8/05/12

Woke up in the morning and felt a lot better. Whew......  

All 7of is were more tired then we thought, we slept until 8:30 and had what is called "gringo" worship at 9:00 we all took quick showers being extra careful not to let any of the water into our mouths or eyes since we would all probably get very sick.  After showers we all ate a quick breakfast ( popitas de sucre, sugar pops for my gringo kids) and a prepackaged cinnamon roll.  We had service and communion courtesy of pastor Phil.  After that the missionaries took us on a tour of Le Ceiba And Le Fe. Just a back up real quick, there are 2 missionary teams here, 1 team from Georgia and one from Tucson.  The Georgia team is doing dental work and teaching some of the local women to sew.  Our team from Tucson is working in Armenia Bonita doing construction and ministry with the local children.  Ok, back to the story.... After our tour we came back to the compound and rested until 3:30 when left to the local Honduran worship device.  We piled in 3 vehicles, 5 of us climbed into the back of a Toyota truck bed and ride to the service like that, let me tell you, it was the coolest I have been since we arrived.  The service was in Spanish but us gringos were given a translator we could use if we wanted to.  It helped alot, the young lady who was translating kept trying to find the right words to use so we would understand her.  It was kinda funny, couple of time the preacher would talk for 30 seconds and her translations was " we love God" or " "we must be stewards of Gods gifts". I just wondered if we were getting the full translation, but it worked.  But the coolest thing was that they sang one of my favorite songs "Blessed Be The Name".  That is one of my favorite Christian songs, followed by Let's Get Down and Raise the Lord up!!!  a one-hit-wonder from the 70's.  (just kidding about the 2nd song I didn't care for the beat).... After service we came back to the compound and enjoyed a wonderful meal of black beans/shredded chicken bowl "Chipotle eat your heart out!) it was awesome then we had a mango mouse and some sort of awesome pudding.  I am right now sitting outside waiting till 8:00 to take my malaria pills, and then till 9:00 to go outside and look at the moon simultaneously with the woman who has stolen my heart in Tucson.

Saturday, 8/4/12

Honduras..... We arrived in Roatan an island about 60 miles north of the coast and as we stepped of the plane we were smacked with a blast of hot humid air tinged with the smell of the ocean and you could taste the salt in the air.  The customs were handled by 4 ladies who seemed to be totally bored with the jabber of tourists and the tedium of the seemingly endless lines of people who had the forms filled out wrong, the wrong forms filled out, or even no forms at all.  As pastor Kruis got thru customs he was immediately grabbed by one of local bellboys and simply had to point at our bags and they were wrestled from the conveyor belt and placed on a large luggage cart.  Once we had all the bags they were ran thru an X-ray machine that may have been used in an old Jack Palance sci-fi movie.  As the bags exited the X-ray machine, they were dumped in a pile for the travelers to sort thru.  Our negotiator,  Pastor Kruis, them wrangled us 2 cabs for 7 men and a mountain of luggage,  somehow we all fit in the cars and luggage fit in the trunks of 2 1985 vintage Toyota corollas... As we left the airport amid the honking of horns and the squealing of tires, we were treated to a fast and scary ride thru the country side to get to the ferry landing.  All the men made it as well as the luggage (slightly worse for the wear).  We purchased our tickets and proceeded to wait for the ferry to depart.  We ate an empanada type snack filled with beef or chicken, pretty tasty....... We then watched the Olympic soccer match between South Korea and Great Britain relaxing talking and sleeping.  As the time came to board the ferry, which was very modern and clean, and we got underway, I went to stand outside in the midst of the salt spray reliving my days at sea (Man I miss the being at sea......)  I went inside and fell asleep listening to my music, disco music, just woke up in the ferry as it was pulling into the dock.  Got our luggage and met two guys from the mission who loaded our luggage and we took off to the mission .  Oh man, such a different culture here.  There are no traffic lights, the policemen carry full automatic weapons, even the guys giving our luggage at the ferry were packing pistols...... Got to the compound and found a huge mango and avocado tree on the site, I took pictures of them.  We have 1 1/2 hours till dinner.  Just made my bed, tempted to lie down, but I'm afraid I won't wake wake up... One of the guys in our team wanted to go to a local store to look around so Mike one of interns and I went on a walkabout to explore a little bit of the neighborhood.  We went and found the local "Pulpiria", kind of like a Circle K without the Circle.  Turns out my buddy was looking for some chewing tobacco.  I don't think he is going to have much luck finding it.  After the fruitless tobacco search we went to the local soccer field to watch some of the local soccer clubs play.  According to the locals they were wearing the Honduras and Brazilian jerseys reenacting the latest Olympic game between the two rivals that played today.  In the Olympics the Hondurans lost 2-1, but on the local field, the Hondurans won 3-1!!!!!!  The fans and players were very happy that the brazilians lost on the local field.  After the soccer match we walked back to the dorms and ate nachos, (chips, hamburger, tomatoes macho cheese. Salsa and sour cream.) And all the water or Gatorade, or tea you could drink.  After we ate dinner, we were given a do and donts of living in honduras,  a couple of the interesting ones were we are not allowed to pet any of the dogs we saw running around  some of them were quite mangy looking bit some of them were quite cute. The other strange rule was we can not flish anything but human waste down the toilet.  Including toilet paper!  After using the paper we had to place it in the trashcan!  Kinda gross. After dinner all 7 of our team found ourselves back in the eating room talking and basically being friends.  At 8:57 I went on to the roof to look at the moon as Josie and I agreed to do. I noticed that the 3 moon sweepers had pushed the stars to the lower left side of the moon. (Brave the movie, reference).  As we were sitting on the roof, I noticed that I started to itch in my armpits, behind my knees, my groin area, and I noticed that my lips were swelling as well as my eyes.  I told pastor and we went to the intern who is sleeping in the building and she called the pettingils (the missionaries) and while waiting for assistance  I looked  a bit more at myself i saw I was developing hives in all the places I itched.   Erin the nurse, doctor, carever extraordinaire  came over and gave me a shot of 50mg of Benadryl because I was having an allergic reaction to something, she also put me on zirtec and a steroid to help my breathing.  I went out like a light woke up several times to go the bathroom (which is a wonderful necessary function down here.). 

