Doctor Doctor!!

Walking down the hill in Barrio Dolores, note the smiles, before they had their teeth pulled!

   Its Fat TUESDAY!  and I've been thinking about how much I have been blessed.  I've been more busy than ever these past few days, yet somehow I always find time to procrastinate, which never really helps in the long run.  I'm just pretending right now, that writing this blog will help me organize my thoughts, and then I can do things more efficiently after this.
   We had our first set of midterms to give, and midterm projects, and I am bogged down with grading them, on top of the normal duties of taking care of the girls.  A few out of the ordinary things have happened, that really make you realize how good we got it.
     Last week a group of Texan doctors came here on a medical mission and after taking a handful of our girls to see the doctors to get teeth pulled, I got roped into translating all day.  I was mainly in the optometry section, helping fit people with glasses, and also acting as the translator between the director of the mission and the religious television station!   The whole day, I had only about one break in order to run back to the school up the steep hill [they call it Barrio Dolores (Neighborhood of pain), because its a pain to get to the top of the super steep incline](20 min walking/running).  I got back to the school just in time to give my English class, and then returned to the clinic after class!  At the clinic, it felt like all of Santa Rosa passed through the lines to see the doctors! The doctors too were just amazingly generous to come here and help all these people who normally don't see any kind of doctor. They come and providing a little light of Christ in their lives, and the people were alll soo grateful -- a few old ladies left singing becasue they were so happy!  One amazing witness was that major reason people asked for reading glasses was because they just really wanted to read the bible again! Talk about devotion!

There were lines longer than this from 7am to5 pm

The initial eye assessment,

where  I was stationed as translator

    How lucky are we, that we can go to the doctor whenever, and that we have a CVS right around the corner, and medical information at our fingertips on the internet, if we get sick!  Here Dental care is pulling teeth when they are rotten.  From our school eleven of the girls got teeth pulled by the doctor crew, one girl had 5 teeth pulled!  With the lack of convenience of modern medicine everything regarding health becomes heresay.

The home of  Sandra-one of the internas

      For example this past weekend I stayed at the house of Ester(one of thegirls) for her 15th birthday!  Her house is made of mud, like most of the houses in Honduras, and then sealed with a coat of white paint-like stuff.  Like a normal house, it has dirt floors and a wood-stove, attended by a hard-working and dedicated woman.  There is one dormitorio/ bed-room where the women and children sleep all all 13 of them, a small living room and the cocina/ kitchen, while the bathroom(toilet only) was a little down the hill next to a different old house.  While I was there the youngest baby had an allergic reaction to something, and there is literally nothing they can do.  they  pat the baby and hold her and try different things that so-and-so said work and try bathing the baby in hot water, and then thing maybe cold water would be better.  I personally thought cold, but no one seemed to agree on a temperature, so they tried both.  Poor baby, after two days of horrible hives and strange breathing, she started getting better!

In Ester's house a sister is making tortillas in the kitchen and another holding her baby!

Ester's sister eating breakfast in the doorway

Marbles is their favorite game!

They wanted to show me the pollitos!

 
      Besides a certain lack of material goods, I couldn't help but marvel at the irony of their richness.  They live among such astounding beauty with the green rolling hills and tropical trees all around.  In the states, you would imagine paying a hefty sum for the view they have from their house.

Their daily diet is the fresh food you would pay an arm and a leg for at the organic section of the market.  However, for them this is the cheap food.  Tortillas made from fresh from the stone ground corn, beans they have picked, fresh cheese they make from their neighbors milk cow, exotic tropical fruits from surrounding trees, and most importantly, with almost every meal, you can't forget the coffee.  Coffee is their livelyhood, and the main source of income for most families comes from picking coffee.  So of course, they always keep a bit for themselves, dry it and roast it, mmmmm!  The family was more than gracious giving me a whole bed to sleep in by myself, and even cooking chicken for two meals!  They obviously went beyond their means to take care of me, it was awesome to spend time with all the little kids and see a few other houses of some of the girls who go to our school and live in the same little village.  The whole village life is so cool. everyone knows everyone, and they just walk into houses and hang out, and give food to visitors no matter if you have food or not!  I think both cultures here and there need to reexamine some things and appreciate that in some aspects that we are all pretty filthy rich, while in others, we really need some enrichment!  I challenge yal this lent to reexamine the things in your daily life, and offer up one or two of your riches so you can learn to appreciate them more. Just think how Jesus sacrificed his life so that we can all appreciate an eternal life with him.   

