June 9th, 2019 by Bryce Loder

The blinking light on my phone at 4:00 a.m. with the text message from United Airlines (another delayed flight) should not have been a surprise after a week of delayed flights. But the math was easy. I wouldn’t be able to make my connecting flight to Honduras, so why not drive back to Lindsborg for the day and chase spiders out of the garage? At 4:00 a.m.? Without coffee?

Comparing my “sad irritating situaton” to the daily lives of the people who I’d soon be seeing in that faraway jungle hospital helped me fix my poor attitude in a couple of minutes. And just 24 hours behind schedule, I’m on the ferry from Roatán to La Ceiba, eager to start the drive to see my home for the rest of June.

And what ferry, bus, taxi, or restaurant in Central America would be worthy of its name without a large TV and vibrating speakers with a Hollywood movie showing tough guys being pushed from airplanes and safely landing on the back of a moving motorcycle while avoiding automatic weapon fire, swinging on a burning rope across canyons, or driving a bullet ridden vehicle across rivers with bombed out bridges–all while talking on a mobile phone? No worry. Be happy. A Coca-Cola and Galletas de Mantequilla come with the ferry fare. I’ll just sit back for the next ninety minutes, watching the burning cars on the screen, and sip my Coke while the ferry rocks its way along the ocean waves to La Ceiba.