Ever

In La Villa de San Francisco, Honduras, there is one "main street" that is partially paved and serves as the business district. On that street, a Cuban named Ever opened a restaurant. Ever became a main hook-up for us on the mission trip to Honduras. Not only does he speak very good English, he also knows how to get things done, and get them done quickly. He was able to change American dollars into Honduran limpera, a much needed service.
Ever was educated from K-8th grade in Miami (thus the good English). I owe him a debt of gratitude for what he did for me this past week.
Linda and I had an adventure into the capital city of Tegucigalpa, looking for some items for our Hope Families. That is a whole other blog. But we ended up with 4 sets of bunk beds, 3 tables, 25 chairs, and a baby stroller. What we DIDN'T get in Teguc was MATTRESSES for the bunk beds. They just wanted way too much money for them.
So, it was my job to find mattresses for our families.
Darren said, "Patty, go see Ever." Good suggestion, Darren.
Ever dropped everything he was doing when I stopped by his establishment to ask for help. He walked all around town with me and my translator, Karla (who looks like a young Eva Longoria). He personally went into all the little shops and stands to negotiate for us, telling us to stay outside because he knew he could make a better deal without the "gringo" (me) hovering around.
We needed eight mattresses. A canvas stand, much like a flea market, was run by two boys, ages 15 and 16. They had five of the needed items and Ever got them down to an acceptable price. But we needed 3 more! He skipped across the street to another place that looked like ...hard to describe, but not like a real store. Out he came with 3 more, at the same price.
We ended up paying about $22 per mattress. These mattresses were as colorful as Mardi Gras! One had Tinkerbell and Piglet and other Disney characters all over it. The others were in brillant shades of pink, yellow, blue, and green. Now here was the next problem to solve: how will we get them back to the Mission compound?
No sweat, Ever puts two fingers into his mouth and whistles for a taxi. One of the tiny motorcycle-on-front, jeep-in-back taxis came pronto. Ever proceeds to put five mattresses (they were rolled up and tied) into the tiny taxi; he unrolls the other three and ties them on top. He then jumps into the taxi (how does he fit, I wonder?) and takes them to the compound on his dime.
If I'd only had a camera, the sight was a hysterical, colorful blur as they sped away.