Wednesday, April 13, 2011

I can't believe it's mid-April already!

Wow!  I can’t believe how fast this last month flew by!  I guess that’s a good sign since it means that I have lots of work and I’m settled into my routine here.  My first couple of months here were a little slow since I was getting acquainted with all of DiaconĂ­a’s programs and such.  Now I have my own projects to work on plus helping out with the credit groups and paperwork.  I like being well occupied because it makes me feel like I’m making my contribution felt – more than just observing and taking notes. 

However, one side-effect of all this busyness is that I totally forgot that I’ve been in Honduras for 3 months… which means my 90-day visitor visa was about to expire April 6th!  Luckily I was already in Tegucigalpa April 5th for DiaconĂ­a Nacional’s monthly staff meeting so once Ana reminded me about the visa I went directly to immigration to apply for my 2 month extension.  CRWRC has a lawyer working on my volunteer visa application but he doesn’t think it’ll be done for another two months.  The whole process is very tedious and it seems like there’s a new fee or tax levied at each step.  This time I had to pay almost 800 lempiras (~$43) and leave my passport with them for 4 days!  It’s not easy leaving your passport behind but there isn’t much you can do about it.  I’ll be really happy when I get my Honduran visa and ID!  It’ll definitely be a relief to finish this process plus then I can open up a bank account here, FINALLY!

Sorry but I don’t have time to write more about all the adventures that happened last month.  For now all I can say is “COMING SOON…” and here are some photos to preview!