Josh and I arrived in Honduras after a pretty uneventful overnight flight–and by uneventful, I mean one that omitted all events aside from flying, including the event known as “sleep.”

No matter, though. We turned to the gift God has given us all to get through such times, and that gift is coffee. Best place we could find to drink it in Tegucigalpa was a Dunkin’ Donuts, which didn’t seem too cultural, but whatever. We found a bus headed to Danlí, which sits just past our destination–a town called Junquillo. Neither of us could really stay awake, but since they sat me in the middle front seat next to the driver (yes, such seats exist in Honduras) I sort of had to stay up to avoid falling into the gear shift.

We got off at a police checkpoint and waited for another bus, which was supposed to arrive at noon, then at 1 p.m., then at 1:30. It arrived at about 1:45, and every seat was full and the aisle was crammed. Josh and I ended up hanging out by the doorway, and the bottom line is that we made it OK.

A guy named Juan was waiting for us at a small ranch here owned by a friend of mine, and he brought us in and gave us a brief tour of the neighborhood. It’s a small, mountainous town that sits just high enough that it’s comfortably cool compared to the rest of the places we had been. We ate and then slept for about 12.5 hours, which was great.

Yesterday we went on another tour of the area to check out service projects and grab some photos. We met a 92-year-old man named Lucio who, as Juan put it, has to live “by the hand of God.” He can’t work, he doesn’t have family to support him, and with food prices rising rapidly–a few pounds of black beans now costs almost a day’s wages–he’s starting to suffer. Nonetheless, he appeared to keep a sense of humor about everything and told me that at 92, you have to be thankful for every day you have, since by rights you should have died long ago.

He had a homemade violin that he played fiddle style, from the hip, and it sounded quite good.

Everyone here struggles with food, but the main projects they keep pointing us toward are a kindergarten and a church that the community would love to see built. Water is also an issue–due to a lack of infrastructure, many people have to hike miles for their water during the dry season.

We’re in Danlí today–a city of about 250,000 people–to check hardware and food prices and to check for lodging and phone options.

God bless!

-Steven B.