Honduras: Days 15 and 16

We had to be on the bus at 5:45am to leave Choluteca and begin our travels to Tegucigalpa and eventually the USA. One one hand I was ready to come home, but on the other hand, I really did not want to leave at all. I was having a wonderful time and would have for sure stayed another week or so.

When I got outside the hotel with my luggage, the little children from across the street were waiting on us! It was 5:45am! They knew we were leaving really early and got up to say goodbye to us! All. The. Tears. The oldest little boy just cried, and cried. I felt so bad for him. He really took to one of our students. Their dad is working in the United States, so they don't see him. I can't help but think he was really happy to have an older male figure around for these last two weeks. Vanessa and Joel didn't cry. We teased them that they weren't sad to see us leave, but they just told us they were strong. :)

Zach and Angel crying and hugging. (Zach had given Angel is sandals.)

Amanda was the first from our group that these kids talked to. Imagine that, Amanda making friends with a child!!

The night before I had given Vanessa a stack of tank tops that I had planned to donate to the mission. I pulled out all of the ones that were really small. There was one tank top that I threw in the pile despite it being one that I brought to wear on the trip and occasionally wear to the gym. It had been given to me and I had 20 other tank tops at home that I could wear tot he gym. I had seen the need a lot of these people had, so in the pile it went and I probably would have forgotten I even did that except I walked outside and Vanessa was wearing it! Of the 20 shirts I gave her, she had on the one that I somewhat had second thoughts about giving. She said it was her favorite. That right there confirmed that I did what I was supposed to do.

We're going to keep this one in B&W so you can't see my red, puffy eyes. 

Angel in my CFAES sunglasses and Joel in my Cabela's hat.

Adios Gomez Family!

No, gracias Choluteca. Te Amo!

We got to the World Gospel Mission guest house, put our luggage in our rooms for the night and then loaded the bus for lunch at the mall and then we traveled on to Valle de Angeles. It's a town that's basically full our touristy gift shops. There hadn't been anywhere to buy souvenirs in Choluteca, so we knew we were going to be here on our last day. While I was there I got a t-shirt, a few hot pads and bowls. I really wanted a nativity scene, and I saw a ton of them, but not one that stuck out enough for me to buy.

Once an angel, always an angel. :)

There are so many stray dogs in Honduras and they all unfortunately look very similar to this. :(

On our way back to the guest house, we had a tire that blew. Luckily there is an autoshop on every corner or around every turn, so we were able to pull of the side of the road and get it fixed very quickly. While we were stopped we sat in the driveway of a very nice house that had a very friendly dog. Beside that house was a very poor house and four little girls climbing a steep hill to get to a well. The would carry water down the hill in empty containers and then go back up to fill them again. One of the smaller little girls clung to Amanda (No surprise there! Kids flock to her!) and she ended up holding little Michelle and feeding her a granola bar while we waited for the bus to get fixed. So precious.

Waiting in the fancy peoples driveway.

Amanda was making friends still. 

After a few minutes she trusted her.

Driving in Honduras is a whole blog post in it's own. If there are rules, they aren't followed! ha. You pass and cut people off and drive fast. Surprisingly, there are no accidents because everyone is a crazy driver, so you know to expect other crazy drivers! I love the picture below that I captured of Dr. Cano (and Amanda on the left) putting their hands up after we had been cut off!

This was on a t-shirt in a gift shop. Everything is true!!!

Judy would not have survived the driving.

We had a little downtime when we got back to the guest house, and then we had dinner with great conversation. And then the lights went out! For about an hour. We had planned to do the photo voice presentations right after dinner, but we had to wait a few hours. In the meantime, everyone just sat in groups and chatted. Some of them got creative and put water bottles on top of their flashlights and continued talking or playing games.

Everyone's photo voice was very good and I am going to have them all printed to hang up around our campus. The conversation afterward was great too and there were a few tears shed as well.

Our entire group of OSU and USU.

Of course we had to have a funny picture too!

The guest house didn't have A/C, so I slept like a true Honduran that night - minus the hammock part! We had breakfast early the next morning and then loaded the truck and headed to the airport!

Breakfast in the courtyard.

I was so happy to have Dr. Straquadine on the trip! I had missed him.

The two leaders of the trip. So thankful they let me go!

Waiting on the luggage to be loaded.

Everyone wanted to take selfies with us apparently!

The international travel line at the airport was pretty lengthy and a process. It wasn't bad. Just a lot of standing.

Waiting at the end of the check-in line with my boys!

We had time to eat lunch before we headed thru security. Unknown to me at first, but we were sitting at a table with all of the Honduran National Soccer Team. So that was cool. They were traveling to Argentina for a friendly game. I didn't want to be *that* person and ask for a picture, but after they all started leaving I thought it was now or never! One guy had played at Ohio State (he wasn't with the team that day) and the others didn't speak English.

Honduran defender Brayan Beckeles and me!

I ended up having an entire row to myself, so one of the students moved back with me and I took a window seat. It was really cool to watch outside the window while the plane took off (I hadn't taken my meds early enough and for the first time flying, I felt all the bumps). I watched the movie Creed off and on and next thing I knew we were flying over Tampa and landing in Atlanta.

As I was walking to board the plane.

Flying high above Tegucigalpa.

I heart looking out plane windows at the sky.

We had dinner at TGI Fridays in the airport, then took our Utah State friends to their gate, before heading to ours and loading onto our plane. The flight to Columbus was also pretty empty, so I was able to move up a row after we got in the air and played on the in fight wifi that mysteriously worked for me for Pinterest only. :)

Our final group photo in the Atlanta airport.

I was the annoying #tripmom and took lots of pictures - including one on our flight back to Columbus at 11pm!

My mom and Vonnie picked me up at the airport when we landed at midnight. We got a sweet tea on the way home from McDonald's (they don't have sweet tea in Honduras, only tea with lemon. Yuck) and I stayed up until around 3am showing them pictures and talking.

It's so hard to believe the trip is already over. I know it probably sounds cliche and there is a whole instagram parody account dedicated to mission trips, but I really can't wait to do another. The people we met were so friendly and appreciative and it's going to be a big adjustment to being back in the USA where people are not friendly by culture.

Thank you Honduras for everything you did for me! You didn't need me, I needed you.