Aug 23, 2011 | Travel
I left home Sunday, August 7, 2011 at 3:30 AM to go to the airport. Wayne was very gracious to drive me there at such wee hours of the morning. Friends in need are friends indeed. The deal was that he would get half a star in his crown for everyone I reached in Honduras.
My flight left at 6 AM, with a layover in Atlanta, GA. Need I mention again the pure, unadulterated excitement?
This trip was to me about true education. So starting from the plane ride and throughout the trip, I re-read Education by Ellen G. White.
They say that the Tegucigalpa airport is one of the top 5 most dangerous airports to land on. Apparently the runway is surrounded by mountains. I was sitting on an aisle seat so I didn’t pay attention.
We landed in one piece and exited the aircraft to walk outside, around the airport building to get to the immigration entrance. The weather was hot, but pleasant. Immigration line was long and slow – a true feature of the developing world.
There were 8 or 9 of us with GYC Intermission on the same flight, but I had only met Michael because we were sitting in the same row. Glancing through the crowd, I wondered if we could really read “GYC” on people’s expressions. We managed to find 5 other people while waiting in line: Lissette and her niece from Holland, Genaria, Paul from Bermuda, Janelle from West Virginia, and Siobhan from Tennessee.
My line was already really slow to begin with, and when I got to the booth I still managed to be a bottleneck. The immigration lady didn’t speak English and she couldn’t find Indonesia on this list that she had on her computer. Didn’t really know what it was for. She kept scrolling up and down, and she gave up after a while and just stamped my passport. Very amusing. I think they had difficulty Paul too, being from Bermuda.
I grabbed my recently purchased duffel bag, which by the way, can fit so much more than a suitcase, and walked out of the claim area. I saw a tall woman in blue holding GYC/VIDA sign near the escalator. This must be Naomi. Amy had told me about her high school friend, Naomi, who is now a full time missionary in Honduras for VIDA Internacional, the ministry that GYC partnered with for this mission trip.
Naomi checked off my name and I told her that Amy said hi. Some other people were already waiting there and we stepped out to wait for the bus that would pick us up. I was pleased to find more familiar faces. Alex and Nina were from the Russian church in New York. A few of the young adults there had come to an ANEW Sabbath in Delaware back in Spring 2010. I met Alex and a few others then, and Nina forwarded a hello from Vera.
Someone also asked me if I was at CAMPUS and knew Naome Muzhamindo. It turned out to be Chenai, Naome’s sister! Of course I had heard about her from Naome and we were both actually at Naome’s baptism three years ago, although we didn’t meet then.
Another cool meeting was with Jessica Medori. The church that Jessica grew up in is the West Wilmington SDA Church in Delaware, where Erica and Hillary are right now, and where ANEW had done many programs with. Two weeks before, ANEW visited a church in Hershey, PA, where Jessica is currently located. Erica, Jacqui, Hillary, and Melissa stayed overnight at Jessica’s apartment during the ANEW visit, even though Jessica was out of town that weekend. I hung out there too with them. So basically, I was chilling at Jessica’s place before I even met her. It’s grand to be Adventists.
In front of Tegucigalpa airport
We packed the school bus that was our chartered vehicle. We stopped by the mall for lunch and to exchange money. Tegucigalpa was a chaotic city, much like Jakarta. I felt very much at home. In fact, I felt at home during the entire Honduras trip.
It was Sunday, which meant that a lot of people were at the mall, just like Jakarta. I had a baleada for lunch, which was super good. They’d give you a lot of avocados. There was a Wal-Mart at that mall too, though an overpriced one.
Finally, it was time to head out to the Buena Vista, the project site. I was all smiles during the ride to the project. Luscious green hills, sun rays in between mountains, houses on the hills, ultra-confident bus and truck drivers, cows on the street, banana and papaya trees (hadn’t seen those in a long time), small brick homes. Awesome.
Naomi told us a little bit about their work there with VIDA and about people’s lives there. There’s a need to educate, especially young girls, who often would move in with guys much older than them and start a family at a very young age.
We got to Buena Vista at about 6 PM, just before sunset. It was such a beautiful complex! Breathtaking, really.
Our living space was not bad at all. I heard from someone who was with the GYC trip in June that they were sleeping on cemented floors. This time around, the girls’ dorm was tiled and the walls were cemented already. No windows or doors installed yet, so there would gaping rectangular holes on the wall. I looked forward to sleeping in the ‘open’ space that night and waking up to sunshine. The bathroom section was covered by a blue tarp and the soap smell gave the entire floor a nice fragrance. I felt truly comfortable.
We ate supper in the dark. Suppers there are very light, for example, some banana bread and a piece of fruit, how suppers are supposed to be. After a short evening worship, we all said goodnight to settle into our living spaces. It was only about 8 PM.
I stayed out for a little bit to bask in the quietness of the night. I wrote this in my journal:
The moonlight is so bright. I am overwhelmed with the privilege of just being here. Here in this isolated little village in Honduras, I am getting the prime and best education I can get. This classroom is more glorious than any lecture halls, and the instruction much more prestigious than any Ivy League education. There may be much hype attached to Princeton, but I feel much more privileged to be here, with my headlamp, surrounded by mountains and bugs, in communion with my Maker…
I went to bed at about 9:15 PM.
Aug 23, 2011 | Travel
1. The mountains
The richest person on earth cannot buy them, but there they were, grand and majestic, at your disposal. Lush green hills and ridges that surrounded Buena Vista were to me the epitome of a luxurious life.
