What you're not seeing on the news...

So, after Google newsing and CNN-ing Honduras and not really finding much, I feel the need to tell you what's going on here. Honduras is in a huge crisis right now, due to a very stubborn tropical depression just off the Caribbean coast. It has been raining here for weeks now, and I last saw the sun for maybe 20 minutes one day last week.

In the meantime, the country is literally falling apart. There have been so many floods and landslides that transportation is basically at a stand-still. Most of the highways (meaning, paved roads) are closed due to large chunks of them falling unexpectedly off the mountainside, and Tegucigalpa is still closed (meaning nobody's going in or out, by road nor by air) because it's basically under water.

So far, Santa Rosa has been virtually untouched, although the climate team here is predicting that the rains won't stop until the end of November, so problems can still definitely develop here. However, in the surrounding areas, there have been quite a few mudslides, with entire villages literally sliding down the mountainside. There have been surprisingly few deaths and most people get the chance to evacuate, but that only makes the disaster slightly better, considering they now have nowhere to live. At first, I didn't realize how serious it was, considering it's my first time in a tropical country, but even though this is the rainy season, it's NEVER this rainy. People are recalling images of Hurricane Mitch, which devastated Honduras almost exactly ten years ago.

All I ask is that you keep the people of Honduras in your prayers and "good thoughts," because October is shaping up to be a pretty scary month after all.

PS- It's taking forever to upload pictures of my tourist romp with Mer and Jacque earlier this month, but they're coming soon!