Dad, under a Shady's medicines sign

Getting fruit from a vendor

Grupos y mas grupos

Photos from the Family visit:

My two families: In back- Mark, Dad, Mom
In front: Carlos, Diana, Teresa (host mom), and Daniel


As we visited the Ruines of Copan, the President Mel Zelaya was
also there and was welcomed in by women in their traditional dresses.

Dad at the Mango festival in Yuscaran


Mark, Mom, and Kathy and Virgil at Zamorano
checking out the plants and grafted trees

Dad, Mom, and Mark at Copan Ruinas

Mom and Dad at Montana de Luz

with Francisco (seated) and Ricardo

Dad on the corner of the square in Copan Ruinas

My brother Mark, Mom, Dad,

Michael and I at Copan Ruinas

Mark and his colorful friend

Dad, Me, Mark, and Nicole,

holding her blanket that Mom made for her.

Holla Peeps! There hasn't been anything nearly as exciting as earthquakes, as in the last entry written by my parents. There has been plenty of heat, baleadas (flour tortillas with beans), bus traveling, laughing, reading, listening to latin funk, and water fights with the kids.

I had a great time with my family going to Copan Ruinas and visiting Gracias, where Michael is at to see the variety of landscapes and realities in Honduras. My host family loved to have my family there and Dad was able to cook for them twice. They loved the little "panes" (bierocks) that he made, although our whole house was smoking hot afterwards.

My time here is winding to a close here with 3 and 1/2 weeks left to go. However, not without getting to know the entire state of Ohio. Just kidding but seriously. Nearly all of the groups that come to Montana de Luz to volunteer are from Columbus, Ohio. They have brought us many games and crafts and have provided the kids with extra entertainment to play soccer. It has been a challenge at times to help translating and explaining everything, but it has also helped me realize how much I have grown. We have had 2 groups already and other than a break this next week, we will have groups for the rest of the summer until late August. So maybe when I visit Ohio in the distant future, I'll find a place to couch surf....

Other than that, I just been enjoying the last moments with my host family and my favorite telenovela, or Columbian soap opera. Its based in Bogota, I think, and I'm really addicted. I need to know what happens to Rosali and Andres as they now started running a rich company, and if they can find the millionarie Bryan (who was married for his money but ditched by his wife) and now everyone thinks he died in a car crash, but is really in prision. Haha. You know the everyday stuff of life.

Its funny how when I came I said to myself I would never make it through watching any telenovela with the family and now I'm the one to remind them what time it is each night at 7:00pm. However, it is interesting that many of the soap operas have a social commentary piece to them. It especially seems to address the infidelity between husband and wives as well as some political themes of corrupt governance. I think it really helps people open their minds to confront what is happening in their own lives and government. However, also it has been a fun bonding experience with my family here because they are so into it.

Or also, another thing I got into here is Zumba. Its a super intense exercise video with dances like bachata, salsa and other latin dances to help people exercise. They were the most neon colored outfits that are hilarious just to watch. Its great how just shakin your hips can be such good exercise. I can't wait to bring it back to Kansas City in the middle of the winter.

The kids have been good in general. We have gone to the pool as a prize, which is awesome because it is really hot. Most of the kids are fairly healthy, with a few still dealing with chronic lice. Little Hector is still pretty sick and not responding to his ARVs. Keep him in your thoughts because his mom is out of the country right now and we are praying that his health will start improving. Often times the hospital we go to has no ideas of what more to do for him.

On another note, it has been exciting to see kids improving in school. They are halfway done with their school year and will finish in Novemeber. We are pushing them and working to keep them focused in this time with many mission groups visiting. I have been pushing the kids I tutor with multiplication tables and working to read syllables and sentences.

