Baptism... Honduran Style

Hondurans know how to baptize. We were blessed to recently attend the baptism of two local churches. For those of you that aren’t real familiar with baptism. Let me give the background and what is expected. What many Christians believe (I happen to be one of them), is that baptism is a Christian’s response to Christ’s example. Jesus was baptized back when He was on earth, and he urged us to do the same in order to show we are walking in His way of life. When we go  under the water, it signifies us leaving our old way of life, and when we re-emerge, beginning a new life in Christ. By being baptized, we don’t believe that anything of eternal consequence happens; faith is of the heart. However, it is an important and exciting day for any believer. It’s a day when you tell the world that you’re taking your faith seriously. Strange way to do it though, I know. 

Anyways, if you would go to a baptism in the US, you would expect a solemn minister slowly sprinkling water on someone, or if you’re from a more… dunking tradition, you would hop in an oversized bathtub in front of a church (strange again), a pool, or maybe a local pond with a few of your family and the church there. Well, that’s not the way they do things down here. I was expecting some sort of dirty river or hole of mud somewhere locally  when we climbed onto the old yellow bus (with chrome wheels, thank you very much). When we arrived at wherever we were going, we walked down through the trees awhile until we popped out next to a nice little swimming pool next to a beautiful river. How nice, thought I, a pool. But, we walked past the pool and followed the river… to this.

 

It’s seriously one of the most beautiful waterfalls we’ve ever seen. Tropical to the hilt, about 50 feet tall, with clear, clean water. Being there with Eduardo and Ada (read below – “Story of a Family”), was really moving. While we were all gathered together on the bank Pastor Fredy explained the significance of baptism to everyone gathered, then sang and prayed .

 The action then moved down to the water. The two pastors walked into the pool of the base of the falls and two lines of men followed them in and made an entryway for those that were there to be baptized. The singing started again, louder this time, and one by one, the new believers went forward, were submerged, then came back up. I can’t imagine a more perfect way to start a new life. The baptized arose into morning sunlight, on a warm day, at the base of an unbelievable waterfall, and the only thing they could hear over the roar of the falls was the singing of their friends that love and support them on the banks of this river. Needless to say, it was an experience.

 

These people, that have so very little in this life, were richly blessed that morning. Our prayer for those people that morning is that they would come to The Christ that saved a prostitute on the brink of death at the hands of the religious, and gave her the hope to live in freedom. The Christ that demands we work for the good of the oppressed, marginalized, and forgotten. The Christ that “had no tears for his own grief, but shed drops of blood for mine.” Following the baptism, this beautiful mixture of young and old, orphan and father took communion; and together, we remembered this Christ. Let it push us to serve in His way.

(FYI, there will be more higher-quality pictures in the Pictures tab.)

Damos gracias a Dios; por nuestro familia internacional (for our international family).

We´re still Americans

Happy late Thanksgiving to all of you US citizens.  What a great holiday we have that the rest of the world is missing out on!  The family time and the food, ah!

Yep it was a normal day down here, no Thanksgiving in Honduras.  We took the morning off to sleep in and make a great typical Thanksgiving meal together.  It was a bit of a challange with no oven and took a LOT of planning to get all the ingredients from multiple grociery stores in multiple cities.  But, we did it!  And it was GREAT!
 

We made a pumpkin dessert and shared in with the entire staff in the afternoon.  We also had a ¨cultural moment¨ during English class that afternoon as well to teach about the holiday.

Story of a family

For those of you who do not know, the first time we came to Honduras was in July of 2010 to help build a home for a widow or orphan.  Well, it ended up being a family of orphans, Bexy 17 (and her 2 children Lizy and Darian), Ada 14, Julia 12, and Eduardo 15.  Their father had died several years back in a car accident and then in 2008 their mother was brutally murdered in front of them with a machete due to not being able to pay a debt she owed.  A guy offered to take them in after the death of their mother who ended up fathering Bexy´s 2 children and then taking off.  During our visit in 2010 we had the blessing of sharing the hope Christ with Ada and Julia and they became believers.  It was hard to tell if the decision would stick or if they would have any support to be discipled.  In 2010 we did not meet Eduardo, he had fled from the family after the death of his mother and was pursuing the ¨life¨ of dance clubs, parties, etc. in the city. 

