We're in Honduras!

We’ve been in Honduras for 2 weeks now. Just getting to Honduras was an adventure!

We left Washington, DC on Tuesday, June 24, and flew to Miami. Dealing with all our luggage was always a challenge. We each had two suitcases, a carry-on, and bag each, which is more than our few hands could carry. This meant that we often had to take luggage from one spot to another in several trips at the airport or hotel. Luckily, we had a scale and made sure each suitcase was under 50 pounds (just barely). We were also exempt, traveling on government orders, from the per-bag fees the airlines started charging. When a shuttle van from our hotel picked us up and took us to the hotel, I had thought I was booking something near stores and restaurants, but I must have been mistaken. This wasn’t near anything! But the shuttle would take us anywhere we needed to go… within a couple of miles. So when we said we wanted to go get some lunch, thinking hamburgers or something, the driver took us to the “perfect” restaurant. He was so insistent that we go to this restaurant, he jumped out and opened the van door, then the restaurant door, then stopped short of showing us to a table. I think he must have been related to the owners! In the end, it wasn’t all that great. In fact, we didn’t like it much at all. But it did help prepare us for Honduras – we were the only people there speaking English at the Casa Juan restaurant. Later we went out to a fancier restaurant and had a really great dinner.

I went back to the airport on Wednesday to meet with Department of Homeland Security personnel for orientation in port of entry policies and practices. But there was a bit of miscommunication about with whom and where to meet, so it was about 45 minutes before we got together. I got a tour of facilities, including the “secondary” review area, where problem cases are dealt with. It was good to see that they took good care of people who had to wait a long time, including not only restroom facilities, but food. I ended up spending some time at the “window,” reviewing passports and visas of incoming passengers. If there are problems or concerns here, the person is sent to secondary for further review. What strikes me as interesting is that, as a consular officer, when I give someone a visa, that doesn’t necessarily mean they can enter the United States. That means that they get to travel to the United States, where the DHS officer makes the final decision (who could actually turn them back). I’m sure there’s some interesting political history as to why this decision is up to the Customs and Border Protection of DHS (formerly Border Patrol), rather than the State Department.

After my work that day, we took a taxi to the Coconut Grove area of Miami. We took a walk down by Biscayne Bay, which is as close as we came to the Atlantic Ocean. We then had a nice dinner (and dessert!) at the Cheesecake Factory, which made for a nice evening.

The next day we packed up again and headed to the airport to head off for Honduras. There was a bit of stress because the 10:30 shuttle didn’t show, and there was some concern that the 11:00 shuttle wouldn’t show either; it had to go to the shop! But it came and we got to the airport a little later than planned. No time for lunch! Then it was on through security, which is always a stressful madhouse! Why do TSA officers feel they need to yell all the time to keep things moving? Why not find better ways to make the process more efficient, rather than treat it like it’s always in crisis mode?

All that hustle and bustle turned out to be unnecessary, though. Our flight was late… very late. The plane we were supposed to take didn’t get to Miami until one and a half hours late. So we had plenty of time to sit around. We grabbed some sandwiches for the flight, because I didn’t know if we’d be able to stop for lunch once we got to Honduras. I noticed that nearly half the people waiting for the plane were American, and with a religious message or name on their T-shirt. So I struck up a conversation with one of the young men. They were from a couple of Christian churches in Kentucky, going on a 10-day mission, where they would build a couple of houses, conduct medical and dental clinics, etc. I think that’s pretty cool.

The flight was fairly uneventful. It’s only about 2½ hours to Honduras from Miami. The bad part was that there was some turbulence, and the guy sitting in front of Mary and the girls (I was across the aisle) threw up into his airsickness bag early in the flight, and kept throwing up throughout the flight. It was loud, smelly, and very unpleasant! Me? I just put on my headphones and watched the movie (The Sedgwick Chronicles) and ate my sandwich.

