Tegucigalpa part One

Driving into the city from Valle de los Angeles

So I feel like a post right now will be completely insufficient to explain to yal about whats happened these past few days, but I'll try to summarize.  Basically I went to Tegucigalpa, the capital for three days, for two occasions.  One was the Madre Superior Sor Yvonne came to visit Honduras for the Centenario of the Salesian sisters in Honduras, and  then also to visit mi amiga Kate Palla from University of Dallas, also a VIDES volunteer who works in Tegucigalpa with the Salesian priests at the Hogar Don Bosco.  And finally I returned here to work.  However that really explains nothing so I'll have to compartementalize my trip in a few posts. 
 First:  Taxis!
So after a seven hour squished car tip, I was dropped off on a corner along a taxi route to catch a taxi to al centro, the densly packed cars mostly taxis-- not having to pass emissions tests, were suffocating me with their exhaust as they moving past the similarly densly stacked buildings--lacking the same building codes were a little overwhelming, and the sidewalks even though we were around the outskirts were full of people walking every which way--the majority not owning cars, and then the stores all with open doors becasue they lack airconditioning. 

The view from Hogar Don Bosco

  So I had to go to this corner because with the taxi's in Tegucigalpa, you have two options, directo which takes you directly to the place, and is expensive, or collectivo, which has a route and you can only get off or on along the route, and you have to wait to go anywhere until the taxi is full with someone in each seat--even in front.  I was always crossing roads and bridges multiple times back and forth so that I could find the right find the right place to get on the right taxi route, and then wait until the car was full often with other odorous passengers.  One time on our way from the centro to my friend Kate's place at the Hogar Don Bosco, after the taxi was full, four men surrounded the car, and my heart began to pund wondering if they were going to rob us, until they started to push the car up the hill so that it would start! However there was not enought room so then they pushed the car backwards and then forwards, but still it did not start.  This process continues two more times one time hitting another car, but no one even fliched when that happened until finally the taxi with all five people in it started and we were on our way! Another time I asked all the taxistas (taxi drivers) at the station who would take me directly to the Maria Auxiliadora where the sisters were, and only one said yes, but when I got to the car, it was missing a tire!  He kept saying don't worry don't worry, and he put the tire on, and I got in the car.  Then while we were driving he said don't worry I was just fixing the breaks!  lol.  This is the life here.  This city despite its modern malls and modern fast food places (unlike Santa Rosa where I live), is still forced to pay the same prices as American prices for cars, clothes and food, but have little way of earning the same amount.  I told one of the girls my adventures with the Taxis and she said something I didn't know how to answer.  "In the US you have subways and metros but here we have pushed taxi's and taxi's without wheels, what do we need to do to be a "developed" country?"  I have no idea, I wish I could have an answer, but until then, I am just thankful that the guardian angels here seem to always be working overtime, with all the "normal things" here, that we consider so dangerous. Welll good night I will write more later!
--Becca
Prayer requests, for the girls as they take their final exams, that they don't fail. For the families that have sick relatives, the mother of Ana Patricia, the step-mother of Sandra, and three of the girls with serious teeth problems, and another with various other problems.

to come...
El Contenedor and the Hogar!
La Madre y las Hermanas!
Espanoles y Bailando!
Los Carnets y el Comedor!

NormalThings

El Estudio

   So I have now been here a little more than a month, and I just had a review of things with the Directora Sor Mirna, and she said she is happy with how I am adjusting to things here. Things are starting to be more normal.  The culture and the schedule come more easily to me now.  I realize however, that that means very little to yal, as I have not told yal what normal is. 

Monday to Thursday Normal schedule:

5:20 (or earlier if I wan to go running) wake up (the girls wake up at this time too)-get ready for the day

6:00 Me or Tracy has to be outside and go to breakfast with the girls in the comedor, making sure we say our grace before and thanksgiving after the meal  

6:30 Supervise chores for an hour in the corridors, Tracy supervises chores in the Lavanderia, and the sisters supervise the chores in the kitchen, chapel, and out back.  I usually eat breakfast while supervising chores. 

