Spiritual Lifting

Having never lived in another country, except Puerto Rico where I was born, I have been amazed and inspired by the faith and the religious customs of the people of Honduras.

Amid all the violence there seems to be  an oasis when you go to a Mass. True, that almost all the homilies do mention how we need to use our spiritual beliefs to help control the violence and to give a good example to the youth so that this vicious cycle stops.

There is one practice that gives me goosebumps every time  it is celebrated.  I have wished that I would have taken the camera to capture it. This morning as an afterthought I told Hernan I was going to take the camera just in case there was a presentation in church. I am so glad I did... a little baby  girl was presented today.

 In Honduras when babies are 40 days old they are brought to church to be presented to God. 

Much like Jesus was presented at the Temple.  

Mom, dad and sometimes siblings approach the altar, the priest blesses them and then  the priest  takes the baby and lifts  him/her up  to God and then presents  the baby to the congregation.  It is such an emotional moment and such a beautiful custom!

May God bless this faithful country and grant it peace ! May He bless all the babies and all the youth so they can make a  positive change in Honduras.

He never promised us a rose garden.....

As a mother of 7, many a time when going through all the joys and tears of motherhood,  I would repeat and sing to myself “He never promised me a rose garden”…

 But I think He did. You have to go through the thorns and get pricked by them before you can enjoy the roses!!

Now , being away from home for  seven  months and looking back at all we have lived in these months the same phrase came to my mind. “He never promised us a rose garden”.

Life has been bearable because Hernan and I are here together, many a time I have thought I would have asked for a reassignment or gone home a long time ago if it wasn’t because we have each other.

The violence in Honduras is so patent and I simply refuse to get used to it.

How can this situation be changed? 

 I hear that question at least once a week from someone.

 I don’t have answers, I only know that we meet beautiful people who live in fear, grateful people who shower you with hugs because they appreciate so much what you are doing and who almost constantly wonder why we are here.

 Beautiful children who act like every other child in the world but who will have to acquire a resiliency to be able to survive in a country ruled by “maras”(gangs) and “cicarios”(drug lords). I see them and I see our children and grandchildren in them, children playing, smiling and hoping.

I just pray that somehow something will happen so that God will shed His light on this country and these children can grow up in love and peace.

A week ago a photo appeared on the newspaper , children in a school sitting on the floor of their “classroom” because there were no desks  for that school! (And this is not an isolated  case!) There was a ray of hope when the next day there was an article about a financial institution and a private enterprise  that had donated some desks to two schools.

Maybe there is hope, maybe there is a rainbow in the horizon. Maybe….

Messages from above

It hasn’t been once or twice that we have been down in the dumps.

 Simply because things were not going the way we thought they would….and invariably we go to church and something in the Homily or in one of the songs speaks directly at us and we know we are OK.

About one and a half months ago someone hacked into Hernan’s email account. They sent an email telling all his contacts that he had been mugged and that though he was OK he needed money.

 Of course, Thanks to God Hernan is fine and, though the danger is out there, he was not mugged.

This happened at a time that we really needed prayers because we were not finding meaning in all that we were doing and had encounter some difficulties.

 I think the hacking of his email account was Heaven sent because Father Cook,our Pastor, mentioned at church what we were doing and also asked the people to pray for us.

 The GOOD LORD works in mysterious ways. Thanks for all your prayers. Keep them coming, we need them!!

 There are good days, great days and not so good days and we need the strength of your prayers to get through these.

Back to Teguz

Just returned from a short break.

We went to Guadalajara , Mexico and met with my brother and sister and Heidi ,our niece- god-daughter, to celebrate her graduation from the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara's School of Medicine..

It was great to see family and to take a break.....

But at the same time I felt very sad seeing Mexico and realizing that Honduras is so much, much, much poorer. In Honduras, you don't have to travel very far to see very poor barrios ("colonias"), In fact just minutes away from the center of Tegucigalpa you will find places where there is no pavement and the houses are very very poor. Where you can see and feel it is not safe to be there.

