'Te Quiero Mucho'

We are currently preparing for the advent of a tropical storm and possible hurricane. I suppose the majority of preparation is mental, but there are a few actual preparations; closing windows, locking doors, charging lap tops in case the power goes out.. La Ceiba is in code red mode, so tomorrow most everything in the city should be closed. Honestly I'm a little, tiny bit excited to see how it will be. This is of course while the weather is still calm and the wind isn't howling. The weather today though was really nice, perfect temperature and humidity, and only a little bit of rain in the afternoon which we avoided perfectly. Right now we are listening to the rain, and sitting at the kitchen with the smell of freshly baked bread wafting around us. Yes, we made bread and calzones tonight! And let me tell you that it is perhaps the most fabulous bread I have ever tasted. Our resident chef, Eddy, gave us our first official Honduran cooking class. Such a simple, yet delicous recipe! Flour, yeast, sugar, salt, oil and a little garlic and peppers and that was it. 5 minutes to knead it, half an hour to rise, and half an hour to bake. We saved a little aside to use for calzones, flattening the dough and putting in red sauce and cheese; a side of sauteud zuccinies and we are officially spoiled. The three of us are going to come back able to legitamately cook. Oh i'm so excited.

So aside from our cooking today, we also did some cleaning. Clothes were washed, though still aren't dry. Apparently the humdity makes it difficult for them to dry? We also mopped all the floors, though there seems to be little improvement from before since our feet are still black. We had some time to explore La Ceiba today. We walked around the outdoor market, through the booths set up outside. There are no shortage of shoes and hand bags available here. We also found an indoor meat market that we for some reason decided to go into. I've been in markets like that before, with raw meat and animal legs hanging on both sides, but Natalie was the funniest to watch because she immediately covered her nose and ran for the door to the outside. Even Ethan, the only one who eats meat, was slightly grossed out. I bought a bag of Lychee, these little red spiny fruit, and I had my first one. Then we waited out the rain in Pizza Hut, which is definitely more upscale dining for Honduras. A short walk to the hogar, and we spent the afternoon with a few of the kids. Most of them were taking a nap but we helped Moises and Gerson write letters to Harper and Erica. When the other kids woke up, they all clamoured to write letters to their "preferia". Not everyone had time to write but hopefully more letters will go out soon. These letters absolutely break my heart. Why do these kids have to be the absolute sweetest things in the entire world? They remember everything so well, saying how much they miss their friends, and how they love them. You can see that it is true what they write. Moises hand wrote a letter to Harper, and included a picture of himself, as well as a package of cookies and two hard candies. He entrusted it to me to send to her and I will as soon as I can. It was so special to him. Even little Joel attempted to type out a message to Danny. It was so funny watching him, because he is just learning to spell. His complete and total attention was turned to the key board, carefully pressing each key and stringing together a strand of incomprehensible letters. I had to intervene soon to make some sense of what was said, so Danny didn't recieve Joeidenielemetedayqueiro.... which was cute nonetheless. Eddie and I will be working on keeping all the sponsors updated with the kids information, pictures, and letters. Sponsors, expect some more letters! The kids really appreciate what you do for them, and miss everyone they know! Well, we shall ride out the storm tonight and I'll let you know how it goes in the morning!