To Comaygua...and beyond!

Our quest began early getting up to the clinic (after dropping Cecilia off at school...which let me just mention, I can admit to feeling more than a little twinge every time she gets out of the car and heads in there. I have difficulty explaining it really, but it is just a little...hard.) to pick up the coffee that Oscar had brought dried from Sampedrana for us to roast. Our search for an inexpensive yet good roaster in Tegucigalpa came up dry (ah, pun somewhat intended.) Gender got wind of a place North of Comayagua....and long story short, off we went. After some talking, getting to know you (after the guy we were to meet got out of the shower) and the apparently traditional smelling of the beans, we got down to business....and found out the bags we would need to package our coffee....were not available until next week. That is, unless we drove back to Comayagua.



So, we left the coffee with an agreement, and went back for the bags, then back out to San Jeronimo. Seeing the positive side...it was a beautiful drive, good conversation with Gender (good...about the soccer field, and coffee possibilities, and bad....about Lourdes still struggling with the death of the Church leader and the earthquake (she was at her mother's where it was apparently strong...and aftershocks continue, to the point she fainted on Sunday.)

(this is the roasting center of operations...very quaint, pretty, and you have a built in rest station for when the need arises. Not seen in this picture is the packaged coffee they took to market....they make their own brand in this location as well)





Back to Teguc....total seat time in the Land

Cruiser, roughly 6 1/2 hours....not nearly as punishing physically as it could have been), get the Ford back from getting the rear hubs, seals, etc. replaced, and play phone tag, briefly meet with Oscar, and then off to unload a container. This one came from Hazel Dell Christian Church, and it had not only clothing, but supplies for their team coming in July, Church pews, some furniture, and other misc. very nice goodies. It will take us some time to get it all in place and working, but quite some amazing opportunities.

It took quite a while to unload it as well because the road to the clinic is not exactly in the best state for driving, or walking for that matter, so that means parking the rig at the bus stop, and hiring three pickups (people we know) to help ferry up the items being unloaded one truckload at a time to the clinic. By the time all the wiggles were ironed out with customs, the truck got up to the bus stop around 4:30 (it seems we hardly ever get to unload during the day any more) Unloading in the dark is not usually what I would define as fun. And unloading at the bus stop is not what we would prefer either. As if we did not have enough people walking through the property to see what we are doing, we get to parade it through the entire neighborhood, in plain view of everyone waiting during the peak hours at the bus stop. The one saving grace of unloading at night is that the view inside the container is not so great for everyone else....of course, it makes unloading into our containers on the property a little more of an adventure as well, but it got done, and fairly well organized. Four pickups (one Ford, the others tiny in comparison) and ten guys (besides Oscar and myself) got it done though, and had fun at the same time, and were done by 8:00.

(Note the guys waiting for a pickup to show up loaded in this picture at the right....and the beautiful city in the background....not a bad place to work at night all things considered.)

Whew, now time to go to bed and get up to start another day for Him!