Honduras Mission 2007

Saturday, August 4, 2007

2007-08-04T22:53:00.001-07:00

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Today was our Last full day in Honduras as well as our day of rest and recreation. We started the day by sleeping in past 8 am and then enjoying a leisurely breakfast. What a treat! We were usually off to work by this time during the week before the sun got too hot and the traffic too congested.

As planned, Beth and Jane went on a tour of the Hospital Escuela with Dr. Barbara McClure, as Britta and Wendy had done several days ago. It is a hospital for the poorer people of Teguc and the surrounding area. It was a very eye opening experience for all of us.
We met for lunch at the local mall and had some time to shop there as well as at an artisans’ market.

After having some down time back at the hotel, we drove to Luis’ house for a lively and wonderful dinner party. We were joined by Luis and Connie’s extended family, friends from Villa Nueva, and another mission group from Miami, who had worked on a building project in Villa Nueva this past week. The party was lively with salsa music and dancing; the food cooked on the grill was delicious. We all had a lovely time getting to know one another, sharing stories, and spending a relaxing evening with old friends and work partners. It was the perfect ending to our week in Honduras.

Wendy Squires

2007-08-03T20:13:00.000-07:00

Friday, August 3

What an incredible opportunity it has been to travel to Honduras with this group of “Christ Churchers.” We have laughed and cried, shared our frustrations and a few peanut butter sandwiches. We have learned a lot about each other and about the people we are here to serve. So far, it has been the richest and most positive experience I culd hope for. We have shared in some pointed conversations about our ministries here and I believe that we are coming home recommitted to our work in Honduras and maybe re-energized about doing that work in some new and creative ways. More about that when we are face to face.

Today is Friday. It’s 7:00p.m. and we are just getting back to the Honduras Maya from our day at work. We started early this morning with a breakfast meetings, then to San Pedro cerca del Rio. We knocked off at noon for lunch and then cleaned up to prepare for Eucharist there. Maria Consuela joined us and I had the high honor of concelebrating the Eucharist with her assisted by Luis and Esmarelda at San Pedro’s altar. Maria Consuela began the service and preached in Spanish (magnificently translated by Anker) and I presided at the table in English. The service was followed by the giving and receiving of gifts and tearful speeches and goodbyes. Mid-afternoon we whisked away to Villa Nueva to see the progress at St John’s. Maria Consuela, a.k.a. “La Reverenda,” took great pride in touring us through a maze of rooms and programs that have all come to reality in the last eight years. A school for bakers and electricians seems the newest addition to a preschool program and a sewing center. Yes, I ordered somee clergy shirts. Tomorrow We drop our donations and slightly used work togs, take a day to sightsee and shop and then fly out on Sunday. Everyone is well and in high spirits. We have made some contact with a medical missionary and some will tour with her tomorrow. We look forward to seeing you in Cambridge and sharing the excitement of our Honduran brothers and sisters with all of you.

Joe Robinson

Thursday, August 2, 2007

2007-08-02T20:25:00.000-07:00

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Today we completed the clearing of the debris from the floor of the old building. We leveled the rocks to receive the slab for the extension of the floor. Sounds easy, but it took lots of work with a sledgehammer and countless loads of debris loaded in wheelbarrows. We had two wheelbarrows today, which made a big difference.

Meanwhile, work continued on the concrete block wall. Extra steel reinforcement bars were placed at the course where the old wall ended and the new coursing began. The hand mixing of the mortar reminded some of us of our first trip to San Pedro.

Upstairs, work began on the wood wall which will separate the women’s sewing area from the children’s area. At the bottom, some salvaged panels with line drawings will be reinstalled, with chicken wire at the top of the wall to provide ventilation.

In all of the chaos, Dina, one of the women in the sewing cooperative ironed the pillowcases that the cooperative produces. This involved running a generator to provide the electricity to iron. We learned that Dina learned her sewing skill at Luis’s other church. She will be teaching the other women in the area. Now, she is working with a younger woman named Melissa.
More familiar and some new faces joined us at the site today. It’s especially fun to see the children; in four years, they have grown so much. With our poor Spanish, we are trying to understand the family connections between them.

Dina commented that Britta, Beth, and Jane have improved their Spanish. She said that on the first trip they could not speak at all and now they can have conversations. It made me realize that as we are watching their lives through the years, they are watching us as well.
-Deborah Collins

2007-08-01T21:23:00.000-07:00

Wednesday August 1, 2007

Today was another work day at San Pedro Cerca del Rio. As the work continues at a steady speed, I thought I would take the opportunity to explain exactly what we are building. Thanks to our previous help in building the second floor, we are able to focus on creating a new space on the first floor. The hopes are that this first floor will serve as a sacristy, a small kitchen, and a patio for the future pre-school. On the first day we demolished the former sacristy, in desire to give way for a smaller sacristy and bigger kitchen. Currently the small kitchen is made up of a small gas stove, which is located behind the last row of pews within the church. With the renovation of the first floor, the kitchen will be big enough to provide meals to a pre-school, something which is not possible currently.

In previous years we have used the to-be patio area as a place to mix concrete, stack building materials, and play with the children. To create a patio, we must lower the ground level surrounding the church. This is necessary because currently when it rains all the water runs down into the church. However, with the renovation, the church will be a few steps higher than the ground, thus solving the problem.

