Tuesday, May 31, 2011

My Honduran Pictures





Picture numbero uno: Evin, a friend of mine down here, playing "clown" with some of the kids from the orphanage

Numbero dos: Joseph and I looking over one of the babies in the orphanage

The third: This is the little guy I talk about in my update who can't see. The dude was full of life...but unfortunately suffering pretty bad. We gave him what we could...and then discovered the clinic at the orphanage already had everything they needed to treat him. They just had to work up the motivation to do so.

Fourth and fifth: These are from one of our Life in Actions. The area was called The Territories (Los Territorios) and this was the first time I both handed out meds and helped with the dental clinic. The first picture is me handing out meds (obvio) and the second is of Humberta and Jarrison, the two clinic workers I'm usually with.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

My Honduras

I keep putting "my " before each of these posts because I was inspired by a TV show. It's not because I believe I own Honduras. So don't worry about a gringo take-over.

Anyway as to life in the 'most dangerous country in the world': it's good. I love being down here and helping. Spanish is starting to click (starting would be the key word there; I still have a monton more to learn than I know). The people are amazing, both here at Escalon and on each of the Vida en Accions I've been on. I mentioned to Guy that it's hard to grasp the extent of the poverty down here. Each time I'm in a mountain village I'm exhausted, my brain is fried, and I just don't have enough mental energy to fully understand what these people's life is like. Yet each time I find myself in these situations I understand just a bit more. And only with understanding comes empathy. Compassion can be there, and sympathy...but what these people need is empathy and a desire to see them out of their situation. So that's what I'm working on.

As to Escalon. The clinic here is busy as ever. We are in the middle of a flu outbreak here so I've been handing out Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen like its candy. Unfortunately for the students down here the gringo (me) doesn't want to give half the school an excuse to sit around and do nothing all day, so I'm still making them attend classes. They all sleep together each night anyway, so it's not as if the flu won't spread if I try and quarantine those who have it. No place to do so. Oh, and I forgot to mention, I'm currently running the clinic by myself without a translator. Makes for a very interesting day full of what seems like a continuous game of charades. Good stuff.

Well for those of you who are following this thank you. The more interesting of the previous posts is the one directly below this one, I promise.

Hope yall are having a wonderful time in the states. I'm gonna go ahead and give you an excuse to go out and eat a steak: it's for me. I've been craving one for about a week now...

Thursday, May 12, 2011

My Honduran Thoughts

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; where knowledge is free; where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; into that heaven wake this [native] land.”

Heaven is an interesting way to describe a place on earth. And yet I believe that heaven is all around us. We have the chance of opening that door and peaking in; of discovering what it means to release a slight amount of heavenly influence into our surroundings. We are God's mechanism for brining the kingdom to earth.

The quote above was written by a Bengali poet named Tagore. He was Hindu. Not that the fact of his religious upbringing is rightly important, but it does add background. Reflected in his writings is his deep desire to see the Indian people woken up out of their uneducated naiveté. And the words "by narrow domestic walls" take on that much more meaning when they come from someone with a caste system upbringing. I didn’t have the privilege of knowing this man while he lived; much less being a close friend, someone who understood the motivations and deepest desires of who he was. But I do know someone who I believe would echo this man's words, maybe not for India precisely, but for Honduras.

17 years ago a man named Guy Henry took over a small piece of property in La Entrada, Honduras. Since that time he has changed what was once just a bible school into a thriving boarding school and orphanage. The atmosphere is reminiscent of a young life summer camp. Service is the life blood and God the brain of this whole project. Love from the staff, and primary from Guy and his close friends, is the electrical activity; sending messages from the brain through to the different organs of this living, breathing, and growing organization.

One such 'organ', if you will, is a program called Vida en Accion (Life in Action). At first glance the program seems like a normal outreach idea. Find the need of the communities, meet those needs, and continue doing so until they become reliant on your service. It is desperately the opposite. Each community Guy and his team of pastors finds is, of course, in desperate need of aid. But more than that they are in desperate need of education, of a sense of community, and a sense of deep seeded purpose. From those ideas, and ideas Mr. Henry has mentioned could only come from God, Plan Escalon and Vida en Accion formed. These plans have a longevity to them. The school here is populated by children from each of these communities. The children are given the tools to return to their communities, or to engage Honduras on a whole, in a way which breaks down narrow domestic walls, gives people the ability to hold their heads high and break through fear, and opens up channels for educating more and more people. They are the mechanism by which Honduras may be woken into that heaven. And the mechanism by which to waken Honduras his summed up in the phrase "leadership through service." Part of the curriculum here is teaching the kids the importance of hard work and the importance of giving back. Each student is required to go back to a community, one which is similar to the situation he or she was in before Escalon, and help out. Whether that means bringing in a bed, food, clothing, wheelchairs, or all of the above only hinges on the needs of the specific community. But one thing they do bring into these places is the message. Showing these people that there is a purpose to which they can align their life; and it will revolutionize their community.

