Get Your Eyes Ready, Set, READ (stream of consciousness)

February flew by in a flurry of moments, really. I can barely separate out the distinct events. Before I realized it, I was several days into March. Penny had asked me a couple weeks prior if I wanted to speak at Honduran fellowship on the topic of joy. I accepted, though I had no idea what to expect. I also did sound set up/tear down/leading worship. Mayra, Rachel, and I were the worship team, and then Oscar and a different lady gave little mini-lessons before my sermon.
Sermon.
Who would have guessed I'd preach in my day? Not I! I didn't know if I had the vocab to speak for 20 minutes on joy, but God spoke through me somehow. Selvino, (Honduran construction foreman), talked to me afterward, as did several others, so I know God used my words to touch lives. Operation accomplished.
Operation.
Somewhere in the midst of all that, I had been planning a secret mission to Montana for my visa renewal trip. Matthew and I called it Operation Sneakalicious. But before I made it out of the country, we had a few more noteworthy events that I will now proceed to document. Tuesday's history lecture belonged to Jeff, and he far outshone every other possible craft I can think of--(granted, my craft ability is next to nil)--when he turned a wire spool into an elephant teeter-totter thingamabob for the kids. They had to try to stay on while other classmates rocked them and while they recited the poem he made up about Hannibal, the famous Carthaginian general who led his army of 50,000 infantry, 9,000 cavalry, and 37 elephants across the Rhone River and the Alps to invade Italy. Many of this infantrymen and horses died, but he didn't lose a single elephant! The elephant spool was a smashing hit.
Hit.
I felt a bit blindsided by the information from Christine that she and Norma would be leaving a few days earlier than I had planned to leave for San Pedro Sula to get a lab machine serviced, and I could ride with them, if I wished. That shortened my preparation time dramatically, but I did what I could. I taught Amy, (though she basically knew already), how to set up/tear down sound, hook up powerpoint, yada yada, and then went to sit with Orlin and Luis for a bit so Liz could have a bit of a break. I learned how to suck the mucus out of Orlin's throat and read a book to Luis and taught him how to write his name. It was a very enjoyable time.
Time.
We had a merry time traveling to San Pedro, though I definitely fell asleep for a bit of the journey. We found our hotel, La Cordillera, after a bit of blind navigation. Here's a little advertising: La Cordillera is the most amazing hotel I've ever stayed in...and it cost $70/night. The towels were scented with exotic flavors that remind me a bit of Morocco, the service was impeccable, the beds were awesome, the color schemes and decor were superb, and breakfast each morning was vastly different from the usual donuts and OJ. We had an array of fresh fruit, coffee served just how we liked it, three different fruit juices, bread to toast, cookies, ham, and cheese....yep, I will stay there every time I have to stay over in San Pedro, and you should too!
Too.
I was too tired to get up with the early risers to go drop off the machine, so I worked on correcting papers instead until they returned for me. We did a bit of shopping around/exploring, and then went out to and Italian restaurant for dinner. Mmmmh!
Mmmh!
I love surprises. And this surprise was definitely delicious. And sneaky. Hence the name. Without any planning by myself or her, my cousin Daron happened to be on my flight from Salt Lake to Bozeman, so we were able to have a lovely catch-up-with-life-over-the-past-4-years session. Sara came to the airport to pick Daron up, completely unaware that I would show up too! We stopped in Belgrade for some burgers, which tasted incredible after three months of eating little meat/weird Brahma beef. Dad's family came to visit in Divide, and I also surprised several of them by my presence in Montana. I went to bed relatively early compared to sometimes, and got up and delivered the recently-butchered steer hide to Butte. However, no one in Butte was taking hides, so I ran some errands and returned home with the hide still in the back.
Back.
As soon as I got back, Daron, Carol, and I made 61 pasties, complete with rutabegas, carrot shavings, and the regular fixin's. They were SO delicious! The rest of the family were out cutting, grinding, and packing the steer. I was fairly tired by the time I left for Bozeman for the next leg in my adventure.
Adventure.
I was too tired to do anything exciting with the boyz that night, but the next day, Lee and I tried out a new Indian/Thai restaurant for breakfast/lunch, and later that night, Rod and I went to tango for over four hours. THAT was fun! I did struggle a bit with dancing in 3" heels after being barefoot for 3 months, but I didn't even care; I LOVED dancing! That night, Tim, Rod, Lee, and I watched Kung Fu Panda...(not quite the "epic" movie I had requested, but it was most enjoyable anyway.)
Epic.
A little more epic was my St. Pat's Day. We went to ICT for a Savage Chai...mmmmh!...visited a tattoo parlor to get a potential one drawn up, and then went shooting after Lee finished b-ball. I ate dinner with Chelsea, (correction, I ate La Pa since she had already eaten), and then I ran down the street to Nathanial's and Sarah's place to hang out for many hours. Upon to returning to the house, I made some Crum for Lee and we had our "nightcap" and had a great catch-up-on-life chat.
Chat.
I was overjoyed that I was able to chat over coffee with Asagi and Alex, very recently returned from their trip to the island of Antigua, Japan, and then Bend, OR, their new home. Then, I drove home to Divide, rode the motorbikes with Mateo, ate dinner, and rushed into Butte to play basketball with a few friends. It'd been a while, that's for sure! We rented a movie, but it put me to sleep about 1/4 through, so it wasn't very exciting. :-)
Exciting.
Plotting Jason's surprise with Laura in Darby was quite enjoyable, though I never really had a lot of time to spend with both of them together, alone. I had a bit of time with Laura to do a brief catch-up, and then Jason's parents arrived and we prepared for his dinner surprise that evening. When he got home, we ate dinner and then went to his parents' hotel in Hamilton for a dip in the pool. Apparently, it was the night before a wrestling tourney, so the pool was pretty busy with adolescent energy. The hot tub, at least, was wonderfully relaxing, and the DQ we enjoyed afterward really hit the spot.
