July 2004 Archives

Blue Morph Butterfly, supposedly one of the rarest in the world, on the path to La Moralla

So much happens in this valley...

When we first got back a man had moved into the house adjacent to the soccer field and claimed it as his own. He lay in a hammock all day long in his boxers and a holster for his pistol and refused to let anyone play on the field or use it for anything. He talked of building a great hotel, of taking a scientific expedition (to find a cure for AIDS) up into Pico Bonito, and much else. He was a talker. He talked in English and French as well as Spanish. Once as we were on our way to school, he said to us in English that it is good to be a god, because only gods can kill people. Then he accosted Ernesto, the elementary school teacher, to berate him about how the teachers were always on strike, and threaten him with "Death! Death right here on my doorstep!"

Shortly after this, the police took him away, though we are not sure for what. A couple days later he returned, for a few hours at least, for when we came home from school that day, we saw him lying in his own blood, policemen standing guard over his body. He was killed, as some had predicted, but no one talks (at least not to us) about it. People seem to have forgotten it now.
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At school last week, I noticed some of my first year students acting a little strange as they shared a beverage. The next day, they offered me some! Chicha, they said, is made from pineapple husks soaked in water for a month and then mixed with other drinks. "It's pineapple juice!" Angel exclaimed. "Very good!" And they said that it was very strong in your throat, which is why you have to dilute it in orange juice. I tried a little, but not enough to get a very good taste.

After talking to Ester about it, the next day I asked them to bring more, and they did. Angel caught me in the morning ceremony and said excitedly, "Tom I brought more of that drink today!" During break, I called Ester into the class, and she confiscated all the chicha, found out who was involved in a long interrogation session, and suspended nine students from school for two days, and a week for the leaders. In one of my classes today I only had six students, and only one male.
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That is some sad news. But there is also good news!

Our friend Tim from Wheaton, who has graced us with his presence for two months, offered to go up and help Ramirez build his oven. Most people here only have an earthen stovetop, but Ramirez is very skilled with the earthen oven, and had previously made bread to sell in Las Mangas. Since he is not as able to work as he once was, with the health trouble he has had, baking bread is a very appealing alternative. Soon hopefully we will be buying his products on a regular basis.
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The best news we save for last!

Francis Julissa, the student with whom Kelly has been reading the Bible and talking a lot, has decided to follow Jesus! Friday after discussing Mathew 12 together, I, Kelly, asked Francis once again if she wanted to follow Jesus or if she had any new thoughts about the Gospel in her life. She said she still wasn't quite ready to be a Christian, though she believed in Jesus and the teachings of the Bible. It was something she would pursue later on in life. But, she said, I think I am getting closer...

Little did I know that two days later at our Campus discipleship group she would commit her life to Christ. When I heard the news, I ran downstairs to deliver the plate full of pataste bread and sat quietly. Ester said, we have two new sisters among us - Sara and Francis. I smiled really big, jumped up, and gave them squishy hugs. I am truly overjoyed.

Sara is another 14-year-old in my second year class who Francis lives with during the week. I am excited that they will be able to pray together and encourage each other in their new life in Christ.

Here are some pictures of our life:

The desk in the study where we do a lot of planning for classes

Rogelio's cows roaming the riverbed

Our hats

The front porch of our apartment

The campus from the river: gardens to the far left, our apartment and library in the middle

The river by night

Here is the soccer field/volleyball court/parking lot of Instituto El Rey, decked out for the annual Culture Night in honor of Honduras' Indian heritage. There were an estimated 500 folks there from all over the River Valley, ready to enjoy the students' food, talent, and historical knowledge. Each class had to nominate a male-female pair of "Indios Bonitos", who then made costumes and studied Honduran Indian history to be ready for the trivia questions. At the end of the night, the judges chose the best two, who will carry the title until next year. It's sort of like a beauty pageant, but a lot more wholesome.

In between the Beautiful Indians' presentations, the students regaled us with all kinds of talents, from the latest raperro to folk dances to skits to praise songs in English to "Bombas", traditional Honduran comedic dialogues. And we kicked it off with a hymn to the Indian hero Lempira, who for a time united many tribes against Spanish conquistadors before he was tricked and murdered.

It was a beautiful night, but not everthing was perfect. The electricity went off for about 45 minutes at the beginning, which apparently gave some lustful males (not our students) opportunity to grope some females. Which is not unusual (here or anywhere else, I suppose), but nonetheless sad.

Black Pepper: Hope for the Future?

Through Larry's friendship with some folks from the Pico Bonito Foundation here in La Ceiba, several of us (Larry, Lesbin, Tim, Tom and Kelly), got to see this black pepper demonstration farm on the edge of the Pico Bonito National Park. The farmer who took us around had planted a relatively small area with black pepper, alternated with rows of guama trees, which keep the soil in place, add their nutritious leaves to the humus, fix nitrogen for the pepper plants, and provide firewood for the farmer. The pepper plants are trained up another leguminous tree that also fixes nitrogen and sheds nutrient rich leaves.

Right now, if I remember correctly, black pepper goes for about 30 lempiras a pound, compared with corn, which is usually less than 5 lempiras a pound. So, if the price stays relatively high, and pepper proves relatively easy to grow, it could be an excellent economic alternative for some local farmers. Larry already has a few black pepper plants, and has been experimenting with guama barriers, so the visit was an added encouragement to him -- although he was disappointed to find out that this demonstration farm is not self-sufficient. So, even if it proves to be a viable alternative, there is still the obstacle of introducing it to farmers who cannot afford to make big mistakes if their families are to have enough to eat.

