7.. One word: Rosa. If you missed my latest blog about Rosa, click HERE, because she was my absolute favorite part of honduras. The few hours I spent with her will stick with me forever. Getting to see the hope that we brought her, brought hope to me. Sitting around just taking about life and drinking cinnamon tea made me feel like a had known Rosa for years, not just days.
6. Cooking banana pancakes. We hosted a thank you lunch on our last day in Honduras which consisted of chicken, potatoes, rice (the Honduran dishes) and banana pancakes (a taste of america). The Honduran women were so interested in the pancakes, calling the batter "magic flour", that I asked if they wanted to learn how to make them. They were a little timid but were still every interested, so after I described the process and they observed me make a few, I handed over the spatula! After some broken spanish, sound effects and gestures they were making perfect golden brown fluffy pancakes! We left a box of pancake mix with them and hugged goodbye and instructed them to make pancakes and think of us!
4. Eating every meal around a table with my teammates. We would make guesses as to what was going to be served by our hosts (eggs, beans and tortillas were always winning guesses), discuss what Power Ranger we would be, and what we were currently reading. There is just something about a table and eating around it like a family that I just love. The community, conversation, and laughs that were shared are so treasured!
3. Bathing in the river on a warm sunny day. After spending a few cold days in the mountains with Rosa, i developed a minor cold. I came back to our base and had a cup of Honduran hot chocolate. That night I went to bed and woke up 16 hours later. I left like I had arose from the dead! I walked outside to the most beautiful sunny day. There is just something about being in a river on a blue sky, sunny afternoon (and the power of a clean body) after several cold, shower less, mountain days.
2. Seeing a beautiful baby released from the hospital. I also shared in a previous blog about our experience getting to pray over unnamed babies. (read here) What I didn't share was that there was one baby who was named. Krystal, the last baby we prayed over was wearing a pink little onesies with matching hat and gloves and had a mom, dad and older sister. After our team finished we were walking out of the hospital and saw Krystal and her family in line to be released. We said goodbye once more and made our way outside. Our team all gathered once more outside to pray. While we were praying we had to stop and let Krystal and her family through; they were on their way home! It was so refreshing to see a healthy, named, loved baby get to go home in the arms of loving her parents. I was filled with hope for all the other babies who were still waiting to be sent home.
1. Praying in Spanish. We had to go to town to go grocery shopping for our thank you luncheon. We decided to make a girls day out of it and take our totally spanish speaking contact, Norma, out to lunch and ice cream in town as well. After receiving our lunch, I proceeded to pray a totally comprehendible, semi- grammatically correct all spanish prayer. It was a simple prayer, but Norma was so proud and thankful. It was just so great because that is not something I could have done in the weeks earlier. Who knew not having a translator could be so great?
Honduras, you were great! I will always remember the people here.