7:00 School starts and on Tuesday And Thursdays I go to mass with them, while other days  I help Sor Mirna do random tasks and occasionally have a little time to myself when I can do laundry or skype or email.

11:00 Go across the street to help Doña Samira serve the kids at Cenprof, which usually means serving drinks, and washing and drying the plates and cups.

1:00pm head back and eat lunch and at one fifteen, school is over and then at

1:30 Tracy or I supervise the internas’s lunch.  After lunch they go do officios/chores again.

3:00 Teach resfuerzo classes until 3:45/4:00 except Tuesdays when I go out shopping/ running errands with the girls who need to get stuff. 

4:00- 5:00 time with the girls in recreo

5:00-7:15 Estudio riguroso  where all sixty-four girls are supposed to be in silent study except for a break at six fifteen when we all pray the rosary together.

7:15 say grace with girls then go eat dinner with the sisters 

Norma hiding from the camara while studying during recreo

Fridays:

Mornings: same, but after second oficios we have recreo, rosary

5:00 pm and then dinner for Internas, 

6:30 a movie which ends at 

9:00pm, I finally eat dinner.   

Then Finally Saturday comes, my one free day! Wow it is soo nice, but ohh how I feel guilty, because a day of rest is unknown in these parts professors work usually at other jobs, or teach on weekends too.  There is always work to be done, and its almost a necessity to do work all the time, to have a decent standard of living.  Tracy and I get our day off and though we feel lazy at times we are soo blessed, to have our day off! Ahh to sleep in till six! What a blessing, and then Me and Tracy usually go walk around the city and go out for lunch and dinner. And then Sunday comes around again and we have four hours of studio Riguroso 2 in the morning from 8- 10 am and then two more hours in the afternoon, 5 -7pm!   Man these girls are disciplined! Even though some of them end up talking a couple times here and there, for the most part I am blown away that there is that many girls able to be quiet in the same room for that long!  

The hijas de casa would kill me if thye saw this photo!

So basically this has been the past week, following the schedules more or less, while along the way going to the doctor for some kind of allergic reaction; receiving a special award with the other professors for the award our school recieved for international for educational excellence; trying some great food during the school's Honduran Gastronomical festival; and  being tricked by one of the kids at Cenprof, to make him an Id with the name of a famous soccer player instead of his own name! I also stayed up late this week helping one of the Hijas de Casa pass physics and have been spending time generally getting to know the girls in the upper classes a lot better, as I talk to them about their studies. Also I got to go to this famous vacation pool place this Sunday, on a school trip with the hijas de casa!

The hijas de casa being ridiculous as usual!

Life here is wonderful, it is challenging, but it is like that for everyone, though people here don't have free time like we do in the states, they are quite human and find ways to take breaks.  I have found that I really need to just take advantage of our times of prayer in adoration, the rosary and at Mass.  It rejuvenates you when you are empty and centers you when you are going crazy.  I’m just beginning to understand how much rest the spirit gives us in prayer!  Well Thanks for reading, sorry so long, its just we have long days :! 

Prayer intentions for the week, That the flu stops spreading among the girls, and that my blood pressure goes back to normal(I've been having some problems with having low blood pressure, but its not serious I just don't feel that wonderful always), and for a safe trip to the capital Tegucigalpa--I leave for there Thursday to visit a friend and to meet the head of the Salesian order who is visiting from Rome.
God Bless yal are in my prayers!

Choosing to Live!

So a lot has happened in the last few days, and I can’t help but think about what it means to choose life! I’ve heard this saying so many times, at pro-life rallies and in church, but it means so much more now.

