Grace
The smile of God, kept frozen by chilling creeds;
kept hidden in folds of frayed language,
worn, patched liturgy.
God’s favour, infinite grace, dispersed in drips and drab.
Inaccessible supply points;
Miniscule amounts – sufficient for moments
... never a lifetime
... never enough.
Birthrights stolen and vendored back as new goods
in pottage crusted packaging;
impoverishing even more the already disinherited.
Stateless refugees frantically trekking from one citizenship seller to another;
their rightful, royal lineage ragged and unremembered;
unaware that their documentation is already well ordered
and eternally complete.
Imagine cascades of grace:
Flooding with reckless abandonment;
Sparkling spray clouds soaking all and sundry;
Pulverizing be-stoned and fraudulent boundary cairns;
Gushing and sweeping unused and unneeded into unmapped cracks and corners;
Pooled verdant and living in every reach and bend.
Imagine pounding waves and Fundy tides of favour
sweeping away mouldered forts of fanaticism,
freeing the shores forever
to unlimited access, unfettered supply.
Imagine no need for crudded containers,
no quack practitioners leaching life blood;
no marketable value to be exploited.
Imagine Grace.
Infinite.
Free.
And Mary found favour with God. (Luke 1.30)
December 2010
Santa Cruz de Yojoa
The peace of Christmas be with you always,
bb
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Friday, December 3, 2010
Graduation Pictures
Graduation Number 2
Yesterday was our second graduation ceremony. 32 students graduated from a Grade Level. Included in that number were 5 mothers and 3 grandmothers. 9 of the graduates were finishing their second grade in less than one year – a first for Honduras.
There are so many stories from this group of people. Marie Elsa finished her Grade 8 studies. A year ago she rarely spoke to anyone and very consciously stood behind others in any group setting. Yesterday she asked to give and gave a lovely speech at the graduation. As the first woman in her village to achieve that level of education, her husband and two children are very obviously proud of her.
Lydia and Julia, both single mothers and grandmothers as well as members of our Board in Honduras, finished Grade 7. Lydia has taken charge of one of our satellite centres and uses her own home to give a number of young people an opportunity to study with us. Her project for Grade Seven was to take reading material from our growing digital library and do reading with the local primary school. Lydia’s self-confidence has led to her leading a women’s group which now has 5,000 tilapia growing in tanks and ponds on a piece of property bought by CPI for agriculture projects.
Julia works as a maid to help provide for her family. She also helps monitor student progress and activity, often supervising in the school when we are short staffed. Her infectious laugh is contagious and encouraging.
Gabina, my age mate, was accompanied by one of her daughters and several grandchildren. She has grown in confidence and is so excited to think about finishing Grade 9 and moving on to Teachers’ College.
Earlier this year, a teacher from a community realized that there were many young people without opportunity to continue their studies. She came to our office with a list of 50 young people who needed help. Thanks to CPI supporters and this teacher, computers were put in an empty classroom in La Barca and yesterday 5 of those young people graduated from Grade 7.
Francisco’s father spends hours each day in the ammonium laden atmosphere of chicken barns. He was unable to attend Francisco’s second graduation (Grade 8) but his mother and sister were there. As an old chicken catcher and farmer, Francisco is a favourite of mine.
Three sisters graduated from Grade 7 and 8. Their single mother receives money from relatives in the States and that is enough for them to live on. They are dreaming of a chance at University study, even though their mother is almost frightened to think of such daring.
Wilmer, who works during the days, finished his studies during the evening hours. Yohana lives in a village without electricity but would come to the school to write exams and so forth. (We stretched things a bit and let her study with textbooks at home.) Her early pregnancy had stopped her from completing Grade 9 several years ago. Now she has completed her studies.
The staff, Edel, Yeni, Carolina and Manuel, worked hard to make sure that all was in order. It was such a treat to check on the lists each day and find things moving along. I am so proud of their work. Natasha, our Canadian intern, spent an afternoon baking cakes in my small toaster oven and turbo cooker. She had ten cakes baked and we decorated them with frosting and M & M’s on Wednesday morning. They were a huge hit.
The last week also saw three letters of interest from various NGO’s to use our program and a lovely letter from the Deputy Minister of Education asking us to pursue the GED program as well. She also asked for our diagrams of classrooms made from shipping containers.
Tomorrow we move our office to new, larger quarters. Everyone is excited about the new venue. It is less prone to dust and traffic so will be welcome. I shall move as well and stay in the old place – more room for me and many more plants.
TTYL
bb
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Africa and Back
Nimesharudi kwangu. Since last talking to you, I have had a two week trip to Kenya. A group in Kenya (Bethany International) is setting up an integrated agriculture training centre in Garissa. They asked if I could come over and give them some ideas and advice both in the layout of the school and in the preparation of curricula.
Garissa is near the Tana River (the largest in Kenya) and features a population of traditionally pastoralist people groups. The Somalis have moved into the area even more since the troubles began there twenty years ago. Money from the diasporas (Somalis living abroad in Europe and North America) and from Somali economic activities on the high seas (read piracy) has fuelled property buying and building in Garissa, Nairobi and other parts of Kenya. Influxes of Somali refugees has doubled the population and made the Garissa area more powerful politically as well. The Somalis have become a major player in politics and economics in the past few years.
Conservative Islam has also moved into the area. The call to prayer and sundry recitations were a prominent audio background throughout the day and night. When we lived in north eastern Kenya twenty years ago, Islam was present but the women did not wear the full covering they do now. The vast majority of the Somali women now cover themselves with a full veil (called a ‘ninja’ by the local population – including the women themselves) when in public. There are still forays into ‘fashion’ with decorated and embroidered coverings and very intricate henna designs on feet and hands.
I was able to see some new parts of Kenya on a trip from Garissa to Mombassa. That bus trip featured some off road stretches and took about eleven hours for the 450 some kilometres. A road is being built but may take a few more years to accomplish. Surprisingly, I saw two new animal species this trip, despite not having time for a game drive. The caracal and galago were both new and delightful finds.
It was lovely to reacquaint myself with various Kenya dishes. Well cooked traditional food is good in any culture and, with so many various cultures in Kenya, there are many types of food to sample. Irio, nyama choma, camel stew, Somali rice, Swahili pizza, mandazis, chai, ugali and samosas were all part of the menu ... and very well enjoyed.
My Swahili was rusty but I managed fairly well, especially in understanding what was going on. Kenyan Swahili is not as polished as Tanzanian Swahili so my grammar was noticeably better on several occasions. That stood me in good stead when I would forget a word or, worse, throw in the correct Spanish word. I found myself thanking the clerks here in Honduras in Swahili this morning. Sigh.
In the course of looking for supplies and equipment, we saw a new development in Kenya. Finally, two companies have developed small greenhouses and shade cloth units for small landholders. These are affordable for lower middle class farmers and repay themselves in less than one year. With simple drip irrigation systems, they are also very easy on water. The banks have realized their potential and are lending money for them as well. Now, to try and get them here in Honduras. The cost of a >1000 sq. ft. greenhouse with equipment is less than $1500.00 USD. With the vagaries of climate change, this is a huge step in food security.
When we toured one of the companies’ show house, I asked the girl showing us around when she was setting up her own greenhouse (that was partly to see if she was actually sold on the idea or not – if it isn’t good enough for the employees then we should take a closer look ... right?). She told me, “next month it goes up”. She already had plans to build a second one and within two years she was going to be working on her own and earning more than she could as a ‘tour guide’.
One greenhouse is enough to provide a family with a very moderate income and two would provide a living of choice. One person can take care of two greenhouses without trouble.
We also saw several new pieces of equipment developed for small farmers and businessmen. A new maize grinder (built in Kenya and much sturdier than Indian/Chinese models), a hand cranked rock crusher (beats the man sitting with a hammer to make gravel), a water pump (100 litres/minute) that can work with one hand and the Jompy stove (a fantastic new unit to heat water and cook at the same time over charcoal or open flame) were all new items.
One of the focal points of our time in Garissa was seeking to find ways to utilize a new tree in the area, Prosopis juliaflora. This tree was introduced about twenty years ago and has spread rapidly. The good news is that it is keeping areas covered with trees despite the pressures of increased population. The bad news is that it does spread quickly. However, it has been my experience (speaking humbly of course) that trees are very easy to catch so complaints about the spread of such a species are not too credible.
The tree fixes nitrogen, provides good charcoal, is easily worked for furniture (can be glued together to make laminated boards) and carvings, has high protein leaves and pods (the pods can be ground and the flour incorporated into porridges and chapattis) and flowers prolifically. It also can be harvested repeatedly and will come back from the roots or trunk (coppices readily). There is some concern that a 100% diet of the leaves or pods may cause problems ... but a 100% diet of anything is a problem generally speaking.
