Food!

A typical meal: eggs, beans, fried plantains,
avocado, cheese, and mantequilla.

I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t do at least one blog post about food!  As you can already tell by my FaceBook posts, I am absolutely fascinated by watching the mangos and pomegranates grow out in front of my house, and it seems like almost every week, a new fruit shows up that I have to ask about and try!  Lately, my house dad and I have been on a streak of researching the medicinal properties of several tropical fruits and plants like durian (more on this stinker, later!), carao, zapote, marañón, and flor de izote.  He gets a kick out of the power of the internet to put the answers to all of his questions right at my fingertips!  I benefit in that I get to practice reading in Spanish out loud!  I´ll get back to these new-to-me characters in a bit; first I’m going to tell you about my typical diet.

Breakfast:  No matter what kind of cereal you’re eating, it’s called corn flakes.  If you want to buy any cereal that is low in sugar, you have to actually buy the real Corn Flakes.  I was so excited once thinking I’d found GrapeNuts, but they were the sugary variety.  So, I have taken to making my own muesli, and plan to soon also make my own granola.  Thankfully, old fashioned oatmeal is easy to come by! On the weekends, my house mom sometimes makes me her version of oatmeal or arroz con leche, both of which are good, but full of sugar and milk.  If I get my way, I make myself some pancakes or French toast topped with a drizzle of honey since there’s no maple syrup in Honduras—yet!  I am expecting a special delivery of some in a couple weeks….!!!

Here I am with my house mom and Eli learning how
to make homemade flour tortillas.  Yum!

La Merienda:  Seriously, this is something we need to institute into our culture!  In Mexico, la merienda is a light meal eaten late at night, but here it is a light meal eaten between breakfast and lunch.  I only eat it during the work week.  All of the kids at school get a break from 9:30-10:00 to have their snack and play outside.  I think a lot of people here don’t eat breakfast, or if they do, it’s something very small as they dash out the door to catch their public transportation to work.  To me, it totally makes sense that if breakfast is at 6:30, there’s no way you’re going to make it until your next meal at noon without a snack, and yet, this is what was what was expected at my previous job.  OK, so, the super cute thing is that my house mom packs me a peanut butter sandwich and some kind of cut up fruit every day for my merienda!  On a really good day, I get mango, papaya, or guayaba!

This is zapote which I am about to try soon as
ours ripens!  There are many different varieties.

Lunch:  This is the biggest meal of the day, so during the work week, I eat it at school.  Initially I was buying lunches from a woman who sells them out of her home, but after getting stomach flu after eating one, I put an end to that. I’ve been doing some of my own cooking, and bringing that in my lunches.  So far, no one has been rude enough to complain about me heating up curry, or garlic stir fry with broccoli!  Each classroom has a microwave in it so that the kids can heat up their lunches.  I’m pretty sure these kids wouldn’t have a clue what a school cafeteria is!

This is marañón, the fruit from the cashew nut.

Dinner:  I’m still trying to figure this one out.  Pretty much, you can eat it whenever you want to, whenever you get hungry from early afternoon to evening.  I most often just have corn or flour tortillas with refried beans.  If available, I might add scrambled eggs and/or avocado.  The Hondurans love their semi-dry, white cheese, their melting cheese (quesillo), and their version of sour cream (mantequilla),  but I can’t convince my tastebuds to like any of these.  In my home here, we also sometimes have a chicken vegetable or beef vegetable soup, but rarely do I see them preparing any other types of meat.  Bonus!  Sometimes we have a lettuce salad, too.  And, some nights, I’m not very hungry, so I’ll just drink a cup of pinol (a corn flour, chocolate, cinnamon, clove, milk drink—better than it sounds—I mean, it does have chocolate in it for goodness sake!) and dunk some bread in it.  

This is carao which grows in these big pods
which hang down from a pink flowering tree.
The pulp is said to be sweet with a chocolate-
cherry flavor.  It´s good for treating anemia.