Most of the family!

Sandra, another girl from our school making tortillas on the stove in her house.

Sandra's house

The water spigot next to the bathroom (not shown) in the morning, I woke up at night having to go to the bathroom, but didn't want to go down the hill to the bathroom until the sun came up!

Me and Ester who just turned 15!

Sandra's Grandma and her cabbage patch among the coffee plants

The neighbor's kid when we went to go pick cabbages

A cousin, me and Dania at her house. 

In Ester's house they are always having to kick the chickens the dogs and the cat outside, because they always meander into the house!

Meester, Musculos and el Mero Centro

ahhhh I am soo behind, in this blog!   But I am writing to you because I LOVE YAL!  I'll share somegoods and some bads, I can't share with you all that has happened these past few weeks, because well there isn't enough time to write it all.  I have about ten minutes before I have to go.  I have been here for a little less than a month, but it seems like eternity!
      I am now officially a teacher of English, with lessons to plan and quizzes to grade. In class I said to address me as Miss Rebecca, but unfortunately, they still can't differentiate the difference between Miss and Mister, and always go around calling me Meeester Rebecca!  Its pretty ridiculous.  We spend most of our time attempting to pronounce short vowels, which are really tough!

My English Class!

      On top of classes, I have the same workload as before, attending to the internas, and making them laugh and feel at home, in this fortress we live in.  Their problems are great, so it seems that being a teacher is only a side job.  My regular job is to make sure the internas are mentally and materially prepared for classes. This means I give advice, emotional support, when they recieve news from home.  Also I get to take them shopping to buy the stuff they need for school and for life, hence I know where to get all the best bargains in Santa Rosa!  Then I get to and help them study and do homework and since we still haven't figured out how to turn the water on in their living area, I help them haul water buckets from the well on one side of the school to the other side of the school where their showers, bathrooms and lavanderia are.  Its a lot of work, to haul three a minimum of three buckets a day per girl! I told them that another month, like this, and they will all have huge "musculos"(muscles), and noone would ever dare mess with a girl from "El Maria"! 

A few blessings!

 

Around the Honduras Border!

The view in El Salvador.  Less green than Honduras, and alot warmer!

--One day SOr Mirna happened to be going to El Salvador for a meeting, so I tagged along, and by the grace of God, they gave me a new Visa, so I don't have to leave the country until May, where as before I had to leave mid April. I got to see the "mero centro" of the city, and went to the market, and helped pick out random little things made in china to sell at our school to help offset costs.

  

Outside the El Salvador Center for the blind, the whole block is painted with really awesome pictures.

On the tower of the cathedral. Around the name Don Bosco, were a ton of colorful handprints!

We stopped at a place in the mountains on the way back to Honduras to have a coffee.

--The organization Caritas is going to take over the comedor and start an official program for them!  I don't know the details, but it sounds pretty cool! Thanks for your prayers!

The bus terminal in Santa Rosa.

Prayer Requests.
For the girls families, and for the girls, that they don't lose heart and continue their studies!
and for me, that I also can serve them well.

All the buildings in the border town of El Salvador have paintings like these! Soo cool!

How to Escape

February 3, 2011

The Coffee Farm I went to(una Finca de Cafe)

    Saturday, I had the opportunity to go out to tiny village in the countryside with one of the sisters to set up a new chapter of the Education by Radio.  Its amazing the lengths people are going to get an education! Before we came, the kids would walk about an hour down the mountain, to catch the bus, and go to school!  They were great people!  I'll tell you about "Jose."  He had gone to the US and worked (legally) for ten years in construction.  Then he came back and the whole tiny village was not doing so well, so he bought up the land and turned it into coffee farms which the villagers work on and earn a  living, and now though he has no children, he helped build this school building and helps fund the new education system to teach various trades so that the villagers can get a step up. I still can hardly believe this man's generosity after working so hard, he comes back and works his own farms, and basically helps sustain the village, its pretty awesome. However, even he know that education is their only way up, they all know it, and the sisters are helping them alot setting up this new chapter of education by radio, so that they don't have to keep living on people's generosity.  
    Then, Monday evening our bishop came and said mass at our school, and the four religious communities from around the area came to join a few even brang their orphans.  Then our girls put on an act, and everyone feasted together on tamales, beans, bread, and cheese!  Que Rico! ( = how yummy)

Coffee berries ready to be picked.

