So in the past week or so we have been pretty busy down here. For a couple of days I went up to Tela, with Laura, the local Peace Corps volunteer. Just a couple of days get away, but it was certainly a breath of fresh air. There are some pics included, hope you enjoy!
Upon my return, the group went up to Guiamaca, a town about forty five minutes north of us, to meet with a priest and two nuns that have a mission up there. The priest and nuns, whom are actually from Fall River, Mass, run a parish up there and have a clinic, farm, boarding school for girls from aldeas, and do a lot of work in the community in general. It was great to meet them, and learn their perspectives on the work that they are doing, as well as the program we are in.
There is a bit of a problem here, and all white people are getting a certain reputation because of it. All too often people come here on ‘missions’ and come bearing gifts, distribute them, and leave, feeling better about themselves. They create no sustainable programs, offer no solutions, impart no knowledge, and develop no relationships. They simply create a bad wrap for white people or ‘gringos’ as we are often referred to. Hondurans are beginning to think that gringos come here to give people presents because they are rich and are able to do so. They think they should be able to just ask a white person for something, and they will receive it. We encountered a group of people here about a month back that was here for a ‘food ministry’. This simply means that they pulled up in a poor neighborhood, opened the back of their truck that was full of food, and after the Hondurans prayed with them, they handed out food. The distributors thought this was bringing the word of God, but honestly, if you pulled up to any poor neighbor hood in the states and offered food in response to prayer, the people would react the same way. After Hurricane Mitch came and ravaged Honduras in 1998, the culture of Honduras was lessened. People were given so much in material goods that it has become a ‘give-me’ culture. It’s sad. Although people in the town we work in understand what we are here for, it is still a struggle to convince other Honduras we are here only to teach, befriend, learn, and share what is important to these people.
The mission at Guiamaca was really refreshing for us to see. The priest there has been there for four years, and over that time has been able to create a system to help address the problems of the culture and society, not just distribute goods. After a couple of years there, he noticed the trend that younger and younger girls were coming into the clinic pregnant, and wanted to give these girls an opportunity to do something else with their lives, other than just bear children at thirteen or fourteen years old. He, along with the help of the two nuns there created a school for girls from surrounding aldeas. Past sixth grade students aren’t required to go to ‘colegio’ and often times aren’t able to because they can’t afford the supplies, uniforms, and the transportation to get there. The school they created is free, and offers dormitories for the girls during the week. The girls then return home on the weekends, to keep them grounded, and to see their families, and share the knowledge they have learned. The girls also get an opportunity to work on the farm they have there, again keeping them in touch with their culture, and also giving them skills to bring home to their communities, that often rely on farming for income. It’s a great answer to a problem that will give the girls education, the most valuable gift of all.
The farm on the grounds is substantial, and although it has only been a part of the project for two years, there is well based hope that it will become the primary source of funding for the school and clinic. The farm also gives employment to many people from the community during harvests and planting, letting people stay in Honduras, and not need to try and immigrate to make money to support their families.
The clinic they have is also of great interest to me, for many reasons. It is a neighborhood clinic that only employs one doctor and a volunteer nurse, but it sees as many as forty patients each day. I am in the process of contacting the nurse there to see if I can plan a day to work with her, learning medical vocab, and getting to know the diseases and problems that are more common here.
We had a great day there, and it definitely seems like the beginning of some great relationships to be formed!
Friday we spent the day in the capital trying to work on the immigration process. We got there early, in attempt to get things done, only to be greeted by many other people that had gotten there even earlier. We decided to break, and regroup later in the afternoon. We got lost. Very much so. Finally after a few more wrong turns that we had though would have made us progress in the right direction, in the distance we saw an impressive Basilica. Of course we decided we needed to find it, and sure enough about three turns and five minutes we found it, without a problem! We pulled up, parked, and spent about a half hour soaking it in. What a moment of grace. When we were stressed from immigration, lost, and certainly not making progresses, we found beauty and peace. It was certainly just what we all needed.
Later that day we returned to immigration, and had great success. I am now officially a Honduran Resident! Although I’m not sure it has any real implications other than I can’t be deported any time soon, it is very surreal to me that I’m a resident of a different country. I think it was one of those moments, the ‘wow I’m not going home for a while’ type, that made this whole experience much more real to me.
Thanks again to everyone for all of your support, I couldn’t do it without you!
The team, with Tricia, the new assistant to the director of the program
Melissa, Me, Fatima, and Tricia, outside the church
Wendy, me, laura and melissa, after baseball one day
The baseball team after practice
Tela!
The horse and carraige on the beach we ended up getting a ride from
