Door Number One, Two or Three

We went to San Pedro de Tutule house hunting the second time in as many weeks to look at some houses to rent. Norma came with us and brought her cousin from Tegucigalpa to have a 'cousin's visit' with the third cousin, Faustina, in Tutule.

In Tutule there are currently only three houses as potential rentals making it a choice between door number one, door number two or door number three. Reminds me of “The Price is Right.”

House number one is normally rented out to male students attending the local training institute and there are currently nine students living there. The house has three bedrooms and two bathrooms (one of which actually works).  The kitchen has no stove or refrigerator (common in Honduras for the renter to have to provide) and the sink faucet is a spigot on very flimsy plastic piping that comes through a hole in the wall. The window panes are so badly eaten by termites that whole sections of the windows are falling out and currently held in by tape. Every window has at least one pane missing. The floors are mostly cement and the walls have missed the last several cycles of cleaning and painting. Outside, there are sections of the covering for the eves are missing and open for anything to fly or crawl in. So, we have to say “no” to this house.

House number two is a big older house right around the corner from the center of town. It's nearly impossible to describe but to simple enough to say it is older and in much need of work. So, it is also a “no” for house number two.

House number three has the most potential. It is actually an almost finished house and so it's new. It has a nice little floor plan and so really looks like it would be a sweet little house. Unfortunately, the neighbor is a cantina, and a good size one at that, and everyone has advised us, “DO NOT RENT next to a cantina.” Men get drunk, there are the occasional fights in the streets and they indiscriminately shoot their guns. So, house number three is also a “no” even though we really do like the house but it's in a bad location.

So, Thursday after a day of driving and house hunting, Norma and her cousin were spending the night at Faustina's house, and we were going to treat ourselves to the same hotel we had stayed at the week before in Marcala, which is about in 45 minutes away. The hotel is a treat simply because it's uber clean, the bed is very nice, there's plentiful hot water for showering, and the hotel restaurant is ok for homey cooking. All this for about $30 per night.

Well we had a surprise and disappointment because the hotel was full. They gave us a recommendation for another hotel in town. That hotel turned out to be a little cheaper but the savings just weren't worth it. The floor was uber ucky so we had to slip into our shoes getting out of bed. It was supposed to have hot water but that turned out to be somewhat intermittent. No restaurant. And, worst of all, the internet was not strong. So, we had disappointments from house hunting followed by a kind of gross hotel experience.

We woke up in the morning in a different mindset recognizing that a 'closed door' from the Lord was as good as an open door. We had to examine our options.

1. We could continue indefinitely at Norma's house but this leaves us far from Tutule.
2. We can move in with our friends and fellow missionaries the Reyes family who are serving about an hour from Tutule. That would put us closer but in a house that lacks electricity.
3. We could try to find housing in La Paz or Marcala as they are bigger population centers, but not BIG by any means, would probably have more housing options and both are closer to Tutule than the Reyes family.
4. We can assess is the Lord directly us to start in an area that is not Tutule.
   
   
   Where we are today, Saturday, November 5^th, is the thought of combining options. We plan to stay with the Reyes family for a period while we seek out housing options in La Paz and Marcala, and cry out to the Lord for His leading!