singing happy birthday!

here is a video of our friends singing happy birthday to bob in spanish...sorry it is so blurry... not sure why that happened.

Bob's Birthday!

It was a hot August night with every window open and every fan blowing when our friends starting arriving to help us celebrate Bob's birthday. We were thrilled to see so many of our friends come and join in the fun and festivities of honouring Bob on his big day!

Bob invited a group of friends from the bank and they were thrilled to come over!

When I asked what they wanted to drink and i said Coca Cola? and they gleamed and said... "Oh si!!! Coca Cola" I knew that if they could be that pleased with a simple thing like that that it would be a great night. They enjoyed themselves immensely. Bob met Espananza at the Bank and began to try to communicate with her. Little by little they were able to become friends. She has been over once before for a meal. The language is a bit of a barrier but we make do. They were teasing herbecause all she can say is "Hi Bob". But we had enough english/spanish friends so there was always translating of stories going on!

Zenola made a beautiful chocolate cake which we all enjoyed. Earlier in the day Bob went out to the store for me and I asked him to get some candles for the cake. He had a hard time finding them but found a kid's party store and was busy trying to describe what he wanted. They couldn't seem to understand so he motioned a circle with a cake, put up two fingers and blew. They exclaimed " OH Candela!!" They showed him some of those large number cakes and said, "Cinco Tres" They died laughing saying "You?? For YOU??!" I guess old men, sorry Bob, don't come into that store looking for candles for their cake in Roatan! They were still laughing as he left the store. He ended up getting some purple and turquoise candles!!

Many people brought him gifts even though I said, Please no gifts. I guess that is a custom here. I think he looks very stylish in his honduran hat and tshirt!! :-)



I was kept busy replenishing food trays. I made chicken wings, guacomole, filo pastry stuffed with chicken, veggies and fresh basil, fruit trays, veggie trays and lots of chips. Myra brought fresh coconut bread which was so delicious. Every one ate it all up. It was truly a treat.

me with zenola and myra. these two women make my time on the island so meaningful and fun. I thank God for them!!

the lighting of the cake and singing happy birthday in spanish!! it was wonderful!
a great birthday celebration!!


As I looked around the room I was pleased to see some many islanders comfortable and a part of our world. We felt called to the island people and after one short year we see that many of them have been touched by our faith and love and they have been a blessing likewise. Some of our French Harbour friends were so sorry to not be able to come. I guess that means we will just have to have another party soon.

Hey my birthday is coming soon.... that would be fun!!

a few stories

Imagine you are driving on the freeway and you see a big produce truck and you remember you don't have anything for a salad at home and you say "boy i wish that truck would stop" and it did!!

well that is what happened to Bob and I the other evening. On a smaller scale of course. I saw the produce and said to Bob, Man I wish he'd stop and guess what?! He did! He was dropping off a friend so I jumped out of the car and asked if I could get some fruits and veggies.



I bought watermelon, cantaloupe, papaya, onions, broccoli, carrots, peppers and lynchee. Oh happy day!!

This afternoon I was in Plaza Mar (the grocery store) and I always kid around with the workers there (I know, surprise surprise). I was walking down the bread aisle and I saw this young guy coming towards me spraying oko (which is a serious bug killer juice) and in the other hand he had some Glade so it wouldn't stink so much. I said. OI! OI! OI!! He laughed and sniffed the air freshner happily as if that made it alright. So much for being discreet!! "Ya we have bugs in our store but not for long!!" haha

Only in Roatan.

Later on today I took a taxi to go to Zenola's in Coxen Hole for Bible Study and he dropped me off at the corner (I thought I would walk a bit) when I hear someone hollering. Hollering is pretty common here so I just kept on walking then suddenly I saw Markito (Zenola's son) on his motorcycle asking if I wanted a ride. I am a brave soul and I guess that is what made me say yes. Once I got on (without a helmut) I had second thoughts. Motorcycles are worst then the average driver, they drive faster, swerving in and out of traffic and Markito was no exception. It was only a short drive (thanks Lord!) and I am glad because I kept having visions of me being tossed off the bike and scraping my whole body off. Fortunately that didn't happen. Crazy! Everyone was pretty surprised I got on with Markito .. I guess he has a reputation for being a crazy driver. Um.. why didn't he tell me that??! :-)

Bob has been working on the souvenior shop that he and Marco are building. It is going well. I love hanging out there as it is a busy neighborhood and we are meeting lots of new people. We are trusting that we will be able to employ many local artisans there and already people are bringing us stuff. It's exciting!

Tomorrow we are having Bob's early Birthday Party. Really looking forward to it. We are having a party at the house! I will post pictures soon.

Have a good weekend.

Bob strolling through coxen hole with the new hat that John gave him.

jamaica + friends = good times!

a smattering of some of the pics we took there
(click on this photo to enlarge)

karen and john stayed on the bottom left and we were on the bottom right. we got up every morning, went for a swim, had coffee and made plans for our day together

this was taken at a fancy thai restaurant called orchids

the front lobby entrance

one thing we don't have in roatan is waterfalls.. man i wish we did!!

when we heard that our friends were going to jamaica we decided it would be easier to see them there then to travel to canada. i thank God that Bob has astounding travel agent type skills and was able to get us there as cheaply as possible.

who cares that we had to take a ferry to la ceiba, a bus to san pedro, fly to fort lauderdale (stay there for a couple of days) then travel to jamaica. repeat process to get home. there isn't any easy way to travel within the tropics.