   For those who don't know Dons Bosco the founder of the Salesian order (who I am with now).  He lived in the Industrial Revolution, and was pained to see youth running around and ruining their lives before they had a chance to live them.  Hence he created places for youth to play and while they were playing he would teach them about God, and teach them a trade, to prevent the cycle of poverty from repeating itself. He dreamed of creating centers like these all over the world. 

Another view of the farmland of Jose

A view of the campo!

Some of the girls before the play.

Another view of the Campo

     Here we are the fruit of his dreams, and the feast came in perfect timing to corresponding to the new arrival of all these girls who come to live the dream.  These girls come great lengths to receive this education.  One of the girls' family moved 20 hours away(two days travel), to another city to live with an aunt or something, because they lost their home.  Others don't tell me how they're family's are, but merely mentioning it and they begin to tear up.  They carry so much "tristeza" (sadness), yet still they come to study!  Yes I think its awesome and beautiful here, but compared to the campo (countryside) its nada que ver( nothing to see).  The girls tell me all the time, that they hate the city; but still they come.

    The school is big, but when you can never leave it, it gets pretty enclosed.  On top of this, living as an interna, isn't super comfortable, you can never escape your classmates, you have to follow a rigorous schedule, and right now there isn't much water, so they have to haul water from the well on the other side of the school to bathe, use the toilet, and wash clothes!  Life is hard here, but still, the girls come.  Hence, its not for the environment, but because nowhere else can they find this opportunity to study and not be a burden on their family.  The sacfrice they make to come here, in order to recieve an education is great, but they know only with an education can they escape the poverty that plagues their families. 

One of the girls acting as a nun welcoming new internas. hehe

John Bosco and God from the play of John Bosco's life.

   The celebration of Don Bosco was really funny, and best of all, it was so great to see the girls who before had been crying inconsolably, up on stage dancing and laughing backstage as they prepared the little play of Don Bosco's life.

     ---St. John Bosco, you the man!
     ---Pray for us!

Whats' missing?

Me and a few of the girls going into Primer curso (7th grade)

Sunday, the 16 new internas arrived! The parents and girls arrived and we went through and checked off all the stuff they brought to make sure they had everything they needed for the year, and then the parents left.  About seven of them won't get to go home until Easter, and this is their first time away from home. Everything is new for them, pobrecitas!.  The first few days they recieved some kind of meat and rice, and salad and white bread, and one of the girls wouldn't eat because she was only used to eating beans and tortillas at home.  Then you get to chores, its a big deal trying to teach them to clean things.  Imagine looking at tile floor, when you are used to living with dirt floors, they already look clean, so why should we mop them!  About twelve of them had never used a computer and had only seen one from a distance.  It is not easy trying to explain how to use a mouse to someone who doesn't even know what it does!  On top of that, I've been teaching them English--a new language!

Sor Karla and the girls at merienda (snack-time)

   Basically its been a hard adjustment for them. A few of them will start crying randomly in the middle of something.  So to keep spirits up, along with the usual work, I've been extra busy playing lots of futbol in free time, telling jokes at meal times, and hugging crying girls in the in-between scheduled activities.   Its actually been really fun, this group of girls are really great, they are really light-hearted and all of them want to learn, its just a little overwhelming at first for them.  In talking to the girls I just realized that no one who lives at this school is with their blood family.  Thus at this school, we have all been  placed together, away from our homes and our comfort zones.  Together we share this small part of our lives in our own sort of little family-  its pretty cool.  I also realized that new relationships don't heal or stop the heartbreaks.  Leaving our family and friends always hurts, but only these little cracks in our heart leave room to squeeze in a few more people to love on.  New people never replace old friends, they even make you appreciate old friends all the more!  So my advice is to keep your heart open to new people, its sometimes painful because it only means saying goodbye to more people, but its what we live for! I love you all back home soo much, Muah!
    --Dos Besos!

and

The prayer request now is for the new Internas,  that they can learn enough in the next couple of weeks so that they don't feel put-down when school starts with the externas bringing their laptops, makeup, and money to waste on junk-food.   And for me, that I can continue being uplifting with the strength of the the Lord. 

Isabel and Laura are going into Primer Bachillerato and are ready for classes to start already!



