March is upon us

I wrote about two weeks ago but I wanted to share more information. If there is some repetition, please excuse me.

COFFEE 

There is still a lot of coffee in the fields and I guess that people will be harvesting coffee for a week or two. We’ll probably be spending a day or two soon in the parish coffee fields next week.

But I have also come across coffee bushes in flower. The fragrance of the coffee flowers is one of God’s gifts and you can smell them from a distance. The closest fragrance in the US is honeysuckle.

I have been involved for several years with an association of small coffee growers in the nearby community of El Zapote Dulce Nombre. There are twenty-one members, two of them women. They’ve been exporting some coffee to the US, first through the parish of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Ames and now through a non-profit, El Zapote Coffee. Click for their facebook page. I have independent testimony on the quality. 

The association has had some help from veracious non-governmental organizations to help them develop their work. Most recently, a foundation has given them some seed money for setting up their own beneficio, a processing plant. This will enable them to cut costs as well as to lessen the environmental effects of the coffee production process. EL Zapote Coffee is doing some fund-raising to help them. The association already has some funding and they have worked to prepare the site for the processing and to set up a solar dryer and a one-sided shed. But much more is needed. It is great to see them working taking and taking the initiative, with very competent leadership. 

TOMATOES

Last year, shortly before the pandemic began, a neighbor and his cousin began a tomato project, producing beefsteak tomatoes in a large greenhouse.

Since he could deliver the tomatoes to my house, I enjoyed fresh tomatoes until about October, when the plants needed to be uprooted and new ones planted. I had to endure other tomatoes until the beginning of this year when the new harvest began. 

 I have been ordering for myself, but several women at the church in Dulce Nombre have been asking me to get some for them. I’m so happy to be able to share them and to support a local farmer. 

Friday I had a chance to visit Alex and the tomato greenhouse. It was amazing to see what they are doing. His cousin had learned how to do this in the department of Ocotepeque and the two of them had put together their resources to start the project.

But I was also pleased to see that Alex and his cousin were also cultivating other vegetables in their gardens – garlic, onions, green peppers, mustard, cilantro, squash, cucumber, and more. I hope I can buy some of their produce. 

SOLIDARITY

I’ve been connecting a lot these days with a community that was severely affected by Hurricanes Eta and Iota last year. Many homes were destroyed or severely damaged, About a third of the houses in the community are in precarious situations and could be severely affected when the rainy season arrives.

They’ve formed a board to help consider how to go forward. They hope to have a study made of the geological situation to help determine if they need to relocate the village. 

The parish has brought aid to the community several times. This past Wednesday night, a woman from the community called and told me that there had been a fire in the home of an elderly woman and that she had lost clothing, a mattress, and more. The fire came from a defective light fixture. Since the roof was of tin with metal beams, the house itself had not caught fire and so she could continue living there. 

I brought a mattress, clothing, and supplies from the parish. 

I got another call just before I left the parish asking me to bring a mattress, clothing, and supplies for an older man who had showed up in the village a few weeks ago.

One of the women helped him get washed up and set him up in a room be the church. She told me how the stench was overpowering but she went forward and washed him. He is also rather ill with inflamed stomach and legs. And so the woman and others are raising money to take him to a clinic to have him examined. In their poverty, they have reached out to one who is suffering even more. They put me to shame. 

Providentially, the Gospel for the day I went there was the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, in Luke 16, 19-31.

POLITICS

March 14 the country’s parties will hold internal elections, choosing the candidates for November’s elections for the presidency, congress, and municipal mayors. I have seen some signs for candidates and once almost got stuck in a caravan of cars in support of one candidate.

One of the most interesting things I’ve seen is a sign for one candidate for the mayor of Concepción about a block away from the house of the other candidate.

It’s also interesting that I know a number of the candidates for various positions and parties. There are even two young men I know who are running for office. Whether these elections will make any difference remains to be seen. (Excuse the cliché.) 

Corruption runs deep in the country and there are rumors of corruption of one presidential candidate. But above all are the continuing stories about the involvement of the current president in drug trafficking. It just so happens that his brother is waiting sentencing in the US. 

