Here are some of the memorable moments of my Race in Honduras! Enjoy!
Being around a super-passionate ministry contact
Tony Deien, our ministry contact, has been the most passionate ministry contact I have met so far on The Race. He made huge efforts to keep us informed of the numerous projects going on for his ministry and the status of the street kids, very unlike Central American culture (e.g., fly by the seat of your pants)! He is dedicated to his ministry, and I am blessed to have witnessed his steadfast character. I will never forget how much he encouraged us to live out our days to the fullest and not to miss opportunities to impact lives.
Tony, his wife, Nidia, and one of the street kids, Carlos
Doing lots of manual labor (AKA: painful hand blisters)
This month was mainly a month of manual labor. I spent about half my time helping to improve the landscape of the ministry property. This involved digging out huge rocks with pickaxes, raking dirt and rocks, sifting dirt to get all the rocks and trash out, and creating a garden for Tony’s house. For some reason, the dirt on our property was at least 50% rock … incredibly tedious work to remove them all to make normal dirt.
Painting Tony and Nidia’s kitchen … of course the walls are porous!
Another American missionary in Honduras wanted to bless Tony by remodeling his kitchen. Myself and a couple other girls from our squad sanded the walls AND ceiling and painted them with white primer. Sounds somewhat easy, right? Well, on the contrary. The walls were porous cement that sucked up the primer like a sponge. There are probably at least 5 coats of primer on the walls (i.e., 5 gallons of primer … ridiculous).
Teaching English classes to 4th graders … sounds simple, right?
For a week, Emily Hix and I taught 4th grade English for 1.5 hours to Honduran children at a local school across the street from our ministry property. I went into this project thinking it wouldn’t be too difficult but was shocked to find out how much the children misbehaved during class. I had to become a drill sergeant to keep the class under control and get them to learn some English. While I was teaching, many of the class of 26 would eat snacks, throw paper wads over the wall to the 3rd grade class, mess around with other classmates, and walk out of class without asking. Talk about a test in patience!
The K-6th grade school (sorry, the photo is way over-exposed)
Co-ed bathrooms and more freezing cold showers
All of D Squad (7 guys, 31 girls, and 3 squad leaders) used one outside bathroom (3 stalls, 2 showers, and 2 sinks). Other than the freezing cold showers, minimal water pressure, very small space, and frequent toilet failures, there were quite a few good memories in that bathroom. You have no idea what interesting conversations arise in a co-ed bathroom!
Our bathroom is the front half of the yellow building
Being LOVED ON by the street kids at our ministry site
The street kids involved in Tony’s ministry grew up in horrendous family and social environments. They never received love nor do they know how to give it appropriately. Whenever they were around us on the ministry property, they loved to come up and give us all a big hug and kiss on the cheek. Tony encouraged us to love on them as well because this is the only time they received unconditional love.
Rose Huber with the boys
Jill, Jen, and Dani with the boys
Being covered in dust at all times of the day
The climate in Honduras was DRY and warm in the afternoons and cool/cold in the evenings, night, and mornings. Additionally, our ministry site was incredibly dusty, especially when it was windy; therefore, we constantly were coated in dust throughout the day. It was humorous to watch a freshly laundered line of clothes be coated in dust while drying on the clothes lines outside.
