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 !

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