What Honduras Taught Me
Written by Bessie on Thursday, May 01, 2008 in Honduras
Feelin' thoughtful
Feelin' thoughtful
We lived up in the mountains of Honduras for 10 days with a family that had their share of complications, as does any family, and they gave us a true experience of life in Honduras. I say lived because it's more than a visit or a vacation when you start to know locals biking down the street, you eat home-cooked meals everyday, and you take a bucket shower. We came to Pinalejo, Honduras so Kyle could do some web design and I could lend a hand to a very worthy cause, the Fellow Man International clinic, and we got a true experience of life in Honduras.
(Bessie with Honduran host mom)
Passion will make you do crazy things.
So Kyle and I sold stuff, packed some things away, and set off to travel a year, but that's nothing compared to our hostess-with-the-mostest in Honduras. Lisa sold her belongings at an auction (none of that eBay stuff, but a real life auction) and moved down to Honduras to make a difference after Hurricane Mitch badly flooded parts of the country. She's been here 10 years. Lisa has more stories and learned more life lessons than I think some have in a lifetime.
Lisa is a nurse and was called by God to serve the people of Honduras. She's helped in ways that other non-profits are unsuccessful: by giving a greater gift than help, the gifts to help oneself and their neighbors. She started a clinic in the rural mountainside, and employed local doctors and staff to serve the poorest of the poor. She began a scholarship program to help Hondurans through medical school to become nurses and doctors to work at the clinic. She opened a store next to the clinic, and bought the food from the nearest big town and charges lower prices than in town to give people better access to healthy food. In this way, they're not affecting the livelihood of the shopkeepers that sell the food and people that live high in the mountains don't have to spend money to travel as far to get the food, and their money stretches farther.
That could have been enough, but Lisa also started a coffee company to raise money for the clinic and provide more jobs. She also adopted 2 severely malnourished babies. It's amazing what people will do when they have a mission, and how life comes together when you're doing good for others.
Prolonged Hammock swinging can induce strong bouts of yawning
I spent a few fine hours gazing far off into the mountains of northern Honduras. Sometimes Sudoku or postcard writing helped me pass time. Other times, Kyle pushed me like I was in one of those automatic baby swings. Us gringos don't spend enough time in hammocks. It's wonderful - what's the matter with us???
(My view from the hammock & and me writing postcards)
Strong Mountain Coffee can really get you going in the morning
There's nothing quite like recently roasted fresh mountain-grown coffee to get you going. The medical clinic we helped sells it to support their efforts. Buy some at http://www.greenparrotcoffee.com/
Toddlers love Barney Songs
Kyle and I spent some decent time in the car with our hostess whether to and from neighboring cities, running errands or attending wild Honduran parties. The Honduran landscape is beautiful, and the drivers are wild, but you want to know what I'll remember most, listening to what I call Barney's Greatest Hits TWICE in a row to calm two enormously car-bored toddlers. I wish I knew what how that big purple dinosaur wraps kids around his pinkie finger, so that when/if I'm a mom some day, I can have that effect on my kids and not have to listen to Barney.
Lamb Tails taste pretty decent
I ate my tail in Honduras, and it was down-right yummy! I couldn't eat grasshoppers in Mexico, but I ate tail. Taking a picture didn't feel right at the coffee harvest party, but imagine tender red meat on a tail.
People are named Bessie here!
Honest to goodness, Bessie is a common name in Honduras!! I heard more people getting called Bessie in the last week than I have in the past 5 years back home. I don't know what gives, or how it became popular, but it is.
Wondering why I'm so shocked? Well, back at the turn of the century I made my first trip to Mexico with Ben & Melissa, and my first attempts to tell locals my name was Bessie was responded to with "Base-y?" como "base-o". Which, in spanish is beso, and means kiss. And the last thing I want a guy trying to pick me up in a bar to think is that my name is Kiss. How about not. Ever since then, my name in Spanish is always my middle name, Julia. I couldn't believe my ears having Hondurans call me Base-y. I loved ever minute of it.
When you give of yourself, you get even more in return.
Life in Honduras is hard. We heard tales and met people that faced challenges beyond my comprehension of living in poverty. People walking 3 or 4 hours in the mountains to get to a doctor. Infants fed kool-aid for 9 months for lack of food and left on ant hills to die. Such severe underemployment and unemployment that there isn't a concept of working-hard to getting ahead, because there is so little work available. People choose working in maquilas (factories formerly known as sweatshops) over picking harvest because the work is "easier", but you can't eat fabric. And yet people continue, and find joy in life and from their families.
Kyle and I were given the opportunity to give help. To support a mission that didn't just give handouts, but enables. Looking back, it's almost frivolous in the big picture of life, but maybe if everyone gave some part of themselves for someone in need, life might be more fair. Michael Jackson's "Heal the World" plays through my head like a broken record some days, as embarrassing as that is to say, but to me, it's not enough to assume someone else more powerful or NGOs or the UN are doing my share. I believe we each know our part to making the world more fair.
(Kyle and my "office"in the lab & me assisting the dentist while giving fluoride treatments)
Comments on "What Honduras Taught Me"
Ya, gas is a big problem down here. Prices of food are becoming too much for people and when bus fares go up $.25, people riot because they can't afford it. If gas keeps getting more expensive, I don't know what people are going to do in developing nations.
We're looking forward to visitors! Don't lose that passport!
It's so easy to not think about the needs everywhere, including in the states, because it's not easy solve, and it's not pleasant to think about things like hunger and child labor. And I struggle with even how thick-skinned I am when I turn down an old woman begging in the street with no shoes on and I go to the store to buy a new shirt. Inequality is tough.
my order for the coffee will be coming shortly....interesting to see such a mission aimed at enabling...
Thanks, Karl! :) Yeah, I was really impressed with it...
Makes our work at GCFD seem inadequate! We'll buy some coffee also.
Pish Posh Den & Sue!! You guys are super stellar volunteers!
WOW and WONDERFUL!!! May the Lord bless and keep Lisa and her family...
This is why what you are doing is soooo cool... "maybe if everyone gave some part of themselves for someone in need, life might be more fair". Americans are especially self-centered I think and don't understand how cushy our life really is sometimes. We are all complaining that gas might reach $4/gallon this summer, but not many would ever consider walking to the grocery store or cutting back on other things. If I could take my kids to travel the way that you two are traveling and show them how to appreciate all that we are blessed with and how to give back to those who are not as blessed, that would be my dream.
by Kristine at May 05, 2008 10:57 AMI'm so glad that I have my passport now and I hope to come and see at least a bit of what you all are experiencing! :) I hope you know that what you are doing not only affects those where you are working, but it also affects those of us that are reading this blog too. So, thank you for all that you are doing!
Kristine