We did find a place where they are making charcoal briquettes using charcoal dust and clay. They can make the charcoal dust from any carbon source, including leaves. This opens the potential for utilizing this tree in even more ways. As we talked with people about seeing this tree as a resource instead of a problem, it was wonderful to see their excitement. In an area of Kenya that is desperate for economic building ideas, this tree offers a great opportunity.
There are many ideas that can be transferred to Honduras and I look forward to working on that in the coming months. Now, adventures over for a few months, it will be back to the school work here.
TTYL
bb
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
English Lessons
Natasha, our Canadian Intern Student, has been teaching English to our students. She has travelled out to various villages and held three day seminars. The students are excited about learning this way and it has been a wonderful way of telling the whole village about our school. Natasha has been fantastic about taking public transport and spending time visiting with the students and their families.
This week she is holding seminars in Santa Cruz.
The Ministry of Education is having trouble paying the teachers. Consequently, there is no school. They are contemplating shutting the schools for the rest of the year and simply giving everyone a pass. This has been done before but truly does nothing good for the students. It makes our approach so much more valuable. Students receive the whole curriculum, regardless of what happens.
TTYL
BB
This week she is holding seminars in Santa Cruz.
The Ministry of Education is having trouble paying the teachers. Consequently, there is no school. They are contemplating shutting the schools for the rest of the year and simply giving everyone a pass. This has been done before but truly does nothing good for the students. It makes our approach so much more valuable. Students receive the whole curriculum, regardless of what happens.
TTYL
BB
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Catching Up
Wow. It has been a month since I wrote. However, the number of readers writing to let me know that they missed the blog ... well, much like hearing good things about Obama on CNN.
On Tuesday, Muanuel, Chepe and I visited our most remote school in Las Delicias. When the road is not all that good, a seventeen kilometre trip can seem much longer. We drove through gorgeous valleys and constant vistas of verdant mountains and hazy horizons. Truly spectacular.
The village is on the edge of a forest reserve and at a higher altitude so the air was clear and fresh. Our host, the man who is working hard to provide this education opportunity to his village met us as we drove up to his house. We were invited inside and, after seeing the computers and so forth, sat down and visited.
This is the first Honduran home that I have been in which had books. It was incredible to see two small bookshelves filled with reading material for children, adults and reference. Obviously, we have a very good family to work with here.
After some time, the man invited us to see his garden area. He has several innovative things happening there. He is planting lablab (I think that is the name – he wasn’t sure) beans as a ground cover and green manure. He is also planting rows of Madriado, a nitrogen fixing tree which will fertilize the alleys between and provide a trellis for black pepper vines. It was so very exciting to see some of these practical, low cost ways of improving income potential being implemented.
On the return trip, I had Manuel take his first driving lesson. He was sweating profusely by the end of the journey. He did well although getting that foot to move between brake and accelerator was a challenge. No crunches though so all was well.
That afternoon, we drove to another location with some papaya seedlings. I drove too close to a projecting stone and it sliced my front tire. What a bang. I was so sure I had destroyed the truck. Phew. Only a tire. We were happy that it wasn’t raining, muddy and a busy road (well ... track). The spare was in good shape but lacking in air. There was enough to limp to the nearest tire place and get it filled. What a relief to make it there safely and without further damage.
Yesterday morning I replaced the two front tires. Had to double check that small things like the valve caps were replaced and my two old tires also in the truck. Sigh. I do hate little fiddles.
We are hoping to have another graduation in November and the list of potential grandaunts is being drawn up. That will be exciting to see some more progress being made.
Our Canadian intern, Natasha, has been doing a stellar job teaching English in various village locations. This week she is experiencing the other side of life in a foreign country. A bad meal on Sunday night did a number on her digestive system.
One of the seductive things in another country is to arrive at a nice location (in this case a tourist type lodge at the top of a mountain park road) and see something familiar on the menu. After a number of weeks of ‘local’ food, the temptation is to order a hamburger. However, all too often, that is the very thing which is prepared poorly. That is not a surprise. We all stumble when trying to cook something from another culture. I have been disappointed (or, as in Natasha’s case, negatively affected – politically correct statement there) on a number of occasions when I had hoped for a touch of ‘home’ and, instead, received a touch of something else.
On the brighter side. Friday I was given a lesson in cooking one type of Honduran soup. As I have mentioned before, soups here are fantastic. A friend showed me how to make seafood soup. It turned out to be fairly easy and I made my own batch on Monday. Everyone who tried it was impressed so I must have gotten the main points of the lesson. It has some nice spices and coconut milk along with a variety of vegetables so it is hard to go wrong with that.
The staff here at the school is making great strides at adding complementary material to the curriculum and creating forms so that we can begin registering and reporting on line. I sometimes feel a bit unnecessary as they forge ahead. It is so exciting to see them gain confidence and creativity.
The last thing to talk about. While in Canada, I received three Rapid Washers. These are a plunger type unit which washes clothes in a bucket. It washes much more thoroughly, quickly and with much less soap and water than by hand. It still is manual labour but much less. This week we had a demonstration/trial run with some clothes of mine. Then staff took them home to give them a work out. The reports so far are quite good. Julia, used it to whiten some of my things and it was amazing. I had thought some stuff was beyond help but it brought new life to those clothes. Hurrah. Since it is ‘mechanical’ maybe it can be cross gender as well. Hmmm – don’t get your hopes up too high.
TTYL
bb
On Tuesday, Muanuel, Chepe and I visited our most remote school in Las Delicias. When the road is not all that good, a seventeen kilometre trip can seem much longer. We drove through gorgeous valleys and constant vistas of verdant mountains and hazy horizons. Truly spectacular.
The village is on the edge of a forest reserve and at a higher altitude so the air was clear and fresh. Our host, the man who is working hard to provide this education opportunity to his village met us as we drove up to his house. We were invited inside and, after seeing the computers and so forth, sat down and visited.
This is the first Honduran home that I have been in which had books. It was incredible to see two small bookshelves filled with reading material for children, adults and reference. Obviously, we have a very good family to work with here.
After some time, the man invited us to see his garden area. He has several innovative things happening there. He is planting lablab (I think that is the name – he wasn’t sure) beans as a ground cover and green manure. He is also planting rows of Madriado, a nitrogen fixing tree which will fertilize the alleys between and provide a trellis for black pepper vines. It was so very exciting to see some of these practical, low cost ways of improving income potential being implemented.
On the return trip, I had Manuel take his first driving lesson. He was sweating profusely by the end of the journey. He did well although getting that foot to move between brake and accelerator was a challenge. No crunches though so all was well.
That afternoon, we drove to another location with some papaya seedlings. I drove too close to a projecting stone and it sliced my front tire. What a bang. I was so sure I had destroyed the truck. Phew. Only a tire. We were happy that it wasn’t raining, muddy and a busy road (well ... track). The spare was in good shape but lacking in air. There was enough to limp to the nearest tire place and get it filled. What a relief to make it there safely and without further damage.
Yesterday morning I replaced the two front tires. Had to double check that small things like the valve caps were replaced and my two old tires also in the truck. Sigh. I do hate little fiddles.
We are hoping to have another graduation in November and the list of potential grandaunts is being drawn up. That will be exciting to see some more progress being made.
Our Canadian intern, Natasha, has been doing a stellar job teaching English in various village locations. This week she is experiencing the other side of life in a foreign country. A bad meal on Sunday night did a number on her digestive system.
One of the seductive things in another country is to arrive at a nice location (in this case a tourist type lodge at the top of a mountain park road) and see something familiar on the menu. After a number of weeks of ‘local’ food, the temptation is to order a hamburger. However, all too often, that is the very thing which is prepared poorly. That is not a surprise. We all stumble when trying to cook something from another culture. I have been disappointed (or, as in Natasha’s case, negatively affected – politically correct statement there) on a number of occasions when I had hoped for a touch of ‘home’ and, instead, received a touch of something else.
On the brighter side. Friday I was given a lesson in cooking one type of Honduran soup. As I have mentioned before, soups here are fantastic. A friend showed me how to make seafood soup. It turned out to be fairly easy and I made my own batch on Monday. Everyone who tried it was impressed so I must have gotten the main points of the lesson. It has some nice spices and coconut milk along with a variety of vegetables so it is hard to go wrong with that.
The staff here at the school is making great strides at adding complementary material to the curriculum and creating forms so that we can begin registering and reporting on line. I sometimes feel a bit unnecessary as they forge ahead. It is so exciting to see them gain confidence and creativity.