In Honduras you are greeted by armed security guards, with big guns, at almost every store entrance. You are asked to turned your cell phone off and you are searched with the wand before entering the banks.

It was with a little trepidation that I returned to Tegucigalpa. In January, we came and we had heard of the country's situation..... but now we were returning after having experienced the situation for over 4 months.

In some ways we want to help the poorest of the poor but we have realized that the poorest of the poor sometimes live in areas that we don't want to go to, and where we are not allowed to go to for our own safety. So for the moment we are ready to dive into our assigned tasks and try to fill our days as much as we can so that we can feel we are making a tiny difference. We are reaching very poor people in the National Center for Diabetics, Hospital Escuela and the Clinics in poor "colonias", but I am so very, very much aware that there are still so many, many, many more people that we will never, never be able to reach.

4 months and counting.....

It seems I kind of remember to write a blog  every month. Life is not that busy and I could certainly do it more often.  I have to admit I am guilty of not keeping my daily journal either. Sometimes things are not that easy and they seem to get bigger when we see them on writing. Maybe that is why I have not been writing that often.
I have to admit that if I had been here all by myself I probably would have requested to be relocated. Having each other has been a lifesaving gift. The violence is more than I could imagine. There has been 24 journalists killed in the last 24 months and none of these homicides have been solved.
We don't buy the paper everyday but maybe once a week just to get in touch with reality and not acquire a false sense of security and to realize that things are still as bad as they were the week before if not worse.
They surveyed the Hondurans to see if they were in favor of a curfew and about 90% were in favor.

This has made me think of the things I miss the most:

Family and friends (ALL MY CHILDREN,GRANDCHILDREN, ALL THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS- IN- LAW,  BROTHER, SISTER, etc. etc. etc.) yes you all!!!

Our extended Church family of St. Leo the Great in Winston-Salem, and our adopted church families from Our Lady of Mercy  and Our Lady of Fatima daily Masses.

We miss our "reserved pew" at St. Leo's, where Mary  Gallagher,would be sitting behind us and we would be joined by our son Hernan and his wife Lesha. ( We have adopted some pews here in Tegucigalpa but they are not the same).

We miss the way Father Cook begins each Sunday his celebration of the Mass "as we live in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (paraphrased)

Being able to go downtown and walk without fear. We have our own curfew since we have no transportation except our God given feet we do all our outings before 6PM and mostly around where we live. We walk to church about 1.4 miles back and forth and the same for groceries etc. Hernan walks to the Hospital Escuela in the mornings and  a motorist  takes us to the clinic where we give the Diabetes  and  the other talks

and........

I miss our down comforter, having good  water pressure for a nice hot shower  and my oven!  
I will either become lazy about cooking or cook up a storm when I get back!!!

March 2012

March was a busy month helping with a vaccination initiative that took us to San Pedro Sula to help monitor the vaccination process. We went to several schools and the kids were all so beautiful 

(they are kids and I am partial to kids!)

We went to some schools in an area called El Merendon, it is a mountain,and the ride was very ,very bumpy, beautiful but very bumpy.



I tried to download a video but was unable to.


The weather up there was very nice and a few degrees cooler than in the city. The schools were so poor. There was a school that had two classrooms, in one they had 45 children in the other there were supposed to have 64. The children were not there that day because the teacher was sick and they don't have substitute teachers. Can you imagine a regular size classroom (maybe smaller )with 64 children? The children were very happy and while we waited for some preparations they showed us some games
 they play at recess.







Another school was even smaller they had about 12 kids and even though the school was supposed to start at 1PM it was about 2 o'clock and the kids were trickling in.
In another school while we were monitoring, we saw this little boy climb a tree outside the school's fence. Lo and behold the teacher sees him and very casually and non threateningly told him that even though he was skipping school that day he had to come in to get his shot. I thought it was funny that he was so curious about what he was missing and got caught to get his shot.
The violence in San Pedro Sula is so much higher than in Tegucigalpa that we were very happy to leave and come back "home".
There were some faces that will stay with me for the rest of my life. Something in their facial expression that was quite hard to pinpoint.

