Before you begin to read this booklet that I am writing, GO GET SOME CHEESE! No... Really! Go get it! I am bringing the whine! It has been a month since I was last in touch with the world. We have a lot of CRAP to catch up on. Literally, well... sort of.
Where to begin? The beginning of September we had a small team. With this team I met a wonderful new friend who convinced me to join her church the following week. They were doing a medical brigade in Copan. If you know me at all, this took no work on her part. I love evangelism. I love medical out reach. This is right up my alley! It is why I even fell in love with this country! AND... Of course, I had to invite along the best dentist (my sometimes better half) in the world. Why? Because I can't leave him behind while I have all the fun. Or maybe it is because I love watching him cringe as we send in one last patient to pull an additional 7 teeth when he thought he was done for the day! ;) Really, it is because I love doing ministry with him. I love watching God move. I love serving together. And I love him! This just presented one minor problem, what do we do with the kid!?! Oh, quick fix! Send him home with Mimi! That was easy. She left the day before the brigade began! I was a free woman! Almost! It was a wonderful week. We had the best weather! We saw so many conversions and got to plug people into COMMUNITY! And we didn't just meet the spiritual needs. We met the physical needs too! We saw between 700 and 1,100 people each day! IT WAS INCREDIBLE! My heart was full! I was getting rejuvinated. Partially because I didn't have to be a mom, but part because I was able to be a part of what I love! Minus the waking up at 5am each morning. 8 days away from Jayden flew by so quickly! I left the team to catch a 1 am flight back to the USA so I could get my little dude. I DECIDED, Nilsson needed to come along. His birthday was the day I was leaving and I didn't want to see him alone. Not to mention, he missed the Jaydi boy too! He already had a ticket that he hadn't used so we just needed to change the dates. It was going to be a wonderful 2 week vacation / babysitting. (My family needed a live-in to make sure my 15 year old brother didn't blow up the house, and still got to school each day while they went to a conference.) It was good. Nilsson left us early because he needed to get back to work. He had already missed way too much time in the clinic due to the brigade. We said goodbye and I waited another 7 days until my family came back.
I find out the day before I am supposed to be going back home to Honduras that my e-ticket was one way, not round trip like I thought. Normally, I could care less. I would just enjoy more time with my family and try to see more friends that I never get to see. Not this time. I had to be back by the 6th of October because we only had temporary permission to have one of the ministry vehicles here. No big deal. We just have to drive across the border for 72 hours and come back with renewed permission. Upon return, we were going to try and pay the introduction so we could register the suburban. This was just the plan! We scrambled trying to find a cheap ticket for me to get back in time. As I am confirming plans to make sure Nilsson comes to pick us up at the airport I am hit with some crappy news.
1.) Dona Dora (The mother of Jaydens aunt) has colon cancer. It looks like they caught it in time, but she has to go in for emergency surgery. This woman is the sweetest most devoted christian/catholic I know. She is full of wisdom and patience. It isn't her I am worried about, but her kids and grandkids. They are the ones that would be most hurt.
2.) This is the worst news. Nilsson has not been able to work since he returned. The air conditioner in his clinic went kurplunk. AND here is the BIGGIE... His compressor isn't shooting out enough pressure. It all looks fixable. He thinks. Bad thing is unless someone needs teeth whitening or some wisdom teeth removed he is out of business. He is still waiting to see how the repair turns out.
I buy my ticket hoping Nilsson will resolve his clinic mess in time to meet me so I do not have to cross the border alone. It just isn't safe. Or smart. Not that I think he would let me go alone. I just was hoping things would be fixed first.
