special

I've had some special visitors at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, Rachel (mi hermana) and Guillermo (mi novio). I was able to explore some new areas of Honduras: Amapala, Olancho and La Paz.

por fin

Well, it has been a long time... so it is time for a post. I will make this easy on myself by blogging someone else's blog.

I had the privilege to receive two guest in our homes in Nueva Suyapa: Reade and Lisa. They came for three weeks to live in Nueva Suyapa at the recommendation of some mutual friends, Ryan and Emily. My friend Maureen and I met Ryan and Emily on a bus coming back from Guatemala, but that is another story.

Reade and Lisa spent time learning how to live in Nueva Suyapa, did activities with the kids in our neighborhood, practiced Spanish and contemplated faith and life as they learned from the poor. They returned for another couple weeks in January. I pulled some quotes off of their blog to share here because I think that their "fresh eyes" and outsider's perspective give you a different glimpse of my life.

"So we decided to have another kids club today with the focus being on keeping our earth clean. People just throw trash everywhere, especially in the gutters, and don´t think twice about it. So we gave them each a trash bag and sent them out to clean up their neighborhood, with the promise of a freshly popped bag of popcorn as a reward when they brought it back. They were all smiles and had a great time." One of the activities we did with the kids



"All three of the kids are filthy and smell of urine. They live in the street most of the day and are in and out playing around the gutter (into which neighbors dump their latrines). G doesn't have diapers. She runs around in dirty underwear all day long since nobody changes or cleans her up. It was so sad to see a puddle on the ground under her feet the other day. She peed without giving a word of warning because she has nowhere else to go. It took at least a week of interacting with her before she began to show signs of recognizing when we were talking to her, and even more time before she said a word. Now, though, she knows our names and responds when we ask her questions. Mostly, she just wants to be held." Describing some kids from my block




"We were prepared that life in Nueva Suyapa would be different than anything else we had experienced, but it is hard to know what to expect without actually being here. The house we are staying in is by far one of the very nicest in the whole community, and we have it easy living here. Even so, it is like nowhere else we have ever stayed. Most of the houses here are made out of cement whenever possible. None of them have insulation where we live, unless you stuff newspaper in your walls and create it yourself. Roofs are mostly made out of aluminum. If you are lucky, as we are, you have an iron padlocked gate to your porch before you reach your front door, also equipped with a pretty sturdy lock. Our floor is cement and tile, but it is not uncommon for houses to have dirt floors. Many houses have a courtyard area outdoors, where you find your bathroom or latrine and the area for washing clothing and dishes." The living environment



"We were so sad to have to leave Nueva Suyapa for the second time in two months, but did we ever get a great sending off! The night before we left, we were informed that some of the kids had a party planned for us, and they wanted at least two hours of our time. So at 7:30 on the dot, we had a group of the kids ready to escort us to one of the kids' houses, where we piled in like sardines to the cheers and applause of many of our friends. There were decorations, speeches, dancing, and lots of food. Yes, they had pooled their money together and gone down to the local chinese restaurant (which I did not know existed before) to buy heaping quantities of arroz chino (Chinese rice... basically fried rice) and chop suey. I don't know how they managed to do that, but we were floored by the extravagant generosity. Plus, they asked Maureen to bake a delicious strawberry cake, which was a huge treat. The caveat, of course, was that we had already eaten dinner with a group of people at Chris and Mo's and we didn't realize that they would serve us plates big enough to feed a small village. We asked Anna if we could get away with eating, say, half the plate. Her response: "Um, you should probably try and finish it all. Just don't think about it and eat quickly." We thought we might burst by the end of the meal." Saying Goodbye



"In our short time here, we have gotten to know a lot of kids and some of their parents. We have desperately desired to transition our pity into compassion - the type of compassion Jeony models. Jeony has helped us understand why we feel so torn apart. He has shown us that people here need compassion and hope. But this has been very hard for us to achieve as it takes enormous courage, time, relationship building (or as Young Life calls it, earning the right to be heard), and a better command of the language so we can understand the depths of individual problems..... It´s so easy to pull down the shade, so to speak, and to block out the truth that is so real in so many places of the world, because when I think about it, my heart literally hurts. Tangibly. It is more convenient not to think about it. The problem is that I just can´t live this way anymore. I've been thinking about poverty a lot lately. It's something that I've always known has existed and felt genuine momentary sorrow over, but I had not felt personally connected to it before this year of traveling. I can no longer escape the constant ache that nags my heart..." Reflections on the Experience

Community Tree

I've been missing all of the cozy Christmas traditions that I would be doing in Colorado right now, so I decided to get a little Christmas tree. I had a ornament and decoration making party with kids from my neighborhood and we decided it would be the Christmas tree for the barrio or neighborhood since most of them didn't have one in their house. We listened to Christmas music, ate snacks and the tree definitely got decorated, as you can see. They had fun inventing their own ideas for ornaments and getting lost in a mess of glue, tinsel and construction paper. I love doing art activities with them because they have such natural creativity. They are constantly inventing art and toys out of whatever materials they can get their hands on, whether it is a kite out of newspaper or a grocery bag, or a welcome sign using cardboard and packing peanuts.

shutter bug

A recent highlight for me was a visit from Jane Chung. Jane is a freelance artist, graphic designer and photographer that is working with Servant Partners. She was in Nueva Suyapa for a few days and we took a lot of pictures! Here are a couple.

