So it's only been a week since I wrote, but a lot definitely happened. (Please refer to my Facebook page for pictures...it's so much time to upload them twice!! Sorry!!) If you read my last post you'll remember that I was having some trouble with my residency. Well, I ended up having to leave the country. Or flee the law like my brother David said...Either way, I went to Antigua, Guatemala. (Not the Caribbean Island...Antigua is also a small town next to Guatemala City, Guatemala. )
Let me start at the beginning of this adventure. The Hosier are in the process of renewing and changing thier type of residency. We kept being told that we didn't need to leave the country and the person helping us would get it figured out in time and we wouldn't need to pay any fines or anything. All of that was....a fabrication. The day I needed to leave the country - my 90 day visa was up - kind of sneaked up on us and suddenly we realized. WE HAVE TO GO!!! Thus began the process of getting directions to Guatemala, finding a hotel, etc. It was a little bit stressful, but we got everything done before we left bright and early Wednesday morning. When I got to the border I was told that I had been in Honduras for 91 days which is ONE over the allowed limit and I had to pay a fine. Some squirrely things followed and I ended up paying about half of what they were asking. We were told that if you enter on the 8th of a month you can leave on the 8th of the month 3 months later, so essentially they usually count months not days. Yeah, that didn't happen when I walked up the the window at immigration -_-. It took us 12 hours of drive time to get to our destination.Yes, that is A LOT of time in a car. We listened to music, Prince Caspian on CD, talked and basically tried not to get on each other's nerves. It was a very pretty drive out there actually.
We got to our hotel in the evening and we had already stopped for dinner, so the kids and I explored the hotel some and Emma and I started a fire in our hearth and hit the hay early. The next morning we enjoyed our free breakfast in the hotel, went swimming, then set off to explore the town! Antigua is full of very old, very adorable buildings and we just wandered with no agenda. We stopped at a bagel shop and got very delicious sandwiches for lunch. Yum...I'm currently enjoying the memory of eating it...After lunch we wandered more, just checking out little shops and basically being tourists. Sometimes people would ask us where we were from and we would say. "Oh, we live in Honduras.." and people were always really surprised! We had really good veggie pizza for dinner and just relaxed in the evening and watched cooking shows.
The next morning we left bright and early again and set out for home. We made it about an hour and into Guatemala City and then got hopelessly lost. Each person we asked for directions sent us on a wild goose chase. At one point we got on the right road and we were pretty excited because we just KNEW we were going the right direction and then POOF! the road disappeared. Seriously. No signs, no warning. The major highway we were on just turned in 4th Calle and we were lost again. I knew things were bad when Paul said "Christine, I don't know what to do. Should I turn left or right?" I said left (trust me it was the only logical choice) and then we stopped at a gas station where the nicest man on the planet drew us a map on the ground with a rock. We followed his directions, made it to our road again and sped out of the city. 3 hours lost in Guatemala City was quite enough! Paul said something about him being like Jesus scribbling in the sand and I said "The next time someone asks me what I think Jesus was scribbling in the sand I'm going to say: Directions for lost travelers!!". I made it back into Honduras with out any fines and we made it home safe and sound.
Saturday, we were invited to a Christmas party at the Colbath's. I absolutely love this family and there was delicious and abundant food and a multitude of people! I had a lot of fun just hanging out with people and talking. So much laughter! Sunday, I spent a few hours hanging out with some of my teacher friends who live in town. We went out for lunch and did some shopping around town. It was just good to chill with friends! During the service I helped the kids practice to the songs they'll be signing during the Christmas pagent. Turn out, singing in at second language is really hard!! Today after I was all done grading school work, Morgan said "Do you want to play outside?!" and I said "I WOULD LOVE TO!!!" So, we made a kite! It worked pretty well until one of the dogs tore it to pieces. After that, we all made bows and arrows in preparation for our Archery Competition that will commence at DAWN tomorrow (or during our 10am break from school :D). So, overall it was a fun week, but now we have to work extra hard the next few days to make up what we missed! Love you all! Thanks for reading!!
Let us be encouraged by Abraham's example...
"By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God." - Hebrews 11: 8-10
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