The sunrise on my way here from the airport.



Jiggity Jig**

In Montezuma, Costa Rica

A few small things I’ve noticed in the twenty four hours I’ve been traveling on my way back to Honduras, from Pheonix to Newark to Houston( where I spent the night) and now finally to San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

The View from the plane of the Honduran Islands

      First of all, I’m still on the plane, and I realized, that I haven’t posted anything at all about my trip to Costa Rica, and very little about being home, so I thought I’d catch you up before I get there.  Before going home, and after Tegucigalpa adventures, Kate Palla and I traversed Costa Rica for twelve days.  Ok so honestly who cares about places I’ve gone,  as St. Augustine says, the past doesn’t exist.  Well, that is why I will share with you stories that you can enjoy now, and that can bring a fuller appreciation of right now, really  the present is the only time when the Eternal reaches down and touches earth—the only time when we experience the Divine.  

Definitely saw God's beauty with this waterfall in Montezuma!

     Story 1: Its best to think of Driving in Central America as a game, and everyone as a hitchhiker

     Me and Kate rented a car. The game: make it to your destination safely with the most points, you must avoiding oncoming traffic—hitting a car automatic game over, and to keep it interesting, avoiding a pothole—plus one point, hitting a pothole—minus one, then double value in shady areas where you can’t see them.  We never lost, although we also didn’t end up with positive points very often, and a little guardian angel cheats kept us from losing a few times.  Along the way we had to stop a few times to make sure we were on the right road, one time we pulled over and just asked something like “Monteverde,  Por este Calle?” [“Monteverde (the city), on this road?”], the guys we asked all said “Si, Si!” and excitedly picked up there bags and machetes, and when we realized they wanted to get in the car we freaked out and sped away, as they cursed, because we were going where they wanted to go.hehe poor guys

Kate and the car we rented

Besides other things Livestock have a habit of getting in the way while driving!

  

  Story 2: Your elders are way cooler than even the coolest trees!

     So I this break I got to hang out with my mom’s mom, and my dad’s parents, and even my dad’s grandfather—my great grand-father. Old people are so great! My  Gramma still to this day can make a tortilla unlike any you’ve ever had, it’s the perfect circle of flour salt and love—mmmm!  Then you get my dad’s parents, my granpa telling jokes every second he gets, so you are always laughing while my grandma shares her stories about her various collections  and her miniature artwork.  And finally, I am still amazed at my 94 and 1/2 year old great-grandfather, Alejandro! We went to lunch at Jack-In-The-Box, as he told stories of his traveling with his Sweetheart ( my Great Grandma) to Europe and Mexico!  I could only marvel that although I had just been to the rainforest, and seen some amazing things—marvelous amazingly old things, there is no comparison between any cool ecosystem and sitting at a Jack-in-the-Box in Tucson, Arizona with a legacy. 

My nephew August with his great-great grandfather Alejandro!

Kate in the rainforest

Story 3:  I didn't finish the post until I arrived in Santa Rosa!
     Santa Rosa is beautiful as ever, at the school has new paint colors, two sisters were reassigned :( but we also have two new sisters :)!   The new first years arrive tomorrow, all scared and shy about being in a new place, so keep them in your prayers.  I can only hope to be as welcoming as family that hosted us in Costa Rica.  They didn’t even know us, but they took us in and fed us without question along with their mutual friend Sabrina who Kate happened to meet in Tegucigalpa!

Sabrina, Gaby (our hostess), Me and Kate

PS  the title is from  **To market, to market to buy a fat pig. Home again, home again, Jiggity jig! 
 I've already completed the first Home again, but the next isn't until August 31. So keep me in your prayers that I can have endurance and perseverence with my work here.  Looks like I'll be teaching intro to Mathematics for a couple weeks as well as my two English classes! 


ON the ferry in Costa Rica



Drugs, Preachers, and Kids

So the adventures didn't stop in Santa Rosa.