Julia, Ada, Lizy, Bexy, and Darian

When we returned in March of 2011 we discovered that they were indeed heavily involved learning, teaching, and serving in the local church.  They were sharing favorite scriptures with us!  During the March visit we also met Eduardo and came to find he also had become part of the local church and was spending a significant amount of time with the pastor.  He had returned from the city and has been living at home since early 2011.  Bexy had left with her youngest to take a job in a big city an hour away.  Three teenage orphans lived on their own taking care of their niece.

Eduardo, Ada, Julia, and Lizy up front

 

Since March Bexy remains with her job in the city with both of her children now, Julia went to live with an aunt about 45 min. away, and Ada and Eduardo have remained as the main house caretakers.

A lot of our time has been spent with our sister Ada and brother Eduardo since we moved here in Sept. they are now 16 and 17 and living on their own trying to make ends meet.  Eduardo completed his 6^th grade education a few years back and is working whenever work is available helping out a mechanic to support them.  Ada is just now at age 16 completing her 6^th grade education.  She graduates this Dec. 10^th and we will walk with her as her god parents at her graduation. 

Side note on education in Honduras and many Central American countries.  Education here is limited to say the least and only free until 6^th grade, after that you must pay just like it was college.  Most people here only have a 6^th grade education and sometimes that is uncommon.

She just had a birthday on Nov. 22^nd and we made a cake to take and celebrate with her. 

Ada´s 16th Birthday

She also has a lot of desire to start a garden in the small yard she has, she has started many plants on her own and with Kaleb and a Canadian friend´s help she is on her way to developing the whole yard!

The family´s home and property

Today was an exciting day, Ada and Eduardo were baptized.   They explained to us that they have received Christ and want to follow in this step of faith and obedience.  No one was making them do it, it was their free will.  What a happy day to see their lives dedicated to following Christ in a culture where it definitely cost them to do so.

Ada

Eduardo

Praying during communion immediately after being baptized

We´ll continue to give updates on this family throughout the year as they are a huge part of our life down here.  They are brothers and sisters to us.

Go Baby Go!

Most Hondurans don't drive, but those that do, they don't play games. When you get on the road here, you're acknowledging that you're on the road to WIN. I'm not sure what the goal is, or where we're all going so fast, but unless your vehicle is loaded down with 3 times its maximum weight capacity (also plenty common), you'll need to be absolutely flogging your chosen steed. This applies to any road, in any condition, in any weather, in any vehicle, on any day. What's that, you've only got an anemic 3-wheeled mototaxi? DRIVE IT LIKE YOU STOLE IT. Oh, I see, your truck's almost is 35 years old and the last oil change was in 1992. IT'S BASICALLY A FIGHTER JET.

Although all the roads here are clogged with pedestrians, they understand the game and magically part accordingly. Granted, not all drivers here are completely suicidal all the time, but the 50% that are push the rest of us to drive like we're on the final lap of the Indy 500. Two lane roads immediately transform into three lane roads as drivers pass into oncoming traffic, on the inside of turns, and in the middle of town.

These road rules are not expressly Honduran, as anyone who's spent 5+ minutes in a developing country can tell you. But to help express our particular experience, I'd like to recount a recent trip "down the road" with a notorious local driver, let's call him Pal. On this particular trip, I learned two interesting facts.

1. The words "turbo diesel" translate here as "rocket sled."
2. Brand new rental trucks are probably good for about 1 month of "normal use" in Honduras before they need replaced. There seems be no requirement to return them in the state they were received. 

As we pulled out of the garage (launch pad?), a particularly unfortunate teenager hopped in the bed of the truck; I said a quick prayer for his eternal soul. Pal moved quickly through our pueblo on its dirt roads as its people dodged for the side. The edge of town was there, now gone, and we moved into the mountains. Having driven this road several times, I waited for us to slow down as the roads deteriorated. Pal was having absolutely none of that. As the ruts deepened and holes became craters, Pal accelerated like the devil himself had started chasing us. Villages ripped past, and I waited patiently for something important in the suspension to explode. But, the moment never came. Emboldened by his lack of obligation to the poor rented machine, Pal slowed to sublight speed only to whip the tail around the switchbacks. 1/4 mile drag track or rutted mountain trail, all roads were the same to Pal.

