More critters and update

WARNING: Some pictures contained in this blog may make your skin crawl...you have been warned...

The update: Mike is currently in the U.S. on a whirlwind of meeting people and going to churches. The purpose of this trip is to re-connect with folks we know and to speak at a missions conference. The girls (Madison and myself) are doing just fine. Our refrigerator did manage to go out again - so it's back to the store to re-stock all the items that went bad. Gustuv is passing us by, but we are reaping the benefits of the weather that is being stirred up in the Caribbean - this is the coolest two days we have had since we've been here! It's 78 degrees as I'm writing this, and a nice cool breeze. It's overcast, and we've seen some amazing electric storms in the last two days. We are praying for those that Gustuv will hit. Madison and I have a "date" tonight - dinner and a movie. We are excited about that.

Critters: Well - if you look just two posts below you will see a blog on critters, but I just couldn't pass up another opportunity as a few more have come into our lives. I was turning the lights off the other day and locking the front door when I encountered this 8 legged friend. Now in my world, bugs are typically something I'm not to stresed about - they serve their purpose, but I prefer them not to be in the house. This guy, however, had the hair on my arms standing up. I did a little research, and best I can tell it's a Wolf Spider. If anyone knows better, let me know. Anyway - he and I had a little discussion about him really needing to be outdoors where he belongs, doing the things he does. He just wouldn't listen to me. I really didn't want to smash this guy, so the next best thing was sweeping him out door. So - for the next 10 minutes commenced the most hysterical chase scene that I would challenge any comedy movie to do better. I just wish I had Madison here to film it. Envision this 6'1" woman chasing a spider all around the living room, moving furniture frantically as it's trying to scurry under neath - attempting to neither smash it (imagine cleaning that up) or injure it (it does serve a purpose afterall). All in all - once again - the superior being won in the end! I finally got ahold of it under my broom and swept it outdoors into the wild! Whew! Luckily I didn't injure myself in the persuit. Ah well..

A shot to show how long his legs are:
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A close up to see those incredible mandibles:

This other guy I've seen outside in our yard a few times, but have never been able to capture it on film. I LOVE that we have such diverse critters around - and it's hard to imagine that they live here with me. Not much to report on this one other than the fact that until we have our dog, this guy will have to suffice. I have numerous fruit trees in my yard and I'm sure that's what keeps him here - he chomps up the fruit on the ground - or goes into the trees to get them.

And finally - this beautiful butterfly that came into my house - yes, that required another chase - imagine chasing a butterfly with a broom - trying to escort it out of the house without injuring it - I was successful however. There are so many butterflys here - they enjoy the year-round blooming plants and seem to thrive.

Hanging out with a friend

Madison has a friend named Michael. He's a great kid, with great parents. And the awesome thing? They live about 5 houses down from us! So - needless to say - Michael and Madison hang out a lot together! And yesterday they literally chose to hang-out together. Here you can see them sitting on the hammock eating pickles. I know - strange thing indeed - but Michael introduced Madison to pickles (never mind the million times I tried to get her to eat them), but she has now decided that they are awesome! So, they are enjoying a pickle moment. :-)

Big bugs

Things around here come in two sizes - big and small. There is no "medium" size around here. The bugs that is. The first thing are the ants. They are incredible! If you leave something out on the counter - give it about 10 minutes and it will be completely surrounded with up to 100+ tiny miniscule ants. I would love to take pics, but you just wouldn't be able to see them. This is an on-going battle that I won't win. These ants are different than those you are accustomed to. They don't go for any ant traps, and they come out of NO WHERE! I can't even express how amazing they are. We have seen them pull a full-grown dead grasshopper across the floor and into their ant hill in about 30 minutes. They will completely demolish a dead cockroach in half a day. It's just amazing to see. They bug me, and I have a fight with them daily - actually, probably 4 to 5 times a day. They win every time, but at least I feel better. The moths are incredible to see. This is a moth that came to visit the other day. I had Madison put her hand up as a comparison. We have seen a few of these around and are amazed each time we see them.

Things in a bag

When we first went to Costa Rica we noticed that many, many things came in bags - mayo, milk, clothes softener, bleach, detergent, spaghetti sauce, tomato paste, etc! When we came here it was no different. However, there was one exception. Water. You can find water in bottles, but usually only in grocery stores. If you are out and about - and you go into a tienda (small store) and ask for water to go they will give you a bag of water. You nibble the corner off of one end and drink it. It's interesting as you have to drink it all in one sitting. No lid to put back on to drink more later. But in a pinch - it's refreshing and fun to drink.

Madison enjoying her water in a bag


Water in a bag

You know you are in Honduras...Que Calor!

It's HOT!



You KNOW it's hot when the nationals are complaining about how hot it is! This week has been sweltering. And like the Eskimos have many names for snow, Costa Rica has many names for rain, there really isn't a need to have numerous names for heat - it's just plain hot!!!

You know you are in Honduras when you shop in the dark. I was in the grocery store today and all the electricity went out. The generators kicked in fairly quickly, but obviously it only provides electricity to important things - refrigeration/freezers/cashier. So - like every other Honduran in the store, we all just continued shopping trying to squint our eyes and see the items on the shelf that we needed. This is not an unusual occurrence, so no one even commented. :-) This happened three times while I was there - each time the electricity was out for about 10 minutes each. It is SO HOT here, with such a high humidity, that electricity is a premium. Because of that, we do not have A/C in our home - it's just TOO expensive! Try paying a third of your monthly income to electricity - not a possibility. So - we live under fans while we are at home - and like we had heard it would be - we have become accustomed to the heat. I won't say we like it - but it's better than we we first got here. I can't tell you how many times we have heard from our friends around the states - "oh yeah - it's that hot here too" - however...it's one thing being in the U.S. with those conditions in a home with A/C, cars with A/C, and every store with A/C. It's a whole other situation in a 3rd world country where only the malls and BIG stores have A/C. But - God made our bodies smart - and we sweat - drink a lot of water - and love our fans :-)

Geocaching in Honduras

Many of you may or may not know about one of my hobbies. It's geocaching. What is that you may ask? It's adult treasure hunting. By using your GPS, going on-line, you can find geocaches in almost any area of the world. I could almost promise you, if you live in the states, you probably have about 100 within 2-3 miles of your house! For example, in California there are over 54,000 cache locations. In my home city of Elk Grove, California, there are 7,190 in the city alone! Per the geocaching website: "Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment." Geocaching is a worldwide hobby, although some countries are more popular than others. Currently there are 637,280 geocaches in the world. The U.S. - where it originated - probably has the largest amount of geocachers. To find out about this really cool hobby check out www.geocaching.com you can see one of my listings here. Call me crazy, but it's a really fun hobby. There are almost no caches in Honduras, so I plan on planting quite a few. My thought is that mostly tourists who come will be the ones finding them - but that's okay :-)

Health Needs In La Ceiba, Honduras

We have discovered that health and medical concerns are a bigger issue in parts of Honduras then we imagined. In some areas the poverty is so great that basic medical needs turn into life threatening health risks.

While everything we do will point towards the planting of churches, it is becoming more and more evident that medical and mercy work will be a major part of our ministry.

Take a look at this 2 minute 40 second video we created to highlight the medical needs in La Ceiba, Honduras: