Thursday, July 17, 2008
Photos Are Coming!
I have been trying for two days to post photos on the blog. I'm going to keep trying. Stay tuned — we have some great photos to share.
The Wednesday Group Has Arrived!
I had barely gotten my coffee cup filled and Elser, our driver, was giving me the "vamonos". It was 6:00 am and Kyle and I were assigned the job of picking up the Wednesday group arriving in San Pedro Sula at 11:00 am. I had packed a book to read just in case the four-hour drive became boring. I never touched it because the drive was so dramatically beautiful. It was reminiscent of a drive through the Black Hills and the Rocky Mountains combined.
We arrived at the airport ten minutes before the flight came in. I was very impressed with Elser's driving skills and his timeliness. We had to cut straight through Teguc in morning rush hour traffic. Elsur is 23 years old. He said he was a Pequenos and he came to NPH when he was four. His English is very good and he is going to college now and wants to become an English teacher. He was also very accommodating to his group of 14 sleep deprived passengers. A pick-up truck accompanied us and we stowed all of the luggage in it. The van was so full with people that we had to send Steve Kraemer in the pick-up truck with Geraldo (aka Gijo) the driver. He did have the "luxury" seat with plenty of leg room. But we had air-conditioning which was much appreciated.
Steve said he enjoyed speaking Spanish with Gijo and that he was a good source of information. We stopped to buy a stem of bananas and some pineapples. There were about 100 little bananas on the stem and it was in a plastic bag. We passed it throughout the van and everyone pulled a few bananas from it. They were very sweet ... until someone discovered a big spider in the bag. It was quickly sent to the front of the van and Eric Stephan was told to deal with it. He said the spider jumped out of the bag and was never to be seen again.
We also stopped to buy a bundle of giant pea-pod looking things from a little girl. The giant pea-pod was hard and when broken open it exposed white pods. We were told to eat the white part and leave the seeds. It tasted kind of like a honeydew melon. Another interesting roadside item were the fish people were selling. They would take a long tree branch and prop it at an angle with the various-sized fish hanging like wind chimes. We were driving along Lake Yajoa. There was also a lot of honey in clear bottles lined up on wooden shelves. They looked really pretty glistening in the sunlight.
The plan was to make a quick lunch stop and Elser pulled into a Wendys. The passengers made it clear that they didn't want American food. Elser found a very nice restaurant "El Gordito" and the group was pleased.
We continued on with the next stop being an hour away at Metro Mall in Teguc. The group changed money at the bank, used the ATM and did a little snack shopping at the LaColonia grocery store.
By 7:00 pm it was dark with a full moon as we cut through Tegucigalpa. The van's passengers were getting pretty giddy. A new nickname was bestowed upon Richard Elsberry. "Ricardo Silverado" which referred to his hair color. The group was holding up well and neon suckers were being passed throughout the van. They were suppose to turn your tongue into a glow-in-the-dark neon color. I did not see any glow-in-the-dark tongues flapping but there were a lot of bright blue and cherry red lips by the time we reached our destination.
The Monday Arrival Group met us at the door of San Cristobal and helped unload the luggage and everyone got settled. Joe Oeth was busy in the kitchen cooking up a gourmet spaghetti sauce. He had been a slave to the kitchen today. He and Jared worked in the Tortillaria and made 2400 tortillas. He must like kitchen work because he and Marian LeSage volunteerd to cook pancakes for a special Ranch event on Thursday.
The youth who arrived on Monday tormented Chandler Bursey with their recently purchased machettes. Yes, Matt Huppert, Eric Weiman, Kyle Erickson and Leah Flannigan bought big two-foot long machettes in leather sheaths. They claimed they wanted them so they could help cut the grass. That's how they do it here. The kids go out with machettes and chop away at the grass. It's one of the daily tasks here on the ranch. Feeling the "peer" pressure, I too bought a machette (to torment Chandler with :-). We will be cutting grass.
After a long day, the group gathered in the kitchen for a spaghetti dinner. The youth were loud and rowdy. The spaghetti was delicious. Our "chaplain", Phil Grisez, led us in prayer and gave us our directions for Thursday. It was lights out at 10:00 pm.
###
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Valle de Angeles
The group that arrived on Monday is waiting for the Wednesday group to arrive. They did a little touring in Tegucigalpa and Valle de Angeles today for shopping and lunch. Tonight the group is having supper in the Hogares with the children.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Welcome to Tegucigalpa!
As we did the corkscrew landing, we could see many people watching the plane land, taking photos and making the sign of the cross. We were the first flight to land in Tegu since the accident on May 31st. When we entered the terminal from the plane, the airport staff greeted us with trays of wine, fancy canapes and gift boxes of cookies. Even better, there was no long line at immigration, the baggage carousel or customs.
The van that picked us up had 13 people with 18 large suitcases plus 9 carry ons and that wasn't enough we stopped to pick up groceries. We now know what sardines feel like.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Here We Go!
