It was our smallest group ever from Chelsea at 11 total people, 12 if you include our intern Davis who planned to join us in Campamento on the following day. It was also interesting that I was now the senior person on this trip with the most dots (years of travel) by my name. Our group was only three families, the Rawls, the Baileys, and the Junkins, but we think the Angells and Vinsants will probably join back up with us next year. And the drive to the airport with just me and Belle felt weird also, but we made it as we do every time...way too early. Belle and I sat at the United counter until it opened at 4:30AM for our 6:00AM flight, then were quickly thru TSA and inline for ChickFilA before anyone else arrived.
We were excited to be flying United this year, which let us go through Houston instead of Miami. Just too many bad memories in Miami. And the first flight I got to sit next to Anabelle and .....then I woke up in Houston. I had purchased Wander+ travel pillows for me and Anabelle, and I gave them a good first test on these flights. Davis picked on me because when they wanted travel pillows, they got the $5 special at "5 and below", but got the good ones for Belle. But they don't know if was really just for me...they just had a BOGO special. Belle has a pic of me falling asleep probably on takeoff in BHM, and I really don't remember much until Houston.
At Houston, we had a short layover, but when we arrived 30 minutes early, and our flight got delayed 15 minutes, we really had plenty of time. But we were in the butt end of international flights, and no seats anywhere, so we all lined up against the wall. Fortunately, I got in boarding group 3, so me and Belle were able to keep our carry on in the plane with us, one less bag to worry about being lost. And on the larger plane to Comayagua, we were able to do some seat switching to get the trio of girls together for this flight. I am pretty sure I ended up sleeping for this next flight also, or at least a majority of it, so Wander+ gets another positive. I vaguely remember turning on a documentary on Fukishima, but had to pause it so I could fall back asleep.
In Honduras, it was fun to look up at a window they have over the luggage area where everyone is coming in from out of country, and see DJ (Donny's son waving to us). Obed and DJ had come over on the bus to pick us up, and they had water and pizza for lunch on our way to Campamento on the party bus. The top picture below is the group excited to be on the bus and ready for our 3 hour trip into the mountains, but one farther below shows us passed out shortly afterwards.
On arrival at the Day Care, we were all happy to see Donny, and he loved the Abraham Lincoln shirt I had gotten for him. And I was surprised to see Oneyda's (one of our church sponsored girls) little sister (Myra) there in a classroom, where they were teaching the girls to sew. Oneyda has the sweetest family, her mom and dad have 8 kids, and Myra came to give me a hug, and we spoke a little about my surprise at her being at the day care. She told me about the classes, and told me about working in the kitchen this week while our group was there. I thought she had to walk from Coyol each day for this work, but found out later in the week from Dana that she stayed in the city with her oldest sister.
Because the fair was in town, Donny informed us that we would not be going to a school on the following day, which worked out well, because we really had not practiced our skit yet. It also gave us a chance to prep and pack the teacher gifts we brought and the sponsored kids bags. And of course the day care kitchen staff (Niyelli, Blanca, Hilda, always being helped by Dana) made some amazing grill pork chops for dinner. The travel days are really the worst, but it was wonderful to be back in town with our Campamento friends. Maximo, David and Gabriel even came over that night to welcome us back. Our group got to spread out in the larger bunk rooms, as this year we did not have to share with 35 teenagers. So while the room is right next to the road with the motorcycles, we each had our bed, and the top bunk to spread our luggage out. Davis, Bobby and Maddyn got into Tegucigalpa late, so they ended up staying at a hotel there, to join up with us the following morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment