Dia Duo – A Visit to Santa Clara

Following breakfast, the four of us headed out for Santa Clara. Our first stop was the new “White Dove School” for 3-year-olds, pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade. Suyapa and 4 other locals have trained in San Pedro Sula to become certified to teach. The classrooms can be seen behind the rising brick building, which is to be the new church.

The first-graders use the classroom on the right. They greeted us collectively with “Good morning”, and individually with “My name is ___”, all in English.

We caught the younger children mostly outside playing a game. They are all housed together in the other building, originally intended as a kitchen.

We visited with a family living in the dilapidated home shown below. The kids I talked to were glad that their new brick home was nearing completion.

We visited several other homes and verified once again the effectiveness of the Justa stoves and the Bio-Sand filters, which have already made an improvement in the health of the community. One especially impressive home was that of Guillermo, who is the brother of Lencho (the builder).

 

We concluded our visit by spending some quality time with some of the kids, playing ball and blowing bubbles, which for me is  the most fun part of the trip.  After all, it really is about the kids, isn't it?

Tommy

Dia Uno – Arrival and Planning

 The first contingent of the February team, George D., Lee, Dane, and Tommy, is here in Quimistan safe and sound once again, thanks be to God!  Thanks also to Allen B. for sacrificing a half night’s sleep and several hours of pre-dawn driving to get us to Atlanta.  Later, Maynor and Daniel met us at the San Pedro airport and drove us on to Q’town.

 It’s certainly a lot warmer here than Aiken!  Was somewhere in the high 80’s today.  No need yet for the blankets we brought!

After a good meal, we had a planning session with Maynor, so that he can make the required contacts and set up our planned events for the next few days.  That was followed by a quick executive meeting at Shirley’s to cap off a tiring day. 

We plan to head to Santa Clara in the morning.  For now, we are all ready for a good night’s rest.

Connection is slow tonight.  Hope to have some good pictures tomorrow.

Buenos noches,

Tommy

HAND-CRAFT MICRO-ECONOMIC PROJECT

Lorraine, Carol, and Catherine worked with about 15 women in La Montanita to determine if the women could use their craft and sewing skills to make items for sale. The women are very adept with hand crafts and thus very artistic and proficient with hand sewing. The first day was spent trying to understand their capabilities, what materials were available, and their interests in such a project.

No one in the village knew how to knit and only one woman knew how to crochet a few stitches. Catherine spent the next day with 6-8 teenage girls to teach them how to crochet using needles and yarn that she had taken. One of the girls learned fast and completed a baby cap by the end of the second day. Now, this group is capable of crocheting baby caps and blankets. We will be sending them new and different crochet patterns in Spanish for the group to make additional items to be sold in Honduras.

The women already design and make tortilla cloths. Each person draws a pattern of their own design on the cloth before they start the embroidering. They were looking for ways to use these skills to make other hand-crafted items. They were very excited to show us these cloths and several of them went back home to get some. On the second day as the conversation progressed to the idea that they could sell these items, they told Lorraine that they only made them as a hobby and for personal use. They seemed to have little interest in selling these cloths at first. Then, Lorraine suggested that they could organize a group to make the tortilla covers to sell to earn money to buy school items for their children, or other things that would benefit all of the children in the community. When the women realized that the money could be used to improve the lives of their children, the interest in the proposed project came alive. I guess mothers are the same world wide!! Then, a leader emerged from the group and she quickly began organizing them and getting their individual commitments.

Before the meeting was over, Lorraine agreed to ask the next mission team to bring 20 of these tortilla covers back to Aiken to determine if they will sell. Also, one of our group members ordered 15 of them for gifts. The women were promised that they would be paid $4 for each tortilla cloth picked up by the next group. The La Montanita women will then have $140 to buy more materials to make additional cloths. Also, if the cloths sell for more that $4, all of the extra money will be sent back to this group. On the bus ride back to the airport, several of our team members brainstormed ideas on other uses of the tortilla cloths and how to start marketing and selling them. Bruce even had two good ideas here!!

