Felix´s Visit

October 8th 2009 2:45pm

Sorry about the recent radio silence. With my laptop not working at home, and a recent shift in internet providers at work, I haven´t been able to update in a little while.


Friday October 2nd

When Freddy picked me up in the morning, we headed to the hotel where the people from the Council on Latin American Churches was staying. They were holding a press conference to discuss their visit to Honduras. Much to my dismay, though not to my surprise, the press conference did not even slightly resemble the one held in The Dark Knight.

After the two reporters finished their questions, we headed to work, where I finished translating and reviewing my lesson plans for Saturday with Marisela. It took most of the rest of the day, and I after I got back to the apartment after work, I did some laundry before heading over to Freddy´s for the Bible study.

I´m not sure how many more Bible studies I will be attending, because I am honestly using them solely for social purposes. I completely disagree with most everything being said in the meetings, and don´t know the language well enough to explain my thoughts on the topic. The basic theologies discussed so far have really revolved around God´s Plan and how everything that happens is happening because God wants it to.

I suppose some people find comfort in that. They assume that God does things that we humans can´t understand and that is just the way it is. Personally, I find the concept terrifying. I can´t and don´t believe in a God who plans for separation, pain, suffering, murder, wars, famines, and hatred. What kind of a loving, caring God would that be? The look on my face must have been somewhat quizzical as I recieved many strange looks from the heads that were busy nodding in agreement with every word spoken by each person in the circle.

I wanted to look at them in the eye and say, "Really?" (kind of like the SNL Weekend Update segment) Really? In YOUR life, you believe that it has all been God´s will? You think it is God´s will for you to struggle to put enough food on your table? You think it is God´s will for you to see loved ones hurt or killed in political or gang violence? You think it is God´s will for you to live your life in poverty, constantly being stepped on by money and power grubbing elite?

Why? Why would you believe in that God? What is there about that God that is worth worshipping?

But I kept quiet. Partly because of the language barrier, and partly because I´m not sure that it is my place to voice my beliefs. I´m struggling with finding an appropriate outlet to discuss some of the more spiritual aspects of what I´m encountering here, and of what I´ve learned from church, school, and life.


Saturday October 3rd
I met Louis Felipe at Plaza right at 8, and on our way to work, we discussed various movies. The titles are different in Spanish, so we would have to try and describe the plots to one another. The one the agent finds the bad guy out was a tough one to decipher, but in the end, I understood that Louis Felipe enjoyed the movie American Gangster.

The classes went well. It had become clear to me that people weren´t really comfortable talking about their faith or values, so we spent most of the day doing exercises to expand our level of comfort with the topic. It culminated in everyone (including me) having an aspect of faith or a value taped to their forehead and asking only one question per person about the paper on our heads to find out what it said.

After the classes, I hung out with Joaqine for a while until Felix (my boss from Global Ministries) arrived around 12:30. Almost everyone was there, even though it was a Saturday, and we all enjoyed a nice lunch together. Felix was caught up on the political situation, and everyone was able to give their opinion on the matter. People were glad that Felix was there, because they knew that Global Ministries could help make a difference with their work at the CCD. If I haven´t already mentioned it, I´m really sorry, but the CCD stands for the Christian Comission for Development, and its goal is to help initiate and support sustainable development projects throughout the nation.

After lunch, Felix, Freddy, Elmer, Marisela, Edgardo and I headed up to Talanga to see the projects up there. On the way up, Felix let me borrow his phone to call Dad to wish him an early Happy Birthday. It was nice to talk with my parents. We stayed at Talanga for a while and explored several projects that are ongoing up at the center there. Felix was not so used to the crazy driving in the country and every time that there was a close call, he would sing Amazing Grace outloud. Felix is a lot of fun.

I didn´t get back to my apartment until close to 7:00 and was very hungry. I cooked up a couple of hot dogs and read some more of the Old Man and the Sea before heading to bed.


Sunday October 4th

Freddy´s mom and sister picked me up around 9:00am to go to church. I was wearing a tie, and Felix immediately began harping on me for being too corporate. This from a man wearing a jacket and tie. His excuse was that he was preaching, and he wasn´t sure how well the Hawaiian shirt would fly. He continued to tease me for being corporate and said I should wear a wig until my hair grows back out.

After Sunday School, Felix pulled me aside and asked if I felt comfortable in the church. I told him that the people were friendly, but that I largely disagred with the theologies supported by the church. He was relieved, and said, "Good, because some of the things I heard in the Bible study...not exactly Disciples of Christ material."

When I do become familiar enough with the language, I do hope to engage in more serious theological discussions with the youth members of the church. Not in an attempt to change their minds about their belief structures, because I don´t believe that is right. I would simply try to challenge their way of thinking, and hopefully spark a more critical view of faith, the Bible, and each person´s individual relationship with God.

I told Felix that, and he was also supportive of that idea and approach. He let me know that I shouldn´t try and make it seem like I agree with everything that they say. He also said that I shouldn´t try and change them. The middle way is usually the correct way.

Felix preached a wonderful sermon about not keeping both eyes on the Bible, because then you can´t see the world. After his sermon, he, Elmer, and myself went out to lunch and discussed my work to date. We then headed over to my apartment for the grand tour, and Felix was impressed at how nice it was for the price. I too was happy with my apartment, and happy to take a nap after they left. There was a dinner at Noemy´s house, and so we made plans for Elmer to pick me up around 6.

The dinner was very nice, and everyone from the office except for Cristian and Heidy were there. There was also a Brazilian family doing some mission work in the north of the country. My seat was between Betza and the Brazilian family. When I leaned to my left, we discussed social justice, future plans, and theology. When I leaned to my right, I was an English speaker trying to speak in Spanish with a Portuguese speaker trying to speak in Spanish. All accents considered, we understood one another fairly well.

