4/26/08Our flight into Tegucigalpa from Miami was short, just 2 hrs. 20 mins. We forget how close we are to very different places. Landing in Tegucigalpa is quite an experience! On approach, just a hundred feet or so above the ground, the plane makes a sharp bank around a mountain. It looks as if the wing-tip is bound to hit the ground. Then the runway is short – really short! The pilot sets it down right at one end and is on the brakes immediately. Still, there is less than a 100 yards left at the other end. Everyone claps!
Tegucigalpa is full of smoke. Hondurans practice slash and burn agriculture, and this is the burning season. Burning the jungle and the crops is a double whammy for global warming – and not too great for my asthma either! Still it’s hard to blame people who are living so close to the edge of survival.
I had to make a “gift” to get through customs. Not sure if it was a demand or a request, but I hope the tube of antibiotic ointment really was for her niños.
One of the first things we noticed upon leaving the airport was a school bus from Chattanooga, TN. Lots of old school buses from the US find their way to Honduras for use in public transportation. Of course, this was only the first of many means that we were to see that Hondurans have of improving their lot.
We were driven to Villa Gracia, northwest of Tegucigalpa. It is the retreat center for Heifer project and the PC (USA) and it is lovely: Dorm rooms, meeting room, kitchen, two dining rooms and a long porch. The mountain views are beautiful, though smoky. The only drawback is the major road with a steep grade that makes straining engines and jake brakes a regular companion.
Mario Argueta, a professor of Honduran history gave us an introduction to Honduras. A hard man to look at, with a hemangioma covering half his head and body, he has a beautiful soul. He told us that there is a group of well known lawyers on hunger strike right now – protesting corruption in the justice department. They are on day 17! Mario wrote an article in the paper in support of the strike, appearing today. He may face reprisals from the rich and powerful . . . and corrupt.
Poverty has gotten worse in Honduras over the past 10 years, broadening the gap between the rich and the poor, according to Mario. Corruption is a big part of the problem, as are the foreign corporations who own many industries and take a lot of the profits out of the country.
4/27/08
Nine AM found us back in the bus and headed to Tegucigalpa. First we went
to Mass at the Cathedral. The priest walked a thin line on denouncing the methods of the hunger strikers (The official position of the bishop), and stating that he knew a country plagued with corruption could never prosper.
Nine AM found us back in the bus and headed to Tegucigalpa. First we went
to Mass at the Cathedral. The priest walked a thin line on denouncing the methods of the hunger strikers (The official position of the bishop), and stating that he knew a country plagued with corruption could never prosper. Then we took a short walk to the square where the hunger strike is taking place. The strike started with young lawyers from the justice department who are frustrated because they are not allowed to pursue corruption cases against the rich and powerful. A large evangelical church had moved their whole worship service to the square. When we got there, they were singing “How Great Thou Art,” and then moved into “Onward Christian Soldiers.” The police were visible, but not in an oppressive manner. As we lined up to sign a petition in favor of appointing an outside panel to review the files from corruption investigations, the TV media discovered us and before we knew it, we were being interviewed on live national television!
Our next stop was the National Art Gallery. What a rich history is chronicled there: From the impressive Mayan culture, through the colonial period, independence, and finally the modern struggle for development and progress. We learn so little of this in US education!
We continued our walk through Tegucigalpa, with the contrast between the haves and the have-nots being the most notable feature.
In the afternoon, we had a workshop with Norma Mejia from Fundacion Simiente, a non-profit involved in community development. They have developed an innovative manner of community development which starts with grass-roots organization of the community and then moves on to self-assessment of strengths and weaknesses. They partner with Heifer and the PC (USA) on livestock and an innovative type of stove that has reduced fire-wood use by more than 70% and eliminated soot and corresponding respiratory problems from homes which use them. Norma is becoming an internationally known consultant in the field of community development.
After the workshop we got to see one of the stoves and to make tortillas on it. Yum! What a tremendous boon they are to the people for their health and workload and to the environment in slowing down deforestation and greatly decreasing the smoke released into the atmosphere!
