Incredible Beauty; Incredible Poverty

On our last full day in Honduras, we participated in a couple of community outreach activities. First, we drove down the mountain to Santa Cruz, which is a small village right at the turnoff from the main highway. There we met Pastor Elvin, his wife Cynthia and his son Eliezar who took us to see a very poor family near the town. 

The family includes Serapio, his wife Maria, their daughter Isabella, her son Christian and grandson Francois. Pastor Elvin has known Serapio, and Maria for a long time. Serapio is 80 years old and can't walk anymore. They aren't members of Pastor Elvin's church, but they trust in God to meet their needs and that's what we wanted to do for them today. We brought food and new mattresses to supply some of their physical needs. We also spent some time sharing some scripture and praying for them and their family. 

Of their 10 children, two died in childhood, four died from disease and one was murdered. Their daughter is the only one of the remaining three children who supports her parents. She, her son and grandson live in the same family compound. 

Their houses are in very rough shape. They have no electricity or indoor plumbing. The adobe walls have been degraded by the weather. Serapio is hoping that Pastor Elvin might be able to arrange to build a new house for them. When we say house, we mean a single room maybe 10' x 10'. It will be a challenge. The site is very remote and is accessed by walking about 100 yards down a footpath from a dirt road. But it's possible that other Ranch teams might be able to help out. We'll see what the future holds. 

On our way back up the mountain, we stopped for a nice fried chicken lunch at a place along the main highway. Then we continued up to the soccer field near San Mattias and picked up the abundant trash that littered the field. This was just a way for the Ranch to be a good neighbor. 

Since we got back early to the Ranch, we had some extra time to get organized to leave tomorrow and our hosts the Nelson boys lead Chris and Tom on a hike up to the lagoon at the top of WGO's property. We were surprised to learn that there are actually fish in the pond.

Instead of eating dinner in the dining room today, we had a wienie roast at the outdoor fire pit and gazebo. We also made s'mores, which were a hit of course. Martin gave a devotion and Tom prayed over everyone at the Ranch and all the people that make the Ranch possible.

We think we've completed all our online customs and immigration paperwork accurately, so we hope things go smoothly when we check in at the airport tomorrow. We're looking forward to seeing you soon. It's been a blessed week, and we'll have lots of stories to share with you. Thank you for following us on the blog. We hope you've vicariously enjoyed the week too.

OUR COMMUNITY OUTREACH TEAM

OUR VISIT WITH SERAPIO AND MARIA

THEIR KITCHEN

THEIR OUTHOUSE

THEIR VIEWS

TWO FARMERS

A FRIED CHICKEN LUNCH AT JOSE'S

THE SOCCER FIELD CLEAN-UP CREW

HIKING UP TO THE LAGOON

HOT DOGS AND S'MORES

Coffee, Coffee, Coffee

Well, we thought we were going to work on cleaning up one of the houses that isn't currently in use, but el jefe Pablo had other plans for us most of which was centered around coffee. We have lived out the maxim "Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be broken."

We started with all four of us cleaning coffee in the drying tents. Then Martin and Tom were drafted to add more barbed wire to the fence around the drying tents. Toward the end of the morning Chris and Steve went up to see a demonstration of the coffee roasting operation. 

After lunch we all had a new experience. We picked coffee 'cherries' off the plants in the finca. We probably didn't meet our quota, but we weren't at it for very long. Our brief stint at imitating Juan Valdez was ended so that we could go up to the campo to play with the kids while all the women on the Ranch were celebrated on Honduras' annual Day of the Woman. It's sort of like Mother's Day in the U.S.

Next, we went to the de-pulping station to see how that works. Pablo explained how the machinery works to remove the outer pulp from the cherry so that the beans can then be dried in the drying tents. It takes about two hours to remove the pulp from about 1,600 pounds of cherries. We didn't hang around that long!

After dinner we had a very fun play time with the younger kids at the Ranch. We started with Martin and Chris reading in Spanish part of a book that Martin brought for the school library - Jesus Ama a Los Pequenos Ninos - Jesus Loves the Little Children. We celebrated one of the kid's birthday with cupcakes and interestingly the kids wanted to sing Happy Birthday in English. Finally we played a variety of games and did some coloring. A good time was had by all.

