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.