Kids Ark International Honduras Missions Trip Day 1

October 1st, 2022 I left on my first missions trip, with my oldest, PR and his friend. Being that I had never been on a missions trip to a third world country I really had no idea what to expect, so I didn't have any expectations. I think that's my defense mechanism so I don't get disappointed or feel completely out of sorts. If I am clueless about something I admit to myself I am clueless and accept whatever comes, hopefully with grace but not always. However, with knowing I'm going on a missions trip to a third world country I did know that there might, or might not be hot showers. Might or might not be Wi-Fi. Might or might not serve food I don't like. Might or might not like the coffee, especially since I drink it black and don't like super strong coffee. I knew I would be there to serve at Kids Ark International, to do whatever was asked. Those were the things I knew I might could expect. Everything else was blank.

The first part of our adventure was our first flight being delayed, which meant we spent an extra 3 or so hours in the Tampa airport, which of course means we missed our flight out of Miami. That meant going on standby for a flight. So we had then an extra 6 hours in the Miami airport. However, we were extremely grateful to get that flight out of Miami with the whole team on it!

When we finally boarded the flight to Honduras, that was when I started panicking. This was my first time flying to another country, and to top it off, without Paul and all the kids. I think I had to continuously hold back tears the whole flight. I knew we were going into Honduras at dark, which was another point of anxiety due to the increase in violence after dark. Since I had PR and his friend with me, that meant I was going to be watching them like a hawk. So many things flowing through my mind, in addition to the sensory overload when walking through the airport and out to the bus. 

Once we got on the bus we enjoyed Pizza Hut on the way to our hotel, which was about an hour and half away. The ride was quite interesting at night. While we drove through the city area, we noticed that the gas stations and businesses we saw all had armed guards. Only slightly added to my anxiety of course.😳 Once we got out of the city area, all I could see outside were little dots of light on what had to be mountains in the distance. It was very pretty, and I spent most of the bus ride looking out the window, taking in what I could see.

We arrived at our hotel around 10 or 11PM Honduras time, which is two hours behind my normal EST. The hotel was nice, as we waited for our room assignments and keys we saw that a horse and cow were wandering freely, and I heard a donkey, or two, which I assumed at this point was wandering freely as well. I knew that meant I needed to watch my step for landmines💩. Here is a picture I took later of those donkeys....

The boys and I had a room with three comfortable beds, a bathroom that I hoped had hot water, and a porch with a hammock! It was such a cute little cottage and finally getting settled, I was able to start to relax a bit and my anxiety was easing.  I was also able to connect to WiFi and send a text to Paul to let him know we arrived safely. We all got showers, although to our disappointment they were cold.