Literal Bumps in the Road and Other Tales

Chatting with Kim Hall for the first time since she and her family moved to Honduras was as fun as I thought it would be. We started off by talking about some bumps in the road. No, really. We talked about actual bumps in the road!

She and Jonathan frequently joke about the number of speedbumps there are on the roads in Gracias. The problem is they aren’t marked, as they are in the U.S. The Halls haven’t quite learned where all of the speedbumps are and hitting one can be as surprising as having the little man jump out of a Jack-in-the-box. You know it’s coming. You’re just not sure when it’s coming.

Yesterday, a truck hauling mangos was going too fast when it rolled over a speedbump. Mangos hit the ground rolling, much to the dismay of the driver. This morning, the Halls discovered that the squished mangos have stained the speedbump yellow. Much to their delight, at least one speedbump in Gracias is as clearly marked as those in the States.

Since moving, they’ve also experienced fun things like finding a scorpion in the washing machine the first time they did laundry. Their cats are now on scorpion duty and the only other scorpion the Halls have only discovered was partially eaten.

They’ve also adopted a full-fledged Honduran dog named Pearl. Things are working out, other than Pearl’s affinity for rolling in burs.

The children are adjusting well. They are making friends in their bi-lingual school. Kim is learning how to cope with helping with their social studies homework, which she described as “ridiculous”.

The Hall family also has two Hondurans living with them. One of their original sponsored children (through another organization) is now a single mom with a 3-yr-old boy. By working for the Halls, she is now able to attend high school on Saturdays and she is working toward her goal of becoming a nurse. She has weekends off so she can also go home and help her widowed mother of seven children. Prior to working for the Halls, the young woman was working in a Chinese restaurant from 9:00 am- 9:00 pm, eight days straight. She had a 40 minute commute, each way and was barely able to see her child. Kim said, “We thought there had to be a better way.”

Kim is delighting in living a simple, more basic life. She said, “It’s great to fill your time with people instead of TV and the phone. Now, we’re outside half of the time and it feels like we’re alive. I like it. I go to bed tired. The days are so filled that you are wiped out and ready for bed by 9:00. You’re too tired to care that Hulu doesn’t work!”

Kim also relayed, “People keep saying the honeymoon will be over soon, but we love it here. We love to see our people every day. We’ve started attending church in Tablon, at our sponsorship center. We listen to sermons in Spanish. We get to see baptisms and birthdays. One of our sponsored children is turning six today and we get to go see him. We are able to learn about needs because we are here and becoming a part of the church. It helps us better communicate with our sponsors. We understand that there’s not always enough water for showers. We understand that you can’t always count on having electricity. The lights can go out while you're eating dinner and you find yourself sitting in the dark. This is why the people here need solar lanterns. This is how they live. These are the challenges.” (At this point, Pearl came in after her 6th run-in with burs. Challenges, indeed.)

 - posted by Christi