Fito

The children at Casa de Esperanza have suffered horrible abuse before they came to live here. Most of them have been abused in more awful ways than our worst imaginings. Because of that, some of them are in counseling in town. Marc took the kids to school this morning because Karen had to take one of the girls to town for counseling. Fito had to go to counseling in town this evening. Marc and I took him. We left right after lunch, as we had errands to do in town as well. Fito didn't have much to say, but he wore a big grin. First stop, the hardware store. Fito wanted to push the basket. As he pushed it around the store, he was smiling. He stayed close to Marc, even when I went to look at something else. Then we went to Sears to buy my stove. This was an adventure that deserves a blog of its own. Maybe some other day. Fito was smiling as if the stove was for him. After the counseling, we were going to take him to eat. Marc gave him a choice of fried chicken, hamburgers or pizza. He chose peaksa (his pronunciation). When we got to Pizza Hut, he sat down in the booth and smiled. We let him order a pepsi to drink. I guess the grandparents in us just popped out. We ordered a big pepperoni pizza. Fito smiled. Some bread came before the pizza and we offered him the first piece. Fito smiled. When the pizza came, Fito smiled.

When we got back to Santa Ana, I am not sure who had the most fun; Fito or Marc and I. Pray for these little children. They have been hurt so bad and need so much love and healing.

Terri

People in Copan

When we got home last night from Copan, my mind was still overflowing. After two weeks of spanish lessons (I am still conjugating irregular verbs in my sleep) and two and a half days of the conference with its staggering statistics and great information and ideas, I found it hard to clear my mind. But thinking back over the last two weeks, I realize we have met a lot of interesting people.

The direction giver and the taxi driver.
The night we arrived in Copan, after the long adventurous drive, Marc asked this guy for directions to our hotel. He not only gave us directions, he ran along side the car to show us. Marc went inside the hotel and the guy waited at the hotel door. He then ran over to the car and stood beside the car door grinning his great big toothless grin at me. He then went back to the door of the hotel door waiting for Marc. Of course, he wanted to be paid for his great direction giving. The next day, after school, we were walking around town and ran into this guy and he asked us where we needed to go. That day we weren't going anywhere and told him so. The next day, Marc actually asked him for directions again and I was standing there saying no, no, no. Finally, Marc said never mind. We saw this guy many times. Once we were discussing something between ourselves and he walked up, with that toothless grin, asking if we needed directions. We began to avoid the direction giver. On the day we walked to the bird park, we ran on to a taxi driver. Of course, he wanted to give us a ride. He told us the walk to the bird park was dangerous and we should let him take us to the bird park. We said no thanks. The walk to the bird park was not dangerous. He gave us his card in case we needed a ride at any time. We continued to see this guy around town too, always wanting to give us a ride. He grinned and had one big silver tooth. He would honk and wave and say "hi guys" He would wave and speak even if he had other riders.

Seriously, we did meet some interesting people. The little girl from La Pintada that led me down the mountain; we saw in town during the conference. She had walked down the mountain and was selling dolls. She recognized us and we recognized her. She ran over and gave me a big hug. How sweet was that?

Sarah. Sarah I met at language school. She is 23 and from Toronto. She was in language school for 6 weeks and in two more weeks will be going to Siguapeteque to work with HIV patients. Sarah was a pleasant person to get to know and always had a sweet smile on her face. She got to attend the conference with us the last day. We plan to stay in touch with Sarah while she is in this country. She is a long ways from home and by herself. Please remember Sarah in your prayers as she finishes school and goes to work.

At the conference, we met and talked to quite a few people. There were some, Terry Rikard from Starkville, Joe Denton, Jason and Sarah Farrow, Mike and Kim Miller, that were there because they are or soon will be working with children of Honduras just as we are. We already knew Terry. We left the conference feeling we had met new friends that will only become better friends as the years pass and we strive to help these wonderful little children.

Tonight, I am very thankful for friends, those I have known for years and for those I just met.

Terri

Project Honduras

Project Honduras is the name of the conference Marc and I have been attending. The attendees are mostly missionaries, but also some civic groups like Rotary, some teacher groups and a few others. We are receiving a lot of information and meeting a lot of people that are doing the same thing we are.

Bear with me for just a few minutes while I quote a few statistics. Honduras is a country of almost 7 million people with more than 50% of those being age 15 and under. Many, many of those would children would be the parents of children. There is no abstinence taught and no birth control taught. The average wage is 40 lempira per day or about $2.00. Hunger and homelessness are the norm, not the exception. There are no safety nets such as food stamps, ATFWDC, welfare. Nothing. Education is free, but only if a family can afford the uniform, shoes, books, and supplies. If the family cannot afford these things, the child does not get to go to school. This alone would perpetuate the poverty. Every school states their number one need is pencils. Most receive no health care and no dental care. The more rural an area becomes, the higher the statistics become. Not only can we not drink the water, they can't drink the water. Every clinic that is held, every person treated has parasites and intestinal disorders. Tens of thousands of children under 5 die every year from the water they drink. Healthcare is only for those who can afford it. Many people watch their babies die because they do not have $10.00 to buy that child medicine. Or they do not have the money to buy a suture kit for surgery. Most clinics state their number one need as aspirin or band-aids. I could go on and on with these statistics. They are staggering.

