ passion for the Honduran children and culture stemmed from.  Long before my parents felt called to serve, they would come on mission trips and would stay in HOH’s mission team rooms and would serve these children.  In fact, three of the CDC boys were living in HOH before my parents took them in.  They had already formed a long term relationship and bond and felt they wanted to really invest into these particular boys they had come to love so much.

Now all our adventures begin! The very next day, we took a 45 minute boat ride to Krata, a small village on the other side of the lagoon. It was so fun being in the largest salt water lagoon and feeling the warm water beneath me.  Once arriving to the village, tons of the kids in the village rushed to shore to see four gringos and seven Miskito boys getting off the boat. Once we got to shore with our stuff, we had to walk through the village to get to the other side, which was were the beach was.  I have to say Krata was one of the most beautiful and dreamy villages I have ever seen.  They had the perfect golf course grass that never requires mowing, tall palm trees swaying in the ocean breeze, and I could hear the ocean waves crashing on the beach.  I felt like I was on a tropical island.  The kids from the Krata village continued to follow us to the beach.  We set up camp for the day, and began to play soccer on the beach as well as play in the sand.  Bryan and I took some time to walk along the ocean front and was able to spend some time together exploring the village a little since I wanted to see more of this beautiful place. After a few hours in the sun, we finally moved under some shade since we were starting to burn (even with reapplying sunscreen every couple hours!). Once it got into the late afternoon, we packed up camp and started heading back to our boat to take us back across the lagoon.  Now that was a funnnnnnn ride! It got really choppy and so with us going a pretty good speed, there were a few times we caught some pretty good air.  Not only did we catch some good air, but we also got SOAKED one time since we went right into the wave. So after that happened, our boat driver slowed down a little so our boat would not flip.  And of course, we arrived safely back to the CDC house just in time for dinner and to watch sunset.

A fun-filled day in Krata was going to be hard to beat, but the next day we had another adventure. Again, we got an early start because we had a 2.5-3 hour drive to Mocorón, a river village. On our way out to Mocorón, we ran into some truck issues. First, the AC went out which was unfortunate because it is really hot in Honduras and the cold AC in the truck was the only bit of relief.  Second, the truck would intermittently start shaking vigorously back and forth randomly and we were unsure why at the time.  We proceeded with caution.

When we arrived, all the kids and people from the village watched us unpack all of our belongings from the truck and followed us down to the river.  Since we were in the sun all day the day before, we immediately claimed a perfect spot shaded by trees.  The water was incredibly clear and surprisingly warm.  We even went upriver to “float” and swim back down the river, which was fun. By the end of the day the river was PACKED with people that I am sure traveled from from other villages as well. After a long day at the river, we packed up the truck and made one more stop, Norma Loves. Norma Loves is a non-profit organization focusing on issues pertaining to humanitarian and educational needs of children in Mocorón.  There we got a tour of her property and I even got to meet Norma’s granddaughter, April, who was the sweetest and smartest little 7-year old. When we got back on the road, that is when the truck started shaking more and more.  We again pulled over and checked under the truck. Luckily, my dad has also always had a gift for fixing vehicles as well, and found that there was a broken piece in the steering gear that was giving the wheels too much play. We could not driver over 15/20 mph and were praying all the way home because we were trying to make it back to CDC before dark.  Thankfully, we made it back home 15 minutes after dark. Tinki Dawan.

Next day, with the truck being out of commission and dad not wanting to take the risk of getting stranded anywhere, we were grounded at the CDC. My dad of course worked on the truck all morning to try and get things going again. Some of the CDC boys, Bryan, and myself helped my dad whether that was providing emotional support, encouragement, or getting down and dirty on the ground taking pieces apart under the truck. Once the piece we needed was finally loose and off the truck, my dad called his welder to see if he could fix the piece for now so it would hold until my dad could order a new part. Just remember, it takes 6-8 weeks for shipments to arrive in Puerto Lempira, so it’s not like the states where we can order a new piece and it arrives in a couple of days. Luckily, my dad caught the welder just before leaving to visit family for the Easter holiday in another village.  By the time the truck was up and running, we decided to go to another nearby village where they have a “beach” called Mistruk.  We drove about an hour and when we arrived, they did not want to let us in because we did not want to pay what they were asking.  People from the village were charging “outsiders” to visit their so called “beach” that my parents have visited many times before.  They wrote up a sign saying “25 limps (Honduran dollar) per vehicle.”  But when we tried to pay, they asked my dad to pay 25 limps for the vehicle PLUS 15 limps PER PERSON, and there was about 14 of us.  So they were really trying to overcharge us and take advantage of us because they saw us as “gringos.”  So as you can probably guess, we did not end up paying what they were asking, and instead we drove to another nearby village called Tansin, where we swam in the lagoon.

The next day was Easter Sunday. We got up and went to church at Pastor Ludy’s again. I was thankful to spend Easter with my parents because growing up Easter was always a celebrated holiday in our family with us being Christian.  I have not got to spend an Easter with my family since I moved to California, so it was a real treat to spend it with them.  At the end of church, Pastor Ludy asked for Bryan and I to come up and asked people to join us and pray over us.  It was so moving to see people within their community to come pray over us alongside my parents and the CDC boys.