Coffee:  Coffee is a big deal here, but if you ask for it black or without sugar, they are going to think you are weird!  Please don’t be shy!  Pour in the milk or powdered creamer and scoop in heaps of sugar!  Stir it up and gulp it down!

Platos típicos:  I don’t want you to think that how I eat is typical of all Hondurans.  Some of their most famous dishes are baleadas (a fresh flour tortilla filled with beans, cheese, and egg usually), catrachas, (a crisp, fried corn tortilla topped with refried beans and cheese), and pupusas, (corn flour dough filled with cheese, cheese and beans, or beans and meat, etc, and fried).  What’s really fun is that they have food that they call tamales, burritos, and enchiladas, but these are not at all like what Mexicans call tamales, burritos, and enchiladas.  I’m still learning more about these since I’ve yet to eat any of them except the enchiladas which turned out to be like tostadas.  One other typical food item I have had is the pastelitos.  These are a little turnover made with a seasoned corn flour dough, filled with seasoned rice (and chicken) mixture, and fried.  

This is the infamous durian.  It´s native to SE Asia, but has made its way here.  The flesh is supposed to be sweet and flavorful, but even before it´s cut, the fruit gives off such a strong, offensive odor (said to smell like rotten onions, turpentine, or raw sewage!) that it has been banned from some hotels and public transportation!  I think my life will still be complete without trying this one, but I will if I am given the opportunity!  

Day-to-Day Life

I have had friends who have moved to other countries or states, and I always found myself wondering what their day-to-day life looked like.  Perhaps some of you are wondering the same thing about me?  Now that I’ve been here for two months and have settled into the routines, it doesn’t seem like a very exciting thing to write about, but I will do my best to paint some pictures for you!

Like so many of you, my work week is from Monday to Friday.  Every day but Wednesdays, I am up at 5:30, and out the door by 7:00 to catch my personal taxi driven by Juan Carlos (the only driver I’m allowed to use because he goes to our church).  For safety, my house mom always walks me to the door and watches me walk up the steep hill from our house until I get into the taxi.  On Wednesdays, I am ready to leave the house by 6:15 and ride in to school with Emily and David so that we can have a time of worship with the teachers.  The ride to school is an adventure in and of itself!  With horns honking and arms waving, we make our way the wrong way down a two way street avoiding any oncoming traffic so that we can inch our way out into a jam packed street and make a left turn. On the way we pass what I call the Starbucks of Tegucigalpa; basically, it’s a card table set up with three-gallon thermoses of coffee and bags of sweet breads set upon it.  Next to it is a line of plastic lawn chairs filled with people sitting, sipping their coffee and chomping on their bread.  From there, the drive is easier as we wind around, up, and down side streets, slowed only by the mile high túmulos.  On a good day, we make it in ten minutes!

A few students from one of my English classes

Once at school, I hang out with the teachers by the huge, green entry gate, talk with them a little bit, and greet the kids with hugs as they come in.  I enjoy this social time of getting to know some of the teachers a little better, and I love hugging the kids—especially the ones who try to pass on by without getting hugged.  I think they are the ones who need to be hugged the most!  When the bell rings, I make my way down the steep driveway and down the stairs to the basement office.  After a little more social time, I buckle down to work.  My mornings are typically spent doing accounting and writing for the ministry.  I also use that time to prepare lesson plans for teaching English.  I have an English class every afternoon except on Wednesdays.  Twice a week I teach the teachers, and twice a week I teach a group of adults from the community.  I love both classes, and I’m having fun applying so much of what I learned in graduate school!  Once I’m done teaching, Juan Carlos takes me home.  I am relieved to now have a key to let myself in the gate instead of having to knock and wait and pray for someone to let me in!  

