December 11, 2008
This entry is basically to say that I am still alive even though I have not written for quite a while. I like to write but this past week I have been too busy. I was helping out at another camp, taking a personal retreat, and then catching up on work in the city. Tomorrow I head to camp for the weekend to set up ropes course elements for a group and probably help to lead part of the time. It will also be the moment of my farewells to the staff since I probably will not see them again before I leave for Christmas. I can hardly believe that a week from now I will be in PA! I am excited and ready for some time with family and friends.
So someday I will probably blog more about the adventures of the last little while but for now I need some sleep. I hope that the rain will have ended by tomorrow morning so that I can at least return to running. Vamos a ver.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
The Weave
December 3, 2008
There are days when I feel that is what my life is like – one big pattern of weaving. Mostly I am referring to the driving. Nearly every road, including those in the city, requires weaving. When I do it, I remember soccer dribbling drills when you have to take the ball around the cones. Here one weaves around the potholes and the oncoming cars as you are trying to avoid the potholes. The problem is that the potholes are not just a small dip in the road. Some are more like caverns (slightly exaggerated). To hit one means you may not come back out or at least the tire and axle may not.
I also end up weaving when running in order avoid cow patties, dogs, and puddles when in camp and potholes, cars, and trash when in the city. And so I weave, weave, and weave again. All of this weaving reminds me of the old poem I know about the Lord weaving patterns into our life that we cannot see at the time. In the end there is a beautiful handiwork though we someties miss His perspective because we are so caught up in the day to day moments of individual threads.
There are days when I feel that is what my life is like – one big pattern of weaving. Mostly I am referring to the driving. Nearly every road, including those in the city, requires weaving. When I do it, I remember soccer dribbling drills when you have to take the ball around the cones. Here one weaves around the potholes and the oncoming cars as you are trying to avoid the potholes. The problem is that the potholes are not just a small dip in the road. Some are more like caverns (slightly exaggerated). To hit one means you may not come back out or at least the tire and axle may not.
I also end up weaving when running in order avoid cow patties, dogs, and puddles when in camp and potholes, cars, and trash when in the city. And so I weave, weave, and weave again. All of this weaving reminds me of the old poem I know about the Lord weaving patterns into our life that we cannot see at the time. In the end there is a beautiful handiwork though we someties miss His perspective because we are so caught up in the day to day moments of individual threads.
The Trouble with Passports
December 2, 2008
Sometimes I wonder how I get myself into such scrapes. How can I know all of the things that I need to know to prevent making bad decisions? I do not really have answers to my questions yet. On Monday morning I headed to the US Embassy in San Pedro Sula to ask about renewing my passport. I thought that maybe I could get the necessary paperwork here to expedite the process while in the States. The Embassy was closed. It does not open until 1:00PM, something that I did not know. I returned in the afternoon and was delighted to find that there was no line and I could go straight to the desk.
As I told the man about my travel plans and my passport which expires in March, he told me that Honduras will not let me back in the country in January unless I have a new passport. They close off entry to those whose passport will expire within the next 3 months. The US does the same to Hondurans only our requirement for them is six months. Well, I discovered that the renewal process through the San Pedro office takes three weeks – time that I do not have since I leave in two and a half weeks. If I were to go to the capital, Tegucigalpa, the passport should be ready within two weeks. The capital is about four hours away and I do not really trust that two weeks actually means two weeks. During the renewal process, the government takes the old passport which means no traveling whatsoever outside of the country. Hence I decided the Tegucigalpa route would not really work.
The other option is to get the renewal done in the US – a process that takes several weeks or more. After some searching on-line I found out that there are passport centers throughout the country where one can get an appointment and passport renewal, but only within two weeks of one’s flight out of the country. Amazingly one of these centers is in Philadelphia. The problem is that you cannot make an appointment until two weeks before the date and I will be in Florida for one week which puts me going to the center, one week before my intended departure. I never knew traveling or passports could be so complicated. All I wanted was to be in the States for Christmas but it looks as if I have created a fiasco. I suppose it will all work out but I think that I will be seeing a lot more of Philly than I had wanted to.
Sometimes I wonder how I get myself into such scrapes. How can I know all of the things that I need to know to prevent making bad decisions? I do not really have answers to my questions yet. On Monday morning I headed to the US Embassy in San Pedro Sula to ask about renewing my passport. I thought that maybe I could get the necessary paperwork here to expedite the process while in the States. The Embassy was closed. It does not open until 1:00PM, something that I did not know. I returned in the afternoon and was delighted to find that there was no line and I could go straight to the desk.
As I told the man about my travel plans and my passport which expires in March, he told me that Honduras will not let me back in the country in January unless I have a new passport. They close off entry to those whose passport will expire within the next 3 months. The US does the same to Hondurans only our requirement for them is six months. Well, I discovered that the renewal process through the San Pedro office takes three weeks – time that I do not have since I leave in two and a half weeks. If I were to go to the capital, Tegucigalpa, the passport should be ready within two weeks. The capital is about four hours away and I do not really trust that two weeks actually means two weeks. During the renewal process, the government takes the old passport which means no traveling whatsoever outside of the country. Hence I decided the Tegucigalpa route would not really work.
The other option is to get the renewal done in the US – a process that takes several weeks or more. After some searching on-line I found out that there are passport centers throughout the country where one can get an appointment and passport renewal, but only within two weeks of one’s flight out of the country. Amazingly one of these centers is in Philadelphia. The problem is that you cannot make an appointment until two weeks before the date and I will be in Florida for one week which puts me going to the center, one week before my intended departure. I never knew traveling or passports could be so complicated. All I wanted was to be in the States for Christmas but it looks as if I have created a fiasco. I suppose it will all work out but I think that I will be seeing a lot more of Philly than I had wanted to.
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