August Update

Settling In We've been here for a week already!  Here's how it's been going . . . Our flight from home was uneventful.  All of our luggage made it (that's 22 pieces counting carry-ons)!  Our first couple of days were spent unpacking and setting up house a little.  During the week we continued our settling in process by getting phones, internet, finding out how to pay bills, grocery shopping, and all that fun stuff.  It's been interesting!  We are SO thankful for help from Katharine, who is the head of the English teachers at Academia La Providencia and all around Lifesaver for us foreigners!  Even if we knew Spanish, which we don't, I really don't think we could have done any of this without her!  Some differences in how things work between here and home . . . There are very few addresses or street names, so when you're telling the internet company how to find your house it requires a page of detailed notes, describing which block of which dirt road, and what color gate and how many dogs you pass on the way (kidding about that last part).  Tigo did manage to find the house and successfully get our internet working on Friday. Getting cell phone service requires someone with Honduran residency who is willing to sign their life away for you!  A few of us went together to get phone service, and we were there for about 3 hours! There are armed guards at grocery stores, banks, and many other places.  You are not allowed to use cell phones in banks, and you have to wait for a guard to open the door and let you in.   It's an interesting mix of city and country life where we are.  Our first night here we were awoken by many different sounds.  There were the usual (but strange for us country folk) city sounds like traffic, people, etc., and then some explosions which we later found out were fireworks which are used for celebrations of all kinds, often starting in the middle of the night.  But to balance out the city sounds, we also have dogs barking and fighting (SO MANY dogs here!), roosters crowing, and birds chirping (in Spanish evidently, since they sounded nothing like our birds at home), and to top it off--donkeys and cows being walked down the street!  It made for a fun first morning! Mopping and cleaning need to be done at least once, if not more than once, every day!  The dust from the dirt roads, and the fact that the windows need to be open almost 24/7, leave a lovely dust coating that constantly covers everything.  Everything!  Dishes, computers, slippery tile floors, dining room table, beds, feet, windows, screens, everything!  I chuckled when I heard that most people have a housekeeper, thinking they must be spoiled, but now I understand why and can't wait to hire someone to help with the overwhelming cleaning tasks! Geckos, lizards, and tarantulas.  Praise the Lord the only tarantula we've seen so far is a dead one Jesse found today.  The geckos and lizards are somewhat fascinating.  Fortunately, only one gecko has been found in the house so far (well, not counting the tiny baby one that was inside a pan I had planned to cook dinner in.  Plans changed that evening.)  And we saw a lizard outside the other day that I'm sure came from Jurassic Park . . . looked just like a baby dinosaur. Sunlight hours.  The sun is up from 5:30 am to 6:30 pm, and won't change much throughout the year.  There's also no daylight savings time.  That will be great in the winter!  Right now, it makes us feel like it's bedtime around 8 because we're used to it being light much later! Not everything is different though.  Our family relationships are about the same--for better and for worse! With the internet, it's almost like we're still close to you all, and we even have English TV which we did not have back at home!  (It was cheaper to get the internet with TV than without.)  We have Wendy's and Pizza Hut in our town (but the Honduran food is much better and cheaper).  The people are like people anywhere--beauty and flaws, varying personalities, walking the journey of life just like we do.  With the other Christians here, it is exciting to experience fellowship:  even if we don't speak the same langauge or share the same culture, we have the same basic goals and serve the same God.  That makes all the differences pale in comparison! What have we been doing with La Providencia so far? This picture was taken at the La Providencia celebration picnic at Pulhapanzak Falls.  Everyone enjoyed a day of celebrating the exciting things happening at La Providencia, and meeting the new people  The waterfall was beautiful! The rest of our work days have been getting things ready for school to start (on August 19th).  Heath has been doing a lot of painting in the school buildings, and has also been working with the crew who is building the new Family Home on campus.  Erin has been organizing the school library and a classroom, and having meetings with the other faculty to plan the year.  Ethan has been helping with a lot of the painting and cleaning as well.  Jesse, Tabitha, and Rayanna have pitched in too.  We have just over a week to go before school starts.  Still a lot to do to get ready! In addition to working, we've enjoyed meals with many of the La Providencia staff, church with some of the other new people, fellowship with our new neighbors, and meeting many new people!  The Hondurans are friendly and welcoming, and there is also a large network of American missionaries in the area.  We're certainly not alone down here! That being said, we do miss you all, and would love to have visits!  Our home is not quite as guest-friendly as we had thought.  We have three bedrooms, plus an extra "homeschool" room.  We don't have a bed for that room though, so we're not sure yet if we can accommodate guests in our house (assuming no one wants to sleep on the tile floor!)  Hotels are very inexpensive though, so there is definitely that option, if we're not able to host here at our house.  We do have an address to use for mail:  Heath & Erin Runkles; c/o Katharine Marrow; APDO#115; Siguatepeque, Honduras.  We've heard mixed things about the reliability of mail actually getting here, so send at your own risk! Thank you all so much for your prayer, financial support, and emotional encouragement.  We are so thankful for the part each of you play in our lives and in this ministry.  Keep in touch, and God bless! ~Heath, Erin, Ethan, Jesse, Tabitha, & Rayanna