Redeemer@El Hogar 2010

¡Nosotros hemos regresados, contentos y llenos de gozo!

2010-07-24T12:50:00.004-04:00

We have returned - safe and sound.
and tired and smelly and happy and enriched and excited and full of plans!

We had a wonderful week thanks to the marvelous work team - so many talents and gifts for the team and for the school.
We had a wonderful week because the Escuela Agricola and El Hogar are wonderful places.
We had a wonderful week because the boys and the staff and their families will not permit anything less.

We have made new friends; remade old friends; have been remembered by young men who have not seen us for two years; we learned of new projects at the school and admired changes.

We made our offerings to this community - and received far more blessings in return.
We will work to make a joyful noise and be educators, amigos and compadres.

Thanks to everyone who went - who supported the trip - who supports El Hogar
-Bill

El Hogar website: http://www.elhogar.org/

Hola!

2010-07-21T22:13:00.007-04:00

Hola de la escuela agricola!
I am here with a bunch of chicos watching me write this. We are spending time this evening in the commisar and I thought I would say hello to all of our friends back home.

We've learned quite a bit while here. Things like passing on the outside of a hairpin turn in the mountains is really the best and most entertaining way to do the maneuver because, with any luck, when you go flying off the road, you will land on the road below going in the right direction! Or you are lucky enough to have Yoni driving and you arrive home perfectly safe. Thank goodness!

So, we went to Valle de Angeles to do some shopping and eating today. It's been humid but fairly pleasant. No rain today but we've had some each afternoon since arriving. Last night, we sat in the dark after prayers and watched a lightning storm off in the distance. It was better than fireworks!

Yesterday, four of us ventured out on a home visit which also turned out to be an agriculture lesson for all of us. David Uno y David Dos (will explain later) went with us and we met both of their families. They live in the mountains south of here. The drive there and back required a 4 X 4 vehicle, a working horn, and lots of prayers. We met several families along the way and were treated to fresh pineapple from the farm and bananas right off the tree! Quite a treat to say the least!

(an update on Tuesday's adventure from Bill). The main purpose of the outing was that Wilman needed to make the rounds to the community development project in the area near San Juan de Flores. The Escuela (with the assistance of ERD) is teaching about 9 farmers in this very rural area how to cultivate maracuya (passion fruit). This is a citrus-like fruit, that grows on a vines (thus easily managed and picked), with seeds in pulpy sacks (think about pomegranates and you get the idea); they have a sweet flowery flavor when ripe. Really delightful!

Farmers in the deep countryside can grow corn and beans for their own consumption - but not as a market crop because of limited acreage and their inability to buy quality seeds. Maracuya, however, can be a market crop that generates enough cash to purchase corn and beans for consumption and have money left over. Currently the project of the Escuela is designed to demonstrate - to the participants - that this will indeed work. Wilman said that they are rather distrustful of past "help" as government or nonprofit projects swoop in then leave - in this case they spent a year assessing the needs of the community through many meetings.

We stopped at about 6 farms and collected, something close to 5000 fruits total. Each individual crop was carefully counted and recorded, bagged and loaded in the truck. Wilman and the boys would later sort the ripe and less fruits - then he would take them to Tegucigalpa and sell in the market. All farmers would share in the sales as per their portion.

At each rancho we were greeted warmly. We were given small tour of the house and nearby fields at one, slices of pineapple fresh cut from the field at another, and fresh-off-the-tree bananas at a third. Several of the families have boys in the School - and are enormously proud of their sons' achievements (and those of their daughters' at other schools). We went to the homes of the two boys working with Wilman on this trip (both named David - hence the "one" and "two", and cousins as it turned out) - and of course they were very proud.

(-BV)

There is so much more to tell you all but we have tons of pictures to share when we return, plus some short video clips of the boys and of the work that we've done in between the hanging out and getting to know our new friends. We also have picked up and recorded a new song entitled "Dame la mano" to sing during the Peace. We all fell in love with the words and music. We look forward to sharing it with you all when we return.

As for our projects, we've painted the classrooms and the library, hung new doors, installed lights in the new dormitory, and help build a new hen house. Alan also weeded one of the small gardens. It's been a busy, but productive week. We are headed to the technical school and the elementary school tomorrow. When we return, we will have pizza for the despedida (going away party). We are looking forward to seeing you all when we return. Some of us will be preaching about our experience on August 1st!
Abrazos a todos,
Cathy and her helpers

Darwin and Besser

2010-07-21T08:50:00.002-04:00

Hello wonderful volunteers,
Thanks for the great posts!
Just in case: the names of the two students sponsored by Redeemer are: Darwin Enrique Velasquez Medina and Besser Manfredo Rodriguez Matute.
With love from sweltering Massachusetts,
Jessie M.