I was sent an interesting summary of a current political history of Honduras under Zelaya. It might be of interest to someone: http://www.coha.org/2009/05/21st-century-socialism-comes-to-the-banana-republic/

I have also been reading Shane Claibornes Becoming an Answer to Our prayers. It has been a bit of a teaser because I long for this faith community that he talks about. I have still been going to the Catholic church on Sundays but its a service to the other orphanage. Its a blessing to be surrounded by joyful kids but I still have a longing for community of people my age. It will be nice to be back in KC for that but I know there are so many great ways I have been stretched and challenged by God here as well.

Things that I will miss from Honduras:

-undefined reading times on bus (waiting for hours is common and acceptable)

-sharing toothpaste with my host family

-being really conscious of how many drops of water I use

-talking to anyone and everyone in buses and taxis

-waking up to cows at 5:30 because our neighbor decided to enclose one in her yard for milk

-getting romantic texts nearly everday from my phone company TIGO

-fresh fruits and their products (enough said)

-going to the gas station just to buy chocolate

-enjoying the extra protien (ants) that comes with my meals

-playing hide and go seek with the kids, each time being super joyful

-waiting for the power to go out nearly every time it rains and listening to the raindrops on the tin roof

-sensing the wonder in the sunrise over the mountains on my morning runs

Familia in Honduras

This is Liz' Mom and Dad writing from Montana de Luz. We arrived yesterday in Honduras and were delighted to see our daughter for the first time in 10 months. We had a good trip and they decided to allow us into the country.

We just finished a water balloon fight (bomba de Agua) with the kids and some volunteers working here. Although still a little damp, I'm feeling quite refreshed.

Honduras experienced an earthquake during the night. Here in Nueva Esperanza we experienced a little tremor. Liz and several household members came awake and felt the shaking (Liz told us about her dream that things were moving in the morning before we learned there was an actual earthquake,) but we Kansans were exhausted and slept right through it. Everyone in this area is safe, although we heard about a death caused by the earthquake near the epicenter in the north near the island, Utila.

We've been greeted with wonderful hospitality by Liz' host family, Theresa, Carlos, Daniel, and Diana, and also by her many coworkers. We attended mass yesterday at the chapel where I hummed along with a couple of familiar tunes, but was mostly entertained during the sermon by a rather large insect (Carol estimates 3 inches long!) crawling up my leg.

One special experience has been to meet Nicole, the girl we've been sponsoring. She's shy, but very pretty. Carol gave her a hand made blanket (though right now there's certainly no need for a blanket - it's been very hot and humid) decorated with hearts (corazones.)

We have shopped at a couple of grocery stores, and were somewhat surprised to see Vigilantes (guards) armed with rifles. Everyone has been friendly, but it speaks to the inherent safety issues here.

We've had a wonderful time traveling with Mark, and reuniting our family, and we look forward to the next 8 days.

Blessings to all back home. Rannie and Carol Goering

La esperanza real

Night Psalm- Thomas Merton

Be still
Listen to the stones of the wall.
Be silent, they try
to speak your

Name.
Listen
to the living walls.
Who are you?
Who
are you? Whose
silence are you?

Who (be quiet)
Are you (as these stones
are quiet). Do not
Think of what you are
still less of
what you may one day be.
Rather
be what you are (but who?) be
the unthinkable one
you do not know.

O be still, while
you are still alive,
and all things live around you
speaking (I do not hear)
to your own being,
speaking by the Unknown
that is in you and in themselves.

I will try, like them
to be my own silence:
And this is difficult. The whole
world is secretly on fire. The stones
burn, even the stones
they burn me. How can a man be still or
listen to all things burning? How can he dare
to sit with them when
all their silence
is on fire?(Paletas, ice pops, made from fresh fruits, you never get enough.)

(My fettish for pickled products continues.....)

Self-control: Usually used in reference to eating, sexual desires, greed, and things that it seems that we as humans should control about our nature. We always resolve to fix our bad habits, eat less, set down limits, etc. What is the inspiration for self-control?

Lately, I have been thinking of the concept of self-control as it relates to hope. Reading The Shack, the recent popular book by William Young, brought up some interesting thoughts through the main character´s conversations with Jesus. Jesus brings up how humans are always thinking about the future and what will be or worring about the past, but never really living in the moment. Humans spend so much time worrying that they forget to live. Sound familiar?

