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.