The last 36 hours

Since arriving in Honduras only 36 hours ago so much has happened. Let's start with the fact that there was a 7.1 earthquake in Honduras early Thursday morning which made one of the bridges between San Pedro Sula and El Progreso collapse. My plane was on time, but I ended up waiting in the airport for about 4 or 5 hours for my other two team members to arrive and Shin and Bobby to come pick us up. I did make some new friends at the airport so that was good and entertaining. I was so exhausted from traveling I fell asleep by 9:30. I know so exciting, but let me tell you it was the greatest sleep I've had in so long! Oh and while I was sleeping I guess there was an aftershock from the earthquake and the power went out, but I had no clue.

Today we went to two different homes: one for teenage girls and one for younger children. I went to the one for the younger children in January so it was neat to see familiar faces there. We brought arts and crafts to do with the older girls and it was nice to just sit and chat with them. One girl, Eugenia (sp) knew English and loved being able to practice with us. I was very suprised when we got to the home for the younger children because they had a new play set. We were able to run around outside and play with the children. After a while I decided I had to go see the baby room because the last time I was there I didn't get a chance to see it. Many of the babies that leave the nutrition center are placed in this children's home. There had to be 15 or more babies in the room. The were so cute and I did my best to keep from bringing them all home with me. The best part was Jason was there. Many of you probably heard my story about him. He's truly a miracle boy because he was found just this year after being locked in his room and malnourished for the majority of his life. His improvement is phenomenal. His social skills have developed so much and he is learning to walk although he still needs help. I spent most of my time with him because it was just so awesome to see him again. I didn't think I would ever get to see him or his improvement over time, but I did. We will be spending more time there in the weeks to come and I'll enjoy every moment being with the kids; they give me so much energy!

The craziest story of the night is...traffic was so backed up from the bridge collapse that on our way home from the children's home we waited about 2 hours and only moved a little ways so we all decided to walk from the bus to the other side of the bridge where Cosmo would pick us up. So all probably 25 of us got out of the bus and start walking down the side of the road, using the buddy system of course. Let's talk about how much attention we attracted: there were only 4 boys in the whole group and we're a bunch of gringos walking across the bridge along with all the Hondurans who chose to do the same. It was a very memorable moment for sure. While we were walking we thought we saw lightning only later did we find out that that was flash of the electricity all throughout El Progreso. When we arrived at the hotel, we had a nice candlelight dinner since the power was still out. After dinner a few of us came back to the apartment to shower, but instead of showering we ended up mopping up water that had flooded the apartment. Apparently, a couple of faucets got left on and the drains in the sink were clogged so water spilled out from the bathroom in my room into another room, down the hall, and into the kitchen. Talk about adventures. There have been so many in the past 36 hours, I'm anxious to see what's to come. Tomorrow, we start training since the group that's here is leaving and then I'll know more what the game plan is for the next month. Buenas noches!