"My Trip to the Murder Capital of the World," "Lesson 2: Be Responsible," or "Winter Has Arrived."

     Well, usually I don't fill the subject line on these things, but if I had to pick one it would be either "My Trip to the Murder Capital of the World," "Lesson 2: Be Responsible," or "Winter Has Arrived." I couldn't decide so I left it blank again...

     Early in the week we went to San Pedro with another companionship of hermanas from our district. It was crazy. We found out Sunday morning that we needed to leave that afternoon. Without a chance to eat we took off on a 4 hour bus ride as soon as church was over to avoid traveling after dark. Monday was wild with appointments, and by the time appointments were over it was too late to return to La Ceiba that night. We took advantage of the last hour of sunlight to visit the Catholic Cathederal in the other mission and it was pretty cool. We got to climb to the very top towers. There I learned that the majority of the northern coast of Honduras was not settled by the Spanish, but rather Americans in search of cheeper fruit. But to make a long story short, by the time we left San Pedro and La Lima we were ready to be back in our own apartment.

      Here the plot thickens and we get to "Lesson 2: Be Responsible." Remember this summer when the cornfield ate my glasses? That was Lesson 1: Be Obedient. Here is Lesson 2...

     Be responsible and pay the electic bill because they are serious when they say they will cut it. We returned from San Pedro to find that they had cut our power because we had forgotten to pay. We had barely enough time to make it to the bank to get it paid, but still had to go to the electric company to ask them very nicely if they would come and reconnect it again. It was too late tuesday, so we spent the night without fans and writing in journals by candle light. Wednesday we set out early to figure out how to fix our predicament, and had to bring an hermana from the ward with us just in case they asked for identification (you see, we don't exactly have residency in Honduras yet). She was very helpful and managed to talk them into reconnecting the power lines that very afternoon instead of the usual three days later. She litterally saved us. Though once we got home the power went out for our sector of La Ceiba... It was a really crazy day. Crazier than San Pedro...

     But hey, on the bright side, from Hna. Paola on this little trip, we learned that the tap water in La Ceiba has been drinkable since 1912. The Standard Fruit Company (now Dole) donated a potable water system to the city of La Ceiba many many years ago. Who knew!

     Last but not least, they tell me that winter has arrived here. That means that it rains a lot.

     One family gave us these trash bags to walk home with. They thoroughly enjoyed seeing all four missionaries from the ward looking like penguins, but it kept our stuff dry!

     It has been the craziest week, but every part came with a lesson to learn! Well, that's all for this week....

Hasta la próxima!
Hna. Thacker

Learn Catracho:

Catracho--loving term referring to all Hondurans and everything Honduran. It is more likely that you will see 100% Catracho instead of Made in Honduras...

moy--literally means cow, but here they use it to say mi amor, as in love, dear, etc.