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Another Beautiful Day in La Paz! Soccer, helicopters, pizza, shopping and a sense of accomplishment. We got off to an early start this morning, we had been told to be up and ready by 6:00AM if we wanted to accompany the kids to school today. Some of the smaller children were to take part in some soccer matches, not a normal school day. Well, we got up, but either it was a miscommunication or a great joke, because the kids were not leaving early!
We had hoped to be able to cheer our kids as they displayed their skills, but unfortunately we had not anticipated the pre-game ceremonies, which included numerous speeches, a ten minute prayer and an eleven minute national anthem! Leaving before the first ball had been kicked, we rushed back to make sure that we didn't miss our ride.
We all headed out to the nearby military base in Comayagua (yes 15 of us in the communal pick up, very roomy compared to previous rides!). Rhonda had set up a meeting for us with some U.S. Military personnel stationed at the base. The base is a joint Honduran / U.S. Establishment and is an essay in contrasts. Let's just say that our glimpse of the Honduran Air Force left us.......er completely underwhelmed. Our guys on the other hand were everything that you hope for and expect. Great people who were extremely appreciative of the Girl Scout cookies that Rhonda's daughter had collected for them. Lots of photos and smiles and a warm feeling about what they do for us. The Blackhawks and Chinooks were pretty impressive too. Onward to Comayagua, the nearby metropolis, well city, okay it's a small town, but it does have a Pizza Hut! So what if it was only 10:30 in the morning, pizza was calling us! And we answered.
The food at the Foundation has been awesome and the service impeccable, but sometimes when you're miles from home, you need some comfort food. And pizza worked!
Having satisfied our appetites we then attempted to satisfy the need to shop! That didn't take too long, no galleria mall, no Macy's, Target or Gucci stores. Yep, we found a couple of tacky tourist shops, easily recognized by the fact that they were willing to take U.S.$'s! Yes even here in deepest Honduras, the mighty greenback works! There were some interesting sights in this small town, Stephanie was a little unnerved, at one point asking Rhonda if she was trying to get us killed! A lot of panhandling, strange smells and four heavily armed guards at the Western Union! The ice cream was good and the experience well worth it!
Back at the Foundation in the early afternoon, we were able to begin to feel a sense of accomplishment. The swings were set in concrete, the see-saw was..... er painted ( loose term, I'm not sure that even a blind man would be pleased to see it!) and the tether ball was put in place! Within a couple of hours our sense of achievement was complete: we all witnessed the children playing on the 'playground', our 'playground'.
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