First Few Days
It’s been a busy couple of days! We began our trip out here to join the Sullivan Illinois’s Hearts and Hands team on Monday. Leaving Milwaukee at 6am, we flew to San Pedro Sula in Honduras. It was a long but very interesting day. We left the airport in SPS at 12pm and it took us until about 7pm to get to Tocoa where we would spend the week. It was a LONG drive! But, through some beautiful countryside, miles and miles of palm tree forests and then miles and miles of pineapple fields. We went through busy towns and quiet rural towns and saw everything from typical Honduran homes (which are often not much more than broken buildings, some with roofs some without and some barely standing) to fancy big homes behind gated communities. We caught glimpses of the ocean and were surrounded by beautiful mountains. Until you have driven here in Honduras it is hard to even imagine what the traffic and cars and the way people drive here is like. Anything goes, there don’t appear to be any rules, yet in all the times I have been coming here I have not seen one accident!!
So after a few stops, we arrived in Tocoa and met up with the rest of the group. 3 us us from Wisconsin and 12 from Sullivan Illinois. The team from Sullivan has been coming here for a long time and have built great relationships with the locals and continue to grow the mission each year they come. We are hoping to partner with them and rebuild our Wisconsin team.
Monday we had devotion and then showered and went to bed!! It’s hot here and the next day we would be working so rest was needed! We are very thankful to have air conditioning in our rooms as it is about 100 degrees and very humid!
Tuesday August 27th.
We began the day with breakfast and devotion. Cleaned up and then went in a few different directions. I went with the team to the special needs school to observe and help the ladies from Illinois who are special needs teachers. Teachers in Honduras are not given any additional training for special needs children and are mostly just trying their best. Often times, people who have special
needs children are frowned upon because they are believed to have sinned and that is why they have a special needs child. So they are often not given any help. The Sullivan team has been working with the special needs school and are in the process of helping them secure land to build a new school because they are being asked to leave their current location.
I spent a few hours in the classroom helping with the kiddos and getting to know them. The children range from blind to autistic, to unknown. It’s a lively classroom. Children are the same everywhere no matter what culture. Special needs children are the same everywhere! They require a little extra attention and some consistency. I spent a lot of time with a little girl call Maria. Sweetest little thing who was blinded by a family member. I helped her color in the lines by using her hand to trace out the heart she was coloring and I placed her hand on a picture of Jesus. We spent some time snuggling and singing and at one point my voice must have tickled her here because she giggled. These kids need to be loved like any other child and you could definitely feel the love in that classroom. I’m thrilled to be here and learning ways we can help and some time soon help build them a new school! More to come on that!
We then had lunch and spent the afternoon working in the church in La Cebita. The church has been being painted for the past few days and there was still much to do. A whole bunch of us including our local Honduran friends spent the hot sticky afternoon painting walls, trim, and doors. Theres a wedding in the church tomorrow which we as a team are invited to attend! It was neat to see a whole bunch of people from different cultures and backgrounds working together to spruce up the church for the wedding. Kelly and I spent some time during a break playing games with a bunch of kids that seemed to congregate around us while painting. We played so many games and had so much fun getting to know the kids. We played pato pato ganso! Which is duck duck goose. The kids are way faster than me and I lost every time!
Theres so much poverty and sadness in Honduras and fear of Loss of life and without getting too political in this blog, I think a person can learn a lot about the culture and the fear here when you spend time talking to the people you meet. We live on on the side of the border where the fears these people face every day are none existent. While it is heart breaking to think of a child locked up in a cage on the US border, and I do not support it at all, it brings a shocking perspective when you realize that they may actually be better off there than here. Gang members will take children from families if they are not given to them, and terrible things happen to them with them ultimately being murdered. Theres more to the caravans that we see and hear on the media. It’s not simple and clear, it’s messy and mucky filled with fear. I’m blessed to live in a country where I go to bed every night knowing my children are safe.
But even with the fears and sadness, Honduras is still a beautiful country filled with beautiful people, filled with Gods people. They deserve our love as much as anyone else.
So after a few stops, we arrived in Tocoa and met up with the rest of the group. 3 us us from Wisconsin and 12 from Sullivan Illinois. The team from Sullivan has been coming here for a long time and have built great relationships with the locals and continue to grow the mission each year they come. We are hoping to partner with them and rebuild our Wisconsin team.
Monday we had devotion and then showered and went to bed!! It’s hot here and the next day we would be working so rest was needed! We are very thankful to have air conditioning in our rooms as it is about 100 degrees and very humid!
Tuesday August 27th.
We began the day with breakfast and devotion. Cleaned up and then went in a few different directions. I went with the team to the special needs school to observe and help the ladies from Illinois who are special needs teachers. Teachers in Honduras are not given any additional training for special needs children and are mostly just trying their best. Often times, people who have special
needs children are frowned upon because they are believed to have sinned and that is why they have a special needs child. So they are often not given any help. The Sullivan team has been working with the special needs school and are in the process of helping them secure land to build a new school because they are being asked to leave their current location.
I spent a few hours in the classroom helping with the kiddos and getting to know them. The children range from blind to autistic, to unknown. It’s a lively classroom. Children are the same everywhere no matter what culture. Special needs children are the same everywhere! They require a little extra attention and some consistency. I spent a lot of time with a little girl call Maria. Sweetest little thing who was blinded by a family member. I helped her color in the lines by using her hand to trace out the heart she was coloring and I placed her hand on a picture of Jesus. We spent some time snuggling and singing and at one point my voice must have tickled her here because she giggled. These kids need to be loved like any other child and you could definitely feel the love in that classroom. I’m thrilled to be here and learning ways we can help and some time soon help build them a new school! More to come on that!
We then had lunch and spent the afternoon working in the church in La Cebita. The church has been being painted for the past few days and there was still much to do. A whole bunch of us including our local Honduran friends spent the hot sticky afternoon painting walls, trim, and doors. Theres a wedding in the church tomorrow which we as a team are invited to attend! It was neat to see a whole bunch of people from different cultures and backgrounds working together to spruce up the church for the wedding. Kelly and I spent some time during a break playing games with a bunch of kids that seemed to congregate around us while painting. We played so many games and had so much fun getting to know the kids. We played pato pato ganso! Which is duck duck goose. The kids are way faster than me and I lost every time!
Theres so much poverty and sadness in Honduras and fear of Loss of life and without getting too political in this blog, I think a person can learn a lot about the culture and the fear here when you spend time talking to the people you meet. We live on on the side of the border where the fears these people face every day are none existent. While it is heart breaking to think of a child locked up in a cage on the US border, and I do not support it at all, it brings a shocking perspective when you realize that they may actually be better off there than here. Gang members will take children from families if they are not given to them, and terrible things happen to them with them ultimately being murdered. Theres more to the caravans that we see and hear on the media. It’s not simple and clear, it’s messy and mucky filled with fear. I’m blessed to live in a country where I go to bed every night knowing my children are safe.
But even with the fears and sadness, Honduras is still a beautiful country filled with beautiful people, filled with Gods people. They deserve our love as much as anyone else.
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