The last thing to talk about. While in Canada, I received three Rapid Washers. These are a plunger type unit which washes clothes in a bucket. It washes much more thoroughly, quickly and with much less soap and water than by hand. It still is manual labour but much less. This week we had a demonstration/trial run with some clothes of mine. Then staff took them home to give them a work out. The reports so far are quite good. Julia, used it to whiten some of my things and it was amazing. I had thought some stuff was beyond help but it brought new life to those clothes. Hurrah. Since it is ‘mechanical’ maybe it can be cross gender as well. Hmmm – don’t get your hopes up too high.
TTYL
bb
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Delivery Systems
A few short notes.
Last night, at about 9:00 p.m., Edelberto, one of our staff, phoned me and asked for help. He needed to get into the office and use the internet. I left my keys hanging in the lock of my door and kept preparing for bed.
When I arrived at the office this morning, at 7:00 a.m., Edel was still at work. Evidently, the line to apply for University online is only open for three days. Consequently, all applications have to be made during that window. Thousands of people are trying to get into the university at the same time. So, Edel was up all night applying for himself and others. He is on the last friend right now. He will head to my house to sleep for a couple of hours and then come back to work.
Carolina, another worker, delivered her first baby yesterday. Ramon, her husband, phoned us the news. Evidently, he will not see the baby or mother until today. The doctor simply came into the waiting room with a list of names and read them aloud along with information of boy or girl. The fathers were simply relegated to waiting. We will find out later today how heavy the baby was and what its name will be. Yesterday was the day of the patron saint St. Miguel. We discussed what the feminine form of Miguel might be but will wait to find out.
Yesterday, Julia told me that she had been watching the Sunday evening mass on television and had noticed that I had lost weight. So, my TV audience is watching and aware. So refreshing to know. Our Canadian intern, Natasha has made many friends in town and is often waving to one or another as we walk or drive through El Centro. However, I told her she still does not have a TV audience ... so there.
We have two student interns here to work on their computer skills. We have them making some forms for us right now. They are having to learn that it is much harder to make forms than it first appears. Their eyes have not been trained to see small mistakes and differences and so their idea of “same” is not like mine. I warned them at the beginning that it would be hard and that my eyes were different than theirs. But, they really didn’t believe me. Sigh. In our culture, we have so many puzzles that train our eyes to see minute differences. As we went over the third attempt they began to realize what I meant. Thank goodness for computers where you can save, correct, copy and so forth. Changes are so much easier. Hopefully, we will have a completed form ready today.
We dug up some grasses that have been growing in the compound. From a start of about ten small slips planted earlier this year, we have about two hundred or so slips ready for planting in Santa Rita. Today they will be planted to mark the corners of the permanent beds we have made. We can always move them later if we find a more profitable plant to put there. This grass has some medicinal value but not sure if it is enough to exploit on any scale. Still, it is beautiful and grows quickly.
TTYL
BB
Last night, at about 9:00 p.m., Edelberto, one of our staff, phoned me and asked for help. He needed to get into the office and use the internet. I left my keys hanging in the lock of my door and kept preparing for bed.
When I arrived at the office this morning, at 7:00 a.m., Edel was still at work. Evidently, the line to apply for University online is only open for three days. Consequently, all applications have to be made during that window. Thousands of people are trying to get into the university at the same time. So, Edel was up all night applying for himself and others. He is on the last friend right now. He will head to my house to sleep for a couple of hours and then come back to work.
Carolina, another worker, delivered her first baby yesterday. Ramon, her husband, phoned us the news. Evidently, he will not see the baby or mother until today. The doctor simply came into the waiting room with a list of names and read them aloud along with information of boy or girl. The fathers were simply relegated to waiting. We will find out later today how heavy the baby was and what its name will be. Yesterday was the day of the patron saint St. Miguel. We discussed what the feminine form of Miguel might be but will wait to find out.
Yesterday, Julia told me that she had been watching the Sunday evening mass on television and had noticed that I had lost weight. So, my TV audience is watching and aware. So refreshing to know. Our Canadian intern, Natasha has made many friends in town and is often waving to one or another as we walk or drive through El Centro. However, I told her she still does not have a TV audience ... so there.
We have two student interns here to work on their computer skills. We have them making some forms for us right now. They are having to learn that it is much harder to make forms than it first appears. Their eyes have not been trained to see small mistakes and differences and so their idea of “same” is not like mine. I warned them at the beginning that it would be hard and that my eyes were different than theirs. But, they really didn’t believe me. Sigh. In our culture, we have so many puzzles that train our eyes to see minute differences. As we went over the third attempt they began to realize what I meant. Thank goodness for computers where you can save, correct, copy and so forth. Changes are so much easier. Hopefully, we will have a completed form ready today.
We dug up some grasses that have been growing in the compound. From a start of about ten small slips planted earlier this year, we have about two hundred or so slips ready for planting in Santa Rita. Today they will be planted to mark the corners of the permanent beds we have made. We can always move them later if we find a more profitable plant to put there. This grass has some medicinal value but not sure if it is enough to exploit on any scale. Still, it is beautiful and grows quickly.
TTYL
BB
Monday, September 27, 2010
Hurricane Warnings
Friday afternoon was filled with activity as we prepared for the onslaught of Hurricane Matthew. I stocked up on healthy cold food items like Corn Flakes and Sardines and bought several novena candles (these are in glass containers and burn for long periods of time) for long periods without electricity (and, a little prayer might always be in order).
In the evening, the rain started and we were braced for the predicted 10-12 inches. It rained most of the night but, about six the rain stopped and by seven it was sunny. Evidently, the storm got stalled on the tip of Honduras and Nicaragua and did nothing more than spit at us.
The power was out for most of Saturday so I did get to enjoy Corn Flakes and powdered milk for breakfast. Power outages are going to be a part of the next few days it seems. If the people controlling the dam let too much water out, downstream will be a disaster area (rivers are overflowing already). If they let the water build up too much, the head gets too much (going by rumours here) and the generators have to be shut off. So ... know where your matches are at all times.
By ten, we realized that sun was the order of the day so we packed up two students, Natashs, the student intern and two barrels of fresh water and headed for Tela (the beach). Having a vehicle makes for many different options. This was the girls’ second trip to the beach in their lifetime (100 km away).
In Tela we found a beach and headed into the waves. Matthew had made the waves a bit more interesting but, as Tela is part of a large bay, the waves are never truly more than lots of fun. We spent an hour being pushed around by the ocean before heading into town.
On our way home, we stopped at a movie theatre to watch a movie. The movie the girls chose was billed as a 3D movie featuring some sorts of Kung Fu type adventures. Sadly, it didn’t live up to even those meagre expectations. However, for the girls, it was exciting. A movie, pizza and a beach ... all in one day.
This week, I have been made aware, again, of how fear is a part of living here in Honduras. A conversation with a friend (as we waited out a downpour) reminded me of that. This young man told me of the time he was riding a bus and a robber had come on the bus and shot the person sitting beside him. Manuel told me of coming out of his house last week only to see a man with a gun robbing another person on a bicycle. Manuel ducked back in time before the robber noticed him. A third friend told us of her experience being robbed when downtown with her two children. So many of my friends have such experiences and it continually colours their lives ... rather understandably.
One of the rather disappointing features of mission work is that, very often, the people who are first attracted to conversion and leadership positions in new churches are those who are marginalized in their own society. As they gain power in these new positions, they, very often, copy the leadership examples of both missionaries and the society around them. They become accustomed to using their positions to gain benefits for themselves and their families.
Very often, it is children of these first ‘believers’ who get opportunities for education and travel. They become accustomed to a life of benefits and, in fact, feel that they are entitled to these benefits. Often, as well, they are not committed to the principles of the religious community to which they belong and to which their fathers lead.
I have run across such families in Africa and here in Honduras. This past week we have had the misfortune of encountering one such family. For two generations, they have made a very good living from “enabling” Christian aid projects and programs. In the process, they have acquired land, houses and private education. They have not acquired the status in their society that they would like but they do control the church in which they continue to be part of.
In the process of completing one of our projects, we have had to confront several members of this family because their holdings and businesses were neighbouring or affecting our work. The fact that we sought to be transparent in our dealings and expected the same from them was very threatening to them. Now we get to deal with their threats and animosity.
It is a new experience for me to live with that type of threat. Although minor in comparison to that of my friends (at least I hope so) it nevertheless, makes me appreciate how much it makes you look at things in a different light. Hopefully, we can distance ourselves from these folks and assure them that we are not a threat to their way of life. Time will tell. It is frustrating to have people seeking to destroy something that only seeks to benefit their country and the poor people around them.
Time to run. We are meeting with a group of women who are trying to do some agriculture work to earn some more money for their families. It is exciting to see their enthusiasm. I hope we can direct that enthusiasm to something profitable and useful in the long term.