Holy Week in Tegucigalpa

Last week was Holy Week and in Honduras it is celebrated like a National Holiday. No one works and schools are out. People leave the capital to go back to their hometowns and the ones who can, go on vacation to the Bay Islands or to the beach.
The ones that stay participate in the religious customs which are quite a few. Among one of the showiest ones are the carpets made of colored sawdust. On Wednesday our landlords took us downtown to see the people making them. Oh, how I wanted to get down on all four and help!, I guess it was so obvious that Gloria (our landlady) mentioned that it looked like I wanted to join in. There were youth groups from churches and Scouts from Honduras and other people making them.





Then on Thursday they took us again to see them  when they were all finished and  before the procession would go through. My favorite one was "La Dolorosa", a Virgin with a tear rolling down her cheek, quite an artwork.



They cover the streets of downtown Tegucigalpa where the procession of the Holy Sepulchre is going to be going through, from the Cathedral to the  Church of the Calvary.  Needless to say once the procession goes through the streets all the artwork is gone. It is quite an amazing site.

February 23rd...

Seems like it was yesterday that we were getting ready to leave for Tegucigalpa. It has been a month and we are kind of getting used to life here as we have it.

We have been busy, giving talks and helping a medical brigade.















 But we also had some fun. We have been very blessed by some awesome landlords that have adopted us. They have taken us out and welcomed us into their family. They took us to Valle de Angeles a tourist place where we saw this creative way of recycling. A mosaic wall made with bottle tops!

Isn't  it beautiful. Now I would like you to meet Gloria and Rolando Jiron, our landlords.....

and their two daughters Patty and Ana Lucia and two of their grandchildren. We thank the Lord for having them in our lives here in Tegucigalpa!

A petición popular- By popular demand

 We   finally got our camera out of our pockets and took some pictures!

First Diabetes Refresher Course for Buen Samaritano Clinic. This clinic is the one located next to the Comayaguela Market.  The nurses and doctors are so dedicated to their labor. They really enjoyed both talks, mine and Hernan's. 

Patients waiting to be seen in what is going to be  an Odontology  Clinic. Notice the damage to the roof that the landlord will not fix. Until they decide on that, this area is on hold, but the nurses added a cheerful note to the dreary room. Cute patients!

Views of the street where the clinic is located.

View from the window.

After we finished the talks, Marilena took us to the Basilica of the Suyapa Virgin, where they had big celebrations for the virgin. Pilgrims from all over Honduras are supposed to be convening at the Basilica tonight and they expect over 2 million people to be there! There were lots of  vendor sites  in the surrounding streets and  there were Pilgrims camping on the grounds of the Church in makeshift tents.

This is the Basilica of the Blessed Virgin of Suyapa, a very impressive building., and we were so lucky because we got there just in time to attend daily Mass!

Pilgrims inside the church

  

The tiny image of Our Lady of the Conception of Suyapa was found by a humble young peasant on a Saturday in January 1747.  Alejandro Colindres, and Lorenzo Martinez, an eight-year-old boy, were returning to the village of Suyapa, tired from working all day gathering corn.  They were half way there when night fell as they reached the Piligüín ravine.  This seemed to them like a good place to spend the night and they lay down on the hard ground.  Right away Alejandro felt that something, apparently a stone, was preventing his finding a comfortable position for his back.  In the dark, he picked it up and threw it far away.  Strangely enough, on lying down again he felt the same discomfort, but--intrigued--this time he did not throw it, instead he put it away in his knapsack.  At day break he discovered that the mysterious object was a charming small image of Our Lady carved in cedar wood.

In 1925, Pius XI declared Our Lady of Suyapa patroness of the Republic of Honduras, and February 3 was chosen as her feast day with proper Mass and office.  The first shrine was blessed in 1780 and the first notable attested miracle, occurred in 1796.  The present enormous church, with space for the multitude of pilgrims who visit Suyapa, was visited by John Paul II in 1983.  In the land of the poor, this sanctuary of Santa Maria de Suyapa is located in one of the humblest parts of the city.

