Leaving Honduras ~ La Salida de Honduras

Leaving Honduras was big huge effort. Moving is nearly always stressful and requires a considerable amount of planning. Jodi and I paced ourselves and dug into the work of moving almost 6 months in advance. We actually moved twice in 6 months...first from our penthouse apartment on the 6th floor, to our first floor apartment with a big patio for our collection of beautiful plants. Mary our industrious and loving maid surprised us with the news she was pregnant with her 5th child and was leaving. She kept our massive apartment clean, and we decided right away we did not have the energy or desire to take on her work load. We lucked out discovering another apartment in the building was available. In the process of moving downstairs we began the process of sifting through, and filtering unwanted cargo. We donated a bunch of stuff at this point.



Barely 5 days later we travelled north for the UNI job fair...or more accurately, to interview with the Katoh school of Japan. We flew home with 5 checked bags and a bike box. Each bag had carefully been stuffed full of artwork, camping gear and I can't remember what else. This was our first opportunity to move/export some of our worldly possessions out of Honduras and into the basement of my parents. It was also Indigo's intro to winter and snow. We froze our asses off in the constant sub-zero weather, drove to Iowa and landed a new job, visited family and friends, went sledding and then booked back to the warmth of central America one week later.





Next was the move to leave Honduras for the states, and eventually on to Japan. The name of the game was sorting...what is going to Japan? What is going to the states with us for two months? What is going to be donated? What is going to be sold? We lucked out sold our beloved bucket of bolts 1988 Isuzu Trooper to our honorable maintenance man Don Emilio. He always had a smile for us, highlighted with two gold stars embedded in his front teeth. His Spanish was extraordinarily difficult to understand.



The American School nannies, janitors and maintenance workers were ravenous for much of our accumulated cargo. One nannie named Esparanza became known as "La tíburona", the shark. We were selling nearly everything for 20 lempiras ($1). We are sure she was re-selling our stuff for more back in her neighborhood, or who knows where? In three years we had collected more things than we realized that needed to be sold and/or donated. We moved to Honduras from Dallas with easily over a 1,000 pounds of cargo...camping gear, a crib, loads of kitchen stuff, artwork, student artwork samples...much too much looking back. We were rookies and moved too heavy. All and all we left Honduras with my mountain bike and a mixed load of cargo that fit in 11 checked bags (spread over 2 flights - one in Jan. & the other June 1). Two large boxes will be shipped to Japan at the beginning of August. These boxes weighed a total of 225 pounds together and will cost approximately $2,150 to ship. It was my task to arrange for the shipping...international shipping to the uninitiated was confusing. Especially customs. The whole process was completed in my second language. But I did it confidently and successfully.