TTYL
BB
In the evening, the rain started and we were braced for the predicted 10-12 inches. It rained most of the night but, about six the rain stopped and by seven it was sunny. Evidently, the storm got stalled on the tip of Honduras and Nicaragua and did nothing more than spit at us.
The power was out for most of Saturday so I did get to enjoy Corn Flakes and powdered milk for breakfast. Power outages are going to be a part of the next few days it seems. If the people controlling the dam let too much water out, downstream will be a disaster area (rivers are overflowing already). If they let the water build up too much, the head gets too much (going by rumours here) and the generators have to be shut off. So ... know where your matches are at all times.
By ten, we realized that sun was the order of the day so we packed up two students, Natashs, the student intern and two barrels of fresh water and headed for Tela (the beach). Having a vehicle makes for many different options. This was the girls’ second trip to the beach in their lifetime (100 km away).
In Tela we found a beach and headed into the waves. Matthew had made the waves a bit more interesting but, as Tela is part of a large bay, the waves are never truly more than lots of fun. We spent an hour being pushed around by the ocean before heading into town.
On our way home, we stopped at a movie theatre to watch a movie. The movie the girls chose was billed as a 3D movie featuring some sorts of Kung Fu type adventures. Sadly, it didn’t live up to even those meagre expectations. However, for the girls, it was exciting. A movie, pizza and a beach ... all in one day.
This week, I have been made aware, again, of how fear is a part of living here in Honduras. A conversation with a friend (as we waited out a downpour) reminded me of that. This young man told me of the time he was riding a bus and a robber had come on the bus and shot the person sitting beside him. Manuel told me of coming out of his house last week only to see a man with a gun robbing another person on a bicycle. Manuel ducked back in time before the robber noticed him. A third friend told us of her experience being robbed when downtown with her two children. So many of my friends have such experiences and it continually colours their lives ... rather understandably.
One of the rather disappointing features of mission work is that, very often, the people who are first attracted to conversion and leadership positions in new churches are those who are marginalized in their own society. As they gain power in these new positions, they, very often, copy the leadership examples of both missionaries and the society around them. They become accustomed to using their positions to gain benefits for themselves and their families.
Very often, it is children of these first ‘believers’ who get opportunities for education and travel. They become accustomed to a life of benefits and, in fact, feel that they are entitled to these benefits. Often, as well, they are not committed to the principles of the religious community to which they belong and to which their fathers lead.
I have run across such families in Africa and here in Honduras. This past week we have had the misfortune of encountering one such family. For two generations, they have made a very good living from “enabling” Christian aid projects and programs. In the process, they have acquired land, houses and private education. They have not acquired the status in their society that they would like but they do control the church in which they continue to be part of.
In the process of completing one of our projects, we have had to confront several members of this family because their holdings and businesses were neighbouring or affecting our work. The fact that we sought to be transparent in our dealings and expected the same from them was very threatening to them. Now we get to deal with their threats and animosity.
It is a new experience for me to live with that type of threat. Although minor in comparison to that of my friends (at least I hope so) it nevertheless, makes me appreciate how much it makes you look at things in a different light. Hopefully, we can distance ourselves from these folks and assure them that we are not a threat to their way of life. Time will tell. It is frustrating to have people seeking to destroy something that only seeks to benefit their country and the poor people around them.
Time to run. We are meeting with a group of women who are trying to do some agriculture work to earn some more money for their families. It is exciting to see their enthusiasm. I hope we can direct that enthusiasm to something profitable and useful in the long term.
TTYL
BB
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Keeping It Together
The last weeks have been busy and full of activity. I think that some things are being accomplished but sometimes it is hard to tell.
The most exciting thing for us has been the arrival of Natasha, a student intern from British Columbia. She is here for three months and we are so grateful to have someone willing to settle in and give a hand. She is going to provide three day English seminars in various villages and satellite centres. This will give the students their English component, give the school some needed advertisement and give Natasha a chance to see village life in Honduras.
We have given Santiago the responsibility of making sure that Natasha arrives at the villages safely and that classes go in an orderly fashion. His status is going to shoot off the charts. There was certainly no hesitation in his accepting that job.
We have had a number of students coming in for registration the last week and that is lifting spirits. Today, possibly, we have some people coming from La Ceiba to pick up the course material and start some students on the program there. That is truly a satellite centre. We may never even see the students.
We are looking at a graduation in six weeks so need to get everyone started on projects. It has been an uphill battle (which I am currently still losing) to advance the idea that projects could be started while students are studying the course work rather than waiting until everything else is finished. Two things at once seem too overwhelming at this point. Sigh.
A women’s group is working hard on a piece of property we have. I am eager to work with them but, so far, they are simply getting organized and cleaning out the fish pond.
At the agriculture project in Santa Rita we have planted the fruit trees, the passion fruit plants, lots of ground cover and cuttings of chaya and so forth. Last week, Muncho, my manager remembered me talking about a living fence in May. He also remembered us talking about the idea of using small cuttings of trees rather than the traditional Honduran cuttings which are two to three metres long. The electrical company had come along and lopped off the tops of trees in our area under their lines. Consequently, there were tonnes of smaller cutting sized branches available. Muncho put everyone to work and they planted over 600 cuttings along several fence lines. I was so pleased to see the initiative and I am very excited to see how they will grow and fill in. I had never thought to use that particular species of tree and so this is extremely pleasing.
Today we are going to find, I hope, some arrowroot seedlings to plant in beds that we have laid out. Again, beyond my expectation, we have 36 beds laid out and all with square corners and straight edges. That is truly incredible. I will post some pictures when they get passed on to me.
All of this takes time and so the days have flown by.
TTYL
bb
The most exciting thing for us has been the arrival of Natasha, a student intern from British Columbia. She is here for three months and we are so grateful to have someone willing to settle in and give a hand. She is going to provide three day English seminars in various villages and satellite centres. This will give the students their English component, give the school some needed advertisement and give Natasha a chance to see village life in Honduras.
We have given Santiago the responsibility of making sure that Natasha arrives at the villages safely and that classes go in an orderly fashion. His status is going to shoot off the charts. There was certainly no hesitation in his accepting that job.
We have had a number of students coming in for registration the last week and that is lifting spirits. Today, possibly, we have some people coming from La Ceiba to pick up the course material and start some students on the program there. That is truly a satellite centre. We may never even see the students.
We are looking at a graduation in six weeks so need to get everyone started on projects. It has been an uphill battle (which I am currently still losing) to advance the idea that projects could be started while students are studying the course work rather than waiting until everything else is finished. Two things at once seem too overwhelming at this point. Sigh.
A women’s group is working hard on a piece of property we have. I am eager to work with them but, so far, they are simply getting organized and cleaning out the fish pond.
At the agriculture project in Santa Rita we have planted the fruit trees, the passion fruit plants, lots of ground cover and cuttings of chaya and so forth. Last week, Muncho, my manager remembered me talking about a living fence in May. He also remembered us talking about the idea of using small cuttings of trees rather than the traditional Honduran cuttings which are two to three metres long. The electrical company had come along and lopped off the tops of trees in our area under their lines. Consequently, there were tonnes of smaller cutting sized branches available. Muncho put everyone to work and they planted over 600 cuttings along several fence lines. I was so pleased to see the initiative and I am very excited to see how they will grow and fill in. I had never thought to use that particular species of tree and so this is extremely pleasing.
Today we are going to find, I hope, some arrowroot seedlings to plant in beds that we have laid out. Again, beyond my expectation, we have 36 beds laid out and all with square corners and straight edges. That is truly incredible. I will post some pictures when they get passed on to me.
All of this takes time and so the days have flown by.
TTYL
bb
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
So ... Why Are You Puzzled?
The main focus of this past week has been getting fruit tree seedlings for the agriculture project in Santa Rita. The Government run nursery is about 30 km from St. Rita or, in Honduran terms, about forty-five minutes driving.
Wednesday we made our first trip to the location. We found the office where you could get information and order seedlings. However, it was too late in the day (3:15 p.m.) to get any. The next day we headed back and found the nursery itself and bought seventy seedlings – ten each of seven different varieties. The truck box was full.
Friday, Manuel and I headed out again, this time via a different route ... faster? Fortunately, we were only twenty-five kilometres or so down the road from Santa Cruz when we found out by phone that the nursery closed at 2:30 on Friday. I left Manuel at a bus stop and headed back to Santa Cruz.
Monday morning, Santiago and I left the office at 10:00 with plans to make two trips to the nursery in one day. What a revolutionary concept ... as I was to find out. We arrived at the nursery only to be told at the gate (by the armed guard – seedlings are expensive ... but THAT expensive?) that Ena, the lady who takes money at the nursery was sick. We would have to go to the office (5km away) and pay there before returning and getting seedlings.