'Afternoon chat' Photo by Jane
(Sandra and her family are the frequent subject of my photos. She and her little sisters are beautiful and are always excited to help with new projects)

'Rooftop' Photo by Anna

C and K Photo by Anna

This is one of my favorite photos by Jane, it captures her simple and humble style

Birthday Mania

This month, there are at least 6 people in my neighborhood with a birthday. Here are photos from the first round of parties, held at my house. Pictures by L and L.

In your hands

In this photo, I wanted to bring up the idea of value, meaning and ownership of money. What is the value of twenty dollars to a North American? What is the value of twenty dollars to a single mother in my neighborhood in Honduras? What is the difference between twenty dollars in the world and twenty dollars in God’s economy? When we open ourselves to these questions, God begins to transform our understanding and value of money. We gain new and unique opportunities to bring forth the Kingdom. I think another aspect of this photo is whether or not the girls in the picture are giving or receiving.

I am working on a photo project for a church in Austin, TX. They are doing a stewardship campaign and some of the themes are imagination and joyful giving.

cards cards cards

A quick plug for a project I am working on

Order your holiday or gift cards from Cards for Change

sapo

anatomy of saturday night

day of the child

We have been laughing all week, every time one of us accidentally says ´´the day of the child´´ in English. Día del niño just doesn´t translate with the same feeling.

Today is el día del niño here in honduras. Last friday the princess stopped by my house, this time in much better spirits. We ate dinner and then she was telling me about what they do to celebrate the holiday. She washed all of the dishes and i paid here $1 so that she could buy a bottle of soda to bring to the party at school so she could participate in the celebration. She told me that she would be in the drama because the teacher always chooses her because she is good at acting. She will play the part of the sister of the child with no name. The drama illustrates the Rights of the Child. According to her memory, these are the rights of the child:

The right to a name
The right to play
The right to education
The right to be loved
The right to a house
The right to food
The right to be protected and safe

It is sad to know that each of these rights is a delicate and often missing reality in her life and in the lives of many other kids in my neighborhood and in the world. Her right to play is often taken away because she is responsible for cooking the food for her brothers and sisters and often has to do the wash too. Her right to be loved is jeopardized by the broken relationships with her family and the abandonment of her father. Her right to a house is a fragile reality, the wood home with a dirt floor is vulnerable to floods each time it rains. Her right to food is often just a dream. There may be several days a week when she doesn´t eat. Her right to protection and safety are absent.

Check out these two photo essays from UNICEF about the Rights of the Child

mother teresa

I was just reading through the most recent issue of Time magazine and was captivated my the article about Mother Teresa. It highlights new information about her inner life and the long, long period of darkness that she felt. I highly recommend it and I will definitely read the new book that is supposed to come out.

Jesus has a very special love for you. As for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear.
— Mother Teresa to the Rev. Michael Van Der Peet, September 1979

bearing the mark

She came to my house last night, the princess. A young heir to the Kingdom, only 12 years old. Everything about her was exactly as He had said, her robes, her spirit, the way she lived, the way she carried herself. It was maybe what you would call a royal moment, how I felt when she told me abouot her life, when I held her in my arms. It was royal because in her I could see exactly what the King was about. I could see exactly what He meant when He said that the Kingdom was hers. That for princess daughters such as her, He had worked and planned and sacrificed to establish his rule and his reality-one that was nothing but good. It was her He was thinking of all along. It is her He is working for now.

I wept too because everything about her was exactly as He had said. Her robes are despair and her spirit is broken and her life is poverty and and captivity and her attitude is humility. I wept because she doesn’t even know that she is a princess with a Good King Father. Instead she only sees that she is a young girl living in slum, about to be abandoned by her last care taking parent. Her arms were like sticks, her shoulderblades sticking out like fins underneath my hug. Her heart and body are broken by the verbal and physical abuse from her family and neighbors. I wept when she told me “She tells me that she doesn’t love me and that I am a bad person. She feeds the others and not me.” I wept when she told me how they had pushed her in the gutter and beat her up.

the team

Maureen, Chirs, Abby, Reyna, Anna

my life in pictures

It has been three months since I last blogged.... here is a brief tour of my life since then.

