I am doing well, just wet most of the time as rainy season has arrived. Currently sporting the awesome heavy duty rain boots I just purchased in town. I miss home a lot but feel as though this is home now too, which I think is a good thing! I am busy busy with accounting work and work at the school. Sometimes, it gets a bit crazy. For example, here was my day yesterday (Fridays are not a day I work at the school).
5:20 Wake up to the sound of chickens and my alarm, snooze it until 5:30 when I get up and get mostly ready for the day
5:45 Sleepily lead a prayer in the sala (living room) for a small group of missionaries
6:00 Head over to the chapel for a morning communion service (all in Spanish)
6:40 Eat breakfast with the 20 other people I live with and finish getting my things together for the day
7:00 Headed over to the office to start pay day... worked on preparing more checks and getting things ready
7:30 Workers from all over the Finca (including security, our house parents, and maintenance) came over to the office. Rachel (the current accountant- I become official in mid November) signed everything and I gave them out one by one. It is quite a process of receipt signing, money efectivo, etc.
8:15 We leave the Finca with Rachel's two boys, a Sor (Franciscan sister who lives and works at the Farm), several neighbors and other Finca people in tow. We head to town for errands- paying the gasoline bill for october, stopping by the bank to figure out exchange rate changes at the bank from august until now, picking up and paying for vegetables, trying to pick up mail (there was none because Trujillo hasn't had mail delivered all week! O the mail system of Honduras!), running various errands for some fellow missionaries, etc.
10:40 We begin to head back to the Finca in the busito (big car that we drive back on forth on the dirt routes to town- about 20-25 minute ride)
11 Take Ruben (Rachel's youngest son who is 2) on a walk because his mom was feeling terrible, find Jacob (Ruben's dad and our missionary coordinator) at the maintenance shed with another of their sons and drop off Ruben.
11:30 Go back to the office and try to get all of the receipts put into the system and work on some cuentas until lunch
12:45 Head to the house and eat a wonderful lunch of eggs, rice, beans, vegetables. (note: I have to conjugate these back into English in my head because I am getting so used to the Spanish names)
1:30 Head back to the office to finish up some of the work from the morning getting our safe, computer files and office back to being organized
2:30 Attend a continued orientation talk given by the social work team about how we raise our kids here at the Farm. Practiced the spanish phrases we might need if a situation should arise.
4:00 Realize that I am on to cook dinner and we only have 2 hours. Okay, here cooking is much more time consuming because we deal with a fogon (which is basically a wood stove that is outside of our house). 2 hours can be plenty of time, or not enough time. Both Nely and I had kind of forgotten we were scheduled to cook so we hadn't planned and didn't put out a pana in the bodega so our ration of pollo (chicken) was not put out to thaw. Okay, explanation- in our house, we only keep our weekly ration of foods not refrigerated. There is only one refigerator for the entire farm community. Each house has a box and we keep some queso and other small things in there. There is a big freezer and then thats it! A trip to the Bodega involves finding the key (sometimes it is not on its hook), walking 2 minutes through the Farm, saying hi to House 5 (oldest boys) who are usually out and about, dodge a soccer ball, open up the bodega, get everything out, balance all the stuff you need and head back to cook. Nely and I were saved by a bunch of ANGELS who came and helped with all of the work needed for our dinner of baleadas (tortillas de arena con huevos, frijoles, queso, y vegetales) y una ensalada con remolaches, lechuga, tomates y vinegre. Ten points to the person who comments with all of the right ingredients in english! Also note: Nely is from Nicaragua and speaks less English than I speak Spanish so everything we did was in Spanish. An adventure to be sure.
6:30 Finally call "A comer" to signal its time to eat (yes late but still okay)! Gather the troops together to pray and eat. Have glorious tortillas- just a great meal in general because so many hands and love went into it.
7:15 Finish all of the clean up of the kitchen and take a shower!! There was water and fabulous water pressure so it was a great thing after such a long day. Reminder to those who forget: this was a cold shower on a cold night. That is not a complaint just a reminder of how crazy it is that a freezing shower on a cold night can still be wonderful!!!
7:45 Come out to the Sala to hang out for a little bit. I just started reading the Narnia series (I have never read them all the way through!) but didn't realize that Sara was also doing this. I read a bit faster than her so I caught up and gently encouraged her to finish the last ten pages she had of the next book. I am trying to read the next two by Monday so I can pass her and she doesn't have to rush. Thus far, I have read 10 books since arriving at the farm (I'll finish number 11 tonight). It is my favorite thing to do here in my down time. That and play Settler's of Catan. Look up this board game- it is fantastic.
8:30 Get in bed and read a few pages of The Dawn Treader before turning off the light and falling into a wonderful sleep!!
Okay, well- there you go. This is just quick snapshot of a day here. I didn't have much action with our kids except during dinner when a bunch of them were among the angels who helped us! Every day is a bit different here but I hope this helped you see a little of what I do here when I am Erin the accountant. Note: I also become Erin the check writer, mail man, organizer, cook, babysitter, reader, game player, housekeeper. It is really a blessing of a life that we have here.
Love you all so much!!!
Erin Lucia
P.S. I didn't even hear about the hurricane until after it didn't hit us. We are all safe and sound but praying for those who are struggling, including those in our surrounding area who struggle quite a bit during the rainy season!
P.P.S. I am currently sitting at TBay using the internet and one of the workers just came in with a pajaro (parrot) that was mimicking him saying "Hola!" Hahaha... o the things I see and hear in Honduras.
P.P.S. I am currently sitting at TBay using the internet and one of the workers just came in with a pajaro (parrot) that was mimicking him saying "Hola!" Hahaha... o the things I see and hear in Honduras.