Recently at the orphanage we have been struggling with a variety of development issues. We have a huge disconnect between the U.S. office and the real struggles of Nueva Esperanza, Honduras. Despite huge staff turn-over and lack of funds, the real issues appear to be peeling back the layers of people´s hearts and the value they assign to each other as fellow human sufferers. It seems that we can be so blind as people that we forget to just sit and listen. Just sit, take in the silence of the walls and understand the burning that is around you. Just sit with the wounds and remember that you too know what pain and loss feels like. We forget what a gift it is to hope for someone, right now for whatever the day will bring. We forget the real power that people have to change their present situations, attitudes, and habits. We give people hope just by believing that each person is valuable. This is how we can be self-controled in hoping for someone, teaching our minds to be focused on the present, neither judging the past actions nor the future capabilities of people.

Recently, on a bus ride a Honduran who had lived in the States for 4 years told me about his immigration experience. He had crossed illegally and had scraped together a job and housing in Maryland. However, he painfully spoke of the huge sacrifice it was to miss his family and his culture, especially through the winters. He seemed enchanted with learning english, but understood the brutal realities and risks of immigration.

At one point, he asked me why it was so easy to get a visa to come to Honduras, but not the States. The realities of economic and political relationships between the two countries seemed all too real in this moment. Instead of making a hopeful statement about Obama changing immigration, I decided to sit with this burning. I told him that this really is an unjust situation and even to his embarrassment, I apoligized for it. So much of the time it can be easy to see this huge immigration problem and just despair for immigrants. However, living in hope, which isn´t easy because it calls us to be self-controlled in our thinking, allows us to keep moving foward right now (taking what actions we can) and let the future be what it will. It seems that being self-controlled in hope allows us to not guess about the future, but to really make a change in the moment. And these are the real changes that are possible.

Though my Honduran friend had been through a tough experience, he now had a job, was living with his family, and was continuing to greet people with a smile. It was clear he had gained inner strength through those years. And who is to judge what his future will bring...

I love this quote, and everyone who knows me well has heard it at some point;


Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, must be extraordinary. What we must do is love without getting tired. -Mother Teresa


This love that is unexhaustable teaches us to hope. We don´t decide to love kids in a couple of days when they behave better, or decide to help the poor tomorrow because we will have more compassion then. No, we choose hope today because we know that it is based in present action and is based in unexhuastable love.

Hope also holds on in the present to the possibilites and does not let the unpredictability of the future reign. It is difficult at times when you see the patterns of oppression, of destruction, of backwards development, and of habits to keep focusing on the hope that is before you. But the fact is, each day is new. Each day is hopeful. Each day brings unknown changes that weren´t known to soothsayers, fortune tellers and the future-minded.

I´ve been really learning experientially about hope here. There are many days when the girls I am teaching refuse to come to clases, working to finish the 3rd grade at the ages of 16 and 18 years old. In the developed world, many people wonder what future hope these girls have with a 3rd grade education. However, they have a passion to clean, to cook, and to do crafts. Though these activities may not be highly paid, it does not mean they are not valueable and provide hope for these girls. The fact is we as humans do not know what tomorrow brings. We can only plan, and worry, and dream for the future, while the present is being lived out.

It has been the same thing to hope for nearly all the kids here, as the HIV/AIDS so strongly affects their lives. But we don´t look toward the future and say, oh they probably won´t live long. Instead we hold on to the present, disciplining them, educating them, and feeding them each day, employing the present hope we have for them. Here in Honduras, this concept of self-controlled hope has hit me hard. People just don´t seem to plan as much for the future, buying the food and things they need each day or as the money is available. In many ways, it has taught me to live more in each day and rejoice in the seasons of the earth as we eat the fruits that are ripe and available at specific times. For example, we hoped for mango season but we thoroghly enjoyed the watermelon season. Living in hope implies living right now.