We visited both sanctuaries !

.

modern day Mother Theresas

We have met the most incredible people when we visited three clinics,yesterday. The women who run these clinics have a heart so big and they have such a  strong believe in what they are doing. Just talking to them you can see the love they have for the poor. One of the clinics was St Paul's,  it  started as a mission of St Paul's Church in Damascus, Maryland after Hurricane Mitch. Joanny the Center's director is a Honduran lady who went there from Maryland to help her family  when the Hurricane wiped out a lot of Tegucigalpa. The devastation was so huge that she stayed and has been helping the poor since then. We will be collaborating with a brigade that is coming from Maryland in the middle of February to travel to some villages and provide medical care. I can not wait to help with that mission.This clinic takes place in the community center and is having trouble with a  leaky roof that between other things damaged their Odontology chair and equipment. They see about 20 patients a day and charge them $2 which cover examination and medications.
The other clinics we visited were the Divine Providence and Notre Dame Clinic. The Divine Providence is a village to the north of Tegucigalpa. It was started by the Archidiocese. The people seem to have pride in their homes. I saw them sweeping their yards, taking out the trash. Their children were outside playing! The clinic's personnel were very interested in all we could offer. Marilena, our boss, has been visiting these clinics in the past trying to get the catholic clinics to unite so they are able to acquire medications etc at better prices and also be able to collaborate with each other.
The third clinic we visited, Notre Dame, is located in the Notre Dame Church building. As the director,Dr. Coscas said, they started in one room and now the priest is scared they may take over all the building. She is another special woman. We were in awe of the strength of their faith and of their love to the poor. They seem to be tireless in their labor of love and in their enthusiasm for their work.
God Bless these people they live their faith in action.

First day at work, first dinner at home

Today we visited the CMMB office here. It is about two blocks from where we live, so eventually we can walk there, once we get our bearings. There is also a church nearby, which we need to see if we can go on Saturday or most probably Sunday morning.
We also visited a clinic in the center of Comayaguela  which is kind like a twin city of Tegucigalpa. Very poor area, the clinic is right in the middle of the marketplace ( the market is several blocks and there are vendors all over the periphery selling used shoes and all sorts of things new and used. The clinic as such charges patients  200 Lempiras which is about $10.00, but they barely make enough money  to cover the rent and the medications they give to the patients.The building where it is located is in pretty sad shape and the landlord will not fix it. I will be going there next week  to offer a Diabetes in- service to the clinic personnel and then after that to give classes to the patients with Diabetes. I think it is sad that they can not offer the service for less since the people they serve are so  very poor.
Tomorrow we will be visiting three other sites, two churches and a hospital, this is all within the planning stages. Keep up the praying!!

Oh yes, and I cooked  our first dinner in our hot plate! Can't complain we also have a microwave which I did not expect!!

Landing in Teguz

We left Winston-Salem and Atlanta  in the rain and  arrived in Tegucigalpa on a very sunny and comfortably warm afternoon, where we were greeted by members of the CMMB team who took care of us and of our bountiful luggage. (Counting our backpacks we had 12 pieces of luggage, 4 of which were medical supplies.)  Marilena and Yanin took us to our new home and we met our landlady , a delightful lady  who made us feel at home  right away. The cottage is very cozy and we have access to her beautiful  flower garden. We couldn't have asked for more. They  took us to get our local cell phones and then treated us to  an early dinner (late lunch for us) at one of Yanin's favorite Italian restaurants. The food was delicious and the conversation was very  informative. Tomorrow we will be going to the CMMB office in the morning to start planning our work for the year.

Nearly ready...