I have been working a lot on my house, including getting this razor wire put up. This is the view if you are standing up in the latrine. As one person put it, but beautiful and ugly at the same time. I also had a small mold scare in my bedroom, but that seems to have subsided since my landlord repainted. I bought some cement blocks to make a book shelf in the living room and now I feel like I'm living in a palace.



Time in the 'hood. This is one of my neighbors who sells fruit and vegetables. This day she was selling oranges. Maureen and I have been getting to know a family that has been going through a crisis these past couple months. A mother was going to have to leave her kids home alone to fend for themselves while she spent a month in the hospital getting an operation. Some of here children are grown and live in a different community, two live in children's homes and two of here daughters, ages 6 and 12 live with her. We prayed with her and her daughters the night before she was going to the hospital. I don't know if she was healed or if her condition is changing, but now she will not have to have the operation until next year. For now the crisis has been averted.

I went to Belize for a short exploratory trip, visiting a ministry that is doing a church plant and school in a poor neighborhood in Belize City. These are two of the girls we met. It is surprisingly difficult to get around Central America. You can fly between most of the capitals, but it will cost you an arm and a leg. We took 4 buses, a boat, walked, hitch hiked and took a taxi to get there, and it took us 2 days.

26

It was the biggest surprise party I've ever gotten! It was a double surprise for me and Maureen as her birthday is the day before mine. There was a grand entrance, food, cake, a pinata, running races, soccer, and the limbo. Fun was had by all!

wireless

currently blogging to you from the cement block next to my house in nueva suyapa...

we just discovered we get a wireless signal (or at least the area in front of our house) from the high school up the hill from us, one of the few places that has internet in nueva suyapa.

it is almost 8 o'clock at night as i look through the darkness to our closest neighbors down the hill. i wonder what they think as they see the computer glow light up my face as i crouch down in the front yard with my laptop. the only thing i can see of them right now is the glow of the fire pit because, ironically, they don't have any electricity at all... wireless also, i suppose

just when you need it

Yesterday, these two full rainbows appeared over Nueva Suyapa. It is amazing to think that this is actually God reminding us of His covenant with us and his faithfulness in keeping that promise. He is good to encourage us along the way! This image also calls my attention because it pulls together the presence of God and the reality of our broken world. God is faithful and present even in the places and times when the coming of His Kingdom seems the least likely of the most challenging. I hope you are encouraged today to seek God and remember his faithfulness in the difficult places in your life and the world around you.

God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Genesis 9:12-15

this is how house fires start

Good thing our house is made of bricks. On Sunday morning, an extension cord in our kitchen bit the dust, hard. You can see that the plug is still in the socket, but not at all connected to the cord. The cord is charred in several places and was also melted to the cord of the refrigerator and the cord of the toaster. It had to have been flaming, but we didn't see it. Check it out for yourself:

slice of life

I'm on the bus, coming up the hill after some grocery shopping. A young girls strikes up conversation, asking me what my name is. I think she is asking me if I'm going to Nueva Suyapa, so I keep saying "si". We giggle when I finally say Anna and she tells me she is also named Ana.

Once the bus clears out near the U, I sit down in an empty seat and she sits next to me. She says she knows me, that she has seen me before. Over a box of raisins that I pull out of the grocery sack, she readily tells me about herself:

she is 12

her mom and baby brother Manuel are in another seat farther back

(pause to go give them some raisins, I keep her seat safe with my backpack)

she live in Flores de Oriente (one of the roughest parts of NS)

they are on their way home after going to "recoger unos cipotes" (to pick up some kiddos)....

...at the INFA office, (a couple of her siblings at the gov. office where kids go when their parents can't or aren't allowed to take care of them)

her favorite food is spaghetti

she is in 3rd grade

do I know Jorge?

who?

you know, el gordito, he lives by me?

no, i don't know Jorge

do you know the "such and such center"?

no, where is it?

i used to be there.

oh, did you live there?

yes.

with other kids?

yes, i liked it.

thanks for the raisins she says, they usually go with milk, right?

sure, i say.

more travels...

last week i realized i was approaching the end of my 90 day visa

later last week i realized i could not renew from the immigration office, but rather that i had to leave honduras and go to a non-border sharing country (guatemala, el salvador and nicaragua do not count)

the night before i was leaving to go to costa rica, i learned i had to leave the country for at least 72 hours


so wednesday morning at 5:30 am i caught the bus to san jose, costa rica. it was a long day on the bus, as we arrived after 10 pm. it was an even longer day because the movies they showed on the bus were kung fu, two steven segal movies and "music videos" of Spanish classics from the early 80,s.

so i,ve been camped out at a little hotel in downtown san jose, biding my time by doing as much free stuff as possible until i head back. traveling alone like this is a first, but it has been a good experience.

two highlights: 1 visiting the school in a san jose suburb that i attended in 00-01 and seeing old friends there. 2 seeing the movie blood diamond... excelent. i cried and it is getting priority on my ballot at the coming oscar party.