I get into San Pedro and it is 10:30 am. Nilsson doesn't answer my calls. Jayden has fallen asleep in my arms. I have him and all our bags and I am pushing the luggage cart through the airport trying to come up with a plan. I sit in the mini-food court. I wait. I have now been waiting for 8 hours to use the rest room. I thought I would find relief here, but now Jayden is asleep! He tortured me through the flights, AND through the connection in Houston, and NOW HE SLEEPS! AGH!! I was angry that I got stuck next to some old fart that seemed to hate kids. I know Jayden isn't easy, but he can be really sweet. He is wild, demanding, and makes a lot of noise, but he also gives lots of hugs and kisses. Normally this happens right before or immediately after commiting a big NO-NO! He is only 16 months. This vicious grand-dad didn't even want Jaydens blanket touching the arm rest. I actually hope he has no kids. If he does, they are pretty messed up people. I am sure of it.
As I am getting desperate, and thinking I need to pee my pants or leave all of my things and lay Jayden on top and pray nobody takes him, I see the airport janitor. I plead for her assistance. As I walk away in a hurry for the bano my phone jingles. Nilsson informs me he is still 3 hours away even if he was ready to come get us, which he is not. It was followed with, "so what are you going to do? Who is going to get you?" WHAT!?! I have the kid and I am just finding all of this out and you think I have some plan? Like I knew I needed a back up plan? I am dumbfounded, but don't really care because at the same time my bladder has found relief and is singing "HAa-LE-LU-JAH! HAaa-LE-LU-JAH!" I was distracted to say the least. The call dropped. I think I heard him say let me see if a friend can come get you. I don't care. I really didn't. I had food all around. Jayden was sleeping. And I got to pee! Life was good! Sort of... I walk out and I hand the girl 50 lempiras. She smiled and was grateful. This perked up her day and made her think I was her best friend. I was exhausted! I didn't want to talk, she did. Nilsson calls back, yes, he is sending his friend. I don't know if it is male, female, the name, what car to look for, nothing. He just decided this information was not important. But I will be picked up by 1. At least they can take me to the suburban! I didn't want to have to pay $30 for a taxi and have problems with luggage and trying to get the vehicle out of where it was stored, and worry about Jayden runnin around. I am at ease knowing that someone semi-familiar is going to help me. (NOTE: I have no clue who this person is, nor have I ever met them!) Two hours later Nilsson tells me to go outside and to walk towards the grey Toyota Yaris. Seriously, this is kind of freaky. What do I find? This cutely petite girl about my age. I am too ashamed to ask her name. She knows mine. She knows Jayden. And we talk like we have been friends for years. She was BELLA!!! (Beautiful) Inside and out. She watched Jayden while I manuevered the semi out from its position and loaded up the bags. We hug goodbye and talk about getting together for dinner when I am back and we both head out on our ways. I call Nilsson. Still not done. He is trying to catch a bus, but the next bus all the way to San Pedro is at 6. This puts us WAY behind on time. I start to spazz. He informs me of another bus that is going to Tela at 2:30. This sounds good to me, but... My phone dies. Totally dies. Not because of the battery. It had half of its life left. It just died because... who knows? I scramble. I was also talking to my dad about papers that needed scanned and emailed so I could cross the border and extend permission. I go to the closest phone store to see what I need. I enter in a frenzy trying to complete my conversations and trying to see what I need to do next. And I have to wait. And wait. And wait. This is common here. Employees like to play with phones and watch television while one co-worker tries to pacify all of the clients. I finally get someone to help me only because Jayden is screaming. I told him no he couldn't climb the shelves like a monkey. (It got me attention!) I ask for the cheapest phone that has a battery charge after he said it would be an over night and a minimum 600 lmp fee to look at my current phone. Five minutes later I am out the door making calls back to the states and looking to see what plan Superman has derived. He is on a bus already headed towards Tela and had the expectations I was going to drive 30 minutes back the opposite direction of where we need to head to pick him up. I am game because this still puts us back on track time wise to cross the border in time before the permission expires. We meet in Tela. He was waiting on me. I don't know how this happened, but I guess I made too many stops along the way trying to kill time. We head out towards Tegucigalpa. We got five minutes out of the city and the police stop us. Yep... Asking for money. What for? Some random project they are trying to complete. (You know, like eating dinner.) We give them 50 lmps and are back on the road. 30 minutes later, another police stop. Gah. This is INSANE!!! 