The Duck Grabber

I've told Stacey for a while now that one of my least favorite things about Honduras is that every little black speck moves, and all of them want blood.  Well, I've been out walking around making friends.

Having a hard time seeing them? Exactly.

Meet Satan's finest creation, the garapata. In Spanish it roughly sounds like "duck grabber" but the joke is that they grab everything. Their favorite thing to grab seems to be gringos.

These little demons appear to be the result of an unholy union between ticks and chiggers. They´re big enough to see, but just barely, allowing them to hide in all kinds of fun places. All the Hondurans kept talking about them, but I just assumed they were ticks. Well, they´re not just ticks. They´re the wolves of the weeds. Scheming, waiting, attacking in groups. They pile onto the ends of sticks and grass on the edge of paths and wait. The moment something brushes against it, they all move onto it like desperate goldrushers.

Moments before my first meet and greet with the garapatas, I saw Naldo, a perfectly sane Honduran, grab a stick and start wailing on his legs, yelling the whole time. I thought that was a pretty strong reaction to ticks. That was, until another Honduran pointed out a big brown dirt smudge on my pants... that wasn´t dirt. It was  thousands of the things. I then followed the example set by Naldo and punished my legs for allowing the creatures such passage. Unfortunately, that was only the beginning of the leg beating. Every five minutes, my pants had a brown smudge crawling around my legs, looking for yummy white flesh.

Considering how many thousands of the things have been on me. I feel pretty blessed that I only have about 40 bites. That doesn´t make them itch any less though. We´ve been scratching pretty much solid for the past 4 months thanks to our friends the biting, flying specks, but these bring a new level of desperation to the scratching. Ah, what a wonderful world we live in.

This post is dedicated to Logan Brady, the original duckgrabber.

Something interesting this way comes...

On Saturday, we went back up the hill to our soon-to-be home, Las Lomitas, for a meeting with the community. We met in the little church for about an hour and half as the sun went down and everything got dark. There was a big circle of chairs filled with about 70 people: working men, old men, new mothers, old mothers, new babies, crying babies, and the occasional visiting dog. During this time, they discussed upcoming water projects for the community as well as the potential to get electricity in the community. At them end of this discussion, they discussed the elephant in the room... what the heck are we going to do with the white people?

After they decided not to eat us (a joke, if this concerns any parents), they talked about where we could make our home. We had already talked to them and we knew that the best option was one tarea (about 1/8 acre) owned by the community. The president of the patronato (village council) mentioned to the community that if they were interested, they could sell their tarea to the white people. They started characteristically high (due to the presence of the gringos) at about $1500. But, a man in the room stood up and said that if we were going to be helping them and their community, it should be no higher than $700 (a good deal). We felt very honored by that. But, then it got interesting.

A woman stood up and (very loudly) proclaimed that if it was up to her, she wouldn't charge a dime. Because if those people really are here to help us, if they're really going to help our children, help us with our water problems, help us be better people, they shouldn't pay anything. The community should give them the land. Before the white people knew what was happening, everyone hand in the room raised for a vote in favor, and thus the land was officially donated to the white people. The white people tried to explain they felt they should pay for it, they were ready and willing to pay for the betterment of the community, but the community was having none of that. Then the white people cried a little bit.

It's a rare thing for a gringo to pay even a somewhat fair price for anything since the shade of our skin signifies money in this culture. But to us, it was so much more than saving money. The community we just spent three difficult months looking for looked at us and told us that they were looking for us too. That they wanted us to live with them and share life with them. This is the reason we came to Honduras and the reason we took so long to identify a community. These people are ready and willing to work and sacrifice for the betterment of their community--for the good of their neighbors, children, and people they don't really even know. We feel overwhelmingly blessed and humbled that the people we came to serve, are already serving us.


Damos gracias a Dios por: nuestros vecinos nuevos y la bendicion grande de nuestro tierra nueva all en Las Lomitas (for our new neighbors and the huge blessing of our new land in Las Lomitas.)

Quick Update

Today marks two very busy weeks back here in Honduras. Things have been going very well, very quickly. We've been working to coordinate the beginnings of a fairly large water project in one of our target communities of Caliche. This project is a collaboration of Caliche's sister church (Arlington Heights Lutheran), DSEC (Dayton Service Engineering Collaborative), the village of Caliche, Heart to Honduras, and the local municipality. What started as a small thing we were helping with has become almost our full-time job since we've been back, but it will be worth the trouble if the area's 600 residents have clean water this year! As of now, the sites are all cleared and construction is ready to begin, thanks to a visit from Arlington Heights. More updates on this project will follow over the coming year. It was great to meet and work with the sister church and the engineers of DSEC. It was a good week.

