Trip to Tela!

Hola!

A lot has happened since Nathan last posted on Saturday :

First, we finished up our work at the bilingual school at the end of last week. The work was challenging for many of us, and last week was filled with lots of rain and messy dirt moving, but I think everyone here can be satisfied with the amount of work we completed for the classroom. The classroom isn't completely finished yet, but the locals who worked with us throughout our two weeks of work are continuing to make final additions.

Sunday morning we left at around 7 a.m. to take our trip to Tela! We traveled in pick-up trucks from La Union to San Pedro Sula, and from there we caught a bus that took us right to our destination on the beach in Tela. It was nice to experience another section of Honduras different from the one in which we spent the majority of our time. Tela is a much more "tourist friendly" town that had numerous shops and restaurants for us to explore - a few of us even bought Honduran soccer jerseys, in preparation for the World Cup this summer!

Our two days in Tela were filled with much fun and group bonding. We lounged by the pool or the beach during the day, played numerous card games, and tried to find creative ways to go down the water slide at the resort. We even played a little pool volleyball and water polo during the afternoons. The whole group also went out for a nice dinner on Monday night. On Tuesday morning, we made an awesome breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and french toast in the kitchen of the house where we stayed. It was a nice reminder to us all of what breakfast food back in the states tastes like! (As a side note, Chuck took first prize in the who-got-more-sunburnt contest -- he looked like a tomato..)

We left the resort this morning at 5:15 a.m. to begin our journey back to La Union. It was quite the trip. We first took a bus from Tela back to San Pedro (approx. 2 hours). From there, we took another bus from San Pedro to Santa Barbara (another 2-ish hours). Finally, we took a bumpy, hot 3 hour bus ride through the mountains from Santa Barbara to La Union. We were all pretty relieved to be back at the familiar compound of Vida Abundante after our 9 hour travel experience.

Tomorrow will be spent resting and getting ready for our journey back to the States on Saturday. For me, I'm a little disappointed that the trip is ending already, but at the same time I'm ready to come back to life in Michigan. This trip has been an incredible opportunity to do God's work in a place that needs it and experience a culture and environment much different from Ann Arbor. I definitely have learned a lot of new things and despite the slight sadness I'm feeling, I can't wait to return home to share my experiences.

Tomorrow, one of us will try to post some pictures from the events I have referenced here!

Adios!

Field Trips and Comedores

Finishing up our second week yesterday in La Union, Jack and I had the opportunity to participate in some unique experiences! Friday morning was our scheduled time to teach at the school, but it happened to be the morning for the school-wide field day. The two of us were invited to join them and Friday morning we hiked with the whole school about 30-40 minutes out of town and up a mountain to a soccer field in the middle of the woods called "Campo de Cerro."

(This picture shows all of us hiking through the woods on the way there.)

The whole morning consisted of soccer games of different grades and genders along with other games on the side lines. Jack and I first played frisbee for a while that turned into "keep away" from the random dog that followed us there and then played some volleyball with the 7th and 8th grade girls. I then joined one of the teachers in playing a game that consisted of lining the girls up in between us and throwing balls at them. It seemed a little unfair to me but quite entertaining! They somehow enjoyed it, so I didn't feel too bad. After enjoying some other unique games, Jack and I got recruited to the male teachers' soccer team to face the oldest boys. Not only were we outnumbered, but the students were WAY better than us. Let alone the monsoon the day before left the field flooded. After about 30 minutes of sliding, falling, and being embarrassed by kids, we lost about 2-8. I say 3-8 because I "scored" off my head since the goal was made out of logs and it was missing a crossbar, but it was kind of higher than what the crossbar would have been. Either way, we got creamed.

(This is a group of younger students playing futbol at Campo de Cerro.)

After hanging out a while, we hiked back and met up with the rest of our group at the compound on lunch break. Since Jack and I got to the compound after the rest of our group ate lunch, we headed out to a "comedor" to grab some lunch on the way to work on the school. There are several comedores around town and they are basically small little restaurants out of people's houses with a few tables in them. Luckily, one of the teachers from the school who is originally from Holland, MI, a couple people from U of M working on microfinance things, and another teacher from Scotland were in the comedor and helped us figure out what we were doing and helped us order. Jack got some baleadas and I ordered some carne asada with orange Fanta. All of that together cost us about 80 lempira or around 5 bucks. Talk about cheap, but delicious. We finished up the day with our last afternoon of working on the school and celebrated by making chocolate covered frozen bananas!

