Sorry for not having updated in roughly one week. Though I will try to update more frequently, with work piling up, and a lack of a laptop at home, I´m not sure how realistic that goal is.
Tuesday October 13th
Tuesday marked the beginning of some new work for me at the office. Marisela had been explaining about how we were severely lacking in groups for the Solidarity Program. Groups that typically come down to help with some local and regional projects. So I decided to take some initiative and delve into the problem, and ways to fix it.
The problem is this:
Groups do not feel safe or secure in visiting Honduras, even as late as January or February. This is due largely to the news and the current US recommended "don´t fly" list, which Honduras is presently on.
The real problem comes with the fact that if groups can´t come here, they opt to venture to other Central American countries such as Nicaragua or Guatemala. When groups visit, the "fear" is that they will find new relationships with new partners, and will likely not return to Honduras, when the situation is more tranquil.
I spent most of my day on Tuesday looking into information on the situation, past mission trips, and recommended ways to get new mission trips. I was excited for some new work.
After work, I went to Plaza and purchased a Digicel cell phone to call the United States with. I put some minutes on it, but not enough. I called family and a few close friends, but didn´t have as much time as I wanted to.
Wednesday October 14th
Wednesday, work was pretty good. I had a meeting with Marisela and we strategized about ways that we can adapt in this different political and cultural climate and still get groups to come to help. Marisela made the very good point that Honduras probably needs help now more than most other times in the country´s history.
I had found some online data bases where you can type in search criteria for mission trips, and they can connect you with partners. For example, if you type in "Carribbean/Central American", "Development", "Rural or Urban"...the search engine will pop out the CCD with contact information and a little blurb about the organization. Well...it would do that if we were in the data bases.
I found roughly four or so mission search sites, and Marisela and I discussed the possibility of being included in those websites. We didn´t want to be included on every website, because we didn´t exactly see eye to eye with "Christians Converting Hindus" or anything really that had to do with "converting". Additionally, we talked about contact with colleges, universities, churches, and regions back in the United States. We discussed the possibility of making contact with these places between now and Christmas, and then having me travel around a little bit to meet and talk with these groups about the possibility of coming to Honduras.
Marisela also suggested that we send an email to Global Ministries, asking for help or suggestions. Marisela also knew that maintaining relationships with previous churches and regions would also be important, and we decided to split the work between keeping up with the old partners, and forming new partners.
Marisela would send emails, updates, brochures, and suggestions to some of the old partners, while I would focus on trying to get new partners at least aware of our existence and possibly looking into making a trip down.
Our plates were full of new ideas and a renewed vigor for the Solidarity Program.
I spent most of my day trying to contact the search engines and filling out the appropriate forms to try and place the CCD on their websites.
Wednesday night was the last night of the games for the qualifying for the World Cup. Honduras played El Salvador in San Salvador, and not only did Honduras have to win, but the US couldn´t lose to Costa Rica in order for Honduras to qualify to go to South Africa.
By half time, things were not looking great. Honduras was tied 0-0 and Costa Rica was beating the US 2-0. In the second period, Honduras scored, to go up 1-0, and the US scored to make it 2-1. As the clock wound down to the last minute, Honduras couldn´t help but to mourn their victory, as it meant nothing with the US loss to Costa Rica. BUT WAIT. With only 30 seconds remaining in the injury time, the US scored a goal to tie the game, which meant...HONDURAS WAS GOING TO SOUTH AFRICA!
At the end of the game, I flipped over to ESPN just in time to see the score of the US/Costa Rica game change. All of my neighbors started shouting, they ran into the streets to watch the fireworks being lit off around the city. Freddy called and told me that we were going out, and within 10 minutes, Freddy, Yasmine, Dario, his girlfriend, and I were heading down to the Boulevard Morizan. On our way down, a local news channel was interviewing cars headed down for the fiesta. The people at the office said that they saw us on TV that night. Freddy told the anchor that we were excited to be going to South Africa, then he pointed in the backseat and said "and we have a gringo right here". I was in my Honduras jersey and had a Honduran flag draped around my shoulders. The people at the office said it was the most handsome I had ever looked.
When we got to Boulevard Morizan, there were thousands of people had blocked off the streets. Music was blaring, people were running around dancing and yelling. I had never seen anything like it. People were in trees, climbing lamp posts, sitting on top of cars, going absolutely nuts. It had been 27 years since Honduras last made an appearance in the World Cup, and people wanted to celebrate.
On Saturday, after the game between the US and Honduras, I was something of a national villian. After Wednesday, I was a national hero. People were taking pictures with me in the streets, waving the American flag saying "Thank you" inbetween their tears of joy.
We stayed out until close to 1:00am. It was an incredible night.
Thursday October 15th
Thursday was declared a national holiday, and no one went to work. I took the day to sleep in, and get caught up on some chores. I washed my clothes, which took most of the morning and some of the afternoon, and did some grocery shopping. I tried to purchase some more minutes for my phone, but when I did, the phone decided that it didn´t want to accept the new minutes, so I had to go back to the store and struggle through explaining the situation and listening to what I needed to do to remedy it. I understood most of the conversation, including the conclusion of it with "We´ll look more into it, come back tomorrow". When I got back to my apartment, I studied some Spanish, and read a little bit, but generally took it easy for the rest of the day.
Thursday night television was great to watch, especially with the return of 30 Rock. Watching the shows made me miss fall, though. It still feels very much like summer here, and it probably will for the entire time that I am down here. I like season changes, so it was bittersweet to watch the autumn colors on the trees, and to hear the crunch of leaves beneath characters´ feet as I watched some of my favorite TV shows.
Friday October 16th
Friday was back to work, and I was very busy between preparing the lesson plans for Saturday and continuing progress on the Solidarity Program outreach program.