Buena Vista from the mountain ridge
2. Avocados
Oy, the avocados were plentiful. I mean, how can that not make you happy. We had huge bowls of guacamole multiple times for our meals. AWESOME!
Guacamole - heavenly
3. The sound of rain
I love the sound of rainfall, on the ground and on clay-based roofing. Honduran rain made me think of my home country. Living in American glorified boxes that are apartments, I don’t get to hear it very often. But there, you can even hear them drip on your sleeping bag when you sleep… I love how refreshed the earth is after a rainfall.
“He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.” Psalm 72:6
4. No electricity
How liberating it was to be free from the ties of modernity. There, nature dictates the rhythm of life. You can’t do much after the sun sets, the rest is sweet, and you wake up when the sun rises (or before). The day is day and the night is night. The moon shines very brightly too that you get shadows from its light. I could use this electricity-fast more often or longer.
Bright moonlight
5. Riding in the back of the truck
Soo much fun – more fun than any rollercoaster ride! It wasn’t so dusty and the view was breathtaking. Some things to do on the ride: wave hello to people you pass by, enjoy the view of herds of cows and donkeys on the street, dodge branches and trees, and if you’re a girl, make sure to hold down your skirt.
The view during the ride
6. Working with my hands
I really appreciated how much people work with their hands there, from cooking, washing clothes, washing anything, fruit and lettuce picking, construction, writing… It’s so much healthier!
7. Chaotic city experience
I got to go on visitations in Talanga, a more city-like town about 45 minutes from Buena Vista. We visited a family who hooked us up to a local TV channel to advertise the clinic we would hold a few days later. On the way back, we took the public bus back to La Ermita, where the rest of the medical team was working. Every time the bus stopped, vendors would come on to the bus and sell food, snacks, etc. The school kids got on the bus and filled the aisle. We had to push through the crowd to get out. Again, just like chaotic Jakarta. Not the most comfortable for sure, but I was amused.
8. Friendly people and kids
Enough said.
9. The lifestyle
The rhythm, the food, the daily activities – everything was just teeming with health. I felt so healthy. I even said, “I’m starting to feel too healthy” towards the middle of the trip. I covet the life there…
10. Morning prayer
A few of us would meet and pray at 6:30 AM every morning, led by Erick, VIDA’s evangelism coordinator, committing the day and laying out whatever burden that is in your heart. Precious times.
11. Meeting the VIDA staffs
Amazing people with amazing testimonies. I admire each one of them. They come from all walks of life, many left behind worldly ambitions to pursue something higher. They are so happy and positive. Things don’t go according to plan, they don’t seem to get stressed out. Always bearing about a cheerful disposition and showing love to people – I learned many things from them.
I also love their model of ministry there, from the glimpses that I got to see. These are a few of them.
Joseph, Annie, and their two daughters Olivia (8) and Maya (3). They moved to Honduras to be missionaries about two months ago and will be there for at least 5 years. Joseph is the chef at Buena Vista. I got to spend 2.5 days in his kitchen.
Monica, the first Adventist woman engineer who is sold out for ministry that I have ever met.
Naomi, world traveler, organization extraordinaire.
Jose, director of VIDA Internacional. His life is for this ministry. Amazing testimony. Also studied engineering once upon a time passed.
12. Super long devotion
The sun rises at about 5:30 AM. For some reason, waking up to beat the sunrise was super easy there. I think it was something about sleeping in open air. There were no windows for the dorm we stayed at. So we were pretty much sleeping in open air, exposed to anything that could and would come in through those gaping openings on the wall. In fact, one day we found a snake…
But I loved the direct access to the sky for devotions. It’s like your prayers don’t bounce back to you. I was joking that maybe I should take off the windows of my apartment.
Another thing that was a blessing in disguise for me: malaria pills. I was taking those pills, per my nurse’s recommendation, and I was suffering from their side effects. I took the version that has psychosis as its side effects. Yeah. Nothing too bad, I didn’t get depressed or anything, but I was having vivid dreams. Thankfully they were not nightmares or crazy ones, but I was just too aware in them that I didn’t feel rested. After two pills (= two weeks of side effects), I decided to stop. There’s no malaria in El Suyatal anyway.
Since sleep was torture for me, I would rather be awake than asleep. So for many days I would wake up at 4 and not want to go back to sleep. That was a blessing.
Dawn. On the mountain ridge behind Buena Vista
13. Massage at the medical brigade
Thanks to CAMPUS Missionary Training Program, I wasn’t useless in the medical team. On the last day of outreach we all did medical ministry in Talanga. I was stationed at the rest and relaxation booth to give anyone who came by a 5 min back massage.
Truly, “in our life here, earthly, sin-restricted though it is, the greatest joy and the highest education are in service” (Education, p. 309). It was a most incredible day for me and it deserves an entire blog post (and so are the next two points).
14. Naomi’s devotion on character development
Naomi, VIDA staff, gave the morning devotion on Sunday which summarized and answered one of the main questions I asked myself on why I went on this mission trip. Will write about this soon.
15. A personalized curriculum of true education
God had a 10-day curriculum for me in Honduras. And I’m craving for more.
Amazing place.
Needless to say, I LOVED HONDURAS! I didn’t want to go back to the US. I felt privileged to be there every single day and there were many moments where I was overwhelmed with gratefulness. God willing, I’d visit again. Many thoughts are being processed right now, mainly about ministry and how I would change the way I live my life. I’ve caught the mission trip bug – this is only the beginning.