100 lmps and we are on our way! Two hours later, another police stop. This guy has a handbook with the new road rules that he is trying to sell. We say we dont't have the 200 lmps that he is asking for. He asks for any help we can give. We come up with 60 lmps, and we drive off. We make itand are backam getting desperate, and thinking I need to pee my pants or leave all of my things and lay Jayden on top and pray nobody takes him, I see the airport janitor. I plead for her assistance. As I walk away in a hurry for the bano my phone jingles. Nilsson informs me he is still 3 hours away even if he was ready to come get us, which he is not. It was followed with, "so what are you going to do? Who is going to get you?" WHAT!?! I have the kid and I am just finding all of this out and you think I have some plan? Like I knew I needed a back up plan? I am dumbfounded, but don't really care because at the same time my bladder has found relief and is singing "HAa-LE-LU-JAH! HAaa-LE-LU-JAH!" I was distracted to say the least. The call dropped. I think I heard him say let me see if a friend can come get you. I don't care. I really didn't. I had food all around. Jayden was sleeping. And I got to pee! Life was good! Sort of... I walk out and I hand the girl 50 lempiras. She smiled and was grateful. This perked up her day and made her think I was her best friend. I was exhausted! I didn't want to talk, she did. Nilsson calls back, yes, he is sending his friend. I don't know if it is male, female, the name, what car to look for, nothing. He just decided this information was not important. But I will be picked up by 1. At least they can take me to the suburban! I didn't want to have to pay $30 for a taxi and have problems with luggage and trying to get the vehicle out of where it was stored, and worry about Jayden runnin around. I am at ease knowing that someone semi-familiar is going to help me. (NOTE: I have no clue who this person is, nor have I ever met them!) Two hours later Nilsson tells me to go outside and to walk towards the grey Toyota Yaris. Seriously, this is kind of freaky. What do I find? This cutely petite girl about my age. I am too ashamed to ask her name. She knows mine. She knows Jayden. And we talk like we have been friends for years. She was BELLA!!! (Beautiful) Inside and out. She watched Jayden while I manuevered the semi out from its position and loaded up the bags. We hug goodbye and talk about getting together for dinner when I am back and we both head out on our ways. I call Nilsson. Still not done. He is trying to catch a bus, but the next bus all the way to San Pedro is at 6. This puts us WAY behind on time. I start to spazz. He informs me of another bus that is going to Tela at 2:30. This sounds good to me, but... My phone dies. Totally dies. Not because of the battery. It had half of its life left. It just died because... who knows? I scramble. I was also talking to my dad about papers that needed scanned and emailed so I could cross the border and extend permission. I go to the closest phone store to see what I need. I enter in a frenzy trying to complete my conversations and trying to see what I need to do next. And I have to wait. And wait. And wait. This is common here. Employees like to play with phones and watch television while one co-worker tries to pacify all of the clients. I finally get someone to help me only because Jayden is screaming. I told him no he couldn't climb the shelves like a monkey. (It got me attention!) I ask for the cheapest phone that has a battery charge after he said it would be an over night and a minimum 600 lmp fee to look at my current phone. Five minutes later I am out the door making calls back to the states and looking to see what plan Superman has derived. He is on a bus already headed towards Tela and had the expectations I was going to drive 30 minutes back the opposite direction of where we need to head to pick him up. I am game because this still puts us back on track time wise to cross the border in time before the permission expires. We meet in Tela. He was waiting on me. I don't know how this happened, but I guess I made too many stops along the way trying to kill time. We head out towards Tegucigalpa. We got five minutes out of the city and the police stop us. Yep... Asking for money. What for? Some random project they are trying to complete. (You know, like eating dinner.) We give them 50 lmps and are back on the road. 30 minutes later, another police stop. Gah. This is INSANE!!! 100 lmps and we are on our way! Two hours later, another police stop. This guy has a handbook with the new road rules that he is trying to sell. We say we dont't have the 200 lmps that he is asking for. He asks for any help we can give. We come up with 60 lmps, and we drive off. We make itand are back on the road. 30 minutes later, another police stop. Gah. This is INSANE!!! 100 lmps and we are on our way! Two hours later, another police stop. This guy has a handbook with the new road rules that he is trying to sell. We say we dont't have the 200 lmps that he is asking for. He asks for any help we can give. We come up with 60 lmps, and we drive off. We make it to Tegucigalpa around 9 pm. It was a LONG day of travel. We visit with the grandparents and my eyes are shutting so I go to bed. Knowing we have to leave at the crack-of-dawn so we can cross the border before the permission expires, I pray I can get some sleep.