While all of the crocheting and tortilla cloth activities were happening with Catherine and Lorraine, Carol intended to teach a group how to make paper flowers to decorate their church. This had been requested the previous day. Before she could really get started on the flower making, she was overwhelmed by a large group of village children who wanted to color and draw. So, that’s how Carol spent her day. None of these items could be sold, but the children left happy.

During all of these activities, children comfortably moved in and out of whatever was going on. It seems that the children just naturally integrate themselves into anything that is happening. Jim and Bruce had mentioned that several young boys had helped the adults assemble the school desks and benches the previous day. This just seems to be the way that things are in Honduras.

Lorraine, Carol, & Catherine

A Moment for Sharing the Love of Christ

As part of our team was getting ready to depart for home on Thursday, we took time to give thanks for the many blessing we had received during the week. Holly led us all in a service that included celebrating communion. Our support staff, Gloria and Sondra, our translators, Debbie and Daniel, Maynor, Elmer, the bus driver and Marvin, his assistant, joined us.

Holly asked us to reflect on where we had seen God during our time in Honduras. To listen to the feedback was very special. The sharing of the elements with all was an unbelievable experience. Emotions were overwhelming and we could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. Tears flowed as we said farewell to our teammates.

As previously noted on the blog, before we left home Holly gave us all bracelets with the words, Watch for God. During these special moments it felt that God was watching us.

June and Ken

Words from the heart from La Montanita

On Wednesday in La Montanita we saw God at work in so many ways.

Crafts

Lorraine and Catherine made tremendous progress teaching the ladies to crochet as well as how to make handicrafts that might sell. The village ladies determined that Reina would be the leader of the ladies craft group. Soon she had a whole bunch of ladies on her team working together to make crafts. Gerry placed the first order!

Carol Ryder worked with the children to express their ideas of beauty in God’s kingdom through colored pencils and water paint. The children made cards. Since it was Gerry’s birthday he received a very special card while all of the children sang Happy Birthday.

Health

Maxine and Ken worked the deworming area. Only one child cried out of nearly a hundred! You would’ve thought it was ice cream. From deworming they went off to fluoride where Carol Hidlay held forth.

I Love Jesus / Jesus Loves Me

Debbie, our translator, taught all of the children how to sign I Love Jesus, Jesus loves me. Each child received a Dios Te Ama bracelet as a reminder of the love of God.

Justa Stove Construction

Many of the men on the team encouraged Santos, the local Justa stove expert. He built a stove on his own while the folks from Teo observed, questioned and took notes. Allen announced that Montanita was self sufficient in stove building!

Glasses

Holley and I worked with Maynor on glasses for reading and sewing. Since the auto refractor wasn’t working we used a printed eye chart to test near vision. There were 25 patients and we were able to provide a good fit for 23 of them. Ken provided sunglasses to all of the patients. The big aha is that now Maynor can carry on this service to other villages.

Words from the heart

At the end of the day Holley, Allen, Ken and I sat down with two of the village leaders, Juana and Xiomara. Together we reflected on the events of the past several days. Since other teams will be visiting the village we urged them to reinforce the dental hygiene training and assured them we were going to check everyone’s teeth the next time any of us were to be in the village!

As we summarized, we commented on their tremendous spirit of collaboration. The village really pulled together. We stressed the need to continue to help one another and their neighbors. Juana told us how she had seen the love of God coming from us and that surely God had filled us with His love so that we could share that love with them. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room. Up to that point we didn’t know Juana was a Christian and here she was speaking the words we all believe. Truly we saw God that day.

June

Thursday in Texoxingales

What a day! We’ve been to the end of the road at the top of a mountain to the village of Texoxingales an hour and fifteen minutes away from home base. Coffee and cardamon are the cash crops.

As with many other villages, this is a very poor village. The closest town with commerce and middle and high schools is one hour away by car. Horses are used as transportation here but I have no idea how long it would take by horse to get to town.

Their number one need is another source of water. The source that they are using now is drying up. The tank that holds the water fills so slowly that the water is turned on only for a short time in the morning and again in the evening. There is another source of water on a different mountain but they are in need of pipe to bring it down to the holding tank. This village is lucky in that they do have electricity.