Tomorrow, we go back to Santa Ana. I am exhilarated to, at last begin the work for which we have so earnestly and diligently prepared. I am fearful, knowing that my barely-scratched-the-surface spanish is insufficient. I am sombered by the above statistics. How, you may ask, can we possibly do anything about these problems. They are huge. Let me tell you a story about a little boy. One morning he woke up and the beach was covered with starfish that had washed up during the night. He was walking along the beach, picking each one up as he came to it and tossing it back into the sea. He met a man and the man said "what are you, doing? Don't you know that you can't possibly make a difference. The little boy picked up one starfish and tossed it into the sea and said, "I just made a difference to that one."

As we go home tomorrow and prepare to plunge into this new work, that is how we are going to make a difference, one person, one family at a time.

Terri

Daily Reminders

Beginning Wednesday of this week a conference for missionaries will be held here in Copan. Marc and I will be attending that conference. There are many people arriving in Copan daily as the conference nears. Some to see the sights and some to have clinics and help these folks in other ways. Today, after we got out of school, we were walking toward the park as we were heading for a place to eat lunch. The park was full of people, all of whom had small children with them. There were people everywhere. We knew something was going on, but not sure what it was. It was more than an hour later when we headed back to our room. The park was still full of people. Around 4:00 we decided to take a walk and again headed in the direction of the park as we walked through town. People are lined up, holding their small children. It was then we realized someone was having a clinic. We walked out to the ruins because it is such a nice walk, not to visit again. As we turned around and headed back toward town, we saw cars leaving that were packed with people. There are these vans that serve as buses that run from town to town. We see them all the time with perhaps a few people in them. Today these vans had 20 or more people in them. There was a flatbed truck with sides on it. There was absolutely no way to tell how many people and their babies were on that truck and people were still climbing on and packing in. There is no way to describe how tightly packed these folks were. All of these folks had found a way to get to town today, probably from some rural area, in an attempt to help their babies. The crowd was thinning as we walked back through the park. The clinic was closing. This is but another reminder of why we are here. Another reminder of why I am overwhelmed trying to learn a new language. We are here to help those that would pack into the back of a flatbed truck and travel for miles to get help, that would stand in line all day hoping to get into the clinic. Every single day we are reminded of the needs of the people of this country, both physical and spiritual needs. I pray that we never quit seeing the daily reminders of why we came to Honduras.

Terri

Copan Ruinas

Yestrday, we finally made it to the Mayan ruins. The main part of the ruins is just a kilometer from town. Yes, a true kilometer. We walked out there and bought our tickets. We allowed the whole day. Our guide took us through in about an hour and then we walked through some of it again. The main part of the ruins is where the temples, the altars, and the common areas are. It all was very interesting. The games they played were violent, but other than that, the Mayans were a peaceful society that got along with most other societies of the world at that time. All the buildings had been painted red and the plazas, white. Some of the original paint was still visible. I was pleasantly surprised how many of the ruins they let you walk on or climb on. The temples are built in layers. Each king built a new layer. The hieroglyphics are in amazingly good shape. Near the end of the guided tour, there were many altars in one of the plazas. One of the altars was round and had been a sacrificial altar, complete with the indentation at the top on which to place the sacfrice and blood troughs down each side. Perhaps, too visual.

The ruins are in a jungle. When the Mayans lived there, there was no jungle, no trees, just perfectly flat land. It was hard to picture the place without the trees and the dense flora and fawna. Our guide mentioned there were more ruins down the street, the same ticket would get us in and there wasn't too much worth seeing down there. We walked back to town and enjoyed a great cup of Honduran coffee. Later in the afternoon, we decided to drive down to the other part of the ruins. It is not clearly marked from the highway and the only way we knew where to turn was where the sidewalk ended. The ruins close at 4:00 and we got there at 3:30. Based on how long we had spent at the main part and if there wasn't much to see, that should be sufficient, right? Wrong. There was a man who worked there and went with us, more or less to rush us along since he got off work at 4:00. He spoke a word or two of English. I understand most of what he said, so I guess Spanish school is taking. To Marc and I, this was, by far, the most interesting part of the ruins. This is where the people lived and worked. The royalty and the workers both lived there. The royalty had 12 houses for 1 family. Needless to say, the workers did not have that much living space. They buried their dead beside the house they lived in. Again, the tombs of the royalty were more grand than those of the workers. Down in the living areas, the buildings had been painted not only red, but yellow, green, and other colors as well. They didn't run down to Sherwin Williams to buy paint. This guide showed us a plant. He touched the underside of a green leaf and a small amount of red stained his finger. He touched the underside of a darkened leaf and a deep dark red stained his finger. There must have been a huge amount of that plant growing to have been able to paint that many buildings. He also showed us a plant with tiny green berries. When we squeezed the berry, the liquid that came out was sticky. Sticky enough that it was used to make mortar. Mortar that is still intact today, some 1500 plus years later. We also saw a bank, a hospital, where there was a maternity ward and a ward for other ailing patients. They were able to mix their own medicines.

