Nice night for star gazing

Well, here I am, out gazing at the stars, at least, I have the opportunity. My sight of the stars is mostly blotted out from looking continually at the laptop screen, but here I am outside nonetheless.

I need to stop right now and praise God that it is not raining. Rain this time of year is very unusual here, yet it was raining last night and early this morning.

You see, we had a bit of a problem last night with our gate. We hit it. That is a problem. However, fixable for the short term.

Then we had another small problem, as we tried to pull the Defender into the main garage, the one that belongs to our landlords. We did not anticipate that the Defender is of such height that it would not fit, and subsequently it dented in the railing that opens and closes the big doors, and long story short: we have a big gaping hole in the fence around the property where the garage is.

So, that means someone needs to stand guard all night lest someone use this rather ample "hole" to access the house and make off with, well, everything.

I parked the Ford in front of the entrance, but it would not dissuade anyone serious in making an attempt. So here I sit, perched in my lazy boy chair atop the garage, lurking like a buzzard of sorts, ready with my alarms for the cars, and a phone to call...someone...should any would-be thief get any ideas.

Sure, my first thought was...this sucks.

I was in the middle of devotions with the FAME group currently here, and it was very encouraging. However, I am trying to look at this positively and see that I will be able to get quite a bit of work done tonight, while I sit outside. There is little to no wind (unusual), no precipitation that there was less than 24 hours ago, and really at this point in the evening the temperature is acceptable without a blanket or any such additional clothing. All things considered, it could be worse. Like when it comes time to pay the man that will have to fix the big dent in the garage rail tomorrow.

Speaking of that dent, or rather both big dents, the Defender at least proved her worth yet again, winning the battle decisively both times. Sure, it would have perhaps been cheaper or easier to fix the Defender than the gates, but at least we are again reassured that it is indeed one tough truck.

Checking in

We are wrapping up the Sherwood Oaks Christian Church group (they depart on Monday). I had a few minutes, which has been rare this week, and decided to give a little shout out.

With four eye brigades, construction, food distribution (visiting some of the most poverty stricken families I have seen to date), a hospital visit, a clothing distribution, sports seminars, counseling sessions, leadership training, medical staff leadership training, and as many granita stops as possible, we have been extremely busy, and involving quite a few Hondurans in the busy business as well. Praise God!

The team has been a huge blessing, as every group is, in many ways, strengthening us spiritually more than outweighs the temporary physical drain of sorts, the exercise in practicing our faith, telling others, sharing experiences, and discussing differences in sects/cults/religions/etc. as well to further define what we believe, and why we believe it, always going back to the Good Book for a firm base.

Pictures will be forthcoming on the website to be sure, but I wanted to just share a bit before heading to bed (must run tomorrow...still preparing for the multiple post-ponements race!)

Dates schmates

So, I thought Sunday would be the day for the big race, marathon if you will, although I know technically that a marathon is a 26.2 mile race, here it is used to describe any distance of running with competition in mind.

This race is the only one to really challenge me in my years here, as it begins in Teguc, and ends in Santa Lucia. Mileage is only something like 8 miles. However, there is this one big hill....I think the elevation change is something around 1,500 ft all told, but most of that comes at you hard.

Anyway, what strikes me about runners here is that they must always be prepared. I am not Mr. Runner, but do enough of it to be ready for a mini-marathon at any time. I know this is not normal, and can remember people taking months to prepare for the Indianapolis mini when I lived in the US.

But here, no problems....the race was to be March 4th, but you know what, yeah, uh, we decided it would work out better on the 18th. No problem right? Not here.

Besides, like I say, it is like they are paying you to run here. Sure, there are prizes for the first three places, but even for those of us not so spry, you get water, police protection (sort of), some snacks and gatorade, and most times even a T-shirt, and the most I have paid is $1. At prices like that, you learn to be flexible with minor details like dates, start times, routes, etc.

Fire 'em up!

Ah, summer is here in Honduras. Defining the seasons here is a mixed bag. Since rain is the main differentiator, most people call the dry season "summer", although after taking an informal poll...the definition of summer can range from a few weeks, a month...you get the idea.

And with summer comes, fire. Lots of fire. We are not even into March yet...well, as of Tuesday, you can see the fire set below near the Christ statue and the area of Picacho. Nothing adds to the view like blazingly black burnt bastions beruft of beauty.

If you look closely at the top right of the picture, you can see a helicopter. What you might not be able to see is that it is carrying water to try to put out the fire, or at least make things wetter.

The firefighters only get involved generally speaking when the fire threatens homes, etc. as there are not enough firefighters, and more than enough fires.

At this point you might be asking yourself (or asking me), why the fires? Gold star for you. The fires are cultural at some point, as in years past that was how the farmers cleared their fields for planting, which will be coming up shortly before the rainy season starts. Now however, as you can see from the picture, that is not an agricultural area being burned. Arsonist is generally the term used for people setting fires for recreation.

The government and other organizations have stepped up advertising and publicity efforts over the years to combat this, but to little success. Last year I think was the year that for a week the airport was closed due to the smog/smoke. And lest you think this is just our problem, as I recall, San Pedro Sula, San Salvador, and Managua were also closed for several days. However this is one issue in which misery does not really love company.