I have two months to go here in Nueva Esperanza. Its so tempting to plan for August, where I will live, what I will do, and how it will all happen. However, there is so much hope being enacted around me. There is so much listening I still have yet to do; there are so many hugs to give, books to read or be read to me, and games to play. I am still here. I am here to Hope.

May you also learn to hope, for the here and now, remembering that you are an agent of hope in this very moment.



Two good books about immigration experiences:

Enrique´s Journey- Sonia Nazario
Across a Hundred Mountains- Reyna Grande

La Semana Santa

right to left (the nephew of my host family and his little brother, a beautiful house in another town called La Villa de Sanfrancisco, a huge bunch of yellow coconuts, 4 of the kids I have worked with tudoring here, the new grey van we got to haul the kids around here.)

For Semana Santa or Holy week, right before Easter, I headed out to Gracias to visit Michael. First, we met up with some friends of Michaels that are biking from Virginia to the Mennonite World Conference in Paraguay. It was amazing to hear thier stories what all they have been given or experienced. I was especially amused by the story where they got handed an entire boxed pizza on the road. They were really organized with their whole trip. They just passed Managua in Nicaragua and should keep going all the way through Peru and Bolivia{s tough highlands. You should check out their blog- http://americas.bikemovement.org/
Semana Santa was a relaxing but really hot week. With Michael, we saw the sawdust carpets that are displayed as stations of the cross from the Catholic church. This procession began at 9 am and we walked from station to station, carefully stepping over the sawdust beauties and working to keep cool. We only lasted 2 hours but it kept going until noon. They had interesting invocations that were politically charged, and spoke to specific offenses that the government had done against the people, all the while asking for God{s forgiveness. It was moving but a sweaty experience.
Its the hottest time in Honduras right now, especially here in Nueva Esperanza. We are just sweating wherever we sit or stand. It can be miserable, especially in our computer lab. That is also why we rejoice that watermelons are in season and we are eating them at least 3 times a day, if not 4 for snacks. Can{t get enough.
I keep enjoying playing soccer with my host family. My younger sister is obsessed and rejoiced when they didn{t have school yesterday so she could stay up till 11pm to play. We have been eating a lot of ciruelas, which are a little green or red (depending how ripe) fruit with a pit. They are great as well. The mentality has continued to be, if its in season you eat lots of it.
I feel really adapted to this life. As I{ve reflected, I{ve realized how quickly I have accepted life as it is here. I{ve learned to say often, asi es la vida (that{s how life is). Last night my host family was watching the president speak and picking out his errors in speech and false promises. They told me that{s just how Honduras is with its politics. I find myself at times frusterated with how easily I have adapted or accepted certain parts of the life here. Even with my struggles within Montana de Luz, I am praying to be woken up and keep having the courage to challenge the difficult realities of unstable electricity and inconsistent water.
Relationships with my coworkers are going better. I have become quite close with my most frusterating coworker, which has been a real surprize. I can see the heart this coworker has for Montana de Luz, I just wish there could be more compassion in her words and actions. The way in which someone is treated, regardless if they are young and rebelous, makes all the difference in how they feel loved and have the hope to keep loving. Reflecting deeply on this has made my interactions with this coworker harder, yet at times more rewarding. She is adamently against being associated or considered Christian, but has admited that she believes in spirits. She connected this belief to the death of her grandma and further contact with her. Through many unconfortable conversations, we have shared our thoughts on life and relationships. Recently this coworker said, [Liz, I would be religious too, if all people were religious like you.] As she has never seemed to respect me before, I was caught off guard and am excited to see how our relationship can grow from here.
Right now I am reading The Road to Peace by Henry Nouwen. He is really inspiring me to dig deeper into my prayer life, and not just as wishful thoughts but as the true agent of change in conflicts and other tough situations.