We arrived at our destination in literally one-third of the time it takes me driving aggressively to get there. I hesitantly checked the bed, expecting our young friend to be either missing or tenderized beyond recognition. But, miraculously, he scampered out of the bed, looking a bit like a squirrel in bad need of Prozac. He headed for the hills, anxious to leave his experience behind.

In this country, there is now a man that will raise his children, and his children will never understand why daddy won't ever let them ride the truck taxis. But I know.

A Taste of the US

So we finally made it to the “big” supermarket in San Pedro Sula.  We’ve been to this big city about a dozen times since we arrived, but never alone with time to shop.  So we finally got the chance!  It was basically your typical US grocery store, not a super Wal-Mart but your normal Kroger/Etc.  We found nice bagged lettuce, Swiss miss hot chocolate, Lipton tea, canned pumpkin, chocolate chips, salad dressings, Fritos/Cheetos/snacks, Kaleb’s Mt. Dew and snickers, M&Ms, candy, etc.  Most things were about the same as the US prices if not a little more, which is a shame and the reason we won’t shop there every week, but it’s great to know it’s an option!  Kaleb is very easy to please, and I’m thankful but I do know he is missing his Mt. Dew and Snickers every now and then.  

                     Kaleb enjoys his first Mt. Dew in 2 months with good friend Luis Lopez!

Some things we may try to bring with us from the states or ask people to bring when they come because it’s just crazy expensive here since it’s imported.  We’re looking forward to borrowing someone’s oven to bake some chocolate chip cookies and maybe even a pumpkin roll toward Thanksgiving.  Looks like with the help of this store I’ll be able to make a great Thanksgiving Dinner for the 2 of us, since no one else here celebrates it.  It’s nice to have the option on baking someone a birthday cake or have a few snacks stored up for the last 3 PSU games that we try to watch online.  We won’t even go into the mess on PSU’s campus right now – I yi yi.  Anyway, even though it’s not NEAR as convenient as it is in the States, we do have some foods within and 1 and ½ hour drive of us.  This super market is also on the same drag as a string of familiar restaurants, so after shopping we stopped in for a Subway Sub!  Haven’t smelled the store (PS smells the same and stays on your clothing, just like the States) or eaten there in a while.  Shout out you all of you fellow Subway workers – you could move to Honduras and do the same thing!  If we lived in the city our lives could look a lot similar to the States in regards to living accommodations, food, and convenience.  But, you couldn’t pay us enough to live in such a dangerous city with all of its gang and drug related violence. Plus, that’s not where the poor of Honduras are.

On the road again... still.

Overall, we've been very blessed. We couldn't even begin to recount what goes crazy every day, but first we'll share a little from today. We went to another community, Caliche (roughly translated Bumblesmack). The road to Caliche is what the Hondurans call "ugly," it's what I call "not a road." We took a Toyota LandCruiser 70, God's gift to awful roads, the things are tanks.  After 30 minutes on paved/nice gravel roads, we turned up the mountain for the next 1 1/2 hours on the trail. Did I mention that we were in the bed of the truck with a Honduran travel buddy?

You know a vehicle means business when it has a snorkle from the factory.

So, up we went through streams, over rocks, through ruts, on the sides of mountains, over huge rocks, past cattle, iguanas, and boys on horses. Occasionally we would nail a big something and we'd hear laughter from the cab. Sometimes it was fun, sometimes it was...not. Luis did his best to be smooth, but most of the time, nothing short of a bulldozer could make the road forgiveable. We finally made a descent into the community, only to meet with the leaders and turn around and do it all over again two hours later. Incredible.

Well, after another very full day, we´re still without a home. We did return to Las Lomitas for an overnight visit last week though. The long and short of Las Lomitas is that it is very rural, but has a lot looking up for it right now. There are other organizations getting involved at this point: a microenterprise has started, water is on its way to the community, a petition to the government has a promise of electricity in the coming year, a housing improvment (much needed) project is underway and pledged for the next few years, land ownership is high with prices rising, the coffee business is very profitable now in this area, and the local church is growing. This experience left us feeling very encouraged, but like we may not be the best fit since the opportunity is already so high.