Spot.
Jim took Jason on a wild hunt for boats in Missoula so we could get the birthday party spot set up. A little past noon, we were all ready and waiting. He walked in the door, and we surprised him--all ~30 of us! It was rather fabulous! We ate food, played games, and enjoyed each other's company. We set out early in the morning on Sunday for church in Butte, stopping in Divide for a quick French toast breakfast. It was nice to surprise a few people and to see everyone in general. Bill, I guess is my prayer guardian. That made me very happy. I think everyone should have someone as cool and tall as Bill Gibson as his/her prayer guardian. :-) I really appreciated the support everyone is giving me from back home! As I told them, I can FEEL it down here. Weird sounding, I know, but I can.
Weird.
What's left of the original Gob-(it's not weird, that's just what we called our group from high school)-hung out at SilverBow Pizza during lunch, and then I ran a few errands before returning to Divide to ride horses with Jillisa and Mom. Zephyr is ridiculously tall, and all the other horses are ridiculously fat! After seeing fence-rail excuses for horses down here for three months, I had forgotten how HUGE our horses seem! We finished off the night with a horse-themed movie and a family classic, "National Velvet".
Family.
Everyone had work and school on Monday, so I was left at home without any of my family around to distract me from packing. (I must admit I did a fair bit of distracting myself, though!) I made spicy chicken and couscous for dinner, and Caleb brought home his girlfriend, Heather, for dinner as well. I said my goodbyes to Mom, and then we hung out until pretty late, talking. I said the rest of my goodbyes the next day, and Dad took me to Bozeman with all my luggage. He dropped me off at the boys' house and we parted ways.
Boys.
The boys, Lily, Marcy, Naomi, and I ate Lily's delicious whiskey cake, listened to music, cut Marcy's hair, and drank Crum together as a goodbye party. Not bad. I had a bit more time during the following day to catch up with a Aubs and a few other friends and say my goodbyes before Lee and Marcy drove me out to the airport. And thus began my epic return to Honduras.
Honduras.
I didn't realize it would take me so much ridonculocity to get back to Honduras! I had two large luggage pieces, my guitar, my laptop, my backpack (containing everything I need to survive for quite some time), and my purse. I have never traveled with so much in my life, and hope to never have to again! However, it was rather miraculous that it all got there, undamaged, and free of charge! Both luggages were overweight, so Lee and Marcy helped me reorganize for about 30 minutes, and then the lady at the counter said that it would be cheaper for me to have one overweight than 3 luggages. But then with the amount the one bag was overweight, it would have cost me $400, rather than $300 for the third checked luggage. So then, I started pulling stuff out to have Lee and Samuel bring when they come down. And all at once, the lady said that she would let me check 3 pieces for free...all the way to San Pedro Sula-(I had two significant domestic layovers that technically cancel out the ability for them to check my bags through without a $50 fee)-so I sent the two luggages and my backpack. The first part of my travels.
Travels.
Never before in my travels have I missed a flight. And then I did. I was sitting in the Salt Lake Airport at Gate 6 for hours, slept on the floor for 1.5 hours, and realized I needed to use the restroom. My flight departure time was 12:50 AM, so about 11:45 PM, I left the gate to do so. On my way back, I decided to plug in my laptop for a few minutes at a recharge station, JUST down the hall from the gate. It is probably 40 feet away. I returned to the gate 20 minutes before departure time, since they warned us that they might start boarding 30 minutes before leaving. I figured with that herd, I might be lucky enough to be in the final boarding line. The plane was GONE. Not just door closed. Gone. And I was left. So, the desk workers told me I needed to reschedule my flight at this little phone kiosk thing, but when I got to it, the lady on the other line said that the desk workers needed to do that, since it was an international flight. It was by then 1 AM. There was no one left in the airport! So I apologized to the lady upon recalling her and explained my situation. She was a dear and rescheduled me anyway, somehow, for the same flight routine...24 hours later.
Later.
I figured I would just chill in the airport until later and then maybe go out an explore the town in the morning. But I was on my computer, checking my flight and such, and a rather creepy individual showed up at my gate and kept circling behind my computer screen. He asked me where to find a hotel, and I pointed him in the direction and kept working on my computer. I thought that had solved the problem, but he kept hovering. So I decided I didn't feel comfortable chillin' the airport after all, and booked a hotel room online. And then I had to wait for a taxi. He arrived about 3:30 AM. I got to sleep about 4:15 AM. I slept until noon.
Noon.
House keeping woke me up at noon. Growl. I forgot to put out the dumb little sign. *sigh Oh well. I got up, journaled, walked around my area for a bit, and then at 9 PM, I took the shuttle back to the airport and waited at the gate...with NO leaving...until departure. I made my flight!
Flight.
The connection flight in Atlanta was not until 9:30 AM, so I slept for about 3 hours. I arrived to San Pedro Sula and got out of customs about 12:30 PM, took a taxi to the Viana bus station, waited for the bus with bleary sleep-deprived eyes, and slept in absolute peace and comfort until we reached Ceiba at 4:45 PM. The bus was GLORIOUS!
Bus.
Norma, along with a departing Sandy, met me at the bus station and we went to eat at a delightful Chinese restaurant. I don't eat very regularly or normally when I travel, so it was most satisfying to eat delicious chicken curry I didn't have to prepare. And there was so much left over that I ate four more meals from my take-home portion! I took the next day to unpack. I ran sound on Sunday and readjusted to life here.
Here.
Now that I'm back here in Honduras, I have a few adjustments to make, some planning to accomplish, and one or two goals to aim toward. Here I go again...

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