Just wanted to share some good quotes I picked up-

[Christians today, if they want to be Christians, have to find the courage to make the word peace as important as the word freedom. THere should be no doubt in the minds of the people who inhabit this world that Christians are peacemakers.]

[The invitation to a life of prayer is the invitation to live in the midst of this world without being caught in the net of its wounds and needs. The word prayer stands for a radical interruption of the vicious chain of interlocking dependencies that leads to violence and war, and for an entering into an entirely new dwelling place. It points to a new way of speaking, of breathing, of being together, of knowing- truly , to a whole new way of living.]

[Panic, fear, and anxiety are not part of peacemaking. This might seem obvious, but many who struggle against the threat of a world war not only are themselves motivated by fearm but also use far to bring others to action. Fear is the most tempting force in peacemaking. The stories about nuclear weapons and descritions of what would happen if a nuclear war were to take place are so terrifying that we are easily inclined to use that fear to bring ourselves as well as others to be advocates of peace...peacemaking is the work of love and (in love there can be no fear, but fear is driven out by perfect love. 1 Jn 4:18). ] p.16


That{s whats up here and what{s going through my head. Please pray for the kids of Montana de Luz. Little Hector has gotten better, now taking a stronger antiretroviral. Also, we have Fernando who is struggling with a deep cough and is very behind in school. Please pray that he may be well to really focus on school and not drop behind another year. May you enjoy and be refreshed with all the beautiful people and challenges that surround you today.

habia una vez en Montana de Luz...

(left to right: a picture off the side of our chapel, some of our caretakers in the back of the truck (most people travel like this and it freaks me out to sit on the edge like that!), some squash plants we are finally getting to grow, the side of my house with our former banana plant (it died), and our wash area here at Montana de Luz. The weather has been so hot that things dry in very little time.

Hi! Just wanted to put up some more pictures. April is the hottest month and we're dying of heat up here in Montana de Luz. We have fans but they don't do us justice.

Nothing new just been reading and listening to some spanish praise music. For all you latin music fans, find Guillermo Anderson, Marcela Ganara, Terecer Cielo, and Jesus Romero. Those are some new favorites. My friendship with my host mom is deepening and I'm really adapting to life out here, though there are still plenty of struggles with the machismo and feeling blocked in at times. I saw an interesting article in the paper yesterday that said "God healed my HIV/AIDS." It covered a story on a man who had AIDS and then went to a church in Teguc and became healed. It was just so upfront. I asked my host mom what she thought and she said that she totally believed it happened, its just that she doesn't believe it should be publized like that. It made me remember how Jesus often told those that he healed not to tell the priests or others. But they did anyway...not too much of human nature has changed. Anyways, it has been interesting to be in a culture where news is quite sensational. Just the pictures on the front page can be of a graphic accident and are enough to turn your stomache.

I've got a break this next week for what's called semana santa, or holy week. I'm excited to get out and visit Michael is Gracias. Hope its a bit cooler there.

I miss you guys and am excited for my family to come at the end of May. Sounds like we have some hiking planned in a nature park here called La Tigre.

Keep on being awesome in the lives of those who gravitate around you.

Mi vida esta floreciendo

(left to right: a precious girl here with me, my co-worker Lydia, the little school where I do tudoring and crafts, our second youngest boy in the truck, two girls getting ready for school in the morning, any amazingly yellow floresent tree that is in blum right now (only blooms 2 times a year), a student I am tudoring and me, and the little ones in the truck getting ready for kindergarten.)

Hey all! In the middle of March, its getting hotter. April is the hottest month here and already the heat is upon us. We played with waterballoons in p.e. yesterday and it was pure joy. Kids screaming and running in all directions. Here at Montana de Luz, classes have been going well. I'm really focusing on tudoring the kids who are struggling to read and write. God has gifted me with abundant patience. Now it seems that the kids want to read and are eager to write letters to their sponsors, even though writing can be a big endeavor at times. Slowly, I see the kids improving as they remember to put periods at the end of their sentences and capital letters at the beginning.