COVID-19

COVID still afflicts the country. In our rural area, there have not been a lot of cases, though one village seems to have had a serious outbreak. In the aldea where I live, five persons were tested positive but have recuperated. 

There were stories from the government that the vaccine would begin to arrive in the second half of February, but the date was changed to March. According to some news reports about 2000 vaccines have arrived from Israel and have been given to medical personnel. There is some controversy about the protocols but something has begun.

There are also reports that the government is purchasing 4,200,000 Sputnik V vaccines from Russia. My concerns are that the poorest will be ignored in this. 

AND MORE…

The artist is continuing with the murals in the church in Dulce Nombre, most notably in the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. Our hopes are that he will be able to finish in April. 

Holy Week is almost upon us. We are planning to have a session for parish leaders to help them prepare for Holy Week. It will be different from last year, when we were in lockdown, but we will be trying to be responsible as we help communities offer some small gatherings to celebrate the death and resurrection of the Lord – offering hope in the midst of all the suffering the country has suffered in the last twelve months.

Saint isidore and Honduran farmers

San Isidro Labrador, 

ponga la lluvia 

y quite el sol. 

Saint Isidore the Laborer,
bring on the rains
and turn off the heat. 

a very free translation 

 Today is the feast of Saint Isidore the Farm Laborer and is celebrated, especially in rural areas, throughout the world – especially in Latin America and in the US. Here people pray for rain and for an end of the dry season.

Today I went to the village of San Isidro La Cueva for their celebration. I’d been there two years ago and wanted to be with them again.

They started with a long procession – with an image of San Isidro, singing and saying the rosary. Their intentions reflected the needs of poor rural communities.

Seeds to be blessed - in the shape of a heart

At Mass, seeds were blessed for the harvest. Padre German helped the people think of the seeds as the seeds to promote life in the community. They are not merely seeds to harvest more corn or beans. They are meant to give life to the community.

I spent lots of time talking with folks and playing with babies. No, I am not running for public office. The kids were very outgoing and one little girl hugged Padre German during Mass.

It was good to be there.

This time of the year can be quite beautiful, despite the lack of rain.

The dry season usually ends here in western Honduras in May.

But as May comes along, many bushes flower.

The acacia trees – also called fire trees – comes out in their glorious red splendor. I have seen a few absolutely gorgeous trees but didn’t have a chance to take a photo since I was driving.

The coffee bushes are also in bloom. The coffee flower has an incredible smell that reminds me of the honeysuckle that my neighbor had when I was growing up.

But it is also a time of ugliness.

In the last few weeks I have seen land devastated by fires that people are setting to clear the land. I have also seen a lot of cutting of trees. What a waste – and for what?

I do not know who is doing this slash and burn – but a few years ago when I spoke about this some people claimed that much of the devastation is wrought by large land owners – to plant more coffee or to expand land for grazing cattle. I do not know if that is the true situation but I believe there is at lest a grain of truth in it. I do know that some of the poor do burn the land to clear the weeds and the underbrush but I do think the burning of vast tracks of land may be the work of the large land-owners.

What a disaster this might be for the people here – in terms of drought, higher temperatures, and danger of landslides.

So today I invoke the intercession of St. Isidore to not only bring on the rains but to turn around these practices that so devastate the earth and turn the hearts of people from the avarice that takes over more and more land, that devastates the land for the sake of gain, and that does not care how Mother Earth is treated.

San Isidro Labrador,

da a todos un amor

por la tierra, y el valor

de luchar contra el destruidor .

St. Isidore the Farm Laborer.

give everyone a love

of the earth and the courage

to struggle against those who destroy.

Image of St. Isidore from Yaramanguila, Intibucá, Honduras

Seeds of hope

What are all these people doing gathered outside the door of the church in El Limon?

They are members of the church council for the San Miguel zone of the parish of Dulce Nombre de María.

They are getting vegetable seeds, which Adán is distributing.

The past few years the parish has had an agricultural project to help villages throughout the parish. The first year the three field workers did a lot of work helping small farmers improve their practices in the production of basic grains – corn and beans. There was also a component of vegetable production in groups which has continued. Another component has been the promotion of small family gardens not only in the 18 villages where they worked but also with the pastoral workers of the parish.

