~ Sept 16, 2013 ~
Guidelines for visiting students' houses in Honduras:
Unless you like looking like you have chicken pox, wear bug spray. Honduran mosquitoes like gringas.
Wear tennis shoes. You never know when you are going to be jumping across rivers, hiking up mountains, or squishing through mud.
Bring a lot of water. After jumping across rivers, hiking up mountains, or squishing through mud, you'll be thirsty.
Don't wear a watch that you might be even slightly allergic to. The combination of heat, humidity, and sweat will not be helpful. At all.
If you are given a piece of fruit by a family, eat it right away. Two hours later, neither the fruit, your bag, or you will be happy with the results.
If possible, install another set of eyes to watch where you are going while at the same time not tripping over rocks, tree roots, and broken sidewalks.
If there are dogs barking furiously in the yard, just stand outside the gate and yell "buenas!" until someone comes out to let you in.
While tramping through brush, keep a close eye out for snakes and stay close to the guy with the machete.
When you have no idea what people are saying, just go off of facial cues - when they smile, you smile. When they laugh, you laugh. When they look serious, you look sympathetic.
Whenever a family offers you food, take it, say thank you, eat it graciously, and fervently pray that God kills all the bacteria before it gets to your stomach.
Realize that any hardship you are facing is the everyday normal for the families you are visiting. They don't have the option to leave; to have a hot shower; to have clean, drinkable water come out of a faucet in their house; to have money to get groceries at a Walmart down the street; to have a car to get places in; or to have a toilet to go to the bathroom in. Even if you don't understand a word they are saying, you are both hijos del mismo Dios - children of the same God - and that is what is truly important.
Previous posts in this series (most recent listed first):
Getting There: Saying Goodbye and Hello - #LaAventuraDeLaVida
La Gracia de Dios (the grace of God) - #LaAventuraDeLaVida
