I have blessed to have the opportunity to travel to Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras for five weeks.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

My First Legitimate Update from Honduras



Welcome to my attempt at a concise update of my travels this summer. I have sporadically informed different folks about different aspects and thought it would be best to put it all in one place. I have tried to write a little each night for the past few nights. I am in the final week and a half of this trip and the days are going to be quite busy so I'll try to add some more pictures once I get home to Texas.

First of all, I am having a really great summer! I have been so blessed to have the opportunity to participate in some much anticipated volunteer mission work in Honduras. This is my first time to Central America and I love it! The people are great, the weather is nice and I absolutely love the food. Here's a run-down:

The work: I'm a volunteer missionary with VIDES+USA. I am living and working with Salesian nuns. (If you are curious about this order of nuns, let me know and I will be happy to tell you more about them later). Before flying to Honduras, I attended a two and a half week training session in San Antonio and Asherton, Texas. Even though most of the participants at this training were fresh out of college, it was amazing to get to know and work with people really interested in doing various levels of mission work.

Here in Honduras I am working with girls at a Catholic/boarding school. During the school day, I get up and monitor the girls as they do some routine chores, attend mass when there is a priest available, attend a celebration ceremony when a priest is not available, and help with any last minute things before school starts. Because I am not fluent in Spanish, I do not have a class of my own during the school day (from 7 am until 1:15 pm). During that time, I help the Sisters with whatever they need, substitute for absent teachers, do my laundry...see picture of my 'washing machine' (not really a machine, as you can see),

work on Spanish/English skills with the girls who do not attend school but work at the school, and/or work at a bakery run by the school. Once school finishes, I monitor lunch for the 'internas'. These are girls boarding at the school. They are boarders for different reasons: some of their families are too poor to take care of them and some are from places too far away and too rural for someone to bring them/pick them up from school. There are close to 70 internas ranging in age from 12 to 18.
After lunch, it's chore time again. Then comes time for me to teach. I get to teach 'review' classes which is great for me because I can sit in on the real classes during the day to get the Spanish and then get a little time to practice before helping 7-10 students with the things they are having trouble understanding. I get to teach 2 English classes, a computer class, and an algebra class. After the review class, it's study time. During this time, I'm available for helping with whatever the students may need. Usually this is when I get to practice my spontaneous use of Spanish. This is also a time when the kids let me play futbol/soccer with them. I'm not so good but it's really, really fun because there are about 25 people all playing at once. I don't have a picture of us playing but here's a picture of the courtyard where we play:


Once that study time is done, I work with 9 of the lowest performing students in a separate class. During this class they are supposed to do silent study and more often than not, it is not exactly silent. These girls seem to not be the best at typical school assignments and therefore have some attention getting behaviors that make 'silent study time' virtually impossible. They may have other reasons for their behaviors but I'm just trying to work with what I have. That said, I am constantly amazed when working with kids with 'behavior' issues. It takes a little bit of work to find out what they do really well and give them praise for those things, make them laugh so you have a connection with them and you have quite a bit to work with when unwanted behaviors arise. These kids just want to be loved and appreciated just like everyone else in this world. This part of my days is definitely the most challenging but I constantly pray for the patience and the strength to show God's love with my actions since my words are often times limited.

After the supposed silent time, the entire group of internas gets together with the 7 Sisters and the volunteers to pray a Rosary together. After that, it's dinner time and I'm 'off duty' until 6:15 am the next day. I get Saturday as my day off.

I also work in the caseta (snack shop): First experience: I was told to sit back and watch as the current workers did their magic. Things to watch: product names (products include: various frozen treats, various drinks, different homemade pastries, candy, chips, etc.) and what things cost...in Limpiras. Luckily for me (because it's easier to learn), we deal mostly in bills.
Well, the 'watching' turned into 'doing' immediately. Like I was saying, I was told to wait behind the counter and the other workers would soon be there. I was surprised with myself at how calm I felt inside because there was no such thing as a line of patiently waiting teenagers, no, it was mass chaos screaming, waving money in my face, and yelling my name. The other workers arrived what seemed like 10 minutes late but in all fairness was probably a minute late so I had no choice but to start helping the customers. Even though I did not feel super anxious inside, I'm pretty sure I successfully sweat enough to be the equivalent of running a 5k. Just a guess.

Sometimes I help out in a separate cafeteria that feeds the city's children. It is run by the Catholic Church here and provides free lunches to any child who can make it to the cafeteria. I really love it when I get to do this.

The work is not really complicated but it is challenging and at times and I have been sure God is working on my humility, my patience, my persistence as I try to be an example of His love.

Here is a picture of some of the students I have in my review classes:




2 comments:

  1. Maggie, Just scanned through this blog. Love it ! Looks like you are having a great time.. God bless you.. Emelyn

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  2. I am thrilled you are blogging!! Yea.

    That lovely washing machine makes me very grateful, suddenly.

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