Moving Forward in Honduras

Hurry up and wait.  It seems to be a motto around here.  Everyone is very eager to help but very often setbacks occur.  Finally, after much heart ache, we are beginning our Model Home Project.  On Monday, we broke ground and set the foundation and surveyed the area.  It is amazing the way people work around here.  One of my biggest questions on building a house was setting a foundation.  It was as simple and obvious as using scrap pieces of wood, tie wire, and tubes filled with water to use as levels over a far distance (not exact but literally no one can tell the difference.)  Hondurans especially also don’t need anyone’s help working on projects.  None of us could work nearly as well or as fast as the people helping us.  It was slightly embarrassing.  Sometimes they can use guidance and direction, but can’t we all?

We officially moved out of the Heart to Honduras campus and into the town.   The house we are in is less than ideal (not two stories and no electricity, absolutely unacceptable in American standards... HA.)  It is funny, the house we are living in is much nicer than many houses around us but most people I know wouldn’t ever choose to live here.  It has been interesting and challenging for Milena, Joe, and I to fix things up around the house, cook, and clean.  One of us said that it was fun playing house... but I disagreed, we are definitely not playing house. 

As promised, we went to Punta Sol and Tela last weekend.  Tela is a beach side tourist city that it is Caribbean in culture.  It was quite an entertaining trip.  We arrived at Tela and proceeded to Punta Sol, a nearby peninsula and jungle that is nationally protected.  A boat took us to the peninsula from Tela.  The ride out was quite enjoyable.  When we arrived at Punta Sol, we took a long hike through the jungle and got to see monkeys and other wildlife.  We went snorkling and after a few minutes of frustration, we saw tons of coral and fish.  Then, we spent a relaxing lunch on the beach eating tilapia (My dream for those who know me well.)  The ride back was not nearly as enjoyable as the ride out.  We came across some pretty large waves and a ride that seemed short ended up taking hours.  All of us got sick.  The trip was still really beautiful and we all had fun and have a ton of great memories.   

I am trying very trying hard to upload pictures, so hold on and they will be up eventually.

Model Home Project

The construction for our project begins tomorrow.  The goal of the project is to change the current design which Heart to Honduras uses to build homes.  The currently design is a small home made of wood that a team of American workers can build in a week with help from the receiving family and members of the community.  In theory, it sounds like a great practice but has several flaws.  Wood is not a widely used material in Honduras and concrete blocks are vastly superior.  The concrete blocks are, however, very difficult for American workers to work with.  It is also a single room house.  The current design is essentially a $2000 home that families will gladly receive and very possible could then not use or sell for the money.  We are looking to change the design by building it out of concrete block and contains three interior rooms with the walls made of wood.  A problem with nicer homes is the desparity it creates within the community.  A local community development church, Salt and Light, has discovered that the homes that they have been building have created huge desparities in the community and they look to soon eliminate their home building projects within the next year.

Our project will cost roughly $3,500 and allow for American workers to travel down and install significant finishing touches on the interior wooden walls and aluminum sheeting roof.  Even though the construction end of the project is just starting, the majority of the project will be to change the way Heart to Honduras works with communities.

Our internet situation has changed and blogging will be difficult for a while.  I still need to share about our trip to Punta Sol and Tela.  If you want a preview, search for it on Google.

Peace

Progress and Adventure

Our project is moving forward finally in Honduras.  We have met with a few people that have helped us change our designs and plans.  Pastor Fredy in La Concepicion has largely been pushing our project and is very excited for us to move forward.  Pastor Fredy is an extremely energetic man that seems to have more energy than is good for him, and an addiction to coffee and baleatas (local food that makes me strong, not Milena and Joe.)  Also Pastor Erik, who is the pastor for La Lamintas where Kaleb and Stacey live, has also been helping us work on a few other projects.    Pastor Erik seems to match Pastor Fredy’s energy but seems more fitted as a television host than a pastor.  He looks like a model, well cut and always with neatly iron pants (that’s apparently possible in Honduras... who would of thought.)  We have been spending a lot time by ourselves in Santa Cruz which is the local town to Canchias where we are staying.  Our first encounter with Pastor Erik was when we were boarding on the bus to go back.  He tried to tell us that he would see us on Tuesday but none of us could understand his Spanish.  It led to a funny encounter when we met with Kaleb and Stacy the following week. 

Speaking of funny encounters, we have been spending a lot of time in San Isidro at the H2H office greatly to Milena’s annoyance.  The difficulty in Honduras is moving from place to place.  It has been easy for us to go to the cramped office and spend nearly half of a day waiting for a ride back to Canchias.  One day when we were stuck at the office, we were invited to a employees house for dinner.  I had to use the bathroom so I excused myself and quickly went to the bathroom. Unfortunately, the toilet had no running water and I was sure what to do.  I left the bathroom and ran into a female student at the Discipleship School named Wendy.  I swallowed my pride quickly and asked for helped using the toilet.  It was one of the most humiliating moments of my life. 

Someone once said that to be a good man is more than just proving that you are one.  It has been convicting being in Honduras working with people who are experienced working with the poor.  Motivations can kill even the best project or idea.  When we originally were scheduled to come down, I went through several phases of attitudes.  At first, I had a mindset to only serve and help those who needed it the most.  The more I thought about this attitude, the more I realized that I was elevating myself above people and that I was pretending to understand other cultures.  After I made this realization, I decided I wanted to learn as much as I can from the culture but then I wasn’t really helping people as much as I needed to.  Did I really pay all this money to learn?  Would I have been more helpful using the money I spent to travel by donating to the ministry instead?  In the middle is the trick of “service-learning.”  I need to be able to expose myself to a different culture to learn but also serve in the ways I am skilled at the same time.  The end result is not always pretty but it will always results in changed hearts and minds.  If there is no struggle, there is no growth.  I pray that we can all grow and struggle together as a community.

Sorry for the lack of posts, hopefully I will be able to post another within the week.