My host family is doing very well. My mom's plantain chip business is busy right now, with many regular customers. I've helped her pack platain bags which is quite a bit of work. I have enjoyed baking for my family. We have made french toast, quiche, and various types of pizza together. I also got my family hooked on rice crispies, just like my real dad is!

I've been reading quite a bit. I just finished a book about bananas, Violence and Non-Violence in South Africa, quite a few poems from Walt Whitman, and now I am started on a book called The Mystery of Capitalism: Why Capitalism Triumps in the West and Fails everywhere else by Hernanado de Soto. It is an interesting look at what a capitalistic society is based upon: the potiential capital that rests in homeownership, the accountability of transfer of assets, and the unification of one measurement system. It has helped me reflect on various parts of the Honduran legal system that have broken down or that are simply set up for a differnt type of economic model. We have even been trying to get a title for a van that we own and it has taken months upon months. The system is different to navigate here. Once again, you must employ much patience to stick through the process.

I went hiking with my coworker Dario into the woods near Playa Blanca (white beach). This is a man-made beach close to Nueva Esperanza. We got to see many waterfalls and got to hike around to see on top of them as well. It was amazing being so surrounded by life and hearing the waterfall was good for my soul.

I have continued to be invovled with the Catholic church here. I am learning the songs on my guitar to play for our masses that we have up here at the orphanage. We have a mass every other week. The kids love screaming the songs that they know. I have found a lot of meaning and community in these services.

Samana Santa (Holy Week) is highly celebrated here. Its coming up in just 2 weeks. Nearly everyone that can take time off, heads to the beaches on the coast. I don't know what I will be up to yet, but I hope to get out of Nueva Esperanza, at least to Teguc. I got to play tennis with Rachel and it was like breathing again. What a great treat! I also got to satisfy my new adiction of coffee slushes called granita de cafe in a coffee shop chain called Expresso Americano. My trips to Teguc just aren't the same without them.

Thats about all for me. I'm getting ready for my parents and my brother to come soon. Hopefully we too can go hiking together, drink coffee slushes, and possibly go see Guatemala. Hope you all, my beloved friends and family, are doing great. Send me an email if you have time, lizgoering@gmail.com. Thanks for all your support, emails, and just sharing your lives with me. Life has offered me so many amazing memories and opportunities. I pray that each one of you will recognize your riches, be they your memories, emtional well-being, beloveds, and the air you breathe each day.

Una poema para inspiracion

Hey,
I wrote a poem I wrote a while ago. It speaks to my progression in humility, grace, and a more florescent perspective of my creator.

In a Glimpse of a Moment

In a glimpse of a moment
we stand
masquerading as equals, as allies,
bending to the wants of our flesh,
worshipping what befalls our eyes.
In a glimpse of a moment
we kneel
passing each day beneath the sun,
knowing the expiration dates are set,
and that all will pass away.
In a glimpse of a moment
we breathe
in the colors, scents and laughter
that make each steady rotation
worth our broken humanity.
In a glimpse of a moment
we bend
as though trees in the wind
adapting to the scars of sorrow,
thinking of time's inflexibility.
In a glimpse of a moment
we fall
scattering self-sufficency like glass,
realizing that a weak human body
is sufficent for a moment of grace,
and that is all covers this severed skin.

Hippies rock!

left to right: (the hippie couple we met, me, Rachel, and Michael)

      So, we met these hippies over New Years in Utila, a bay island off the coast of Honduras. They have been wanting to come help women's groups learn more skills with jewelry and the bracelet craft. They have recently email Michael and Rachel to work with groups in their area of Honduras. This hippie couple is from Guatemala and they were quite inspiring to talk to. They have been traveling all over Central America to see their crafts and just live off of what they sell. The woman in this picture made me a great toe anklet out of waxy thread. I had seen these around and described it to her. This piece of work loops around my second big toe and works its way upward around my ankle, creating quite the piece of art. She was able to create this new innovation and even made one the next day for herself. Its so cool to see people really engaged and passionate about what they are doing as they are able to spread that to other people. Central Americans have been some of the most friendly people. Spreading love...one bracelet at a time. 

