The pros and cons of isolation

By Matt

It is a long, bumpy, dusty couple of hours to get from Catacamas to el Coyolar. On the way we pass a lot of cactus and some huge rock formations, the terrain reminds me of Arizona. In the community of El Coyolar for the past three years the harvests of basic grains have been low or nothing at all. This past October they asked Diaconia for help in getting bean seeds to plant because there were so little in the community. A group of 20 people in the community each received 50 pounds of red beans to plant. Then we prayed earnestly for rain. The agreement was that they would pay Diaconia back the same amount of beans at harvest time (which is a pretty good deal considering that it is customary to pay back twice the amount of seed borrowed). God sent rain, there was a modest harvest, and they paid back the beans. Here you can see a youth putting a 200 pound sack of beans in the Diaconia truck. Most grains are stored in sacks like those. I’ve had to move them around and it is not real easy.

The people in El Coyolar are motivated and true to their word, I think in part because they realize they are quite isolated and not a lot of institutions notice them. This isolation also means that local disputes tend to get resolved locally. Olancho is renowned for this kind of independent mindset. Every time we have a community meeting is seems that an argument gets going, and sometimes it gets pretty heated, but it is almost always resolved somehow. The people know that somehow they need to make things work with each other.



A while back we trained the people of El Coyolar on how to grow and use Moringa trees. Here is a photo of one of them and the owner. On this day the community started the process of the Ag diagnostic where they start to make priorities for agricultural and environmental improvement. They also elected their “facilitators” who will be trained more intensively and work to get people to adopt new practices. Raul, the owner of the Moringa tree is one of the facilitators for El Coyolar.

Fundraiser: La Subasta

By Katie

There's a great easy fundraiser that is very common here in Honduras called the subasta. It's a type of silent auction. I recently did one to raise money for the computer lab at Luz y Verdad. The hot item I auctioned was an inflatable swimming pool, perfect for the season since we have entered the very hot very dry season. In other subastas I've been involved in we've auctioned cooking pots, a study Bible, and the very common subasta item; a whole rotiserie chicken.

The subasta is based on using envelopes such as the one below. The person in charge writes the information on the envelope, stamps the official stamp of the organization on it, and gives it to the people to sell. I gave three to every student at the school. You must put in at least 10 Lempiras (50 cents), but if you really want the item, you put in way more.

Then, on the appointed day, the people in charge open all the envelopes and see who put the most money in. I announced the winner at our Father's Day celebration on Friday. Fourth grader Alejandra was the winner.

The students helped raise about $75 dollars for the computer lab. With it I was able to pay myself back for the paint for the classroom walls and I'll also buy one battery/surge protector. The electricity has been going out a lot lately and the problem has already fried one motherboard and a hard drive. Little by little we hope to raise enough money to buy batteries so that all the computers can have an emergency power source.

Suggestions, anyone?

By Katie

So, what do you want to know? Is there anything that you've been wondering about our lives here in Honduras, about the ministries we're involved in or any other random question? Now's the time to ask! Feel free to send us an email or write a comment here if there's anything you'd like to read about in a blog post or newsletter.

I came across the idea of asking for suggestions while I was preparing for a workshop on newsletter writing at our last all-country meeting for Diaconia. It was a fun workshop for me because I got to bring out some old language arts tricks and got to teach computer skills too with my newly-learned Spanish-language computer teaching skills :)

I'm looking forward to hearing from you all!

Big Changes for Danya

By Katie

It's been quite a ride since I last wrote about Danya about two weeks ago. She's seen more changes in her life than any one person can imagine with two brand new ways of communicating now. But, more than anything, she sees herself as an important human being, a child of God equal to all the other children of God, even those without disabilities. The difference is startling. Let me tell you the story...

It started with Danya finally going to the specialized school like I mentioned in the last blog. At the school she's starting to learn sign language. Hopefully by learning sign language she'll eventually be able to communicate more complete thoughts. She's also taking language therapy classes where she'll learn to improve the limited speech abilities that she has. Here's a video of her and I practicing the vowels in sign language.

But the changes certainly didn't stop there! After communicating with every single person possible in both the United States and Honduras, we succeeded in getting Danya and her dad Elvin to Tegucigalpa to get hearing aids. She arrived one day early and had all the stuff she needed (even though we had a few frightening days before hand of thinking she was missing some paperwork and ear molds). The medical mission from the Starkey Foundation came to the swanky Hotel Honduras Maya in Tegucigalpa. We got there at 6:45 am and left around 11:45 am with Danya hearing the sounds of her environment for the first time.

Her dad and I had a lot of fun letting her walk in front of us and then calling her name, just to watch her turn around, the signal that she had heard us calling from behind. It was really fun to watch people around the hotel who were experiencing hearing for the first time like Danya.
However, learning sign language and hearing for the first time were just signposts of the true transformation that happened with Danya. Not long ago she was a naughty little bugger, bent on doing her own thing and never helping her mother. Her dad reports that after five days at school she was already showing signs of calming down, maturing up. While we were in Teguc together they stayed at the Diaconia Office where she helped me cook and do the dishes. She was keeping her dad and I on track much of the time, being sure we got out the door on time and were ready when we needed to be at the brigade. It's clear that she fully understands the sacrifices being made for her (her dad takes every Monday and Friday off of work just to bring her to school, and she understood that I have been working very hard on her behalf too and that people have helped me financially so that I can help her). She has taken it all to heart.