This coming week will see us back in Las Lomitas and Caliche: working to coordinate this project, and getting us moved toward our new home on top of the hill. Sorry this is a slow post, I promise it will get more interesting as the year progresses. Thanks for checking in on us!

We're back!

As of Jan. 6th we are back in Honduras and back to work.  We are thankful for the time we had with family and friends for 3 weeks in the US over Christmas and New Years.  The time went by quickly as you would expect, but we are very excited to be back!  We look forward to you all coming down to see us next!
After arriving we had 2 days to relax and rest (we slept over 25 hours in 2 days time) guess being home wore us out more than being here.  We have enjoyed reconnecting with our friends down here.  They are (at least seem) very happy to have us back. 

The plan from here?
We are working on purchasing land, then building a home, and then moving in to begin to develop the land.  Again our goal/mission/ministry is community development and a part of that is doing our best to model sustainable ways of living to then share with our community members as they show interest.  We getting excited thinking of the ways we can be the most productive with our little plot of land. We appreciate your prayers in this next step for us!

Keep in touch over 2012 - we look forward to hearing from each of you!

Family Time!

Hope you are all having a joyful holiday season! 

We have been blessed with the opportunity to come back and spend a week with Stacey’s family (York, PA)  and then a week with Kaleb’s family (Gallipolis, OH).  We’ll be at our state side Heart to Honduras office and visiting our friends in the Dayton, OH area Jan. 4^th and  5^th before we fly back to Honduras January 6^th.  We do not have plans to return to the States before Sept. 2012 at the earliest. 

We love our families dearly and thought we’d share a few pictures of them!  You can find the slide show under the tab above "Pictures."  If you do not know who they are expand the slide show to full screen in the bottom right hand corner and click on "Show Info" at the top right.  We didn’t get pictures of them all, but here’s a few we have.  Please pray for them as it’s even harder for them than us while we’re gone. 

Also be in prayer for God to provide property for us to move to Las Lomitas upon our return to Honduras.  There are only 2 options and we need for the owners to be willing to sell.

Merry Christmas!

The Reeder Family Tree, she's a beaut.

Merry Christmas... Feliz Navidad. For those of you that didn't know, we're back in the States for a couple of weeks to be with family this holiday season and are headed back to Honduras on January 6. We feel so blessed to get this opportunity to be here; after this we don't plan to be back in the States until at least next September.

Christmas is special to us this year as we think of Christ starting His own development project. He too left a nice, comfortable place to be in an unsafe, dirty, confusing situation. We recognize that He set the precedent of giving up comfort in order to be close to those in need. Leaving heaven to sleep on the floor of a barn is pretty difficult to imagine. Our (substantially easier) process of giving things up in order to serve others is an amazingly humbling experience. It's hard to explain how beautiful it is to be a part of that.

Anyone with access to this blog is in an amazingly blessed position, please don't take advantage of your blessings. We have been given so much, and we have a responsibility to love and serve those around us. This Christmas, take a moment to think of those that truly have nothing; don't think of us, Stacey and Kaleb don't count, we have too much as it is. Think of the little naked kid, the elderly woman living in a mud hut, the African man that lost his wife to AIDS, the forgotten young women in Thailand, the family in Port-au-Prince. Those lives are just as important as ours. We're all in need; we all need love. Don't hold back this coming year. Christ didn't leave us the option of not loving them.

Comida Tipica

Comida Tipica = Typical Food

One of our main goals of our first 3 months down here has been to learn the culture.  Well, part of culture is food!  We have enjoyed learning from the locals to eat and cook new things!  Great quality time and conversations with people in the kitchen is one of Stacey's favorite things to do.  Great ministry opportunity.

If you're interested in what we eat here hope this post helps!

Rice, Beans, and Corn Tortillas

If you'd like to know the most common food these are the three staples: Rice, Beans, and Corn Tortillas.  We see A LOT of this.  If you visit someone, this is most likely what they will give you to eat.

Tamales

Tamales are a more "special occasion" food here in Honduras.  It is the food that everyone eats for Christmas, a celebration, or birthday.  It is made out of cornmeal dough that is flavored with spices (not spicy!).  In the center you will find a mixture of rice/beans and meat (usually chicken or pork).  It is wrapped in and cooked in banana leaf.

There's another version of these called Mantucas, and my my are they tasty. The dough is different, a little sweeter, with just grilled pork inside. They're heavenly.

