Honduras Day #1

December 26, 2012

Gualaco, Honduras – December 26, 2012 – January 1, 2012 – FBC & Church of Christ LaGrange

Amy – Melissa – Sam – Alexa – Mrs. Jan – Danielle – John O. – Mcauley – Bo – Collin – John G. – Torre – Morgan – Andrew – Mr. Jim – Mr. Gary

Today was the first day of the trip, and it started really early. We left LaGrange around 6:30am and headed to Atlanta for our 9:55am flight. You would think this would be the easiest part, but...unfortunately someone...*cough*cough*me...thought they were about to throw up, so we had to pull over for a hot minute to get some fresh air. THEN, we finished the first leg of the race and got to the airport. When we got to the airport, we realized that one of our guys that was supposed to fly in from DC that morning was delayed and wasn't going to be able to make it. Also, they had way over-booked our flight. So some of our lucky folks got bumped up to first class because someone else already had their seats. This also unfortunately meant that one of our guys that was waiting on a buddy pass did not get to come with us either. But, finally, we got everything situated, took off, and started the second leg of the race!

Mcauley, John and I all got seated near each other on the plane. [And for those of you that do not know, these are two of the guys that work with me at FBC LaGrange. John is the middle school pastor and me and Mcauley have been interning together.] We got to talking with the guy sitting next to John. His name was Andre and he was from Costa Rica! Now if you have read this blog at all, you know that CR has my heart! One of my roommates from that trip is actually back down there now visiting and I have loved seeing her pictures with so many of the friends that I met! So I was very excited to get to talk to Andre about Costa Rica, especially since he spoke English (he is actually living in Georgia now). Also the girl next to him was from Honduras, living in Tennessee, so she was able to calm John's nerves a little by saying that she had never had any issues flying into the airport. She did say that her aunt was on a flight one time when the plane ran off the runway into Popeye's! Also, FYI, the Tegucigalpa airport is the second most dangerous airport to fly into in the WORLD. It is the shortest runway and only the best pilots fly the planes that fly in. Our flight went pretty good, we had consistent turbulence but it was never bad. I got to watch Ice Age 3 and play some solitaire so I was happy. AND, the landing went great! :)

It took us over an hour to get through customs, for no apparent reason. Then we met up with Pablo and his son, who live at the compound we are staying at, and Morgan and Danielle, a missionary couple from Carrolton, Ga that came down with this group last year and now are living in Honduras full-time teaching at a Christian school. Melissa, Sam and I got in one of the rental cars with Morgan and Danielle and began the caravan trek to Gualaco. Some of these roads were INSANE! Most of the roads were apparently in better condition than last year and we had a couple long stretches of flat, paved road. But, good glory...most of the road was like playing minesweeper with potholes. There were everywhere and some of those things were, as Morgan calls them, destroyers. He and Danielle were telling us that they had a recent experience where they got several flat tires on a trip to Nicaragua. Thankfully none of the 4 vehicles we had lost any tires! After being on the road for about 5 hours and one left turn, we finally reached our compound in Gualaco!! We had an incredible dinner of homemade bbq chicken, fried rice, potato salad, tortillas, fresh pineapple, and bottled soft drinks! A few of us stayed up a little while enjoying the hammocks and then Mcauley, Collin, Bo, and I played a real intense game of Dutch Blitz, which he won, beating me, in the very last round...but whatever. And then we all finally gave into sleep and went to bed! All in all, a great day! I can't wait to see what Day 2 has in store! The agenda: pouring concrete and playing with kids!

Here is some of the crew at the ATL airport before leaving!

Bo, Mcauley, Melissa, me, Andrew, Sam, John, and Torre

The view of Tegucigalpa from the airplane