Tuesday July 31

Today was another work day at San Pedro Cerca Del Rio. Today though, we were offered an afternoon distraction from our work and went on a walk-a-bout of the area surrounding the church. Every year we go on walk-a-bouts but every year there is a slight variation to make it new and interesting for everyone. Every year though we do visit Jenny’s house. Jenny is an active member of the church, as are her 3 daughters , and we can probably assume the next one which is on the way. On this year’s walk-a-bout we visited the fields that belong to Dina’s family, another very active member of the church. As we walked we saw her corn and bean fields and luckily found a mango tree along the way. Our last stop on our walk was to a very poor family living on a hill right above the church in a house with walls made of tin, clothes, sticks, mud, what ever was available. Inside this home was a sick old woman, a mother of one of the workers. Joe stepped into the dark room and gave the old woman a blessing which meant a lot to the community and to us as well. As our walk came to an end our work began again until it was time for us t head back to the hotel.

Tonight, we had a special visitor, Dr. Barbara, who is a Christian doctor for the diocese. She works in a clinic about 45 minutes out of Tegucigalpa and in a hospital within the city as well. We met her at Santa Maria church on Sunday and upon hearing about her medical field became immediately interested, especially Britta who is a premed student. Barbara talked to us about the health care systems in Honduras and a bit about the education system as well. To our surprise the average Honduran has 2.8 total years of education even though education to 6th grade is required by law. Many of the health problems in Honduras are due to poverty which means lack of food, the wrong types of food, unclean waters, all leading to parasites and an unhealthy way of living. 50% of children are malnourished in Honduras. Barbara was accompanied by Rich, who has been living in Honduras for 3 years working at El Hogar, a home and system for children in desperate need. When Barbara had finished her lecture we went out to dinner with them and they gave us information about Honduras we had never known. They were both a great resource to answer our questions, for example a question regarding the Mennonite communities in Honduras. It was delightful to dine with them and we are excited to visit the hospital with Barbara towards the end of the week.

Elizabeth Lerret