Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Some of my cooking expierments


So here is the mango cucumber salad/salsa I made, it was pretty good with the enchiladas.
      
My scones did not come out as well as I wanted but they are still good... and I had to chop the chocolate into chocolate chips...

I think I counted 23 people in the back of the truck but I think there were more...

Some people hike miles to go to church so they all try to get a ride back from Marvin in his little truck. It's crazy how many people fit in his truck...
 
 

The nurse from San Antonio Valle

 

Church in the jungle mountains

Saturday & Sunday 
Saturday Dennis was coming in and I wanted to make sure that Cristina could focus as translator and participant with Dennis and Marvin, so I put my self  in charge of cooking/ cleaning.
I actually started Friday night with making chicken stock/ chicken for my meals.
I also thought I would make some sweet breakfast bread forgeting Dennis is not eating bread. ¡Oops! 
So I made scones and started making scones and chocolate chip cookies.
Keren one of the local girls who I have worked with came by bus from carizal to visit. She helped me make some pico de gallo.
I made everyone chicken quesadillas for lunch, all the while trying to get everything ready for dinner.
For dinner I made chicken pot pie. And the struggle is real trying to make food you have made tons of times in the US but no measuring cups oh an no internet to find out the different conversions. And things just don't cook like they should, I'm pretty sure they add something to the butter here even if they say it's from cows.
So my biscuits didn't really work well but they tasted fine. 
Cristina, Marvin and Dennis were so into thier conversation. Keren, ariselly, and I ate and cleaned up waiting for them. I say and joined the conversation and eventually they looked up and asked how long till dinner and I told them it had been done for a while, I had made appetizers but they had had their conversation in the living room. Oh well snack food for the next couple days.
Sunday
I woke up early still exhausted from all this cooking, made eggs for everybody and started on lunch. I was making enchiladas. But the main problem is that there is no enchilada sauce at the stores, and we checked all of the supermercados. So I was experimenting. I found some chipotle paste and some tomatillo salsa. So I mixed some tomato paste, chipotle paste, chicken stock and some flour. I cooked it for a while and got the correct consistency I wanted. I then did the same with the green sauce just no tomatoe paste. It actually worked out well and everyone loved the enchiladas.

So after all this cooking was time To go to Valle(y) and San Antonio village churches. The drive to Valle was fun cause we were in Dennis's rental car that had great 4wheel drive. 
When we got there the children were about to start the Sunday school it was amazing to see how the children take care of their bibles. Many of them had the Bible's wrapped in plastic with very few having them in plastic ziploc. 
Marvin continues to feel sick, I keep telling him to rest but he has so much to do with his ministries. But he did find someone to preach for him, Milagros!
Milagros is a boy who has led worship for us over the pat few years and did attend the children's home back in the day. And he will be getting married ina couple of weeks! Well he did a great job preaching! He was very passionate and he preached biblically. He has grown into a great young man!
After Valle we drove to San Antonio for Pastor Carlos' church. Dennis was preaching here and as soon as the rain stopped the bugs came out. When we got there is when Pastor Carlos was installing the lightbulbs, they only install them for services cause there is no on and off switch and they want to preserve the lightbulbs. I happened to be sitting under a light and the bugs flew everywhere! As I continued to kill/ brush off the bugs I kept telling myself that nothing is as bad as the sausage fly incident of '07 in Kenya. But let's just say that there were a lot of dead bugs in my clothing when we got home that night.
Dennis did great preaching about ones calling. They had baby dedications aftwards done by Marvin, and it was great!
Afterwards we said good by to Milagros and gave him a wedding present, my old suitcase and some household items. He said his heart is content. :) i here village weddings are big and I am bummed I am missing it by a week!
Our way back was slow through the mountains with fog/mist and the rental cars lights did not work well. But we got home ok, all of our shoes covered in mud and our clothes in dead bugs. 
It was a good long day and as we were sitting around the counter eating the lights went out, so we got to experience some more village life. Life with no electricity. I am so glad my flashlight from last years trip was still in my bag!

Prison and errands

Friday
Today we were a bit lazy getting started. But eventually we got going. Cristina is starting to get sick now. But we trek on...
We headed to the bank and the market to get things before heading to the prison. The heavy rains started while we were at the market so we hung out at the market until the stopped. So this time we went to the prison we wouldn't have to slush through all the water. We had the Bible study at the prison out in their cooking area so only 5 of the ten girls attended but then there were two who were cooking so I hoped that they were listening also. I bought bananas for them all and the were they very appreciative. Unless their family rings them food their rations from the prison is beans and rice and corn for tortillas. The old lenca worman had another huge smile. She is funny but it's always nice seeing the big old smile even in the prison. 
Our bible study was interrupted for a guard to put a guy in isolation. Because isolation used to just be by the woman's area but sense they enclosed it more it is in the women's prison area. If the guy want a to go to the bathroom he has to call out to the gaurds to let him out. It's just crazy. 
After the prison we headed back to the store and closed up. And on to the next!

The town always seems bigger when when driving and traffic...

Thursday was a slow day. It was one of Cristina's employees day off so she had to be at the store all day. Currently the internet did not work at her house so going to her store did not seem so bad. It just made for a very long day. 
After getting breakfast from the market, badeas I'm pretty sure that is not how they are spelled. Badeas are flour tortilla with beans eggs avocado and montaquilla which is a sweet sour cream. They are very good and after we ordered one of the workers had to go buy the avacados because many people do not pay extra for the eggs and avacados normally just beans and cheese. 