The Monday Departure Group is about three hours away from Airport time. The Sending Forth Mass was this morning and we've done a lot of shuffling of items to get all the donations packed. We'll be on our way to Honduras shortly.
This morning at Most Holy Trinity we welcomed our new Pastor, Fr. Brian and he gave the Honduras group a Sending Forth Blessing. The group of 24 will be representing Most Holy Trinity at the Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos Home for Children and at our sister parish, San Maximiliano Kolbe in Tegucigalpa.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Did God Create Evil?
I have been reflecting on past trips to Guatemala and Honduras.
Before I start, Guatemala and Honduras are beautiful countries with beautiful, heart filled people. This post is a bit unfair as it may dwell on some of the problems without giving appropriate voice to the wonderful people, places, and things in Guatemala and Honduras.
I have had the great privilege and great experience of visiting Guatemala and Honduras several times since 2004. We spent time visiting poor neighborhoods where the children 6-8 years old must quit school and go to work in the fields or shining shoes at the airport. We visited one of the Guatemala City ghettos and Tegucigalpa neighborhoods with over 100,000 people living in unimaginable conditions including scrap-tin shacks, no electricity, no plumbing, and one school visited in Guatemala City made of concrete was covered with bullet nick marks from gang wars. With no garbage collection services, trash is thrown down into the valley where it pollutes the primary water supply. We visited the Guatemala City dump where approximately 10,000 people, 6,000 of those children, search through the dump, garbage filled with medical needles, broken glass, and various other hazards, looking for food, clothing, scrap metal, anything they can find to survive.
One of the issues I struggled with was why does God let this happen? I am far beyond wondering if God exists, but I did run across the following e-mail that seemed to help answer that question:
Did God create evil? At a certain college, there was a professor with a reputation for being tough on Christians. One semester he asked if anyone was a Christian. One young man raised his hand, and the professor asked, “Did God make everything?” “Yes he did, sir” the young man replied. The professor responded, “If God made everything, then God made evil. And if we can only create from within ourselves, then God is evil. If God is evil, God is a lie and therefore, God cannot exist.” The student didn’t have a response and the professor was happy to have proved the Christian faith to be a myth.
Then another man raised his hand and asked, “May I ask you something sir? Is there such a thing as cold?” “Of course there is, what kind of question is that? Haven’t you ever been cold?” The young man replied, “Actually, cold does not exist. What we consider to be cold is really only the absence of heat. Absolute zero is when there is absolutely no heat, but cold does not really exist. No device has ever existed to create cold. A freezer for example works by extracting the heat. We have only created the term cold to describe how we feel when heat is not there.”
The young man continued, “Sir, is there such a thing as dark?” Once again, the professor responded, “Of course there is.” The student replied, “Actually, darkness does not exist. Darkness is really only the absence of light. Darkness is only a term man developed to describe what happens when there is no light present.”
Finally the young man asked, “Is there such a thing as evil?” The professor responded, “Of course. We have rapes, murders, and violence everywhere in the world, those things are evil.” The student replied, “Actually, evil does not exist. Evil is a term man developed to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. It isn’t like truth, or love, which exist, as virtues like heat and light. Evil is simply the state where God is not present, like cold without heat or darkness without light.” --Author Unknown
I don’t mean to suggest that a person living in poverty is evil or that they are living in poverty because they have an absence of God in their personal lives. That somehow they deserve it (judging others). I have enough poverty in my own life in one form or another least I think I am superior. The e-mail above just helped explain why poverty exists. True, some people may be in abject conditions due to their poor choices, but others are in circumstances beyond their control. Nonetheless, that does not change the destructive effects of sin. If I drink a glass of water laced with poison and I don't know it is poison, I will still get sick and/or die if I drink the water. Rather, the above e-mail is more of a reflection on society in general. I have heard that the USA is the richest country in the world, but the USA is also the most depressed country in the world. I also remember a few years ago an Nightly News program that explored wealth. From their many sources and surveys, one of the points made was that once someone reaches a level of wealth that supports the basic necessities of living (which is right about the poverty line), more wealth does not equal more happiness and often results in the opposite.
Not too many generations ago, you needed your family to survive, and although life may have been more difficult than today, you had the relationships of family and friends. Today, we are relatively wealthy and independent. We tend to live far away from family and tend to fill our lives with material possessions at the expense of relationships. The destructive effect of our somewhat selfish behavior is we are less happy. Possessions don’t make you happy, your family and friends do. And the most important familia relationship is your relationship with God our Father through His only Son our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
More importantly, the mission trips over the last few years have been a great blessing by demonstrating the opposite of evil. That is, demonstrating the presence of God through the unselfish love of many. How God truly cares and loves everyone and how God extends His love through those that love Him. From Spain to Germany, from Washington state to Minnesota, from Friars to lay people, from Guatemalans and Hondurans, and from the children themselves. It was so great to see the good fruit produced by the love of many. I was not expecting the positive conditions of the NPH homes. I guess I expecting to give and “reach down” to the poor (please pardon my tactlessness), however, in reality I feel I was more a recipient and was taught great lessons about God, faith, hope, love, dignity, family, etc. from the children, staff, San Max Friars, and volunteers.