In the evening, we were invited to Tim and Gloria Wheeler’s home for wine and cheese. Tim and Gloria work for Heifer Project and the PC (USA) and are supported by us when we give to Presbyterian mission and to Heifer International. Tim is Phebe Packer’s brother, a quiet and gentle soul with a great heart for God and the poorest of God’s people. Gloria is Honduran. Although she grew up in a culture where men are dominant and women subservient, she has learned to speak up and is now a dynamo of advocacy for the poor of her country – especially the women. Both are greatly respected by many Hondurans!
4/28/08
Today was a traveling day, from Tegucigalpa to Copan de Ruinas in the Northwest corner of Honduras, only about 12 km from Guatemala. Only about 100 yards into the trip, our bus broke down. We are thankful that it wasn’t 100 miles into the trip! There was another bus at Villa Gracia, but it is much smaller. We had to tie a lot of luggage on the roof, and put even more in the back seat. Still, there’s enough room for us.
Today was a traveling day, from Tegucigalpa to Copan de Ruinas in the Northwest corner of Honduras, only about 12 km from Guatemala. Only about 100 yards into the trip, our bus broke down. We are thankful that it wasn’t 100 miles into the trip! There was another bus at Villa Gracia, but it is much smaller. We had to tie a lot of luggage on the roof, and put even more in the back seat. Still, there’s enough room for us.
The countryside of Honduras is spectacular, though every view is marred by smoke. Poverty is everywhere. We saw several squatter villages where the houses are made of scrounged materials covered with garbage bag plastic. Others are still living in woven stick huts with thatched roofs.
We had the joy of stopping for a while to visit a village that has been a Heifer Project site for 10 years. They have formed a coffee cooperative of 420 families to market their coffee more profitably. Heifer has provided them with cattle, chickens, bees, pigs and a lot of know-how. To do this, Heifer doesn’t give animals to everyone in the community. They place a few animals strategically, and then the recipients are responsible to pass along the first offspring of that animal to another family in need. The farmer that we visited was so proud to show off their beautiful farm! This coop has clearly taken the philosophy of Heifer, and of Jesus to heart – helping each other and sharing their livestock and knowledge as broadly as they can. The gospel is at work!
The wife of this farmer was in charge of organic fertilizer for the community, ie manure. It sounds funny, but it is a huge deal to subsistence farmers. She gathers manure and composts it with worms provided by Heifer. She has also recently started to place manure in a rubber bladder, which is then hooked to pipes which runs her stove. She is sharing this technology with others in her community.
Finally, we arrived in Copan de Ruinas. It’s the major tourist attraction in Honduras, as extensive Mayan ruins are nearby.
4/29/08
Today was our first day of work. The small bus made the river ford after all, and took us right into Bonete, a small community of subsistence farmers who are “reclaiming” (homesteading) land on a mountainside. Prior to building their houses, they were living in stick huts with thatched roofs. The thatch is conducive to diseases, especially dengue fever.
Today was our first day of work. The small bus made the river ford after all, and took us right into Bonete, a small community of subsistence farmers who are “reclaiming” (homesteading) land on a mountainside. Prior to building their houses, they were living in stick huts with thatched roofs. The thatch is conducive to diseases, especially dengue fever.
The leader of their home-building project, Manuel is quite a sickly man. Unable to do much physical work, he made it is mission to bring Heifer and home-building projects to his village. It wasn’t easy. Gloria kept telling Manuel that she didn’t have the budget to build 43 houses. Manuel kept showing up wherever Gloria was working month after month until he finally wore her down and she said “yes” on faith. It reminds me of the story in the Bible where a widow keeps petitioning a judge for justice month after month and he keeps turning her down. Finally he gets sick of her pestering him, so he
grants her justice. The point of the Bible story is to keep praying! God has come through to finance the home-building project in Bonete and often he has done it through Presbyterian churches. We spent the day laying block, learning a new skill and getting half decent at it by days end. The language barrier prevents making deep friends, but a smile translates in any language. The highlight of my day was when Steve and I played Frisbee with Carlos, a 13-year-old who can’t weigh more than 80 pounds, but who has a smile as wide as the heavens. The low-point was watching a woman deck a 4-year-old for crying too loud. Kids here learn early that life is hard!