       I'm reading The Shack, which has been a really good book so far. Its challenging me how I talk about God verses how I really believe in him. Sometimes in a religious culture, we are quick to speak about God's qualities but when it comes to tragedies and other injustices it can be so tough to keep believing that God is consistent. Right now I am working on loving the kids at MdL consistently, even when I have days of not seeing God work how I expect him to. Or even when certain kids might seem to be getting sicker...

       Please keep praying for 6 year-old Hector. He had a bloodshot eye due to new medical problem other than the illnesses he is already dealing with. He is also on a special diet, which can be hard because he just really wants to eat spaghetti but this does too much harm to his stomach. 

      Please pray for a unity in vision for Montana de Luz. At times, the directors and the BOD in Ohio see different visions and that can make it tough to keep things rolling smoothly. I've learned a lot from this experience about development work and the challenges that arise from operating in two different cultures. 

       May God continue to wow all of us with his plans, though we might be uncomfortable and unsure, may we be in a place that allows us to be unabashedly trusting our heavenly father.

Muchas Gracias

The kids needed to make a sign (Muchas Gracias) for some of our sponsers. I thought it was pretty cute. Check out these chulo (cuties) kids!

fotitos

Left to Right: (my compassion child Rony (far right) and his father and brother whom I visited last November, my short hair cut which has finally grown, kids Mera, Junior, Alan, Starlin, and Abi playing before school starts, the view outside my house to our neighborhood, the garden we are finally growing at Montana de Luz)



"However selfish soever man may be supposed," Smith wrote, "there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it."

This quote is from Freakonomics by Steven D. Levit and Stephen J. Dubner, a book I recently finished reading. I highly recommend reading Freakonomics because it really makes you think about social problems in an intersesting sense of insentives and personal drives. This quote by Adam Smith was interesting to me because I thought, what happens when we don't get the pleasure of seeing what we are working towards? What if justice is such a long-term plan that we aren't in on seeing "results"? We can hope and pray and struggle for things unseen before our eyes and maybe even the generation after us. This is definitely something I've struggled with lately as there can be so many setbacks at times working with a vulnerable population and with HIV/AIDS, a rampant disease. Everyday, I'm working to see each opportunity and challenge with new eyes that don't always rely on results in the Western sense. What does it mean to do justice and walk humbly anyways?
Luckily, all but one of our kids passed and are going onto the next grade this Monday when school starts. I'm going to be working with Marvin, a 14 year-old boy, who hasn't passed first grade. We are starting a program called Educatodos which helps people get caught up to at least 6th grade.
I'm also working to teach some conflict management skills. This seems to be something that is definitely lacking here, as the kids don't know how to deal with social aggression. As my vocabulary expands, I'm learning how to be a better teacher which just takes soooooo much patience. I kinda want to go back to every grade I passed and just thank my teachers for having put up with a lot. Especially kindergarten teachers. However, I've found the secret of using chocolate and stickers as motivation.

May you all keep motivated in whatever you are doing during these cold months, even if it sometimes takes a little hersey kiss to get you there. After all, I'm just carrying on one of the greatest life lessons my dad taught me.

Yo escogo alegria!

I choose joy...I will invite my God to be the God of circumstance. I will refuse the temptation to be cynical...the tool of the lazy thinker. I will refuse to see people as anything less than human beings, created by God. I will refsue to see any problem as anything less than an opportunity to see God.