One of the most popular aspects of the project was providing seeds for family gardens. People are diversifying their diets and are also selling the surplus for a little needed cash.

The funding for the project ends this month. A proposal was sent to the Spanish Catholic organization, Manos Unidas, which funded the project up to now, but there has not been any response.

I hope we can find a way to continue this project.

Any suggestions for funding or other help are most welcome.

Many stories to tell

These past few days have been somewhat busy and there’s a lot I’d like to write. So this will be a somewhat unfocused entry.

Wednesday I went to La Labor to see the work of Caritas there. I met briefly wit the two workers there and we went to see a little of the countryside. We passed over a widened bridge that was part of the project's effort to mitigate natural disasters, but we passed on to another bridge where three people had drowned a few days before when a flash flood passed over the bridge and pushed their car into the riverbed. The Caritas workers told me that this often happens this time of the year and the municipality will build a double bridge so that the water can pass under the highway and thus avoid other preventable tragedies.

The bridge where three people in a vehicle were swept into the river

Thursday, the director of Caritas asked me to go to San José Quelacasque to pick up a worker who was doing a study there. It's a long ride to this remote community but it is good to see what they have done. They are almost finished with a major water and sanitation project which has brought lots of good, clean, drinkable water to the people living there who now also have sufficient good latrines. It's great to see a community that has come together to improve their lives.

Friday, there was a workshop for new preachers. Sadly, only one of those who had been there last month returned. I don't know why. Also it was a small group but we worked together from 9:15 to 2:30. Next year we hope to have a more systematic training for them and some continuing formation for all those now preaching at the Sunday celebrations of the Word in the villages. All were men except for one woman who just moved to the area from Choluteca. Brenda was most impressive and I hope we can continue to encourage her participation and leadership.

Sunday morning I went to Mass at the San Martín de Porres church up the hill where Padre Fausto Milla presided. His homily was long, but it held my attention since he connected the readings with the reality of life here and also invited the participation of the congregation.

For the third time in three weeks he mentioned a friend of his, a 105 year old man, who died. He has written an article which may be published in El Tiempo,  which I’ll translate. What impressed me was the way Padre Fausto revered this man as a just and generous man, full of wisdom. He was, in the eyes of the world, an insignificant farmer, a campesino who devoted his life to planting corn, beans, radishes, and other vegetables. He told Padre Fausto that he had not done any harm ever with his hands. He was ready for death – in more ways than one.

Padre Fausto also talked about an Australian Marxist who came to his office some forty years ago and ended up devoting himself to the poor, especially during the aftermath of Hurricane Fifi. He was an example of some one, not of the church, who really did God’s caring love. But he was expelled from the country for being a Marxist. (Padre Fausto related this to today’s Gospel, Mark 9: 38-48.)

As the offertory began he mentioned the death of a woman whom he knew, the wife of Salatiel. All of a sudden I was struck because I know Salatiel – an 89 year old-gentleman – and his son Olvidio.

With Don Salatiel

I met his wife once about 4 years ago, when I went with Olvidio to meet them. His father, Salatiel, greeted me as he was coming in from the fields carrying a load of firewood. He dropped the wood, hugged me, and then proceeded to ask me questions. When I told him I was born in Pennsylvania, he asked me if Harrisburg was the capital of Pennsylvania. Astonished, I said yes. Every time I meet him I feel like meeting an  old friend who welcomes me with great love. The death of his wife of many years will be hard. Keep his family in your prayers.

Yesterday, Saturday  I spent time with a group of five persons from Manos Unidas, a Spanish Catholic aid agency, which has been aiding an agricultural project in the parish of Dulce Nombre.

We went to three villages (of the eighteen working with the program.) It was great to hear the people speaking of their work together in an organized group, of their gains in improving the health of their families, and their efforts to decrease or eliminate use of chemical fertilizers.

The first group, in El Ocote, Vera Cruz, was composed of ten women and two men. We found them working on a hillside where they had planted their second crop of yucca.

Women in the El Ocote group, weeding the yucca field.

