SAFE ARRIVAL

I wrote these reflections on June 15, my third day in Honduras. This day also happens to be the sixtieth anniversary of my baptism.

I arrived safely in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on Wednesday, June 13, about 12:30 PM. the flight went well and all my baggage arrived.

The flight was uneventful except for an encounter on the flight from Atlanta to San Pedro Sula. As I approached my seat I saw someone sitting in it. I immediately spoke to him on Spanish. The flight attendant also came up and explained to him that his was the middle seat. When I sat he mentioned that here were we two viejitos, two old guys. (There were a good number of young people including a group of high school students from Harrisburg, PA, on a “mission” trip.) He said he was 65 and I told him I was only five years younger. We spoke a little more. I found out that his name was Plutarco – in English, Plutarch. He was named after an ancient Greek writer who wrote a good number of biographies of famous people.

During the flight the flight attendants handed out the immigration and customs forms. He looked rather perplexed. I mentioned that he needed to fill it out. A little later he told me that he could not write and so I filled it out for him. He seemed to be able to read a little bit because he could read the names of cities on the movies screens in the plane. But here he was, a Honduras worker, named after a famous writer, who could not write! A reality check.

In the airport all went well and Sister Nancy Meyerhofer met me and helped me take my five bags out to a taxi that would take us to a bus to Santa Rosa de Copán. At the new bus terminal we had to walk a few blocks seeking the right bus. How I wished I had less luggage. I was sweating like mad.

The two and a half hour bus ride was very pleasant as we left the terrific heat of San Pedro Sula for the pleasant climate of Santa Rosa de Copán. We passed a landscape which was, for the most part, incredibly green, since the rainy season started about two weeks ago. We had a great conversation about lots of topics and I felt truly welcomed.

Nancy left me at the Obispado in Santa Rosa de Copán so that she could get the last bus back to Gracias, Lempira, where she lives and works. I’ll be staying here until I can find a place of my own. The Obispado is a combination of chancery office and bishop’s residence.

The bishop is out of town this week at the meeting of the Honduras Bishops’ Conference and will be out next week at a meeting of the priests of the diocese. I have no idea when I will get to have a long talk with him, but I feel very good. The fact that I don’t have too much programmed for the next few days is probably a blessing since I have been so busy the last two weeks working on all the details of leaving, cleaning out the house, and selling or storing possessions. I need some down time.

I have, though, had time to walk around town, to meet with some people, and to arrange a few meetings for next week.

There’s a nice café – Ten Napel – run by a couple: she’s Honduran, he’s Dutch. The coffee is the best I’ve found and they even have whole wheat bread! He works in maps and GPS for a wide variety of projects.

Yesterday I visited a local NGO, CAMO, which does a lot of medical work. One of the assistant directors showed me around their center, which is near the major public hospital here. The director and founder, who was a Peace Corps worker in Honduras, is out of the country until late July. Check out their projects at their website, http://www.camo.org.

I spent much of yesterday trying to contact Padre Marco Tulio Izaguirre, who is the chaplain of the Catholic University. I had a few false leads, including a cell phone number which was completely wrong. I spent a few minutes speaking with someone who seemed rather confused until I realize it was not Padre Marco Tulio. Eventually I did speak with him Friday morning and arranged to meet him tomorrow morning. He also gave me a contact at the university.

Friday morning I went to the university office and asked for the woman who is the assistant to the director of the university. A man who appeared to be in his early thirties came out and introduced himself as Francisco Castro. he said that they were in a meeting and didn’t have enough time for a meeting. We arranged to meet on Monday at 9:00 AM. Finally he identified himself as the director of the university. (Since this is a regional campus of a national university he is not the rector/president, but he is in charge of this campus.) We talked briefly and I gave him a one page resumé in Spanish. He talked about a celebration they are having on June 25 and invited me to be a part of it. He also asked if I’d be interested in offering a class; I said that perhaps I would in the future but I need some time to get acclimated as well as to get my Spanish up to speed.

After visiting the university I passed by the diocesan office of CARITAS. the director, Fr. Saul, was not in but I spoke with the administrator, Miriam Villeda, to get an idea of their projects. They have a good number of projects. They are working with groups starting up small businesses – microempresas. They have a project in six communities which they call “agro-ecological, sustainable community experiences.” This sounds really interesting and I hope to learn more about this project.

They also have a pilot literacy project in a parish in the department of Santa Barbara. They use a model in which the illiterate students can read and write well in three months. They would like to expand this after the pilot project since it seems to be working very well, but it will probably cost about $17,000 for an eight month project.

But much of the work is in education. They have about a thousand students in a program to educate students who live in remote areas or do not have access to education, from first grade to the end of bacchilerato [high school]. There is work that is done at home and the student gather on Saturdays. This year they will graduate about 100 with a high school degree.

There is also a program in popular education which is operative on several levels. In these program they train leaders to do social analysis and other types of formation and education in the style of Paulo Freire, the Brazilian who wrote Pedagogy of the Oppressed and promoted a liberating style of education.

Friday afternoon I was going to try to visit a priest involved in natural medicine. But, while checking my e-mail, a torrential rain began. I got soaked leaving the internet center for the Café Ten Napel, where I got a hot coffee. While there I noticed they were a WI-FI (wireless internet). All the more reason to go there.

And then there is a young man who is working at the Obispado. He’s 23 and comes form a poor community south of here. He told me that he has long had the desire to join a religious community, but that many were reluctant to accept him because he has not had much education – probably not more than six or eight years – because of the lack of opportunities in his home town and the need for him to go out and work. The bishop has taken him under his wing and he is now studying in town on weekends while doing odd jobs at the obispado. We talked and he told me of his desire to serve and his decision to join the Missionaries of Charity at the end of this year. (The Missionaries of Charity are the group that Mother Teresa of Calcutta founded; there is a men’s congregation as well as the women’s community.)

As I listened to him I found that I share his great desire to serve those in need. But I have been privileged to get a quality education whereas he, and so many others here, lack even the most basic education.

All is going well, though not as easy or simple as I had hoped or thought. But I am glad to be here. God is good and the call is being affirmed. And so I can ask, concretely now, “How can I be of service to those most in need?”



SATURDAY MORNING UPDATE

I went to the university and found out that Father Marco Tulio is ill. I called and spoke briefly with him. I may see him Monday.