Baleadas

Everyone down hear makes and eats baleadas.  We'd say it is by far the most common food (other than rice and beans) we have seen so far.  They are a very common food that the poor are able to make.  They are made with a homemade flour tortilla.    The most extravagant baleada you can find will include: re-fried beans, egg, chorizo or chicken, cream, cheese, and avocado.  The most common baleada you will find includes: re-fried beans, cream or cheese, and egg.

Stacey's started as triangles and are getting better.  The challenge is making them round and big enough.

 As you can see this one we made included: refried beans, egg, cheese, and cream.

 We love these!  Hope to make you some when you visit!

Pescado y Tajadas  

These pictures were taken at our favorite place on the Lago Yajoa (near by lake).

View from our table at this restaurant.

This fish certainly did not die in vain. Que rico.

Pescado = fish
Tajadas = slices of fried green bananas
In the case of this lake, the most common fresh fish is Tilapia, but if you want to shell out big money, you can eat bass here too. 

Tortilla con Quesillo

This is another very simple and cheap thing that anyone can make.  It is a corn tortilla filled with a cheese called Quesillo.  I like to say it's the "Honduran grilled cheese."

 Yep, Kaleb is as always a big help in the kitchen!

Anafre

If you go out to a restaurante and would like an appetizer this is one of the most common things to order.  Inside the pottery are hot coals that melt re-fried beans and white cheese in the top bowl.  You then use tortilla chips or fried tortilla triangles to scoop and enjoy!

El Tipico

This is a plate that each restaurant/family makes a little differently.  Possible elements include: rice, beans (whole black or refried), corn tortialla, egg (scrambled or sunny side up), square block of dry cheese, avacado, chicken or beef, and chismol (finely chopped onion, peppers, and tomato). But if you're out running around in Honduras and just need something filling and cheap. This is your best bet.

 Hope that helps you catch a glimpse of our diet down here.

Education

18 yr. olds, caps, gowns, 12th grade, traditional music...all reminds those of us from the US of "graduation".  For those of us blessed enough to attend college or even get a masters/doctorate degree we might even think of those graduation ceremonies when we were a little older.

For Hondurans graduation happens at the end of 6th grade.  Honduras only offers free education through 6th grade.  Most Hondurans are luck to have their 6th grade diploma, it is not uncommon to find someone who never finished.  If you would like to continue your education you must begin paying.  They have 7-9th grade which they call the "Basico" and then 10-12th grades are called "Carrera" which is when they specialize in a specific career.  There are also some colleges/universities but very few Honduras make it that far.  So few that we haven't met one yet.


We just attended what they call "Clausura" = 6th grade graduation. Ada asked us to go as her "Padrinos" = Godparents.  Each graduating student selects a godmother/father or both to walk with them.  Culturally the Padrinos are also expected to give a gift to the graduating student after receiving their diploma (so that is why Stacey is walking around with a gift bag in the pictures).  Since both of Ada's parents have passed, we felt blessed to be able to step into this role and try to make her day a pleasant one.  As all of us who have lost a parent we know how hard "special/significant" days can be.  Bexy, Ada's older sister attended with us and she took the pictures.

About to walk her down the middle aisle

Receiving her diploma!

Taking a picture with her teacher - Sofia

After the Clausura we went back to their house to celebrate with cake and a meal.  Ada got a job for 4 weeks and one of her goals was to be able to provide a meal to everyone after her Clausura.  She did it!  We enjoyed Chicken, Rice, Bread, and potato salad made by her grandma.

Celebrating with a meal and cake!

Bexy and Ada (sisters)

Opening her graduation gift.

From left to right: Local Pastor (Juan), grandma from Canchias, Aunt from Potrerillos, all the little ones are cousins, Eduardo is holding his nephew Darian in the back, Bexy, Ada, and Kaleb

Ready or not...

Here we come. After several months of running all over Honduras, we're finally settling down. At the beginning of the coming year, we'll be moving into Las Lomitas. This town is fairly accessible, only about 15 minutes off the pavement and within 30 minutes of Santa Cruz de Yojoa, a decent sized town. They do not have running water or electricity and focus on agriculture, primarily coffee and plantains. We're going with this community due to its level of need, their level of desire to improve, and its proximity to the office, where we can support the growth of the community development aspect of Heart to Honduras. The pastor there, Erick, is young, very active and has a lot of desire for his church to start improving his community. We feel like there is the beginning of a strong partnership in Las Lomitas, and we are very excited to start sharing life with them.