First, Saturday morning after sleeping in ‘til 6:30, we went to visit the children at the Sisters of Charity’s orphanage right down the street. My friend Kate Palla, a VIDES volunteer in Tegucigalpa , had come to visit for the weekend so this was a special day and we were with some very special kids. These kids have all been abandoned by their parents and come to the orphanage in various stages of malnourishment. Until now I have never seen children so capable of breaking your heart. Here at the school these girls at least have a family of some sort, but the orphanage has four sisters and a few staff members, but over all is grossly understaffed for the amount of children there. We went to the infant area where there were about twenty-five infants from 2 to 18 months and one paid staff member and one lady who helps out sometimes. The smell of urine a poo was a little overwhelming, because between bathing and feeding them all, there is little time to change their cloth diapers. We spent most of time just picking up and holding the kids because they were all just dyin’ for some lovin. Then I helped feed a few of them. They had an ingenious home-made highchair for feeding six kids at the same time. After a couple hours visiting hours were over and we left. Just seeing these kids, you know that God loved them, He took them out of drains and away from certain death to here, where though they were not up to US standards, the children were all fed and loved and were taken care of. Merely their presence in the world is a gift, and their little lives are so precious!

Secondly, I’ve been working at a soup kitchen for children, that the diocese runs from a school building we have across the street. Children between the ages of 2 and 10 can come and receive lunch. I have been taking names and taking pictures of them to make them ID cards for when they come. Oh they are “bien lindo!” (so cute!) But it pains me to talk to the parents who come with them, because they all have such sad stories, and have no money not for lack of working. After leaving the Orphanage Saturday, Kate and I went to explore the town of Santa Rosa , like I’ve never explored it before! So from 9:30 am- 4:00 pm we walked almost all the barrios within the city. I got to see where it is that the kids are coming from, as I recognized the different barrio names, and also see how it is that someone can work all day and earn nothing. The streets are full of people selling cheap goods that they buy in bulk and then try to sell on the streets to make a minimal profit, but there are so many people selling the same things and very little people looking to buy stuff. This week two of the boys have been coming without shoes because someone stole them, but they don’t have the funds to buy new ones. Choosing life for these kids and these parents every day is deciding to walk around with smiles, seeing the small blessings in life, and really LIVING!

Thirdly, yesterday we celebrated the day of the Teachers, all day, starting with a special Mass, a special breakfast, then a special assembly, then ending the day with a special dinner. We had some good times, with some crazy dances by the girls in the assembly, then our own dancing after dinner. But what I realized here is that being a teacher here means a lot more. As one of the teachers said it, the school is another home, and we are second parents to the girls. Here the teacher’s primary responsibility is to not to make sure they get good grades, but first and foremost to ensure that they become women of God and women of good character. The teachers take this seriously too, and whether they like it or not, the girls’ private lives are all public knowledge, and they never say aww too bad that’s their problem, but here they do something. I am just amazed at how much the sisters and the teachers choose to give life to these girls and to the community by uplifting them and preventing the culture of death to continue its evil cycles.



Good Night! Pray for us here, and pray for me that I am able to get to know these awesome sisters and these teachers better, and that we can all try and choose to preserve, live and give life!

PS. I Love all of you back home! And a special shout out to my girls! Muah we'll talk soon, and send me your' phone number again and I can try and call it some night around 8. Muah!
   Some of the Ninos I serve every day!

God Bless America!