We talked and you could hear the pride these people had – but also some frustration. We met in what was meant to be a coffee beneficio – a small processing plant which had begun but never finished. A group came in with funding for the project, had the people sign, and then left the work unfinished. (So goes one type of corruption here.) Padre Efraín, the pastor, urged them to get together and ask the mayor what had happened, trying to expose the corruption and perhaps get the project up and starting. (This might be a good project to start a coffee project in the Dulce Nombre parish.)

They also spoke of their groups fund, which they have put together, that can help make small loans to members. The fund has 3,500 lempiras – about $180. But it can help for small loans when people need to pay for transportatrion to take someone to the hospital or other small needs.

The last community, Colonia San José, Dulce Nombre,  had eleven members in the group, in a community which had eleven houses. It seems that all the families were participating. The people had been able to take advantage in 1975 of a new land reform law that enabled campesinos to obtain land with a land title. (Since then the law has been changed and now favors the concentration of land, rather than the redistribution.)

One field of the Colonia San José community

Their work was impressive with a large plot of about 3.5 manzanas which they are planting in crops that they try to sell to various markets. There is also a small school garden of vegetables.

The school vegetable garden.

This community also has a fund – but it is much larger.

It was great to listen to these stories, to see their pride in what they had been able to do; yet  there are needs. The one community needs a pump to activate their irrigation system. The pump would cost about $750.

The team from Manos Unidas was impressed and encouraged the parish to seek aid for the future. The importance of an agriculture that responds to the needs of the  campesinos  for the production of food for a healthy diet is an important goal of such programs. But what is also important is the organization of the people to work together for a better future for their communities. This program encourages joint efforts, combating the individualism that is often at the core of some programs. It also is a way to help the people promote ways to protect nature – cutting back use of chemical fertilizers and insecticides, teaching the people the use of natural barriers when they plant on hillsides, promoting local production of food stuffs.

The goal is that the people can live a good life – in all senses of the word “good,” not just the material.

I think it is also one of the ways to start working toward the revitalization of rural villages to stem the flight to big cities or the US. But this is a larger challenge, that I’d like to explore: how do we make rural life a “good” life so that people don’t feel compelled to leave to support their families and so that people don’t feel tempted to the “good life” on the cities and so that the villages are really places where the young feel at home and where they want to stay.

That’s a big challenge, but one that I think is essential for the future of rural Hondurans. But there are many people who have leadership skills or potential.

May God give us the wisdom to work together for the truly "good" life.

Making a difference

For at least two years, the Spanish Catholic organization Manos Unidas has supported an agricultural project in the parish of Dulce Nombre de María.

The project initially worked in 22 villages to help improve agricultural practices in producing basic grains (corn and beans) as well as to promote family gardens. More recently it has been working in 18 villages mostly in terms of family gardens and reforestation, with both fruit and hardwood trees. They are also working with forming  cajas rurales, a sort of community institution that makes small loans to members. A documentary for television in Spanish can be found here.

The current funding ends in December and it is not yet clear whether Manos Unidas will continue its assistance. We may have a better idea after they do a monitoring visit to several of the communities in the parish.

I spent Monday morning with Mauro, Adán, and Elder (the three técnicos, whom I’ll call fieldworkers), Padre Efraín (the pastor of Dulce Nombre), and the parish secretary (who does a lot of the administrative work for the project).

I had a lot of questions, mostly about where the work had been going well and where there was still need.

The fieldworkers agreed that there were about 12 villages where the groups worked well and where there was still need. One idea would be to continue working with them to strengthen their work.

I also asked them to think of other communities that might profit from the project , that had great needs, but also had people willing to work together in groups to improve their lives, especially through better agricultural production that promotes a more diversified diet. We came up with 15 villages.

One of the fieldworkers remarked that some communities are very hard to work with. They don’t want to take the time to prepare gardens, mostly because they receive a monthly basket from a child-sponsorship group that works in many communities in the parish. He saw this group as promoting dependency.

And so the team would like to work with up to 27 villages in the parish. A big dream, but they are working on a proposal to present to Manos Unidas.

