Azacualpa, Honduras - Nov. 22-Dec. 3, 2010

The next Carpenteros' Service Trip is scheduled for November 22 - December 3. We will be working in the village of Azacualpa, which is close to the Nicaragua border, building latrines, pilas and concrete floors. This is a very poor and spread-out community with a CRC church and a school. We hope to visit Tigre Island to see how the communities there are progressing and to meet old friends. A few members of the team will also stop over at El Carrizal to meet with the coffee growers who participated in this year's coffee exporting project. It will be a busy trip.

Azacualpa belongs to the municipality of Triunfo, departament of Choluteca. The village is located 19 kilometres from the downtown area of Triunfo, and 4 km off the PanAmerican highway that leads to the nearby Republic of Nicaragua. The community has a dirt road that is accessible most months of the year.

Presently this community has an approximate population of 3400 inhabitants distributed with 326 homes. The community has some basic services such as: potable water, electric power, kindergarden, public school, basic community centre, health centre. It also has a factory that processes cashew seed, a cultural saloon, a basketball courtyard and a soccer field.

The community has a community board, water committee, environmental committee, teachers’ association, parents’ association, sport committee, credit unions, and sports.

The community has seven churches; 1 Catholic church and 6 evangelical churches (Christian Reformed Church, the Baptist, Iglesia de Jesucristo, Ecos de Luz, la Asambleas de Dios and Adventist).

The principal sources of income for members of the community are related to agriculture, although most of their farming is for personal consumption, as well as a small amount of sale of corn, beans, watermelon, cashews, melons, tomatoes, chili peppers and plantain. A small group of the community works in the shrimp sector.

It is worth mentioning that all these products are used for self consumption and very little for sale because people won’t dare to crop big plantations because they don’t have the necessary land and because the high costs of supplies, adding also bad winters that have caused the loss of many crops leaving families with debts.

In the community the selling of clothes and shoes are made in Guasaule, which is located on the border with Nicaragua, where everything is much cheaper, but when they need to buy food, vegetables and supplies it is bought in Choluteca.

Our work is done - we're coming home

Monday, Dec. 8

This morning we had our breakfast at the Hotel Mirador and then packed our bags onto the "ferry" boats for the trip to the mainland. There were some mixed emotions as the silhouette of Isla del Tigre receded in the rearview mirror, but we turned our faces northward and headed into the mountains.

The three-hour drive to the capital was incredibly beautiful, but also a little hair-raising as drivers pass in corners and uphill. However, our drivers Gregorio, Delia and Ana did an excellent job of negotiating the twists and turns and by noon we had arrived back at the Caribbe in Teguciagalpa to drop off our luggage. Just a few blocks from the B&B we got our first taste of "western civilization" since arriving here.... burgers and fries at Burger King! Then it was off to the office for a debriefing.

We gathered with Irene, Delia and Ana and discussed some of the successes and shortcomings of our time on Isla del Tigre. The conclusion was that the team's efforts had been well received by the local residents and the team had also taken away far more than they had given. Delia presented the team with a beautiful plaque of thanks to all the Carpenteros who have been to Honduras, as well as thank you gifts for all the team members. We then met with Matt and Katie DeKamp, who are working in Catacamas on agricultural projects and discussed the progress of the Guanabano pig project with them.

We have just completed a fine meal at the B&B and are relaxing over some coffee and conversation. We will shortly begin our devotional time, so I will end my postings by wishing all our readers well and thanking you for taking the time to follow our progress and sending your encouraging comments.

Hasta manana
Audrey
for The Carpenteros in Honduras

Why I go to Honduras

By Steve Fox

Why have I returned to Honduras for the third time?

It so hard to quantify. There are so many reasons. Some of them are for the Hondurans and some of them are for me.

After two weeks, as we prepare to leave to come back to Canada tomorrow, once again my head spins with the thoughts and emotions of what we have experienced here. We are so happy to see progress. There are improvements, and the people here are so grateful for what we have done.

So much of it is almost beyond comprehension, though. If I were not here to experience the truth and reality, I'm not sure that I would believe it.


The picture above shows part of a family, in their home. We were there to build a pila (outside cement structure to hold large amounts of water, since water only comes two days per week.

While we were there, we took the time to talk to and get to know the mother of the house. She has been married twice. The oldest girl in the picture is 15, who she had with her first husband. She remarried another man who waited until she had gone to work (she washes clothing at other people's places for small amounts of money), and the two younger children were at school and then he began systematically raping his 14 year old step daughter until she became pregnant. She went to the police who did not believe her. Finally, with the insistence of daughter and mom, step dad was arrested, but relatives bailed him out of jail after one week, not to be seen again.