Before I start, Guatemala and Honduras are beautiful countries with beautiful, heart filled people. This post is a bit unfair as it may dwell on some of the problems without giving appropriate voice to the wonderful people, places, and things in Guatemala and Honduras.
I have had the great privilege and great experience of visiting Guatemala and Honduras several times since 2004. We spent time visiting poor neighborhoods where the children 6-8 years old must quit school and go to work in the fields or shining shoes at the airport. We visited one of the Guatemala City ghettos and Tegucigalpa neighborhoods with over 100,000 people living in unimaginable conditions including scrap-tin shacks, no electricity, no plumbing, and one school visited in Guatemala City made of concrete was covered with bullet nick marks from gang wars. With no garbage collection services, trash is thrown down into the valley where it pollutes the primary water supply. We visited the Guatemala City dump where approximately 10,000 people, 6,000 of those children, search through the dump, garbage filled with medical needles, broken glass, and various other hazards, looking for food, clothing, scrap metal, anything they can find to survive.
One of the issues I struggled with was why does God let this happen? I am far beyond wondering if God exists, but I did run across the following e-mail that seemed to help answer that question:
Did God create evil? At a certain college, there was a professor with a reputation for being tough on Christians. One semester he asked if anyone was a Christian. One young man raised his hand, and the professor asked, “Did God make everything?” “Yes he did, sir” the young man replied. The professor responded, “If God made everything, then God made evil. And if we can only create from within ourselves, then God is evil. If God is evil, God is a lie and therefore, God cannot exist.” The student didn’t have a response and the professor was happy to have proved the Christian faith to be a myth.
Then another man raised his hand and asked, “May I ask you something sir? Is there such a thing as cold?” “Of course there is, what kind of question is that? Haven’t you ever been cold?” The young man replied, “Actually, cold does not exist. What we consider to be cold is really only the absence of heat. Absolute zero is when there is absolutely no heat, but cold does not really exist. No device has ever existed to create cold. A freezer for example works by extracting the heat. We have only created the term cold to describe how we feel when heat is not there.”
The young man continued, “Sir, is there such a thing as dark?” Once again, the professor responded, “Of course there is.” The student replied, “Actually, darkness does not exist. Darkness is really only the absence of light. Darkness is only a term man developed to describe what happens when there is no light present.”
Finally the young man asked, “Is there such a thing as evil?” The professor responded, “Of course. We have rapes, murders, and violence everywhere in the world, those things are evil.” The student replied, “Actually, evil does not exist. Evil is a term man developed to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. It isn’t like truth, or love, which exist, as virtues like heat and light. Evil is simply the state where God is not present, like cold without heat or darkness without light.” --Author Unknown
I don’t mean to suggest that a person living in poverty is evil or that they are living in poverty because they have an absence of God in their personal lives. That somehow they deserve it (judging others). I have enough poverty in my own life in one form or another least I think I am superior. The e-mail above just helped explain why poverty exists. True, some people may be in abject conditions due to their poor choices, but others are in circumstances beyond their control. Nonetheless, that does not change the destructive effects of sin. If I drink a glass of water laced with poison and I don't know it is poison, I will still get sick and/or die if I drink the water. Rather, the above e-mail is more of a reflection on society in general. I have heard that the USA is the richest country in the world, but the USA is also the most depressed country in the world. I also remember a few years ago an Nightly News program that explored wealth. From their many sources and surveys, one of the points made was that once someone reaches a level of wealth that supports the basic necessities of living (which is right about the poverty line), more wealth does not equal more happiness and often results in the opposite.
Not too many generations ago, you needed your family to survive, and although life may have been more difficult than today, you had the relationships of family and friends. Today, we are relatively wealthy and independent. We tend to live far away from family and tend to fill our lives with material possessions at the expense of relationships. The destructive effect of our somewhat selfish behavior is we are less happy. Possessions don’t make you happy, your family and friends do. And the most important familia relationship is your relationship with God our Father through His only Son our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
More importantly, the mission trips over the last few years have been a great blessing by demonstrating the opposite of evil. That is, demonstrating the presence of God through the unselfish love of many. How God truly cares and loves everyone and how God extends His love through those that love Him. From Spain to Germany, from Washington state to Minnesota, from Friars to lay people, from Guatemalans and Hondurans, and from the children themselves. It was so great to see the good fruit produced by the love of many. I was not expecting the positive conditions of the NPH homes. I guess I expecting to give and “reach down” to the poor (please pardon my tactlessness), however, in reality I feel I was more a recipient and was taught great lessons about God, faith, hope, love, dignity, family, etc. from the children, staff, San Max Friars, and volunteers.
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