Vicky, in the office, was very helpful but quite amazed that we hoped to get a second load on the same day. Despite phone calls, she made an effort to hurry the process of filling out the order form (four copies) and the receipt for the money (duplicate – one copy needed for the armed guard upon leaving with the trees). We hustled back to the nursery and Santiago explained that we hoped to make two trips in one day. Unheard of. But, it garnered one extra man with a wheelbarrow to help load.
This time we managed eighty plants – twenty behind the seats in the cab. Still room. Off to Santa Rita where we unloaded in a hurry and where I left Santiago to move and sort. As I passed Muncho’s house, I saw his son, José, sitting. I shouted and asked if he wanted to come along. He hustled to the car and off we went.
One more visit to Vicky (genuinely surprised to see us) and back to the nursery. The guard recognized our truck so waved us through without stopping. We loaded ninety seedlings (we are getting better at packing) and left for home.
Along the way we hit a torrential rain storm. The windows went up and the defrost went on. I realized a few kilometres later that the fresh, citrus smell of the seedlings was being replaced by wet José. Oh well, have been on lots of buses in worse situations (olfactorily speaking).
Yesterday Manuel and I got the final load of trees. In order to buy twenty coconut seedlings, the remaining seventy had to be packed very closely. As I had no passenger for the return trip, nine sat on the seat and in front of the seat (these seedlings are at least one metre tall and have very large root balls – in terms of seedlings).
After unloading the seedlings and sorting out the various varieties – many look almost exactly alike (Muncho pointed out, quite correctly, that it really won’t matter once they are planted – we will know what they are in two years when the fruit comes – there is something Biblical in that).
Muncho looked at the sky (his clock) and said we should go up the mountain for banana shoots. Seemed good to me. The road up the mountains is steep but in good condition. We stopped every few hundred metres to pick someone up. One lady, in her sixties, was making the two hour walk from the bus stop by the highway.
We arrived at a home where Muncho and crew got out to talk to the banana owner. Five minutes later and we piled back in to head up the road some more. At a muddy branch, everyone got out and I was told to go further up and turn around. Did so and then waited.
Five minutes later, down the muddy trail came the crew carrying banana shoots on their shoulders. These were good sized shoots and weighed up to fifteen kilos each. The boys had forgotten boots so had rolled up their pants and gone bare foot. The mud was halfway up their calves so it must have been rather sticky up top. Nineteen shoots later and we had what we needed. These are a water loving banana that produces red fruit and is, evidently, very medicinal for women.
In the school this week, we are once again getting a group ready for graduation. We should have between ten and fifteen more students finishing a grade. Exciting.
As well, we are getting a group of about fifty stories and books ready to put on the computers for the students to read. We will have some of the students work on enhancing the stories with pictures and so forth. I am extremely excited about the progress on this. I will now have to read Snow White in Spanish.
TTYL
bb
Wednesday we made our first trip to the location. We found the office where you could get information and order seedlings. However, it was too late in the day (3:15 p.m.) to get any. The next day we headed back and found the nursery itself and bought seventy seedlings – ten each of seven different varieties. The truck box was full.
Friday, Manuel and I headed out again, this time via a different route ... faster? Fortunately, we were only twenty-five kilometres or so down the road from Santa Cruz when we found out by phone that the nursery closed at 2:30 on Friday. I left Manuel at a bus stop and headed back to Santa Cruz.
Monday morning, Santiago and I left the office at 10:00 with plans to make two trips to the nursery in one day. What a revolutionary concept ... as I was to find out. We arrived at the nursery only to be told at the gate (by the armed guard – seedlings are expensive ... but THAT expensive?) that Ena, the lady who takes money at the nursery was sick. We would have to go to the office (5km away) and pay there before returning and getting seedlings.
Vicky, in the office, was very helpful but quite amazed that we hoped to get a second load on the same day. Despite phone calls, she made an effort to hurry the process of filling out the order form (four copies) and the receipt for the money (duplicate – one copy needed for the armed guard upon leaving with the trees). We hustled back to the nursery and Santiago explained that we hoped to make two trips in one day. Unheard of. But, it garnered one extra man with a wheelbarrow to help load.
This time we managed eighty plants – twenty behind the seats in the cab. Still room. Off to Santa Rita where we unloaded in a hurry and where I left Santiago to move and sort. As I passed Muncho’s house, I saw his son, José, sitting. I shouted and asked if he wanted to come along. He hustled to the car and off we went.
One more visit to Vicky (genuinely surprised to see us) and back to the nursery. The guard recognized our truck so waved us through without stopping. We loaded ninety seedlings (we are getting better at packing) and left for home.
Along the way we hit a torrential rain storm. The windows went up and the defrost went on. I realized a few kilometres later that the fresh, citrus smell of the seedlings was being replaced by wet José. Oh well, have been on lots of buses in worse situations (olfactorily speaking).
Yesterday Manuel and I got the final load of trees. In order to buy twenty coconut seedlings, the remaining seventy had to be packed very closely. As I had no passenger for the return trip, nine sat on the seat and in front of the seat (these seedlings are at least one metre tall and have very large root balls – in terms of seedlings).
After unloading the seedlings and sorting out the various varieties – many look almost exactly alike (Muncho pointed out, quite correctly, that it really won’t matter once they are planted – we will know what they are in two years when the fruit comes – there is something Biblical in that).
Muncho looked at the sky (his clock) and said we should go up the mountain for banana shoots. Seemed good to me. The road up the mountains is steep but in good condition. We stopped every few hundred metres to pick someone up. One lady, in her sixties, was making the two hour walk from the bus stop by the highway.
We arrived at a home where Muncho and crew got out to talk to the banana owner. Five minutes later and we piled back in to head up the road some more. At a muddy branch, everyone got out and I was told to go further up and turn around. Did so and then waited.
Five minutes later, down the muddy trail came the crew carrying banana shoots on their shoulders. These were good sized shoots and weighed up to fifteen kilos each. The boys had forgotten boots so had rolled up their pants and gone bare foot. The mud was halfway up their calves so it must have been rather sticky up top. Nineteen shoots later and we had what we needed. These are a water loving banana that produces red fruit and is, evidently, very medicinal for women.
In the school this week, we are once again getting a group ready for graduation. We should have between ten and fifteen more students finishing a grade. Exciting.
As well, we are getting a group of about fifty stories and books ready to put on the computers for the students to read. We will have some of the students work on enhancing the stories with pictures and so forth. I am extremely excited about the progress on this. I will now have to read Snow White in Spanish.
TTYL
bb
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
The Most Dangerous Instrument in the World
The sins of the parents do come back to haunt them ... at one time or another. This was brought home again on Sunday morning. Even half a continent away, safe in the rural area of Honduras, the instrument that strikes terror in the heart of every parent surfaced.
Students from the local Catholic Primary School were featured in the morning service. Nice, cute and, certainly, more extraneous activity than normal to distract during a long sermon. But, that wasn’t the horrible part. More than twenty of them came equipped with recorders. Of course, you can imagine the mayhem that accompanies twenty bored children with recorders in their hands. Odd snatches of notes from idle lips, the occasional nostril, and continuous clatter and activity were the order of the day. And then, finally, the moment we waited for ... the performance. Of course, I suppose, they could all have had accordions.
Saturday night I went to a church supper in a neighbouring community. Their church was, at one time, the central church in the whole diocese. It was a four hundred year old structure made from adobe. Truly fascinating. The walls were over a metre thick and the old rafters were well seasoned with age. So incredible to step back in time and so unexpected as well. Coming from Alberta where nothing is really more than one hundred years old, it is always so strange to be able to place one’s feet in the paths of people from such a long time ago. In a way, I connect with most of Alberta’s historical timeline because I know (or have known) people who were there at the start.
Last night Edel, Santiago and I went to move a trap hive into a new home. I waited for the phone call to establish the fact that it wasn’t raining in El Belin but it didn’t come. At nine, I finally got through to Edel and found out it was a go. I loaded the equipment in the truck and headed to the home where the new beehive was located. The boys had decided to wait at the pulperia so weren’t around until I called and located them.
We got out the equipment and I then asked where the new hive and trap hive were. “Just over there”. Well, fortunately, the moon was at three quarters and provided a fair amount of background light. We headed behind the house, past the worm bin, past the little shed with 100 nine day old chicks and came to the river. Ummm. You never told me about this. But ... wait ... there is a bridge. A four by four stretched across the river about two metres above the water. Fortunately, it hasn’t rained heavily for a couple of days so the river was really only a noisy, rushing stream depth. Still, not something I wanted to fall into. Edel and Santiago hot footed across the ‘bridge’ and, happily, found a long branch which I was able to use as a safety crutch.
