Thursday, June 24, 2010

Highlights of Honduras

It's simply impossible to summarize the experience from our trip to the House of Hope.  There are so many moments that I cannot express adequately, so the following pictures will have to suffice. Thanks to each of you that supported us in prayer while we were gone. We are glad we went, and glad to be home safely.

Below are the 3 highschool guys at the airport in Houston, waiting on our outbound flight. On the left are Rustin and John, returning to Honduras for the 2nd year. Collin, on the right, is on his first trip to the House of Hope. In total, there were 12 of us that traveled.
Below is just a fun shot from the mall (yes, mall) in La Ceiba. I didn't know we owned a sporting goods store! After landing in San Pedro Sula, we took a 3 hour van ride to La Ceiba to spend the night. The stop at a mall was our last bit of modern civilization for a while. We ate at Applebees, listened to their 80s radio music and reminisced about all things 80s. (He-Man, Garbage Pail Kids, UnderRoos...you get the picture)
This is the 18 passenger plane we took from La Ceiba to Puerto Lempira. It was much nicer than the one I remembered from 2 years ago, but still not much fun if you don't like prop planes. After about a 90 minute flight, we landed on a dirt runway with armed guards that meet the plane. Drugs are very prevalent in this area. In fact, it's known as Cocaine Coast because of the drug smuggling. Hence, the guards.
Below is a group picture of all of the children. Katrina, standing in the green, is telling them to sing "Jesus Loves Me" for a video camera. They sang it in English, Spanish, then Moskito. We tried desperately to upload the video to an email and send back to our church, but to no avail. Our hope was that it could be played in Children's Church that Sunday while we were gone. However, internet in Puerto Lempira is spotty as best, and while the local "internet cafe" had DSL, we were unsuccessful in getting the email to send.
Collin is mesmerizing the children with a magic trick of disappearing coins. They couldn't get enough of it! I was kind of surprised that the pieces to this trick survived the trip and didn't end up in a child's pocket.



Watch the video below to see Collin entertaining the children with his juggling skills.
The next group of pictures are the construction project that the men worked on. At the landing strip (it's hard to call it an airport), there was a dilapidated building. Katrina petitioned the Mayor and was able get the City to let her turn it into a store for the paralyzed divers. One of Puerto Lempira's industries is lobster-diving, and most of the local divers do not wear protective scuba gear. When they come up from the floor of the ocean to fast, many of them become paralyzed. They then lose their ability to produce income and must turn to handicrafts to try and support their family. The building that our team began enclosing and re-roofing will house a "souvenir shop" of sorts for travelers to purchase handmade items like jewelry and purses. They will also sell snacks. Our men installed a new tin roof, enclosed the walls, and ran plumbing lines for bathrooms and showers. One of the paralyzed divers will live at this store as well. In Honduras, if you leave anything - I mean anything - unattended, it will sprout legs and walk off. So this structure will also become a residence.
The picture below is Katrina standing in Jose's house, at the table he uses for making jewelry. Jose will be one of the men that will stay at the new store. His current house is not much larger that what you see in this picture. Just a tiny room with room for his wheelchair and his table. Jose is very excited about this project. He sends money that he earns to his son that is in college in Nicaragua, and knows that his potential for earning more income will increase when the new store is open.
Here I am sifting rice with 2 of the girls. Rice is a staple of almost every meal, and icky things have to be sifted out of it before cooking. Apparently, mice like to play in the bags of rice...
Carol is holding a hydrocephalus baby. If I recall correctly, the mother is on the Milk Program that Katrina runs. There are over a hundred mothers on this program that come to the House of Hope at scheduled intervals to get milk. They are not healthy enough themselves to produce milk, so the powdered formula literally saves lives of these babies. They do not believe that this baby has brain damage, so that is great.
Our "Sisters in Service" (a group of women at our church) send money to the Milk Program every year. The picture below is Larry presenting a substantial sum to Katrina for the program. She was overjoyed!
And below is Charlotte supervising a game of "memory." It started out organized but quickly became mass confusion. They had fun, and Charlotte tried her best to keep the game going smoothly. I'm pretty sure we did NOT end up with all the pieces going back into the box. Oh well! This picture is taken in the kitchen area of the guest house. Over the past couple of years, the guest house was constructed by our group and other groups to house the volunteers. Before it was completed, we would sleep in the dorm with the kids at the main house. Let me tell you, it is a whole new world having your own bed in a separate house! The guest house has 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths and sleeps up to 18 in bunk beds.
Below, Sharon is cleaning teeth in the newly constructed dental clinic on site. Dr. Tom Brian, who founded "Send Hope" (the non-profit that supports the House of Hope,) frequents the clinic several times a year to offer his dental services. Since Sharon is a hygienist, she had made arrangements to spend some time in this manner as well. What a great thing!