4/30/08
Today, more work! The block laying gets harder as we must stand on scaffolding to do it. We are working on two houses. The one I am working on had 4 courses of block when we started – now it has 9, which is the height of the roof on the sides. Laying the peak will be harder still. The other house had 1 course and they are now up to 5. We lost some workers this afternoon due to the heat, but nothing too serious.
Today, more work! The block laying gets harder as we must stand on scaffolding to do it. We are working on two houses. The one I am working on had 4 courses of block when we started – now it has 9, which is the height of the roof on the sides. Laying the peak will be harder still. The other house had 1 course and they are now up to 5. We lost some workers this afternoon due to the heat, but nothing too serious.
Joy Lawson’s presence as a nurse has been a blessing to the village. They have an 80-year-old man who fell asleep and fell in the fire. He has 3rd degree burns on his shoulders, the back of his head and his face. Today, Joy debreeded the wound, removing dead black skin and washing the new skin that is coming in underneath. His family was sure he would die, but it looks like he will make it!
Gloria really chewed out Manuel yesterday because not many villagers were pitching in to help us build. Today, there were even less! Something is going on that we don’t know about – maybe it’s as simple as jobs being available in the tomato harvest?
Below: The Blockhead!
5/1/08
Today was a day off from work! We traveled to Copante, which is the village that Tim and Gloria are suggesting that OPC form a relationship with for several years to come. They are trying to reclaim land, (similar to homesteading) but it is a difficult process with 62 legal steps! The have been at it over 20 years and do not yet have title! All that for only 228 acres divided between 24 families – and they are farmers!
Today was a day off from work! We traveled to Copante, which is the village that Tim and Gloria are suggesting that OPC form a relationship with for several years to come. They are trying to reclaim land, (similar to homesteading) but it is a difficult process with 62 legal steps! The have been at it over 20 years and do not yet have title! All that for only 228 acres divided between 24 families – and they are farmers!
They were truly overjoyed that we were there. The whole village turned out for prayer, singing, speeches and gifts. They had decorated the area where we met with cut flowers, palm fronds and balloons (purchased with their own money), and they had also prepared their version of tamales (meatless), and fruit drink from their meager resources. It means so much to them that somebody has noticed them in their poverty and has come to stand in solidarity with them! Blessedly, they have the support of the mayor of the township (Trinidad), and he was there and was excited about our presence.
The people are very poor, but they have more readily adopted social and agricultural reform than have the people of Bonete. The children seem less mal-nourished and better cared for, and more importance seems to be placed on school. Their faith is quite deep and clearly a regular part of their lives.
The houses in Copante are mostly stick and wattle – some with thatched roofs, some with tin. In addition to learning new agricultural methods, they have recently started Tilapia fish farming on a small basis. My heart goes out to the people, and I think it would be a blessing for us and them to work with them over several years. They seem truly eager to make the most out of a hand-up. After having seen their hope at our presence, I don’t see how we could not do it!
Today is Lori’s birthday and I miss her a lot! I’ve already tried twice on the internet and three times on the phone to reach her. Fortunately, it seems I can’t reach her because other’s from the church are treating her to a good time for her birthday. I hope they know that is a gift to me too! I’ll keep trying.
LATER I reached her! She and the kids are fine and now they know that I am too!
5/2
Today, we worked laying block only in the morning. We had even less helpers! We have been told 2 reasons why the villagers are not pitching in like they should:
1. There are jobs available right now in the harvest. Since Bonete’s harvest was not very good, they need the money.
2. They are building the last few houses in the village, and they are down to building for people who did not help others earlier in the project, perhaps even for people who are not well liked in the community. Therefore others are not pitching in.
It seems there may be some truth in both answers.
