Friday, March 22, 2019

We have safely arrived.  We have all come from different parts of the country - from 

Burlington, P.E.I., Florida, Kansas, New Hampshire - but we all found each other in Miami before we boarded the last leg to Tegucigalpa. A full plane on the last leg to Honduras and we were grateful for just the 11 of us to organize and not the 38 teens from North Carolina who are here on their own mission team.  Can you imagine organizing them all! 

With this being dry season, we knew that there were a number of forest fires happening in the area, but not as bad as we expected and visibility was OK as we landed.  By the time we got all our luggage together, it seemed like forever, but Erika was waiting for us with Carlos, our friend who changes our money for us right there in the airport.  He says that he has been doing this for 29 years.  

Outside, Gustavo who drives us in the big bus was waiting for us to take us to Amerateca where we will be staying for the week at Instituto Tecnico Santa Maria.  Lots of room in the El Hogar bus for us all and our luggage.

It is the weekend and so we were rushed to the auditorium before we even unloaded luggage as many of the boys would be leaving to go to their homes for the weekend.  We got a rousing welcome from all the boys - all 75 of them, with even a couple of them speaking on behalf of the school to welcome us. How touched we are.

 There was then a parade of young men carrying our bags into the guest house where we will live together for the week.
Erika explained about the goals and the schedule of the week and we are anxious to get started.  

 Then it was time for supper and we will eat in the guest house.  The area where we ate in past years in the large dining hall with the boys, is now a study area.  But we like our space and it will be a time of learning and sharing this week here together for sure.  








The technical institute is 3/4 hour from the airport in the country and so it is peaceful and delightful to be back here again.  
It was an early night for most of us after a day of travel where most of our alarms went off  around 2:30 a.m. this morning.  We did have time for a moment to watch the sun disappearing behind the mountains.

The day ended as we shared the day's experiences together.