Bob Nyholm
Livermore, California

Hello Everyone -

I am assuming you will get this letter before or right as you get my first one because I'm sending this with a lady who is traveling to the US and said she would drop this in the mail for me on Monday. Anyhow ..

.. Our little apartment is behind a house which is impossible to get to except through a little store called a "pulperia" and a gate. The store is attached to the house. It is hard to explain but hopefully you get the idea. It is hard to get to the apartment! Anyway I left my bag right outside our door cause it was muddy and I guess some kids needed to use the out house that is back here and the store owner told them to go on back and use it. So as I was taking my nice cold shower two kids were helping themselves to my bag. ..

.. The flooding is just incredible. You would not believe the mud. Just picture a town with little shack houses with a foot of mud in them, a waterline on the walls five feet high, and furniture and other things ruined and mildewing. Also picture all the streets with two foot of mud. No one can drive anywhere and there is no place to put the mud. It is like a snow storm where the snow doesn't melt and can't be moved. These people had hardly anything before and what they did have, now is ruined, stolen, or washed away. No one has money to buy equipment to work and get rid of the mud let alone buy new things. The tools they use range from least advanced (a makeshift hoe) to the most advanced (a shovel or what they consider a wheel barrow). It's pretty sad. So many people will be getting diseases also. Everything from trash to human waste to dead bodies are in the mud. One of the churches we have been cleaning is next to a cemetery which has been uprooted by the flooding. So there are different parts of dead people all over the area that drifted with the water. Today I almost tripped on a dead dog floating in the mud. People are finding dead bodies every day. I think the deaths so far is at 7000 people. It is unbelievable what was Honduras is now just one big mud pit. Anyhow enough of that, you probably get the point. ..

.. Other than my bag being stolen, I am loving it here. It is starting to feel normal. It is such culture shock when you first get here. Naked children all over, no traffic laws, trash, horse driven wagons, cold showers, buses (they are all the old 1970 yellow school buses). It's sorta weird. To get the full effect you would have to see the streets, smell the smells, hear the sounds. ..

.. Well I wish I could write more, I have so much to say but can't do it all in a letter. I'll have tons of stories though when I call at Christmas. Hope all is well. Tell everyone I love them and thank you all for all of the support while I'm on the work of the Lord.

Love Always,

Erik