San Max Kolbe — Belly Dancers & Flame Throwers

Saturday, July 19, 2008 — Comayaguela

Tonight was San Max's Annual Parish Social — Noche Cultura at Escuela Los Americas. There were several hundred people in the audience at the outdoor auditorium. We were the honored guests and they made us part of the show. They greeted the Minnesota Gringos and jokingly tried to impress us with their English. They also made note of the "guapo" men in our group. Later in the show they acknowledged the work were doing at Colonia Duarte and someone thanked us in English for helping the people in Colonia Duarte and for coming to Honduras.

The show became really exciting when the dance troupe began to perform. There was a traditional Aztec fire dance, a devil dance, a grasshopper dance, folk dancing, flame throwers and belly dancers. But the best part was when one of the belly dancers picked Chandler to dance with her. He couldn't get his camera off fast enough. He spun her around about as fast as he spun the merry-go-round at El Rancho. Her bangles were bangling and the audience went wild, especially us Minnesota Gringos. A second dancer pulled him out of the audience later for another dance and the crowd went wild.  We also had a good laugh when a man dressed as a voluptuous hag jumped on Chandler's lap and put his arms around him. Friar Ramiro is also quite the dancer. It was a fun evening that followed a day of hard labor at Colonia Duarte. We excavated around the existing building, cleared rocks and garbage and dug and hauled dirt. The guys carried 100-lb bags of cement mix down the steep muddy revene. Diane Bell, our kindergarten teacher, kept the kids busy with crafts, songs and entertainment which was a tremendous help. When she'd take a break, all of the kids would be getting in the way in the work area. 

Many of us took photos. It started to look like the JC Penny photo studio with families coming for their portraits. Many of these people had never had a photo taken before. We printed the pictures at night at San Max and they would make popsicle stick frames for them. It was indeed a big hit. 

It was impressive to see how these young 10-11 year old boys knew how to mix cement and that was there job. Concrete bricks were laid along the perimeter of the building. We Minnesota gringos were covered in mud and dirt. The ladies of Colonia Duarte were digging and using pick axes right along side us but they didn't sweat and there wasn't a speck of dirt on their skirts. We made a lot of progress on our first day. Many new friendships were made and we had a lot of fun getting to know these people.

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San Max Kolbe — Working at Colonia Duarte

Friday, July 18 — Comayaguela

It's about 6:00 am and this time I am not the only early bird. I think the roosters started crowing around midnight and are still at it. It sounds like they're right outside the window. We're also hearing the sound of rain on the tin roof. It's been raining a lot since our arrival at San Max on Thursday.

Our MHT group of 24 left Rancho Santa Fe in two vans. Chandler and the youth were in one and the adults in the other. Our first stop was going to be Colonia Duarte, the large statue of Jesus on the hill overlooking Tegucigalpa. Our driver, Luis, is the pastor at an Evangelical church. When Phil and I were in Honduras last January, we were looking for ground transportation and someone gave us Luis's business card. 

Long the way to Pichacho we were pulled over by the Police. We're not sure why and even Luis doesn't know. The policeman questioned him about who he was and who were were. It sounded like we were going to be given a fine for some bogus charge until the police officer recognized who Luis was — he is a former soccer star. Imagine that — our Evangelical Pastor Driver had played professional soccer for the national Honduran team for eleven years. The police waived us on and once again we were on our way.

The drive up the hill to San Max was an eye opener. We took the "scenic" route which was scarier than any ride at Valley Fair. The road was steep, muddy, and lined with humble dwellings. There were a lot of eyes starring at us. We were greeted at the gate of San Max Kolbe by Padre Delio, the pastor. The cooks, Paula and Armada, had prepared a wonderful lunch — lemon seasoned fish, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables and plantains with mantiquilla which is kind of a cream cheese sauce. It was a nice change of pace from the beans, rice and cheese we had been eating at El Rancho Santa Fe.

After lunch we took a tour of the San Max compound. The church that Most Holy Trinity helped build through funding now had a completely finished tile floor. It began to rain and the 14 group members returning to El Rancho Santa Fe needed to leave. We said our goodbyes. The remaining group of 10 piled into a truck and proceeded to our work site — Colonia Duarte at the Church of the Divine Worker. One of the tasks of this church is to pray for the safety of those who immigrate to the United States. To get to the church we had to drive down a treacherous road and walk though a steep muddy revene. 

