New Adventures

The terrain here is very beautiful but extremely rough to travel on. From Tegucigalpa, the capital city which we flew into, it took about 2 or 2 and a half hours to get to the Leadership Center, where we live. Bumpy does not even describe it, but it was wonderful to finally arrive and meet the girls who are learning here. Some days, when it rains a lot no one can even travel on the roads that we must use to get here. We must have crossed rivers at least 5 times. Amazingly, we can cross the rivers on dirt bikes (motos) some days when the rivers are low. There are two guys here that have motos we can borrow.

Though we are nowhere near a village or city, after the first week of getting settled in, I am excited to start visiting other families nearby. I need to work on my Spanish a lot to be able to communicate more in depth with the people, but for now it has been fun visiting and chatting as much as possible.

We will be visiting the sole elementary school in the area at least once or twice a week. Although it is quite the trek, (about 1 hour on foot with sis on my back,…Ira and Olivia will try to borrow a moto to get there), it is a good opportunity to help out the community and get to know more families in the area. There are about 28 students ages 6-12ish taught by one teacher, Marcia, in one classroom. If we can go to help teach even one day a week it gives Marcia the chance to break the class in half and work with a smaller group of students in a closer age range for a bit. We also stay after school is over to play soccer and other games with the kids. It seems to be rare here to see adults playing with or instructing their children, so of course the kids are super excited to be getting some extra attention. It is also nice for Olivia to meet other kids here, she has made one friend in particular, her name is Jessica. Sometimes we go to her house on our way home after school is out. Her mother, Lydia (called Profesora or Profe by most) is a well known member of the community and is involved in the selection of student for the Leadership Center. She used to teach at the school, but from what I understand, she was in a moto accident and lost the use of her legs, her husband and also her job. I have really enjoyed talking with her, currently she is dreaming up a classroom to be built at her home so that she can continue teaching. She is one of those people who never stops teaching people in her everyday life. She has already taught me a lot and she lives with 5 of her children and three grandchildren.

I took a walk with Sicily the other day and found that there is a family only 15 minutes down the road with 3 little girls and a boy. I think we will go visit them again when Olivia is with us so she can play with the kids. I am looking forward to getting to know them better, the mom, Andrea, seemed very friendly but I need to keep practicing Spanish so I can talk with her more!

Ira and I took the girls to splash around in the river yesterday afternoon, we will definitely be doing that more often to cool down! After dinner yesterday we experienced our first extreme Honduran rainstorm where the lightning is almost blinding and the campus becomes a lake. It is so loud you have to yell to talk to anyone, so we pretty much just played with the kids, letting them scream and squeal as much as they liked since we couldn’t hear. The girls didn’t mind and overall it was pretty fun J

I feel like our whole world is a playground right now. There is so much for us to explore and I am so excited for the opportunities that God has for us here.

Becoming Familiar

After two weeks in the wilderness of Honduras, I mean our new home, I am feeling a bit more confident about everything. The surroundings are becoming more familiar, I am learning how to care for my family in a different culture and completely different lifestyle:

-communal kitchen- guess what we'll have for dinner...you got it- rice beans tortillas and maybe eggs. We do have peanut butter...they make the corn tortillas taste a lot better!

no hot water

garbage disposal=burn or bury everything

travel: on foot, horseback or moto, unless you are lucky to hop in the back of someone's truck exercise: (although most Hondurans do not formally exercise) for me=trail running...watch out for cattle herding, horses, dogs, chickens, and try not to break your ankle on the rough terrain...I've biffed it twice already but no serious injuries :) Oh, there is an incredible waterfall on a 10 minute run down a path from our house...new definition of the word breathtaking, incredible landscape

cement floors- love that you can spill (or toss) anything on the floor, wait for it to dry and just sweep it out the door later. we are borrowing a sleeping bag for Sicily to sit on so when she falls over she doesnt get hurt. I'm a little nervous for when she starts moving more.

solar power- the only electricity we have...we are able to charge computers and have a few dull lights on in the evening. basically we go to bed before 9 (it gets dark at 630) and get up at 5am. I have a reading light I turn on when I get up with Sicily at night.

