The other face of Honduras

A group from Iowa came last Wednesday night to learn about Honduras, to meet its people, and to offer solidarity with the church here. Two – Lynette and Tyler Wheeler – were students I worked with at St. Thomas Aquinas in Ames. Now they are working in the Christ Our Hope cluster of six Catholic parishes in northeast Iowa.

They came at an interesting time. The car was stopped by the military twice as we came late at night from San Pedro Sula to Santa Rosa. On Friday we passed by the central square here and saw the crowd outside the police station waiting the release of all those detained when the blockade was broken up Friday morning. We saw a woman who had been detained but had fainted inside the police station being taken in a pick up to the hospital.

The first two days we spent time visiting a kindergarten in Colonia Divina Providencia, a poor neighborhood ins Santa Rosa, as well as two visits to Hogar San José, a home for malnourished children under six run by the Missionaries of Charity. They saw how teachers and workers with kids are stretched, with so little help for so many children. They saw some of the effects of malnutrition and poverty.

Saturday and Sunday we spent in the parish of La Trinidad, Copán, with Padre Sandro Aguilar, the pastor. Tyler and Lynette are exploring with their parishes in Iowa the possibilities of establishing a relationship with a parish here.

Padre Sandro gave us a good overview of the parish. We crammed into the car he borrowed (since his pickup is being repaired after an accident) and visited some of the distant villages that make up his parish – with 4 municipalities and 56 or so rural villages – some of them 35 kilometers or more from the town of Trinidad.

The first place we visited – after a long drive on dirt and gravel roads was Las Flores where we met with members of the retreat preparation team from that sector of the parish. It was a very warm meeting with sharing from both sides. During the course of the meeting I asked them to share how many years of formal education they had. A few had only two but the most any had was 6 years! But they were giving their time and their talents to building up the work of the church here.

We visited other communities where the people shared their faith and told us of their efforts. It was a great opportunity to witness to the unity of the Body of Christ, the Church, as people from Iowa and Honduras shared.

Saturday afternoon we returned to Trinidad. I laid down for a rest while the others went to explore the town. Two teenage girls showed them around and they even got to a soccer field where some of them played a bit with a few kids.

In the evening we met with pastoral leaders in town. At the end of the meeting there was a surprise birthday celebration for Tyler who turned 26 that day, complete with two cakes and lots of singing.

Sunday there was Mass in the town of Protección and a visit to a distant village where we were warmly received. The day ended with a two hour evening Mass in Trinidad.

I think it was Tyler who mentioned how it seemed so different from Santa Rosa – distant from the controversies, almost distant from the poverty, and full of experiences of the generous hospitality of the people. Lynette was taken aback when one of the teenage girls took off a medal she was wearing and tied it around Lynette’s neck. Tyler had his own experience after a Mass on Sunday when a little old lady came up and pushed a lempira into his hands after she had heard of what they were doing here and their commitment to the church in the US.

It is all too easy to see the poverty and lament it, at times to feel sorry for the people. But it is very important to see what they can do – for example, 328 base communities in the parish of Trinidad – and to hear of their commitment – walking hours to get to Mass or even walking three or fours hours to get to a parish meeting in Trinidad.

There are many very capable people , very committed Christians, many who want the best for their villages and their country. But the poverty, the system, the corruption, the polarized politics make it very hard for them. Yet they persist. The persistence of the poor is a virtue that needs to be recognized and respected for what it is - a sign of hope that must not be frustrated.