Honduras

“Ola to all my Trail Talk Amigos!!!

I am home well, I am back to my American home but I now have a second home in Honduras. I have so many stories to tell...LOTS of pictures to share...and I can't wait to tell you all about it.

However I need to decompress...my heart is so full and my emotions very raw.

I hope everyone is well and nothing drastic has happene here while I was gone. I thought of you all so often....especially when I was in Buena Vista 6000ft in elevation looking down on Lake Jahowa (sp?) I wished all of you could have been there!!!!

I will start an official trip report soon.

Much love.....Dee :-)”

“How did I know you were gong to come back speaking Spanish?   < grin >”

“It is amazing...when I left I was like "I don't need to know Spanish, I'll be with interpreters all week"....NOT...I didn't need to know it for directional purposes but I did need to know it to communicate. So while I was there I did pick up a few things :-) It is going to be very hard to stop saying Gracias....!”

“I reckin I would have a hard time trying to stop saying "cerveza".”

“I think you could figure it out! LOL”

“I don't know, Chili. "Dos Equis" has always been easy for me to say, except when I drank too many of them.

Sin embargo, si no hay "Panama," no hay cerveza.

Trans. However, if you don't have Panama(a brand of beer), you don have beer.

And in Tecate, Baja, it's OK to drink Tecate!
last edited: 2/02/08 8:02:44 AM”

“Glad you're back home safely. Can't wait for the report/pics. I guess a dayhike is in order so you can tell me all about it.”

“Did you pick coffee?

I spent time in Quebec and was saying bon jour a lot.”

“Glad to hear you got home safely. I'm looking forward to the trip report.”

“I saw many coffee fields and ate coffee beans right off the plant but I didn't pick them. I wasn't with the group that went to the coffee plantation...I was with the Doctor for two days.”

“WOHOO gurlfriend!!! Glad to hear you had a good trip and made it back safely!”

“Welcome back Dee!”

“Thanks SC & Sarge...!

Troutbum...my shoes are ready to walk!”

“WE NEED PICTURES!!!!!!

PICTURES!!!!

I wont let you rest untill we see PICTURES!!!”

“Hey CG! I've been going to Honduras for the last 6 years, this June and July will be my 7th. I do medical mission stuff, but would love to break out and go bcpkng in the mountains. Did you do any hiking or were you with a mission group? I've been up in the cloud forest areas and it is unique for habitat. Looking forward to your trip report--Sunny”

“Sunny, you had mentioned that you had been there and I wanted to talk to you more but I didn't see you on here after that.

We were near Talube. I was with a mission team. The purpose of our trip was to document different stories in Honduras ie: a mountain Pastor, one of the girls from orphanages, a program of micro economic development, etc. We took medical supplies with us and went up in the mountains with a doctor for two days. When we were in Buena Vista I was taking family photos and we were printing them out and giving them to people that came to see the doctor. We take so much for granted, and they had never had a photo of their family!!!! I played with the kids and made sandwiches for them at lunch. We saw 96 people on day 1 and then 66 at another location a little was down the mountain.

I didn't get to hike but we did get to have some down time and went to the Market one day in Seqedapecki (SP) and took the orphanage girls to a water park another day.”

“

”

“Welcome home!”

“Thanks for your nice pictures. They remind me of home back in Panama.”

“Welcome home! Can't wait for the trip report.”

“Cool pictures!”

“I wish that I could say that I was writing this from the beautiful land of Honduras but sadly I'm back in WNC.

It is a bitter sweet time for me as in 8 short days I grew to love a group of people like I never dreamed I could. We have so much in the US yet we have so little and in Honduras they have so little yet have so much. They face poverty and adversity bravely yet have so much love to give.

We arrived on Friday the 25th and I met the girls in the orphanage for the first time. It is a wonderful place and they girls are very well taken care of. They are very rich compared to many of the others in Honduras. I was still very emotional from leaving the US and family and fearful of what was come. But after a good night sleep Friday night I was ready to roll and never looked back.

Saturday morning I got my first glimpse of Talube, the closest town to the Mission Campus where we stayed. We went into town to buy a car battery and some lumber to build shelves for the clothes pantry. It was totally overwhelming....dirt streets that were very narrow...people miling around, dogs, chickens and horses...scattered about. We saw motorcycles, scooters, cars, trucks, and even a semi..some how made it through the streets! The store that we visited for the battery was a tiny but smelled like a auto parts store!!! We picked up a few things at the hardware store, then drove to the other side of town only to pull up in front of a house (so I thought) we were actually there to buy lumber 2x2 & 2x4's. I was sitting in the back of the pickup and I know it was freshly cut because I had sap on my by the time we got to the compound. Pickups are a common mode of transportation with MANY people piled in them. It was fun experiencing just a taste of that.