The other community that we had high hopes for is also taking a down turn, but for a very different reason. Honduras has a real problem with squatters (people who take over the land by moving in with purpose to own the land). Here, the law and a para-government organization very much protect certain squatters. When a group thinks that a piece of land is being underutilized, they can move on (occasionally armed) and begin the process to obtain the title from the government. Even if the land-owners tell them to leave the next day, the squatters are protected and a long legal process entails.

Unfortunately, Puerto Escondido is such a community. Many of them have probably done this process several times, and despite appearances, may be quite wealthy via abuse of this system. Although they´re the lawful landowners now, we feel it would be unjust to step in and support development on land that has been obtained in this manner. It is unfortunate, because there are a lot of kids living there, caught in the crossfire of their parents greed. We'll do what we can to connect the community with help, but will not be involving ourselves there. Please pray for them and the corruption that is so rampant in this country. Everyday, we hear more and more about how people's lives here are affected by corruption here. They really need some light.

This weekend, we were able to experience something very unique in the world. We hiked into the clouds.

Less than 30 minutes away from here, there is a national park called Cerro Azul Meambar. The park is a large mountain crowned by a cloud forest. The whole hike was pretty spectacular but incredibly demanding. The trailhead is at 700m in altitude and the trail summits at 1250m (4100ft), which means you gain almost 2000 feet in elevation in the first section of the trail. Fortunately, the temperature was pleasant, unfortunately, the rain was not.

For those that just want to see pictures, the slideshow is here.

The trail begins in fairly dense rain forest, and it rained accordingly. Some of the trees were massive and  supported by buttress roots. Every tree contained tons of other plants, each one was a self-contained jungle. Throughout this first section of the hike, the vines were huge, and the trees immense and tall. The trail was steep and muddy, and we saw the occasional orchid blooming in a tree. The weather moved from dry, to rain, to jungle downpour within the first hour, but somehow, it made it somewhat more legitimate to see everything slicked down and wet. Stacey was 110% sure that dozens of snakes would assault her from the trees and vines, but shockingly, none came down.

 Pictured: Protective gear for aerial attack snakes and all that may be perceived as such.

Toward the end of the ascent, the rain began to slow and the temperature began to cool down. Ferns began to prevail and mosses covered even more than before. Everything became foggier and foggier, a flock of yellow-tailed birds flew through. The trees became smaller and somewhat stunted. Eventually the rain stopped and the trail plateaued. We'd arrived in the cloud forest.

The view before you cross into the clouds.

Cloud forests are unique in the world because they receive relatively little rain, but remain constantly moist due to the cloud cover. The majority of the moisture they receive is from condensation on the plants that then drips down constantly. Everything is consistently wet and the plants respond accordingly. Almost  every square inch of everything organic and inorganic is covered in green: mosses, club mosses, ferns, orchids, and bromeliads, with the occasional aroid mixed in. It's somewhat quiet, and you can never see more than 100 feet ahead due to the cloud cover. One of the most awe-inspiring things was the constant sound of the waterfall that followed you in the whiteness - the rain falling on the giant trees below.

We eventually descended and passed an exceptionally beautiful waterfall, spooked up some a terrifyingly close covey of largish birds (sounded like grouse coming up), and watched several toucans call to each other. Five hours after we began, we arrived back at the base and had a great dinner in the Panacam lodge there.

If you want to see more photos, check out the slideshow on the Pictures page above.

Home?

I'll say upfront that this is a longer post and it's a little more informational than some may enjoy, but it should be helpful to those of you that have been wondering exactly what has been happening on the development work front. 

As you may know, we've been hunting around for the past month for a place to call home, but we're not just looking for a pretty, friendly place. It's crucial to us that we're as intentional as possible in this process so that we stand a chance of getting the development process off the ground.Selection is certainly one of the most important elements of this process. This process has been difficult for a variety of reasons: getting to the area for the first time, getting straight answers out of people, trying not to reveal to much and raise expectations, encountering a community with drive and willingness to work together, etc. Since we've been here a little while, I just thought we'd share a couple examples of visits that didn't work out and then two with real potential.

Community PB was an interesting place because the pastor was right on. We had a lot of questions asking about the churches role in development and poverty alleviation is and he answered every single one just like we had dreamed. The only problem is that the area is in a good size town and is fairly developed; he recognized that the community's need was low in comparison to the rest of his country. Our goal is to identify a community where the development potential crosses with the greatest need. One side of the equation was missing.