Time of worship and special music with our Wed. night group

I am usually tired when I get home because of the heat, so I greet whoever is home, and go to my second floor room to rest and check e-mails.  It’s then time to exercise which I usually do on the front porch, in my room, or in the living room, depending on who’s around!  After a day of sitting, I am actually really looking forward to getting to move!  On Wednesday evenings we have our church group, so on Wednesdays after school I usually play with Emily and David’s little boys for a bit, and then we go to the home of one of the church members for our time of worship and a Bible lesson.  I help set up and take down the sound equipment, but am otherwise free to just take everything in!  I am starting to learn the words to the songs better, but I’m still thankful that we project the words up on the wall!  On Monday and Thursday evenings my house parents go to church, so I use those nights quite often to do some cooking for myself or to talk with my friends and family back home!  I usually visit with my house parents in the evenings, too.  Lately we are on a kick of learning the medicinal properties of common food items—well, and some not-so-common food items, too.  I had never before heard of carao or durian, but they are quite fascinating!

Saturdays are just as treasured here as they are back home!   The sun comes up by 6:30, so it’s hard to sleep in very late, but at least I don’t wake up to an alarm!  By the time I’m done exercising, showering, and Skyping with my niece and nephews, it’s nearly time for lunch, but I have breakfast anyway!  My house mom usually has something ready for me, but a couple times I’ve been able to make my traditional Saturday morning pancakes!  Most Saturdays, my house dad has driven me to Tatumbla to the country home of Emily and David.  It’s nice to get out of the city and up to the cooler, fresher, cleaner air of the mountains!  I have fun playing outside with little Anthony and Eli, and we usually go for a walk.  

Sunday School in the new school building.

Sunday we are up early and off to church!  Church is held in a cement block building with a tin roof, and wooden shutters in place of windows.  A couple church members arrive early to set up the plastic lawn chairs, and hang some hand made decorations on the walls.  I help set up the sound equipment when we arrive and greet as many people as I can.  We usually have about 40 adults and 30 kids, but things settle down after worship when the kids go up the road to a little school room for Sunday school.  Emily leads our time of worship, and David is the pastor; they make a great team!  It seems like every other Sunday there is some special event going on, so we quite often have a meal together after church.  These church ladies manage to put on quite the spread with just a folding table to work off from!  The rest of Sunday is free to run errands, play with the boys, or sometimes I return to my city home to relax.

I hope that gives you an idea of my daily life here, and I hope I didn’t bore you with too many details!  In case you’re curious about the food, I can promise you that that will be the topic of a future blog post!

Hungry

Man squatting beside a dumpster.

Lately, I’ve been feeling hungry.  Because you know me, you’re probably thinking that I’m hungry for all of my favorite foods from back home. While those wouldn’t be all bad, I have to tell you: it’s not my stomach that’s hungry.  It’s my eyes.  

This week my eyes have been hungering for beauty.  So much of the scenery and landscapes that surround my everyday life here in Honduras are not what the world would consider beautiful.  All around me are broken down cars and broken down people, garbage strewn streets, and dust covered dwellings.  Banana peels mysteriously appear on the roof outside my window, graffiti cries out its warnings, and charred tree stumps speak of desperation.

Emily listening to Doña Tomasa at church

So, today I started to ask God to show me beauty.  Don’t get me wrong; I definitely see the beauty in the faces of the people all around me, in the colorful produce at the markets, and in the flowers, sun, and mountains.  But, somehow, it doesn’t satisfy my hunger.  I want my eyes to be saturated, for these thumbnails of beauty to be transformed into panoramic views!  And, I want to see with the eyes of my heart, too, to see the beauty that is within.  Please pray with me that my eyes and heart may be filled to overflowing with beauty, and that God would transform for me the meaning of beauty to include so much more that what I am currently sensing.  

Sunset over the mountains near Tegucigalpa

First grade teacher, Melissa, patiently loving a challenging student.

God faithfully reminding us of his promises!