Bugs- do everything you can to not get eaten alive...burn outside picnic bug smokers in your house before bedtime, use a lot of bug spray, never leave any food or water in your house, smash every spider, mosquito, stick bug looking scorpian, and anything else with more than four legs or wings that you see, and lastly, struggle through two bug nets every time the baby wakes up at night...I would say The Bugs are the most difficult thing to get used to

At first, the place we are at seemed so incredibly isolated, I was thinking, what am I going to do here if I can't even find Honduran families! But, poco a poco, little by little, we have been coming into more contact with the people of the area and I am so excited to be here!

We have a wonderful community of women who we live with. Together we cook, eat, learn, wash laundry, have church, ect. These girls are all about 18-22 years old and they are the students at leadership university. Joseph and Ira teach most of the classes, but Hailey has taught them a lot about health. So far I have just done one class with them in which they made skits-they will perform this saturday. I am hoping to start leading some conversations in class so I can begin writing/researching more about Honduran culture.

Pics of Honduras so far

Hailey and Sarah chatting in front of our new house

Olivia and one of our students, Alex...Olivia's favorite

Daddy and Sicily waiting out the rain storm in the hammock

Sicily in her play corner

Front of our house...time for some landscaping

Bath time!  Hot water from the kitchen and buckets...showers are usually cold unless you time it right.

Pretty waterfall

Pretty people and pretty waterfall

after morning nap

Little cutie

Sicily with some of the students, Mayra, Martha and Keyby

Sicily with student, Karen

The girls...and Sicily's crazy hair.

Happy girl!

New York Pictures

Week 2 - Some visitors

I’m going to try and post every Saturday or Sunday from here on out…so those should be the better days to check.  Saturdays we only teach in the morning, so the afternoons I have a little more time to process my thoughts and go over the week.  On Sundays we only have meals and church planned, so they are our rest days to just relax or get caught up on what we didn’t do during the week. 

This last week a short term volunteer team came in and helped around the farm and also taught a couple classes.  It was nice having some new, English-speaking faces, protein bars and some powdered drink mix.  They were able to get a lot accomplished on the farm and working with the girls.  Olivia really liked one of the female volunteers and hung out with her mostly, but at the end of the trip also enjoyed hanging with a couple of the guys that came down.

Once a week our students go to an elementary school and teach English to the students there.  It’s a good way for them to practice English, while also giving back to the community.  We decided that we would join for a change of scenery.  It took us 1hr and 30 min to walk there, including a diaper change or 2, a couple scraped knees and 3 crossed streams.  It was an adventure that we’ll probably make most weeks since there are a lot of kids gathered…Olivia’s new play date.  I was also able to play soccer with some of the students, so that was fun.  Probably, the most exercise I’ve had since arriving in Honduras. 

After soccer we walked back to Profesora’s (a well-respected woman in the community who taught at the elementary school) house.  I bought a bag of chips and coke from her for about $0.50 and it hit the spot.  She also cooked us some eggs and tortillas.  Before we left we also noticed she had some bread and cookies for sale, so Sarah purchased a couple small bags, which have turned out to be a very nice morning snack.  Later, we went to the local church with the short term volunteer team to pass out some items that they brought from the states.  On the way back from the church I got a wet ride in the back of a pickup.  Fortunately when it rains here, it’s still usually 65+ degrees and even warmer leading up to the rain!  It’s more refreshing than cold (or even wet).  Much different from Pac NW, I’m used to. 

I’m not sure when, but it must have been Tuesday, we decided to walk to a viewpoint to check out the huge waterfall.  It puts Multnomah Falls to shame, for those of you familiar with the falls.  The viewpoint is approximately at the same height of the top of the waterfall, with cliffs more or less cutting straight down to the bottom of the canyon.  It’s difficult to describe in words, but to try: a natural beauty formed over several hundred if not thousands of years and still untouched by man.  It looks like the back drop for a movie scene.  The pictures (and my description for that matter) don’t do it justice.  It’s shear awesomeness.  

The short term team also started on the brick/mosquito net wall that is being built around the eating area.  It will be a nice deterrent for the dogs, chickens, mosquitos and flies.  Meals sans insects and animals and a good place to study in the afternoon and evening, will be a huge blessing for all.

1 week down 51 to go!

