We Almost Went to Costa Rica
As legal aliens in an unorganized foreign country, we find ourselves at the mercy of ever-changing and often illogical immigration regulations. Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador are currently in the process of putting together some sort of free-trade agreement, which would allow their citizens and everyone else to pass through these countries without needing a passport. But like many regulatory actions here, nobody thought it through to consider things like how to collect tax money for crossing borders if no one is stamping passports and what taxes to charge. According to the Prensa (one of Honduras’ newspapers), they are thinking about maybe revoking the whole thing because it is causing so many problems. We hope that is the case.

Up until about a week ago, we could get a 90 day visa when we entered the country and then apply for a 30 day extension when that runs out. After 120 days we would have to leave the country for 3 days. This was pretty simple, as Guatemala and Nicaragua aren’t really that far away. However, with the four nearest countries not stamping passports, we would have to go to Costa Rica, Belize, Panama, Mexico, etc.

Last week, the immigration office in La Ceiba said they would absolutely not be granting any more 30 day extensions. Since our visas were due to expire on the 31st, and since we didn’t want to get nailed with a $50/passport/month fine, we decided to try to make a somewhat unexpected trip to Costa Rica. In retrospect, we now know that when regulations appear to suddenly change, it’s best not to get too excited.

Last Friday, we caught a ride from home into La Ceiba with the Larson’s, one of the other missionary families who are living in Ceiba going to language school. We were going to stay with them over night and ride with them to San Pedro Sula Saturday morning, as they had to go to the airport to help pick up a work team that was coming to the hospital for a couple weeks. Guildy had been acting a little fussy and fevered Thursday night and Friday, but we just thought it was teething, since her eye teeth looked like they were coming in. But Friday afternoon, her fever jumped really high and she had a febrile convulsion, which was absolutely terrifying for us. It only last just a minute, and after we got her cooled down, she was pretty much back to normal. Thankfully, Dr. Jeff (the head doc/surgeon at the hospital here) and his family were in town that day and he just happened to come on the radio calling someone else when she started to have her seizure. So Josh was able to talk to him right away. He came over to the house and checked her out. He called Dr. Romesh (a visiting pediatrician) on the radio, and they talked about it too. They both agreed that it was a simple febrile seizure and nothing to be overly concerned about, other than making sure her temp didn’t jump up again.

Saturday morning Guildy seemed to be doing pretty well. She had just a slight fever, and we figured she was probably getting over whatever she had, so we decided to ride along to San Pedro. We got our hotel for the night in San Pedro, planning to leave the next morning for the two day bus ride to Costa Rica, but her fever jumped up again in the late afternoon. Of course, we were quicker and more aggressive about getting her cooled off, so nothing bad happened that time. We had the name of some other missionaries who live in San Pedro Sula. They aren’t associated with Loma de Luz, but are friends with some of the missionaries here. Anyway, we called them to ask if they knew which hospital/doctors were best. They gave us the name of Dr. Zuniga, who goes to their church. He interrupted his self-proclaimed “exciting evening” of sorting through several duffel bags of donated expired medications. He met us at one of the hospitals and gave Guildy a thorough checking out. He though it was probably roseola, although she didn’t have the rash yet and that she could travel as soon as she was back to normal. (She came down with the rash about a day and a half later, so it turned out he was right.) He ordered a white blood count just to make sure it wasn’t a bacterial infection, and I was pretty nervous when the phlebotomist, this little old man with thick glasses, toddled in. But he did a great job….he was as steady as could be and got blood on the first try. Dr. Zuniga didn’t even want us to pay him, but we paid him his usual charge for an office visit of 500 lempira, about $25. The ER and lab charge was about $50. Anyway, we decided to stay in San Pedro another night thinking she might get better and be ready to go by Monday morning.

Josh Goes Looking for Diapers
Every misadventure has its humorous moments……

We had brought along plenty of diapers for several days of normal diaper use. However, on Saturday night, Guildy got the squirts, nothing severe, but definitely a strain on the dwindling diaper supply. By Sunday morning at about 6, we were down to the last diaper. Here at home, the pulperias open at 7, and if you really need something, you can go to the owner’s house even earlier and just ask. But the big city doesn’t work that way, especially on Sundays. Josh set out at about 7 and didn’t return until after 9. During that time, he experienced first hand a typical Honduran behavior: wanting to be polite, Hondurans will always give you directions, whether they have a clue where you want to go or not. So after walking in circles around downtown San Pedro with the slowly awakening homeless population, he finally got a taxi and got to a grocery store, which didn’t open until 8:30. They still didn’t have the lights on in the store, so he shopped for diapers in the dark. Now all along Josh had been thinking that the taxi drivers were probably ripping us off since we are obviously not locals. In Honduras, taxi prices are set at a base rate by the government. In San Pedro, it is 25 lempiras per person to go anywhere in town. The first taxi in the swarm of drivers outside the grocery store told Josh 40 lemps, and he asked why not 25. That guy growled at him, slammed the door, and drove away. A second taxi driver did the same thing. Josh broke down and paid the third guy 40 lemps. He returned to the hotel room in the nick of time. I was just about to sacrifice a Gran Hotel Sula towel for use as a diaper. Of course, I forgot to tell Josh we also needed wipes. That was a whole nother adventure for later in the day:o)

It turned out Guildy was still sick and had gotten all rashy by Sunday, so we caught the 6 a.m. bus back to La Ceiba on Monday morning. We had never taken the first class bus anywhere, and it was pretty fancy….enclosed driver’s cab, an attendant (sort of like a flight attendant), snacks, a movie, complimentary barf bags (the road is a little windy). We got back to Ceiba and spent the rest of the day at the Larson’s while we sent our passports with Iain (a missionary from Scotland who takes care of a lot of the business stuff for everyone) and Howard. Howard is sort of like the “inside guy” for the hospital. He is Honduran and speaks English very well. He knows where everything is in La Ceiba and how to get it. So we sent our passports off to the immigration office with them along with a letter signed by one of our docs saying we needed an extension because Guildy couldn’t travel and our receipt from the hospital in San Pedro. It turned out that the office which a week earlier was granting absolutely no more extensions, gave us and three other people (without medical excuses) extensions without any questions and promised to give a few more next week. So, like I said, we now know not to get too excited by sudden regulation changes until you know they really mean it.

So, we’re all legaled-up for another 30 days, at which point we really do have to leave the country. We’re hoping that by that time, they will have decided to start stamping passports in the neighboring countries so we can make a comparatively easy trip (it’s only a one day bus ride) to Guatemala.

So that is the story of how we almost went to Costa Rica. Guildy appears to be on the mend today. One of the doctors here thought she probably has some virus very similar to roseola, as her symptom weren't exactly classic roseola. She’s still suffering from some stomach and gut problems, but she's pretty happy and nursing and drinking plenty. She looks pretty thin after 5 or 6 days of not eating much. Please pray that she would heal up quickly.