Here Larry and Lesbin learn about pruning the pepper plant for maximum production...

And here we take in the view...

Chris asked Sharon “for her forever” on July 4, and we all got to be a part of the celebration. There was a guitar to tune and place by the brook down the road, a chocolate-coffee engagement cake to bake and ice, prayers to be said, and it was fun to pitch in on their day of joy. Chris is teaching computer classes at the colegio, and Sharon, along with her right hand girl Catalina, are sort of a two-woman community clinic. Chris and Sharon are planning to return in February to live and work here for a year or two. In this series of pictures, you can get a feel for how they told their story.

In mid June, I had the extraordinary opportunity to help chaperone Instituto El Rey's first ever distance running team -- the Corredores con Cristo – to La Prensa’s International Marathon in San Pedro Sula. It was really a half-marathon, but 21 kilometers (13 miles) is still quite a distance, especially for a culture where running is pretty weird. The students had been training for some four months under the instruction of Chris Struna, with help from Larry Smoak (who ran also), which in itself demonstrated remarkable discipline, goal-orientation, and courage.

The real joy was seeing those guys, in their bright yellow "Instituto El Rey" jerseys, walking the streets of Honduras’ second-largest city – the biggest city most of them had ever seen – and running their hearts out. In this great city, surrounded by runners from all over Central America with expensive shoes and fancy running suits, these eight young men – it was extraordinary. Our top finisher, Lesbin, was clocked at 1:36, and many of the others were right around two hours. Our last finisher, Kilmer, a seventh grader and son of a hardworking farmer from El Pital, had us worried as the race had long since ended and he was still missing. When we found him, I asked if he was hurting, and he said, “No! I feel great – like I never ran.” It turns out he stopped to walk with another runner about his age who was in a lot of pain. “Finish the race!” we said – and he shook his head. He had already done what he came to do.

So, not only did our boys compete well, they also gave credence to the “Jesu Cristo es el Rey” blazoned on their backs.

The cast of characters:
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Denis

Gerson

Ruben

Kilmer

Joel

Ever

The Intrepid Leader, Chris

Ester

Getting hydrated

Unveiling jerseys -- a surprise in the central square of San Pedro. We had a lot of curious onlookers.

Warming up

Larry, who finished close to the top 10

Lesbin, in 1 hour 36 minute form

Resting together post race

PJ Parties

Our friend and neighbor and coworker Peter Johnson turned a year older in June. Peter is a former dairy farmer from New Hampshire who moved down to the river valley four years ago to work with local farmers and children. Right now he is doing a brave job of teaching chorus to unruly seventh graders (nine of whom just got suspended for drinking a alcoholic pineapple beverage during school), teaching English to unruly elementary schoolers, raising pigs, distributing donated goods, participating in a discipleship group for some young people from the colegio, and being a generally good guy.

So as I was saying, here we celebrate Peter's birthday with him.

Hector, Peter, Erick, Chris, and Tom. You will note our fine clothes, chosen in Peter's honor.

Our beloved nurses, Sharon and Catalina, smile brightly.

Peter blows out the campfire atop his cake.

We all enjoyed a nice chicken dinner. At least most of us did.

Peter's guests, the Chavez brothers.

I have been teaching guitar class to a few students here, and a resource wishlist has been forming in my mind. Here are some things that we could use. If you have any ideas, let me know!

-- Spanish praise songs with chords
-- Information on basic music theory in English and Spanish (especially chord formation, intervals, etc)
-- Making sense of the difference between do-re-mi and C-D-E systemsj
-- Guitar strings. We have two steel string acoustics here, and the locally bought strings break easily.
-- Guitar picks, capos, straps, stands, etc. Don't need a lot, but a couple would be nice.
-- More guitars or ideas on how to make practice fretboards. We only have two guitars here at the school, and most of the students have to go to a church to practice at home.
-- Websites, books, software, video/audio -- I think I could make use of almost any of this.
-- There are also piano and chorus classes going on at the same time, so resources for these classes are also welcome.

It is exciting to be working with kids who have a lot of talent and potential but haven't had the opportunity to develop these talents -- especially since many of my students struggle academically. This is a great chance for them to really enjoy learning and use different parts of their brains.

We are currently in the third quarter at Instituto El Rey, and my 8th grade class is in the midst of Unit 7: Clothing. As a way to summarize what we've learned so far this year and force my students to speak English in front of each other, I have assigned a creative project.

For this project, the students are to search through various magazine articles in order to find a picture they would like to describe. Their assignment is twofold. First, they are to create a story about the person in the picture by using at least 10-15 well written sentences. Second, they are to present their story orally to the class with enthusiasm and clear pronunciation.

This has been an exciting assignment for me because it has given me the opportunity to see how creative many of my students really are. Because this is only their second year to study English, I rarely see their imaginations in writing. Many of my students, however, are extremely creative and capable of both expressing themselves and forming concrete opinions.

The following excerpt comes from one of my students, Daysi. Her picture is of a father-son duo preparing breakfast for the family. Her opinions about traditional roles in rural Honduran homes are definitely opposed to the status quo. Yet, I think she has a lot of wisdom to offer her small community.

Says Daysi:
“The father and his son are cooking in the kitchen. The father is thirty-seven years old. He is old. His son is seven years old. He is little. They are making eggs for breakfast. They work together to serve their family the food. After, they go to sit and eat their delicious breakfast. They are glad to be eating with their family.

When the family is united it is very, very good. In this family the mother is not the only person who can cook. The men can cook too. This way the mother can rest for one moment. It is necessary that men learn to cook too, just like in the picture how the father and his son are cooking.”