Sensing Honduras

My  six year old niece was assigned the task of writing a five senses poem, and it got me thinking about how I've been experiencing Honduras through my senses.  Here's my attempt at poetry:

Honduras smells like plantains frying, tortillas toasting, and fires smoking.
It sounds like dogs barking, children playing, and horns honking.
Honduras looks like flowers blooming, traffic jamming, and people working.
It feels like warm sunshine, cool breezes, and heartfelt hugs.

The Things You Learn in a Month...

As of today, I’ve been in Honduras for one month already!  I still feel very impatient to have life here figured out, but when I extend myself a little grace, I can see how much I have learned in these 4 weeks.  Here’s a list of some of the things I have learned so far:

Amaryllis

1. On Wednesday evenings, there is a house church in the neighborhood that knows how to rock it out for the Lord.  Sometimes I have to get up and dance and praise Jesus with them because it’s impossible not to!
2. No matter how many times I try them, I absolutely can NOT like any of the Honduran cheeses.  I can, however, enjoy beans and tortillas on a daily basis!
3. Whether you’re saying hello, goodbye, or it’s the “meet and greet” time in church, it’s customary to greet everyone with a partial or full hug and what I call the cheek-to-cheek air kiss!  At the same time, you bless them by saying bendiciones, or Que Dios le bendiga.  In church, this ensures that you come in contact with everyone three times whether you know them or not; it’s usually a good way to at least learn their names!  
4. I can be up and ready to leave the house by 6:15 a.m.  Thankfully this is not a daily occurrence!
5. In our garden in front of the house, we have four mango trees, a lime tree, an orange, tree, and a pomegranate tree, not to mention all kinds of flowers like amaryllis!

6. 

   Baby pomegranates

   Quickbooks--a bookkeeping program.  I can’t claim to have learned all that much about QuickBooks, but I have definitely spent a lot of time on it entering a large portion of the ministry’s financial information for 2014.
7. Running a non-profit is A LOT of work!  I am sure I have only caught a glimpse of all of the responsibilities that Emily andDavid have, and it is overwhelming!  The good thing is that they have lots of people helping them, and God is on their side!  Amen!
8. I can sleep through an awful lot of city noise as long as I have earplugs in, but I cannot sleep through dog fights or fireworks in the middle of the night!
9. If church starts at 8:30, you can expect people to start showing up at 8:45, and others will still be arriving at 9:15.
10. My “house parents” are the sweetest people ever!  When I was sick with stomach flu, they came to my room and prayed for me and brought me tea and crackers!  I am blessed!

11. 

    House parents, Reina and Saul

    Spanish.  This is a slow process and probably one of the most frustrating things for me.  I know my auditory comprehension is improving, but I need more opportunities for conversation!  An extra challenge is that the Spanish here is a bit different from what I learned in Mexico in terms of vocabulary and grammatical structure.
12. Sometimes the government just decides to turn off the electricity for the day to save money.  This is minor compared to all of the other corrupt things the government does like taxing all kinds of things and then embezzling all of the money for themselves.
13. All of God’s children here at the school are absolutely precious.  I’m so glad God knows all of their names because I’m not sure I’ll ever learn them!  So far, I think I know about 10 out of nearly 200…!  In my defense, I’ve not interacted with the kids all that much (see #5 above!).
14. Out of compassion for the woman who hand washes my laundry, I’ve learned that it’s acceptable to wear the same shirt multiple times before putting it in the wash.  Come to think of it, maybe that’s less compassionate…?  
15. I have a much greater appreciation for Skype, FaceTime, and MagicJack which, together with FaceBook and good “old fashioned” e-mail, help me stay in touch with everyone!

    

    Praising Jesus!

16. I think I’ve mastered the use of an electric shower head, but that’s questionable!  It’s pretty impossible to really control the water temperature, so even on warm mornings, I end up taking a piping hot shower; it’s either that or cold!
17. This isn’t new information, but starting and ending my day by spending time with the Lord makes a huge difference in my life, and all for my good!  I need him more than ever, and I am thankful for the way in which He is working in my life here even when the pruning isn’t comfortable.

