Landing at Tegucicalpa is a lot like bungy jumping. You know you'll live, but you realize death really is a matter of inches. As the plane banked on approach we heard gasps from across the aisle, and looking out their windows it seemed we could almost see inside the houses we passed. In all of our reading up on Honduras, somehow we missed the story on the Airport. According to The History Channel it's the second most dangerous in the world. No doubt. The video below was taken in 2009 before they extended the runway from 6,112 feet to 7,096 feet and blasted away part of the mountain to help with the approach. The landing is still a doozy.
We boarded our waiting schoolbus from Emmanuel and began a 70 mile trip that would take nearly 4 hours to complete. Not a trip for the weak of bladder. The road to Guaimaca is riddled with potholes large enough to have their own zipcode. It was a maze that required our driver to frequently navigate around missing parts of the road.
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| The Team from Week One |
But it really didn't matter. We were in Honduras and on our way to see 500 children. And the ride was a chance to get to know the Gainesville team. Lisa Bisson was our team leader for the week; Dr. Jim Jackson was along to work out of the clinic for a week along with daughter Darby. Then there was Chris Thomas, Dru his wife and their son Allan. The kids at Emmanual call Chris Santa. So do I.
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| Chris Thomas |
There was Maria Oliver and her daughter Claire. Maria, who could do stand up comedy, along with Maria Wilcox and Keeley would act as interpreters for the first week. The rest of the team included Bonnie Ozaki, Wayne (AKA Waynecito) Stradley, Debbie Flannagan, Rhonda Simmons, Pastor Mark Outlaw from GUMC and his daughter Lindsay. We also had three young girls we met in Atlanta traveling with us - Melissa, Kelsey and Amber. They would be spending the next several months volunteering at the orphanage. We would soon come to understand just how important they and the other volunteers are in the life of the children.
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| Kelsey - Volunteer |
You cannot overstate the extreme poverty here-- it hits you the moment you arrive. Honduras is the third poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, following Haiti and Nicaragua. When we pulled through the gates of Emmanuel the change was palpable. Wayne put it best. It's like entering a place that's between heaven and earth.
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| The Entrance Sign of Emmanuel Says It All |
As our bus drove up the long drive the children shouted out the names of the team members they knew. We were entering their lives now. Ours would be changed forever.
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