Agua!  ¡Agua!  I hear the street vendors shouting, offering clean water to the neighborhood households.  The day is hot already.  I check.  Do we have enough bottled water in the refrigerator?

I turn to do the dishes.  The kitchen sink is still not working.  No plumber yet.  So I reach under the sink and turn the water on.  Only cold water comes from the faucet.  The hot water heater is scheduled to be connected this week.  I do the dishes with cold water.  Then drain the sink, turn off the water under the sink, and mop the floor where water leaked from the pipes.  Sighhhh.  It is the same with the shower upstairs--wash with cold water, brrrrr, empty the shower, mop the floor.  Where is that plumber?!

Later, we journey into the mountains, up steep hills and down.  We see women everywhere, carrying large containers, empty, walking down the mountain, to get their water for the day.  And we see them climbing back up the mountain, containers full and heavy.  They struggle with the weight, with the incline, and chat with each other.  A daily task, consuming hours of time, for water.

Our friend Ana explains that at her house, in another part of San Pedro Sula, they have no water from 8 p.m. until 5:30 a.m.  "I think its better that way," she says.  "Because then when the water is on, we have a lot, not just a trickle."  She speaks of how her grandmother likes to come to her house and take a shower because there is enough water to get really clean. 

Quiet time alone and I read parts of Isaiah.  Isaiah 35:1-2, 5-7.  "The desert whall rejoice and blossom," and "waters shall break forth in the wilderness."  Isaiah 32: 1-2.  A king ruling in righteousness, is like "streams of water in a dry place."  Isaiah 58:11. " YHWH will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail."  The verses sound different now, in this hot, dry and thristy land, where water is a constant thought, a daily task, a blessing not an expectation.

God, thank you for the people of Honduras who have been a spring of water to us, who have witnessed to us that your waters can break forth in the wilderness.   Help us to be watered gardens in the dry places to which you call us.  Amen.