As we walked through the doors of the church, we were greeted by applause and a couple dozen people who were there to meet us. they had waited two hours for us to arrive. Fr. Delio did introductions and everyone said their name. We formed a circle and prayed together as a group. These people were so enthusiastic in their prayer that you could just about feel it.

Chandler Bursey, our youth minister, immediately gravitated toward the kids and had them laughing as he tried to recall their names. We met Santo Maria, the woman who was the recipient of the new roof and floor provided by donations from Most Holy Trinity. She wanted us to see her house. We walked down the steep sidewalk until we came to the house with a new red tin roof. She insisted that we come inside. As Joe Oeth said, it was an honor to be invited into her house. Her husband was inside with a shovel digging up dirt trying to level the floor so they could lay tile. There was enough money from the donation so that they could buy new wood for the walls so it was like they had a whole new house. Ellen Reicho, our Spanish Spokesperson, told them how happy we were for them and what an honor it was to be invited into their house.

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What Happens in Honduras Stays in Honduras!

I have so much to blog about but so little time — here's some hints ... belly dancers, Chandler, flame throwers, Chandler. Stay tuned! The friars are grilling up a special dinner for us and Friar Delio said he's serving beer. Yippie! See ya later. We have to go to the work site tomorrow but I will see if I can skip out to post my blogs and photos. They're already written I just need to post them. We're having quite the adventure!

NPH Update: A full day

The professional bloggers of today are Amy Bianco and Jill Kraemer

Hola! Today was the first full day in which we were in two groups. The cooler group at NPH woke at 6:30 in the morning to attend breakfast at the Cocina. It was like a banana flavored rice oatmeal. After we finished our scrumptious meal we joined the children and helped them with their chores. As the women did an exceptional job cut the grass with machetes, the boys took to the kitchen where they merrily made us and the entire ranch chicken soup. Be prepared when we get home as the long mower will be gathering dust while we use are machetes to make our lawns presentable. These chores were followed by our chicken soup lunch and some rest time. After we rested the whole group headed to Casa Suyapa which is the baby house with 70 children ranging from age 0 to age 8. The children there were full of energy resulting in parachute disaster. So we put the parachute away and gave piggyback rides. Even though your back was aching and your face sopping with sweat it was hard to say no to those cute little faces. After we got those monkeys of our backs we put on our finery and went to church. It was a wonderful service and our group was acknowledged at the end of mass. We then changed out of our finery and walked to our hogares. Since it was Saturday night the children had a movie so we walked them to the Talleres where the movie was being held. We then socialized with them before saying buenos noches!

The San Max Adventure Begins

This posting was originally scheduled for Friday, July 18th, but due to a technical difficulty, was posted today.

Today’s guest bloggers: Matt Huppert and Eric Weiman:

Hey gang! Jane and her banditos of fury departed to San Max today to help build a church in coordination with our own congregation, so there’s gonna be some changes around these blogging parts. The El blogging Presidante status has now expanded to include Matthew “Babycakes” Huppert, with his trusty Chief of Staff Eric Weiman. Today began with a 2-hour bus ride to a giant Jesus statue known as “Picacho.” The Picacho statue overlooks Tegucigalpa, treating the group to a beautiful view. After this escapade, we continued our voyage to San Max, which was filled with treacherous roads, that wouldn’t be suitable for any hot coffee drinkers. Upon arriving at San Max, we received a very fulfilling lunch. At this point, the group separated into two factions, the cooler of which was to stay at NPH (heehee!) This group, which by the way is so much better then the San Max group, followed up this departure with a lovely tour of famous landmarks of Tegucigalpa. One of these was a beautiful Basilica that drew some resemblance to a White Castle. Unfortunately, the Basilica does not serve classic American style hamburger, so our journey continued. Next on tap was a pleasant trip to a Cathedral in the heart of Tegucigalpa, where we took a couple group photos. While we arranged ourselves, a street clown decided to join us in these snapshots. No it wasn’t Phil silly! After this we headed back to NPH, where we visited the children, had a delicious meal, and reflected on our day. Furthermore, we would like our families to know how much we do miss them, especially Sheri, Boyd, and Sam Huppert and Ben, Sam, Dean, and Rosanne Weiman, who will always be the sunshine to our day at the beach! Don’t you guys have all the fun without us! Hahahahaha, but seriously, no fun.

Hugs,

The Honduras group

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