-from Akron training

Halfway point: 6 months left to go. Here I sit in the office with a cool breeze sipping strong Indio coffee, having run 20 minutes on a country road that leads to Ojo de Agua (the nearest town), and being welcomed home by my morning breakfast of fried eggs, liquified beans, hard cheese and tortillas, not to mention that my host mom tried to serve me tea but I just couldn't do it after sweating so much. The summer is here. The weather is hot, especially during the afternoons. The boys got into a big soccer game yesterday and we played musical chairs with the girls. I am quite excited to be back to work with the kids after being gone for nearly a month.
In the beginning of January, I had the chance to go to Nicaragua for an MCC retreat as well as language school in La Ceiba, Honduras. After catching up with more people here I have found that traveling is such a luxury. So many Hondurans don't know places in their country because of hard economic situations and the fact that travel can take quite a while here. Many people cannot take off work or find care for their kids while they are aware. Now that my spanish has gotten better I seem to be more aware of the struggles of my fellow co-workers.
Yesterday, I was talking to the cleaning lady here who was saying that she struggles with depression. Her husband left her to care for her 11 and 18 year old daughters. She lives in a neighboring town and says that most of her connections are with people from Montana de Luz here in Nueva Esperanza. However, so many women have children at a young age and motherhood can make it difficult to make time for anything else.
Another co-worker I was talking with says that she can hardley pay school fees this semester. It is difficult because the prices can be high and the government hardley helps anyone pay for school. She works at as a cook at MDL but she hopes to find another job here. All the temperal work is usually with the watermelon harvest in this area, which requires lots of manual labor and the workers must focus on the job 24/7 for a month at a time.
My other friend had to switch Universities because her last one was too expensive. That also meant switching career paths, which kinda rocked her life for a couple weeks. It just seems so unjust to have so little options and opportunities in a democratic society...She asks for your prayers to be at peace, find confidence to continue in her new career of ecotourism, and find the money to support her schooling.
In the midst of hearing about the U.S. economic crisis, I also have paused to acknowledge that Honduras has been in an economic crisis for many years. People have been struggling, sacrificing, and scraping by. Yet, they earn degrees, they construct houses after the rainy season, and they feed the children, though it may be the same beans and eggs and tortillas they had for dinner the night before. My eyes are definitely opened to the creativity of those with less resources and their true appreciation of what it is to afford a birthday cake and pinata to celebrate a birthday, money to finally buy a sofa, and the relief of finally fumigating for mosquitos that seem to take over on summer nights.

In all of this, I will choose joy. I refuse to see any problem as anything less than an opportunity to see God...

Escuela en Ceiba

Como esta el nieve?? How is the snow? I don't miss it but I do miss my sunny Kansas skies. The rain has been crazy this week and last week here in Ceiba. Michael and I are in language school trying to better our spanish in the northern part of Honduras. It has much more of a Garifuna population, an African indigenous group that decended from slaves. Now there are various Garifuna villages here that speak Garifuna and are known for dancing punta and eating lots of seafood. Punta, their traditional dance, is composed of fast beats and moving your butt in tiny circles. Various kids at Montana de Luz can do it and its impressive, not to mention wonderful exercise!
Things are going well here at language school. I feel encouraged with my spanish and I can tell that I am learning more right now. We attended a Mennonite church here and the service was surprizingly short but I guess I've just finally gotten used to the 3 or 4 hour church services here. Its great to finally know the music that is playing on the radio stations around me and feel at ease speaking to basically anyone around me. I'm still bothered by the machismo but I am learning to ask God for more courage.
My 23rd birthday is this Friday and I'm excited to spend it here in Ceiba, discovering the world around me. I've tried pastelitos de carne *(like empanadas) and various soups here. I've also heard that this was the birthplace of baleadas and have yet to eat one that has been "authentically" made. It will be a pleasure. Michael and I also went to a Dole company park here. Honduras was one of the most passive countries in the fight with the United Fruit company and it is evident in how active the Dole companies and other banana farmers are still present in this area. It will be hard, but I feel convicted to give up bananas especially after seeing how much control foreigners have on this sector of the Honduran economy contributing to more poverty here.
I hope you are all well and finding new reasons for getting out in the cold world in which you life right now. Enjoy this season, whatever it may be for you, and remember to enjoy some kind of chocolate for me on Friday, probably kitkats are the best!