Rain, rain....

Last summer, our first in Honduras, we missed the rainy season. In fact, we had very little idea of what "rainy season" was...until now. Normally, August would be a wet month in Tegus anyway, but this year we've gotten 300 % of the normal amount.

From our lovely  porch on the top floor of our building, we have the luxury of enjoying the rain. Almost every afternoon, we sit and watch the gathering of massive clouds above the mountains. We wait for the soft wisp of the pre-rain and then comes the downpour. We loves storms anyway but these are the best we've ever seen. More sound and electricity than you would think is possible. And along with it, torrents and torrents of rain.

From our porch, it's all highly entertaining and relaxing. But many of our friends are not so fortunate. As we watch in awe, many of our friends pray that God would have mercy and spare them from the rain.

One group of friends live on a ranch outside of the city in the cloud forest--which sounds very exotic and beautiful. And much of the time it is, but lately they have been locked in a battle with nature. Each day they spend 5 to 6 hours rebuilding (mostly by hand) the four miles of road that leads to their home. After they've worked in the coffee fields or spent all day in the schoolhouse, everyone heads out to the road to load 100-lb boulders, split rocks and attempt to rectify what may be the very same patch of road they were working on the day before.

Down in the city, other friends face daily power outages (we lose power once or twice a week), spend extra hours in detour traffic around washed out bridges and watch from the homes as the city's main arteries are swept away in the torrent. Sounds dramatic. It is.

Even the roads in our neighborhood are coming apart, and they are generally fairly well-constructed pavement streets. (The Kia is doing her best to dodge them...some of them are 3 or 4 feet wide and a foot deep or more.)

The other day we got a firsthand look at how destructive the forces of nature can be. About a half mile from our place a 20-ft erosion wall gave in behind a building. It demolished 20 cars. You can see a couple of the leftovers in the left corner (along with the security guard wondering about the curious gringo photographers).

So, we have mixed feelings now as we sit and enjoy the view from our porch, knowing our friends and many others are really struggling out there. Many people died last week in the landslides in Guatemala. So far the human life toll has been minimal here but the danger is looming.

I accidentally erased the close up....This picture doesn't do the damage justice, but you can see a couple of the crushed cars on the left. Fortunately, no one was inside.

A different angle. Notice the mansion/fortress perched above on the hill. Sometimes, we wonder when they're going to come down.

This was taken last spring when we visited the ranch. Terry and the other folks grow blackberries and cloud-forest coffee  (BTW: I'm not doing "Angelina" lips on purpose...it's just that the berries can be a bit tart!)

Colin is standing with Al (one our missionary friends) and two of Al's neighbors. Their house was made by hand--mud bricks, open windows, and an open-fire stove. They actually have electricity because of Al and the folks at the ranch. However, electricity's in and out these days.

The mujere of the home is working at her washing area (without running water--they use buckets to collect rain water...I bet they have more than they can deal with right now). This room is the main room (with only the bedroom as an addition). Here they eat, talk, hang out, meet with the gringos...watch the chickens as they walk through the house...they do not have a refrigerator or anything using electricity but the light bulb. 

Looks like a pretty comfy cabin! The left side is where we spent time chatting in broken Spanish. The right side is where their beds are. They have an outhouse nearby.

Anyhow, these are my little thoughts..Super fresh because the school's power went out the last two periods of the day on Thursday. The rain even brought hail that afternoon. That's when "free reading" sure came in handy.