Honduras Mission Blog 2006-2007
by Bessie Yang
Dear Calvary,
Greetings! Today was our third day in Honduras. Our morning was started
with a breakfast prepared by our host family, after which everyone
was transported to the orphanage by the 12-passenger van driven by
David, the LAMB volunteer. We continued VBS with the same schedule
structure as yesterday that included group singing, arts and crafts,
outdoor games, story time, and small group discussion applicable to
their appropriate age. The children were divided into the same groups
as yesterday and each group rotated through every activity. Most of
the children spoke only Spanish but there were bilingual interpreters,
either Susie´s children, Erica’s children, or the LAMB
volunteers, helping to bridge the communication gap. Most of the children
continued to be very affectionate with us and with each other as they
were constantly climbing and hopping onto any willing, and even some
resisting, participant. Our morning ended with a second group singing
session followed by us eating lunch at the orphanage with the kids.
After finishing the day of VBS, we returned to the host house for a short break and then left for the afternoon activities. Two of the team members were dropped off at LAMB, where one of them met with Susie while the other one continued painting the school. The rest of the team went to the mall to gather the materials needed for the New Year’s Party that we are throwing for the kids. We made plans to cook dinner, pass out stockings stuffed with presents, and bust open a piñata. Since it was suggested by Susie that we stuff the stockings with practical items such as socks and toiletries, we spend the rest of the afternoon shopping for each individual child. We came home around 5:00 PM and started decorating the stockings with the children’s names and other Christmas themes. Within a few hours, most of the stockings were completed and it was time to eat another meal prepared by our host family. After dinner, we gathered together to shared our most memorable moment from today, and then we had prayer and quiet time.
Bessie
+++
THURSDAY,
DECEMBER 29, 2006
by Jerry Stiles
Greetings from Honduras!
We had a full and gratifying day. At the risk of boring you I wanted to mention our meals today: breakfast was scrambled eggs mixed with rice, beans on the side and tortillas to wrap everything in and of course tabasco sauce. Delicious!
We had our last day of VBS today and there were lots of hugs and laughter. These children are too cute; One little girl named Cathy, 2 1/2 years old, puts her arms out whenever she sees me and insists that I pick her up—I carry her around and she chatters non stop; she even corrects my Spanish if I make a mistake. She bends her legs and cries whenever I try to put her down. She is precious and its hard to believe that some trauma has caused her to end up here without a mother and father. All of these children have similar stories but there are many smiles on their faces. Except for a few exceptions, they seem happy. Suzy has done an amazing job here and says that her goal is for every child here to feel as if they were a valued member of this group. She does not use the word orphanage. Several members of the team have had some form of stomach problems but nothing serious.
Remember us and these children
in your prayers.
Jerry Stiles
+++
SATURDAY,
DECEMBER 31, 2006
by Emily Smith
Yesterday we had the opportunity to travel into a very mountainous area where there are lots of local artisan shops. The quality of their clothes, wooden carvings, metalwork, leather, etc was amazing, and I felt guilty for paying so little for such beautiful works.
Those of us who were still well (our party of 13 has endured some unlucky illnesses this trip—traveler´s sickness, rashes, styes, fever, headaches) went with Suzy and her children to her Episcopal church last night to see some of her children perform in a talent show. The talent varied from one child singing a song to a pair of mimes acting out songs to a group of them having a contest between commercial Christmas (Santa, elves, Rudolph, etc) and the true meaning of Christmas (expectant Mary, Joseph, angels, etc.). It was very impressive, though we didn´t understand everything going on in Spanish.
I am continuously impressed with Suzy´s children and their generosity. One of the performers threw out candy to the audience, and this little girl named Gina came back to our table and gave each one of us (children and adults) a piece that she had collected. She saved her favorite (lollipops) in her hands like she was going to keep them, but then looked at me and Kathy and then offered them to us. These children have so little, yet give so much. They are the living expression of God´s love to one another and to us this week. I feel so fortunate to have been a part of this trip and to have met them.
+++
by Frederik Bresser
Hello everyone,
I am writing today to tell everyone, if they would like to come here, there is no reason to be afraid of Honduras. At first I was afraid, too. I thought maybe there is an awful lot of crime, and there would often be no electricity or water where we stay, and there are a lot of insects. But there is no need to worry: The guest house we are staying at is really good, the food is EXCELLENT, and we did not suffer any electricity or water failures so far.
