After a 5 day debrief & a 35 bus ride through Belize/Guatamala I have made it to Valle de Angeles Honduras. I am amazed just how different Honduras is from Belize as it is alot more like the US in means of the stores, and the fact that we can finally eat fast food once again if given the chance as there was no fast food chains in Belize. The weather is also totally different as it feels like Fall back in the states, but I’m still wearing shorts & sandals in November (which I love as I found out that it snowed back home in Michigan).
This month is all squad month which means that all 37 of us are living & serving together all month.
We have partnered with the ministry called Hope at Hand, and Its run by a married couple named David & Scarletth, and it’s a ministry that partners with several non profits here in the valley, and this month we are partnering with a home for adults with disabilities, and I can already tell that this is gonna be a hard month as seeing these adults in the situation that life has given them just breaks my heart. More on this to come.
Our living quarters are their private home. The outside has solid concrete walls with barbed wire surrounding the top, and we have a curfew of 5pm and have to travel in groups of at least 3 people as this area is semi dangerous ( which I don’t doubt as there have been evenings where I have heard gunshots go off) All the gals are sleeping in the house in the 3 bedrooms because of this I’ve nicknamed the house the Alpha Omega sorority house- while the guys have to sleep outside in their tents with the dogs. I techically am sharing a room & bathroom with 14 of the 34 gals, but my actual sleeping situation is downstairs on the couch, but don’t feel sorry for me as I am used to sleeping on the couch as I did it at home all the time.
They also have 2 dogs a dashound named Molly & a pitbull named Samson as well as 2 birds.
There is a kitchen/common area & 3 bathrooms. I have to admit that this has been quite the adjustment for me, and I am not used to living this many people since I lived in the dorms back in college, so having to share a bathroom once again with that many people can get on my nerves, but I am managing as best I can (I can understand how Lincoln from the cartoon The Loud House feels), nit to mention trying to get in my introvert time too.
Life this month is much more structured then it was last month for me & my team, which is a nice change of pace for me. Here is what our typical day/week looks like:
Monday- Friday: Ministry/Saturday: Adventure day/Sunday: Rest day
M-F
6am-8am: Wake up/quiet time/breakfast
8:45am: leave for ministry
9am-12pm: Ministry
12pm-1pm: lunch
1pm-4pm Ministry
4pm-5pm: walk back to house/go into town
5pm (curfew)-9pm: dinner/free time
9pm: bedtime (for most of my squadmates hahahaha) 11pm: my bedtime
It has also been very interesting trying to communicate here as almost all the people speak Spanish, and even tho I took a total of 5 years of Spanish I am struggling with trying to communicate with people. I can read Spanish ok, and am trying to understand it when spoken, but I am having a hard time talking in it, but I hope that as time goes on both here & in El Salvador my Spanish skills will come back to me (my Spanish teachers would be very disappointed in me hahaha) Thank God for Google translate.
I have limited wifi this month, so sorry in advance for blowing up your inbox/facebook/instagram feeds. It’s a 10 minute walk to town where we can get wifi at the local coffee shop.
Stay tuned for more blogs about my ministry that my squad & I are serving with and all of our fun adventures!
Happy Veteran’s Day!!!! Especially to my favorite Veteran, My Dad!!!!!!
Til next time your fellow sister in Christ,
Bonnie
Team Surrendered
P Squad
Psalms 18:2
YOLO