After a relaxing day today, we are excited to head to Tela tomorrow morning for a few days of vacation on the beach! See you in a week!

Rain, mud, and bugs. If I could choose three words to describe the past two days, those would be it. The rain started on Monday and hasn't really let up since then. Today we pretty much experienced a monsoon as it thunderstormed. Needless to say, this has created very muddy working conditions at the school. No need to fear, however, those of us who are healthy have continued to work diligently–mud and all. (On a side note regarding the health of the group, most of those who were sick earlier this week are feeling better and have returned to work. A few other people started getting sick, but they have been taking medicine and are already on the mend. Hopefully we will be back to full strength by the end of the week. I think it's mostly due to the fact that our bodies are still adjusting to the food here). Our clothes are often a nice burnt reddish brownish color when we arrive back at the compound at the end of the day due to being dripping wet and covered in dirt. We have continued to make progress this week on our building though. We started laying the bricks for the walls of the school room and they are already getting pretty high. We also finished filling in hole that the porch will be built on which was a huge accomplishment for all of us. We will still be moving a lot more dirt, however, because we need to fill in the floor of the actual school room now. It's so great to feel like we're actually making progress, and I'm so excited to see how far we're able to get by the end of the week.

On Monday night we had our first experience this year with the Rain Flies. They're bugs that come out in the rain, and when you hit them their wings fall off, but they don't die. Gross I know. We have all be enthusiastically trying to kill them with our shoes–it's quite an entertaining endeavor. We took refuge in the biblioteca where we eat when we hung out the past couple nights to avoid them flying all around us. The boys also had a nice surprise this morning when they went into their bathroom. The floors of all the showers were covered with very large wasp-looking things. I didn't see them, but I heard it was not very appealing. Fortunately, the cleaning crew had taken care of them by the time we got back from work at the end of the day. I'm hoping that they won't spread to the girls bathroom tonight.

This week we also started helping out with teaching in the school. Yesterday Brandon, Nathan, and Yeha all helped teach, and today Matt and I helped out. It was great to get a chance to work with the kids. Having two parents for teachers I definitely appreciate all the work they put in, but after trying to run a classroom for even a couple hours today, I have a whole new level of respect for what those teachers do. But like I said, it was so nice to interact with the kids who will directly benefit from the work we're putting in. We have also been able to interact with more of the kids at the compound the past few days. On Monday, a couple of us played in the puddles with them, and that was a blast. I have loved getting to know some of the children, and like Chelsea mentioned in her post, it is so humbling to see their maturity and joy for life.

I wish I could put into words the impact this place and its people have had on me, but nothing would suffice. The beautiful creation screams of God's majesty, and it's also been so amazing to see that the God we serve in the states is exactly the same here. I can't describe what an incredibly potent picture of His faithfulness I have seen. It's awesome.

Also, just an FYI, despite that this post will say it was written by Bryan, this is actually Jordan. I couldn't set up an account, and so he kindly let me borrow his. We hope all of you back home are doing well! We love you.

Fútbol, Frijoles, Freezing Showers, and Falling in the mud. . .

As you can see so far, we have been having quite the adventures here in La Unión. Since you have been up to date on what has been going on I thought I would share some of my thoughts and feelings since being here. First, I will explain my pics =) The first one is after we climbed up the gigantic mountain on Saturday. Off to our right you can see La Unión and while up there we actually found our compound where we are staying and the school we are working at. It is crazy how high up we were! It was one of the most surreal experiences I have ever had. After reading on the mountain side for a couple of hours I still couldn't believe where we were. It was most definitely the most beautiful view I have ever seen and it was great to take in God's beauty. On the way down however, Leslie and I both took a spill in the creek. I bashed my knee on a rock and Leslie's bottom half was covered in mud. Several people came back with muddy shoes but I think the overall consensus was that it was definitely worth it! The second picture is the first Saturday we were here when we worked half a day at the school. This is most of our group in front of a couple hundred concrete blocks that we moved that day! The third pic is just some of the gorgeous foliage here in La Unión. Pink is my favorite color so naturally I found these flowers beautiful =) The last pic is the view from the school. There is no way I would get anything done if every time I looked out my window I saw that. As you can tell, it's absolutely gorgeous here; the pictures don't do it justice.

