Tuesday, August 06, 2013

          Glade walked to the nearest grocery store for our most needed items and carried them home.  It was hot and he wanted to go in the early afternoon, so I opted not to go but to eat lunch instead and exercise later when it cooled slightly.  As he was returning and had reached the start of the biggest hill in Tegucigalpa—which leads up to the temple grounds—Pres. Ocampo happened by and gave him a lift!

          As we were finishing the second round on our walk tonight, we were approached by Pres. Ocampo’s daughter, Gina.  She needed a piano player and wondered if I could play for a stake youth choir that will be singing Saturday for a youth conference.  She was supposed to play, but she teaches institute and her class is the same time as the conference.  So I said “of course” and she said there was a practice right now and could I possibly come.  So Glade and I hurried and changed into missionary clothes, and she drove us in her van with her four kids, Rebeca, Raquel, Moroni, and Nephi, to the church to practice.

          When we arrived, she found out that the practice ended at 7:00 instead of starting at 7:00 and the choir and director had just left on a bus.  I practiced through the songs anyway--which were lightly-inked copies from her printer--on an electric piano.  After we drove back to our house, she came upstairs with her two little boys to see if I could print the music from my printer.  Eventually it worked after I realized my printer selection had defaulted to my Photosmart at home and I had to change it to the new one.  So I should be set, except that the choir director said the stake president wants some song changes made.  Oh, well.  We’ll go with the flow I guess.

          It was an interesting evening.  We are not supposed to travel anywhere after dark, but here she was with her children driving through the downtown to get to this stake center.  The streets became narrow, as many of them do, and wound in a maze that had me dizzy.  There is definitely no grid laid out here by any city planners.  We saw and heard a little “night life” but we just kept talking (she speaks good English) and she just kept driving for about 20 or 30 minutes.  Her oldest daughter told Glade that it was in a dangerous part of town; but there we were, driving with the windows down through places I’m not sure I would go in the daylight!  But we arrived safely and pulled into the parking lot through a gate and parked in what looked to be a very secure area with high fences on three sides and cement covered walls several yards high on the mountain side of the lot.  This is just a way of life for people who live here and they seem to do just fine!

          These pictures are of Gina’s two little boys who loved playing with Glade’s pelota grande amarilla—his big yellow ball! 

 

This is Nephi, pronounced nef-ee

Here is Nephi with his broher Moroni, pronounced Moron-ee