Friday morning, we scramble to load up and head out. We are focussed on our journey that lies ahead. We had no major problems with police stops. Just before we cross the border we are waved off to the side of the road. They have us get out. Unload the car. Look through everything. As one of the officers hands my passport back to me he tells me to be careful. He then says, "Don't let ANYONE process your papers for you in immigration. You do it ALONE!" I nod. I thank him. We load back up and head torwards the border. We pull up and I don't know where to go. Nothing is labeled. There is a mob of people inside a building.
There are people surrounding our vehicle. I get nervous. We park. I hop out. I immediately have people pulling on me and grabbing my arms. It is a shark feeding frenzy.My passport is ripped out of my hands. I spazz looking to find where Nilsson is hiding. I can't even make it over to his side of the car. I feel my face turning red with frustration, fear, and my blood pressure rising. I try and grab onto the back of Supermans shirt as he is walking off to find the shark that just took my papers. We move towards the middle of the building where the mob of people are all working/waiting on the same thing. The shark appears with my passport that is now stamped and his hand is out waiting for money. We tell him we need papers for the vehicle. We head towards a different office. We are then informed that El Salvador is considered a free border. We do not need any additional permission. AND... Our vehicle permission will not be renewed unless we enter through Guatamala. We are bummed. This means we have to cut through El Salvador into Guatamala, right? NOPE. Even upon re-entry through Guatamala nothing is going to be resolved. They no longer allow you to pay introduction at the borders, AND the VIN number is already in the transportation system with the value of the vehicle. A value that is way to high and means we have to pay $8,000 to import the car into this country. We walk out of the office scratching our heads trying to decide what this means. "God, please tell me this trip wasn't made for nothing!" Up walks shark boy. He takes us to a "friend". We explain to him that our permission is expiring the next morning. We explain that Honduras thinks the car is worth over $16,000 and that they want us to pay $8,000 in taxes just to register the vehicle here. He makes some calls. He tells us our option and for time, I will just tell you the best one. We go back to Tegucigalpa the next morning and submit papers in the main office to pay taxes and try to prove the "real" value of the vehicle. This is good. Now I just have to get my passport stamped so I can enter Honduras again. I never really left so this should be easy. NOT!!! I have a stamped passport that means I have to leave the country 72-hours. After shedding a few beads of sweat, a tear drop or two, watching the sun set, and losing $100 on the immigration offices desk I have a stamped passport and can enter Honduras!Saturday morning ~ We wake up so we can head to Tegucigalpa. We sit in Aduana waiting for the chief to decide to see us to hear our plead. This never happens. Our papers are now officially expired. I feel screwed over, and we have to leave because they close at 12 today and we had no "official pending" business. My butt is grateful. I was tired of sitting on the floor. There are no seats. Nor is there an official waiting area.
Monday ~ It is 8 am and we get to head to Aduana again! We sit and wait for three hours before we hear that the officials are in the office today to make sure that everything is operating as should be. This also means we are not a priority because the papers we want to submit are not official. Do not have any seals. It is more of a he says - she says battle. We get to wait. Just after lunch we are asked if we can located pictures of the salvage vehicle or get a copy of the salvage title. I call the states again. I will try to produce anything that I think will help me give them what they are looking for. I am informed that we have nothing. We continue to wait. I start to get concerned realizing how much work Nilsson is missing because the clinic keeps calling. This means patients go to a doctor "that cares." (You know, the guy that is sitting and waiting in their clinic.) I feel frustrated and scared. It is now 4:30 and the office is closing. They tell us to come back the next day.
