If you want to read more about what the interns are doing this summer, check out these blogs that Jarrod is making us do:
Clinic: http://lazarusclinic.blogspot..com/
Schools: http://missionlazarusschools.blogspot.com/
Ranch: http://missionlazarusranch.blogspot.com/

Wednesday morning as several of us were enjoying a nice cake for breakfast, Jake relayed the exciting news that some of us were going to be able to help him try to harvest honey from his bees. When I heard this, I was as happy as a fat kid in a candy store. I love adventures, especially once in a lifetime type ones, an I just knew that this was going to be one to remember. So, Shanna, Natosha, and I piled in Jake’s truck and make the long trek up to the coffee plantation. It was a bumpy ride, but, as always, full of beautiful scenery. Fortunately, I was sitting in the back, so I didn’t have to open any gates J When we made it to the top, we were kind of waiting a few minutes for Jake to get everything ready, and I was standing on this thin concrete curb type thing, and almost fell off the mountain. Bit of exaggeration, but I did almost fall. I was also excited because I was wearing my cool boots, and that’s probably why I tripped, because I’m not used to wearing things with heels. So, it was finally time to don the bee suits. There were only 2, so we had to take turns. Jake got to wear one, of course, and I was lucky enough to be the first of us girls to put on the suit and play with the bees. I had to put on a full body suit, gloves with sleeves that went all the way up my arms, and the head net. I felt quite protected, which is a powerful feeling. I was in charge of the smoker, which was a high responsibility. As Jake opened the first hive, we discovered that there was no honey!! Apparently there aren’t really any flowers in bloom, so the bees have been eating the honey themselves. Anyhow, we continued to venture into the depths of the hive, and what did we find?!? Well, we found a fat ole lizard at the bottom of the hive. Jake picked it up by the tail, and then it tried to bite him, so Jake flicked his tail and the lizard’s body flew off, with the tail jiggling in Jake’s hand. Meanwhile, Shanna and Natosha were waiting patiently to put on the bee suit, so as I went to go let one of them have a turn, disaster struck!! Jake had a hole in his suit and bees had gotten into his head net!! I ran back to try and grab the smoker, but it was too late…Jake was being stung over and over again. We could hear his wails of pain echo through the woods. I eventually caught up to Jake, shot him a little smoke, then started taking off my suit to give it to Shanna. As soon as I had removed my gloves and head net, bees started swarming Natosha’s head. They were all stuck in her hair, so we had to use the gloves to remove the bees. As soon as those bees had cleared, I noticed Jake’s hole and went to help him fix it, then the bees started attacking me. I could feel them fly by my face, and I could hear nothing but the buzzing, so I did the only thing that I could, and I started running. As I ran, I could feel the bitter stings of these killer honeybees. Natosha was running with me, and we didn’t know where to go, we were surrounded!! All of a sudden, Don Perfecto seemingly popped out of nowhere to save us. We ran to the house at the coffee plantation, but the door was locked. We were getting desperate and time was running out. Finally we got the door open and were able to make our way inside. Finally we were safe.

To everyone who thinks that baby cows are not to be feared, you are quite mistaken. We went to feed the baby cows their bottles the other day, a quite innocent activity, until we were ravagely attacked by the older, more mature baby cows. At first, I thought that I was going to be eaten alive by a cow. As I was holding a bottle, a cow came and clamped down on my arm….I screamed, and feared for my life, I didn’t know what was happening. I tried beating the cow off with my arm and the bottle, but nothing worked. (That's Natosha above beating a baby cow over the head with the milk bottle to keep it from attacking me.) He came back and got my arm again, but this time I noticed that he was biting, but merely sucking. I was being mistaken for an udder. Eventually we were able to fight the cows off and give the babies their milk. We were terrified at first, but eventually we couldn’t stop laughing at the cows and their desire to suck on us.

Valerie is coming to Honduras today. And I am way excited!! I´m patiently awaiting her arrival. I am at a mall in Tegucigalpa sitting in an internet cafe to pass the time. I came to town on a bus that left town at 6am. It was a fairly cheap bus ride, only like $2.50 in dollar terms. The ride took about 4 1\2 hours, which isn´t too bad, I suppose. Although, it was hot and unairconditioned, and I was sitting by a man who was carrying a large paint bucket in his lap. We had a nice talk, mostly me just nodding and wanting to take a nap, but being polite and staying awake to nod. I´m tired now, and am greatly wishing that I had just fallen asleep while Nestor talked. Oh well...bedtime will come in about 8 hours, hopefully.