Work Group in El Naranjo and El Burillo

By Katie

This past week I was able to tag along with a work group that came to southern Honduras from West End CRC in Edmonton, Alberta. All in all the group included twelve visiting Canadians, four Honduran masons, four translators and a few more Diaconia and CRWRC staff. I went as one of the translators.

We spent five working days pouring cement floors in homes in El Naranjo and latrines in El Burillo. This was the fourth time a group from this church has gone to this community, so it was fun to see how the relationships they had continued to blossom. Pastor Lucio of El Naranjo explained to me how exciting it was to have them back every year and to see how much more open both sides were with each other as every year went by.

The family of Dominga and Emiliano was a recipient of a latrine. They were very involved in all parts of the project; the men and boys worked super hard to finish their latrine in one day (not to mention the two weeks they had spent prior to our arrival to hand dig the 12ish foot deep by 5ish foot diameter hole for the waste from the latrine!). Dominga was a big part of the church and worked in the kitchen to make food for the group. In this picture you can see a hammock stretched in front of them. Nearly all of the families in this community make hand-made hammocks for a company who distributes them.

Several of the houses in El Naranjo had moringa trees planted. Lisa and Gloribel (Diaconia's nurses working in the south) had done another moringa training and given the women seedlings to plant. If you look hard enough, you can see that this one was doing great!

On Sunday we took a day trip to Amapala, an island in the Pacific Ocean. We for a swim and then had a wonderful lunch prepared by a woman who is in Diaconia's health program in that community.

We had a kids' program in each of the communities for the kids and whoever else showed up. It included a short message, craft and piñata.

Here´s some of the hard-working guys in front of a nearly finished latrine. Jorge, in the cowboy hat, was the homeowner.

This is my little pal Deny. On one of the first days I drew a picture of him so that he could color it and every day after that he was always at my worksite. But he didn't say one word to me until the very last day!

Here's the group, smiling and satisfied after seeing their friends again and lending a hand in making a healthier, stronger community.

La Costilla Perdida

By Matt

This is one of my favorite funny things about spanish. Since God made Eve out of one of Adams ribs people refer to your wife as "La Costilla" (the rib) sometimes. Anyway my "Costilla" is "perdida" (lost) right now. Well not exactly lost, I know where she is. She is near the southern coast of Honduras helping translate for a group of Canadians that are building latrines and floors in some communities down there for about 8 days. It is really hot down in the south, so hopefully she is surviving. The town that she is in has no cell phone reception or electricity, so I haven't been able to talk to her much.
So, last friday after work, rather than spend the night at home alone I went over to the national park just outside of town where the caves are. I wanted to visit our friend Calixto and meet the new peace corps volunteer that is living with him. It is about a 30 minute walk from park entrance up the gorge to where calixto's house is perched above a river (dry right now). We drank coffee and tried to tell some jokes in spanish (which basically failed for lack of experience and memory). Josh the peace corps guy seems like a good fella. He's only been here a few months and he already bought a horse! He paid about $75, and I guess it is pretty slow.
The best part was in the morning when we were drinking coffee. About 6 white faced monkeys were picking fruit from the huge trees just behind Calixto's house. They were jumping from tree to tree and scurrying all over the place. It was really neat. Sorry, again, no pictures because Katie has the camera with her.

Coffee Harvest

By Matt

At this time of year many people have migrated up to the mountains of Honduras to pick coffee. We see pickup trucks and mules coming down out of the mountians with big sacks of coffee on them. Coffee is one of my favorite crops not only because I love to drink it, but because I have seen the positive impacts it can have on God's creation and for the people here in Honduras (when its done right).

In the Ag/Environment program we are working with a group of producers from El Carrizal with the goal of exporting coffee to Canada. This is no small task! But I really love the challenge, and the farmers are very excited about it too. The Carpinteros have been instrumental in this initiative since they know the producers well and have a desire to see them get a price that is in accordance with the quality of coffee they produce. This year is more of a trial than anything with the amount of coffee small enough so that the risk is low enough both for the farmers and the buyers. One thing is for sure, Olancho has some amazing terrain for coffee growing. Up in the mountains north of town there are large areas of land with good elevations (from 1000 to 2000m) which have the potential to produce high quality coffee.
The farms are beautiful. The coffee is grown under a mix of shade trees most of which are native to the area and provide plenty of habitat for birds and animals. This past week we had a meeting up at one of the farms where they were harvesting and processing coffee. We went with the regional engineer from the Honduran coffee institute, and the manager of a regional Cooperative that we are looking to partner with. Getting up to the farm involves a couple hours of steep, muddy, rocky, mountain roads and ends up in a pristene valley, source of the Olancho River.

The pictures are on David's camera. I'll post them as soon as I can get them from David. (to be continiued)

Christmas Break

By Matt

Well, we went home to the US for Christmas break to spend some time with our families. It was great to see everyone again, but the transition to winter in Minnesota and Michigan was pretty rough! The high was -2 the day after we arrived.
We got snowed in over Christmas in Leota. Here is a picture of us fixing a puzzle with Matt's Grandma Hoekstra. Grandma's cancer has come back in her mouth, so please keep her in your prayers.

Since there was a big blizzard, we had some spare time and made tunnels through a big snow-pile. It was a great time.

Later we traveled to Michigan and spent time with the Hamstras. Here we are with Aunt Darlene and Uncle Jerry and Katie's parents. Michigan was very snowy too. Again it was great to be with family for the holiday season.

Now we have been back in very tropical and hot Honduras for a while. Things are going well and we are keeping quite busy with work.