Hey from Honduras!

WE'RE HERE! Sorry it's taken so long to blog, but it has been crazy here! We were a little bit culture shocked...okay A LOT! The city is so different from back home. People everywhere, cars literally coming from every direction and cars weaving in and out of eachother. They're absolutely NO driving rules and the people are crazy, not even in lanes...they do whatever they want. HAHA It's been interesting!

We left Tuesday really early in the morning and flew to Miami and then to Tegucigalpa. Everyone met us in the airport and we went to eat lunch and then onto Reynel Funez. The village is going up the mountain about 35 minutes from the city and the living conditions are the poorest of the poor. These people have absolutely nothing. Houses or huts made out of any scrap pieces of materials that they could find. The "roads" are rocks and it's very hard to drive on them. There is a man on the roads without a job or a place to living filling the holes in the road for change. The village is big with a lot of the houses built into the mountain. There are chickens, roosters, cows, bigs, horses,cows and a ton of stray dogs just wandering the streets. First thing we did in the village was going to the Pastor's house and the church, Agua de Vida. His house is far better off than the rest of the village but still very poor and basic. The building here is very different from the U.S. and a lot of it doesn't make sense to us , like steps not matching or ceilings being too low and rooms without windows. There are things that they are learning. The room Amber and I are staying in is new and clean. We checked everything out, but after all of the traveling and waking up at 3 am for the airport we were ready to go back to the hotel. We got the hotel for the 1st night because there wasn't any furniture or beds set up in the room yet. I'm glad we had the hotel for the night because it was nice to get relax and just take in everything...it's a huge adjustment from life at home so it was good. We fell asleep at 9 we were so tired...and for someone who doesn't usually go to sleep until at least 1 it was crazy! Although it gets dark so early here and there isn't anything to do at night so it makes you feel a lot later than it is. Here are some pictures from our first day here, the city of Tegucigalpa and us getting our room ready!

On Wednesday we woke up and got breakfast down in the hotel, our last good breakfast while we're here. We got to talk to Donna about everytihng we want to do here and what she wants to try and get accomplished. Also how the teaching english is going to go. These people need a lot and some kind of structure so hopefully we'll be able to set something up for them thats official and offer certain classes on different days and keep the same people so we'll be able to build on certain concepts and move up levels. They want to learn so bad and get so happy when they learn a new word. We taught them the english words to "Take it All" by Hillsong and they taught us them in spanish. It was hard but we all eventually got it! it's neat knowing a song in another language and knowing the tune and what the words mean. It's really frustrating not knowing what everyone is saying and having the language barrier. Peopl keep talking to us and we have no idea what they're saying and I feel bad but I'm so lost! HAHA Hopefully Amber and I will be able to pick spanish up fast :)

Anyways, I'm getting side tracked. we went to a store that had alot of American brands and bought 2 twin beds with blankets and also a storage unit to keep our stuff in. Then, last ngiht we went and got bottled water and some soups that we could cook in our room. Little by little we're setting up our area so we'll be ok when Donna leaves next Tuesday. Today we cleared out old construction materials on the roof that have been there forever. Old wood and trash that hadn't been taken to the dumpsters. The youth cooked us lunch which was plantains (bananas) with beans, eggs and piece of ham that we got form a little cantina in the village and tortillas...it was different, but good.

Tommorrow we're going to the mountians which is about 4 hours south of Tegucigalpa near Nicaragua. We're going to a really poor village to hand out toys to the kids and minister to them. They have no church or anything in their village. We were told that the car cannot go to the village so we'll ahve to hike it up and cross a river....very interesting! I'm not sure how well that is going ot go but they have done it before so hopefully we'll be ok :) We have to bring our own food and water and are all sleeping in a house of one of the people that goes to the church's randmother, ho lives in the village there. Pray for us haha...we'll be roughing it! haha

I'm sorry this blog is so scrambled and all at once but this is the first time we've gotten to a computer and I'm not sure when the next time will be. The computer won't let me add any pictures right now so I'll try again later. I love you guys! keep us in your prayers!

Love, Alisa