Day #3

Today was our first day of working, and we had a great day.  There are several missionaries down here, and they each have a different area/need that they focus on.  The other church that is with us is working in the village of La Fey, which is inside of La Ceiba on a river's edge.  We got to drive by and see it yesterday.  They are doing some construction, but also have a dentist with them, and he has been pulling lots of teeth already---something he swore he'd never do again some 20 odd years ago.  Another group of women from the other church is working on sewing with some local women.  We got to go out to Armenia Bonito, which is about a half hour drive and outside of La Ceiba.  It is up river and actually inside of the national rainforest area.  It is a poor community with about 3000 people, and is the focus of the Pettengill's ministry.  They are in the process of building a center with a high school, medical clinic, church, and indoor soccer field.  Below you can see pictures of the field and what will be the medical clinic.

I believe the team last year did some work on this complex, but another thing the Pettengills do is find the poorest of the poor in Armenia Bonito and build them houses.  They try to do 2 houses each summer, and the basic floor plan is 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, and a living room.  They have running water and electricity.  It costs the Pettengills just $1500 for to build a complete home.  The family we are helping build a house for is a single father (the mother has passed away) with four of his children and a nephew living there.  A picture is below...it's literally a wood shack with dirt floors and just big enough to fit two queen mattresses.

Here's a picture of what it looked like when we showed up today.  The team last week laid the foundation, and we're working on filling up the floor and the walls.

They stressed very heavily the need to hydrate and not work too hard.  They get a lot of teams down here who push it way too far in the heat and humidity, and this summer has been their worst yet.  Lots of IVs and a few trips to the emergency room.  It's hard advice to follow, because you want to do as much as you possibly can to help, but pushing it too far and causing a medical incident is not what we want to do.  Richard stayed well hydrated.

Jon and Daniel spent most of the time laying blocks on the walls.  The rest of us hauled the blocks over to the work site and brought wheelbarrows full of dirt and rocks to fill in the floor.

Phil, Trevor, and I took turns digging a hole for an outhouse.  It's about a third complete in this picture.

To mix the mortar they make a "concrete volcano" where they basically put cement mix and sand in a pile on the ground and keep pile it up for a while to mix it, then hollow out the middle and pour in some water, and then start mixing again.

