You are all invited.............

David, sweetest 16 year old ever!

 

This is David walking with me back down the mountain.  This part isn't much of a mountain.

This Wednesday I will be presenting to the Ladies' Bible class at Hilldale Church of Christ.  If you are a lady and you are reading this, you are invited!

This was the first time we had been to the Jesus statue in the daytime.  This is one of my roommates, Nurse Sarah.



Diane's camera has some cool features.  This is also at the Jesus statue.  The rock has Luke 24:50-51.  It talks about when Jesus raised his hands and ascended to heaven. 

Sweet boys that we played with when we were delivering food bags.  They also helped us. The little boy with the number 15 is Jefferson.  He is a sweetheart.  Everyone fell in love with him.


 

The cooks who prepare meals for the children of the neighborhood and Dan.  Yes, Dan is tall, but they are very short!!

 

 

I have prepared a slide show (with tons of pictures) and a short movie.  I'm thinking and praying about the direction that I want to take. 




 I guess I didn't say, (I assumed you would know) I'm presenting about my trip to Honduras. Well, I can't quite upload the video to this post, but it's on the post called Mi Corazon!!!




Here is a sneak peek of my video, plus I'm adding more pictures that I have "borrowed" from Facebook.



I would love any comments or suggestions about my presentation!!



Mucho amor!!!

Patty

MiCorizon4, You are invited......

Parting is such sweet........

“Parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night till it be morrow” Juliet from Romeo and Juliet

 

Yesterday was Saturday and we passed out food bags in Moaloa.  We always do lots of work in Moaloa, but we don’t always walk up to their houses and knock on the door.  We went up and down dirt paths that were steep and could be very tricky.  We always said, “In the Name of Christ” or “May God Bless You”.  All the people were so very thankful.

 



A bucket brigade we made to load 400 food bags onto the bus.

 

As different people headed down or up paths, some of us would stand and wait for them to come back.  We ended up with quite the entourage of children and we enjoyed playing with them.  We had a great time walking up and down the mountain paths and “streets”, we even got to see where some of the young Honduran guys that help us live. 

Here are some of the children of Moaloa.  Do you see the boy with the #15?  That is sweet Jefferson.  Do you see the boy, David, to his left.  That is his handicapped little brother.  They are so sweet, we enjoyed playing with them while we were delivering food bags.



 

 

There is one particular person that has a story that touches my heart.  Joni(pronounced Yoni) is a young man of about 22, he no longer has parents and he know cares for his sister and brother who are about 18 and 19.  Mark Connell, a full time American missionary in Honduras, has kind of taken him under his wing and he helps Torch with house builds and other projects.  His sister, Oneada (sp?), helped us with my first build.  She is probably 5 feet and about 100 pounds and she could nail a spike in about 3 drives.  She put most of the men to shame!!!

Here is the family, Yoni is in front with the blue tank top.  His brother and sister are in back.  The little boy in front is their cousin, I believe.  There is another cousin name Christian, who is also a sweetheart. I don't like to ask too many questions, but the cousins may not have parents either.



This is David and Christian.  I would take both of these boys home with me and raise them.  No question about it.  They are filled with love and joy!!  I told them they were my sons.  Proximo Ano!!!! Next year!!! I've learned that phrase!!!!  I love them sooo much!  Christian is another cousin of Yoni.

 

 

During our food deliveries, I got to see their home.  They each had a small “house” (not as big as most people’s bedroom) and the doors all faced each other to make a courtyard.  The younger brother Melvin showed some drawings he had made.  He is very talented.  His home was humble with a couch and a table.  I’m sure the couch served as his bed.  Actually seeing their homes really puts in it perspective.  I’m sure this family has it better than many (not to say it’s great by our standards), but they have a steady income.

I borrowed this picture from Jenna, one of our interpreters.  That's her in the soccer jersey.  This is Malvin and Yoni's house.

 

The trip to Valley on Saturday evening was uneventful.  We spent a couple of hours looking through the shops again and we came back to Villa Gracia for our last dinner there.  Dona Katia is an excellent cook and we always enjoy the meals that she prepares for us!!

