Planting Fruit Trees

By Matt,

This past month David, Jordan, and I helped plant about 15 fruit trees in the schoolyard of El Guanabano. This activity came out of our relationship to the Ag University near Catacamas. Prof. Lopez and his university students made a nursery of several varieties of tropical fruits including mangos, tamarinds, limes, marañon (cashew), passion fruit, and mamón. Originally the U students were going to come and help us plant, but the scheduling didnt work out for the prof.

We met with the kindergarden teacher, the students of the school, and some of the parents to plant the trees.
Each student planted a tree and adopted it, promising to water and care for it. I told them that in 10 years I want to come back and eat all the different kinds of fruit.
It is really great to see so many different people and institutions working together on a project like this. The idea is to provide cheap food at the school to help suppliment the lunch program. Another strategy is to encourage the school to make natural juices from these fruits instead of selling the kids soda.

Included in the event were some students that recieve scholarships through Diaconia. These students are have the responsibility of doing community projects like this with the Ag/Env program. The hope is that the studens and adults learn the importance if investing for the long term benefit of the community.
We all had a great time, and got nice and dirty. I even had a chance to practice my chopping skills with the machete because the place where we planted the trees had 4 foot high grass growing.
Later that day we had a meeting in the church to do a community survey. We noticed this turtle shell that they use for the rythm section in the praise band. The different colored panels make different noises when you tap them with the sticks.

To Yocón and beyond

By Matt

Well, you might be wondering "what happened to Matt?". It's true I haven't posted a blog in WAY too long. The truth is that I have been quite occupied with the Ag and Environment program to the point of not having much time for blogging, my apologies.

Anyway, as you may know for about the past 6 months we have had Jordan Fox living next door to us. He is a Canadian, and part of the "Carpinteros" group that comes often to Honduras to help out. It was really great to have him here. A while back Jordan's dad Steve came to visit. Steve is helping out with the health program in the south with some suppliments. Steve, Jordan, Arturo and I traveled down a very rough dirt road to the town of Yocon, and then beyond to several villages up in the mountains. This northern part of Olancho is quite isolated and many of these villages have recieved very little attention from the governement in terms of development and law enforcement. We stayed with Pastor Adrian and his family in a typical little country home. There is no water or electricity in these remote settings, so to shower we walked about 15 minutes down to a big waterfall. It was very beautiful.


The purpose of the trip was to continue the "Community Transformation Plans" that Arturo has been making with the community members. The goal is to unite and organize the people of the community around their shared priorities for improvement. The people write a short history of the community, draw a map, and identify the local resources that they have to work with including organizations. Community priorities are set and plans are made for how to achieve those goals, who will do it, and when. The priorities often include things like water projects, latrines, and getting electricity in the community. Diaconia often works to help strengthen and guide groups like the water board, or whatever other group of people that might be responsible for getting projects going.



On this trip I mostly translated for Steve so that he could contribute to what was going on. It is exciting to see communites working together like this to improve their well being. By now Jordan is back in Canada with his family, it was great to have him living here for that time.

Front Porch Gang Update

By Katie

The front porch gang has been just as active as ever, but I realized it's been a long time since you've had an update. We still have classes in the afternoons usually four days a week. After working on some reading skills and reading a story together, we usually play a learning game. In this picutre we are playing Go Fish with some letter cards which has done wonders for those who previously couldn't recognize their letters. One second grade student, Wilmer, went from hardly being able to name half the letters to naming almost all of them very quickly because he was very motivated to win the game. It's been fun to watch them develop a sense of strategy too. On this day we were having so much fun that some teenage cousins and even a mom who were visiting the neighbors came over for a round.


After game time we usually have free reading time so the kids can enjoy the little library I've collected. It's a great opportunity for them to practice and has really made a difference in their skills. Most of the families of these children do not own books of their own, so it's the only opportunity they have for reading material at their level. The little squirts who are too young to be reading yet usually work on letter or number worksheets during this time. Here's a video of a nice quiet work time with some of the kids.


Hanging out with the front porch gang is certainly my favorite part of the day!

Movie Night

By Katie

Last Friday night the youth at our church hosted a movie night. We used a data projector from Diaconia to project a movie on the wall of the church. In the end we had a pretty good turn out, but it wasn't without some struggles. We had about five youth who were part of the church's youth board which Matt and I help with since it overlaps with work we already do for Diaconia. The week before the movie two of the five announced they were switching churches. Another one was working and couldn't come and the other two showed up very late. So basically the event was a Matt and Katie production. We'd certainly like to see more ownership of the group by the youth themselves. Pray with us for the strengthening of this group.

There certainly were some successes though. There were about 20 people who ended up coming; some youth, some kids and some adults and we watched a remarkably good Christian movie that many seemed to enjoy. I made popcorn over an open fire for my first time and only burned a little bit!