Mom is now caring for and providing for 3 daughters, and soon a grandchild, working 3 days per week making about $300 per year. These people live on less than nothing. There are many days when none of them eat.

I've seen a lot here, but there are times, and this was one of them, when I often had to take a walk outside for a few minutes to let some tears out and then go back and continue our conversation and take some more pictures. Sometimes it is just too overwhelming to keep it inside. The stories are different, but no less tragic.

To say that I am grateful for how blessed I am would be an absurd understatement.

I share this so that you will contempate this, pray for the people and our work here in Honduras and El Salvador, and everyone (most of the people in this world) who have so much less than we do.

Over the last few years, as I have increased my involvement in this project, I find myself compelled to advocate for those less fortunate. We all know so many who are "in the trenches" full time...please support them.

I am so glad for my son, Jordan, working right beside me and for Corey and Victoria coming once each and helping too, and for the rest of my immediate and extended family and my team at the office who wholeheartedly support us.

I am so looking forward to being home, but leave part of my heart here, where I hope to return again soon.

As we head into the Christmas season, please take time to meet someone's needs less fortunate than you. I pray that God will richly bless you in return.

Praise God! - en espanol

Sunday, Dec. 7th

This morning we had an awesome church service with the congregation of Islitas CRC. The Carpenteros Choir and “Pastor” Ken led the service with singing and sermon, and the church members were asked to also sing some of their songs. The first selection was Cuan Grande es El (How Great Thou Art), which they sang with much heart-felt emotion. These people truly have great faith in God.

The service was ended with dozens of hugs, handshakes and words of thanks and blessings for us from the church members. We then presented our masons, cooks and the Islitas church and kindergarten with thank you gifts of a framed picture of this year’s Carpenteros group as well as various Canadian souvenirs. And then the much anticipated conclusion… a piñata! Once the paper mache creature broke, there were a few minutes of sheer pandemonium, as the children (and their mothers) scrambled for the candy and trinkets. It is always so much fun to watch this chaos, at least from a safe distance!

Our lunch today was a community effort… various ladies contributed shrimp, lobster, fish, vegetables and rice for the seafood soup, which we thoroughly enjoyed. This was topped off by some of sweetest watermelon I have ever tasted! (I should just explain here that Henk enjoys going fishing, but he does not like to eat seafood, so whenever fish was served, the ladies always prepared something different for him. Apparently his bribes of candy and chocolate paid off!)

After we had eaten our fill, several members of the team took advantage of the hammocks that hang in Juanita’s yard for a short siesta, while a few others went on a “pila inspection tour”. The village children followed us everywhere as they knew that we had a second piñata, and they could hardly wait until we were ready to begin the festivities. First, thank you gifts were presented to our translators, Diaconia staff and the Tigilotada kindergarten, then Pablo the Pinata took his beating, much to the glee of the screaming children. Approximately 20 lbs of candy and trinkets disappeared in mere seconds!

Finally, it was time to say our good-byes to all the people we have come to consider our brothers and sisters. There were lots and lots of hugs and words of thanks as we piled into the pick-ups for our last run up the hill leading out of the village. We will not see folks again for at least another year (for some of us it will be longer), but they will daily be in our hearts and prayers, and we know that they will also pray for us. So now we ask that you also will pray for traveling mercies for our team begins the journey home.

Via con Dios
Audrey

Graduation Day in Islitas

Saturday, Dec 6th

When we arrived at Juanita’s this morning, we heard that the four early morning fishermen had brought back a fairly good haul of a fish, even though the sea was a bit choppy and removing the fish from the nets was a bit messy. After another delicious breakfast, we drove to the kindergarten in Islitas for their graduation ceremony.

The district supervisor of schools welcomed everyone and told us that this school was the best of the island’s seven kindergartens, which may explain why some of the families who live closer to other schools still choose to have their children come here. The five girls and one boy were then awarded their diplomas by “Padrinos” Ken and Henk, who also presented each of them with a Spanish children’s Bible and Carpenteros pencil cases. After pictures, Victoria (the kindergarten teacher) and several volunteers served everyone snacks of chicken sandwiches and Coke… the preferred drink of almost everyone on the island!

After dropping Henk, Drew and Jim back in Tigilotada, so they could make the two doors they had promised for two of the poorest homes in the villages, the rest of us set out for an “Island Tour”. We were allowed to enter the Naval Base, located on the west side of the island, but were told that no photography would be allowed. One of the sailors walked us around the Base, explaining that most of the men were out on maneuvers and that their main task was to keep an eye on El Salvador, which is only six miles away. We then proceeded to Playa Grande, the island’s largest and most popular beach, and then on to Islitas, where we picked up the “door dudes” for another run to Tigilotada for lumber. The rest of the afternoon was spent at the hotel, just relaxing, reading and resting. Since the temperature seems to be getting higher every day, it was nice just to sit in the shade with our feet up.