Dental kits were given out to the children followed by deworming and the fluoride treatments. Over 125 doses of the deworming medicine were given to the children and adults. Plastic spoons were used to measure out the doses. We ran out of spoons and had to have one of the women take the used ones home to wash them. I knew that at the end of the day that I was getting tired as I spilled a spoonful down the front of a young mother. Fortunately, she laughed along with us and accepted my apology.

For lunch we were invited to have lunch with one of the families in the village. We dined on their best tablecloths and dishes with the menu of chicken, chicken soup, tortillas and coke or water. The chicken soup was made by boiling the whole chicken in the pot and then removing it, putting it on a spit and roasting it. Zounds, we have chicken and chicken soup! The chicken was definite free range and was tough as an old inner tube!
We visited several homes to view the types of stoves being used and the problems that are present when the stoves are not properly vented. Those houses whose stoves were not vented were full of smoke, just like when you light the fire in your fireplace and forget to open the damper. Needless to say, we did not tarry long in those houses. No wonder there are so many respiratory problems with conditions such as these. Some of the houses had vented the stoves to out side so there is a recognition of how to eliminate the smoke.
The children, of course, were cute and adorable, but there is no future for them after the 6th grade as it would be an hour’s ride by car to get to the closest town that has a middle school and high school. In addition the parents would have to come up with enough money to pay for their school fees, uniforms and money for room and board if they have to live in town.. Therefore, what the future holds for these 12 and 13 year olds is to have a baby and maybe marriage and more babies year after year. Between having so many babies and the hard life that they have, the women are old before they are 30.

We feel that God has led us to a village that has many opportunities for us to work with the people in showing them God’s love for them and to help improve the quality of their health.
Maxine

Miercoles, 1/20/10




DIRT POOR; RICH IN SPIRIT



I have been led to believe that practically all the land in Honduras is owned by a very few families. And of course this is the most productive or strategic land. By contrast most of the poor folks have to settle for sharecropper status on small plots that can hardly support a family let alone provide the material trappings we take for granted. However, most make do and manage to survive while maintaining a positive outlook.

A case in point is the homestead of Bartolo Gonzales whose family of eleven occupies a small dwelling, about 1,000 square feet, on top of a little ridge in La Montanita. Not all the family resides there right now but I think you get the idea. His land slopes away on both sides of the ridge and is about two acres. At first glance the property appears to be overgrown with scrub palms and jungle plants. But we found out differently.
Closer observation and after a few inquiries we found that most of the plants we were looking at were indeed food sources. He had mangoes, bananas, coffee, sweet potatoes, about fifty pineapple plants, a spiny fruit I don’t recall the name of, papaya, and probably some other stuff we were unaware of. Of course there were the ever present chickens and dogs (I don’t think they eat the dogs, they’re too skinny)
Many of us who have spacious lawns, a half acre of ornamental plants, and shop at Wal-mart probably don’t appreciate (or care?) about the way most of the world’s population has to live: shame on those who do. I continue to be impressed by the spirit and apparent happiness of the Honduran people. Do they hope for a better life? Of course they do, but they are not beggars; they are financially poor. They are very friendly and appreciative of the small things we can do for them.

Bruce

COMPLETED OUR CONSTRUCTION TASKS AT LA MONTANITA

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we completed our construction tasks at La Montanita. We finished assembling the new desks and benches and completed Justa stoves #2 and #3. Four people from Texoxingales (Teo), a mountain-top village about 1.5 hours away from La Montanita, watched Santos ( the man who had been taught stove building on stoves #1 and #2) build stove #3. Santos was an excellent teacher and the Teo people were very good students. They watched intently, asked lots of questions, and took lots of notes. We had given them a copy of the stove building instructions in Spanish.

We believe that La Montanita can now complete construction of their stoves as funding is made available. We expext Santos to go to Teo to assist in construction of their first stove.

We are extremely pleased at how fast the locals are learning to build the Justa stoves. They really made George look good!

Jim