A Return to Childhood?!

As I approach my fourth decade, it feels sumamente strange to have left behind the stress and responsibility of adulthood for the worry-free life of a child.  Well, OK, so I may be exaggerating un poquito, but by becoming a missionary in Honduras, I have left behind a lot more than my family, friends, job, and house.  I am still responsible for some bills, but no longer do I have to worry about grocery shopping, preparing my food, washing dishes, doing my laundry, house work, yard work, car repairs, or house maintenance.  I am driven everywhere I go, and Emily would be the first to tell you that I don’t even open my own car door!  In my defense, this is because it has a child safety lock on it, so I can’t open it from the inside. :-)  

Before you get too jealous, I have to confess that it is difícil to embrace the freedom that my loss of responsibility has brought.  I find satisfaction in being self-sufficient, and my family would tell you that I have always been stubbornly independent!  Still, I am appreciating this new kind of freedom, and I am trusting God that He is teaching me lessons in this season of relying on others.  At this moment, I think the lessons look like humility, submission, allowing others the joy of giving and serving, and learning what it means to live in community.  God did not create us to do life alone, and in learning to rely on others, I hope that I am also learning how to rely more on Him.  That, I know, will bring the truest source of freedom!

On a lighter note, the other way in which I’m enjoying the life of a child is that I get to play with two cute little boys almost every day!  Five year old Anthony and three year old Eli are eager and energetic playmates!  I’m learning about Spider Man, Buzz Lightyear, the Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man, and they are learning how to play Mother May I, Crazy Eights, Tic-Tac-Toe, and Simon Says.  The best part is that we play in Spanglish—my favorite language!  We are pictured above just outside their home which is in the mountains outside of Tegucigalpa in a village called Tatumbla.  

Inside

     Before I left for Honduras, several people commented to me, “You’re going to get so tan!”  My response was, “Probably not.  I think I’ll be inside a lot.”  Inside.  In my first week here, I have been struck by just how right I was.  I’ve been inside the city, inside houses, inside stores, inside a school, inside a church, inside cars and busses, and, even when I’ve been outside, I’ve still been inside, safely hidden behind a security fence.  It made me think about our hearts and how quick we are to hide our hurts, hopes, and histories safely inside of them tucked away where we hope no one can access them.  We build a security fence around our hearts that’s so strong and high, that sometimes we don’t even let ourselves inside.  

      Ironically, it took getting outside—outside of the city, outside of the bus, outside of the house, outside of the fence, and outside into the beauty of God’s creation—to break into the inside of people’s hearts.  As the school staff and I sat atop an evergreen covered mountaintop, we were asked to share something that was special to us.  A picture, a memory, an object.  The stories that came pouring out one by one were heart wrenching.  Fathers who had passed away or had never been present, the loss of a brother who was like a father, the loss of a spouse, the struggles of being a single parent.  And yet, in the midst of pain, each person was so thankful for the blessings and gifts left behind: a treasured water bottle, a Bible, a son, a photograph, a memory, a promise to be reunited someday in el cielo.  In the beauty of the outside, we saw the painful beauty of the inside of everyone’s hearts.  Most of us cried as we each shared our own story, and some of us cried even more hearing the stories of others.  As we wrapped each other in loving hugs, the wind of the Holy Spirit blew gently around us, and Jesus tenderly wrapped our hearts up, tucking himself inside so he could tend to our every need.  As we descended from the mountaintop, laughter broke out.  The walls were back up, once again hiding the pain inside, but the pain was now a shared pain, the knowledge of it was safe, and Jesus was there inside with it.

     Inside.  It’s a privileged place to be.  It signifies acceptance and belonging.  I am thankful to be safe inside my new home, inside the embrace of my new community, and to have had a glimpse into the inside of some of their hearts.  Once in awhile, though, you may find me outside!  After all, I am a country girl at heart!