Let me tell you about some of my best friends in Honduras. They’re
a baseball’s throw down the road from Tony’s Zion Gate Ministries. Maria is the
woman that owns the pulperia that I’m occasionally buying things from. She is
35 and she was just divorced two years ago. She has a younger daughter that
helps her when she’s not in school. Maria has a little house behind the
pulperia. Next door, however, is where the party is at daily. Any given time, there’s
about ten different people there, all related as cousins, aunts, uncles, brothers,
or sisters. My best friend there is Heydi. She’s an eight year old girl that’s
as generous as she is beautiful. She’s the youngest of six siblings and loves
to be active, never sitting down long. There’s the abuela (grandma), who’s
always staring at me like she wants to ask me 10,000 questions, however, she
rarely asked me any. Finally, there’s Heydi’s tia (aunt) who I talked to every
day as well. I would say the house they live in is a little above average; they
have the three piece furniture set in the living room, nice tile floor, and
obviously the 50 inch plasma that’s always turned on.
You might think that having our entire squad on one property
I would have enough people to talk to, but God had another plan for me in the friendship department this month. It started
by accident about midway through the month. There was coke on the property for
sale, but the bottles were too big- I didn’t enjoy drinking that much soda at
once. I walked down the road to the pulperia, where they sold 200ml bottles for
only 5 lempira (25cent). That was a better deal for me. I didn’t have a problem
going there two or three times a day because it was so cheap. Almost instantly,
Maria and I developed a great friendship- she always remembered my name too.
She was never busy- always so relaxed, so I always asked her what she was doing
and she would always respond with “nothing.” I would pepper her with questions
about her life, her family, her job, and her dreams in life. She took an
interest in my life as well, asking me all about America, what the Race is, and
my family back at home.
Soon, Heydi entered the picture when she was hanging out
with her aunt (Maria) at the pulperia. She soon invited me to her house which
was literally twenty steps away from the pulperia. In America, I have no doubt
in my mind that I would have been on the child’s predator watch list, been
arrested, or at least questioned– but this is HONDURAS. Not even an eyebrow was
raised as her family loved it when I would come visit. At first, they welcomed
me with coffee, tea, biscuits- and other light food. Within a couple of days it
became tacos or enchiladas made by Maria at the pulperia- the food and my
favorite Coca-Cola mini was always gratis.
Sometimes I would show Heydi and her family pictures of my
life on my laptop, other times we would sit and chat in Spanish on the couches
while we watched their ginormous TV. Other times we hiked like two miles to visit
her grandma in the middle of nowhere, played soccer on the field behind her
house, or swing on the swings on Tony’s property. Like I said, Heydi didn’t sit
still long- good thing I’m wired similarly! We would always be doing an
activity.
Near the end of our time in Honduras, we were invited to the
local school next to our property. The school wanted to have a celebration to
thank the people from our squad who had helped- though all of us were invited.
This was the school Heydi attended, so I was introduced to all 50 some of her
friends while I was there. My cards and notes became quite the stack- despite the fact
that I hadn’t spent a day at the school prior to the party there.
I didn’t really think of all the time that I had been
spending with Maria, Heydi, and the rest of the family would mean so much. I know that they had
blessed me so much as well as all the friends from my squad that I had been
bringing with me to visit (Amy, Meredith, Jamie, and Jo). The last day I was
in Honduras was a day that will never leave mind.
Stay tuned for part two…coming soon!
(big time relaxing at Maria’s pulperia)
(i took over if Maria needed a break)
(Heydi on far right, with her school mates)
(visit to grandma’s house)
(school celebration)
(racking up the cards)
