Now What?

Kai and I watched a video today about building a house and it was amazing to see the machinery, the forms, the wiring, the pipes, the landscaping, etc that went into making this house on the video. All I could think about was lugging block, hand mixing cement, twisting rebar, leveling each row of the wall...

I would love to go back to Honduras. The question that seems to coming up for me today is "how do you use your resources?" At every turn I see stuff, excess. I do not want to live in 'a falling down shack' as Sienna so perfectly described many of the houses we saw. But I am in such a place of privledge, both in my own community and especially as compare to the global community.

Where do we focus our time, energy and resources? Where does family travel fit into the picture? How do you build relationships, connections, structures, goodwill while being sensitive to the existing community and culture? What do you do for self and what do you do for others? What is really needed in the world?

Welcome Home!

Willow and Kai stayed up and picked us up at the airport. I loved seeing Kai speeding down the airport in his pajamas to give us a hug. Willow wrote some beautiful cards and surprised us with a welcome home sign.

Botanical Gardens

We zipped off to the famous botanical gardens for a quick (really quick!) visit before heading to the airport.

Photos of kids

Gift to Julia

Instead of buying things, Sienna decided to give the money that our neighbors gave her to Julia, who is the teacher of the school we were building. We had a spanish speaker write a little note that it was for buying things for her students. I was told later that she really appreciated it.

Final Work Day

Day five was hard for me; I didn't want to leave. Wilson and I and the other guys had become friends and I wanted to hang out with them more. The language barriar was frustrating--I know a bunch of spanish words, but can only conjugate two verbs (to have and to talk).

I did manage to string together a few "conversations" and understand a bit of what was said to me--mostly declarations of admiration, questions about Sienna, and comments about our blue eyes. Wilson really wants to learn English and I hope that he is able to one day.

THere wasn't much work for us to do on Friday--I tied some rebar and mostly hung around with the girls. We had discovered the day before that we could do hand clapping games together and the kids loved to laugh when I totally messed up because I didn't do the pattern correctly. I also learned that rock, paper, sicssors is the same in English and Spanish.

Yeimi, Yeni, Yohanna and Dixi constantly were hugging me and followed me around the site wanting to sit in the shade and have their picture taken. Whenever I took a picture all the kids--even the teenagers wanted to seee the photo on the camera. We found a hibicus tree (or something like that) and put flowers behind out ears. Que bonita!

THursday I found out that the teenagers were taking pictures of us! On thier cell phones! Yes these guys have cell phones and Jim and I do not.

It was hard to say goodbye. After a group photo, some handshakes and some hugs we left. Just like that. It was such a strange feeling to just go and not know anything about these folks and yet feel connected to them and their community. How bizarre to just descend for a week, pack up all our tools and be on our way.

What will happen to these folks--all the ones who are sick and swarmed the doctors when they arrived, the kids who go to the school, the guys who built it, Julia the teacher, the old woman whose volunteers kept on visiting? Will Wilson ever learn English? Will Will's cute infant son grow up to have rotten teeth like so many of the other kids? What is really needed in the community?

Photos from the worksite

Pictures from the worksite. The morning of Day 4, Alfonzo, Sienna, Will and Wilson.

Pictures from the Day Care Center

I can't figure out how to add/delete pictures to a post so here are of few of the kids from the day care center. And some photos of Sienna's beautiful butterflies.

Back to Jazmin

From Sienna's Journal:

Today I went back to Jazmin and when we got up there the guys were eating and we got right o work. The window spaces are already in and so tomorrow we might work on the windows.

Doctors came Mommy stayed with them and they did flouride treatments for the kids at Jazmin.

There was a presentation for the PTs in Honduras and the visitors from Vermont. Once people were done talking we had cake. I had two small peices. It was delicious. My mom was no there. I was there mostly with most of Hand to Honduras. But Meghan and Meghan's mom Debby watched me.

Painting

From Sienna's Journal:
January 30, 2008

"INFA starts at 10," said Mommy this morning. So then we went downstairs for breakfast. After I was halfway through breakfast Meghan told me, "I'm going to Punta Sol. Would you like to come?" I asked Mommy if we could go but guess what? That lady said we couldn't. Because she says we have come to work. But the stupid plane got delayed so we couldn't go on the baot ride the first day. But this is what I don't get. She said this trip was all about me. Then I started crying. And then I went in to the computer room and we typed an email.

We got our bathing suits on and Mommy got her sarong thing. When we went downstairs we saw a braider. She asked me if I wanted my hair braided. I said yes. Mama said no for her. We were looking for a braider so we thought it would be just perfect before we swam.

The girl only pulled my hair just about three times. How 'bout this. I'll send you a picture of my hair braided. Then we went swimming for about 25 minutes. Then we went to INFA.

We walked there. We saw bulk dog food. We saw green bananas.

When we got to INFA a girl nammed Hannah led me to a classroom that was very noisy with screaming toddlers. It was too loud. I siad to Hannah, "I think I'm going to help set up the paints now."

We finished all the INFA animals. I was in charge of butterflies.

We saw elastics. We saw kids selling vegetables on their own.

We got home and swam for about 15 minutes before we were "gonna" walk with Meghan and her mom. But we told them, "You guys, you know what we're having so much fun in the water." Then Marleen and Sarah and Liz and Will and Brittany and her grandparents came in the water with us.

There was a party tonight for Sam. It was his birthday Friday but we celebrated it today. He is 78.

We saw Garifina dances. They were neat. I got carried away taking pictures and mama said Sienna why don't you take a break so their eyes don't hurt.

The Garifinas got caught as slaves and their boat got shipwrecked and they used to fight to get not slaved.

---Sienna


Today was the first time I had left the group and done something other than walk from the hotel to the van to the worksite and then back to the van and to the hotel.

The walk to INFA (a day care center for kids of single moms) was only a few blocks away. We passed all of these vendors. There were women and men sitting inside or outside thier shops selling everything from shirts to rice to platic baskets to bulk dog food. It was as though the people from the Kiva (http://www.kiva.org/) pictures came alive. On the way back we went through this large indoor vegetable market. We got a lot of stares. Sienna was surprised that it was mostly kids her age selling the produce.

I wanted to take pictures of everything and everyone, but it feels so rude. I remember that feeling when Jim and I traveled, but now everything is so different with digital cameras. Now I can just snap away and not have to wait for the perfect picture and be concerned that I am using up all my film. Anyhow I did get some good pictures but felt funny about it.

Sienna and I had so much fun in the ocean. We were swimming in the waves for nearly two hours this afternoon. She is so joyful when she is in the water!

The dances tonight were fascinating, and yet again there was this tension I felt. Here we were this bunch of white folks watching the minority black ethnic group perform for us. I would have liked to have learned something about the Garifuna's history and current situation.