We had to fly to San Pedro Sula, in the north of Honduras, because there was a plane crash in Tegucigalpa a couple of weeks earlier, which must have been the last straw in safety concerns. The airport is in a steep valley, with a particularly short runway. You can even find videos of landings there on You Tube! Anyway, they closed the airport to larger planes used for international flights until they could figure out what to do about it. Options include extending the runway (although it’s surrounded by houses), building a new airport, or turning the big air force base about 45 minutes out of town into a passenger airport. Of course, all of this takes money which Honduras doesn’t have. In the meantime, we all have to fly into San Pedro Sula. We were going to have an embassy driver pick us up and drive us to Tegucigalpa. Two local employees of the embassy were there to meet us, get us through customs, etc. They brought a nice big van, so there would be room for us and our luggage. We were very grateful for the help.

Remember that our plane was about 2 hours late? That caused a problem. Because of the high crime in Honduras, which is especially bad in some of the areas we had to drive through to get to Tegucigalpa, we’re not supposed to make that trip after dark. Since it gets dark around 6:00, and it takes about 5 hours to get to Teguz, it was decided that we would need to spend the night in San Pedro Sula and make the trip in the morning. Oops! All the hotels were booked up in San Pedro. So it was decided (one of the staff, Orlando, was going back and forth on the cell phone with the embassy management staff) that we would go part way, and they would find us a hotel along the way.

It was decided that we would stay at the Brisas del Lago hotel near Lake Yajoa. Unfortunately, it was not that easy to find. We ended up backtracking down the highway and hunting around until we found the place. By then it was raining and dark, which didn’t help. But we found it and got checked in. It must be the off-peak season, because we seemed to be the only guests there. The hotel must have been quite grand in its heyday – probably 30 or 40 years ago. It was comfortable, enough. We had kind of a suite, with our family in one big room. Because it was so deserted, we even had a hard time finding the hallway light switch to find our room! We had dinner in the hotel’s restaurant. I chose the “plato típico,” consisting of a piece of fried meat, sausage, rice, beans, cheese, and fried banana. It wasn’t bad, except that the beans and cheese were terribly salty. Melissa ordered the same thing, but didn’t eat much. She had a bit of a breakdown because she didn’t understand the language or the food and just wanted to go home. We all slept fairly well, most likely because we were all so tired. But around 4:00 a.m. the birds (and possibly monkeys) started singing and screeching quite loudly. So we didn’t sleep much after that. Mary and I got up and took a walk on the hotel grounds. We weren’t right next to the lake; it was a ways down the hill, past grassy hills, trees, and coffee and banana plantations. There were also a couple of horses in the a nearby pasture. Very green, very picturesque. I was a bit taken back by how lush it seemed. In fact, throughout our trip, I was amazed at the variety of vegetation – deciduous trees, mangoes, bananas, coconut, pineapple, coffee, and pine trees – often in the same area.


We continued our journey that morning, stopping along the way at one of the ambassador’s favorite roadside restaurants: the Granja Delia. They have a nice breakfast buffet, so we could pick out what we wanted. Good prices, too!
Although the roads were windy, and the weather rainy, we made the rest of the journey on mountainous highways just fine. It was fascinating (scary?) to watch the driving practices. Traffic lanes, speed limits, and so forth are not so much rules as… guidelines. It’s very common to have 3 cars abreast on a the two-lane road as one cars, busses, ad trucks pass each other. After several hours, we arrived at our new home in Tegucigalpa on Friday afternoon. Many people at the embassy apologized for the hassle, but I preferred to look at the benefit: we got a nice tour of the countryside on our very first day!
Our house is in a small gated community, which gives us an added sense of security. Of course, like other houses around here, we have a 9-foot wall, topped with razor wire, and bars on all the windows. We even have an alarm system, and a videophone on our doorbell, so we know who’s outside the gate. The house is fairly comfortable, with 3 bedrooms (each with their own bathroom and plenty of closet space) and a family room upstairs. Downstairs, there’s a kitchen with breakfast area, dining room, ½ bath, laundry room, and separate maid’s quarters (although we don’t have one). All the floors are tile. It’s furnished fairly nicely. Outside, there’s a very small yard, carport, and tiny patio, complete with patio furniture – even though the patio is so small you can’t open the door from the dining room, because the patio furniture is in the way. In many ways, it seems very normal for an American home. Did I mention that the electricity and outlets are the same as in the U.S.? I especially like all the skylights in the master bathroom and walk-in closet. So the layout, accommodations, and location are nice. The biggest drawback is that the house was not cleaned much before we got here. They normally clean more thoroughly and re-paint, etc. But there was a short turn-around from when the last family left and we arrived. Also, this is considered a temporary house, and we will be moved to another house in a couple of months. So they didn’t put as much effort into it as they normally would. Besides grimy walls throughout the house, the kitchen was pretty dirty. We just couldn’t understand why. The previous occupants had a full-time maid, a nanny, and another helper! The biggest problem from all of this was bugs. Luckily, there were only a few cockroaches, spiders, and a centipede. The main infestation was ants—everywhere! We laid a piece of wrapping paper down, and they built a nest under it. They even built a nest in the water reservoir area in the iron! There were also some bugs in at least one of the mattresses. Luckily, the embassy staff responded quickly and sent an exterminator and replaced the mattresses. So it’s been much better (although not completely bug-free) since. The other problem surfaced when we ran out of running water one day. It turns out we have a cistern that needs to be filled, either by city water (which runs only occasionally) or by a tanker truck. We didn’t know he had to check it, and we ran out of water completely just as I was starting my shower one morning. But, again, the embassy staff responded quickly and sent a tanker truck and filled up our cistern later that day. So we’ll need to learn to manage that. Apparently, it’s not such an issue at other houses; we just seem to have water problems here. Also, since we can’t drink the water, they supply us bottled water, which we have to be around to exchange when the “Aguazul” truck comes by.