After church was over, we went back to the house and played some games with the boys. Bryan and I had brought some Easter eggs and candy down to do an Easter egg hunt since they had not done one before.  The boys were SO competitive!! After doing an Easter egg hunt, we had also done a soccer ball relay race between 3-4 groups.  The boys had to link arms and hold a soccer ball with their backs while running to the other side of the field. It was fun and so competitive we even had to do a couple tie breakers!  After the relay race, we were trying to play a prank on dad but ended up turning into an eating competition, and surprisingly Elvin won and not my dad. To finish our day of festivities, we concluded with a water balloon fight and man oh man…that was crazy!  Lisa and I went to let out Poolha and Nala from their dog house and of course one of the CDC boys ran over, locked the door so we couldn’t get out, and then 2-3 other boys had buckets full of water they poured on us! As you can guess, we got soaked but we couldn’t help but laugh at the situation. Since we were all wet and it was our last night in Puerto Lempira, we ended up taking a dip in the lagoon during sunset.  It was so fun.  As it was getting late, and my feelings of not wanting to leave started to increase, Bryan and I started thinking of alternatives on how to extend our trip.

We woke up the next morning to go to the airport and ask if we could change our flight to Tuesday am, and our wish was granted. We were able to stay one more day by doing all of our travel in one day vs. two.  With us getting to stay longer, we were able to visit Instituto Vida Abundante (IVA) Christian School. In Honduras, the government schools are under-funded and over-crowded.  The average family pays approximately $150 per year to send a child to a ‘public’ school… in an area where the average daily income is $3-5 per day for those who are fortunate enough to even have a job.  If you do the math, you will see that it is impossible for a family to pay monthly rent, eat and send even one child to school. Most families have 4-6 children.  For only $50 a month, people can sponsor students to attend IVA and give them two warm meals a day.  After taking a tour of the facility and getting to know some of the boys that live in the CDC house, Bryan and I decided to sponsor two children a month. It was nice to spend this extra time and really soak up every last second.

Tuesday morning arrived bright and early for many reasons.  I had mixed emotions leaving and my stomach became upset pretty much for the first time the whole trip. We were already pretty close to being packed up since we only stayed one extra day. The boys also were up early since they were returning to school and so we were able to say bye to them too.  Before getting on the plane, my parents, Bryan and I, and a couple of the CDC boys that started later in the day huddled into a prayer circle.  We had a long day of traveling ahead of us.

Once we landed in La Ceiba, we waited for our shuttle to pick us up from the airport and then took about a 3 hour bus ride to San Pedro Sula. It was a beautiful countryside drive and we were able to see the non-touristy villages as well. After arriving in San Pedro Sula, we began our trek via flights and eventually landed in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening at about 1am.  Our travels did not end there unfortunately…we still had to drive to San Diego after landing. We arrived home safely around 4am and got into bed immediately since both Bryan and I had to be at work in just a few short hours.

All in all, the trip was amazing and I would do it all over again.  I already can’t wait to return next year and see my parents and the boys again.  The boys that are at my parents’ house are the sweetest and I loved getting to know them more and spending quality time with my parents.  I take goods down when I visit since it’s difficult to get things there, so if you ever want to donate I am always accepting donations (drawing paper, paint, canvas, dress shoes for the boys’ school, sneakers, shorts, shirts, cheap sunglasses, cheap water bottles, water balloons, hats, etc.).

I am going to leave you here with my 4 takeaways from this trip:

1. Disorientation can be beautiful:  In the states, we have Google maps, which makes our life so much easier by mapping everything out for us.  In Honduras you don’t need a map for anything.  Even when we did our drive to Mocorón, we did not need to use a phone to tell us where to go.  We literally just followed one road and occasionally followed a sign to go left or right. To me, this helped me get out of my comfort zone. I got to take a step back and even do a little reflecting and evaluate the life I was living prior to departure.
2. Traveling makes this world more of an interesting place:  Travel isn’t just the experiences we have when we leave our homes, it’s the experiences we bring back with us and change us in ways we could never imagine.
3. Traveling always makes me grateful for what I have:  Did you know nearly half of the world’s population — more than 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day? More than 1.3 billion live in extreme poverty - making  less than $1.25 a day. I never consider myself as being rich but compared to most of the world I am. One thing that I learned that I definitely take advantage is (hot) running water and paved roads. I have complained about potholes in San Diego, but I won’t complain any longer after driving the dirt roads of Puerto Lempira.
4. Traveling continues to teach me more about myself:  I know after a long day of traveling I can tend to get impatient and cranky, especially because I don’t sleep well on planes. Well I have learned that these are not good traits to have when visiting third world countries, so if you are more flexible and open to what the area has to offer, you tend to have a better experience.

Now, if you ever have an opportunity to travel to a third world country, do it.  Nike always says it best.

xoxo,

T

P.S. If you would like more information about my parents’ ministry, here is my father’s blog as well as their ministry webpage.