I devoted the morning to developing and translating the lesson plan and right after lunch, I worked with Patty on the revisions to my translations. After that, I went back to contacting Global Ministries, and the search engines to continue the development of the Solidarity Program.
I was constantly checking emails, and websites, and by the end of the day, we had interest from a group wanting to come down in February! It was kind of a big deal.
Friday night I was exhausted, so I decided not to go to the Bible Study, but rather stay in and watch some of the MLB playoffs. I don´t like the Yankees, and I wish the Dodgers would win.
Saturday October 17th
Saturday, I met Luis Felipe right at 8:00am, and we headed off to work. Along the way we discussed why I decided to be a GMI, and how I ended up in Honduras. Little by little, I am getting to the point where I can have conversations with people. I know that I make a lot of mistakes when I talk, but people can understand me better. There is still a long way to go.
The talks went very well, and all of the students really responded well to, and enjoyed what we talked about. It had been brought to my attention the previous week by some of the students, that faith and values are good and all, but are perhaps a more elevated facet of personality than what everyone is focused on in their lives. So this past Saturday, we talked about self esteem, and how we need to have faith in ourselves and how we need to value ourselves in order to really do anything else. After an excercise where we wrote on the topic of "Why I am Awesome" the students thoroughly enjoyed sharing a variety of reasons on why they were awesome.
The second half of the class was about recognizing the awesomeness in each one of God´s children in the world, and about respecting other people. We talked about how much we struggle with separating people from their actions, and how we cannot look at things as "Us and Them" (I stole that from one of George Reese´s sermons that really stuck with me as something very difficult to do). By the end of the class, people had felt fairly uncomfortable with the idea of respecting the opposing political party, or rich people, or foreign people. It made them think about how it is ok, and even right to feel frustrated and indignant over people´s actions, but how it is not ok to hate people themselves. In the words of Jemaine Clement..."I´m a person, and Brett´s a person, and that person over there is a person"
It (not the quote, the class) made them think. I think it was pretty good.
After the classes were done, I went to Plaza with Edgardo and Betza to shop for a gift for Patty´s birthday party! Patty had invited the three of us to join her in her birthday party, but warned us that she didn´t have enough money or food to invite everyone. So, if we could please keep this quiet from my co workers, that would be great.
We settled on a Honduras Futbol jacket, and Betza went home from there, while Edgardo and I spent the afternoon at my apartment, visiting and discussing religion. Edgardo and Betza went to study religion in Costa Rica for two or three years, before returning to Honduras, where they are now year-to-year professors at the seminary, where Edgardo teaches classes on the Old Testament, and Betza teaches a course of Biblical Interpretation.
I talked with Betza for a while earlier in the day about different theologies, and how much she had personally benefited from Feminist Theology. She talked about how hard it is in this society for her to find a job teaching religion, and how even in theological and educated circles, her opinion is often disrespected, and disregarded solely because she is a woman.
Edgardo and I talked for a while about Betza and her struggles, before talking about how difficult it is to teach liberation theology in Central America, because the whole "Plan of God" idea is so deeply ingrained within the minds of the poor. The church has convinced people that their poverty and struggle is because of God´s Will. Maybe it is a plan for the future, maybe it is a punishment for the past, but peopls are convinced that their daily life is exactly what God wants for them. It was tough to swallow.
We left the apartment, picked up Betza, and headed over to Patty´s for the big party. It was a lot of fun. It was kind of awkward at first, because the three of us were the only non-family members there, but with some good food, and some lively conversation, it was a great time. I was very grateful, and honored that Patty had invited me.
Sunday October 18th
Sunday morning I wasn´t feeling very well. My nose and throat had combined for some soreness and post-nasal drip, which made breathing with asthma lots of fun. I decided not to go to church, but tried sleeping instead. I spent most of the day in bed, but did manage to cook some chicken noodle soup for myself.
I slept on and off, and watched some pretty dissapointing football games. Without playing fantasy football, games other than Bengals games, aren´t as much fun to watch.
Sunday evening, I was feeling better, and Cente called to see if I wanted to see a movie with him and Freddy. We went to Mall Multiplaza, which was a tad more expensive than what they were used to, and we ended up paying a whopping $3.00 for the movie. Apparently, it is normally $2.00. We saw the movie Surrogates, with Bruce Willis, which I thought was pretty interesting. On the way home we discussed futuristic technology, and wondered what our grandchildren would think of our lives now.
Monday October 19th
After a day of doing nothing, I felt energized and eager to do things. I woke up and made myself some pancakes for breakfast, while I watched the morning news. I did a quick work out on the roof, and read some before paying my rent and heading to Plaza to buy some groceries. The temperature had apparently dropped to the mid 60´s, which I hardly noticed, until I saw people literally shivering in the streets.
When I got to Plaza, I watched people in big winter jackets blow warm breath into their hands, and had to restrain my laughter. When I got back to the apartment, I couldn´t help but smile when I saw our gatekeeper in earmuffs, gloves, and a scarf.
I got up to my room, and decided that if this was fall in Honduras, then I had better go out and enjoy what I could. I went out for a walk and ended up at a large superstore. I went in for a while and looked around. It amazed me how many Christmas decorations were already up. I don´t know if it is because Halloween and Thanksgiving aren´t holidays here or what, but Christmas came early to Honduras.
I enjoyed walking the store for a while, before finishing up my walk and heading back to the shivering gatekeeper and my apartment. Monday evening, I watched the Count of Monte Cristo, as I made myself some chicken and potatoe dinner that I invented. Its a lot of fun to come up with cooking creations. I just wish that they tasted better.
As I ate my dinner, I watched the Angels finally beat NY, and then saw the Dodgers blow the win in the 9th inning. I wish I had gone to a Reds game this year.
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