Once across, we donned the new bee veils I had brought from Canada and headed to work. The hive was easily moved and we did so within short order. Then, the return trip. Since the hive was located near the bridge, I felt that we should cross the bridge before taking off the equipment. No point in having a cloud of bees around you as you head across four inches of wood (which, comfortingly, Edel was telling us was beginning to crack). We made it quickly and, after a couple of brushes and inspections, were able to remove the veils and head home. Uneventful really.
Manuel and I visited the police station to offer our program to their members. I had been stopped at a police check on Saturday and the officer was most interested. We will see whether the interest shown by the officer in charge yesterday translates into new students. Our system is perfect for these officers because, even if they are transferred (a regular occurrence), they can continue their studies in the new location.
Three hundred passion fruit seedlings are in the ground. This week we will work on some grass cuttings and, hopefully, some fruit trees. It was nice to see things taking shape in the ‘orchard’.
At El Cipres, a small piece of land where we are trying some ideas, a storm broke apart one of the fish tanks we had been repairing. As well, continual petty theft of fruit and fish is proving to be a real discouragement. We will decide this week whether it is worth the effort to continue. The potential for a family to have a good living from this property is so great but we can’t do any of the demonstrations we want because of the loss of things before they mature. We know who is stealing the stuff but can’t do anything about it.
TTYL
bb
Students from the local Catholic Primary School were featured in the morning service. Nice, cute and, certainly, more extraneous activity than normal to distract during a long sermon. But, that wasn’t the horrible part. More than twenty of them came equipped with recorders. Of course, you can imagine the mayhem that accompanies twenty bored children with recorders in their hands. Odd snatches of notes from idle lips, the occasional nostril, and continuous clatter and activity were the order of the day. And then, finally, the moment we waited for ... the performance. Of course, I suppose, they could all have had accordions.
Saturday night I went to a church supper in a neighbouring community. Their church was, at one time, the central church in the whole diocese. It was a four hundred year old structure made from adobe. Truly fascinating. The walls were over a metre thick and the old rafters were well seasoned with age. So incredible to step back in time and so unexpected as well. Coming from Alberta where nothing is really more than one hundred years old, it is always so strange to be able to place one’s feet in the paths of people from such a long time ago. In a way, I connect with most of Alberta’s historical timeline because I know (or have known) people who were there at the start.
Last night Edel, Santiago and I went to move a trap hive into a new home. I waited for the phone call to establish the fact that it wasn’t raining in El Belin but it didn’t come. At nine, I finally got through to Edel and found out it was a go. I loaded the equipment in the truck and headed to the home where the new beehive was located. The boys had decided to wait at the pulperia so weren’t around until I called and located them.
We got out the equipment and I then asked where the new hive and trap hive were. “Just over there”. Well, fortunately, the moon was at three quarters and provided a fair amount of background light. We headed behind the house, past the worm bin, past the little shed with 100 nine day old chicks and came to the river. Ummm. You never told me about this. But ... wait ... there is a bridge. A four by four stretched across the river about two metres above the water. Fortunately, it hasn’t rained heavily for a couple of days so the river was really only a noisy, rushing stream depth. Still, not something I wanted to fall into. Edel and Santiago hot footed across the ‘bridge’ and, happily, found a long branch which I was able to use as a safety crutch.
Once across, we donned the new bee veils I had brought from Canada and headed to work. The hive was easily moved and we did so within short order. Then, the return trip. Since the hive was located near the bridge, I felt that we should cross the bridge before taking off the equipment. No point in having a cloud of bees around you as you head across four inches of wood (which, comfortingly, Edel was telling us was beginning to crack). We made it quickly and, after a couple of brushes and inspections, were able to remove the veils and head home. Uneventful really.
Manuel and I visited the police station to offer our program to their members. I had been stopped at a police check on Saturday and the officer was most interested. We will see whether the interest shown by the officer in charge yesterday translates into new students. Our system is perfect for these officers because, even if they are transferred (a regular occurrence), they can continue their studies in the new location.
Three hundred passion fruit seedlings are in the ground. This week we will work on some grass cuttings and, hopefully, some fruit trees. It was nice to see things taking shape in the ‘orchard’.
At El Cipres, a small piece of land where we are trying some ideas, a storm broke apart one of the fish tanks we had been repairing. As well, continual petty theft of fruit and fish is proving to be a real discouragement. We will decide this week whether it is worth the effort to continue. The potential for a family to have a good living from this property is so great but we can’t do any of the demonstrations we want because of the loss of things before they mature. We know who is stealing the stuff but can’t do anything about it.
TTYL
bb
Monday, August 9, 2010
Have Wheels ... Will Travel
The headphones are on and playing a section of African music which I am preparing for the music group tomorrow. I do hope that at least one or two will appreciate the songs. New types of music are often hard to appreciate. The current song is from David Fanshawe’s “African Sanctus”. This work takes sounds and songs from Africa and then combines them with a Latin Mass sung by a British choir. The work has some wonderful combinations of sounds and music. He has, in my opinion, kept true to the wide variety of situations, religious expressions and sounds of Africa. This song combines the Call to Prayer from an Egyptian mosque with the Kyrie (Lord have mercy).
Today I took the last batch of seedlings to the Santa Rita project. Five pickup loads of seedlings in all – 800-900?? Muncho is beginning to see some of what I want to accomplish and, now, the real work begins. Many of the previous plantings are doing well. Trees planted in April are now over one metre tall and beginning to take off. We are all learning new species and, from them, getting new ideas. Today we unloaded lemon grass (neat flavour and essential oil), a second grass for thatching and medicine, chaya, chipolin (both good food sources), aloe vera (good for medicinal purposes), passion fruit, flame trees, calliandra and leuceana (good nitrogen fixers and animal fodder trees).
The whole family piled into the truck to help unload. I let the little boy ‘drive’ down the hill afterwards and he was some pleased with that.
Some banana circles are being formed from some clearing that we are doing for vegetable beds and so forth. It is so exciting to see some of the ideas starting to actually take shape. We will seen what happens in the next week as we endeavour to get all of these planted.
This week featured, as well, two trips with the Honduran board. We went and toured three different project sites. The board members are so very wise and patient. They brought with them many suggestions and solutions. When we descended upon a recalcitrant shop keeper, he visibly paled and shook and promised that everything would be in order by next Wednesday. We will see. I think the threat of having us all in his shop again will be enough. Two of the members showed our housing project families a better way to prepare pineapple seedlings and thus rescued a couple hundred dollars worth of seedlings. At another place, they rounded up the local village officials and explained our projects and got them on board to help protect some of our plantings. I got to watch and chauffeur.
On Thursday we took two more computers to a centre that has over thirty students. Currently they have shifts to all have access to the (now) four computers. Generally two students study from the same computer at the same time. They will up the numbers now with extra computers.
While there, I got to see some houses built from compressed earth blocks. This is a way of building which is rather dear to my heart and it was so exciting to see some of the similarities and differences. I had the benefit of working with an engineering professor in Uganda so had some different suggestions. However, their brick shape is different and offers some very interesting strength potential. During the earthquake last year, many of the concrete block houses cracked but none of the eighteen earth block houses suffered damage. The cost of these houses is very exciting as well. A three bedroom house for under $3,000.00. Simple, dirt floors but still, very adequate and useable. I would like to work with some of the African recipes for dirt floors which are beautiful and very sturdy.
We hope to start sprouting maize next week to use as fish food. We will see how that works. New idea being transmitted through several minds and two languages. We will try it at the school as well to get two ways of doing it.
The power just went out. I am glad I can touch type ).
Thursday night, as I returned from San Pedro Sula, I passed the body of a man who had been killed in a car accident. Obviously, the vehicle to take his body away had not arrived. The police were there and directing traffic. I was struck by the absolute aloneness of the man. One moment able to communicate, to plan, to be and, the next ... beyond.
One of the features of having a vehicle is police checks. So far, so good. I had to renew my licence in Canada and the new one did not arrive before returning to Honduras. Fortunately, I was able to receive a picture of the licence via email. I made a laminated copy of the licence and carry it along with a copy of my passport. I can always try to explain that I am worried about theft.
At both police checks, we got talking about our projects and, after a couple of minutes I was waved on. Phew. At the second stop, the policeman was excited to think he could join our school. I am eager to have a computer in one of the police stations so that word will get out to all the policeman in our area that I am their friend ).
