Here!

So I’m not in West Michigan anymore. In fact, my life looks much different than it did yesterday—almost completely different. I’ll back up a little bit to catch you up to speed.

After an evening of vetoing more items out of my too heavy bags, and repacking to eliminate all of the essential liquids in my carry on bags, we headed to the airport around 3am. We being my amazing friends that have taken care of me and loved me so well through life transition that feels even bigger than I imagined now that I have actually arrived.

My flights went smoothly. Like predicted, I met nice people on each flight that helped me carry the heavy bags that were near impossible for me to navigate on my own. Picture this: Neither oversized carry on fit into the overhead compartment of my first little plane. I had to take my laptop out of my messenger bag that concealed all of the other stuff that I was trying to get to Honduras with me! Then I ended up being the last person off the plane as I tried to stuff everything back into two bags able to carry! I stumbled off the plane to find the outside stairs to leave the plane. As I walked down the stairs to the airport, one of the stupid carry ons got caught on the railing and snagged me! I ended up slowly backing up the stairs hoping that I wouldn’t fall all the way down! It was in Atlanta where I met Matt, a caver, hired by the Honduran department of archeology and anthropology to explore a newly discovered cave and make a map of it. He watched my bags that were too heavy for me to drag to the bathroom, found out that our gate had been changed, and helped carry my bags to the new gate. He encouraged me in what I am doing this year not only in words, but through his stories of his own crazy, spontaneous lifestyle. Don’t worry, I threw away his phone number ;) Then, enter Antonio. My seat neighbor on the plane to Honduras. He was much more persistent. I spent the whole first 30 minutes of the flight trying to convince him that we should just be traveling companions and that was it. Don’t worry, he wasn’t creepy. But creepy enough that I told him all about my (fake) boyfriend in Michigan who I am very much in love with despite the distance between us. Antonio still wanted to call me every night and visit on the weekends. I just kept telling him that that would be a bad situation. That my boyfriend would want to come down to Honduras and be upset :) Ha! He continued to press the idea until I got so fed up that I told him that if he wanted to chat, he should go find a seat next to someone else because I was going to sleep! I did sleep, and he didn’t bother me anymore. He carried my heavy bags to customs for me. And I chalk it up to another person that God put on my path to help me along my way to Honduras. My whole interaction with him was in Spanish so it was so good to practice and feel that whole communication in another language coming back to me.

My plane came in early which I didn’t mind so much until I realized I had no way to contact my ride. I also had no idea who my ride would be, what he or she would look like. It was on the plane as we descended into San Pedro Sula, that the What the Heck am I Doing? Thought popped into my head. Through customs and out to the front of the airport where I say atop my bags hoping that someone would come and tell me that they were there to get me-this thought remained with me. I combated it with prayer—talking to God about my decision to come and was reassured that God didn’t send me to Honduras to take me away from everyone that I love, to leave me stranded in the campo. There is a reason for me being here and I don’t need to see all the reasons right now. I just need to focus on the small things. And today, that is getting settled, finding out what I do when I am hungry, when I need to get up and what I need to do when I wake up. There is so much I want to share with you about my life here, but there is some lesson planning that must be done. Just know that I am here, safe and only slightly disoriented. Despite being here before, the culture shock is substantial. I am also really enjoying living with so many people, but it is different from my summer dorm room living by myself! More about that later! I love you and wish that you could all come and see my life here—my little classroom :) Hopefully I can get some pictures up soon.

Stay tuned!

Sarah