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday morning, we help a short church service outside on the deck.  It was a gorgeous morning and the singing was exceptionally beautiful!!  Every year that I come back to Honduras, my heart grows with love for these people.  We were all touched by the service and I was wiping away tears like most people were!!

Terry, our fearless leader




 

 

Long lines for American Airlines at the Teguc airport.  Nothing here is ever fast!!



It took us almost an hour to move from the back of this line to this point!

Diane and I landed in Miami and we were immediately put back into the land of ridiculous abundance and materialism.  It’s especially evident at the Miami airport when you walk by Armani and other such stores.  Taking off from Miami, I overhear a young girl (who obviously never wanted for anything) whining about how bad her last flight was.  She was sitting there in her stylish outfit with her Coach bag and I was struck by how the young people in Honduras always have a sweet smile on their face, and this girl doesn’t even seem to know how blessed she is!!!!  (I apologize for judging her!!)

sushi in the Miami airport (I'm as guilty as the next person!)



This was in a Mexican restaurant.  I can't remember the name of the holiday where they celebrate their dead relatives.


 

 

 Hi sweet Cocoa!!!  She was glad to see me, but her perception of time is off.  To her I could have been gone 3 hours!!!  :)

 

 

 

Keep up with my blog!!!

 

I'm already thinking about next year's trip!!!  Proximo ano!!!

 

Fruits, Vegetables, Kool-aid & more (sorry for the lack of editing)

 

 

Today was supposed to be our official last work day.  I was lucky enough to get to go with a small group to the open air market.  Our group bargained for onions, carrots, oranges, bananas, cabbages, and other fruits and vegetables.  We were getting enough food for 100 food bags. 

 

 

The market is always a fun place to go.  There are tables filled with every kind of fruit or vegetable that you can imagine and some that we have never heard of in the United States.  Jenny Lovell was in charge and her day job is fundraising, so you can imagine what a good job she did.  She saved us lots of money.

 

This little boy spent the time pretending to talk on a cell phone. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I bought some little bananas, mangos and a pineapple for about $3.00.  They were delicious!!! We then went to the bodega to assemble our food bags.  We passed out the food bags in an area of the city I had never been to.  Our bags had water bottles full of Kool-Aid and the little kids immediately started eating the oranges and drinking out of the water bottles immediately.

 

 

Next, we went on a Gatorade blitz.  We basically rode the bus around the city and handed out Gatorade or Kool-Aid to street workers.  We also had some hygiene kits also.  We always said either “En Nombre de Cristo” (In the Name of Christ) or   “May God bless you” (I learned the Spanish phrase, but I can’t remember it now.) We finished by around 2:30 and Jenny was dead set on going back to Moaloa where the rest of the team was working.

 






 

Some of the Moaloa group worked the morning helping the ladies cook and serve lunch in the feeding center, while the rest continued digging a large trench where a new concrete retaining wall will be built.  This wall will is necessary to prevent further damage by future flooding.






The feeding center group ended by doing what we call "Daughters of the King".  We wash and braid hair, wash feet, paint finger and toe nails and give them new shoes.  When I got there, they had even started washing some of the little boys' feet.  I even got to fix some little girls' hair.  We always love spending time with the people of this community. (I didn't get any pictures, unless I can find some on Facebook.)

 

We ended the evening with a split devo.  The girls and guys had separate devos.  I’m not sure about the guys’ devos, but ours was very moving.  We ending by standing in a circle joining hands and praying together.  It was a very special time!!

 

Tomorrow is our last day here (Sunday is a travel day.) and we are supposed to do a food distribution in Moaloa.  I kind of expected it to be a “down” day, but apparently we will still go to the Valley of the Angels in the afternoon.

 

Xoxo PJ

Es Finito & Esta bien!!! We are done!!!

This is what a Torch house looks like.  We went past this on the way to today's site.

It is much cleaner and beautiful when you get away from the city.

 

Sorry for the finger in the picture

 

 

Believe it or not but Diane and I went back to the bodega today.  We finished our job up by sorting shoes, taking inventory, and straightening up the boxes.  It is amazing what you can find in donation boxes from the US.

Before

 

 

 

 

I spent most of the day sorting shoes, which is much faster than sorting clothes!!!