In Honduras, it is really hard to tell how old a person is. Most are malnourished and, therefore small. Many have led hard lives and look older than they really are. I could not even guess how old this guide was. He has worked in the area for 25 years and at the ruins for 7. He works at the part of the ruins that does not get a lot of visitors. He told us he went to Boston for one year to learn more about the ruins and the Mayans. He said he did not know any english and it was muy dificil. I think learning spanish is muy dificil. I cannot even comprehend how difficult it must have been for this man to travel to the U.S. Probably his family has been in this small area of western Honduras for generations. I am sure he saw and did things he could not even dream existed. He went to Boston, overcame some fears, I am sure, and learned what he was sent to learn. He was a very good guide and while we knew he was trying to rush us through, he explained in great detail, showed us the red paint plant and the mortar plant. In a hurry, he could have left some of that out and we would have never known the difference. He answered our questions and we got back to the car at 4:20. Then we let him ride back to town with us.

To me it is incomprehensible that I live in a basically uneducated, poverty-ridden, backward, third-world country that at one time had such an advanced, intelligent society. In addition to a bank, and a hospital, this society built a drainage system that is still operating today. I guess it is totally amazing that a society like the Mayans existed in any country during that time period.

Terri

More From Copan

Marc and I are spending 4 hours a day in language school and at least 2 hours studying, sometimes more. We are also finding time to see the sites of Copan. Monday we just walked around in Copan. Tuesday we walked to the bird park and saw beautifu macaws, toucans, and parrots. It was a long walk to the bird park. Many cars and taxis passed us, but I think we were the only ones walking. Going to the bird park was mostly uphill. I was huffing and puffing all the way and thinking at least it will be downhill going back. I was hot, sweaty and tired when we got there. But the beautiful birds were well worth the journey. Walking back was not too bad. Today, we walked to the artesan center. All the books say that it is within walking distance. Which is true, but we were almost there and took the wrong fork in the road. I think we walked up the steepest road I have ever walked. We saw no cars, no taxis, no horses. That always tells you something. Marc kept asking people (locals) is this the way to La Pinta. Everyone kept saying arriba, which means up or above. My legs were screaming in pain and I didn't want to walk arriba anymore. Again, we were seeing beautiful sites of the Copan Valley. Today was much hotter than yesterday, so I wasn't just hot and sweaty, I looked and felt like I had just stepped out of the swimming pool. We finally arrived at the top of the mountain and found 3 women weaving. I could not believe this was the artesan center. There was a restaurant and we got a much needed coke. We could also see the Mayan ruins in the distance. Some children led us to the rest of the artesan center. There several women make dolls out of corn husks. They are so beautiful made out of many bright colors. The women that work in the artesan center are poor and work hard. Harder than most of us would know about. We decided to buy a few dolls. All the women were standing there hoping we would buy one of their dolls. It is always hard to buy from one and not the others. They all work so hard to be able to make a somewhat better life for themselves and their children. Marc paid for the dolls. I was thinking about that loooong walk down the mountain. Knowing how steep it was, I was not sure going down would be any easier than going up. We found out we had come all the way around the mountain. A little girl had some flowers made out of the cornhusks and asked me to buy one for a dollar. I said yes and then kids came from everywhere wanting me to buy their flowers. I hated to say no to any of them, but my Honduran cash was a bit low and these people would not know what to do with American cash. This little girl and two of her friends showed us a quicker and not so steep way down. She took my hand and led me most of the way. It would have been so much easier to do it myself and go at my pace, but she was so sweet; I just let her lead me down. This part of the mountain was so much easier than the way we came up that I really did not need help. These children were so happy and had almost nothing. Why is it that we have so much and sometimes are not happy? It continues to amaze me. The little girl was worried about me and really wanted Marc and I to sit down and rest. We did. The walk down was a pretty one too, but I think we saw so much more going the long way up. But for a 2 kilometer walk, we only went 3 or 4 kilometers out of the way.
Terri

Copan By Day

I rose this morning to a find a beautiful day. Copan is beautiful, much more so than I thought last night. Breakfast is included everyday in that $34.00. Breakfast is on the roof top with a thatched hut over it. I was thinking continental breakfast. But we received a full breakfast with magnificent coffee. We sat drinking coffee, eating breakfast and looking over this beautiful city. As pretty as everything is, we are constantly reminded of why we are here. Yesterday through the beauty, we saw houses that were nothing more than hovels with people living in them. We saw people walking through the rain carrying wood with no umbrella, no pancho. We sat eating a grand breakfast by any standard, when many people in this country will eat nothing today. Even here in Copan, where the people are a bit wealthier due to tourism, we saw a couple of street kids. Not like in Tegucigalpa, where they are everywhere. Language school is so we can better communicate and help this empoverished nation. Everywhere the need is great in this country. Please pray that I see things as they really are in here and not just the beauty that hides so much unpleasantness, the hunger, the homelessness, the hopelessness. Pray that I make a difference to someone each day and that Jesus is seen in me.

Terri

Terri