All through my life people have asked me two things. One, how do you manage- my answer: I play it by ear. The second , mainly by my family, are you ready?- the answer ( just like when we were kids, playing) ready or not .
Well, Monday is the DAY, and that is FOUR days away!  Suitcases are packed ( some fine tuning is still needed to make sure no suitcase is over 50 lbs).  Hopefully we have all papers ready and inside my binder (kidding I am sure we do.)
We are looking forward to it and all the more now after we were blessed one more time today. Father Bill Robinson , Pastor of Our Lady of Mercy Parish, gave us a special blessing as a send forth at the morning Mass .  It was so special!! Thank  you Father Bill.
As for me, I was prayed over two more times at the Women's Bible Study and was able to say Good Bye to some good friends I will miss this coming year. Hopefully some will e-mail me from time to time.
Last  night  we received an email from Emily's mother, Marye,and she included  this prayer for Emily  (who left yesterday to go to Nepal) and for us and for all those who continue to try in this trying world.

        The light of God surrounds you,

        The love of God enfolds you,

        The power of God protects you,

        The presence of God watches over you,

        Wherever you are, God is,

        And where God is, all is well.

 Isn't it beautiful to have these thoughts and prayers sent your way. Wherever you are...God is. And where God is, all is well. May He stay with you as He goes with us. God bless you.

Reliving Christmas

This is a belated post. But I was so blessed this Christmas that I can not keep it to myself! Among other  gifts, our children gave us calendars with family pictures so we can see them every day while we are gone on our mission trip, magnetic picture frames to stick to our refrigerator ( yes, we are going to have a refrigerator) and  our son David gave us his very own book that he wrote and published. Wow , he made us all cry. I will be posting some of the pages of his book soon. At the suggestion of our new friend Pat, Hernan gave me some sketching books and pencils to take with me to the mission trip. Well , I know  she mentioned it, but I know he had already thought about it (he is really good at knowing what I would like to have)!
Carmen, our daughter, prompted me to do a three minute sketch, I looked around and sketched one of our bookshelves, she looked at it and added the verse at the bottom. The verse has stucked to my mind and I wanted to share it with everyone, because THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, NO MATTER WHERE WE GO, WE ARE   A VESSEL TO CARRY CHRIST. 
 Like Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta said  and I dare to paraphrase, our job may be a drop in the sea, but there would be no sea if it wasn't for all the drops. God Bless you wherever you are!!!

12 days and counting....

  After having week after week of mishaps since December 7 ,our luck has turned, today was an awesome day.   I mean it, we were plagued with let's say  some" unfortunate events" that kept us from being able to get ready for our mission trip. Our basement flooded, the crews working on it left  Dec 28. We got sick , my brother had an emergency gall bladder surgery and although not a contagious condition  three weeks later our grandson had an emergency gall bladder surgery! Last week our son had sinus surgery and Sunday we got  a  ticket for driving a truck with expired tags ( we had borrowed the truck to take stuff to our storage !!!.)...and the court date was set for March 8 , more than a week after our departure for Honduras!

Like I said  today was an awesome day!
It started with coffee with my good friend, Christine, where she prayed over me , that I would always feel a voice behind me and to know that it was our Lord's voice. Christine is an awesome woman and we enjoyed being co-workers for over five years. She is an inspiration for all those around her. Thank you Christine for all your wise words of encouragement!
After that, Hernan and I had a meeting with  Father Cook, our pastor, and we couldn't have asked for more. He prayed over us and reassured us that we will be in our parish prayers. It was an amazing feeling to be blessed and sent forth with so much love and  encouragement. Thank you Father , you don't know how much your blessing means to us. We will keep St. Leo the Great and its parishioners  in our hearts while we are away.
Then we went by the District Attorney's office to see what they could do with the ticket, since the truck's owner had already complied with  the requisites, and lo and behold they were able to dismiss the ticket! Alleluia!!
To top it all off. Hernan and I went to my former place of employment ( the free clinic where he also volunteered) to say good bye to our friends there and we were blessed with a lot of supplies that they did not need and could not use. I mean now I have glucometers!!! And believe me for a Diabetes Educator a glucometer is a necessity. We also got some prenatal vitamins  and some glucose tablets for those patients on Insulin.
What an awesome God! I need to keep this feeling in my heart and make it last....it was an awesome day and now Hernan and I are off to sort out the supplies and start packing.  12 days and counting......