Sacrifices

Just thinking about how lent and sacrifices mean a lot more when you have less to give up.  Yesterday I spent about half an hour talking to one of the moms of the kids who come to eat at the comedor.   This lady is a stick, she is so skinny, her second hand clothes hang off her.  She was talking about the blessings of God.  She said a few weeks ago she had hurt her back, and couldn't wash clothes, (which she does for a living).  She had no way of earing money to provide for her two girls, but God took care of them, because they could go to the comedor during the weekdays for lunch, and on the weekends, she said somehow, she could always find enough money to feed the girls.  She said she didn't eat sometimes, but that it didn't matter if the girls had food.  She is an amazing lady, with two beautiful girls, who always walk around with the biggest smiles.  She was proud that they were going to go to school, so that when they grow up they could get better jobs than just washing clothes.  She says sometimes she gives up a meal or two so that she can buy school supplies...  I just think, I have never had to give up a meal, let alone two, for any reason!

Lucky for you…That I’m not Peter.

    El Instituto Maria Auxiliadora is a labryrinth of doors and cabinets each with a special key kept in a specific place.  Its amazing how doors and cabinets open, and how so much depends on the keyholder. For those of you who know me, you know that I have always lived in a situation that functioned quite to the contrary.  Growing up, we had a very confident neighborhood and many would leave the doors open and anyone would walk in or out, as they please, and my parents would always leave a door unlocked for us kids.  Then, I moved to college, and similarly, supposedly I had a key, but more or less we just left it on the window and everyone would use the same one.  Well then I guess there was the car keys, however, my family can attest I was never very good at keeping track of those for very long, and they are lucky we had two copies, and triple AAA to unlock the car when they were left inside the car.  

     Anyways, I thought I’d let you laugh at me for a moment,  unfortunately, coming here with so many keys hasn’t helped me that much in learning to remember them.  So I have a key that I use to enter my room, and unfortunately it’s the only one, and unfortunately, in the morning I have a habit of leaving it in my room when I roll out of bed and run out the door to get to my duties of attending to the girls' breakfast.  But, lucky for me the windows here are like blinds made of glass, so imagine this.  

This isn't my window, but so you get the idea of the pieces of glass. That are really tricky to take out!

       Like normal I didn’t realize I had to go meet with a student until it was almost that time, but I needed to go to the bathroom and to grab the gradesheet, however, I also realized that once again, my keys are locked in my room. AHHHH so I cautiously take out a piece of glass on the top, slide my hand through the window to unhook the screen, then on the bottom of the window, piece by piece I have to slowly extract the sheets of glass carefully placing them on the window sil, until there are enough out, that I can climb into the widow like a lizard and fall onto the bed (strategically placed on the other side). –and I made it to the bathroom and the meeting on time!  Wooo hoo! That’s why you are all very lucky I’m not Saint Peter, because we would all find ourselves locked out of heaven, and I imagine the windows are probably a lot harder to break into.   

Sulmi taking water out of the pozo (well)

Poor girl, I was taking a photo and not helping her, and the bucket is full!

--On a happy note, I think I finally unlocked how to teach my girls in English class, I am trying a technique called wholebrain learning, its crazy, but two classes so far and it seems pretty awesome!  We’ll see how this new module goes over, the first was pretty rough, but I’m hoping the best for this next one. God bless!

Some pics of the girls in their suits of amabilidad! jejeje

 

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!