Stuck in the Mud

Saturday started out like any other day. Three other singles and myself were going to visit a family that used to work at the ranch. We left at around 9:00 not really knowing what was in store for us. We live at the top of a mountain and the only road is a very poor dirt road. Well we are right in the middle of rainy season so the dirt becomes mud. We knew that it would be a challenge getting down but we decided to go anyway. The way down was good with no problems because we were going down. We made it off the mountain road and onto the good paved road. We met the family at the bottom of the hill where they live. Their road seemed to be in worse shape than our road if that is even possible. We had lunch and then went to visit the ministry they work at. The building was very nice by Honduran standards and there were lots of kids. They do Saturday discipleship classes for the children in the community. I really enjoyed being around the children that live in a community. It was a nice day with lots of rain. All the rain made us a little nervous because we knew what we had to go back through. We left their house around 6:00 which is about the time it starts getting very dark here. There are three different roads that we have to go on once we turn off the main paved road. One is paved but the potholes are so big that it makes it impossible to drive normally. Then we go on a gravel road. When I first came this road was horrible. Well about 3 weeks after I got here they fixed the road and it was much better. We referred to it as the “highway”. However with all the rain we have been getting the road is back in almost the same shape it was before they fixed it. Also on the that road there is a river that we must cross and when we have too much rain it gets too high for us to cross. Fortunately for us it was not too high so we made it through that with no problem. We make it to our road that leads to the ranch. Now this road is climbing up a mountain and it is just dirt. This was the road we were most worried about. We start making our way up and there is a bus in front of us. In Honduras, they use school buses as public transportation. That is what was in front of us. They go slow in flat smooth roads so you can just imagine how slow they go on our road when it is not muddy. There were two large spots of mud that we didn’t think we could make much less the bus. The bus gets to the first spot and stops. We go around the bus and make it almost through and get stuck. So we decide to put it in reverse and try again. Well the bus was still in our way so we could not back up to far. We tried for a second time and get almost out and get stuck again. This time the bus has moved so we can go back farther and get a faster start. This was our plan and if that didn’t work then we were going to push. On the third try we were successful! We made it through the mud and didn’t have to push. We now think that we can make it to the ranch with no problem because we thought that was the worst of the mud. We are driving along no problems until we come up on another patch of mud that was not near as bad as the other one. Well we didn’t have enough speed and we get stuck again. So what do we do we back up and try again. This time did not work either. We were afraid to really keep trying to much because the engine was not sounding so good and lets face it the Trooper is not really able to handle things like that. Jason and I get out to push the trooper out of the mud. It works great for a little while and then we just start digging deeper ruts. At this point several Honduran men walked up to help is push. They tell us to back the trooper all the way back down before the mud and get speed and we should make it with no problem. They also tell us that we need weight in the back. Well I was just about to hop in when two of the men jump in front of me. So I am helping with the pushing again. Abby is driving the trooper and she takes off going fast and doesn’t need us to push anymore. The trooper makes it through the mud this time and I now have to walk in the pitch black dark through this muddy spot. I am slipping and sliding and my legs are completely covered in mud. Right about this time another truck comes flying up the hill and I see it and hear Jason scream truck coming. I try to find the ditch without breaking anything on my body. I get back to the trooper and we did make it to the ranch in one piece. It was a very interesting night to say this least. After this experience we had none of the houses were allowed to go to church on Sunday. We had a ranch wide service on Sunday instead. We are only supposed to get more rain which could affect if our Honduran teachers can get here from the city. It will be a very interesting week around here.