The city is in the mountains, so the streets are quite curvy, and often very steep. Driving in Tegucigalpa is often a little bumpy. I learned that Tegucigalpa is about 4000 feet above sea level, the first day I had a headache, because of the thin air. Mosquitoes do not like this height, they live in lower areas, so there are also not many big insects here.
At the orphanage the kids are really very affectionate, there is always one kid, who wants to get a hug from you, or is climbing all over you. I spotted that the boys are more affectionate to me than the girls. Some of the older girls have obviously been abused, and now they are afraid of men, especially when they do not know him well.
Honduras is not a rich country, of course, so the infrastructure is not very good sometimes, and you should not go out by yourself at night. And you can see people living in very simple and small houses. I am almost tempted to say: The difference to some areas in east Memphis is not that big…..
Frederik Bresser
+++
MY
EXPERIENCE IN HONDURAS
by Grace Bethell
It was early November when I came home from school one day and my mom told me I was going to be so excited about a Christmas present that I was getting. I immediately thought OH MY GOSH. A CELL PHONE! So I said “what mom? Let me guess.. a cell phone?!?!” My mom then said laughing, “No Grace, We’re going to Honduras!”
My heart sank. I didn’t want to go at all. Especially when I found out that I had to get 5 shots, I was definitely not a happy camper. I thought going to Honduras would cut off my Christmas break and make it shorter and feel like there was no Christmas at all. When I got to my doctor’s office to get my 4 out of 5 shots I was saying things like “It wasn’t my idea to go to Honduras!” and “Why can’t we just send them money?” All the meetings we had didn’t really get me that excited. It just seemed like a lot of work I was going to have to do on my break from school. I thought a break was for resting, right?
So Christmas day came and I did get my cell phone! I was a little irritated at the fact though that I would be leaving it the very next day for a whole week. The next morning I got up at 4 (to the alarm of my new phone) and was not in a very good mood. I was not excited at all. I thought it was a waste of my time.
Reluctantly I got in the car only to find out my dad had gotten a ticket on his way to the ATM before 5 in the morning. When I got to the airport I found my very enthusiastic group of wonderful people. I wondered the whole time: why is everyone so excited except for me? Don’t they know we will be in a place with dirty water for a whole week? As I boarded the plane, with my Starbucks in hand, I sadly said goodbye to Memphis and went to sleep.
I was a little worried about the food situation in Honduras because I’m a big eater. I get in bad moods without my food, so at 8:30 in the morning in Texas I had convinced my sister Bailey that this might be the last time we see real food. I had Bailey all wound up to the point where we then decided we had to go get chicken sandwiches again, at 8:30 in the morning.
When I boarded my plane to go to Tegucigalpa I knew it was really coming. It was almost that I didn’t really think it was going to happen at first. But after almost 4 hours and watching Lady in the Water we made the very quick and scary landing in Tegucigalpa. We went for our first of many wild rides in the van. We rode to Erika’s house and then unpacked. I was just overjoyed to be there. Not. After unpacking and relaxing for a little while we went to eat lunch that Erika had prepared for us.
When we got to lunch my mom told me I should try the soup, so I did. It was good and I thought I could get used to the food, until someone mentioned to me that it was intestines. I stopped eating it and I tried to forget about it but Alicia kept bringing up the lovely fact that we had intestines in our intestines. After lunch we went to the residential home. Before I could even step out of the van a little boy had grabbed my leg and was hugging me. Elias was a very rough but loving little boy.
When I got out of the van and looked around I found myself feeling happy for the first time that day. 4 little girls grabbed my hand and were trying to explain how to play a game they wanted me to play. I was very confused so Valerie came over and helped me. I still wasn’t quite sure how to play it so I just ran around in the circle like they did. They stopped running around in a circle and all looked at me. I didn’t know what to do so I just yelled “YEA!” and they looked at each other in a confused look and then started running in the circle again.
After getting many flowers from kids and hugs, I embarrassed myself pretty badly. I was sitting with a little girl, Cindy Pamela and we were playing with play-dough. Cindy Pamela looked up at me and said “poopie.” I had no idea what to do so feeling really confident with my few Spanish words I said very loudly for everyone to hear “ME YAMO POOPIE.” Thinking I had just asked what do I do with a poopie I looked around to find someone coming to help me but instead I just saw kids laughing and pointing. Alicia leaned over and whispered to me “Grace, um why did you just say your name was Poopie?” I might have embarrassed myself badly that day but the next day the kids didn’t remember.