We had very nice sponsors – experienced embassy officers, who show us the ropes and help us get set up: Chad Thornberry and Sarah Duffy. They bought us some groceries so we would have food in the house. That first evening, Friday, my neighbor and future co-worker, Justin Hekel, had a BBQ, with a number of people from the embassy and USAID in attendance. So I met my future supervisors and some of my co-workers. Then on Saturday, Chad drove us around to several stores including PriceSmart, affiliated with Costco, so we could finish stocking our pantry. He spent most of the day with us, which was above and beyond the call of duty in my mind. But we had a nice lunch together at Ruby Tuesday’s. Yes, there are plenty of American stores, fast food, etc. I suppose it would be even more meaningful if we were used to going to fast food, which we’re not. But it is handy to be able to buy cold cereal and other things we like. Some of it (if it’s imported) is a bit more expensive. Some things are actually cheaper, like a restaurant meal or going to the movies. On Saturday, my supervisor, Rachel, took us up to an old mining town (now tourist destination) called Valle de Ángeles for lunch and to look around. It was a nice way to get to know her before I even started on the job.

We spent Sunday getting settled in. Then on Monday, Rebekah and I went to the Embassy to start work. She got a “summer hire” job at USAID, which is actually across the street from the embassy. We had a driver from the embassy pick us up at the house and take us home each day, since we didn’t have a car. While I did spend a little time getting introduced to work at the consulate, most of my first week was spent working on paperwork and other check-in processes. I did learn my way around the embassy this way! Rebekah was pretty bored her first few days because there was a misunderstanding and that department didn’t expect her. But that’s her blog…. Among the paperwork that I did was to buy a car from someone at USAID, who was leaving in a couple of days. I learned about his car for sale through the embassy newsletter before we came and worked out the deal long before we arrived. So we got the car by the end of our first week, when most people don’t receive their car shipped from the U.S. for a couple of months. But I didn’t want to drive until we got all the insurance set up. That was all done by Thursday. So now we have a car! To celebrate, and to get out of the house and get to know the area, on Friday we went to… the Mall! We looked around for some clothes Rebekah needed (but the prices were not too inviting). Then we went to the movies and saw Get Smart (or “Super Agente 86”). Luckily it was in English, with Spanish subtitles, and cost only $3 each. While this isn’t a movie review, the movie was actually more enjoyable than I expected it to be. Then we ate dinner at … the Food Court! (Church’s Chicken, Wendy’s and Subway.)