Coummunity LDA was also intriguing because the trip there was both very difficult and beautiful, through streams and up the sides of muddy mountains to arrive at a quaint, poor community up very high in the mountains. The people were very friendly and kind, with a surprising amount of "cheles (whitish folk)," and they had power and water. However, as we talked with the pastor and leaders in the community, it became apparent that they were more interested in putting tile in the church than meeting the needs of the community. This obviously was not the place either.

We did have a great visit in Las Lomitas (Little Hills). This community is way up the side of a mountain, surrounded by coffee country. The community is pretty poor, but a few things are looking up for them. 1. They do own a good bit of land and are interested in increasing the production on it. 2. They do not have water, but they're working hard to bring it in. 3. Another group called "Salt and Light" has begun replacing the existing homes (in bad shape) with much improved concrete homes. 4. The people seem to respect their village council (patranato) and pastor. 5. It's small and would be easy to work with.

As a result of this good visit, we're returning there today to spend two more days to get to know the community better. We'll spend today, tonight, and tomorrow there before coming back down.

But by far, our most interesting visit has been to the community of Puerto Escondido (Hidden Port). It's not in the mountains, but the drive there was on the worst road we've seen thus far. Once we parked at the end of the road, we had to cross a fast river on slick stones, then walk for ten minutes through the valley before popping out in the community, and I will say that we were both surprised at the conditions there. It reminded me much more of Haiti than of anything we've seen here.

All of the homes barely qualify as shacks, they're constructed solely from bamboo, sticks, and tarps with maybe a couple of scraps of tin on the top and a side. Out of the ~30 homes in the community, none had water, electricity, or a non-dirt floor. They did have a school (Grades 1-6), but only one teacher for the 60 students. The school had bamboo walls halfway up, and a roof, and the floor was also dirt. However, the hearts and minds of the people were sharp. We had a meeting with most of the people in the community, and it was clear that they were chomping at the bit to improve their situation. We talked for about an hour with several action items on the part of the community. We plan to return next Friday with a couple more folks that will know a little more about the situation and potential. Our minds have been very occupied with this community. Regardless of whether this will be our home or not, we feel responsible to respond to these conditions. The church cannot sit silent when it encounters this type of need.

Damos gracias a Dios: por la opportunidad de conocer communidades y las personas que viven alla (the opportunity to get to know communities and the people that live there).

A. E. I. O. Oops

Just a heads-up on this one, learning a language is really, really hard, and as a result, you make a lot of mistakes, some of them inappropriate. So, against our better judgment, we're going to post some anecdotes of our (Kaleb's) learning mistakes. Some of them will be good for the grandparents and kiddies, others not so much. Hopefully as a result, there will be a little more joy in the world. We'll go in chronological order.


1. When it all began.
We were still in the States when the travesty began. I was out standing by our Forester, severely damaged by hail attempting to talk to one of the Honduran pastors about what happened to it. My Spanish, limited, but hopeful, was working hard to explain what had passed with this vehicle. Wracking my brain to explain such a concept. I spat out the name of the culprit...

"Smell from the sky."

Poor Fredy. We worked together to correct the statement to "Ice from the sky." In my efforts to quantify hail to him, I told him "Huele del cielo (Smell/Stink from the sky)" instead of "Hielo del cielo (Ice from the sky)." Unfortunately, this was only the beginning.



2. Worth it?
So, when we went back to Copan for the conference, we were having a good time one night after dinner and were walking from a restaurant in town to a coffee shop. At this point, my abysmal Spanish ears were only catching bits and pieces of the conversation, but at some point, I felt emboldened enough to interject...

"Yes, but it's worth the penis."

Which was met (appropriately) with interesting looks, laughs, and unceasing corrections. I was trying to say "Vale la pena (worth the pain)," but instead, I said "Vale la pene." Needless to say. That last vowel is very important.


3. It had it all.
This mistake was more recent. My Spanish has truly improved and I catch the majority of conversations now and work really hard to respond in some sort of intelligible manner, which makes my mistakes all the more obvious.

We were riding with our mechanic, Sergio, last week, out in the middle of nowhere in the everpresent rain. We'd just made a left (for the fun of it, none of the roads actually go anywhere) in our new vehicle purchase. I was telling him about previous vehicles, and how pleased I had been with my old Jeep Cherokee. In Spanish, it went a little like this.

