Well! Last weekend was quite eventful! Thursday afternoon I flew to La Ceiba to get my residency all figured out. However, once we got there, we found out that we had to go all the way to Tegucigalpa to turn in our paper work. We bought tickets that day and took the 35 minute flight to Teguc at 7:30am Friday morning (side note: the flight attendants still somehow managed to pass out drinks and snacks and collect garbage before we landed). When we got to the immigration office, we were bumped from line to line. We finally got to the right place, but then we were told that we needed two 5cm by 6cm photos. So, Uda (the Norwegian girl staying at the base) and I took a cab to the mall to get our pictures taken at a photo studio. But, when we got there the guy said they can’t do 5x6s, only 5x5s, but maybe the place downtown could do it. Unfortunately we were starting to run low on cash and time. We spent the next ten minutes trying to communicate to the man if he could put a 5x6 on to a bigger page and then cut it. Eventually, he said he could but he had to make four of them which is why he didn’t offer it in the first place but why wouldn’t you be nice person and just ask that in the first place!!!
Deep breaths, Kristian. Deeeeep breaths.
Anywho, we got the photos turned them in and everything turned out just peachy with our residency. We just have to wait a few weeks until our residency cards are ready. We headed to the airport to catch our 2:30pm flight back to Ceiba. But, I’m sure you can guess what happened next. Ding! Ding! Ding! That’s right - our plane was two hours late.
Well we finally made it back and flew back to Ahuas Saturday morning. Sunday night, normally a restful, relaxing evening, ended up being the conclusion of the eventful weekend. As we were wrapping up dinner at the Hofstad’s Yngvild got a phone call from one of the girls at the base. Remember when I mentioned that if something isn’t bolted down or locked up it tends to disappear? Well there are a couple hundred boards for the new house that are kept under the base that has no fencing. The girls called because apparently someone was trying to steal some boards - something which had previously happened a few nights earlier. Hearing the news Jarle, Scott and I grabbed bicycles and headed down to the base. Unfortunately I was stuck with Benjamin the 5th grader’s bike which was too small so I had to stand up and bike the entire time. To add on to that, to be sneaky, we turned off our flashlights, but with this being Ahuas, I couldn’t see a darn thing. I’m amazed I didn’t run into a cow or just wipeout on the dirt. When we got near the base, Jarle flipped on his flash light and twenty feet in front of us were two guys, each walking away with a 10-foot long board on their shoulder. They didn’t even flinch until Jarle yelled and chased after them. We didn’t catch them but we did recover the two boards. The next hour was spent nailing boards to other boards to make them secure. Well, Jarle did the nailing. I held the flashlight.
Needless to say, as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out like a light. Toooo much excitement.
“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.” - Helen Keller
This sounds like a very trying day for you, Kristian, but it was a LOL story for me. Wow, what an adventure! I still chuckle thinking of you pedaling a tiny kids bike -- in the dark --on dirt roads -- in a chase for board thieves. Beats a Law & Order episode! ~ Sheri
ReplyDelete