Although there was an “official” function at the Ambassador’s residence on July 4th, we did not attend because I was not invited—perhaps because I’m extremely low on the totem pole, but likely because we weren’t here soon enough to receive an invitation. But on Saturday, the 5th of July, there was a big celebration co-sponsored by the Embassy, the Honduran-American Chamber of commerce, and the Zamorano agricultural university, held on the campus of Zamorano. There were activities for kids, food booths, crafts booths, sports events, and even a couple of helicopters to show off from the air force base. While it wasn’t a “woo-hoo” fun time, we did enjoy getting out and walking around the huge hacienda-style campus. I especially enjoyed the ecumenical chapel, that had just pillars instead of outside walls, so it was open to the air. As a working university, this is also the source of most of the dairy products we buy, as well as some great wheat bread, mango jam, and honey. The campus is about 45 minutes out of Tegucigalpa, on the way to Nicaragua. Luckily, we didn’t have to drive. They chartered a couple of school buses at the American School, so we took those. Not many other people did, though—maybe 6 other people besides us on the busses we took. I enjoyed sitting back and just watching the scenery, taking occasional pictures out the window.

On Sunday, we got up and went to Church. I had seen an LDS church building near the embassy when our neighbor took us to the car one day. So we went to that ward, just for sacrament meeting. I was a little annoyed that we were 5 or 10 minutes late (which is much too common for us). But I had forgotten about “Honduran time.” People were just arriving. In fact, I’d say about half the 40 or so people who were in the meeting by the end came after the sacrament. The bishop lit up when he saw us and introduced himself and asked about us. He was particularly excited to learn that I am a High Priest and that I play the piano. The music in the meeting was not what we were used to: there were no hymn books; each family brought their own. There was no one playing the piano (they don’t have an organ). Instead the chorister (with a lovely voice) sang a few bars, then said “uno, dos, tres” and started leading. The funny thing is, I had bought a Spanish hymn book for our own family home evenings, but I didn’t think to bring it to church. After the meeting, I showed the bishop on a map where we lived. He wasn’t so sure that we were in his ward, but didn’t really want to tell the other bishop. He joked that he may not tell the truth and just live with the consequences. He also introduced us to the Young Women’s and Relief Society and Elder’s Quorum presidents. Of course, it was all in Spanish, although the bishop spoke English quite well. Whenever people speak Spanish to Melissa, she just freezes up and stares at me. I’m not sure what she expects of me (she’s never asked me anything), but I’m not going to be a full-time translator for her. We only stayed for Sacrament meeting. I felt a smaller dose of church in Spanish would be better our first time. Then our next activity was for Mary to get behind the wheel and drive around to the embassy, various stores and other destinations. Besides the challenge of crazy drivers and streets without signs, it is very, very hilly so we have to re-learn how to drive these steep hills with a stick-shift.

For dinner Sunday, Mary cooked a nice pasta primavera, or as best she could. You have to wash vegetables in bleach water, which is a lot of work. Also, she bought some cream in a bag that wasn’t just cream, it was sour cream that had a bit of a powdered milk taste to it. So the dish didn’t turn out quite as she expected. But, if Mary cooks it, it’s going to be good. And I really appreciate her efforts. After dinner, I continued writing this journal entry, while a light rain fell. Then the lights went out. (Thank goodness I was working on a laptop with battery power!) A couple of seconds later, our big diesel generator kicked on and the lights came back on. A couple of hours later, the city electricity came back and the generator turned itself off. That’s handy!

Last Monday was my big day of training in the consulate. I stood behind a more senior officer, Gladys, and watched and asked her questions while she worked at the non-immigrant visa window. Four and half hours of standing was a bit hard on my feet and back, though. There just wasn’t room for 2 chairs. Then after lunch, she stood behind me while I did 6 visa renewals (although I did deny one). It made me a bit nervous, and I relied on asking her a lot of questions and thinking out loud with her to make my decisions. But as early as tomorrow, I’ll be on my own! I finished the day working on the last of my administrative check-in process. And boy, am I tired!

That’s it. Just over a week in Honduras. Still getting used to some things, but settling in quite nicely. Hopefully our first shipment of belongings (a limited amount which comes by air) will be here this week. Also, we should have our Internet connection set up with cable TV tomorrow. Then the world will be ours! Or at least we’ll feel more connected.