Spiders should not have hair: Reflections on a week in Honduras, part 2

Thursday, November 30

Our flight left Thursday morning, so our group decided to go to Columbus the night before and stay at a hotel so we could be up early. As I laid in bed Wednesday night/Thursday morning, it suddenly dawned on me that I didn't bring my camera bag and that was really stupid thing to neglect. I could not sleep, so I actually thought about driving back to Athens to get it. I laid there thinking, "Okay, it's midnight. If I leave right now I can be back in Athens by 1:30 am and back here by 3:30 am." Must have been the Malaria medication talking. Fortunately, Jared talked me out of it.

We had to be at the airport Thursday morning by 5 am, so we were up by 4 am. The hotel bus to take us to the airport was late... really late... and so we got to the airport by 5:45 am with our flight leaving at 6:20 am. Other than Tina sacrificing her 3.5 oz of Applesauce to the security folks (if they had only been 3 oz packages!), security was pretty normal.

Our flight connected through Texas and there was a "storm a brewin'," so we were delayed on the runway for 1.5 hours. Yes, you read that right... 1.5 hours on the runway; smelling jet fumes... waiting to take off. Now, BECAUSE we were on the runway for 1.5 hours waiting to take off, when we finally DID take off and fly to Honduras, we had to cut our trip short and land in San Pedro... as... yep... we were running low on fuel. So we landed at the San Pedro airport (I use that term very generously), got some fuel, and we were off to Tegucigalpa.

Now, the runway in Tegucigalpa is... well... miniscule. It is the shortest runway I have ever seen. To add to the challenge, Tegucigalpa is surrounded by mountains (notice those big black things just beyond the short runway?). So for a plane to land, it has to first drop out of the sky once it clears the mountains. It is a world of fun.

Upon arrival in Tegucigalpa (after dropping out of the sky to land on the world's shortest runway), the following images stick in my mind:

The money exchanger holding wads of cash... probably thousands of dollars. They don't bother with banks in Honduras apparently, there are these guys who just walk around with HUGE wads of cash and change your money.

The realization that I have no luggage. Yes, the airlines decided to break my run of dozens of fights without ever losing a piece of luggage. I think this was the most appropriate place to lose luggage though...seeing that I would be working in the heat, sweating like a pig (yes, I know that pigs don't sweat!) and having only brought one extra shirt in my carry on. More on the lost luggage later.

The young kids who met us on the street asking for money as we walked to the car. There is something even more compelling about kids begging in Honduras... but we were given very clear instructions about not giving money... which alleviated some of the guilt.

Our team met our driver (a Montana staff person who spoke only Spanish) and then loaded into a red van for the hour-long drive to Montana De Luz on the main road (I use that word, "road" very generously). Driving in Honduras is... well... an adventure. There are no rules. Heck, there are no lanes. The attitude is basically, "Hey, there is some open space between these two cars (mountains, etc) I think I will wedge my car in there!" Passing on a blind curve going up hill? Not a problem! Although this usually would bug me and make me tense, I have to admit I laughed about it more than I worried about it. Mostly, because I was so struck by all the poverty.

To be continued.