     First, I spent a week in Tegucigalpa.  I made it safely, but on the way in the eight hour busride, I had a run in with some drug smugglers, who after buying off the cops, stopped the bus outside the city of San Pedro, pulled out about 20 huge boxes of drugs out from underneath the unsuspecting passengers' seats, and then threw them out my window on the bus. I could do nothing and sat in silent horror with the other passengers as this happened.  Shortly after that, the bus ride had the usual people getting on to sell the snack foods and drinks, but also we were graced enough to have three different wandering preachers each with about an hour sermon! THe wermons were bad enough telling us we were going to go to hell and to REPENT!, but then they had to follow the sermon with selling something, so everyone just felt guilty and would buy something, because maybe then they wouldn't go to hell.  I could only stand so much, one guy kept insisting we all weren't children of God, this pushed it too far, and I had to talk to him.  How could he say that! How could he say God only loves some of us!  A father is always a father as soon as his child exists, and the child is always  a child as soon as he exists!  He was probably a victim of a broken family, like too many people, and unfortunately coudn't wrap his head around this idea I proposed to him, and so left the bus still telling me that its me who didn't understand!       After the bus, the Taxi driver i asked, ended up taking me to another location with the same name! I was horrified because my phone was dead and when I borrowed a phone, my friend Kate wouldn't pick up because unbeknown to me, she had just been robbed! What luck!  But  fortunately after about 50 minutes driving around, the taxi driver by sheer miracle (because there are no such things as addresses or Mapquest there) got me to the right location.  I honestly believe this was a miracle, that I found a respectable taxi driver that didn't take advantage of my being a foreigner and made sure I was safe not just leaving me in the middle of the ghetto where he first brought me by mistake.       Finally, I was able to enjoy Tegucigalpa.  I loved spending time with my friend Kate Palla, and helping out with the kids at the Hogar (for an explanation of the Hogar Don Bosco see the first section of my old post on Tegucigalga).  The kids were out of school, so it meant 12 hours a day of hardcore playing; it was awesome- soccer everyday, and lots of pushing kids on swings.  Mass with the kids and the Salesian priest Padre Eduardo was awesome, but it hit me there, that although the Hogar takes the kids away from the streets so they can play like normal kids, the streets are still a part of the kids.  Padre was asking the kids questions in the homily and got a little side tracked, and the kids ended up shouting all the drugs that kids on the street use, and even when asked how much they cost, the kids could answer without a pause.  I hope that these kids at least got the message that they are children of God, and that God is a father who won't abandon them even though most of them don't know their fathers. That instead of relying on drugs like their friends, they can learn to rely on the hope we all have in Christ.

Hector 5; a fearless orphan sent to the Hogar from the Missionaries of Charity ( mother Theresa's order)-- He is my favorite!

 We took the kids on a field trip to a place that had some fake ruins, and a pool These are some pics

Exhausted on the drive home from the pool/ fake ruin place.

Kate driving through the crazy Tegucigalpa traffic in an old 20 passenger van/bus, with 20 kids screaming in the background

our other bus in front of us

I pray that all of you realize that you are a child of God, and that you know that every person you meet is one too! Pray for all the people from broken families, who haven't experienced the undying selfless love of a father, that they can still know that GOd is our Father who always loves us!

Christmas Lights

Merry Christmas!  I have been back home in Arizona since December 14th and it has been wonderful to be with family, to be here living in abundance until I go back January 19th to Honduras.  It is nice not to worry when its raining, that you won't have any dry clothe.  And I am especially excited to go drive around the neighborhood and see the Christmas lights tonight, at our Community trolley party.  In Honduras, almost noone has Christmas lights, electricity is too expensive.  Before I left we drove the kids at the Hogar don Bosco to see Christmas lights, so we drove to the super shmancy shopping area in town where they have a 100 ft area decorated with lights and then we drove in a circle around that about five times going oooh and aww.  Then they got to go into a shopping mall where there was a Santa Claus and this was the most amazing thing, they each got to hug Santa!

Well I'll leave yal with this.  I've been thinking about this passage ever since I've been home.

"I know indeed how to live in humble circumstances; I know also how to live with abundance. In every circumstance and in all things I have learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry, of living in abundance and of being in need. I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me. " (Phil 4:12-13)

I am so thankful to so many people for the opportunities I have in life.  However, I can't say I have learned the secrets Paul is talking about, only that I am still learning.   Its hard to put God first to see that its God that makes us rich.  Then we can see our lives in a different light.   Well I guess we need to act as good stewards of our possessions and appreciate what we have, share the things we do not need, and not just waste so much. And then when we are in need, we need to see beyond jealousy and learn how Christ gave the pain and suffering of poverty redemptive power, and store our treasure in Heaven.