In order to complete all of these building tasks, during this week we will be focusing on creating the exterior wall for the first floor renovation. Presently there are a few bricks that serve as a foundation; however, as we discovered today we will need to build a new foundation, which will most likely incorporate re-bar and concrete.

Today we focused on moving all the rubble from our demolition area out of the first floor space, and onto the street. This will be very helpful when we start to lay the foundation, and eventually, when the floor is laid.

As today was indeed a work day, it was also a day of new discoveries. Upon talking to a woman who works at the site with us, Mirabell, we learned that she had a baby at home who was twenty-eight days old. She showed us a picture of her baby on her cell phone, but secretly we all wanted to see the baby in person. Today our wish came true, after finishing the day’s work at the site, we all drove down the road and visited with the small baby. However, this proved to be only our first discovery. Shortly after leaving Mirabell’s house, were driving on the road to San Pedro Sula. On this road, about eight kilometers outside of the city, we stopped to visit the second church under direction of Luis, the rector of San Pedro Cerca del Rio. The church’s name was Iglesia Episcopal San Isidro. It was a beautiful church, it had a corner where all the baptisms occurred, and on the two walls in this corner was a beautiful tile pattern than included words like “La Paz” and “Jesus”. The altar area was a calm sea-foam blue, with gold stars surrounds the central cross. Its beauty exemplified the beauty that is possible at San Pedro Cerca del Rio too.

Our day ended by visiting one of our favorite restaurants in Honduras, Ginos’s; a small Italian restaurant just around the corner from our hotel. We had been looking forward to this meal the entire week, because it is only open late on night a week. Boasting of traditional Italian dishes, it brought me back to Italy, where I went on vacation in June. However, the best part of the meal was dessert, with every dessert from sorbets to lemon tarts, this brought out the sweet tooth in all of us. My night ended with a huge piece of chocolate cake, making the day truly sweet!

-Jane Tingley

2007-08-01T05:14:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-01T05:12:00.000-07:00

Monday, July 30, 2007

Today was our first day on the site. We arrived around 8:45 am on the top of the mountain and were greeted by Jenny and two of her children as well as Dina and Melissa. To our surprise, Jenny told us she was going to have another baby and that it is due in December.
After making the trip down the mountain, we arrived at the work site. I was amazed to see how far along the second story (which we worked on last year) has progressed and to learn that it is already in use. Luis informed us that the new construction will include a room for the women’s sewing center and one for either Sunday school or child care. Also, there is a bathroom, but a very minimal one without plumbing yet.

With guidance from Marco and his crew, our main task for the day was to demolish the former outside Sacristy wall. The plan is to build a new wall on top of the guard wall we built around the parish in 2004. Using a sledge hammer and numerous smaller hand hammers, we started to work. Most of us took a swing with the sledge hammer, but it was really Anker and Joe who pounded away with that tool.

By lunch time, which consisted of peanut butter/jelly and cheese sandwiches, about two thirds of the wall was gone. After lunch, we returned to work and found that the afternoon duties were a little more dangerous then they were in the morning. Due to most of the wall being gone, we had a few close calls of cinderblocks nearly falling on people, when larger chunks fell off unexpectedly. Luckily no one was hurt.

Around 3 pm, the wall was gone and we were very tired. We packed up to leave, had our afternoon prayer meeting, and headed back up the mountain, which always seems much longer walking up than down. We arrived back at the hotel, took showers and had some down time before dinner. We met with Maria del Carmen (our mission coordinator) and talked about dinner and upcoming plans.

We dined at a really nice Brazilian restaurant – the perfect ending to our day.
Our first construction day went really well and I look forward to the rest of the week.

~Britta

2007-08-01T05:04:00.000-07:00

Sunday, 29 July 2007

Welcome to the 2007 Honduras Mission blog. The team flew from Cambridge to Tegucigalpa yesterday without incident (beyond the normal aggravations of flying). This year’s missioners are

Deborah Collins
Anker Lerret
Elizabeth Lerret
Joe Robinson
Wendy Squires
Britta Thompson
Jane Tingley

This group is smaller than in previous years. With the exception of Joe, all have been part of the Honduras mission for at least four years. This is Joe Robinson’s introduction to our work in Honduras and he’s already a full-fledged participant.

After our arrival yesterday evening (Saturday), we had dinner in a nearby restaurant with Luis, the rector of San Pedro cerca del Rio (where we’ll be working) and Luis' wife and daughter. We swapped news of our parishes and planned for the week’s work. By 9:30 we fell exhausted into our beds.

This morning we attended Sunday services at Santa Maria, the largest Episcopal church in Tegucigalpa. This is a lively service, with salsa music; hymns are typically sung twice just because they’re so much fun. Joe Robinson helped distribute communion.

After church we bought lunch supplies for the group the week: bread, peanut butter, jelly, a large block of local cheese, a knife, drink mixes, paper towels and plates, a knife. We spent the rest of the day napping, reading and working out final details of the week with the diocesan mission coordinator. We’re ready to get to work tomorrow!

Anker Lerret

Welcome, friends, to our 2007 Mission!

2007-07-28T06:22:00.000-07:00