HONDURAS - March 10-17, 2007

The following is a letter I sent to friends and family when I returned from my second mission trip to Honduras.

Dear Prayer Partners, Friends & Family:

Thanks to everyone who prayed for me and our team of nine while we were in Honduras this year. May God Bless your faithfulness!

March 10-17, 2007 (for some it went to the 18th or 19th, I’ll explain later)

Our flight out of Norfolk to Atlanta & San Pedro Sula, Honduras went pretty smoothly. As soon as we walked into customs in Honduras it was incredibly warm and humid. Some of us were still wearing winter clothing.

Outside the airport while we were waiting for our drivers to load our luggage into small pick-up trucks we met another church group from Michigan, Covenant Life (www.ghclc.org) who were headed in the same direction. We discovered they were the same group we met last year at La Union, Lempira at Vida Abundante Church compound (our Honduran Host). They arrived the night before we left. This year we spent the week together with their team of 19, same compound but different villages.

As our church, Freedom Life befriended Agua Zarca village (34 homes) they befriended a nearby village (120 homes) at Nueva Paz (New Peace).

Our first night we stayed at Copantl hotel, same one as last year. We had lunch and dinner with Covenant Life, our Honduran hosts, the driving team and translators. It was nice meeting other people. This is also where we met our International Aid leaders who would be working with both groups throughout the week, married couple, Kurt & Matteah from Michigan.

The following morning Covenant Life and Freedom Life traveled to La Union in seven all-terrain vehicles. The first three hours the roads are pretty smooth but the last two were definitely not time for a nap unless you want to suddenly slap your head against the door window. However, it’s these last two hours where the mountains are so breath-taking beautiful you wouldn’t dare take a nap.

There was only one bathroom break on this trip, at our stop and those with experience brought out their traveling toilet paper, traveling toilet seat covers, anti-bacterial gels . . . need I say more? In some places where we travel there is no toilet paper or bathrooms for that matter. At one point we made a stop to enjoy the beautiful mountains, some at that moment needed to use the bathroom but no facilities nearby, so some watered the evergreen bushes or small trees at a coffee bean plantation. I guess they would be labeled organic, right?

When we arrived at La Union, Vida Abudante Church compound we all threw our luggage into our dorms and selected a bunk bed. Our lunch was ready so we headed to the dining hall where we had spaghetti. Can you believe our food was prepared on a stove made from adobe and heated by wood? The village ladies do a wonderful job at preparing our meals.

After lunch both groups met at a tiled patio (next door to the dining room) for a meeting with our IA leaders. Kurt and Matteah gave us ten helpful pointers to take with us during our time at the villages. ‘Flexible’ was stated three times, hint hint.

Fifteen minutes after our meeting we all headed to our respective villages. Okay, this part of the drive to our villages is even bumpier, steeper and windier than the last two hours of our drive to La Union. Thank the Lord, it’s only 25 minutes to Agua Zarca and 25 minutes back. If you seriously take a nap during this drive, chances are good you may not wake up.

One of the first homes upon entering Agua Zarca lives one of the orphan girls I fell in love with last year, Rosario, 10 years old. She was there amongst many of the children and adults waiting for our arrival. As soon as they knew it was us in the trucks everyone got excited. As we neared Rosario’s home she immediately recognized me and started waving crazily; I have to admit I really got choked up. Wow, it’s arriving in another place and time ….. visiting another extension of my family.

As we drove further into the village we saw many other children and adults, many familiar faces. When we got out of our vehicles, Rosario hugged me repeatedly and strongly, she has a beautiful smile. There we got to shake hands and talk with the villagers, re-igniting our start of our relationship from last year.

We met briefly in the village church for a bit to re-familiarize with the villagers and for the local Pastor to share and remind everyone why we were there. Rosario sat next to me and said: “The comb you all gave me last year I still have it.” I realized a simple comb was important to her. And then she said, “The skirt I’m wearing is one that you all gave me too.” I said it looked pretty on her.

