La Primera Lluvia

"The First Rain" = La Primera Lluvia

I am sure some of you like to hear the rain on the rooftops as you fall asleep, but I can assure you that if you had a tin roof like we do, you would not like it one bit!  Two nights ago it rained for the first time since we have been here. I don’t think it is the start of the “rainy season” quite yet but now we know what to expect….to not sleep a wink at night.  Seriously, the rain is SO LOUD on our tin roof.  To hear each other talk we almost have to yell.  We had to move Micah in our bed since he didn’t like the ROARING of the rain and thunder.  So not only was the loud rain keeping us awake but Micah rolling in our bed and crying didn’t help with either.  I am not sure what I am going to do when the rain starts to come nightly….  We may have to invest in a new roof, made of different material. :) haha.

Even though the rain took away my night’s sleep, it did come at a blessed time as the forest fires were picking up again.  Our water supply was actually cut off for a day due to the heat of the fire melting the tubes that carry our water from the river to our property.  But the workers replaced the tube and the rain put the fires out, so we have running water again.

On a completely different note, 10 eggs hatched this past week and now we have 9 little chicks…one died last night. L This morning we put them in an outside pen for the first time and they love the outdoors.  Currently there is one large chicken coup that holds about 35 full grown chickens from whom we get our eggs from.  The goal is for us to have enough chickens to lay eggs and also enough new chicks each year so that we can eat some of the chickens too….I know, it sounds morbid when you say it out loud. But right now we don’t eat any meat since it is expensive and we have no way to store it here since we don’t have a refrigerator.  So if we could eat our own chickens then we could just eat them the day we kill them….  There are plans to build another large chicken coup, in a week or two, to house the new chicks and a few other chickens who are currently sitting on eggs.  *I have been surprised at how much thought and time I have had to put into the chickens here.  I didn’t think I would become a “chicken farmer” while being in Honduras and to be honest it isn’t my favorite thing to do but someone has to do it while the students are away. Once they return in a week, I assume they will kind of take over…but maybe not. I am prepared to do what I need to do.  Micah sure enjoys seeing the chickens everyday.

Other than taking care of chickens, a few other things have happened this past week. J Joseph went to the city and bought a motorcyle!  He left one morning at 6am and after spending a few hours at a bank trying to get some money transferred from our bank, he finally got what he needed and arrived back home at 2pm.  He went with two of the Honduran workers and once they made it back to Zambrano,  they told him the best way to learn is to ride home from there ;)  So he did and praise the Lord, he made it home in one piece.  He is getting the hang of it and actually rode back into Zambrano yesterday to get a few groceries for us. He really enjoys riding his “new toy”.

You might be curious about the garden that I have been planning.  What we have done so far is decided on the plot, which is actually just between our home and the kitchen; it is an area that gets the most sun and it is conveniently located by the kitchen and a water source.  But the one problem was that it use to be the spot where the construction workers kept their tools and did some of their cement mixing. So the top inch or two of soil is not very good at all. SO we have been spending time digging up the first, hard layer and removing it.  It has been intense labor but I know it will make a difference. We hope to bring in better soil in the next week or so and hopefully get ahold of some seeds to plant before the big rains come so that the seeds can germinate and take root so the rains don’t wash them away.  *Since we have been here I have been watering and tending to two small gardens that another volunteer had planted. It looks like some squash and beans are growing well.

There are still many more stories to tell, but I think this is long enough for today!