Our last day in Honduras would be a nice and slow one. Every morning comes with continued sounds of roosters and dogs, and while I can get back to sleep thru much of it, around 6:30AM, it is time for some coffee. Our agenda for the day was to serve breakfast to the Abuelas (The Abuela home we visited in 2019 had still not reopened since Covid, but apparently it was ok for them to ride down and be with us at the day care), then to one last school (Chachaguata), and then participate in a bible study in that same area of Chachaquata.
As we were waiting for the Abuelas to arrive, but knowing that things move very slow in Honduras, when Scarlett and Cory (Texas group) asked me and Sam if we wanted to go up the Picona stairs, we said "sure". The hill Picona can be seen from anywhere in Campamento, and is a local tourist attraction to walk up all the stairs to the top. I had thought about trying it in 2019, but never found a good opportunity. But this was a fun little trip for me and Sam to take. We made it to the top and got some pictures. Cory made me feel good on the way back down telling me that he was so confused when Sam starting calling me Dad. He thought there was no way I was old enough to have a son Sam's age. Surely he overlooked me in the floppy hat and tall socks, which were both dead giveaways of my old man age.
When the abuelas arrived, we welcomed them all in. I got to speak with Israel again for a moment. Then we started serving them breakfast and coffee. I remember Bryan (from the Texas group) asking me how to ask if they were finished so we could take up their plates. My first guess was "Tu eres Terminar?", but I quickly said NO, don't use that, it may come out like we are asking are you close to the End. Hahaha, which is not the best question for the abuelas. We settled with just asking if they needed any more food, which seemed to translate decent enough when we used that. :) Davis stayed busy getting pictures of the abuelas printed, as they were so happy also to have these pictures. Ha, before leaving for the school I also ran into Maximo who asked for one of our Chelsea hats. And grabbing the first ones I saw, I handed him and extra small. Which he thought was hilarious trying to get his big head into that little hat. But I found a regular L size that worked for him.
We repeated the same routine for this school, but it was much smaller up in the hills away from town. The kids were great, and even the teachers and the principal were dancing with us on the ChuChuWa song. We were able to use the paint paddle bible story activity here, but unfortunately, no one in our group got a picture of the final product, which was a neat velcro story line of Moses on the paint paddles. Paint Paddles were sponsored by PPG and Granddaddy. We also had some Moses/Pharoah puppet crafts that the kids loved...did we get a picture? Nope. Since it was our last school, we also handed out all our punch balloons and beachballs. Then it was back to the day care for a short rest before the evening bible study.
This was fun going back out to the church, as we ended up picking up several folks in town, they all just jumped on the back of the trucks to go to church. I rode there in the back with Eduardo, who told me that Israel would be preaching that evening. We met at the home of Sister Elsa Aceituno, who has a great porch area that fit many for the bible study. While sitting there listening to Israel preach, it is amazing to see a people that are on the ground or have no back support fully attentive to God's word. They responded when prompted, laughed at Israels delivery, but all in smiles together...in the heat, with chickens periodically walking by our feet, and an occasional motorcycle flying by, which apparently Israel fit into the lesson, as he said something about it and all laughed. Israel had me read Zephaniah 1:18 from my Santa Biblia during the lesson, which was neat to be able to participate.
Brandon lead us in some songs in English and we really just are no good without our books (and Brandon led one song higher than Snoop Dogg at a Willie Nelson concert), and the hondurans just put us to shame when Eduardo just starts off any song, and they all know all the words and all the music, with no books. They have books, but I think they are just for the gringos that seem to be handicapped by them. But regardless of how the sounded, it was great to worship God in song as we tried to join in the spanish songs, and they did the same for the English songs.
Afterwards, I got to meet Elsa, and Israel's spouse, we got to visit with the Flores Children which our church supports. I talked to Maximo about members I had met before...The Ovando family, and Noe. Jeffrey Ovando was currently in the states, and his dad was a very active member of the church now. Noe had not been to church in awhile, but we actually got to see him in passing as we drove back into town.
Back at the day care, we rode off with Carlos to get some granitas (ice cream), and then to some stores for the boys to grab a Honduras jersey. Weird going into a clothing store having to pass a guy with a large gun to get in. They also had some local donuts for us at the day care when we returned. Maximo and Daisy stayed for supper with us on this last day. We had corn and pork chops. Maximo introduced me to a german theologian he liked, Dietrich Boenhoffer, and I shared with him some info on David Bercot. And then it was time to pack up...Me and the boys found our names now on the Chelsea Church of Christ emblem painted on the wall there (Thanks Kylen). I got a dot by my name, indicating a repeat customer in Honduras. One of the guys from Texas (David Byrnes) has 10 dots. It would be an early morning, so I went to get sleep. But goat lords was going even on this last day, and when another shout from Brandon Rawls of "Jackwagon", I yelled for them to go to bed. And I think they did, as I don't remember much else. FYI...for next time and quick searching thru the blogs...the wifi password (contrasena) at the day care is Thekidsareofgod .
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