Here's how it looked the end of the first day.  You can see it rained quite a bit, which  made us stop early.  You can pray for the rain to hold off until the afternoon in the coming days so we can get as much work done as possible.

After working, we went back to the Pettengill's center in Armenia Bonito for lunch, and then waited around for the kids to arrive.  Mike puts on English classes for the kids on Monday afternoon, so we got to help with that, but a lot of the kids came early and we played soccer for a while, which was a lot of fun.  In English class the kids basically repeated simple questions and answers back and forth with us, and we were spread out among them at different tables correcting their pronunciation

The questions were things like: "What is your name?", "What is your favorite food?", or "Where do you live?".  I was impressed with the very evident desire the kids had to learn and to learn to say things correctly.  You could tell some didn't really care to be there, but most did and were trying very hard.  The kids like to give us gringos a hard time as well.  I worked with a table of 8-11 year old girls, and they were drawing all over me with pens.  It turns out on my arm they wrote something to the effect of "You are ugly when you take off your hat because you have no hair."  Nice kids.  It was fun working with them, and we're hoping to see many again tomorrow at the kids club Erin puts on.

I've seen the emails about the tropical storm/hurricane, and it looks like it has turned north of us, so no worries there.  We are seeing some rain, but should not be in any danger.  It's pouring right now.  We're just hoping it'll stay dry so we can work tomorrow.  We did name a small lizard we found in our room "Ernesto" in honor of the storm.  There are lots of critters out here, and we'll hopefully get to see some more on Wednesday when we go up to the river in the rainforest to swim with the kids.

Day #2

Sunday was a day for worship, rest, and orientation.  We started out the day with "gringo church", which is a worship service for just the MTW staff.  There is another short term team here as well, from South Carolina, and we enjoyed the worship service together in the our kitchen/dining room.

After the singing, Mike Pettengill gave a brief message, and then Phil administered communion for the group.  There is not a pastor here full time, so the only time the MTW team gets to partake in communion is when short term teams with pastors on the team come down.

Right after church, we piled into the van and trucks for a tour of La Ceiba.  It was a pretty brief tour, but we got to see a diverse set of places.  There is a lot of poverty, but definitely pockets of relative wealth.  We drove through some places with western stores and restaurants, but saw a lot of street vendors and shacks as well.  La Ceiba is named after the Ceiba tree, which are a soft wood tree that grows very wide.  Below is the largest in La Ceiba, but they said it's pretty small comparatively.

One of the things that looked funny to us was the telephone/electrical wires.  It was a mess at every corner.  Apparently whenever a new business moves into a building they just run more wire, and it was an absolute rats' nest.

We had some free time after the tour.  Half of our group took advantage of the time and slept.  The other half walked to some nearby sports fields and watched part of a men's fast pitch softball game and another soccer game.

We then went to a Spanish language church.  It was a different experience for sure.  Mike said the majority of Hondurans will tell you they are Roman Catholic, but typically that's because that's what their parents told them they were, and they are not practicing.  The church we went to was a protestant church, and it had a very concert like feel.  During the singing portion there was smoke and lights going everywhere, and camera guys getting different shots of the guitar players and it was all shown up on the screen like we were at a huge concert...but it was a small room with about 100 people in it.

We came back to the compound for dinner and then hung out as a team and talked about our roles in the week to come.

Phil's Perspective

Wow! Already two days into the 2012 missions trip to La Ceiba, Honduras. Hard to believe. Our trip down here was uneventful, shorter than last year's but still tiring. We had to leave Tucson at 12:30 a.m., drive up to Phoenix, fly to Houston and then to a resort island off of the coast of Honduras called Roatan. We finally arrived in La Ceiba at 3:30 p.m. But we were wiped out. Most of us only got 2-3 hours of sleep.

Regardless, we've had a great time in the last 27 hours. We've been well fed but I still missed having the homemade blueberry pancakes I fix every Sunday. We went to two worship services today. The first worship service was what the missionaries call “Gringo Church” because it is just the Honduran missionaries. Mike Pettengill taught from 1 Timothy 5 on the treatment of elders by their congregations. I was honored to be able to administer the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, something Team Honduras only gets to have when they have an ordained pastor come down on a mission trip.