Overall it's been awesome being here. There have been days where I wake up feeling sad for different reasons, missing friends and family, lamenting a hot shower, heartbreak for some of the people here. But I have loved living in a Latin American paradise, getting to know the people here. Some of the translators that the group last year had, Kevin and Darwin, have been hanging out with us a lot and hearing their stories is very humbling. It's crazy how similar life stories can be from different countries. Our group was discussing that often times as people from a very privileged country we tend to make people of third world countries very simple; we minimize the needs of their heart and just focus on the physical need of not having clean water, enough nutrition, a roof over their heads, etc. But the people here need Jesus just as much as we do; sometimes I think they understand Jesus' love better than most estadounidenses (people from the U.S.) Kevin and I were talking yesterday and he was telling me that while he has a very broken family he desires to raise his children in a loving a caring home and that he wants to look to families in the church as role models. He's 18. Not many 18 year olds have that kind of maturity. I was shocked at how humble he was and what a leveled head he has. It was an awesome conversation. As Americans we so often judge those who don't have as nice of things we do, even if we do it unintentionally. But they are people. People with broken hearts, who need lots of love, just like us! While being here Jesus has showed me that more and more everyday and I hope to bring some of this realization back with me.

In a nutshell, Jesus has been working in all of our hearts while being here. The only word that I can think of that comes close to capturing how this trip has been for me is humbling. God's creation, God's people, it's all very humbling. I could ramble on for hours but I'll stop now =) We can't wait to show you all pictures and share stories! Thanks for your prayers, keep praying!

Mucho amor!

Weekend Adventures! :)

Hi everybody!! We have now all survived our first full week in Honduras! YAY! About 6 people from the team woke up not feeling well today (probably from something we all ate) but no need to worry! Medicine has been taken we are all on our way to recovery. :)

After hard and exhausting construction work last Monday through Friday, we were all relieved and excited to have a relaxing two days ahead of us!!! On Saturday, a good chunk of us hiked up one of the nearby mountains (La Union is in a valley) to experience an AMAZING view of the valley and mountains! We all loved being able to experience such an awesome display of God's creation! After a few hours up on the mountain, we hiked back down and headed to a party at Albin's! There we had probably the best meal any of us had in a very long time! Carne asada (grilled meat), chimol (similar to pico de gallo), and beans. Sunday didn't include any planned activities... but highlights from the day include: a church service in Spanish, hanging out with some of the local Hondurans, a two hour toilet unclogging adventure, and praise and worship as a group.

Overall, we are loving our time here - experiencing the natural beauty and getting to know the culture and people! Thanks so much for all your prayers! :)

We Finished Week One!

We have finished our first work week and have gotten a lot done. Ramon is on the right of the picture and he has been our trusted leader for all of the construction that we have been doing. As you may our may not be able to tell we have been doing a lot of work with block and concrete.

By Wednesday we had finished the retaining wall the Yeha mentioned in the last post and started to work on the foundation for the classroom. What you see in the picture is Chuck standing where the front of the classroom will actually be.

Thursday and Friday we spent most of the making concrete and moving block for the foundation for the classroom. I think that by the end of the trip everyone will be experts on making concrete foundations. We also had to move a lot of dirt to fill the newly made retaining wall.

During the evenings we spend a lot of time hanging out with some of the kids from the school. The church compound that we are staying it becomes a hang out for for all of the kids. The will play futbol (soccer).

Overall we had a great first week. We were able to help the classroom move a lot faster than if we were not there.

Day 3, 4, and 5

Hola!