So today we celebrated Honduras Independence Day! I spent all morning in the sun, watching a parade of schools of all ages. School after school , after school marched by presenting their "acto civico". As far as I understand every school in Honduras has to make a some kind of presentation in the town square within the the first fifteen days of September, culminating until today, (we did it the first Monday of September). The parade began with two fireman, and a handful of military veterans, and then began the two and a half hours of numerous schools.. The schools had marching bands—only one of which had something other than percussion instruments, many girls in elegant homemade dresses depicting Honduran countrysides, a dance team, and little kids parading holding things representing the country. It is a funny thing to have this “acto civico” and all this parading forced upon the students. It was amazing to see all the schools that are here, and how sincerely people want to change their country for the better, by showing they are educating the young, however, I kept thinking that in the US we don’t have this extensive parading of schools. Our school’s patriotism is always shown at football games and sporting events where we begin with the national anthem, and our parades are businesses and military who want publicity as being patriotic. What a contrast!
People stay in the US, because they have all their needs supplied, I’d even say that a lot of American’s aren’t even necessarily proud of being American, because they would rather claim to be “citizens of the world.” Patriotism in the US seems to be more of an added bonus, to be proud of where you live. But here, people are more intimately connected with the earth, there is not as many artificial things that separate man from nature like in the US. There is not air-conditioning, little electricity, even for harvesting crops there is less mechanical equipment, and most of the people live in the countryside selling what they grow on their farms. Patriotism lies deep it is here that they have their culture, their food, and their family. I spent September eleventh driving to the countryside of Intibuca to the house of one of the girls, so she could visit her family that she hasn’t seen since July. What should have been a two hour trip took six hours to get there, because the road were so bad. We actually couldn’t even make it to her house because of the mud, so we stopped and hiked about twenty-five minutes up and down some hills to get there. What a gorgeous land it was, full of pine trees, banana trees, corn, and potatoes. Her house in the shade of the pine and banana trees, was homemade out of wood and adobe so the roof reached maybe six and a half feet high. It had three parts/rooms, an outdoor bathroom, and an outdoor water station, with water straight from the mountain they lived on. It was quaint and pretty much the bare bones, they hadn’t been able to go to a store in a while because of the roads, so they had killed one of their own chickens for us and made the most amazing tamales, atole, and corn on the cob for me and the sisters. I loved it, and they loved their home too!

Tracy and some of our girls!

I think that the government assumes that there is a true need for patriotism, so that people don’t just leave their country, but I don’t know if this is the way to make people stay. Patriotism just doen’t suffice to keep people here. No one here wants to leave the land that holds their heart, yet, after years of working, after receiving the best education you could afford, and still your family is struggling to survive, it is hard not to want to leave. Ohhh God Bless America!

Felicidades!

Some of the internas with their gifts

Marinita on the new bicycle!

Felicidades! Today is “el Dia de los Niños,” the day when we give gifts to the children, for being children. Since I’ve been here there has been at least four festivals to celebrate something or other, today has been my favorite though. We had three cakes that we shared between We also gave them all the presents I brought from Arizona, each girl received a pencil and a hair tie. It was wonderful to see them so happy. I want to tell you about this festival, because there is a reason why there are so many festivals, because the suffering here is so great, there is always need to lift the spirits. Every day we here about something bad that happened to someone’s family. First with the massacre in Mexico, and then there was a whole bus load of people killed on the road here from San Pedro Sula, one of the cipota’ cousin's murdered someone and then ran and now they fear that the family of the victim are going to kill the other family and burn their house down when they are sleeping in revenge although the whole town knows it was not their fault. Another one of the internas has been sad all day because the aunt that she lives with was supposed to come today to see her and she didn’t, although she hasn’t seen her in four weeks. This interna’s parents have lived in the United States for the past nine years, and she has lived passed from one family to another separated from her other bothers and sisters who are still here in Honduras too. “El Día de los Niños” makes everyone happy for a moment, like all the other festivals, but as I saw as we all went to mass today, nothing brings peace except God. The sisters know this, and the girls are learning this. You can have everything you materially need, and still be so unhappy, or you can have nothing and still have reason to celebrate, because you have God. I am amazed every time I see these girls and these sisters celebrate. Life here is not really life without God, I pray that I can see past all that stuff I have and see how useless it is. Until then Felicidades and Please Enjoy life, it is great! Good night!

Santos won one of the raffles!

Usted September 7, 2010

Sor Odie Running down the corridor!