Guy likes to use the word revolutionized. It seems appropriate, as there are things which take such a mental and physical toll on those fighting against them that calling them revolutionaries may even be slightly underscoring the toll they are taking. The government here is as corrupt as they come and the distinction between rich and poor as abrupt as can be found anywhere. The people in the poorest communities do not normally have much hope, but God brings them some, through the work of the students here at Escalon and the team Guy has formed to lead them. These people, both inside and outside of Escalon, are fighting against a systemic wrong. One which is bigger than them individually, and possibly even together...though it is my view that God works in the way we allow him as his hands and feet. And nothing is to big for him.

And since I have worked on forming that view new things have popped up around Honduras which make me consider the place Escalon has in the bigger picture of this country. Guy's passion is a bottom-up approach. Showing people a better way to live, educating them, and giving them a deep-seeded passion to actually follow the message; loving those around them because of their deep desire to join with God in healing and serving the world.

But there are other approaches to this idea of revolutionizing the nation. My friend Jill is working on a top-down approach. She works for the company AJS and has a passion for being a healing agent in Honduras. But her and AJS also work at a government level, attempting to transform the minds of those at the top of the pyramid; showing them a different way to live. One where greed isn't the fueling motivation, but a sense of justice.

And then there are numerous other stories of friends who are quietly but effectively working to change the lives of the people in the newly named "most dangerous country in the world." It seems to me that God does have a way of infiltrating a nation in small, but influential ways. And it seems like God himself, through the people who joyfully join with him in giving to the world, is attempting to change a nation. Attempting to waken a people into a heaven of his making.

In the words of more recent poet "all my life I've been waiting for; I've been praying for; for the people to say; that we don’t wanna fight no more; there will be no more war, and our children will play. "

"One Day"

Saturday, April 30, 2011

My Vida en Accion 2




Just some more pictures of the Vida en Accion trip. Few of the pictures are of the group handing out meds. And notice, the mountains used to be all jungle. Now they are completely deforested. Crazy.

My Vida en Accion





This is the second 'Vida en Accion' I went on. Vida en Accion is the name of the 'program' TOLM created. Guy and some of the leaders here bring kids on trips up into the mountains. They carry in anything the community they are visiting needs. Many times that includes wheelchairs (made from a plastic chair and mountain bike tires) and beds, which you can see people carrying in the above pictures. While there they also provide dental and medical clinics, as well as pass out food, vitamins, deparasiting pills, and a ton more. These pictures are from the walk into the village. It was a 45 minute walk up a mountain side; absolutely beautiful.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

My Pictures from Honduras 2






First couple are of us ziplining through the mountains above some Mayan ruins (only slightly cool ;) ) the middle one is of Welvim a guy I've hung out with a bit here so far. We watched the Barcelona v Real game last weds together. And the final ones are of a bbq I went on with some of the guys from Escalon.

My Pictures from Honduras 1






Just some pictures. I posted an update on Facebook and sent it out to some folks emails as well.

First couple are of the school. The next few are of the mountains during vida en accion. One of the ministries based out of TOLM.


Monday, April 18, 2011

My Honduran Adventure

Hey all!

Well I'm officially in Honduras. I arrived yesterday night; the flights and all went smoothly. And just for emphasis with some of my friends who have horrible luck while traveling: I also received all my luggage promptly and on time. Hope you folks enjoy that ;).

The school I am staying at is called Plan Escalon. It is both a school and an orphanage and serves casi 600 estudiantes. The layout of the campus reminds me quite a bit of a summer camp back in the states. It is completely self-sustainable in the fact that it is more like a college campus, with dorms, a cafeteria, offices, classrooms, a basketball court and soccer fields. It also has a clinic which is where I will be helping out. The clinic serves the students and staff and isn't exactly huge. It is one room split by a curtain into an examination/drug room and an office. The paramedic/EMT/nurse who runs it is an guy by the name of Joseph. He has been doing it for 4 years now and does everything from passing basic drugs to minor surgeries. Very cool stuff.

I stay in a bunkhouse with a kitchen on the second floor. Currently I am staying alone, and will be for the majority of the trip, but on weds I will be sharing the bunkhouse with six men from another ministry in Honduras. That might be pretty interesting, seeing as my spanish todavia esta rusty. Yesterday I spoke spanish almost all day long; even making some friends with a few of the students at the school. I played soccer with a few of them as well. My verb and noun agreement is currently awful, but I can recognize when I do something wrong and begin to fix it, which is one step in the right direction.

Alright well Ive already spent more time on this computer than I meant to. Hope everyone is doing well back in the States and wherever else you are when you read this. Ill update again when I have more stories.

Nos Vemos