ANOTHER FOGGY START TO THE DAY

 

AND HERE IS THE COFFEE PROCESS FROM FARM TO TABLE STARTING WITH PICKING

REMOVING THE OUTSIDE FRUIT OR CHERRY

DRYING THE BEANS; REMOVING THE BAD ONES AND RESIDUAL FRUIT

ROASTING THE BEANS

AFTERNOON PLAYTIME TO ENABLE THE DAY OF THE WOMAN CELEBRATION

EVENING GAME TIME AND BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

THERE ARE ALSO FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES FOR PEOPLE WITH SEWING SKILLS

Cloudy With a Chance of Fencing

They tell us that we are in a cloud forest and today was a good example of that. We woke up in the clouds and they persisted until about noon. It was very foggy. 

Otherwise, it was a typical day at the Ranch. After breakfast we hiked down to the coffee drying tents to continue work on the fence. In fact, with direction and help from Pablo, Elias, David and Olman we were able to finish everything except for the gate. We strung chain link fence all around the perimeter in the morning and then added barbed wire at the top in the afternoon. It looks like we will move on to a new project tomorrow.

We don't have any pictures to show you, but Martin, Chris and Tom played soccer at recess again today. The goal keeping was spectacular considering that Martin and Tom are in what the Hondurans call the Third Age, which translates into old folks.

Thanks to the generosity of the people supporting our trip we were able to provide enough funds to WGO for other projects beyond what we can complete this week. So, thank you very much to all of you! There are always lots of things that need attention at the Ranch, which is largely because of the weather up here.

A FOGGY START

WORKING ON THE FENCE LINE

PABLO AND ELIAS

SYSTEMS OF MEASUREMENT

We decided to establish a new unit of measurement in Honduras in honor of the young Honduran who helped us measure the depth of the holes yesterday. From now on everything is to be measured in olmans. One olman is the height of our friend. This post was approximately one and one half olmans long.

AFTER WORKING ALL DAY, WE ARE GENERALLY PRETTY TIRED.

AND HUNGRY!

Steve started us out on the right foot today by leading the chapel time with a fish story. The story of Jonah to be precise. It was a good message about being obedient to and trusting in God's will in our lives. All of the kids come from broken families and have lots of baggage to deal with. Besides the physical labor that we are doing this week we are also spending time with the kids in various situations. The older kids are a little stand-offish, but the younger ones clearly like having us around. Steve, in particular, is a great ambassador to them.

In the morning, we worked alongside the kids in the coffee tents. We removed bad beans and miscellaneous pulp left over after the de-pulping of the coffee 'cherries'. This all helps the beans to dry out and gets them ready for storage until they are ready to be roasted. It gets pretty hot in the tents, so the staff wanted us to do it in the morning, while they were prepping some new gate posts.

After lunch we worked on the fence and gate posts some more and started putting chain link fencing on one side of the enclosure. Pablo, the head Ranch maintenance worker, enjoyed visiting with us while we worked and shared that his daughter had attended the Ranch school for four years and is fluent in English although Pablo is not. 

Many of the young kids now at the Ranch are not fluent in English because there aren't very many North Americans working at the Ranch. WGO is constantly looking for additional North American teachers and missionaries to fill various roles at the Ranch. It is a real benefit to the kids to have native English speakers around. Maybe you know someone who might be interested. Please have them contact WGO at www.wgoreach.org.

It turns out that there is a beehive in the eaves of our end of Casa Grande. This has happened before, so we are moving to the other end of the building and the staff is going to try to remove and relocate the hive this evening.

We don't have any other obligations this evening, so we might just play some games on our own. We may finally have a clear night for stargazing too.

MORNING CHAPEL MESSAGE BY STEVE POTTER

COFFEE SORTING

THIS IS HOW WE MEASURE THINGS IN HONDURAS

First dig a hole. Then place a Honduran child in the hole and mark their shirt. Then let them climb out and lay down next to the pole that is going to be placed in the hole so that you can tell if the hole is deep enough.

IT WORKS!

ENJOYING THE SCENERY ON OUR WALKS AROUND THE CAMPUS