Mauro, Adán, and Gladys working on a new project proposal

I am also thinking about the possibilities of help from  St. Thomas in Ames and the parishes in Shelby County, Iowa, that area in a relationship with the Dulce Nombre parish. It would be good if they could finance another fieldworker so that they can add about 6 more villages. My guess is that this might cost between $17,000 and $20,000 a year – including salary, seeds, transportation, costs for training sessions, and administrative support. I’ll be talking with people about this when I visit Iowa in mid-October.

This is a small effort  that has made some differences.

And it has raised interest. A number of women have told me how much they liked the vegetable seed distribution which helped them diversify their family’s diet as also generate some cash by selling the surplus vegetables.

In addition groups in several communities have asked them if they could participate in an expanded program.

There are problems – but I think this is an area where we can really make a difference in the health and livelihood of the people of the parish of Dulce Nombre. 

San Antonio - agriculture and baptisms

This week I went out twice to the village of San Antonio, Dolores, Copán.

 

On Tuesday I accompanied Mauro who is one of the workers in the Dulce Nombre agricultural project. The project, in its last year of financing by Manos Unidas. is working in 18 villages in promoting better agricultural practices in growing basic grains (corn and beans) as well as promoting family gardens and reforestation.

Mauro distributing vegetable seeds.

In the first two years the project made fertilizer available on credit, but because of the cut backs in funding, the time schedule for this last year of the project, and the failure of some to repay the loans, they decided not to do that this year.

In one community, most of the men withdrew from the project because of this. However, in the same community, ten women are enthused about the garden projects.

yucca

In San Antonio, 18 families are working in the project. For two years they have worked on a joint project growing yucca.

I visited a few houses with Mauro. In one the woman told Mauro how proud she was of the mustard greens she was growing. She lamented that the rains had washed away another crop. As we sat and talked Mauro began to recite the numbers 1 to 10 in English to the three year old who echoed them back – for the most part – with an unexpected precision.

Precocious three year old.

Later, before the meeting of the group on Tuesday, Mauro showed them how to use small planting trays for growing sweet pepper seedlings. 

Seed trays

At the end of the meeting he distributed small packets of cucumber, cilantro, and radish seeds. (I'm going to talk with Padre Efraín to see if there might be some way to continue providing the seeds for vegetable gardens after the project funding runs out.)

The project has enabled several communities to build up a small amount of capital to use for loans to those involved in the project. In San Antonio is about $250.

Mauro was particularly happy to share how some groups have not only built up capital but are changing their ways of thinking – especially in terms of raising their own vegetables for consumption and sale.

Wednesday was the feast of St. Anthony, the village patron.

A Mass was scheduled for 9 am (but started at 10:30) with 43 baptisms and 5 first communions.

Early Wednesday I received a text message from Scott Satterlee, who is with La Finca del Niño in La Ceiba. I met him last September at the retreat I led for the Finca del Niño volunteers. He was in Santa Rosa for a few days. I invited him to come with me to the Mass in San Antonio.

We got there -  a little late due to getting the car stuck in a driveway where people had told me to park.  But we had time to talk with the people who had come from San Antonio and nearby villages for the Mass. There must have been more than 500 people there.

The music was very good at the Mass but, of course, the baptisms were the highlight. Father Henry, the associate pastor, is not a minimalist in terms of sacramental signs and so the baptized were well-soaked, especially the last young man, Pedro, who was baptized with loads of water.

Pedro's baptism

It was great to see the baptisms and all the people there. Several faces were particularly striking including , an old woman, an little boy about to be baptized, and the above-mentioned Pedro.

To be baptized

Doña Maria

Pedro in the front row, pastoral worker Efraín in the second row

After the 180 minute Mass there was food for everyone. Scott and I, though, left and ate Pizza in Santa Rosa at Weekend’s Pizza. (I claim it has the best pizza in Central America.)

Accompanying the people is really what my life is about here. I do help in formation of catechists and other pastoral workers and I hope to be able to help develop some programs for agricultural and community transformation in the future. But the heart of the work is being with the people.

In one sense, that’s what Jesus did – accompanying the people in their joys and sorrows. Jesus is a God who does not look on the people from afar but involved himself in the nitty-gritty of people’s lives.

Can missionaries do less?

---------------

More photos can be found here.