This next series of pictures are from our day traveling to the Islands. We took a boat to three different islands to deliver notebook paper and school supplies to the children. These children received notebook paper from our group the past 2 years in a row, and this outing has fast become one of the highlights of each trip to Honduras. Katrina told us that the school children will write on the paper in pencil, then erase everything and reuse the paper over and over again. Once they run out of paper, it's gone. Pondering this really puts things into perspective! Back home, we will waste a sheet of paper so quickly. These children let nothing go to waste. (Their culture is much better stewards of the environment than we are.)
As we were approaching the island, the children would come running to meet us at the shore. Katrina had broadcast on the radio the day before so that they would be expecting us. School was recessed for the event, and the whole village came out to see us. Of course, everyone knew Katrina. She's a legend everywhere she goes.
They formed lines while our boys passed out notebooks. The teachers received bags with supplies in it like markers, crayons, pens, and glue.
This is a typical residence. You can see Collin and John in the front handing out the notebooks. The lady that lived here was ill, and had been for quite some time. Sharon shared that she had met the lady last year on this same trip to the islands and she was still gravely ill.
I'm wearing a rain poncho - it POURED on us for much of the time. I was grateful for the poncho, but felt a little bit ridiculous at the same time. I think the kids thought it was frivolous.
At the next island, we delivered the supplies and then were treated to coconuts. The video below is amazing... watch how quickly the boy climbs to the top of the tree!
The teacher whipped out his machete (a tool everyone has) to chop holes in the coconut so that we could drink the milk. Young coconuts are yellow - You don't get the brown ones that we are used to seeing until they mature. The milk from the young coconuts tastes very unique, almost like cola. It has a sweet fizz to it and kind of "pops" in your mouth.
The one I'm drinking is an older coconut, and the milk is not fizzy.
On our boat trip back to Puerto Lempira, we stopped at the home of James and Paula Anthony. They are missionaries with Global Outreach International. While we visited with them, some of our group found a swimming hole to cool off in!
Ok, in the video below, you'll see how COOL these little "touch-me-nots" were. They grow on the ground and the second you touch them, they shrivel up. We had more fun playing with them!


Upon returning back to the House of Hope, Rustin had a birthday surprise waiting on him. In honor of his 18th birthday, the children decided to crack eggs on his head and cover him with sawdust, then pelt him with water balloons. Nice, eh?   Remind me NEVER to celebrate my birthday in Honduras!
He was such a good sport about it though, we rewarded him nicely with a rather large piece of cake. Good job, Rustin! You were a much better sport than I would have been! (By the way Rustin, I have a nice video of the egging if you want it!)