I left the children’s home that day excited for the first time on my trip. I started thinking I’m going to teach these kids so much about Jesus and I am going to make a huge impact on their lives, they will never forget what I teach them!
When I put my name tag on the next day 2 little boys came up to me and said “GRACIA!” and hugged me. Their names were Jorge and Julio and they had very good manners. On the first day of VBS I was feeling a little more excited from having so much fun the day before. I was sad though still for a different reason. I was scared about leaving. Just seeing these kids once the day before had made me realize how much they were going to impact my life.
Every day I went back to the children’s home I felt a little more excited. One very memorable experience was meeting a little boy named Moises. When I first met him he just seemed like a cute, shy little boy. I didn’t realize that he would end up teaching me something that no one else could even though we didn’t speak the same language. Moises had a teddy bear, that he carried around with him a lot. When I was around him he would show me and point to his bear. I realized that his bear was very important to him. Around his bear’s neck was a pink rhinestone bracelet.
One day when we were making paper flowers he was sitting in my lap. He pointed at the bear’s necklace then pointed at my wrist. He took the bracelet off the bear and he put it on my wrist. I said thank you and I sat there and thought for a second. He had just given me one of his very important, few things he has. I was amazed that he gave it to me. He has so little but yet he gave so much to me. Not only did he just give me a bracelet, but he taught me something that no one else could have ever taught me. He showed me that you don’t have to have stuff to be happy, you can be happy just by Jesus and love. That was one of my most memorable experiences in Honduras and I want to thank him for teaching me something I will never forget.
Another amazing experience I had in Honduras was on New Year’s Eve. We went to the residential home to cook them dinner and have a little party. When we first got there, everyone was so excited! The little kids had on party hats and were having a ball with the noisemakers. The older girls had loud Honduran Christian rap playing and they were dancing to it. Immediately they caught my eye and I was wishing I could dance like that. Bailey and I finally decided we wanted to go dance with them so we walked up and welcomed us warmly. They tried to dance slower to teach us how to do their dance.
When the next song started playing they motioned for us to show them how we danced. We developed a sort of game where they would dance then we would dance and it began to get really fun seeing what different dances they had. We danced for a really long time until everyone got tired and was ready to eat. After eating there was a little performance by the older girls then we were ready to party some more! We danced a little more and then Bailey, Alicia, and I got in a huddle with about 7 of the Spanish teens.
They had decided that they wanted to teach us Spanish bad words! “COOL!!!” I was thinking. It turned out to be one of the most fun things I’ve done in my life. It was so amazing to me that language wasn’t a barrier. The next day when we finally got back to the children’s home after a confusing ride situation my sister and I walked to the wooden house to find 4 of the older girls on the computers. None of these girls spoke any English accept for the “Hey Yall!” that I had taught them the day before. We were talking to them and laughing even though we couldn’t speak their language. We managed to exchange e-mail addresses and phone numbers and talk about school, boyfriends and many other interesting things. We really had great conversations with them between acting it out and saying if really slowly.
God showed me on this trip that it isn’t stuff that makes you happy it is love. These girls have had really hard lives but they still showed us what Jesus has done for them. I asked one of the girls if she liked it there and she said she loved it. That made me happy. It hurt me to think of anyone ever hurting any of these children and I wanted to take them all home with me.
I came to Honduras crying because I didn’t want to go but found myself back in Memphis crying and begging my mom if we could please go back soon. At first when I came I was mad and had a really bad attitude about this whole trip. I regret ever thinking that way. This was one of the best things that has ever happened to me. It taught me so much about Christ, myself and how blessed I am.
My second attitude that I developed on the trip was one that I thought I was going to make a huge impact on their lives. I was thinking so selfishly. I thought things like they are going to remember me forever and they will never forget what I will teach them. I thought I was going to teach them so much about Jesus, but really they taught me more about Jesus and his love than anyone has ever showed or taught me before. These kids, my amazing group, and this whole trip has been a life changing experience for me and it has truly changed me as a person. I no longer think about myself first and I am slowly moving towards serving God, others, then myself. This trip marked the beginning of a new start in my life and I want to say thank you to everyone who contributed.
+++