After lunch we went on a tour of La Ceiba in which we were able to get a clearer view of not only the city but the way of life here. I was shocked once a again to see the poverty in which these people live and how much I take for granted in my own life. Of course, there were the beautiful homes and cars sprinkled in among the shacks and junkers. This seems to be a country in which the very few rich take advantage of the many poor.

I'm really enjoying having Caleb here with me. He and I have been hanging out and talking a lot about what we're seeing and experiencing. He's also been enjoying hanging out with the older members of the team—one older teenager, three guys in their mid-twenties, and Richard who is in his fifties. Caleb has jumped right in and is eager to serve and help out with anything asked of him.

God has put together a great team for us here. We are getting along really well and having some great conversations about what we're seeing but also what we see God doing—and what we are praying he will do in us and through us. We had a great discussion tonight—as we prepare to go the the work site tomorrow—about being 'other' focused and making the most of the relational opportunities.

We had a mild scare last night as one of our team members, Richard, had a severe allergic reaction. We still have not determined what caused it but he is feeling much better today. Erin Pettengill is an RN and was on her game in administering treatment. He will be taking steroids around the clock to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Well, almost time for bed. I'm looking forward to what God has in store tomorrow.

Travel & Day #1

It's been a long first day, but we have safely arrived and had our orientation.  We met at the church at 12:30AM to drive up to the Phoenix airport for our 5:00AM flight.  Thanks go to Dave and Dan Jorg who helped with transportation.  We flew from Phoenix to Houston, and then on to Roatan.  Here we are getting ready to board our first flight.

Roatan is a small resort island that's not too far from La Ceiba and we got pretty cheap tickets into there.  Apparently it's a big scuba diver destination.  It was apparent as soon as we landed that we were in a completely different country.  The airport was tiny--with only one runway and no taxi ways.  We had to wait until several planes landed, and then all the planes taxied back to the terminal together.  As soon as we got off the plane we were immediately hit with the humidity and the smell of the salt air, and the tropical vegetation is completely different than what we're used to seeing back home.  The driving here is crazy too.  We took two taxis from the airport to the ferry terminal, and it was very clear that pedestrians do not have the right of way, and neither do any other cars other than the one you are in. We made it safely to the ferry terminal, and got our first taste of the Honduran cuisine.  Here are Phil and Caleb waiting to board the ferry.

The ferry ride took about an hour and a half, and the ferry was actually really nice. It was clean, comfortable, and air conditioned.  A few of us got some sleep on the plane rides or ferry, but in general we've all been up a long time by this point.

Two of the missionaries met us at the ferry terminal and brought us to the missionary compound.  The driving in La Ceiba was just as crazy as Roatan.

 

The compound is definitely a compound.  It seems like we must be in a pretty rough neighborhood.  All of the houses have very high walls topped with barbed wire, razor wire, or electric fence, and our place is no different.  The compound has a dormitory that is still under construction, which is where we are staying.  The first two floors are finished, which is where we are sleeping and eating, but the third floor is basically open roof at this point.  There are lots of avocado and mango trees, and we're free to eat from them....but they won't be ripe for a couple more weeks.

Here's a look at the dorm rooms we are staying in.  We're in one big room together.  Some have confessed to being chronic snorers....

After getting settled a little bit we walked over to a nearby soccer field where a couple of local club teams were playing a soccer game.

We met a couple of kids at the game that we talked and played with them some.  I was sure I was going to get stabbed.  One of the kids was running around with a rather large paring knife and pretending to jab it at his friends and throwing it back and forth between different kids.  It was a weird experience, and hard to know how to react.

All in all, the first day went very well.  We are looking forward to a full day tomorrow.

Packing Clothing Donations

One of the events we put together this summer to raise funds for our trip was a rummage sale.  The sale was very successful, and we still ended up with lots of leftover clothes and a few extra suitcases thanks to the generosity of the church members who donated.  We met up Wednesday night to pack the extra clothes to take down with us to give to the Pettengill's street children and mercy ministries.  We're also taking some soccer balls, school supplies, tools, and vitamins.

We leave a little after midnight tonight.  Please pray for safe travels.