The actual work here is now totally done – the three guys got the doors hung by 4 o’clock this afternoon. And as we head into the “home stretch” of our trip, we are all reflecting on our time here and finding (I think I speak for everyone) it has been a very satisfying two weeks. While we are anxiously looking forward to seeing our loved ones and home again, there is also a small corner of our hearts that wants to stay here with our Honduran family. Anyone who has been here knows what I’m talking about… this place really gets under your skin!

Hasta la vista
Audrey

Success!

Friday, Dec. 5

Well, the work is completed: 18 floors and 6 pilas in nine days -- that’s more than 200 bags of cement! We had hoped to finish the kindergarten latrine as well, but at the last minute it was decided that the pit needed to be enlarged, and with the rocky soil they have here that was a half-day’s work. In the afternoon, the team did manage to make a good start on building the latrine walls, and with the supplies we have provided, the local masons will be able to finish it next week.

On our walk to Juanita’s for lunch, we came across William who builds boats for a living. He paid 5000 limpiras for the log, which was harvested from an old-growth forest on a nearby island, and it will take him three weeks of 8-hour days to dig out the boat. He uses only a curved chisel, a machete and lots of elbow grease to hack out the hard wood, leaving a finished shell of about two inches. He has already sold this boat to one of the local fishermen. During our talk, he promised Henk that when he comes back (next year??), they will spend a day making a small scale version of the dugout like the ones he makes for the children of the village.

During our time here, we have also cemented some great relationships with the people of Isla de Tigre. While it is difficult to have real one-on-one conversations with the people because of the language barriers, we have discovered that lots of hand gestures and attempts at Spanish words usually manage to convey the message… or end up in lots of laughter on both sides, which is even better communication!!

Tomorrow morning, a few of the guys are going fishing again and then we will all attend the kindergarten graduation ceremony in Islitas. While we think kindergarten graduation is “cute”, here it has real significance, in that it is the first step to a child’s education and possible life-changing improvements. Tomorrow afternoon, we will be taking a sightseeing tour of the island and stopping at several of the villages and scenic areas.

Henk, Drew and Jim decided that, if time permitted, they would make new doors for two of the poorest homes on the island. One would be for the elderly couple who received a new floor, because now their old door no longer fits. And one would be for the lady and her daughters who received the first pila that we built. Her door was literally falling off the wall as the hinges were all broken. These folks have absolutely no means to buy their own doors, so the guys will be installing the new ones after the graduation ceremony on Saturday.

Sunday morning we will be leading the church service at the local CRC church. After lunch, we will attend farewell get-togethers in Tiguilotada and Islitas, where we will present our thank you gifts to our hosts and helpers and, of course, set up the piñatas for the children… we have about 40 lbs of candies and little trinkets to go into the two crepe paper dolls, which I’m sure will be quite a hit – literally!

Monday morning we will leave the island for our return trip to Tegucialgalpa where we will have a debriefing meeting with the CRWRC and some free time to shop or just relax. I hope to send my final report from our Caribbe B&B, if their Internet connections are up and running.

Looking forward to seeing you soon,
Audrey

PS – Hope everyone had a happy Sinter Klaas Day

'Cementing' new friendships

Thurs., Dec. 4
We have been working very hard… instead of Carpenteros, we are thinking of perhaps changing our name to “Cementeros”!! The people who have received their floors and pilas are just so grateful. They tell us over and over what a difference these things will make in their lives. And it is so satisfying for us to know that we have made a difference here for the better.

On a personal note: Two days ago, Jim and I worked with Henk and Luiz (one of the local masons) on building our first ever pila. Today, they put us in charge of a team to build another pila without a local mason!! All things considered, we did pretty well… the homeowner was very pleased with our work and even Noel, the local inspector, said we did “excelente”! Tomorrow, we’re going back just to make sure it didn’t cave in over night!!

As some of you may be aware, we brought down more than 100 pairs of eyeglasses, which were donated from various sources. Most of these glasses were left with CRWRC in Teguciagalpa, however, we did bring several dozen pairs with us to the island. There is a young girl here, Maribel, whom we noticed had great difficulty seeing anything not right under her nose. Yesterday, she came to our work site and Christine (with the help of our translator Lisa) had her try on several pairs of the eyeglasses, until we found one suitable for her. She took them home to show her mother and within a few hours, we had three more customers. They arrived, looking a little skeptical about what the Canadians were doing, but as soon as they put on a pair of glasses that corrected their vision, a huge grin spread across their face and they walked away looking around in all directions.