The next day we came back and started working on making ‘hornillas’ or Lorena stoves. They are made from sand, clay dirt, dried pine needles and very fresh manure, courtesy of the village cows. The reason for the manure it acts as a repellant toward mice and cockroaches so they won’t be encouraged to make the hornillas their home. We made fifteen from scratch and made repairs on some from last year that we did. Last year we made 27 from scratch, the cows were very busy.

One interesting thing happened one afternoon at the village, some of us were walking to visit Rosario’s home, she lives with her aunt Luciana and 14-year old sister Carmela to see the hornilla that was in the process of getting built (last year her aunt and others opted out from having one built). Almost reaching her home, we heard some racket behind us, about ¼ mile away there was this cow with horns (looks like a Yak) who was bucking (didn’t know cows bucked) and a man on his horse shepherding it into a fenced area on the mountain, while Hermelinda (Rosario’s aunt who lives across from them) was opening the gate. As the cow was going nuts she got scared, initially I thought the cow threw her because I saw her in a leap motion but apparently she attempted to jump out of the way. Finally the cow went in and Hermelinda started walking toward us. Things looked well until I noticed she was crying loudly and limping. I went to her and noticed she had a deep gash and a cut on top of her right foot caused by barbed wire. A few of us cleaned the wound and got it to stop bleeding from the first-aid kit which we carry with us for the mission group.

Someone on our team arranged to have her taken to the clinic in La Union. I was fortunate to go with her. You know how I said it takes 25 minutes to get to La Union or to Agua Zarca? Well, I had Speed Racer as our driver that day and of all the times I’ve been to the village and La Union I’ve never arrived at either place so quick before. I think my life flashed before my eyes many times during that trip especially when I eyed the steep hills. That night I ended up with a doozy of a headache.

The clinic in La Union is tiny, clean and has various rooms. There is a room for minor surgery, dental room, labor & delivery room, observation room and nursery room. When I mention ‘room,’ it’s literally one room per specialty mentioned. Hermelinda was taken right away into the minor surgery room, the doctor immediately said she needed stitches. I’ve never seen stitches being performed before and it’s not pretty. He gave her a shot of Novocain next to her injuries but definitely not enough time for it to kick in before he started to sew away. She kept saying ‘Dios mio!’ or ‘My God!’ I guess after having twelve stitches put in I would exclaim the same.

In fifteen minutes she got stitched up, got medication for infection prevention, Amoxicillin and for pain, Ibuprofen. Someone from our group paid $165 Lempiras or about $8.68 USD. I know that is not a lot of money in the US but it’s a lot in Honduras. Then about two minutes later we stopped at another clinic, no more than a whole minute (literally, no more than one whole minute!) from entering and leaving the building she got a Tetanus shot for free.

Next, our speedy return to Agua Zarca. The driver and I were the only ones who wore seat belts. Another villager came with us who didn’t wear his seat belt and Hermelinda didn’t want to put hers on. I was trying to encourage her but she didn’t know how to wear it and looked uncomfortable at trying, so she gave up.

On our drive back I had a definite visual why we need to wear seatbelts. The villager and Hermelinda struggled to stay in their seat and I struggled not to choke every time the seatbelt would tighten.

I have much more to share but this is enough writing for now. I hope you got a little experience of our trip to Agua Zarca.

On our last day at San Pedro Sula airport as we all started checking-in our baggage and getting our flight tickets, I and two from our team got our tickets with seat assignment, the others got their tickets but no seat assignment. They were put on standby due to overbooking. We three inside were SO happy to get home.

When the three of us arrived in Atlanta only one made it home as scheduled. I and one from our team were put on standby. We slept in the airport, camping in a tent is more comfortable. The two of us made it home the next day on the 18th. The remainder six of our team made it a day later, the 19th.

I thank the Lord for your prayers Home Sweet Home!

Blessings,

Maria