The day to day.

Highlight of the week: Larry's friend Ruth brought us CHAI. Just kidding, not the highlight, but definitely a high point.

So, I'm going to be honest. It is late, and I am tired. I want to tell you all a funny story, but sometimes when I look at the screen for too long I feel like my eyes are going to fall out. Also, we have to use the computer in the kitchen and someone else has to be with us. Erick is here because he's the only one who is around, but he is tired.

I think you all would like to know what we do most of the time. It's different every day, every week, but here we are.

Monday: Larry and I hiked up to La Moriah to cut down weeds to plant corn. It was a good time and I found a huge termite nest! After that I rested, read, ate dinner, and I don't really remember what we did that night besides that I went to sleep.

Tuesday: I moved the stuff I sweeped up in the plant nursery (an old house that was destroyed by Hurricane Mitch) into the compost pile. I planted some cranberry hibiscus seeds in a seed bed and tried to move some wild cilantro, but the neighbor's chicken was in the bed where we wanted to put them, so we decided to wait til we had a better fence. I tried to catch the chicken for a while, but she is really smart.

Wednesday: I planted some more things in the nursery and weeded and put more mulch (bamboo leaves) on the terraces they have built here, getting them ready to plant.

Thursday: I worked with Erick planting corn on the property across the road. We picked a pineapple but it wasn't ready, and found lots of sweet potatoes we missed in the harvest! It took a while because he wasn't feeling well, but we finished. I went to a Bible study with Allison and the other missonary women in the area.

Friday: I planted beans on one of the terraces I mulched. They are an heirloom variety of cow bean from the states, so we will see how that works. I planted some mustard seed and some other beans in the nursery. I made cuttings from katuk plants to to put in the ground because a new tree will grow right out of those little sticks to make a fence to keep the chickens in or out, depending. After lunch, Larry and I went across the road to help him plant something, but I actually ended up charming bees and harvesting beans. So that was fun.

Every day after work is over and I am in the room, Joel comes in to draw a picture. They are beautiful, mostly just circles. Depending on the kind of paper you give him, he will draw different figures. If you give him paper with no lines, he will draw some kind of domino human, if graph paper, just circles. Today he only used the green marker. Interesting. I wish I could get inside his head.

The real fun has been in the stuff God is revealing to me about my life and my past and my heart right now. It's been really rough, but, like I said earlier, this summer is probably going to be more about healing than agriculture, though I am finding that the two don't have to be separate things.

Also, I should let you know that I am going to be staying in the campo (country) for two weeks, with a man named Luis and his wife and kids. Luis works with Larry and Larry likes to send people to stay with him. They are poor farmers, but I we will talk more about that when I get back. All that to say, I don't know if I will get on the the computer next Friday.

I hope everything is going well for you, but if it's not, that's ok too. God can use even the nastiest, thorniest weed to fertilize something beautiful (how's that for an agricultural truism of a metaphor?!)

Alex

Profesora Pina

Throughout the school, I have had all sorts of different teachers, and I don't discriminate. BUT, I never thought I would be taught by pineapple. I'm not EVEN kidding. Two days ago I spent 3 hours alone weeding a patch of pineapples on a steep mountainside under the beautiful Honduran sun. As picturesque as this sounds, and it IS beautiful, there is one thing I never realized about pineapple plants. They have really intense spines. I didn't bring any long sleeve shirts, so my arms are covered in scratches from this experience. The word miserable could describe this experience, except that God, being God, chose to turn it around. He reminded me how much I love to sing, and how much patience I need to develop. It was actually ironic, because the day before I prayed that God would teach me more about patience.

It impossible to be a farmer, a good farmer, without patience. There are so many emotions that come along with agriculture, particularly at the subsistence level, that I didn't anticipate. For example, yesterday we found out that the seed Larry had saved from last year's corn harvest, was invaded by bugs and rats. Out of some 20 ears, I only found 5 untouched. The rest we have to sort through seed by seed. We have a cool trick though, where we put the seeds in water and the good ones float, but that's besides the point. We don't have enough seed to plant all the field. If we were real subsistence farmers without resources, this could be disastrous. It's a devestating feeling to know a source of food and income is ruined.

Patience is necessary for this. When you don't know what is coming around the corner, you have to hope in the work you have done and the time you have put in.

So, here I am in this field of pineapple, tired, sticky, and frustrated that I keep getting scratched (I'm not exaggerating when I say that my arms are covered in scratches). I am thinking, Jesus, why would I want to do this for the rest of my life? Why is this what you have called me to? WHY...WHY WHY...lalala. And then, I felt like I should start singing, so I did. A gospel song "Praise Him in Advance" came on. One line says "praise will confuse the enemy..." So that's what I did. I praised, and it was hard because part of me really didn't want to.

It reminds me of one time when I was babysitting for Dave and Margie Davis. When I arrived, Margie and I started getting Abby and Piper ready for a bath. As Margie is getting Piper's clothes off, Piper pees on her! I didn't know what to say or do, but Margie just looks at me and laughs and sincerely says, THIS IS GREAT! Ha. Talk about praise in the midst of trouble.

This is why I am here in Honduras. To learn strange things from God through pineapples.

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying your days as I am!

Alex

Lentemente....is not a word.

Gracias Dios, estoy segura que este lugar...