The group has really gelled as a “family”… when you can discuss your bodily functions in front of the rest of the group, who know that you’ve become close knit!! And not to alarm anyone back home, we have had several instances of illness, mostly minor stomach upsets that passed by the next day.

Each night’s group devotions are enlightening times… we are learning more about the people of the island, about each other and also about ourselves. We are also attempting to learn our songs in Spanish, as we will be the “choir” at Sunday morning’s worship service… actually, we will be conducting the entire service, lead by Pastor Ken.

This afternoon we met with 15 students who are beneficiaries of the Carpenteros Education Fund (unfortunately, I have no pics of this event). After welcomes and opening prayer, each student was introduced and the results of their year’s study were given. Most of the students have passed to the next grade, but there was one who will be repeating his year. Several of the children failed one subject at the end of this year, but they will be allowed to write a make-test in February before moving to the next grade. It was suggested that perhaps we could supply a tutor to help them during the year with subjects that are causing them difficulty, and this idea was very warmly received by the parents. We were also told that Noel, the local representative of the Diaconia Nacional, has been teaching the high school children some rudimentary computer skills on Saturdays. The children who are in the Education Fund also meet one Saturday per month to do clean up around the community centre or at the beach as part of the program. We then heard from a number of the parents, who expressed their deep gratitude for the Education Fund. Prior to the Fund, they had to work long, long hours in order to earn sufficient money for their child’s education as well as putting food on the table and clothes on their backs. Now, with the children receiving the bulk of their education money from the Carpenteros, they can concentrate on supplying the basic needs for their families. The last to speak was Gonzalo Rivas, a 15-year-old student who has been helping the team with cement mixing. He said, “I promise that when I receive my graduation diploma, I will tear it into four pieces: one for the Carpenteros, one for myself, one for my parents, and one for Shirley, in whose memory the Education Fund was started.”
Awesome!

TTFN -- Audrey

Making the shift from floors to pilas

Tuesday, Dec. 2nd

Well, we’ve reached the half-way mark of our trip and we’ve begun to count the days until we return home. Last night the traditional “Purolator” package came with letters from Canada and everyone enjoyed hearing how things are going back home and your wonderful words of encouragement and well as the super drawings and cards from our grandchildren (this, of course, only applies to the few of us who are proud grandparents).

It has been extremely warm (mid to high 30s) since we arrived here, but today offered a welcome breeze. We spent the day finishing our allotted number of floors as well as starting on our first pila. While the construction of these two items is very different, they both require a lot of cement mixing, so we switched very easily from one to the other. The pila team of Henk and Jim & Audrey will split up tomorrow, so they can “supervise” work on two more pilas.

We are, of course, the “main event” in each village or area that we come to. The kids seem to come out of the woodwork to watch the Canadians work… but they also are very willing to help us, whether that means shoveling sand or gravel or simply standing by and holding Henk’s shovel while he pushes the wheelbarrow. The little ones smile and laugh for our pictures – and then run to see themselves on the camera screens and giggle like crazy! These little imps have the most beautiful brown eyes – sparkling and full of mischief. However, when you look at the older ones, the young teenagers, you note that the spark is starting to fade in most, as they begin to realize that their opportunities here on the island are so limited and that they may never rise above the poverty they now recognize. We have heard such stories of poverty, hunger and abuse that it truly tears at our hearts. We want to do so much more for these people, but we are only a few, so the best we can do is to pray that God will keep them in His care and give them His comfort and grace.

Hasta manana

Audrey

Pouring a very special floor

Monday, Dec. 1st

– today’s entry is submitted by Auk Vandertuin

Hey guys, it’s me!

Today we all worked together pouring floors in four homes. It was a very long day, from 6 am to 6 pm, but we got it all done. The last floor was for a couple in their 80’s who have been married 68 years. They have three of their grandchildren living with them, including their 15-year-old granddaughter who has a 2-month-old baby. These people have almost nothing and the people of the village give them food and used clothing.

The Hondurans are a very friendly people and they help with the mixing of the cement and the pouring in the houses. There is a mason on the job at all times to supervise and teach.

The food here is good. Today for lunch we had mashed potatoes with a type of stew made with beef and green beans, and for dessert there was watermelon.

I really miss you all and even though I am really enjoying myself here, I am looking forward to being home again. I’m getting a really good tan because every day the sun shines.

Love to you all, Auk

We're back!

Sorry we have been out of touch for long, but there were problems with the Internet and it was closed yesterday for voting. But below you will now find postings and photos for the past three days.

Audrey