My past week in 1593 words!

          Time to catch you all up on the past week!! While it does not exactly feel like I am extremely busy and there are many parts of the day that I do not have much to do at all, every day is quite exhausting. Over the past week, I have come to realize that the challenges of this internship are almost solely going to be mental/spiritual. There will be times that physical exhaustion will be present, such as on days that I spend mornings at the farm with the older boys or days where we are playing games outside all afternoon, but I think that mental/spiritual challenges will be what tests me in this internship. For example: constantly learning, thinking about, and speaking in Spanish, constantly trying to be very intentional about learning names and building solid relationships, and taking things that growing boys say with a grain of salt. No temporary challenges could ever take away from how incredible it is to be here.

I think the best way to summarize the week is with bullet points (which is hard to format on here... so here are some nice paragraphs!) Here we go!!

 FúTBOL!!!

       Last Friday night and last night there were huge games for the Honduran soccer team! Luckily, the rain held out both nights, so they projected the game on the side of Casa amarilla. All of the boys brought chairs outside to watch. Even the youngest boys did not move one bit for the roughly 2 ¼ hours. Last Friday (Honduras vs. Costa Rica), I built a huge fire to have during the game. Annie did not think they would go for smores, but said they did love marshmallows (they call them besitos, “little kisses”). We went through 8 bags of marshmallows. At least half of the boys pretended to kiss or be kissed by their marshmallows. A couple of the boys stayed right by my side throughout the whole night, from the point I started building the fire until the game was over. Honduras lost 0-1.

Last night was Honduras vs. Jamaica. Chad Hedgepath, the state-side director for JEC, bought coke and popcorn for the boys for the game. Just a couple minutes into the game, Honduras scored. I have never seen such unrelenting celebration while watching a sporting event on tv. Every single kid and adult was on their feet jumping and screaming and hugging. It’s incredible to me how much of a hold soccer has on every part of the world except for the United States. Marlon, one of the older boys who I have become very close to, and Jose sang me the Honduran national anthem 4 times. It has been stuck in my head all day.

The next game is Honduras vs. United States of America.

Don’t worry. I packed American flags.

·      Grupos

      This past week we had two groups visit JEC. The first was through the Torch program. They had volunteers from Alabama, Arkansas, Virginia, and some other southern states. They built houses for three days before coming to visit. They came around 10:30 so there were not many boys here, but that is why there are interns!!! We talked to them about Jovenes and ourselves. They brought Little Caesars for the boys for lunch. In the afternoon, the boys and the group played and took pictures! The boys definitely ate up the attention. The second group was from around Moore/Oklahoma City, OK. They worked on the farm that JEC owns for a couple of hours laying a concrete floor the house of the full-time farmer, spreading tons of gravel in places where the cows are milked and fed because they were sinking in the mud, and helping plow one of the fields. I worked with them for about two hours and heard many first hand accounts of the recent tornado. While I know their trip had been planned for a long time, it was incredible to me that they were helping in Honduras. I’m thankful for those with servant hearts.

·      Vamos a la pulperia!!

      Definitely a love a first sight. Pulperias are little shacks on the side of the road that sell almost anything you can imagine. And there are SO many of them. (I know what you are thinking, Mom... no... they are not dangerous.) I bought a 16.9-ounce coke and bag of chips the other day for just less than one American dollar. You can buy a 3-liter of Coke for $1.50. How crazy is that?? The boys in the older houses are allowed to go anytime they want as long as they get permission from their house parent.

A couple of night ago Tio Santos (Casa verde) asked me and the other interns to go with him and some others to the pulperia before dinner. Jenn and I ended up going with Tio and seven other boys. We left just before dusk. We got there and sat at some tables. Tio Santos bought us all a three liter of Coke to split. They passed around these tall plastic bags and straws. One of the boys came by and filled up everyone’s plastic bag. It was so funny to drink out of a bag. It reminded me of elementary school when we had bags of milk that we had to puncture with a straw (horrible idea Murfreesboro City Schools...). There was such a peaceful feeling that came from sitting there with them. Tio Santos and I had a really deep conversation about why I am in Honduras this summer and what the spiritual state of the boys in the green house was. He is very encouraging and tells us very often how much he appreciates us being here. On our walk back, the stars were incredible. I have not seen a sky that clear in a long time. I was again given such peace in that moment. That is a night I will remember forever. Just like so many of the memories I am making.

·      Allison Bixby

      If you have been keeping up with my blog, you will know that Allison Bixby is the name of the Bilingual school at the University in El Zamorano that 6 of the boys from JEC attend. Annie was busy with a group, so I drove her car to go pick up the boys. She has something that looks like a For Explorer. It’s a Mitsubishi, though. 5 seats. I went and picked up Tia Carmen (another helper in the younger house) on the side of the road. Then we went and picked up the 7 kids. Roland Millon, the director of JEC, sends his daughter there and we pick her up, too. There were 9 people in a car that held 5. We were busting at the seams. Luckily, all of the kids are tiny. We rode the three miles back to JEC. That was such a fun moment.

Another day, when liver was on the menu for lunch, Annie and all of the interns went to lunch in El Zamorano. We went to this little place called “El Rinconcito” (The little corner). We had skewers of beef and chicken, plantains, beans, rice, vegetables, and a refresco (fruit drink) that was made out of something like blueberries. We went and picked up all of the boys from school. So we had 6 boys, 3 interns, and Annie. Annie makes them cds to listen to and they know them by heart. As soon as we started driving, Norman said “Annie, play number 13!”. We had a very fun ride back.

·      Piñatas!!

     One of the groups last week brought three piñatas. The younger boys got to break them while they were here, but the older boys were at high school. They did theirs after dinner. I am in Casa Verde most nights after my house goes to bed. There is a square shaped balcony in every house. Tio Santos strung a rope across the square of railing. He put the rope of the piñata over that so that he could not only pull it up and down, but side to side as well. It was absolutely insane. I do not know how someone did not get hurt. As soon as candy hit the ground, so did everyone in the room, leaving me and the other two interns staring in disbelief. Not only were there teenage boys on the ground, but full grown adults. This happened in every house. Everyone took it seriously. And all that was in there were Brach’s mints and butterscotch! I felt like a spoiled American kid when I decided to give all my “old people candy” away. I seriously hope we have another one soon.

·      Chad and Bethany came to JEC!!

    Bethany, the fourth and final intern, arrived on Monday. She is also a student at LU and is studying to be a nurse. She will here until the end of July just like me. Chad Hedgepath, U.S. director for JEC, arrived a couple of days before his group to take care of some stuff here and visit. It’s been great having more people to speak English to!

There are sooo many more stories. I will try to keep a word document on my computer to keep better record of daily events to post to my blog.

There are plenty of more stories on Jenn’s blog (which there is a tab to at the top of my blog) where you can also hear about things that I am experiencing.

Thank you all for supporting me and wanting to keep up with my summer.

Que Dios les bendiga!