Saturday afternoon I went on my first photo assignment. We were interviewing a lady who is a single mom and working her way out of poverty and how the church is helping her. As she was being video taped and interviewed it was my job to take photos of her house and the area. While doing so I scared up a tree full of chickens, scared myself to death..I thought I was going to be flogged. An older lady came out from the lower part of the house and was laughing hysterically as I danced around in chicken #&%!$! When I realized I wasn't a gonner I laughed right along with her but stayed away from the deadly chickens.

Later that evening we attended church at a church down the road from her house, Gladis was her name. They were celebrating their third anniversary and we (the team) were their guest. It was so incredible to worship with them and not understand a word that they were saying. There was no need for words...we were there as their guest. It took me several days to get used to being treated as a celebrity. They hold us in such high regard..it is so humbling because I know we/I are not worthy of such stature except for in God's eyes.

That is just a glimpse of my first day.....tune in later for more!”

“Nice report, I'll look forward to reading the rest.”

“donde esta el bano is the only spanish you'll ever need to know”

“The picture is a swinging bridge that stretched over the lake. If anyone knows me I don't like them AT ALL...but I had a blast coming and going over it!!!”

“It looks like it's in pretty good shape. No missing boards or cables.”

“No but it sure did rock and roll!!! They were very polite when I went over (the team members) but spared no mercy when we went back! LOL”

“el bano es mi amigo!”

“Hey Pammie!!!

I got the My Friend...what is the el bano?”

“el bano is not in my dictionary.

It probably should be el baño, which is the noun for bath, bathing, bathroom or bathtub.

bano is a form of the verb, bañar, to bath. It could be I bath or, better, I am bathing. But the "el" for "the" eliminates it as a verb.

Perhaps she intended "el banco" for the bank. Many of us need a friendly bank.

LOL.
last edited: 2/05/08 12:24:19 PM”

“Thanks NS :-)

Hope you are well!”

“

Day two was full of fun...we took the 18 girls from the orphanage swimming. This old lady even went down the water slide!!! (screaming all the way) The resort we took them too was called Las Glorias, and that was what it was...Glorias. The views were incredible from atop the waterslide. It was funny to drive out in the country passing bananna fields, pineapple and orange groves and sugarcane, all of a sudden to be at a swimming pool. The resort was nice in Honduran standards and was nesteled by the lake...that is where the cable bridge was.

I am having a really hard time adjusting to America. I have always been a bit tuned into the greed that is rampid in the states but my eyes have been opened even more so. During my report you will probably hear me say 'We have so much but yet so little...they have so little but have so much.' Although they have so little materially the love of the people is over flowing. We fight to be independent in the US yet they depend on each other for everything. Community and family is so important there. Don't get me wrong. I know there is as much sin there as here...there is abuse, alcohol and drugs. Gang violence is rampid but the people are so loving...it out weighs it all.”

“Very nice CG. I was wondering if you were ever going to come home. I'm sure it was a very emotional trip. It would have been for me. Hurry up with the rest of the story!”

“Nice pictures. When you went into the urban areas, besides retail shops is there any industry there, like factories making clothes or whatever that employ people?”

“The factories are in the larger cities, San Pedro Sola is 2 hours away. The main source of jobs in the central mountains where I was is farming, some construction...very little, a lot of people pick coffee and bananas.”

“Old woman???? ;-)”

“I wasn't sure if you were near any larger cities. It looks like they have some nice mountains down there.”

“Old Woman? LOL..I'm not sure if I said this but when we started up the road to the Buena Vista in the pick up and they ask myself and another lady to ride in the cab. I was kinda insulted at first but thankful I wasn't in the back about half way up!!!

Rich, we did go to a larger city that is about 30 minutes away. There are jobs there as well. The thing is transportation is a problem. Most walk, take buses or other modes like horse, bike or motorcycles. It amazed me that as a truck would be going up a mountain someone would just jump on. We had people clinging to the back of our van at times,which freaked me out.”

“Pics of the team

Hope yall don't get tired of me sharing...my heart is still full and I want to try and express to you all what I experienced

[url]http://www.graceinfo.org/missions/honduras07/jan08honduras.htm[/img]”

“http://www.graceinfo.org/missions/honduras07/jan08honduras.htm


How about that instead?”

“OOOPS...got my URLs and my IMG mixed up...thanks MG...see I am an old lady!!! I didn't act like it during the water balloon fight...I kicked some butt then!”

“Nice slide show CG.”

“That last slide show picture with the tear was very powerful.”