I´m dreaming of a WET Christmas, just like the ones I´ve always known,
Where the streets are muddy, and the termites are attacking,
Just to build, a nest in our roof…
I´m dreaming of a VILLAGE Christmas, Just like the ones I´ve always known,
Where the rain keeps falling, and ants keep crawling,
And pigs and piglets everywhere….
I´m dreaming of a RAIN FOREST Christmas, with daddy-long-legs everywhere,
Where the snakes keep slithering, and mildew is building,
on every video we own!
I´m dreaming of a HONDURAN Christmas, beans & tortillas everywhere,
With our friends and neighbors, eating naca-tamales,
and a piglet roasting on the side…
My little songwriter so accurately depicted our life in Rio Viejo that she made me laugh uncontrollably as she sang and added new verses. The rains have brought on all kinds of interesting changes to village life. Apparently its too wet for the ants to live outside, so they have all decided to live inside the clinic with us! And I guess because we have so many bugs, the daddy long legs are present in every corner of the 6,000 sq. ft. building. We´re like the bug-walmart of Rio Viejo. ha/ A few days ago we took out our Christmas decorations and put up our Christmas tree. The kids were so excited to finally have a tree up in the living room. But yesterday while I was picking up the leftover decorations, cleaning things up and loading the plastic totes I noticed something brown at the corner of the box just inches from my hand. It was a SNAKE! Yikes! After immediately thanking God for His protection, I thought of Rachel´s song….snakes keep slithering… Oh how true! ha-ha- Our 4th poisonous snake in the house. I´m sorry, but ONE poisonous snake in the house is too much for this Alabama girl, FOUR just sends me over the edge! After showing it to the Pastor´s wife, she confirmed that it was a baby Fertilance ( or yellow-beard as they are called here) and then preceded to tell us that if we had found one baby that there were probably 20 more close by. Just what I wanted to hear….
Martin has finally finished his Social Service year in Las Minas. His last few days were heart wrenching for him. It was hard to say goodbye to all of the friends he has come to know and love in that village. He found out on the last day that another doctor was not assigned to the village, so that made it doubly hard to leave them. He is already planning his next trip out to visit. The school I taught at last year here in La Ceiba is donating toys for every child in the village and we will all go out together on the 20th of this month to deliver them. The director of the school is getting the Honduran Army to take us out in a big truck so we will be able to cross all the rivers. I´ll be sure to take pictures and post them for you to see!
Martin is now in Tegucigalpa fighting to get all his paperwork lined up for graduation. He sent me a message yesterday asking me to please pray because there were so many obstacles in his way. We knew it would not be easy and would certainly appreciate your prayers. Right now the date of graduation is up in the air. Some say it will still be in December, some say January, and another rumor is floating around that it may not happen until February. I´m just praying it will happen soon so we can have Martin in Rio Viejo with us again. He was only home for one night after leaving Las Minas and then he began working on his paperwork. Our thanksgiving turkey is still in the freezer! Looks like we will have to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas at the same time. Our trip stateside is on hold until we can get Martin graduated, but we continue to talk about it and dream about it. Soon we´ll see you all in person! For now, we´re on our way up the mountain again, bumping up the muddy dirt road. We´ll keep you posted on a graduation date. Thanks for your emails and notes of encouragement, and thanks for all your prayers!
Much Love,
Wendy
p.s. I forgot to add that we did KILL the snake with Sam´s machete and it was only about 12 inches long! Thought I should add that in case my family reads this!