Breaking for lunch, Lindsey, the girls, and I headed next door to Yami's for some delicious baleatas. Yami runs a very prominent truck-stop restaurant in her house and has become a dear friend of the McCanns. Not surprisingly, I love this woman too. She is an incredible cook, complimented my Spanish, and speaks slowly and clearly so that we can actually understand what she's saying. After eating enough to feed a small army (and only paying about $6 for all), we headed home for naps. Around this time of day, it's often a battle to keep Ellie awake in the car, so Lindsey has given Lucy a very important job: KEEP ELLIE AWAKE until we get home. Lucy doesn't take this job lightly either. At any flutter of the eyelids, any relaxation of the body whatsoever, Ellie gets her rude awakening, "ELLIEEEE STAAY AWAAAAAKE!!!!" all the way home. That screechy little voice may have kept everyone within the region awake, but there was no stopping Ellie. We had already lost her.
The team regrouped for dinner at Masapan, where we loaded our plates from a vast Honduran buffet. Rather than enjoying the food, however, Lucy preferred dancing to tacky 80's music videos on the television and Ellie was determined to suck the disgusting table. This made Lucy's infamous request for a snack on the ride home even less surprising than usual. After dinner, the adults headed back to the McCann's for fellowship and black bottom cupcakes.
This morning began with "playing chapstick." Playing chapstick involves a ziplock bag of Lucy's personal collection and the two of us sampling each of the 25 different flavors. This is followed by "making a rainbow" where we have to line up the tubes in order, which, like everything she does, has to be done just...the..right..way. The fact that Lucy has even concocted a game out of tubes of chapstick is proof enough of her ability to make anything hilarious and fun.
And just when you thought the chapstick fun couldn't be topped, it was (!) with a walk to the bank to exchange cash, the bakery for Lu's banana bread fix, and to a very neglected neighborhood park.
After a full week of babies and baking, Sean and Lindsey were kind enough to allow me the rest of the day off to enjoy a team trip to the beach. About a 20-minute's drive out, we arrived at a semi-abandoned paradise resort with a beach front view. The place was built by a group of Canadians a while back, hoping to make a small fortune on their grand investment. This never happened, however, and they've been trying to sell the place ever since. I honestly don't know how this place stays in business as we were the only customers on the entire grounds (and Mike says this is normal). In a strange way, the whole ghost town aspect of the place kind of creeped me out. This having been said, I really couldn't complain about my tropical getaway. We enjoyed lunch under cabanas and playing in the water, which was approaching jacuzzi temperature. My personal favorite part was reading by the pool, mostly because it was the first time I could remember sitting for more than ten minutes without sweating profusely (a little breeze goes a long way down here). As I drifted in and out of a poolside nap, sandwiched between the mountains and the shore, I was reminded of my mantra in Spain: "this is my life." Already this week, I have been overwhelmed to the point of tears at how blessed I am to be here. "The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands" (Ps. 138:8).
The entire McCann clan leaves for Mexico tomorrow to renew their visas. I'll stay behind in La Ceiba (sleeping at the Pettengills), awaiting their return Tuesday evening. We're praying all goes smoothly with their flights as there are rumors that Zeyala will be attempting to re-enter the country again tomorrow (and it wouldn't be the first time this dude has halted their travel plans).
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