Today, we worked laying block only in the morning. We had even less helpers! We have been told 2 reasons why the villagers are not pitching in like they should:
1. There are jobs available right now in the harvest. Since Bonete’s harvest was not very good, they need the money.
2. They are building the last few houses in the village, and they are down to building for people who did not help others earlier in the project, perhaps even for people who are not well liked in the community. Therefore others are not pitching in.
It seems there may be some truth in both answers.
It is stinking hot and humid today! May 3 is the average date for the start of their rainy season. Hence, today is traditionally the h
ottest day of the year. I believe it! In the afternoon, we visited the Copan ruins. What an astonishing site! In it’s heyday in the 700 CE, it was bigger than either Paris or Rome of the same time. 30,000 people lived in the valley. The Mayan civilization spanned about 900 BCE – 800 CE in Copan. The ruins consist of temples built on temples, each ruler building on the temple of his predecessor. There are also ball courts, houses, tombs, ceremonial plazas and the best collection of Mayan sculptures and hieroglyphics in the Mayan world.
We got to go into two tunnels, dug by archaeologists to explore the temples underneath of other ones. What a thrill it must have been to make those discoveries!
The whole valley is filled with Mayan ruins. A man in Bonete pointed out numerous mounds in the village that are Mayan houses and temples. Then he combed through the ground and showed us pottery shards. He has also found several pieces of jade jewelry just under the surface of the ground. Wow!
5/3/08
This morning it was back to Bonete. We were scheduled to work, but it is a National Holiday, the Day of the Cross. Is it a coincidence that it falls on the traditional starting date of the rains, or did the church decide that since it couldn’t extinguish the pagan holiday, it might as well reinterpret it?
This morning it was back to Bonete. We were scheduled to work, but it is a National Holiday, the Day of the Cross. Is it a coincidence that it falls on the traditional starting date of the rains, or did the church decide that since it couldn’t extinguish the pagan holiday, it might as well reinterpret it?
Instead of building, we separated our gifts and made packets for each family. I counted out pills. I praise God that I’m not a pharmacist!
Lucy Sherwood has been teaching the women of Bonete some sewing skills and they have been making purses. We bought up their stock and Gloria gave them a lecture about how one half of their earnings must go back into buying more cloth! Otherwise they are out of business.
We had a wonderful meeting with the people of the village of Bonete and their sister village Belle Vista.
Some highlights:
· A talk by the town historian, who explained the recent history of the struggle for indigenous Hondurans to gain rights, land and development.
· Two different trios played and sang on local instruments which were sort of analogous to a mandolin, a guitar and a bass.
· Lucy had taught a woman to crochet, and she showed off her first work and made a gift of it to Lucy.
· The tribal elder of the two villages apologized for the people not being unified on their current building efforts and promised to do better in the future. He also spoke of the importance of giving more status and rights to women. I hope this was more than lip service.
· We passed along a suitcase full of tools to Belle Vista who will hopefully embark upon a home-building process of their own soon.
· We were able to give each family a small bag of medicines and school supplies from the generous donations of our congregations.
· A talk by the town historian, who explained the recent history of the struggle for indigenous Hondurans to gain rights, land and development.
· Two different trios played and sang on local instruments which were sort of analogous to a mandolin, a guitar and a bass.
· Lucy had taught a woman to crochet, and she showed off her first work and made a gift of it to Lucy.
· The tribal elder of the two villages apologized for the people not being unified on their current building efforts and promised to do better in the future. He also spoke of the importance of giving more status and rights to women. I hope this was more than lip service.
· We passed along a suitcase full of tools to Belle Vista who will hopefully embark upon a home-building process of their own soon.
· We were able to give each family a small bag of medicines and school supplies from the generous donations of our congregations.
