Honduras: Friday

This post is one million, kagillion times less sad than my Honduras: Thursday post, but that's just an approximation. There are 4 parts to all the fun we had on Friday!

The Nursing Home

Our first stop that morning was to a local nursing home. Our group did this for the very first time last year and it is so much fun. We basically just hang out with the older folks and sing and chat. For the ladies, we bring Mary Kay lotions and nail polish to give them hand massages and manicures. Sometimes they'll even let us brush and fix their hair. It's really fun.


















The Jesus Statue
Our next stop was to the Jesus statue! Okay, this is amazing. It's this gigantic statue of Jesus and it's at the top of one of the mountains that surrounds the city and it looks over the entire city. It really is one of the neatest things I've ever seen. Every year our group goes there and it's a time of fun and reflection and an incredible opportunity to take some amazing pictures.


If you click on this picture to enlarge it, you can see towards the top the landing strip for Tegucigalpa. Notice on short it is. This is one of the most dangerous airports to land in, in the world. Pilots have to have special training to fly in and out of here. Scary? Yes. You can also see a plane that just took off.


All the girls on our trip!


This is my VERY good friend Michelle! She is our church's Women's Ministry Coordinator and for the past two years I have worked for her. My job position was split between Michelle and our Student Ministry, which is why I worked for Curtis. This month, our church did a bit of rearranging in everybody's job description and I now only work for the Student Ministry. So sadly, I know longer work for Michelle, but we are still incredibly good friends. She is one of the neatest and wisest women I know. She is much like a mentor to me.


Our entire group.




Shopping

Our next stop after the Jesus' statue was to go shopping at this place called Valley of the Angels. It is one shop after another of great Honduran souvenirs.





This picture is for Amanda!


So I bought a chair hammock this year. I love it, however it was a bit of a pain getting home. I thought it would fit in my luggage, but alas, it did not. So I had to carry it through each airport and customs. A little embarrassing. It was a bit difficult carrying a hammock and luggage as we RAN through the Miami airport to try make our connecting flight to Dallas which left 5 minutes before we got there. But that's another story for another time.

This is Nelson (and my hammock). Our church loves Nelson. He is from Honduras. Our Pastor got to know Nelson when our Pastor was the youth minister at First Houston and took groups there on mission trips. Nelson was their translator at a very young age. When Nelson was 18, he came to Dallas to go to college and attends our church. He is an incredible man and loves his home land and the Lord so much. And he is incredibly helpful to our group every year on this trip.


Here is Ella and I enjoying our hammock at home.


This is my first rickshaw ride. Notice my glasses? I apparently got pink eye or conjunctivitis if you will, while there. My eye itched pretty bad on Tuesday and Wednesday and then Thursday morning when I woke up it was almost completely swollen shut. I was able to get some drops, thankfully and it was almost back to normal on Saturday. But I had to say goodbye to my contacts on Thursday.


Michelle, Curtis and I


The Slides

Our last stop that night before heading home to pack up and get ready to leave the next day, was a complete surprise from Curtis to the group. I must say it was the perfect way to end the trip. We played on these slides for an hour. We were like little kids running and screaming and laughing. It was great fun.

If you look closely, you can see Michelle and I going down the slide head first.









Slides in Honduras from Janelle Hartsfield on Vimeo.