We are in Tegucigalpa. We spent Wednesday in the bus from LaCeiba to Teguz. The views from the bus the last few hours are really great. Teguz is in the mountains. The roads don't seem to faze the drivers, but I come from flat Wisconsin. I found it pretty exciting.

Yesterday was pretty stimulating. Our attorney wouldn't give us an appointment. We were to call before coming. Tuesday we called and the secretary said he was out of town, we should call early Thursday morning to talk to him. The secretary wouldn't consider making an appointment. Well, this is the big city. In smaller towns, every corner just about has a business offering to sell you the use of their telephone. Not in Teguz. Teguz is in the 21st century where everyone a phone.

We got up early and nothing was open, of course. The cathedral was open so we went there. A lovely mass. Even some beautiful Simon and Garfunkel music. One never knows what one is going to get.

When mass was over we went to the attorney's office (without calling ahead). We had managed to buy an Escuela Para Todos (Central America almanac) for 2008 at a street vendor.

The secretary called Enil, the attorney. He would be in shortly. So we did the riddles from the almanac. The secretary joined in. I know, I'm a bad influence. She was supposedly working.

When Enil arrived we dived in. What a process! He made sure that both of us understood everything. We were very grateful for this. Often when we have complex conversations in Spanish we come away having understood different things. The hard part is that neither of us is the "Spanish expert" and each is as likely as the other to have it straight or not. He looked over our documents--all in order. But we are still missing one essential piece which the church must provide.

When we finally understood most of the process, he began explaining the expenses. There is money to go to the police department. No, they don't actually do a criminal background search, they just get a certain amount of money. There is an expense for a stamp (looks like a postage stamp). It doesn't do anything except make the papers look official and gets a little more money from the pocket of the foreigner into the government coffers.

Then there are forms that must be purchased from the Congress of Attorneys--at a high cost, of course. So the attorney organization gets their cut. It went on and on. Quite fascinating.

After a few hours of this, we were ready to go to the bank to get money. He took us to the bank at the food court of a local shopping center. He invited us to lunch, but it was Thursday and we were fasting. Yes, I know, Jesus never turned down a meal invitation that we know of--but he did say something about how it would be different when he wasn't here in the flesh. Enil ate his lunch while we did the banking.

The bank was a small branch and wouldn't give us as much money as we wanted. They have an upper limit of how much they'll give out. So, off to another branch to get the rest.

OK, it is so nice to be in the third age--right to the special line for elders and pregnant women. This didn't take long. By now, I am carrying a thick wad of money worth over $2,000.

Then back to the office to pay the fees. This is the first time that he had the office door closed for our visit. All of the rest of the time, the door is open. Whenever anyone walks into the outer office, he asks the secretary to inform him. He answers the telephone everytime it rings. A woman came with an urgent problem and he had us move into the outer office and saw her with the door closed. He later told us she had a personal problem (like we couldn't tell!).

More than half of the $2,000 goes to government fees. We'll get receipts for all of them, of course. We pay half of his fee now and half when we get the residency papers.

It all got even more complicated when he tried out his English to help make sure that we understood. Better to just stick with Spanish.

Then we needed to get pictures taken. He walked us over to the photographer's place. It is graduation time, so that was interesting, too. Just us and dozens of adolescents getting their graduation pictures. Apparently, they don't really do ceremonies with caps and gowns, they just do pictures with caps and gowns. The kids took them off when done and passed them on to the next kids. There were about five sets that got passed around. We had to take our glasses off for our pictures. It is too bad that we had to hand in the pictures, we had pretty interesting expressions on our faces. Surprise, curiosity, what else?

We waited for the pictures to be developed and then went to get them to take to the office. More forms to sign. Among other things we signed a statement that we are not communists and that we are not going to try to overthrow the democratic government of Honduras. (1950's USA.)

Finally, we have finished with everything. Today we will stop by to be sure that the church letter will be forthcoming. We got an email today that implies all will be well. I am so grateful. He walked us to a bookstore, too. We spent some time looking things over and bought a few small books.

Yesterday was All Saints' Day, and also an anniversary that I didn't understand, at the cathedral. There was a mass in honor of the women in the afternoon. It was already late for our afternoon prayers, so we went to mass again. It seemed a nice luxury to have someone else do all of the leading. We could just follow along and not have to strain our brains. We are pretty ecumenical, you know.

By then, it was dusk. We went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. Chinese restaurants are a splurge. Also, one of the few places in which one is served vegetables. We ordered two dinners to share. We finished the food for breakfast in our room this morning. We were happy to have no more responsibilities for the day.

be well,

beth