In and around the apartment

The sunset behind the Merendón mounatin range on the outskirts of San Pedro.

Amanda and my morning ritual...coffee straight from the mountain.

Two of the construction workers working on a building in our complex.

San Pedro Sula, 5 a.m.

This morning we said goodbye to Jen and Miriam, with only a small mishap. The taxi we had confirmed last night failed to show up, and when I called the dispatcher he was unable to locate any taxis. So we jumped in the car and raced to the terminal to catch their 6 a.m. bus. And in my haste to leave I didn't realize that the door was locked, stranding poor Amanda on the balcony. At least she had the hammock.

It's been a while since I'd been up this early, but it's well worth it. This is the east-facing view off of our balcony.

A few images

Miriam Miller, Peter Moyer, Amanda, and Jen Eberly in front of the waterfall at Pulhapanzak Falls.

A lizard, hanging out on a rock by the falls.

A restaurant in the food court at the bus terminal in San Pedro. My question is, What is that weird green thing with it's arm around the Mexican dude?

The ceiling in one of the city busses we take into the office. This refurbished school bus may have taken little Andrew to middle school once upon a time.

A nice mural

Jen Eberly, our vistior and friend from Goshen, in front of one of the murals in the cathedral in San Pedro Sula.

Fútbol (Soccer)

There really is no US equivalent to a Central American soccer game. Hondurans are nuts for their World Cup team -- La Selección -- which has the best chance of qualifying for the World Cup since the 80's. Last night I had the privilege of freezing my butt off watching the first qualifying match between Honduras and Puerto Rico. Fun, but miserable.

The rain began about 5:30, as I and two other men from the church were entering the stadium, and it didn't stop for the entire five hours we spent standing in the back of the bleachers. The game was supposed to begin at 7:30, but they waited until 8:30 to see if field conditions would improve. They didn't; the field was just an hour soggier, but they gave it a go anyway. It was ugly, with the players slipping and sliding all over the muddy pitch, but Honduras pressed on victorious, 4-0. The fans got what they wanted. All I wanted was for them to cancel the game.

What is it about people -- let's be honest -- about men that makes them sit out for hours in pelting rain to watch a bunch of other men kick around a ball for a while?

¡Viva la Selección!

Street kids and photos

Over the last few months I have become accustomed, and almost calloused, to the presence of very young children living in the streets. I was reminded of this when we were traveling around last week with some Mennonite church leaders from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. (You can see some photos of the trip here.) One of the participants, Nelly Rivera, commented on a little girl standing in the middle of a dirt road near Choloma. She said that if this were Puerto Rico, she would have called child protective services. I remember having those same thoughts about six months ago, when we passed a little boy in only a diaper playing with a hammer and nails that were left out on the front stoop of a house. I assume that boy's parents were around somewhere, but this little kid was in a dangerous situation, and no one took any notice.

Just yesterday we were walking to church when we caught up to a young boy -- probably 9 or 10 -- limping down the sidewalk. We stopped and asked him what happened to his foot, and he showed me where a piece of glass had imbedded itself in the middle of his foot. He had no shoes, and his ratty shorts and shirt were about falling off. Where did he come from? Where are his parents? Sadly, chances are he will look for a home, and will find it in one of the many street gangs.

I feel overwhelmed by poverty, and particularly when vulnerable small children are left on the streets to fend for themselves. I don't have any answers for this troubling reality of life in Central America. But I pray that I don't let these images of poverty harden me any more than they already have.

On a cheerier note, here are some more pictures of our trip with our most recent visitor, LaRita Craft. She just finished her master's in piano at University of Missouri at Kansas City, and celebrated with a trip around Honduras.

A Catch-up List...

The highs and lows of our first Honduran summer so far:

Highs:
1. We've been traveling a lot for work lately - we made it to the beautiful little town of La Campa to check out where one of the new short-term MCCers will live and work next year with an organization called CASM (Mennonite Social Action Commission). We bumped around in the back of a truck for two days visiting some very small mountain communities, made it to a ribbon-cutting ceremony of sorts (one community we visited was celebrating the completion of many small metal silos that they will use to store their corn crops), and hiked up to a waterfall in protected rain forest. Click Here to view some pictures.

2. We had an MCC team meeting in Tegucigalpa for a few days - it was great to spend a few days with everyone AND we made it to a Guillermo Anderson concert in San Juancito. I am officially a fan.

3. During a day trip for some meetings in La Ceiba, a woman I'd met during our first few months here complimented me on my improvement in Spanish. This was a pretty big deal for me. I treated myself to an ice cream afterwards.

4. Andrew's birthday was the first weekend of this month and there was much celebration. We made vegetarian groundnut stew for MCC friends, enjoyed some air-conditioning at the mall with some Honduran friends, and spent almost 3 hours trying to figure out a few chords with the church choir. And then we had cake.

5. Our Goshen friend LaRita finished up grad school in Kansas City this month and decided to celebrate by spending a week with us! We spent some time with MCC friends Josh and Maria at their farm, went on an early morning birding trip at Lago Yojoa, and got in some good beach time so she could show off her early summer Honduran tan when she gets back home.

6. There has recently been an energized movement for peace in San Pedro. We see bumper stickers distributed by the local paper, La Prensa, that read "Recuperemos La Paz" (Let's restore the peace) all over the city, and there was recently a large peace march that went through the center of the city. After my last post on the violence that is so prevalent in the media and in the minds of people here it's been really refreshing to experience the excitement around peaceful change.

7. When LaRita came she brought us dark chocolate, a french press coffee maker, and new flip flops that I'd ordered. Awesome.

Lows:
1. It is just pretty darn hot and hazy around here. The temperature doesn't let up much at night and I am sweating more than I ever thought possible. The dry season is stretching on longer than normal, and the skies have been hazy for weeks as farmers have been burning last year's crops to get ready to plant. We took a hike up the mountains on the edge of the city and from there we could barely see the city through the haze. First people said the rains should come around the 15th, which has come and gone. Farmers in La Campa told us that the rains used to start like clockwork right around the 3rd of May... this knowledge of the changing climate did not help Andrew's and my global warming paranoia.

2. We've both been sick a bit on and off - I blame the heat and also that mysterious salad I ate at the bus terminal a few weeks ago.

As you can see, the highs are outweighing the lows so things are pretty good in general. I am "casually" looking for a second volunteer-type position to help keep myself busy when we are not traveling with groups or planning for groups. We will be meeting a group of church leaders from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic tomorrow at the Nicaraguan border to lead a learning tour of Honduran Mennonite organizations this next week. Seven whole days of nothing but Spanish! Andrew put together some favorite Honduran pictures on our Picasa site. Click here to view them (some might be repeats).