Our time drew to a close on Wednesday evening. We left for the airport about 5am Thursday. In years past, some of the children have made their way down to the airport to see us off. So we were all a little disappointed that they didn't make it this time. Had I known that, I would have taken some extra time Wednesday night to say goodbye.  Little Edius was my special angel on this trip. I regret not being able to say goodbye properly. 
A little story about this guy... During the trip, I learned that a friend of ours had passed away. Erin is my age, and had bravely battled cancer for 17 months. She passed away on Monday during our trip, leaving behind her husband Jon and 4 beautiful children.  The news hit me pretty hard, and I felt lonely being away from family during this time. Our cemetery handled the arrangements, and that made it more difficult to not be there to help with those details.  On one evening I was feeling sad about Erin. I sat down on the concrete step and just couldn't hold the tears back anymore.  And get this...little Edius came running across the yard and skidded to a stop, landing in my lap. He took one look at my tears, wiped them away and kissed my cheek. There was no verbal communication, only the tenderness expressed in his touch.

How incredibly amazing... I set out on a mission to serve and give to others. And yet somehow, this little impish-grinning, toothy smiling, muddy little 6 year old touched my heart with his kindness.
I guess I was the one who really received the gift.

Monday, June 21, 2010

We're back!

We returned from the House of Hope in Puerta Lempira, Honduras, late Friday night.

Thank you for your prayers while we were gone!  We had no major mis-haps and found the trip full of blessings over and over again.

God has a special place in his heart for these children, and I feel honored to have been with them for a week. They are so precious. Everytime I would find myself getting tired or frustrated or overwhelmed, I would remind myself of how God is especially fond of these little ones. That thought somehow would give me the boost to keep on keeping on.

I did bring back a Honduran illness, however... so I've been down for a couple of days. But below is a picture of what I would have rather brought home with me. Isn't his smile cute???  This is Edius. I have no idea how to spell his name, I'm just spelling it phonetically. Two years ago we called him Pedro!  (Katrina, if you read this, please post a comment as to how to spell his name!Thanks!)



I will write about the trip when I'm feeling better. But for now, I thought I'd post a couple of pictures. Below is Rick and Umana, one of the girls we met 2 years ago. She has grown, and is doing very well!

Below is Collin, with Tiersa, Edius (my favorite little guy) and his brother Arnold. Collin is showing them a magic trick with disappearing coins.

I am working on my write-up of the trip, but am still decompressing from it. Had to jump right into work mode today with two funerals, plus all the catchup work to do. Hopefully, I'll have a full report online in the next week.

If you are on facebook, you can see all of the pictures uploaded to my page there. I'll put some short video clips up as well on my facebook site.   http://www.facebook.com/kristenbrown123

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Working on a Sunday night...


This is my view right now.
Pathetic. I'm at the office. It's 9:30pm on a Sunday night and I'd rather be at home.

So I'm going to do a short exercise in counting my blessings. Here goes:

1. I have a job. More than that, I'm the boss, so I can come in late tomorrow if I want.

2. We leave for Honduras Wednesday. VERY excited about seeing the children at the House of Hope again.

3. Looks like Collin is getting his first car tomorrow. Scary...but we are blessed that we can help him out with this.

4. We hired summer help today. (THANKS, Kathryn, for sending us Trevor!)

5. The weekend has passed with no emergencies at the water plant, cemetery, or with Rick's clients. THAT is a blessing!

6. I enjoyed a fun day with my mother in Tyler yesterday. Barnes and Noble... 'nuff said!

That's all for now. Gotta get back to work.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

More questions

In the midst of my busy day, I clicked over to the blog I've been reading from Ben and Katie (in Haiti.) They have been in Haiti for 5 months. Since just before the earthquake.   http://www.benandkatieinhaiti.com/

Katie's post entitled "Questions" on Monday, May 31st really touched me.

She has more questions now than before. I like her honesty in admitting that she doesn't know, doesn't have a clue. I admire her candidness and transparency. Tough questions that deserve answers... but those answers may never come. Not in this life-time.

Her words reminded me today of the fragile lives we live. And that there are more important things going on than my cluttered desk, backlog of bills to pay, and technology frustrations.

The little girl she wrote about on her post entitled "Last Day of School" (just below the aforementioned post) is more important than all my busy little things. The encouragement and love that the fellow teachers poured out on this little girl could be a HUGE defining moment in her life.

I want to be more about those moments and less about the petty things that get my feathers ruffled.