So I've been here for a couple of days, but it feels like much longer. I am sitting at the table with Joel, while Allison makes popcorn and tea for us. Four kittens are playing with their mama, Patches, who is about to nurse them to sleep. The dog Late (Lah-tay) got in a fight today on the way back from La Moriah, the place where Erick and Larry and I worked. We were helping to move dirt for the adobe bricks of Toyano's new house, which he is building. He saved up money for a tin roof through working for Larry, as he has for the last 10 years. It's pretty cool. He has lots of kids, and they are all really funny. All of them helped us move the dirt as much as they could. The youngest would carry two shovel scoops, all the way on up to the 14 of Larry and Erick (or something like that). The las two times we filled everyone's bags and then all walked up together to dump the dirt. It was a good reminder of what the church should look like, everyone doing as much as they can, which sometimes doesn't seem like much. Toyano would have helped, but his sister-in-law died unexpectedly and he went down the mountain to be with everyone for a memorial (I think it was a memorial). Now, he didn't just walk (or drive), he walked down the mountain. Which he does every day. The walk is pretty rough going up, lots of rocks and windy paths. When we walked it this morning, Larry was ever so kind to stop every once in a while to point out some plant or some view, meanwhile Erick and I got to rest. Larry is a runner, so it seems like he has lots of endurance. I...do not, anymore at least. So it was a very interesting battle going on in my head as we walked up. I was thinking, I can't do this. How am I going to be a farmer? What if I just can't do it? Maybe I should just turn around and go pack to the campamento. Maybe I should give up on every dream of living this kind of life. Praise God, it was rough, but we made it of course. It was a good day.

Yesterday Allison and I watched kids from different schools in the area play futbol in a tournament. Allison said the kids on the other team are taller because their families raise cattle and they get milk. Interesting.

Tomorrow some kids are coming to the campamento and we will get to play.

Joel just laughed at me because I drank the tea when it was a little hot. Or atleast I made a face as I tested it. He is wonderful. He is 31 years old and mentally retarded. Each day he goes out to gather bottles and cans that they eventually take to La Ceiba so he can cash them in. Yesterday when we drove through the cuenca, it seemed that everyone knew him. He is probably the most famous, and definitely the sweetest, person here. He makes me smile every time we talk.

Also, there is Don Victor. Don Victor is 97 years old.
Joel y Don Victor live here. Along with Erick and Carla. Erick and Carla are given scholarships from by Larry and Allison to go to a local university. Carla is my roommate and we get along very well. She is patient with me when I ask her to repeat something and neither of us are very good at volleyball. Erick is a very hard worker, and I am sure he will be some sort of community leader one day, not necessarily an official one, but at least someone that everyone respects.

Behind me there is a cool gecko eating a moth, just a side note.

As the days go on, I am more convinced that this place is exaclty where I should be. I'm not just here to agricultural things, I think that maybe God brought me here to heal a little bit. And it feels like that's exactly what's happening.

...es exactamente donde me quiere. Amen.

And so it begins

Por favor, Jesus, seguridad, gracia, y amor para todo gente del mundo...

The journey begins in just a few short hours when my wonderful brother Bobby comes to pick me up to go to the airport. Flight at 9, get into Honduras a couple hours later. taxi cab to bus station, bus to Ceiba. FINALLY get to meet Larry and Allison. I better be ready to speak some spanish...

Feeling pretty good, excited and nervous. That's really all I have to say right now.

Good night, everyone.

...en los aeropuertos y en las calles, amen.

Good.

Dios, estoy pensando de muchas cosas...

Two days, now, and it becoming more apparent that, yes, I actually am going to Honduras this summer. Yes, I will be there for three months, and, yes, tomorrow will be my last warm shower for a while.

If I'm honest, sometimes I wonder why I am going. It seems kind of random the way it even happened, and the details are really just....not there. It would be simpler to stay at home, to work at Panera Bread and deal with the same things I dealt with last summer. I could go to the beach all the time, hang out with high school friends, go to the hill country to see my nieces and nephews, my brothers and my sister. Part of me really wants to stay and be with my family. For the first time ever I am nervous about going to another country. GOOD.

I want to do this. Maybe some interesting people and lots of physical labor will help me see things as simple. Less time to dwell on things, more prayer, more sweat. all things to look forward to.

...por favor, se el pensamiento mas importante de mi mente.

Three days...

Señor, en tres dias, la vida en la cuenca comenzará...

In three days, life in Honduras will begin. That gives me one day left to prepare for every month I will be there.

Things I am looking forward to:

-being in community with people, even if it's not easy

-new friends and experiences

-speaking spanish

-sun

-writing letters

Things I am nervous about:

-being in community with people, especially when it's not easy

-getting enough sleep before I go, and spending enough time with the people I love in Houston

-navigating my way to Las Mangas on my own. what if I forget how to say: "please take me to the bus station." ???

I think I am going to learn a lot this summer, and I am really excited. I am not sure what it is going to look like, or what will come out of it. But, that's not the way I want to look at it either. I don't want to turn this into a "learning experience" or another thing to say that I have done. I want to understand it as real life (because it is real life), and I want to experience the people and the situations in the same way that I experience life in Texas or in Wheaton. Please pray for these things.

Alex

...gracias para la oportunidad para vivir en Honduras con Larry, Allison, Jason y Sarah. Ojalá que no doy por sentado el tiempo, la gente, or Su presencia en cada día y experiencia. Por favor, Jesus, enseñame lo que quieres, quiero entender mas de Su reino y de Su amor para nosotros.