We were up early and packed for our two-day journey into the sweat zone. And the forecast was: HOT HOT! We decided to make a run to PriceSmart and get some things to give out to people as we made the rounds (in addition to the ties from the St. George high priests). We loaded up the car and headed out on the route we drove many times in our years here. As we neared Cerro de Hula and the drop to the sea, we noticed many
large windmills along the edge of the ridge. As this is a notoriously
windy place, it made sense. I am not sure who put them there or manages
them, but it seems like a good idea in a place like Honduras - clean and
self-sustaining. And visual pollution is not necessarily a concern, as
it certainly is not a priority here. We stopped in Sabanagrande to look around. The church building is still
in the same place, but I was encouraged by the condition of the
exterior. It was nicely painted, with a new sign. The doors were also
newly refinished. Could it be that Servicios is doing a better job
keeping up the buildings, especially those under the auspices of the
Mission? It certainly looked that way. I struck up a conversation with some ladies at a table in the
Sabanagrande town square that appeared to be administering a rabies
campaign. I asked them how they can possibly track down all of the dogs
in a town where the many, many dogs often appear to just be running
around uncontrolled. She assured me that they knew the names of all of
their owners and they were all "registered" and showed me the
computer-generated list. Just then a woman came up with a dog on a leash
(very seldom seen) and they injected the dog with the vaccine. Then she
checked a name on the list. I was impressed! Who knew all of those dogs
were "under control". We made a quick run through Pespire, mainly to see if the bridge over
the Nacaome River was still intact (it was). The church building had
changed to an unknown location. There were many people taking advantage
of the cool water to swim, bathe, and wash their clothes. A bunch of
jovenes began to shout at us as we crossed over the bridge and we threw
Tootsie Pops to them, which they ate as they floated on their backs. One of our main concerns was the current church activity status of the
many local leaders we worked with and trained in the branches of San
Lorenzo, Valle Verde, and Fonseca. None of them knew we were in the
area, nor did we know whether we were even going to catch them at home.
As we drove into Nacaome and then Mongollanos (San Lorenzo), we were SO
pleasantly surprised. First, we found the house of Sis. Barahona and
caught her just as she was coming home from the store. She is still very
active (she had remarried after the death of her husband) and some of
her children were preparing to dance in the cultural event. We also
found the Rios family at home. Bro. Rios was preparing to go out to make
some member visits. He is a counselor in the San Lorenzo District and
now has two new ties! His daughter was preparing to leave on a mission
and had just received her call. He took us to visit Hno. Rodriguez
(former President of Centro) and we talked with him for awhile and
caught up on his life. His daughter has recently returned from a mission
to Panama. His next door neighbor is the current President of the
Centro Branch (I remembered his face) and we also met him. We finally
pulled out of San Lorenzo as the night descended upon us. We had a
little bit of a scary ride into Choluteca in the dark, as the tinting on
our car windows made it difficult to see very far in head of us.
In Honduras, one never knows what is going to wander onto the pavement
and the shoulders are less than wide. You have to slow down to 30 or 40
m.p.h. to make sure you don't slam into a cow. We checked into our hotel and then set our to try and find our favorite
restaurant in Choluteca. After several passes down the streets where we
thought it was located, we finally found it - El Torito. It hadn't
changed a bit. And gratefully, the meat hadn't either. It was wonderful.
Here, KR enjoys her slab. We stayed the night at the Gualiqueme just outside Choluteca. Other,
than a new lobby, it also hadn't changed much. But no ants (well, one or
two). We actually had a good night's sleep---well I did. KR freaked out
over the gecko mating call emanating from somewhere in the draperies. We knew that the Choluteca Stake had been split in December, but we were
very curious about what had happened in the area to the north of
Choluteca called Limon de la Cerca, which was a Hurricane Mitch
relocation site. The trees in the area had grown considerably in the
intervening years, but we were finally able to locate the small house
the Mission had remodeled into a small "chapel" so branch meetings could
be held there. We knew it was the right place because you could still
see where the sign had been (different color of paint). It was obviously
not being used and the reason why was also obvious. Directly across the
street was the brand new stake center for the new Choluteca Stake! We
were dumbfounded. We stopped by the new, larger building for the other stake (Choluteca
Porvenir) near the salida to Marcovia. We caught one of the new stake
presidents there and he gave us a tour of the building and we discussed
the status of the older branches. The building is very nicely kept and
HUGE. We learned that the road to Monjaras is fully paved now (wow!) and
we headed out. We stopped to see the chapel in Marcovia (nothing has
changed in the that pueblo, although the building was in better shape
than I thought it would be). As we pulled into Monjaras, we noticed the streets filled with small,
red, three-wheeled taxis--a totally new concept in Honduras. We had seen
a few in Sabanagrande and along the carretera, but they were ubiquitous
in Monjaras. I would guess that the people are walking a lot less these
days. The road to Buena Vista had NOT been paved. The melon harvest was in full swing as we made our way along the gravel road. Once in Buena Vista, we stopped at a pulperia to ask where the Godoy
Family lived and a lady walked alongside our car and pointed the
familiar house out to us. They still lived in the same house the church
built after Mitch and they were all home! We had a great conversation.
The younger kids were going to dance in the cultural event Saturday.
Hermano Godoy is still serving as the Branch President and their
daughter came home from her mission, married in the temple, and is
living in Choluteca. Such great and humble people. On top of their
refrigerator was the temple box we gave them when we left. There was
also a picture of Elder Sierer. That will tickle Todd's family. Pres. Godoy was excited to show us the new chapel (rented building) they
are currently using and across the street, the fenced parcel where they
soon will construct a new chapel for the Buena Vista Branch. We were a little concerned about losing our daylight and headed out the
back way to San Lorenzo. We managed to find the comedor run by the
Flores family along the Panamerican highway near Nacaome and they were
home. We knew that Pres. Flores of the San Lorenzo District has died,
but were surprised to find his son living with Hna. Flores, along with
his wife and child. They seemed to be doing okay with the comedor and we
found out he is the current Branch President of Mongollanos! Unfortunately, our hunger and the desire to check out our old haunt, the
Oasis, got the better of us and we stopped for dinner. Boy, has it gone
downhill. We were the only ones there and it took them forever to cook
the food (not nearly as good as we remembered it). We found that the
establishment had been closed for a time and was under "new management"
and being remodeled. The zoo was a shadow of its former self - only a
few turtles and a parrot. The monkeys evidently escaped into the jungle
and the wild turkeys had chased their last guests. Well, it WAS unfortunate that we stopped, because we had the a hellish
return trip to Teguc. The darkness fell upon us and, as I mentioned, the
heavy tinting of our car windows made it very difficult to see. We
couldn't pass and could barely see the road lines. Finally, we just
stuck to the back of a semi whose lights we could see and slowly made
our way up the mountain. It took us a couple of hours longer than usual
and totally frayed our nerves, but we finally made it back to our
hotel.
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