Jul 29 2008
HGTV, here we come!
As you may have read in MIchael-John’s “2 for 12″ post, we arrived in Teguc last night. The kids were up at 6am this morning (8am Florida time) and after some stalling and showers for the adults, we hit the farmacia for some diapers, baby soap and shampoo, and the Dunkin’ Donuts for sprinkle donuts for the boys (it’s seriously like being back in Boston - there’s one of nearly every corner). We enjoyed tasty breakfast in our hotel, and had the pleasure of meeting the CRS office manager who would later accompany us on our first day of house hunting.
She first took us to the CRS office, and while I’ll let Michael-John talk more about that, let me just say that it’s a great office with a nice view of the city and some wonderful people working there - he should have a great year. The real estate agent met us there and we started what was to be a long day of house hunting.
We saw 7 or 8 places (can’t really remember) - a few houses, a few apartments in a highrise, and a few condo/rowhouse style homes. They were all very nice - it’s going to be a very different experience in this part of Honduras than at the Finca. I’m still pretty overwhelmed by the size of the city - it’s huge! The fact that our hotel is located in the center of the city and has a spectacular view of the surrounding areas as they rise up in the hills only compounds the feeling that the city is huge - you can see every building from our window. Living in the city is going to be a huge change for me - Medford, MA was much more suburban, the South Side of Chicago felt smaller, and the Finca was obviously the complete other end of the spectrum.
Anyway, my mental picture of Honduras is still based on our years at the Finca and the surrounding small villages, and the houses we saw today are very different from what I knew in the past. The differences are great, and it will be interesting to integrate these two experiences of Honduras. I’m looking forward to the challenge, and hoping that the modern conveniences and relative ease of whatever house we choose don’t overshadow our purpose for being here - to live our calling to serve others.
Out of the 7 or 8 houses, only one is to our liking - a 3 story (built into the side of a steep hill) home with a garage and laundry room on the bottom, kitchen, sala/living room and porch on the main floor, and 3 bedrooms (all with a/c) and another small sala on the 3rd floor. We’ll see some more houses tomorrow, but so far this our our frontrunner. It would only be a 25-30 minute walk for Michael-John to his office, and a short taxi for me and the kids to shops. Here’s a picture of it from the street - whichever one we take will receive a full profile as soon as it’s chosen!
(PS - the HGTV reference is because when we told Michael we’d be househunting, he asked if we’d be on TV on “House Hunters.” Oh yeah, and it’s after midnight in South Bend, IN, where we got married, so happy 8th anniversary to us! And happy 7th to Sarah and Colin, whose just passed 15 minutes ago!)
Hooray! Welcome back to Honduras — and Happy Anniversary!