The last exciting thing this week. I successfully explained to Muncho that I needed forty-one local chicken eggs to put into my incubator. Yesterday, we went up to the house of the lady who had collected them for me. I worked with the incubator last night – it was good to have something to do each time I woke up – and got the temperature stabilized. The machine is obviously not calibrated to +26 and higher temperatures. This afternoon, the eggs went in. I went over with Julia how the table with the eggs is not to be bumped for the next three weeks. I haven’t done this before so have no idea of how touchy things are. Likely they are much tougher than I think. Will let you know in a week or so the results of candling and ... hopefully, in three weeks, the results of hatching.
TTYL
bb
Today I took the last batch of seedlings to the Santa Rita project. Five pickup loads of seedlings in all – 800-900?? Muncho is beginning to see some of what I want to accomplish and, now, the real work begins. Many of the previous plantings are doing well. Trees planted in April are now over one metre tall and beginning to take off. We are all learning new species and, from them, getting new ideas. Today we unloaded lemon grass (neat flavour and essential oil), a second grass for thatching and medicine, chaya, chipolin (both good food sources), aloe vera (good for medicinal purposes), passion fruit, flame trees, calliandra and leuceana (good nitrogen fixers and animal fodder trees).
The whole family piled into the truck to help unload. I let the little boy ‘drive’ down the hill afterwards and he was some pleased with that.
Some banana circles are being formed from some clearing that we are doing for vegetable beds and so forth. It is so exciting to see some of the ideas starting to actually take shape. We will seen what happens in the next week as we endeavour to get all of these planted.
This week featured, as well, two trips with the Honduran board. We went and toured three different project sites. The board members are so very wise and patient. They brought with them many suggestions and solutions. When we descended upon a recalcitrant shop keeper, he visibly paled and shook and promised that everything would be in order by next Wednesday. We will see. I think the threat of having us all in his shop again will be enough. Two of the members showed our housing project families a better way to prepare pineapple seedlings and thus rescued a couple hundred dollars worth of seedlings. At another place, they rounded up the local village officials and explained our projects and got them on board to help protect some of our plantings. I got to watch and chauffeur.
On Thursday we took two more computers to a centre that has over thirty students. Currently they have shifts to all have access to the (now) four computers. Generally two students study from the same computer at the same time. They will up the numbers now with extra computers.
While there, I got to see some houses built from compressed earth blocks. This is a way of building which is rather dear to my heart and it was so exciting to see some of the similarities and differences. I had the benefit of working with an engineering professor in Uganda so had some different suggestions. However, their brick shape is different and offers some very interesting strength potential. During the earthquake last year, many of the concrete block houses cracked but none of the eighteen earth block houses suffered damage. The cost of these houses is very exciting as well. A three bedroom house for under $3,000.00. Simple, dirt floors but still, very adequate and useable. I would like to work with some of the African recipes for dirt floors which are beautiful and very sturdy.
We hope to start sprouting maize next week to use as fish food. We will see how that works. New idea being transmitted through several minds and two languages. We will try it at the school as well to get two ways of doing it.
The power just went out. I am glad I can touch type ).
Thursday night, as I returned from San Pedro Sula, I passed the body of a man who had been killed in a car accident. Obviously, the vehicle to take his body away had not arrived. The police were there and directing traffic. I was struck by the absolute aloneness of the man. One moment able to communicate, to plan, to be and, the next ... beyond.
One of the features of having a vehicle is police checks. So far, so good. I had to renew my licence in Canada and the new one did not arrive before returning to Honduras. Fortunately, I was able to receive a picture of the licence via email. I made a laminated copy of the licence and carry it along with a copy of my passport. I can always try to explain that I am worried about theft.
At both police checks, we got talking about our projects and, after a couple of minutes I was waved on. Phew. At the second stop, the policeman was excited to think he could join our school. I am eager to have a computer in one of the police stations so that word will get out to all the policeman in our area that I am their friend ).
The last exciting thing this week. I successfully explained to Muncho that I needed forty-one local chicken eggs to put into my incubator. Yesterday, we went up to the house of the lady who had collected them for me. I worked with the incubator last night – it was good to have something to do each time I woke up – and got the temperature stabilized. The machine is obviously not calibrated to +26 and higher temperatures. This afternoon, the eggs went in. I went over with Julia how the table with the eggs is not to be bumped for the next three weeks. I haven’t done this before so have no idea of how touchy things are. Likely they are much tougher than I think. Will let you know in a week or so the results of candling and ... hopefully, in three weeks, the results of hatching.
TTYL
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Thursday, July 29, 2010
Without Clothes There Is No Emperor
Naaman was a powerful general. Like all generals, in every army, he wore the accoutrements of his position whenever there were eyes about, whenever there was an opportunity for rivals to evaluate his current strength.
Naaman was a leper. Underneath the clothes of a general was an outcast, an untouchable, someone less than a person ... a dead man walking.
Naaman was lucky. He had an emperor who looked beyond the clothes. He had an emperor who looked beyond the leprosy. That is a long, long journey for any eyes to travel.
Naaman had a slave girl who looked even further. She looked beyond death and saw life. Maybe only a child still has the vision to look that far. Deaths’ shadows have not yet clouded the heart with cataracts of hopelessness. She, being a slave, was well acquainted with death but, somehow, life still shone.
Naaman was sent by the slave girl who could see life and the emperor who could see beyond leprosy to find healing. Being a general, he, of course, wore a general’s clothes. He went with a general’s escort. He went with a general’s status.
Naaman met a king. Generals always go to the top. They are the top. The king was afraid. Generals he could deal with. Emperors he could deal with. Death he could not. He did not see any life in the situation at all. Consequently, and rather expectedly, he was afraid.
Naaman was sent to a prophet. This prophet was not very professional. He didn’t live in the temple grounds. He didn’t have incense burning about. He didn’t seem to have much of anything. Certainly all that Naaman could see was a small house, seemingly rather removed from the power centres of palace or priestly halls.
Naaman never met the prophet. In fact, he only met a servant. The servant seemed rather confusing. Impressed but not impressed, polite but impolite ... or was that the prophet? No rushing about. No special seat or carpet. No pitcher of warmed water to wash a general’s dusty feet. No cooking fires lit to barbecue a fatted calf. No activity whatsoever.
Naaman got a message. That is all. Just a message. And the message was not very helpful ... at least it didn’t seem so to Naaman. Go bathe in the River Jordan.
Naaman got the message. He wasn’t happy about it at all. In fact, he was afraid. And, as is usually the case, because he was afraid, he got angry.
Naaman was afraid because he was told to take off his clothes. In daylight. In front of others. In a foreign country. He wouldn’t be a general. He wouldn’t be a man. He would be a leper. You may respect the general as long as you can’t see underneath the clothes. But ... if you can ... and he is a leper ... well ... that changes everything doesn’t it?
Naaman had a servant who could also see beyond death. He saw beyond the strangeness of foreign scenery, foreign gods and foreign environments, fraught as they surely must be with dirt, dishonesty and disease. He looked at the options available to a leper and asked Naaman to be honest for a moment. Honest for a moment, as far as
Naaman was concerned, was for a lifetime and a rather momentary one at that.
Naaman faced death. No cell phone cameras to upload to a waiting Facebook audience at home but, nevertheless, just as deadly. The general’s escort was watching. The general’s escort would remember. The general’s escort would talk.
Naaman got out of his clothes. He stopped being a general. He stopped being a man among men. He stopped being a person at all. He became a leper and waded into the water.
Naaman was no longer a leper. But, in a way, he was no longer a man either. He became, it says, like a small child. He still didn’t look like a man’s man or a general. He looked like someone starting over. And, really, he was.
Naaman became a general again. Did his decisions, previously so besotted with death, begin to have greening tinges of life creep in unexpectedly? Did he look beyond the suits that surrounded him and see people? Was he afraid anymore? Did hope begin to whisper and drown the shouts of anger?
Naaman discovered that without clothes there is no emperor. But ... equally ... without clothes there is life. He also discovered, hopefully, that nothing is more threatening to an emperor than losing his clothes. But ... equally ... only by losing the clothes is there hope for life.
Naaman was a leper. Underneath the clothes of a general was an outcast, an untouchable, someone less than a person ... a dead man walking.
Naaman was lucky. He had an emperor who looked beyond the clothes. He had an emperor who looked beyond the leprosy. That is a long, long journey for any eyes to travel.
Naaman had a slave girl who looked even further. She looked beyond death and saw life. Maybe only a child still has the vision to look that far. Deaths’ shadows have not yet clouded the heart with cataracts of hopelessness. She, being a slave, was well acquainted with death but, somehow, life still shone.
Naaman was sent by the slave girl who could see life and the emperor who could see beyond leprosy to find healing. Being a general, he, of course, wore a general’s clothes. He went with a general’s escort. He went with a general’s status.
Naaman met a king. Generals always go to the top. They are the top. The king was afraid. Generals he could deal with. Emperors he could deal with. Death he could not. He did not see any life in the situation at all. Consequently, and rather expectedly, he was afraid.