A model for short-term missions

By Katie

Recently I got to go along with a group of visitors from Michigan to their first visit to the community of Dos Quebradas, about 45 minutes from where we live. It was exciting to me for a couple of reasons. First, I went along as a translator for the group. It was my first time doing something like this, and I was happy that it went pretty well, although I know too that I've still got a lot more Spanish to learn!

Folks from the community, Diaconia and CRWRC staffers and the visitors from Michigan.

What was most exciting though was the way this church, Mayfair Christian Reformed of Grand Rapids, MI, is looking to form a partnership with the community of Dos Quebradas. In 2007, Diaconia Nacional began a process of making a "Community Transformation Plan" for each community they work with. The process involves surveys, writing the history of the community story, community mapping, and asking the community to name their top ten priorities they'd like to see for the development of their community. Arturo of Diaconia took the information he collected and wrote it into a report. The community uses the document to assess how they are doing on making their priority projects a reality in their community. The process inspires them to look within their community and to various NGOs and the government to get the resources they need. The document is revised every year to mark changes and to hold the community members accountable to it.
A picture from a community transformation planning meeting in Dos Quebradas, 2007.

Once the plan is done and is being used within the community, CRWRC takes it and translates a shortened version into English. Churches who are interested in forming partnerships with a church or community in another country can read the profiles of the communities with the plan and choose one that fits the interests and abilities of their congregants. The North American church then sends a fact-finding team to initially meet the community and explore what they could do to continue a long-term relationship with this community. This fact-finding trip was what brought the three people from Mayfair to Dos Quebradas. They'll take what they learned and present it to their council, and Lord willing will start planning another trip with a group from their church.

I really like this model for many reasons. It ensures that the community names their own priorities, as opposed to donors who might put the ideas into the minds of the community members. From the outset the community understands that they are in charge of making the connections necessary to get a water project (or whatever other project) done. It's possible that a North American group might come and lend a hand, but really they need to get things done locally. It's a good deal for the North American churches too because they are encouraged to make long-term relationships with one community and learn to share in their joys and sorrows over the years and helps instil a new set of values and way of looking at the world for both sides of the partnership. The groups that return year after year to Honduras certainly exhibit higher levels of understanding and have realistic expections for what their time with the community means for the building of their on-going relationship. It's a great model to follow for doing short-term missions right.

Student Prayers

By Katie

The exams are done and school's out for the year at Luz y Verdad. Just before the end I got some fun work in from the students in computer class. Their assignment was to write a series of prayers by drawing a picture in Paint, then saving it and inserting it into a Word document where they typed the words to the prayer. That they all were able to do this is showed the progress that they had made throughout the year. Many could hardly use a mouse at the beginning of the year, and only one or two knew how to save their work.

Here's some of the pictures they created and the prayers they wrote, translated into English.

By Oto (fourth grade)

Our Father in heaven, holy be your name. Come to do your will on the earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread, forgive us our sins. Also help us to forgive the sins of others. Help also the politicians that they can resolve the problem in the country and that all can return to normal. Amen.

By Fernando (third grade)

Father God we ask that you guard all the people of the earth including the people of the world, for the pastors and for Mel and Michelleti. Father, guard us. Amen.

By Adela Michell (third grade)

Lord, I pray for the children that they can learn. Amen.





By Estefany and Cintia (fifth grade)

Our Father in heaven, protect the forests, the animals and the people in our country. Amen.




AMEN!

Gift Catalog

By Katie

This year's CRWRC gift catalog is out and again includes some things from Honduras. I thought I'd highlight the items specifically for Honduras. There's lots more gifts to choose from around the world; check out the entire catalog by clicking here.

Moringa Tree ($2 usd)
"Purchasing animal feed in Honduras is expensive and has the added environmental cost of transportation. Moringa trees provide highly nutritious leaves and pods that can be eaten by cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and rabbits." Humans can eat it too!

Of course, this is our personal favorite. Matt does trainings on the moringa tree very often and the purchase of these trees would continue the funding for even more trainings, seeds and seedlings.

Nutrition Kit ($17 usd)
"A nutritional kit containing soybean milk, vitamins, and anti-parasite medication can help a Honduran child gain the nutrients and protection she needs to grow strong and healthy."

Two nurses work for Diaconia in southern Honduras where very high rates of malnutrition exist. They distribute these kits to trained health leaders in the communities. These community leaders run mini-pharmacies and are sources of knowledge in their communities.

Water Filter ($50 usd)
"A plastic filter that uses water and sand to filter out germs can clean stored water and make it healthy to drink."

These are also distributed through the health program in the south.



Water Containers ($65 usd)

"A water storage container, or PILA, can help a Honduran family gain regular access to water."

The people fortunate enough to have running water in Honduras don't experience running water like we know it in North America. It rarely comes every day, sometimes up to once every fifteen days. In the mean time, we keep stores of water to use. The alternative to having a pila is filling up 3 liter pop bottles little by little and keeping them for storage. Even those who don't have running water find it much easier to store the water from the hand pump in a pila rather than so many small containers. Pilas are essential for life in Honduras.