We’ve now been in Honduras for a week and have had ups and downs.  We’ve met some good people, been surprised at the girl’s English skills, enjoyed the weather, but have also missed home, had difficulty with getting Olivia to eat and Sicily still likes to wake us (especially Sarah) up a lot at night.  We are also pretty isolated here with not a whole lot of places to go see, at least that are near the campus, so that’s been a little difficult, especially for the girls.  They are used to going to friends’ houses, parks, the grocery store and wherever else.  Here at the campus, we don’t own any vehicles (though we have access to a motorcycle and truck if we need them).  The nice thing about being here is that we have tons of space for the girls to explore.  We have yet gone to the waterfall, but would like to soon!  I’ve seen it before and its quite cool. 

It seems like Olivia is having a ball if you don’t count the eating part of Honduras.  She doesn’t like that every meal is rice, beans and tortilla.  Neither do I, but she’s a little young to understand that we could have almost whatever we wanted and now we can pretty much have what’s on our plate.  Thankfully there is oatmeal and peanut butter.  She’s also benefited from the snacks that we sent ahead.  And yes, so have Sarah and I.  Anyway, back to Olivia having a ball…she enjoys spending time with the students (all girls, if I haven’t explained that yet), and one in particular, Alex.  I’m guessing because she is younger, than the rest, plays with her and speaks decent English.  She always asks where she is. We are hoping that the girls will learn a fair amount of English from Olivia since she doesn’t quite understand that the girls don’t know English.  She has also learned a couple Spanish words that she was telling me this morning, like agua and hola.  We also had a new group of volunteers arrive last night for this week and Olviia has already attached herself to one of them. 

Teaching is going pretty well so far.  I don’t think I’ve epically failed yet, so that is a plus in my book.  I am still trying to gauge all that the girls understand and figure out the best ways for them to learn (so any ideas are welcome).  For the most part, they know more English than I expected and are generally pretty intelligent.  There are a few girls, I’m convinced, that will actually make a large impact on their community, if not their country.  So far we are sticking with teaching English.  I think we will do this for at least the first 6-12months of their education and at some point introduce leadership, math, science, business and other subjects.  We’ve only touched on business and leadership within discussions.  I’m also really glad to have Joseph and Hailey down here already and broken in.  Hailey has been a huge help with the girls and Sarah and Joseph has helped guide me in preparing lessons and discussions. 

We look forward to having some of you visit sometime in the next year! 

We Made It!

We arrived at the Leadership University Campus yesterday afternoon to our new home and really our new life for the next several months.  Obviously, we are very excited to get started on teaching and other projects around the campus.  Which is good because teaching starts today! The girls have class from 9-11, so I will sit in while Joseph teaches those, so I can get a feel of how he teaches (speed of speaking, vocabulary, etc) and then I will teach 2 classes this afternoon. 
The girls are doing well.  Sarah went for a run this morning through the mud and Olivia "worked" with one of the students, feeding the chickens, getting to hold one of the baby chicks, and "shooing" them into the coop.  Sicily actually slept pretty well, which pleasantly surprised us!

We'll unpack all of our stuff later today and try to get a little more organized. 

Thanks for everyone's support!  We'll have pictures soon. 

To New York!

We arrived in New York (flew in to Jersey actually) late Tuesday night and made the 1.5 hour ride to Sarah's parents' house to make it there by 1:30am local time.  Since Sarah booked the trip this time, it only took about 13hrs, 2 stops, 1 plane change, Mcdonalds, TCBY and some free peanuts and pretzels to get here.  She actually had no choice, it was the only itinerary we could get with our free flights.  Anyway, it was a long day, but with the time change it was really only like 10:30pm for us (former) West Coasters, so not too bad.  Bad for Sarah's parents though who had to get up early the next morning for work...sorry, but we couldn't pass up the free flight.  They of course understood, Olivia was super excited to see grandma and grandpa, Sicily loved all the lights, and we are very appreciative!  Thanks again Brandts!  And the Reese's Klondike Bar I had while watching the thunderstorm at 2am was scandalous.  I now have something else I will miss while in Honduras.