"Yeah, I was really pleased with it. It was really reliable. The only thing it ever really needed was a firefighter of water in it."

Ah yes, exactly what I wanted to say. The desired phrase was "water pump (bomba del agua)" but instead, out came "firefighter of water (bombero del agua)." Yet again, close, but off the mark.


4. Not my fault for once.
Fortunately, I'm not the only one that makes mistakes. For their first lesson, we had the mechanic, Sergio, and another coworker, Sebastion (goes by Chango, slang for monkey) sitting down to take a basic English test to see where they were at. In the spirit of hearing the target language, we told them in English "Don't cheat."  Them, in the spirit of speaking the target language, responded in kind.

Sergio: "Don sh*t."
Chango: "Don sh*t."

Us: "NO. Don't cheat."

Sergio: "Don't sh*t."
Chango: "Don't sh*t."
Together: "Don't SH*T!"

As a result of this little exchange, they were officially banned from ever using "Don't cheat" again.


5. I said it earlier...
but learning a language is really hard. The last couple days, I had been feeling really good about hearing things people were saying and actually catching some of the intricacies of the language. Then, along came Buddy. We're not sure what Buddy's name is, but I'm fairly certain he does not speak Spanish, or if he does... woof.  Here's a sample interchange (this was in Spanish.)

Me: "How's it going?"

Buddy: "Thooft, thooft, thoot."

Me: "I'm sorry, I don't understand."

Buddy: "Thooft, thoot, thooty-thoot."

Me: "I'm sorry, you're going to have to slow down. I still don't understand."

Buddy (faster, and with more conviction): "Thoofity thoofity, thoot-thoot, Kaleb. Thooty-thoot."

Me (now in English and agitated). "I don't understand you. You need to slow down. Are you just messing with me."

Buddy (eyes full of questions): "Thooty-thoot Kaleb, thooty-thoot."

Me (thinking to myself): "Will he ever go away, or will the thooting never end."

Five silent minutes later...

Buddy (Still looking at me): "Kaleb, Thooty-thoot. Thoofity, thoofity, thoofity?"

Me (Back in Spanish): "I still don't understand, please slow down."

Buddy (Impossibly faster still): "Thoofity-THOOT! Thoofity thoofity, thoot-thoot! Kaleb!"



Anyways, you get the idea. Learning a language is hard. Hope it goes easier for you than it has for me. 

Update of the Standard Variety

Hello all. I know that you're not all hanging on the edge of your seats to see what's going on down here, especially if our update is without pictures. But for those of you following, we thought we'd just let you in on what's been going on down here.

Spanish is continuing to improve for both of us. Kaleb's finally starting to feel like every now and then a word makes sense, and occasionally has a conversation without struggling too much. We've been over to several local houses now for dinner. The folks receiving us here have been beyond kind to us and have made us feel very welcome. It's been great to be here long enough to actually start establishing relationships with the staff and local people.

This past week, we also went out to visit a few "widow's homes" in  the community of San Isidro. A group of engineering students wanted to do a survey to see how well the homes that HtH build actually meet the material and cultural needs of the recipients. As a result, we've had the chance thus far to make into 8 different homes in the community and check out how the homes are doing. For the most part, after a few years, the people that have received them still very much like and appreciate the homes. It's still strange (weeks later) to walk to a house, sit down and be surrounded by chickens, pantsless children, and piles of corn and/or coffee. Many times, the previous home is still standing and is used as a shed, and these homes are always shockingly bad. Many of these people have spent the majority of their lives living in wooden shacks with holes big enough for a cow to walk through (not exaggerated). The floors are nothing but dirt, and there is a fire going inside. The difference between the new home (which, without exception, has been kept up immaculately) and the old home is striking and seems to really give the recipients hope. 

We've also made it out to a few more communities to kind of get the lay of the land, but we'll talk more about the selection process in a future post. As we progress though, more and more doors seem to swing open and connections continue to be made. Thanks again for your prayers and support. We're thinking of you all as well and as always, please let us know how we can support you all as well.

Damos gracias a Dios por: hasta ahora, nuestro tiempo en los communidades y con familias (The time we've spent up til now in communities and with families.)