Naaman was sent to a prophet. This prophet was not very professional. He didn’t live in the temple grounds. He didn’t have incense burning about. He didn’t seem to have much of anything. Certainly all that Naaman could see was a small house, seemingly rather removed from the power centres of palace or priestly halls.
Naaman never met the prophet. In fact, he only met a servant. The servant seemed rather confusing. Impressed but not impressed, polite but impolite ... or was that the prophet? No rushing about. No special seat or carpet. No pitcher of warmed water to wash a general’s dusty feet. No cooking fires lit to barbecue a fatted calf. No activity whatsoever.
Naaman got a message. That is all. Just a message. And the message was not very helpful ... at least it didn’t seem so to Naaman. Go bathe in the River Jordan.
Naaman got the message. He wasn’t happy about it at all. In fact, he was afraid. And, as is usually the case, because he was afraid, he got angry.
Naaman was afraid because he was told to take off his clothes. In daylight. In front of others. In a foreign country. He wouldn’t be a general. He wouldn’t be a man. He would be a leper. You may respect the general as long as you can’t see underneath the clothes. But ... if you can ... and he is a leper ... well ... that changes everything doesn’t it?
Naaman had a servant who could also see beyond death. He saw beyond the strangeness of foreign scenery, foreign gods and foreign environments, fraught as they surely must be with dirt, dishonesty and disease. He looked at the options available to a leper and asked Naaman to be honest for a moment. Honest for a moment, as far as
Naaman was concerned, was for a lifetime and a rather momentary one at that.
Naaman faced death. No cell phone cameras to upload to a waiting Facebook audience at home but, nevertheless, just as deadly. The general’s escort was watching. The general’s escort would remember. The general’s escort would talk.
Naaman got out of his clothes. He stopped being a general. He stopped being a man among men. He stopped being a person at all. He became a leper and waded into the water.
Naaman was no longer a leper. But, in a way, he was no longer a man either. He became, it says, like a small child. He still didn’t look like a man’s man or a general. He looked like someone starting over. And, really, he was.
Naaman became a general again. Did his decisions, previously so besotted with death, begin to have greening tinges of life creep in unexpectedly? Did he look beyond the suits that surrounded him and see people? Was he afraid anymore? Did hope begin to whisper and drown the shouts of anger?
Naaman discovered that without clothes there is no emperor. But ... equally ... without clothes there is life. He also discovered, hopefully, that nothing is more threatening to an emperor than losing his clothes. But ... equally ... only by losing the clothes is there hope for life.
Waiting for a Truck
Today we just tried out a new vacuum sealer unit that I brought to Honduras. We have some ripe plantains and tried peeling and vacuum packing them. Four people are taking a package home to put in their refrigerator and, from there, we will see how long they last.
There are a number of reasons for this experiment. Over half of the bulk and weight of the plantain is in the skin. As well, the skin is highly nutritious for animals. By keeping the skins in the rural areas, they can be used for animal feed. Shipping something less than half of the bulk is much easier. The downside is the use of plastic. I need to find some ways to package in bulk with reusable containers. Any ideas or leads would be appreciated.
Last night was a Honduras night all round. I was told to be at place X at 5:00 p.m. to sing with the music group. As well, I was told to wear a purple shirt. Five o’clock came and I was still eating supper (didn’t want to venture on an adventure without some fuel). Five fifteen it began to rain. Still raining at 5:30. How late did I dare be? Put on a jacket and wide brimmed hat and headed out. By the time I had walked four blocks, my pants were very damp. I arrived at place X. No one there. Traveled on half a block to one of the homes of the group. None of the group there. Sat and waited till 6:15, helping one of the girls with her English homework in the meantime. Finally one of the group arrived and asked why I was wearing the wrong colour of shirt. I explained that, in English, this colour was indeed purple. Sigh. Mauve is ‘purple’ and purple is ‘maroon’. Now I know.
At 6:15 we headed to the location of the presentation. Two of the group were setting up the equipment. Eventually found out that the program was for 7:00 p.m. So, I helped set up stuff and, generally, hung around in wet trousers. I had really hoped that hanging around in wet pants wouldn’t start for another twenty years or more. All depends on the situation, right?
At around 7:30, the music started. At 9:00 p.m. we were served a plate of fried plantains, some salsa type toping and a soft drink. By 9:30 I was able to graciously leave and head home.
One neat thing happened during the evening. The house we were at was on the upper edge of a wide valley. It began to rain on the far side of the valley and as the rain moved across, the roar of the rain on the tin roofs grew louder and louder. At first I thought it was a truck climbing the far side of the valley but as the sound grew in volume it became apparent that it was the rain. Since our group had their amplifiers, the rain was not a hindrance to the festivities.
We have one group of bees that have built their combs on the outside of a trap hive. Last Friday, Santiago dressed in the equipment and climbed up to put some holes in the hive near the bees to encourage them to make the step to the inside. He got stung a couple of times but is ready to try again tomorrow. He will try and make the hole a bit bigger. The first attempt used too small a bit. It seems so strange to have these bees in the rain but ... they seem content.
My truck was to be ready this week. We are still keeping our fingers crossed for Saturday. I am worried about the cost of fuel the first week or so as my list of things to do in various places is growing daily. I have a zillion seedlings to move and that will mean several trips right there. Then to find some fruit trees, coffee seedlings and so forth. I hope they will all get planted successfully by the end of August.
We are now at 96 students in Grade 7 alone. We listen to the stories of the students from the rural communities and are so pleased with what we are doing. Only about 10-20% of Grade 6 students continue on to Grade 7. The “official” numbers are better but the anecdotal numbers from people counting themselves are grim indeed.
I will also post a reflection on Namaan later. We are so ready to evaluate others by their outward presentation. I keep hoping that it will be easier to look past that as I gain more experience (meaning ... get older). Hmm. Wonder when that will happen?
TTYL
bb
Last night was a Honduras night all round. I was told to be at place X at 5:00 p.m. to sing with the music group. As well, I was told to wear a purple shirt. Five o’clock came and I was still eating supper (didn’t want to venture on an adventure without some fuel). Five fifteen it began to rain. Still raining at 5:30. How late did I dare be? Put on a jacket and wide brimmed hat and headed out. By the time I had walked four blocks, my pants were very damp. I arrived at place X. No one there. Traveled on half a block to one of the homes of the group. None of the group there. Sat and waited till 6:15, helping one of the girls with her English homework in the meantime. Finally one of the group arrived and asked why I was wearing the wrong colour of shirt. I explained that, in English, this colour was indeed purple. Sigh. Mauve is ‘purple’ and purple is ‘maroon’. Now I know.
At 6:15 we headed to the location of the presentation. Two of the group were setting up the equipment. Eventually found out that the program was for 7:00 p.m. So, I helped set up stuff and, generally, hung around in wet trousers. I had really hoped that hanging around in wet pants wouldn’t start for another twenty years or more. All depends on the situation, right?
At around 7:30, the music started. At 9:00 p.m. we were served a plate of fried plantains, some salsa type toping and a soft drink. By 9:30 I was able to graciously leave and head home.
One neat thing happened during the evening. The house we were at was on the upper edge of a wide valley. It began to rain on the far side of the valley and as the rain moved across, the roar of the rain on the tin roofs grew louder and louder. At first I thought it was a truck climbing the far side of the valley but as the sound grew in volume it became apparent that it was the rain. Since our group had their amplifiers, the rain was not a hindrance to the festivities.
We have one group of bees that have built their combs on the outside of a trap hive. Last Friday, Santiago dressed in the equipment and climbed up to put some holes in the hive near the bees to encourage them to make the step to the inside. He got stung a couple of times but is ready to try again tomorrow. He will try and make the hole a bit bigger. The first attempt used too small a bit. It seems so strange to have these bees in the rain but ... they seem content.
My truck was to be ready this week. We are still keeping our fingers crossed for Saturday. I am worried about the cost of fuel the first week or so as my list of things to do in various places is growing daily. I have a zillion seedlings to move and that will mean several trips right there. Then to find some fruit trees, coffee seedlings and so forth. I hope they will all get planted successfully by the end of August.
We are now at 96 students in Grade 7 alone. We listen to the stories of the students from the rural communities and are so pleased with what we are doing. Only about 10-20% of Grade 6 students continue on to Grade 7. The “official” numbers are better but the anecdotal numbers from people counting themselves are grim indeed.
I will also post a reflection on Namaan later. We are so ready to evaluate others by their outward presentation. I keep hoping that it will be easier to look past that as I gain more experience (meaning ... get older). Hmm. Wonder when that will happen?
TTYL
bb
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