New Friends

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August 16, 2009

This morning Melissa and I just cleaned. We swept the floors and found more dirt than we wanted to. We mopped and the mop heads were black by the end. We scrubbed the toilets and discovered we were not imagining those strange smells. I just guess a house gets that way after no one has lived in it for a few months. We also washed some laundry and hung it to dry. The trash situation is strange. We have trash accumulating, but we have no idea what to do with it. I have just been putting it on the front porch until we figure out what day it is picked up or of it has to be brought to a dumpster somewhere. As I took the trash out today, I noticed something big and slimy behind another bag. It made me jump at first, but then I realized it was just a bull frog. There are a lot of lizards and frogs around here which I do not mind because they eat the insects including spiders! Yay for lizards and frogs!

After cleaning up, we decided to see if the internet cafe was open. As we were walking to the boulevard, Pastor Roy drove by and told us that since it was Sunday and most people around there are Catholic, the only café open would be at the Premier Mall down town. We took a taxi which is twenty lemps anywhere in Comayagua. It turns out that there is a military base down that shares half of the base with the U.S. so there are military personal from every branch including the Navy walking around on the weekends. We met a nurse in the Airforce named Ronnie and her Filipino friend Dennis who is also in the Airforce, but he works with computers.

As we were leaving the mall, we saw two obviously American men so we started talking to them. They were both in the Navy. One was a Luitenet named Anthony from San Diego and the other is from Indiana and named Roberts. We talked for a while then met up with Anthony’s Honduran girlfriend he met at a bar. We all went to lunch together and had the worst lunch of our lives.

Mel and I had ordered the rice noodles with curry. This dish usually comes with shell fish, but we asked for tofu instead of shell fish. Anthony is fluent is Spanish so he was able to order for us. When they brought oit our food decades later, it was just a plate of cooked tofu with seasoning and a topping on it, but no rice noodles or curry in sight. The topping reeked of meat. Anthony reassured us that he made it clear we did not want meat and Roberts said he did not think it smelled like meat so I went ahead and tried it. “That is defenetly meat” I said so the chef was called over. There was conversation back and forth then Anthony said “Yea, he put meat on it.”

“What kind of meat?” Melissa inquired.

“You don’t want to know” Anthony said.

We both knew he meant pork because we had just finished a conversation about how we were Adventist missionaries. “Hey you are those people who can’t do anything on Saturday or can’t eat pork huh.” This is what the conversation consisted of so when pork was given to us to eat, we were all very shocked. Who ever heard of tofu with pork sprinkled on top?

What was more upsetting to me, was when they whisked the food away and brought back a plate full of noodles of some sort, but they were definitely not rice noodles and there was definitely no curry. I would have inquired, but it would have made more trouble and who knows what I would have eaten by mistake next.

The chef is a little Chinese man who speaks broken Spanish so we figured that was the problem.

I do not, however, want to be known as the people who don’t do anything on Saturday and who can’t eat pork. I would rather be known as the people who love God and do something for the world and for each other. Both of the things people know us for, keeping the Sabbath in a negative way and limiting our diet of “good” food are both things that have nothing to do with the image we should want to project. People should say “Adventists huh? Hey aren’t you those people who keep God’s Sabbath, spread the Gospel, help the community, and try to be like Jesus?”

I would feel much more proud to be part of a community that has that reputation instead of the reputation that we are boring vegetable eaters.

When we got home, the other missionaries from Walla Walla were here. I already asked if they knew you Joe and they said no. They do know Brian and Ashley though. There names are Briana and Karolie. Briana was in England this past year. She also projected vomit on her plane ride over here. That was a lovely first story for her to tell us. We sat around the table and played card games and ate apples. We all start orientation tomorrow so all the free time will come to an end.

It rains every night here, but the rain came a little early today so the wash we had hung out to dry earlier today received a second wash from the Honduran rain service. Oh well. Someday I will get the hang of this stuff.