Tracy and Sor Che before Buenas Noches

One of the things that is so different that I really had trouble with is using Usted. For those who don’t know, to say you singular there is the informal “tu” and the formal “usted.” I have never had to call anyone else anything other than the simple “you” it works for all people in English, but here “tu” can get you in trouble. I was a little bitter at first and offended when Tracy told me that I have to call the sisters Usted. Then I felt slightly indignant when I realized the sisters still used tu for me! What a strange thing the idea of separating those who deserve respect and those who don’t I thought. However, I’ve started growing used to using this new way categorizing people when you are talking to them. Though I may have felt indignant at first, it is almost normal now to be addressed as Usted by the girls, except then I feel guilty using tu back to them. However it is crazy how this idea pervades the culture. In the Estados Unidos, we’re all equal, and are always indignant with the idea of primacy of on person over another, but here, its is the way of life, the way of speaking and the way of viewing the world. However it isn’t only a primacy of one over another for no reason, it is a way for recognizing and respecting those who have earned a greater position and age, and those who you don’t know. Our relationships are not all equal and it is hard to see sometimes that there is a difference between children and adults and our close friends and those we have just met. Tu implies intimacy, and we don’t have that with everyone, unless we are God. How much does the American culture lack this idea of respect for our elders and respect for the stranger. Using tu with those who call you Usted isn’t weird for them because everyone who would be called Usted has been tu, and has earned it. In the eyes of the girls, I guess I have earned this title because I am so much older and "smarter" because I speak English. Why can we never be less than someone in the US…I need more humility. There is plenty of that here. As people always said at UD, that a humble campus makes humble students, and that applies even more here, as humble environments creates humble people.

First Things! September 5, 2010

First Things! September 5, 2010

So it has been almost a week since I have Arrived and yal have heard nothing from me, I’m sorry! I have been busy learning about “ mi nueva casa” and I have had a few random “enfermedades” which have not lasted more than a couple days and the sisters will not stop telling me is because I am getting used to the cold climate, because I come from somewhere much hotter and it is soo cold here (its only 70 degrees!). Everything here is so different, wonderful, but different. I can tell you more about the school later, because
I will be here a while, so I will tell yal about the drive here. I arrived late in the night In San Pedro Sula, so I spent the night there and drove up the mountains to Santa Rosa the following afternoon. It is about two and a half hours away by means of a two lane highway. The school’s driver kindly welcomed me to the Moon because the road is so full of potholes it might as well have been the moon! In different areas, there were families filling in the pot holes with sand, and stop traffic so that people would pay them for their work. The road climbed the mountains, passing casita after casita of the campesinos— some huts of mud, most of concrete or adobe, and a few of brick. Their fields grew on the side of the mountains, some fields of corn were so steep it was almost vertical. Along the highway in the middle of the day, walked mothers and children, (almost no men). There were a few areas along the road with maybe twenty houses a lot closer together and two or three stores and a restaurant, and at these places, they had speed balls on the road to slow the traffic. So that between the potholes, the people in the street, the speed balls, and the the slow cars, drivers on the freeways here spend just about the same amount of time in the lane for on coming traffic as they do in their own lane.
Finally I arrived safe and sound here, where things aren’t as much falling apart as about every other place I saw, and where children aren’t naked in the streets or shoveling sand for money, but this was my first impression, and a pretty acurate one of the life of everyone else in Honduras-- poor, always working, always trying to fill in holes in the system, and always facing life's problems head on.
When at every meal we ask a blessing for the food we are about to receive, it is serious, we don’t want to get parasites from the water used to prepare it. Then we give thanks after eating, for our delicious meal, for having a full stomach is a blessing! Just two days ago the girls were lectured for throwing away food, because five of them threw away about a fourth cup of food each! Now they all have to ask us every time they want to throw anything away, even if its only a bite, Usually they have to eat it or find someone else to. It makes me sick to think of the food we waste in the US, there is no comparison.