This process brought us down to the wire with one other community, Caliche. As mentioned previously, Caliche's level of need is extreme, but so is the accessibility. In order to fulfill our obligations here in the office and help forge connections with other development organizations here in Honduras, we needed some place more accessible. But, we are planning to spend one day a week in a Caliche, bringing in various experts and helping them start down the road to sustainable development. We have been working with them now for 3 months to bring clean water in, and the week of January 14, construction should start up in the mountains to bring water from a spring. We've also met with a road commission that has the potential to improve their access. Please be praying for the people there.

These houses are in Caliche. The photos were taken discretely, so they're a little rough.

Both of these communities have huge needs, and we know that we are not sufficient to meet or solve them, let alone without creating dependency. But, we know that this is what we must do. We feel that it's our responsibility to be an advocate for these people. Christ left a perfect life, layed down his power, to be a broken human in a dirty, fallen world. We know that we must follow his example in order make any lasting difference. We want to share life in the way Christ did. To cry, bleed, sweat, and live with the marginalized of the world. We have an obligation to stand up for the forgotten, oppressed, and suffering. How can we know their need if we don't truly know them. These people deserve to know that there is hope in this life and the next just as much as we do. One of our favorite passages is in Isaiah 58 because it shows the God we love so well. The God who is frustrated with hypocrisy and inaction, and yearns for us to show love in this world. The Israelites begin by complaining, and God answers them. Even if you're not the Bible-reading type, please just give this a read.

³ ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
   ‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
   and you have not noticed?’
   “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
   and exploit all your workers.
⁴ Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
   and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
   and expect your voice to be heard on high.
⁵ Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
   only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
   and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
   a day acceptable to the LORD?
 ⁶ “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
   and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
   and break every yoke? ⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
   and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
   and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
   and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness^[a] will go before you,
   and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
⁹ Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
   you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
   “If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
   with the pointing finger and malicious talk, ¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
   and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
   and your night will become like the noonday.

We know that throughout history and up to this day, Christians have often maligned the name Christ, but we also know that He is a good God, despite the atrocities that fallen people have committed "for His sake." We are committed to making sure our lives reflect the kind of grace and kindness we have been shown by this God that loves without expectation. We recognize that it does not appear to make a lot of sense to leave good jobs, great families, and a content future. But, this apathy is our enemy and if we do not respond now, days will continue to pass with people living without hope.

This coming year, we hope to slowly walk this road with Las Lomitas and Caliche. Please pray for us to be patient, loving, and self-sacrificing; living in the example of our good God.

Digging In

We believe that if we’re truly practicing ABCD (Asset-based Community Development), we need to do it with everyone. As a result, we’ve been able to help Ada and Eduardo start to improve their situation as well with the help of a good friend here in Santa Cruz. Bryan is here working with Canadian Peacemakers International to improve the access of 7-9 grade education, and the program has been very successful. In addition, he has extensive experience in small-scale sustainable agriculture in developing African nations. So, together we started working with Ada in one of her passions – to have her very own vegetables and fruits right there at the house.

ABCD hinges on using a person’s talents, resources, and passions to go the farthest with the development process. Ada has a huge desire to grow things, a little land, and has been trying to start some plants for a while now.  So, everything lined up well to start helping her move towards her dream of eating better and growing her own food. However, Ada’s yard has next to no plant cover and the erosion has been severe. So, our first step was to slow down the damage that the tropical rains were doing to the property.

To slow down the runoff, we used a method called contour ditching. This practice uses ditches dug along level contours on a slope to slow down and detain running water so that it has time to seep into the soil instead of picking up speed and soil with it. On the downhill side of these ditches, deep-rooted species are planted to add a backbone deep into the soil. We used a very deep-rooted grass (Valadiana, their roots can grow to 35ft deep in 2 years), and a fast-growing leguminous tree (Leuceana) for this purpose. In addition, we also planted some ornamental peanut (also a legume) as a ground cover to begin improving the rest of the soil, as well as prevent splash erosion.

To find the level contours, we used a (semi-)primitive water level. The basic principal is that water in a tube will always make itself level. So, we tied a 100ft tube to two poles and marked them as level next to each other. We then kept one stationary on the contour and moved the other to other parts of the yard to find the line. To measure it, you just check the water level against the mark on the pole. 

We helped a couple of days for a couple of hours, but Eduardo and Ada did the majority of the work. Not only does the result give some order to the yard some order, it works! Since they were installed, we’ve had 4 straight days of steady rain. Eduardo said that they worked really well. The water ran into the ditches, sat and slowly leached into the soil instead of sweeping more soil off the property. The rooting plants are already showing new growth and will look great in a couple of months. We’ll work with Ada and Eduardo next year to figure out what they want to grow.