After the dinner, I said goobye to Felix, who was leaving early Monday morning for El Salvador, and Freddy gave me a ride home. On the way, Freddy let me know that Saturday had been a national holiday and that no one would be in the office on Monday, so I could have Tuesday off as well. I was happy to have a three day weekend.


Monday October 4th

The night before, Freddy had discussed playing Guitar Hero at his house for a while on Monday, so I waited for him to call the apartment before going anywhere or doing anything. I slept in a little bit, and made some pancakes for breakfast. They were delicious, though not nearly as good as the ones Keven would make on Staff...I am aware that there are other kitchen staffers, I just always saw Keven making the Mancakes. They were however, much better than the chocolate Mancakes that Bobo tried to make by substituting water with chocolate milk. Sorry Bobes.

Around noon, Marisela called to tell me that my phone was ready, and we could go to the store to pick it up. I called Freddy, and pushed our plans for Guitar Hero back a bit so that I could get my phone. Things with Marisela are never as quick as she promises. First, we had to pick up her daughter from school, then we had to go and eat lunch before finally getting the phone.

When I got the phone, I put the chip in, and it worked right away. It is a very cheap phone, and it almost feels like a toy. I asked Marisela if I had minutes, and she said I didn´t need any. The phone was not for calling outside of the country. It was for the office plan so that I could call people in the office for free, and people in the country for very cheap. I still do not have an internaional phone.

We then planned on stopping by the bank, and then an internet cafe so that Marisela could run some errands, but I was not in the mood to continue running around the city for another hour and a half, so I caught a cab back to my apartment. I called Freddy, who told me that he had just gotten off the phone with Marisela and he had told her to tell me that he had to finish up some work before he could hang out.

So, I returned to my apartment, and slept for a little bit before heading over to Freddy´s to rock. Yasmine was already there, and the three of us had fun playing. Sedoc and Chente (one of Freddy´s other friends) came over after a while, and we all took turns playing.

It was midnight before Chente was able to give me a ride back to the apartment, and I was so tired, I went right to bed.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD. I have a present for you, but I´ll give it to you at Christmas or something.


Tuesday October 6th

I woke up Tuesday, got some money, and headed to the internet cafe in Plaza to look up some information. I tried calling the place what I wanted to go that morning, but there were three different numbers, and none of them worked. So, I hailed a taxi, and headed to my destination. When I got there, I wasn´t sure if I would be let in, but after checking my ID at the entrance, I was able to rent some golf clubs and play 9 holes at the Tegucigalpa Country Club.

You would know that it is a golf course if you drove by on the weekends and saw someone in a golf cart hitting a ball towards what you presumed was perhaps a green. You wouldn´t know it was a golf course if you showed up on a Tuesday morning to go golfing.

This was the full golf course to match the mini golf course in Marysville, Ohio.

When I paid, the course seemed expensive and also included a caddy. I asked if the caddy was necessary, and both the cashier and the caddy present gave me very weird looks. When I got onto the course, I realized why. I could buy balls, but no tees. There were no fairways, and no way of telling where the next tee off was. Most of the greens were on a plateau, which meant if you didn´t chip it just on to the green, you were screwed. One of the greens had a flag in the hole, most had nothing, but a few had big sticks marking where the cup was. One hole was on a plateau and you hit it off down a mountain, covered by trees so you couldn´t see where your ball went. The driving range went through hole number 5, and there were no score cards.

It was a lot of fun. The caddy was fun to talk with, and excited about golf and when I would do well. I did pretty standard for me. I had a couple of bogeys, a couple of pars, one that was almost a birdie, and three double bogeys and two triple bogeys. It was really nice to go out though, and when I got done, I talked with the cashier and the caddy for little bit while waiting for the taxi. The cashier told me that she thought I was playing 18, and could play my next round for free, without having to pay for renting the clubs.

Tuesday afternoon, I read outside on my balcony for a while, before it started to rain. That everning, Freddy´s friend Chente called and invited me over to play some poker with him and some of his friends. It was pretty fun, and nice to get out and do things.

I didn´t get back to my apartment until close to 1:00am when Sedoc dropped me off. I was very tired again, and went straight to bed.


Wednesday October 7th

Yesterday, I was looking forward to having internet back, but when we got to the office, Freddy told me that we were in the process of changing internet providers and didn´t have any at the office.

In the morning, we took a trip to get some letters painted on one of our vans. In the afternoon we took a trip to the UN building to discuss some of our joint projects with the UN in Honduras. It was pretty cool going around in the UN building here.

Apparently, we do an HIV/AIDS prevention program that we do all around the country. We go and invite schools to show up to a hotel where we sponsor a local doctor to tell the kids about HIV/AIDS. Honduras has one of the highest HIV/AIDS rates in the Western Hemisphere, and so the project is very important. Before I got to the CCD, we had a lazy administrator who didn´t follow up with our projects with the UN, so Nancy is having to work extra hard to patch up the relationship and continue with the important projects all around the country. Within the next few months we should be running several seminars all over the north.

I got back to my apartment, and wrestled with what to eat for a while, before deciding to experiment with some chicken and onions. It came out kind of like a kabab, only without on a skewer. I added some egg noodles, and had Chinese for dinner. It was delicious.

I took it easy and read some before studying more Spanish. After learning a few more verb conjugations, I watched some of Conan O´Brien. I headed out to my balcony for a while and watched the city. Lightning constantly illuminated the night sky and the mountains in the distance were silhouetted against the brilliant lights. I felt very small.