On the way back from the village we stopped at the Museum of Mayan Sculpture. Although not the largest of the world’s Mayan ruins, Copan is unsurpassed in the amount of sculpture and hieroglyphics that have been found and studied. The museum is excellent and really helped me to understand more about the Mayan culture. We also met the lead archaeologist, who happens to be from Duke. He discovered the Rosalia temple underneath another temple at Copan. It is from an earlier Mayan era when they sculpted not in stone, but in plaster. The plaster was then painted in bright colors. Enough of the pigment still survives that they can tell the color scheme: Mostly red, green, yellow and white. In the middle of the museum is a life size reconstruction of the temple, complete with paint.
In the late afternoon, we traveled to Chanco, the site of the first building project facilitated by Tim and Gloria. Perhaps the poorest community we visited, the only land they could get was extremely steep mountainous terrain. I can’t imagine trying to build on it, nonetheless trying to farm it! In order to start their building project they had to build a road into their community across very steep mountainside. By hand, they built a 2 ½ mile road – wow! Then, it took the entire community of 27 families 8 days simply to level and dig a foundation for each of the house building sites! Their commitment and their pride definitely showed. Still, their land is quite marginal, and they shared with us that they usually run out of food for about two months every year!
The women of Chanco, whom we met, would never look us in the eye, and were extremely shy about speaking to us. They seem quite oppressed by the men. Under Gloria’s leadership, the women of Chanco have started a cooperative business where they sell used clothing for very low prices. Nevertheless, they have raised about 9,000 Limpera (about $500). They would like to use it as seed money for another business, but they don’t have any ideas yet. Therefore, they’ve been making loans to the men and the men have been paying interest! That’s entrepreneurialism! We were quite moved by both the poverty and the community spirit of this community!
5/4
In the morning we went
to the Copan de Ruinas Butterfly and Orchid Farm. It was founded and run by an American Peace Corp Volunteer. He was working with a small indigenous community and was racking his brain for some idea of a business they could start to bring in much needed capital. What he hit upon was the collecting of butterflies and larvae for collectors all over the world. From that, he was launched on a lifelong passion for butterfly collecting which has now branched out into orchids. He is probably the foremost expert in the world on Honduran butterflies and orchids and has a number of publications completed and more in the works. The farm he has set up was beautiful. Not too many orchids were blooming, but the butterflies were fabulous!
In the morning we went
to the Copan de Ruinas Butterfly and Orchid Farm. It was founded and run by an American Peace Corp Volunteer. He was working with a small indigenous community and was racking his brain for some idea of a business they could start to bring in much needed capital. What he hit upon was the collecting of butterflies and larvae for collectors all over the world. From that, he was launched on a lifelong passion for butterfly collecting which has now branched out into orchids. He is probably the foremost expert in the world on Honduran butterflies and orchids and has a number of publications completed and more in the works. The farm he has set up was beautiful. Not too many orchids were blooming, but the butterflies were fabulous! The afternoon was dedicated to travel to San Pedro Sula, so that we could catch a flight home.
5/5
Up at 3:30 am – home at 6:40 pm! An exhausting day, but wonderful to see my family at the end of it! The trip has been fantastic. I have learned so much about Christian community and about what kinds of development efforts work, and which ones don’t. If I had to sum up the trip, I might simply resort to the old saying: “Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” The efforts that I saw that truly work over time were the ones which empowered people to do for themselves. This involves the giving of some resources, but much more important is education, community development, hope and solidarity with people living in poverty. These gifts enable them to change their lot in sustainable ways. I’m so blessed by all the participants on our trip, for those who supported us with donations and prayers, and especially to Tim and Gloria Wheeler, truly missionaries for Christ!
Up at 3:30 am – home at 6:40 pm! An exhausting day, but wonderful to see my family at the end of it! The trip has been fantastic. I have learned so much about Christian community and about what kinds of development efforts work, and which ones don’t. If I had to sum up the trip, I might simply resort to the old saying: “Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” The efforts that I saw that truly work over time were the ones which empowered people to do for themselves. This involves the giving of some resources, but much more important is education, community development, hope and solidarity with people living in poverty. These gifts enable them to change their lot in sustainable ways. I’m so blessed by all the participants on our trip, for those who supported us with donations and prayers, and especially to Tim and Gloria Wheeler, truly missionaries for Christ!
