I've had a few different jobs in my life, and getting myself to work has taken several different forms over the years: Dirt bike, napping in the sleeper part of a semi, car rides of varying distances, and in Minneapolis, biking (even in the winter). But this past week I had one of the most interesting "commutes" to work I have ever had.
The Diaconia cars were already spoken for for the day, and David and I needed to get to the community of La Avispa. There are basically two ways to get to La Avispa; one is a bumpy ride in a pickup truck around the mountains, through a pass and backtracking through the next valley to the north (1.5 to 2 hour ride). The other option is a foot trail that follows the Olancho river up a steep canyon called El Boqueron (1.5 or 2 hour hike). We decided to hike up the canyon, much to my delight!
We crossed the river a few times and then ran across a fellow traveler. He is a young man and happens to be the pastor in training for the Baptist church in La Avispa.
We followed the trail together, crossing the clear waters of the Río Olancho several times. It was incredibly beautiful! There were amazing lilies, huge cliffs, beautiful rock formations, tropical birds, and caves. I am told that the Honduran government is in the process of making this area a national park.
As we continued up the path we passed by the famous "cave of the tiger", where a man and his wife have set up their homestead in a cave. We bought some really flavorful bananas from them and kept on hiking up to la Avispa.
The reason for our trip to La Avispa was to meet with an agriculture group, train them on how to grow and use the Moringa tree, and check up on how their Moringa nursery is doing. Moringa leaves are packed with vitamins and protein, and are good for humans and animals. We brought some leaves with us to make into a sort of stew with sausage and potatoes. It was really good.
At the home where they prepared the moringa stew for us someone had caught an armadillo and was planning on butchering it (they say the meat is pretty good). I did see armadillo meat, but I don't think any of it ended up in the stew!
The moringa nursery was doing fairly well. We have had some trouble with seed germination (I think the seeds we bought are old) but around half of them had sprouted and produced nice seedlings.
After our meeting Roldan and Arturo showed up in one of the Diaconia vehicles. We helped them with their meeting which involved all of the community. They are working with the people to create a "plan for community transformation" which is a big document that contains all sorts of statistics about the community, history, levels of well being of the residents, and helps organize the felt needs of the community. Through this process the community decides together on their major priorities and how they will work together to make those things a reality (for example, we need running water, let's organize a water board and start raising money and making plans for a water system, etc.)
After the meeting we left with Arturo and Roldan. In the end I think the foot path is the best way to get to La Avispa. It is nice that I was able to get to know the way, because Jorge, the president of the Olancho CR youth board, wants me to accompany a bunch of young people on a hike up to La Avispa. The plan is to put on a big youth-oriented worship service up there and then hike back down some Saturday in May. I'm looking forward to it!
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