La Esperanza Trip

First I wanted to include a picture of the great ladies I have bible study with every Wednesday. We have a pot luck dinner and listen to Mars Hill sermons online. It's a blessing.

On to more updates. This past week went well. Thank you for your prayers for David's family. I was very thankful and blessed to have been able to have spent last Modnay night at his home where we had a great time playing soccer, wii, and ate dinner together. It was good to see him and his mom. They seem to be doing ok considering. David then returned to school Tuesday. Thankfully we survived Honduran Father's Day on Thursday. He seems to be doing ok, but he's a little bit more rambunctious than normal. It's his way of not knowing how to deal. He'll being seeing the counselor three times a week now. I'm glad the school can support him in that way as we have one counselor for 1,000+ kids. Continue to pray for him. I'm currently working with the school to see if they can financially provide for him to stay at IST next year.

Well, this past weekend was quite the journey. We had a lock-in type event Friday night where we had fun playing sports, eating food and watching some of the basketball games. GO STATE!

Saturday morning we then headed back to the school to take off by 4:30 am to head for La Esperanza, the city of highest altitude in Honduras! INSANE!! However the roads are under major construction, so by leaving at that time we missed the traffic. We did get a flat tire just as we arrived to our breakfast spot though. We had an extra long breakfast there because of it. As I reached into my bag there I found it COVERED in probably 200 tiny ants. Ants are becoming more of a problem here now that it's dry. They were going after my water bottle. DISGUSTING!!!

Well, we arrived to Esperanza to our hotel without problems following. The hotel is amazing with lots of crazy decorations, statues, and lots of cool different cabins. Some of my friends thought it looked like a Dr.Seuss place or Disney Land. We ate lunch, played group games, jumped in the FREEZING pool, went down the amazing slides and got ready for the tour of my life.



Group games: Carmen y Carla my new friends







We wanted to climb the mountain to go to this area of volcanic holes. Well the guide told the bus drivers the road was passable. It would have been had the locals not put down rocks. At an extreme incline, we arrived to the rocks where our driver tried to pass but then was struggling. We were inclining and then sliding backwards and Kristi was beginning to lose it! I eventually was terrified because we kept sliding backwards on this dusty slippery road. I eventually got off and the rest followed. The amazingly talented bus driver backed down the mountain until he could turn around. We didn't arrive to our destination, but I picked up some volcanic glass on the walk down anyway. We instead were alive and went to a fewer things at ground level. :) What an adventure!



That evening we returned to the hotel, ate dinner, and basically played Beach Blanket Bingo from camp. It's like a relay game where your team brings very random things from your cabin and whoever has the item first wins. It was fun.

I then got to meet up with two very beloved friends, Allan and Hugo who I used to live with when I was here for my semester. They live in Esperanza which is why this was my second time visiting there. It had been 2 years since the three of us had been together. It was so great to see them. Brings such a smile to my face to be with them.



Overall the weekend was a blessing to have been with old friends and to have made some great new ones.

Well, the countdown to Spring Break (Semana Santa/ Easter week) has almost begun. Less than 2 weeks! I'm headed to Guatemala again. Should be fun. That'll probably be the next update.

Much love to you all!