Photographic evidence

2010-07-20T15:00:00.002-04:00

Never before have we had quite the professional photographer as Calie. Although, as she says, she is not professional, rather playful. But more importantly, she takes tons of photos. Our hope is that we will have at least one photo of each of the boys, as well as plenty of them working. There is no worry that we won´t have enough of them hamming it up for the camera.
But on to the day.
First thing we did today was think we were walking up to breakfast... Turns out we were making a mad dash for flag-raising. Most of us hummed along as best we could; I sung about half of the words, and then we proceded to eat. Bill, Alan, Lindsay and Cathy headed off with Willman to visit one of his community outreach projects that are supported through an Episcopal Relief and Development grant. (His grant has run out and we are hoping that our glowing praise of his work will inspire additional grants.) The rest of us managed to fumigate ourselves rather than the termites while Cara and Stephanie helped with the final construction phase of the chicken house. And now Steph and I are headed back out to fight with some chicken-wire. The travelers will update on their outing when they return.

Sarah

From the home front

2010-07-19T08:09:00.001-04:00

Hello wonderful volunteers,
We prayed for each of you by name yesterday at Redeemer service. Great to think of you worshipping in Talanga later in the day with the same prayer book.
The Giving Garden delivered beautiful zucchini, cukes, arugula, spinach, and radishes to the Food Pantry on Saturday morning, and the first of the peas.
Our tiny farm in Massachussetts is filled with love and hope too, just like the one you’re on.
Keep those posts coming when you can!
Love,
Jessie

Church in Talanga

2010-07-18T22:05:00.000-04:00

This afternoon we attended the service at the Episcopal chapel in Talanga (the town near the Escuela Agricola). At first we were the only congregants - but another dozen or so folks, including lots of kids, arrived in the first 10-15 minutes. It was nice to know we are part of the world-wide communion of late-arrivers.

Naturally we used the book of Common Prayer - so it was all familiar. sort of. . . . The division of comprehension went by thirds: several kept up (Calie, Sarah, Cara). They even laughed at the pastor's jokes. Show offs. A few managed to be followers. A few poor souls must have felt like it was their first bar mitzvah. The children ran around and made noise, The cows joined in - they stopped by outside and listened to the Pastor's "devocion" - and occasionally answered him. At the peace we sang "Dame la mano" - and the entire congregation moved around and shared the peace all with each other. So much for God's frozen people!

A wonderful experience. A blessing.

Preparatory thoughts, painting and computer fixing

2010-07-18T10:21:00.002-04:00

I will try and give a quick glimps of our travels thus far.
Cathy's thought process while packing: "clothing, bug spray, sunscreen, water bottle, bug spray, ... something else important, bug spray, .... malaria meds, bug spray, bug spray..."
And after all that, our arival and processing through the airports was as next to seamless as one can expect at "gods awful" o'clock at Logan and then really any time at Miami.
Our current projects are painting the inside of the classrooms and the library, Steve is fussing around with a few of the computers that seem not to work, and there may or may not be a casita para las gallinas, a house for the chickens, being built. This seems to be dependent on permission to cut more wood. We are very blessed with an amazing amout of Spanish skills, so dividing throughout the day on projects works well. Meals are also made much easier by this fact. I am hogging computer while I need to learn computer vocab in Spanish to help Steve, (although you would be surprised how much of computer fixing is non-verbal and universal), so I will leave this to the next person to update in a few days.

Besos y abrasos a todos

Sarah

buen viaje

2010-07-15T17:21:00.001-04:00

Hello and goodbye, wonderful volunteers!
Our hearts are with you.
Love,
Jessie M.

Welcome.

2010-06-21T13:31:00.003-04:00

The Church of Our Redeemer (Lexington MA, USA) has had a strong supporting relationship with the El Hogar Projects in Honduras. This July another team will travel to live and work with the El Hogar community at the Escuela Agricola in Talanga, Honduras.

We have created this blog as a way for us to keep in touch before, during and after our trip.

Thank you for reading our blog and supporting El Hogar.