Inspector Gadget

I have always watched the TV shows my sons watched, from Sesame Street way back when to Modern Family now.  One show we enjoyed was Inspector Gadget, a cartoon about a man who is a cross between Get Smart and Mission Impossible.  He could build the most amazing gadgets to foil his arch-nemesis, Dr. Claw.

There are two gadgets I would like to have.  The first is a camera attached to my eyelids.  There have been so many photos I have missed because I was driving, out of battery, or simply not fast enough.  Some are funny, some interesting, some heartbreaking, some inspirational.

As you read this, close your eyes (!)  and imagine the pictures I would have taken:

1. Young boy walking home from school in the late afternoon in his uniform with a backpack in one hand and a dead chicken in the other.  Dinner?

2. My view from the driver's seat of my car, on the road from SBV. I am stopped, surrounded by a herd of cows with one adolescent cow as close as it can be to my hood, staring me down.

3. On the main highway around Tegucigalpa, two older women standing on the side of the road with huge tubs balanced on their heads (hands free!) chatting.

4. On the main highway going south going up a hill on a curve, the car passing the car passing a truck - a triple wide on a double wide highway!

5. A little girl playing on the median of an on-ramp while her father repairs the makeshift hut he built out of paper and sticks.

6. H. at the safe house spontaneously comforting J who had strep throat and was feeling awful.

7. A Police tuk-tuk in Copan with a policman driving it and a policewoman holding on for dear life in the back seat as he flew over the cobblestone street!

8. An indigenous woman cradling her baby, both looked very hungry.

Of course, there are zillions of others...

The other gadget I wish I had is an aerosol spray that I could spray all over you.  You would instantly be able to feel what I feel, to share completely the experiences I have had and to know the people I have met.  Right now, I am sitting in a cafe in Copan (with free wi-fi!) writing this.  This is the end of my first of four weeks in Copan Ruinas (in the NW of Honduras, location of Mayan ruins) where I am studying Spanish.  I am so full of joy.  Copan is beautiful, the people typical of Honduras (by that I mean absolutely wonderful), and living with a Honduran family in a small cuarto (rented room) is sublime.   I would so spray you with life in Copan! Pfffftttt!

Other things I would click and blink and then spray:  Watching the kids at SBV go about their lives, playing, helping each other out, being naughty at times, being so sweet at others...

Spending time with the safe house girls as they play, laugh, sing, pray.

I would also pffffttt you with the times when horrific memories suddenly come upon them, unbidden.  It is painful to watch them relive their lives before La Vida Nueva.  Same with Sonia's sobs as she threw her arms around me, buried her head in my shoulder and weeped, "Mi mami!  Mi mami!" the day after her beloved mother, Iris, died.  She was in our offices in Flor asking for help to bury her mother.  Heartwrenching.   Those pffffttts would not be pleasant for you but they must be felt by all of us.

I think that is one of the best parts about being a missionary here -- seeing and experiencing so much all the time.  I often wonder if this is what Jesus sees...His sweet children living their lives, going about their business day in and day out, sometimes suffering, sometimes being filled with great joy.  Are their lives as fascinating to Him as they are to me?  (He, natch, already knows them so well and I am just learning)

One thing I know for sure, He loves them each and all far more than I could ever begin to comprehend.  You too!

Here are a few pictures of His children I have managed to take here in Copan:

A tiny Chorti boy selling a doll	Off to market
Sweeping the street, rain or shine	The woman in the back is bringing a chicken to sell to a restaurant!
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