it was wonderful to see john, karen, kaz and lorraine! we stayed at sandals in ochos rios. they spoiled us rotten there. it was wonderful to spend time together on the beach, snorkeling, eating out at fancy all inclusive restaurants, visiting, catching up and laughing. we were only there for a few days (couldn't afford any more! *s*) but it was worth it!

i have said it and i will say it again we enjoy living in roatan but we miss our family and friends so much! someone said, why go to jamaica when you live in roatan? the answer is simple: to see our friends!

can you feel the love? so good to be together again!

scared spitless

our little Versa car... the source of our problem

I guess if Matt and I hadn’t been playing a silly game of who can sing the lowest I would have seen them! Those of you who know me well I take games like that pretty seriously so while we were driving to West End for supper I didn’t see the police waving me over. ( Matt told me later. ) I had just parked along the narrow road in West End to go to Eagle Ray’s for dinner when I saw a policeman standing beside me with a very large gun and then 4 more surrounding me.

Oh dear I thought.. this is not good!!!!!!! Before I go any further with the story I need to explain some things about life down here regarding the police. They can stop you and fine you for anything. They often make gringos pay fines and most do. It is like a supplementary income for them. So seeing 5 of them surrounding our car was why I called this blog 'scared spitless'. The guy was jabbering in Spanish so I said "English"??? He pointed to the guy in the truck so I got out and he clearly said, “ I need to see your papers! Your license and registration. I need to see your papers.”

Okay here is where it gets tricky because we had been in a rush to go for dinner and to be honest the main thing on my mind was to get a picture of a rock in the setting sun. I had tried a week earlier and it didn’t turn out so I wanted to come again and get the shot I wanted. So because I was focused on photography I forgot my purse at home which meant no license. Having no license on Roatan is a pretty big NO NO!!!

this is the bad picture that didn't turn out.. I haven't gotten back there to get the rock in focus

I tried to explain this to the police. Here is a tip for you: don’t try to explain that kind of stuff to the police in foreign countries. They don’t care about photos or excuses. He kept saying “Paper, Paper!!!” I said I have my license at home and I need to call my husband who is in San Pedro Sula, to find out where the registration papers are. He said," Okay you call now!" I gave him a feeble look and sheepishly said, “Um I left my phone at home too!” By now the guy is getting rather exasperated and I am seeing my fine go higher and higher and higher. As I read this now there is an element of humour in it called "life according to Debi" but at the time .. my word.. I was really scared.. spitless!!!

I came up with the plan for them to follow me to the house and I would get him what he wanted. Okay. He told me and added that if I couldn’t produce the papers they would take the car and it was be a big fine. Oh dear.

Okay I need to paint a picture for you. The police aren’t like our police in nice blue uniforms and small little guns in holsters that they never use. These guys are dressed in black with high boots, and they carry huge semi automatic guns (yes machine guns!!!) They are sooo intimidating. So I was quite freaked out when one of these scary guys got into the back seat of the car...him and his GUN!! I guess so I wouldn’t try to slip away from them. As if I would. I kept thinking... do they ever use those guns??!

this is an old picture that i took at the peace march. i decided not to take any pics of them that day .. who am I kidding I was too freaked out to think about taking a picture. but this gives you a visual (these are actually cobra from the Mainland.. our cops dress in black only)

Another thing: our registration had expired. We got one extension, then our lawyer went to Tegucigalpa and spent two extra days getting our second extension. After that you can’t get anymore. BUT since we are now residents we are now allowed to bring one car in duty free (which saves us about 9000 dollars) BUT it involves alot of paperwork, and we were in process with that.

So I called Bob, explained the dire situation and he said well just show them the registration and see what they say. When the police saw that our registration had expired he laughed out loud. I could see the dollar signs in his eyes. I kept thinking this is not good. But I am happy to say that Bob called Liliana, our Spanish neighbour who came and saved the day and basically said she knew the Chief of Police and not to harass us, we were good people, missionaries, and we were in process with our lawyer. I showed him our residency card which is impressive because not many people go to the trouble of getting that so it showed to him that we were responsible and abiding by the Law. But hey who am I kidding??? It was Liliana threatening to call the Chief of Police that made him hand me back my papers and say "Okay."

I said, "Okay what?"

“Okay, when you get your car registered you come to French Harbour and see me.”

That’s it? No fine! No taking my car away? (I said that to myself) The relief I felt was phenomenal.

An after note: regarding our car’s registration. We went to our lawyer and began again to gather up all the documents, notarized papers, getting the value of the car etc. etc. etc. If you can believe it we need 9 copies, yes you read right of our ownership paper.. why 9 copies??! I think the Hondurans have a crazy love affair with paper!

But the problem still remained that we were now a ‘sitting duck’ since the cops knew that our car isn't registered and we needed to get some temporary paper saying we were in process. So again Liliana to the rescue took us to a lady who ‘looks after gringos on the island’ who happens to be the Chief of Police’s wife. Oh to know people in high places! (Of course, it helped to pray!!)

This is the funny part: she looked at our registration paper and declared that we were registered til the 20^th of November. Bob tried to explain that that is the date our car is registered in Canada and that isn’t our extension date but she insisted. The chief of police agreed. They all declared that to be the date, and told Bob that if any police bother us to tell them to call her anytime and she will let them know.

Then she called the captain in French Harbour and explained about the Nov. 20^th date and said, “Leave them alone, don’t bother them anymore, they are good people”

Again I say, can you imagine this happening in Canada?? No. That’s because this is Honduras and it works this way. Such is life here and I must say..., I am really thankful it turned out the way it did...Thank you God!!