Lame Duck

Wednesday April 7th 2010 2:50pm

I have tried to keep this blog exclusively for my time in Honduras, which is why I haven't updated recently. This, however is no excuse for the past couple of days. I also try not to write much about my time in the states, but I feel that some information is imperative to know.

For the first couple of days that I was back, I was in Indianapolis for a psychiatrist appointment, and some meetings with Global Ministries. Through those meetings, it was mutually decided that Honduras is not the safest place not only for me, but for any missionary to be at the time. I was asked if I felt comfortable finishing out my first year here, and then returning to the states in August. I told them that I had a friend's wedding in July, and they recommended that I come back for that, and stay to itinerate, where I would talk with churches, universities, or other places that wanted to hear about the Global Ministries Internship experience. They then remembered that there was a Missionary Re-Entry training seminar in June, and asked if I could be home for that. In a matter of seconds, I went from finishing the year, to coming home in two months.

And so, I will fly back to the US on May 31st, and end my time in Honduras. The tentative plan is for me to itinerate throughout the summer, and then go to Union Theological Seminary this fall.

I really feel like the lame duck president, who only has a couple of months left in office before leaving.

Monday
I flew back into Honduras around lunch time, and pretty much ate, slept, ate, and slept for the rest of the day. I tried for a while to get the computer game EXILE to work. It didn't, so I watched the NCAA championship game instead. It was good. I like close games.

Tuesday
My first day back in the office, I was hardly in the office. I caught a ride with Marisela, which meant we got in around 10:00am. At noon, we left to pick up a family at the airport. Apparently they had come to Honduras on a mission trip about a year ago, and so we met up with them for lunch, and got them all arranged at a hotel. By the time we got back to the office, it was time to head back to the apartment.

I worked on EXILE a little bit more last night, and was able to play for a little bit. To me, it is a really fun computer game where you have to do a lot of logic puzzles in order to advance through a story line. That kind of nerdiness is right up my alley.

Wednesday
Today I picked up Marisela in the red truck that I had driven home on Tuesday, and we headed to a hotel where the whole office was attending a forum on climate change. It was a four hour long forum, with way too many complicated words in Spanish. It was hard for me to pay much attention.

On the way back, the whole office rode back in our 12 passenger van and Elmer drove the red truck back to the office. I took the opportunity to tell my co workers that I would only be staying for two months. It was a weird conversation, with everyone not really expecting what I had to say, I don't think they knew how to react. One by one, however, people have been approaching me letting me know that they are sad to hear that I will be leaving.

Even though we've only been back to the office for a couple of hours, it looks pretty clear that I won't have much work to do here for the last couple of months. They don't want me planning for groups I can't assist with. They don't want me to begin teaching or working for the seminary and leaving half way through. They don't want me to fill out grants or forms that aren't going to be filed within the next two months. This pretty much just leaves the odd translation every once in a while. It should be an interesting closing to the whole experience.