I never thought that I would go so long without blogging, but good grief, it’s quite the process. So I figure I’ll just catch you up on what happened in Honduras and what is now going on in Nicaragua.
Here's mario.
Let’s start with my stinky little friend Mario. As it turns out Mario was still smoking pot quite a bit. When Tony (our host in Honduras) confronted him, Mario ended up telling Tony that he was bored of smoking and…wam-bam, wanted to start school. Tony asked him when he wanted to start, Mario said, “today”. Tony has a private tutor for some of the boys who are really far behind in school and Mario started school the following Monday. Fourteen year old Mario started the first grade two weeks ago.
The next major memory in Honduras was the city dump! Never in my life did I think anything like this existed. Let me set this up for you: the sky is grey and smells like burning trash (which is a smell that makes the faint of heart want to gag), there are vultures, huge nasty vultures, cows, dogs, men, women, and children all rummaging through the trash. Not just little piles of trash, but literally standing under the dump trucks like children at a piñata waiting for the new trash to fall out and see what they could collect. These people work at the dump collecting recyclables.
Meet Jennifer, she is 16 years old. She has worked at the dump ever since she can remember. Her parents, who also worked at the dump, left for the USA when she was 6 years old, so she just continued to do what she knew…work at the dump. She now has a 9 month old baby boy and works 12 hours a day for about five dollar a day.
The poverty is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. This was a hard day…it was hard to process why I am not Jennifer. How did I end up with an education and a clean home to grown up in? It is still very hard to process all of the questions I have…but I am thankful for the opportunity to go and show love to these hard working people!
here are a few other pictures from the day at the dump:
Katheryn and I were chatting with these two sisters who work at the dump, they were 14 and 16. And, without hesitation, were eating their bags of fruit without washing their hands. They said they had worked there for the last 8 years with their father.
some men who work at the dump, taking a little break.
The dump truck dumping out new trash. Take note of the smog in the air.
ok, on a different note….
Get this. I was in this town called Los Pinos…it’s a pretty dangerous part of Honduras, lots of gang activity and drug usage. We were warned that it was a dangerous place, but I had visited several times and so I let my guard down. On the last Friday I was in Honduras, I took my camera to Los Pinos for the last time and was getting some final shots of some of my favorite kids…I handed my camera to a friend of my to take a picture of me and this cute little baby, as she was snapping the photo, a teen ran by and ripped the camera out of her hand and ran. Before it even registered what had just happened, he was long gone. It was baffling. Cops came, some locals were hunting for him on foot, the store owners were calling each other to be on the look-out for “Robert”. For some random reason I felt this really strange peace about it, I can’t explain it or why I felt that way but I wasn’t as sad as I should have been. I mean, I just lost my $600.00 camera with ALL of my Honduras pictures and videos…yes, I was sad about that…but, like I said, I had this strange peace. A few days went by and it was time to leave Honduras. I was pretty bummed to leave the country without my camera; I thought for sure it was going to come back to me. But I mean, really? It was probably sold for drugs that very Friday night. Moving on to Nica, 2.5 weeks later…my team leader gets a phone call, “tell Nicole her camera has been returned!”
WHAT?? How awesome is God?! It totally is in my hands today. Not a scratch on it. Battery and memory card still there. Pictures are still on the card AND the battery is full, which is odd because the battery was dying in Los Pinos the last time I was using it. I have no idea who, what, or how, but all I know is that if God cares about my stupid camera….woah…what does He think of you and me?
OK, now Nica…
We have been working in a lot of special needs schools, orphanages, hospitals, and even doing some painting. Our living conditions are great. It is the shortest month we have had so far…and time is flying by. We leave for Thailand April 5th. I can’t believe this leg of the trip is almost over. It’s crazy. Today I had my iPod in and was lying down in the bed of a moving truck. I loved looking up the beautiful blue sky with a few random fluffy clouds, watching the unique trees, birds and rooftops go by mixed in with the powerline wires cris-crossing all around. It made me realize how much I love what I am doing and just how blessed I am to be here.
I will try to blog more frequently…know that I am happy and healthy and still loving my life! Thank you for all of your support!!