 

 

Here is what I’ve learned about donations:

1.       Hondurans for the most part are small.  Women may be plump, but they aren’t very tall, so we don’t really need clothes that XL are larger.

 

2.       The same goes for the men; we don’t need anything bigger than a large.  If a Honduran man is bigger than that, they probably aren’t needy.

 

 

3.       Women in the US buy way too many clothes.  We had around 111 women’s clothes and not even half that many of men’s!!!!!

 

4.       Please don’t send anything that you wouldn’t wear to Wal-Mart.  I’ve been sorting faded, stained clothes all day.  Some even had paint on them!  The people in here do rely on our contributions, but they want to look nice. 

 

5.       The people here are of small stature, the women usually do not wear over a size 8, and the men don’t usually wear over a size 10.  One of our bus drivers is a large man; I gave him a nice size 12 pair of shoes.  He was very happy to get them, but he said he wore a size 10!

I gave a few things to this little boy and his mom.  He was so happy!!

 

6.       It is best to box things in copier boxes or the small boxes from Lowes.  The larger ones get damp and hold too much and collapse. (I made this mistake.)

 

7.       Please don’t send your garage sale or thrift store rechecks, or at least go through them and send the “nice” ones.  We found clothes with garage sale tags left on them.  I can understand why they weren’t bought!  Also, I guess there are thrift stores that donate things that aren’t sold.  We don’t need them for the very same reason!

 

8.       If you don’t know what to do with something, send it to Goodwill.  We don’t need size XXXL red long underwear.

 

9.       Ladies here (in the villages) love dresses.

 

10.   Men & boys here love button shirts.  I have seen so many t-shirts (mostly stained) that I’m sick.  Women hardly ever wear t-shirts done here.

 

I know I sound ungrateful, but that’s not true.  I appreciate the thought, but we would be much better served if people would send 1-2 outfits that are in good share.  We have a saying, “No junk for Jesus.”  We are representing the church and we hate to hand out things that most of us wouldn’t be caught mowing the yard in.

After

 

Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox!!!

 

We had a team go back to Moaloa.  I was able to send shoes to my friends David and Hector.  I know for a fact they got them. My sweet friend David asked about me, which is kind of sad, but I heard we may be going back tomorrow.

 

Another team built the last Terry Reeve’s Torch house for 2013!  They said they had an “ideal” build.  I saw the site and it was out in the country and beautiful.

 

 

One other team went back to the blind school and assembled food bags.

 

Only one more work day.  We are getting tired and most of us are ready for some rest!!

 

 

xoxoPJ

 

 

Trabajo en la bodega otra vez!!!

This is my new friend Riley, we are at the Jesus statue last night.

Sarah, Diane and I spent another day at the warehouse and we probably have one more day to finish.  Sarah got done sorting and inventorying the medicines and Diane and I made a big dent in the clothes.  We also had to move our boxes to get to some that belong to another team.  That may seem like a simple task, but the boxes stack about 10 feet high and many get soft in the moist air.

We met this little girl when we had our "spa" day.  I found her some clothes in our supplies!!  She actually smiled at me!

 

 

The bus was supposed to pick us up around 4pm, so we starting wrapping it up around that time.  Since we didn’t get picked up until almost 5:30, we spent the time taking pictures and I shared some Zumba with them using the music on my phone.  All of the Honduran workers had left the bodega (warehouse), but we weren’t worried.  I think the guard might have been.

 

 

The rest of the team headed out of town to Didasko for the day.  Didasko is an orphanage that we go back to year after year.  Teams had VBS skits, some repaired and painted the playground, and one group set up computers that had been donated.  I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures, unless I can find some to borrow off of Facebook.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nurse Sarah is trying some Zumba!!! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m not sure what tomorrow has in store.  I have four more days and one of those is a travel day.  I’m assuming that we will travel to Valley of Angels for shopping on Saturday.

 

 

Until next time!  Xoxo PJ

 

 

 

 

 

I’m not sure what tomorrow has in store.  I have four more days and one of those is a travel day.  I’m assuming that we will travel to Valley of Angels for shopping on Saturday.

 

 

Until next time!  Xoxo PJ