Tuesday ~ Looks like another day is going to be spent sitting on the steps. It is 9 and nobody has spoken to us. Around 11:30 they ask me for a paper that they call a chiper document. I have no clue what this is, but I try to locate one. No such thing exists in the file. I ask what it looks like and where it comes from. It is issued at the border between Mexico and Texas. I call my dad. He begins making calls looking for this paper. It seems non-existent. We try and talk to one of the officials to make an agreement on the price of the car. She tells us that for an extra $500 on the side she will work with us. We have hope again. Today it is too late to process so we have to come back in the morning.
Wednesday ~ I am starting to worry. Nilsson has now been out of work for almost a month. His phone rings daily with patients he will not be able to attend to. We are stuck here working on papers and for what? I start to ask God why my family has to suffer and why my son has to pay because we are trying to be faithful in the little things. If we were a part of US Aid or World Vision they would have paid the $8,000 and not cared. We don't want to do this because we know how much can really be done with this money. I can't look at Nilsson. I see his frustration as he hangs up his phone from another patient. I put my head down while I try to hold back tears and send him the following text: "I am scared and frustrated. I see the sacrifice that you are making. It is appreciated. I don't know how it will ever be re-paid. I don't even know how we will pay the bills right now. All I know to do is pray." My phone jingles, "lets pray then". I feel someone playing with my hair, I look up and now have a tear rolling down my cheek. He laughs at me. I cry. It is all going to be okay. "God, this has to work out." One of the ladies walks out of the office. She decides to make an attempt to process the papers "as is" with our numbers. We think it is going through. The guy over her rejects it. We sit in silence waiting. For another $500 on the side we can get these papers pushed through and the vehicle can be registered. We agree. They continue to process. It is now too late to drive the car inside the gate so they can revise the information. We have to wait until tomorrow. The good news is... It is going to be processed!
Thursday ~ Today is the day. We will get the papers and be back on the road heading home in no time! Sort of... 10 am and we still have NO papers. The guy doesn't want to approve the file because he says there is no way that his boss could see the documents and agree with the approval. Crap. Now what? We wait. The two people being paid off argue back and forth. They discuss getting more money on the side. That seems to be the key. They take it. They sign off on the papers and we are good to go. It is only 3 pm when we finally have everything done. BUT... for 85,000 lps we got this vehicle registered! Thank God. The difference in pricing Nilsson could have paid with the work he just lost over the last week while we fought for a better price. God is going to have to restore it!
We have made progress! It is a relief. The only problem is the suburban is now just sitting in the drive way. We made it all the way home! No problems! The next morning when I went to go submit the registration papers to get the license plates it wouldn't start! Yep... We just paid all of that money to register a vehicle that we can't drive! It is the strangest thing. We tried jumping it. Nothing works. Just another trip to the mechanic... One day we will have NO car problems, right God?
I love living in this country, but these issues are almost too much to handle. You play by their rules. PERIOD! They have a law that makes no sense. You abide by the stupid law as written, or you pay people off. Both expensive, but one way is ALWAYS cheaper than the other. One way, although it may be wrong, is also the only "right" way. When the law asks for something insanely rediculous, what are you supposed to do? If both ways are wrong, which way is the right way? Do we just pack up, forget about the ministry and go home?
Oh, and I forgot to tell you. Nilsson thought the compressor was fixed right? His first morning back he went to drill a tooth and there was no pressure. NOT FIXED! More like, NOT FIXABLE! He now needs a new compressor. His air conditioning still isn't cooling and it is leaking water EVERYWHERE. Oh, and the office computer wouldn't turn on. My computer was cracked on the airplane. The LCD is split and I can't find a screen here to replace it.