A couple things I learned the last few days:
1. Moving a family to another country is hard (and I'm not even there yet!).  There are a lot of preparations and a lot of luggage.  6 checked bags (including the pack n play), 3 backpacks, 1 laptop, and another bag for Siciliy's and Olivia's toys...I might never move back from Honduras just to avoid moving all the stuff.  Thankfully we plan to leave a fair amount of things in Honduras whenever we return.
2. I have a lot of clothes.  I think I may have only taken about 1/4-1/3 of my shirts...ridiculous.  This after a trip to Goodwill also.
3. Saying goodbye is difficult, even when you're planning on making it temporary.  I love my family in Oregon and it was hard saying goodbye.  I kind of got a taste of what Sarah and her family do each time they visit for a few days then have to return for a few months.
4. We have a lot of friends and family that have been extremely generous in supporting us for this trip!  Thank you everyone who has helped in one way or another.

We are very excited for the couple weeks in NY and the next year or so in Honduras!  Glad you are along for the ride, at least in some vicarious way.

We'll also post some pictures of NY while we are here, but here are a couple pics we took with my family a week before we left for NY. 

 Uncle Chrissy

 Lady Lucias

Making sure the angle was right

 jump, jump, jump...jump around

 Our little family

My side of the family

Miss you guys already!

Final Preperations

We are about 2 weeks away from  leaving Oregon to visit Sarah's family in New York.  We are very excited to see Sarah's family and some old friends and also getting to the next step in getting to Honduras.  At this point we are just ready for our adventure to begin.  It's seems like it's been a long way coming, and then I remember that we still wont be there for another 4 weeks.  I'm sure it will go fast, but it seems a ways away.

Now that I am done working, I've been able to spend a lot of time with my wife and 2 daughters.  It's been a lot of fun.  Parks, parades and OMSI...kind of felt like a kid again!  BTW, OMSI is awesome!  I am seriously considering going back to see everything we missed.  I've also been able do some yard work at my parents and will be helping out a couple friends this week at their houses.  We would also like to squeeze a trip to Crater Lake in sometime before we leave.

We are hoping to see a lot of family and friends before we leave, most of them at our going away party this Saturday.  If you are in town and I didn't invite you already, please feel free to stop by.  Starts at 3!

Thanks for everyone's support!

Fundraising Update

It's been truly amazing to experience the generosity of others.  We've really been blessed by those around us. 


Let me provide an update on our fundraising...At first, donations were only trickling in and I was wondering if God would actually provide financially for the trip through people's donations.  I blogged previously  about being tested to trust in God providing for our trip.  I was already off to a bad start in this trust thing, but after a few weeks several donations started coming in, which was encouraging.  I was back to trusting!  Then it seemed like there was like this a lull, if you will, in donations...we reached $5k in donations towards our house goal of $10k about 2 or 3 weeks ago.  With only about a month left in Oregon, I was beginning to be very skeptical, back to doubting.  A few days later I received a Facebook message from a friend.  He said that he had been praying about donating and  felt led to match any amount up to $5k...very convenient, maybe even God inspired, since we had raised $5k already and we needed $5k to get to our house goal...Ok, now that God had provided for us, I was trusting again!  It is crazy to me how faithful God is even when we don't always trust Him.  The hard part is trusting before He provides.


Whether or not you trust in God or even believe in Him, it's a nice story of family and friends being generous.  We would like to thank everyone that has donated.  It's been really cool to see the generosity of our family and friends.  

We have another goal of raising about $7K for travelling cost, medical insurance, storage unit (here in the US).  We've been able to cut some of this cost by selling a lot of 'stuff' and going with a smaller storage unit (5ftx5ft!!) and finding a good, but lower cost insurance plan.  We are now aiming for $6,000, and are about $1500 short of this goal as of today.  These expenses cannot be provided by the organization or Solid Rock Church because we are not employees of either.  

If you are interested in helping out financially, we'd prefer that support be donated to us (ie check written to us) so that we can achieve our 2nd goal.  If you feel more comfortable donating to an actual organization, that's ok too.  Even though we've raised the $10k for our house, any additional money will almost entirely go towards our ministry of teaching/empowering the poor in Honduras.  The immediate needs of the college/farm are a new water storage tank, completion of building classrooms, bedrooms, school supplies, laptops. 

If you'd like to donate your time, we'd love to have any and all of you down for whatever amount of time to teach, build or just visit and relax!  Let us know if you are interested.