Since arriving at La Union on Friday, we have all gotten pretty settled and used to life at La Union. After some hard labor on Saturday, we had Sunday off to rest and relax. We also had the opportunity to go to the church at the compound as well. Although most of us did not know what was being said or sung throughout the service, it was awesome to see and realize that even though we are so away from home, the people at the church were worshipping the same God that we worship. It just shows how big God really is which was totally awesome. After church, we had lunch (yummy lasagna) and then while others hiked around La Union, the majority of us stayed back to watch the girls’ soccer team from Vida Abundante win their game at a soccer tournament on the compound. The rest of the afternoon was spent resting, hanging out, playing Egyptian rat, or playing banana grams, which has quickly become a favorite game to play for some of us, thanks to Jack.

Later on in the evening, some of us got the chance to play with the kids. We got to teach the kids some card games and they were teaching us some games as well. However, it wasn’t until the cameras came out, that we got to have a lot of fun with the kids. We have some pretty funny pictures that hopefully we can upload onto the site soon.

After that, the group got together and had a night of worship and prayer. It was great to worship God together and just pray and praise Him as a united group. Plus, it was awesome to be in the mountains and underneath the stars. It’s sometimes surreal how much beauty surrounds us here!

On Monday, we woke up to have breakfast at 6:30 in the morning. Some of us are still getting used to the schedule here. The sun comes up before 6 AM and sets down around 5 PM so all of our schedules are a couple of hours earlier than what we were used to at home. Most of the time at night we overestimate the time by thinking it’s later and time for bed. But then, somebody will say, “It’s only 8:30!” Anyway, by 7:30 AM we started to do work at Vida Abudante. We continued our various tasks from the previous day, but we got our first experience with mixing and pouring concrete. It was different today because since it was a weekday we got to see the kids were in school. It was neat because it was a reality that the classroom we are building could potentially make a big difference in these kids’ lives. It would be awesome if we could finish this classroom by the end of the end of this trip! Because today’s labor was a bit strenuous our lunch break was very much appreciated. After lunch, we worked for another two and half hours. People were feeling much better, and we got a good amount of work done for the day. After that, we had the rest of the evening off to rest up. Resting up once again included banana grams. :)

Tuesday was a much better day in terms of how everybody was feeling. For the most part, most of us were feeling better than on Monday when we were pretty exhausted. We got more of the wall built up on Tuesday and also made a lot of concrete. I think it’s safe to say that all of us will come back a bit buffer because of shoveling concrete!

Although the work has been tough, it has been really great getting to know everybody too. Since we all work together, eat together, and then hang out together, I feel like everybody is getting to know each other a little bit better which has been good fun too :).

Hasta luego!

Arrival and First Day!

Buenas!

For all the parents this might sound repetitive, but everyone is here! The group came in around 1 from Miami with everyone looking exhausted, but excited to be here. Before heading out we got some Wendy's at the airport to give the group their last taste of American food for the next 3 weeks. We then met up with Albin, who for those of you who don't know is our chauffeur/ party host and everything in between. The temperature was nearly 100 degrees when we left the airport! By the time the luggage was loaded and everyone was on board it didn't seem like it was going to be very long until everyone was asleep. While Brandon did fall asleep fairly quickly, after taking a couple of pictures with a cigar in his mouth he was back awake. As we entered the mountains it was funny to see all the cameras come out with people running from one side of the bus to the other trying to get the best shot. After about four hours and some excellent driving by Geovani we made it to La Union...

We woke up this morning for an 8-o-clock breakfast, which because of the two-hour time difference was much easier than what it sounds. After breakfast we had our first meeting to explain what we'll be doing for the next few weeks and all the logistics for while we're here and then the group took a quick tour of La Union. This afternoon we walked over to the school to begin working on the classroom. We were only there for a few hours, but it sure seemed like a long day carrying heavy blocks of cement in the hot sun. Some people learned how to make rebarb, which is used to reinforce the cement columns needed for the foundation. It was awesome seeing the group dynamics and how everyone worked so well together. It's going to be tough to try to finish the classroom by the time we leave, but if we're able to work as hard as we did today, it's definitely possible! With everything we've seen God already do on this trip, we're super excited to see what He has in store for the rest of the time we're here!

Hasta luego...