Don't Go Chasin' Waterfalls.

BAH. Ok I am outside right now and it's about 9pm here and I'm pretty sure some monkeys are dying or fighting or something. Sorry, that was a HORRIBLE sound. Anyway, weird tropical noises aside, I am having an incredible time here. Just in case you haven't picked that up in the past 13 posts. Yesterday started out with a church service with the local missionaries here. I also cherish that time because I really appreciate the way they hold church here. After worship, we form a circle so instead of preaching at people, it's a discussion amongst people. After church, we headed back to the casita for some guitar/piano practice at 2p but got an invitation to go to the waterfall. Dr. Don graciously let us back out of practice and rush down the hill to catch the land cruiser headed to the waterfall. Of course, once we started off for the waterfall, the sun disappeared and down came the rain. I won't dwell on the rain because I've read my Oklahoman stomping grounds have recently flooded. I just can't imagine what rainy season here is like. So we start off for the waterfall and about 6 people are riding on top of the land cruiser (not I though, no more vehicular risk tasking for me) and there are 10 of us inside. Soon the rain got to be to much on top so all 16 people were piled inside. Once we reached the waterfall in Río Coco, we all trekked behind the veterans and hopped in the water. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to bring my camera because I didn't want to chance it getting wet with the rain so I have no pictures to show for it. I also wish I could describe to you how incredible the view was but no words could do it justice. I've never seen anything like it. Being surrounded by jungle, I could have lived there. Just a female version of Mogley in the Jungle Book. I really hope we get the opportunity to return to Río Coco on a sunny day so I can attempt to capture how truly amazing the scenery is there. That night, I was invited to go to a church service in the village of Lucinda so Sam and I caught a ride there. Unfortunately, the power went out on our way there. It's not like when the power goes out in the U.S. When power goes out here, it's pitch black and there are tons of people in the streets. They still had the church service in this little turquoise building with a small lantern and a couple of candles. I love the passion of the people and how they pray. They pray with reckless abandonment. After the service, everyone in the church came up and shook our hands, extending their blessings. The sense of community here is indescribable.

Today, we began the day with training as usual before setting out into the villages. The original plan was that Adam would accompany Dr. Don up the mountain to Paraíso, Randy would stay back and work on I.T. stuff and the girls (Karin, Sam and I) would go to the bilingual school. I was bursting with excitement to see the kids again. Although I saw a lot of the kids in the village during their vacation, I didn't get to see all of them. Dr. Don then announced that one of the us girls should probably stay behind and do some administrative work due to the complications this past weekend with having 3 on the ATV. My heart sank because I knew that Karin was the only one to know how to drive the standard ATV and of course Sam would because she'd never been before so I just assumed I would have been the one to stay behind. In my selfishness, I was temporarily disappointed that I wouldn't get to see the kids I had long anticipated seeing. Then, Karin volunteered to stay behind and said that Sam could drive the ATV. All of this is irrelevant, I just realized but I'm not going to delete so sorry you had to read that. The point is that Sam and I ended up going out the school and once I got off that ATV, I was bombarded with tons of Honduran baby hugs and "I love you's." I just feel so at home here. I adore these kids so much. I can't say it enough.

After a wonderful day at the school, we returned to the casita for lunch and then headed out to our friend Lindy's house. Once there, we walked to a nearby pulpería for some ingredients to make pan de pan. The instructions sounded a little weird and the cooking process wasn't all that normal either. But I told Lindy and her sister that now I know how to cook it so I can take it back to the states so I should probably honor my word. While our pan de pan was cooking, Sam and I worked on Lindy's English. She started learning English two weeks ago and her pronunciation and comprehension has improved exponentially. The desire to learn here still baffles me. Soon, it was time to leave Lindy's house and head back to Loma de Luz. I forgot to mention that it was Sam's first time to drive the standard ATV and earlier at the school we had some trouble getting it started. I wasn't expecting the jump when it did start so I was taken by surprise when I my legs flew back and I almost fell off yet again (sorry again Mom! haha). Anyway, flash to leaving Lindy's. We were also carting 36 eggs for Mrs. Rumbaugh so I was worried about being able to carry them back on the ATV without breaking them. Sadly, the moto stalled yet again and we were stuck in the middle of the road, causing a traffick jam with about 30 Hondurans watching. It was just a hilarious situation and yet again, when Sam started the ATV, my legs went up a little but luckily I was better prepared this time and the eggs stayed in tact. Once we started going, along with our Honduran audience, we started laughing. I've been so grateful for the joy these past few days. I feel like I've just been laughing all of the time. I'm really enjoying getting to know the other people here and experience Honduras with them. Sometimes, I have to remind myself of where I am and the opportunities I've been presented with. It's hard to believe. I am just so incredibly grateful. I hope all of my Oklahomies are staying dry. Each day I'm here, I find it more difficult to realize that I'm going to have to leave soon. I miss anyone who's reading this and I appreciate the time you took to read about my weird adventures. XoXo.