one day in the life

by Alanna

My husband is cooking crepes and loudly singing along to Bob Marley. So I’m sitting down to write a small blog of our day. This morning we took the laundry down to the courtyard to wash it in the pila. (The pila is an area with cement washing boards, a drain, and a basin for water. We hand wash everything there). My husband wisely wore mosquito spray, and I smugly didn’t. I was promptly bitten 9 times on my ankle and leg within the first 10 minutes of washing clothes, and so I humbly retreated back upstairs to get mosquito spray as well.

After the laundry, we walked to the bank. There you get asked by the security guards at the door if you have a cell phone, as they are not allowed in the bank. From what I’ve seen, if you are a man you also get waved with a metal detector. Yonas had looked up the word for withdrawal, so we could get Lempiras out of our account here.

From there we walked to the grocery store, La Dispensa. It’s the cheapest one in town for most things. They have loud music playing outside every day, and today the music was inside too. It was hard to think about what Honduran baking powder might look like, when those Honduran pop songs were blaring so loudly next to me. I forgot to be thankful and to rejoice that we have a grocery store and money to use there.

Just as we were paying at the register, we heard the rain come. It was a downpour, and the gutters fast became rivers. We waited at the entrance to the store, along with all the Hondurans, for the rain to let up a little. Then we walked home through muddy puddles with light rain coming down. I laughed because I love puddles, but Yonas was not thrilled because he does not like the rain. This afternoon we had lunch (PBJ again), and washed the floors in our apartment by hand.

Afterward I checked e-mails, and Yonas took a nap in our room. While I was typing, suddenly the wide open bedroom door slammed shut. It was so loud that I jumped right out of my seat. It had been the wind, and right away the rain started pouring down. I thought it would be a hurricane. I ran into our room and jumped right into my husband’s arms, like a little scared child.  I’m so thankful that I have this man to be strong. Thankful that he thinks about things like mosquito spray, that he speaks Spanish, that he leads me by the hand across these crazy streets. I’m thankful that we get to hand wash clothes together, clean floors, grocery shop. I’m thankful that we get to live life together, that I don’t have to be alone here. I’m thankful for his kindness and the way he notices the bathroom needs to be cleaned and just does it.

I don’t want to ever forget what we have been given. These other things- a whisk, a washing machine, a mop, aren’t so important. Even baking powder and paprika I can live without. But I’m thankful that today, I have my husband.  

 

in the desert

By Mary

Its been difficult for me to blog lately...partially because the single mom roll was a little more stressful and wearing than I thought it would be, partially because I've been more tired and low energy lately, but mostly just because its been hard to put my thoughts into words.

I've had a spiritual dry spell for months, I think. I can't give it a time frame because it felt so comfortable for so long. Being lukewarm takes little effort...but it really is so draining, so empty and joyless. God has been on the very outskirts of my consciousness with so many petty things competing for my time and heart.

I think it's simple to fall into this kind of lifestyle. It doesn't take anything dramatic and it doesn't even take a long time. It just takes a little shift of focus from God as number one to...anything else as first. It's easy to lose love when you're not cultivating it. It's natural to lose good habits when you stop exercising them.

But right now, I'm so excited for life. I've got my husband back from all his training for at least the next few months and it seems like we're both in this spiritual rebuilding stage and it's so good. And hopeful. God is as present with me in the desert as when He leads me to the well-watered pastures.

adapting

(written on August 12th)
by Alanna

 

I write this blog for now on paper, as we haven’t yet found internet in Catacamas. I’m sure it’s here, just not in our apartment or at the school. Internet, like many things I’ve found, is not a life necessity.

My husband opens our little fridge to get bottled water (nobody drinks tap water here). Inside I see one Yoplait yogurt, a banana, an apple, half a jar of spaghetti sauce, and some unidentified fruit which in my opinion tastes kind of like grass. In the door there is a jar of jelly and a box of juice. Other than that the shelves are bare. I laugh and tell Yonas that I never in my life lived with such an empty fridge.

After our spaghetti dinner tonight, we split one of those chocolate wafer sticks in half, to share. We laughed together, because it’s good but new- this living cheaply, living simply. We have plenty of money in the bank, and we don’t go hungry. Soon we’ll also figure out how to efficiently grocery shop here.

We read this verse in Acts 2 a few days ago- “They received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.” I’d like that to be us.

I’ve been using socks for potholders, my shirt for a kitchen towel, and a table for an ironing board. Yonas is playing guitar now on our improvised “couch”, which he so creatively made yesterday from 2 chairs, a suitcase, and a blanket. We deep cleaned the whole apartment yesterday- bathroom, screens, windows, floors, furniture- with just 2 rags, a scrubbie, disinfectant, bleach, and water. (There was no broom or mop so I washed the floors Cinderella style). I’m going to learn to make tortillas, hopefully; to hand wash our clothes in the pila, to cook/bake everything with only one working electric burner.

We have so many blessings here. Kind teachers at the school, a very approachable director who is fluent in English, our own furnished place to live. We live in a safe, secure place, we have cell phones, clothes, food, electricity, and running water. We even have 2 fans here, which my handy husband repaired. We have each other to love and serve and lean on. Soon we get to meet kids to love and teach. Jesus paid the ransom to free us. Tonight I’m so very thankful.