I was able to communicate with my family and get some posting done.
Cristina's accountant came by and talked with me. He is very talkative but I am also able to understand his accent better than others.

Cristina needed to buy some high blood pressure medications for one of our village pastors, so we hiked down to downtown from her shop at the bus stop, by car it would have taken us 10 ish minutes maybe a bit more for parking and it took us about 8 minutes waking! It always seemed so far with traffic but I definitely have more mud on my clothes but we got down there and back quick so didn't leave ariselly by herself at he store.

When we got back from the pharmacy the nurse ariselly was there. We have worked with her in previous years at her clinic in San Antonio Valle, her clinic was a 2/ 2.5 hour drive from Las Esperanza and always had really muddy roads, sometimes the buses would not be able to handle them. She has now moved to a different clinic that is in need more. We gave her some of our medication that would be expiring and I gave her some medical supplies that my work had donated. She was very excited for the supplies from my work and the medications. I hope we will be able to do another brigade and go to the new village. We like to go wherever the need is the greatest.
 

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Wednesday drive to the mountain!

On Wednesday we drove to a rural school where my friend Keren is now a teacher. It was in the same village as the church we went to on Sunday morning. Marvin is sick so we met up its pastor Edmond and he drove us. While we were driving we passed over a sketchy bridge. I always notice the bridges because I feel like they are going to break under the weight of me and the car/ bus. So when we came to another sketchy bridge I thought it was odd cause I didn't recognize it. And the road became very rough, very unlike it was on Sunday morning. I mentioned to Cristina that roads were very different, she agreed but we kept going thinking we will hit the school eventually, after driving for 30 minutes we should have hit the school but we kept climbing these 4x4 needed roads. And eventually we got signal and got a hold of keren and then we knew we were on the wrong mountain. So down we went then on to the school. 
At the school I taught the children about their heart and I had them listen to their hearts with the extra stethoscopes I had. I then taught them about brushing their teeth, hygiene, and hand hygiene. Cristina had Keren translate which I talk a bit fast for her. :) she needs more English practice.
As we head back down the mountain I asked pastor Edmond what kind of things should I prepare the future teams with. He said all of his teams have been perfect... sigh.... but I eventually got some info out of him.... 
in the late afternoon Cristina and I went to her store. She has two employees Alex and ariselly . Alex helped out at the children's home the past several years so I know him by face and name... especially cause my Spanish is not the greatest. Ariselly is currently living with Cristina and Marvin so I see her everyday. When we got to the store we found out that the cell phones for Tigo had stopped working and the banks all closed early. This made Cristina feel a little better cause she thought her phone was broke. 
I told her the same thing happened in the US when the fiber optics were accidentally snipped or stolen... after closing up shop we went by a store to buy more things for her shop. The people in that store are recognizing me now that I have been there every day this week...
It started raining this evening and it is glorious... except for the mud but falling asleep to rain is nice and the animals are a lot quieter when that happens. :)

Prayer: keep praying for health. Marvin is still sick, his mother told him he has dengue fever and I said no. But he is not doing everything I am telling him... a typical guy... I taught Cristina the words "man flu" she thought it was funny... :)

Went to prison again! I think it's the 3rd time...

Last time I visited this prison there was riot after we left. No riots this time but there have been some changes...
Tuesday afternoon we headed to prison the Cristina's biweekly bible study at women's section of the prison.
It started to rain heavily and Cristina says sometimes she waits in her car until the rain stops because it is hard for everyone to hear in the prison during the rain. We are not allowed to take our cell phones into the prison so I will have to explain everything and hope my words can give a good picture. As we walked rapidly  from the truck we went to the market to buy the ladies bananas. Hoping the rain would lighten and instead it became heavier. We had to cross six inches of water just to get to the side of the street so my shoes were soaked. When we entered the prison the female guard was a bit unhappy because she would have to let us in. After I surrendered my passport and they searched my bible, we went back out side and around the side. The side entrance to get to women's sections. Since the last time I was there, which has been about 3 years there is a new fence around there kitchen area. Cristina says it was to separate the inmates from the guards as the guards dormitory is there on the left as you walk in. This makes sense because many of us brought up in the brigade we had in 2014 that the guard seemed really sweet on one of the inmates which we thought it was his daughter at first until we learned she was an inmate... lightbulb.... so as they unlock the gate, there three waterfalls from the ceiling, one was planned going straight into their water storage the other two were leaks from the ceiling. Because of these great waterfalls there was about 5 inches of standing water we must cross to get to the room where an old women is greeting us with a huge smile. We cross the water and enter a cell. The cell has two bunk beds and then a slab of wood for the third row of beds. Between the bed and the wall is not enough room for me to walk in straight on, i had to turn sideways and even then my head still hit stuff. I think the most room was in the bathroom. The cell I believe is a 8x8 cell and then a 4x4 bathroom. There was a 6inch tv playing the new jungle book. There are currently 10 female inmates in this cell. The floor in the cell was completely wet from the rain/ I'm sure something leaks, there was only room for one of the immates and Cristina to stand between the beds. The old cheerful lady stood in the door way of the bathroom. We proceeded to have bible study. Most of them participated and a few were able to read the passage from their own bible.
It was very nice and they thanked us several times for coming. One woman in there started crying because she believes she will die there. She has been struggling with diabetes and high blood pressure. She missed her court date because she was in the hospital with high blood sugar. She asked me what she can do because they are not giving her insulin like they were in the hospital. She doesn't have much control of her food she gets but we did go get her some cheese for instead of her plantains. And the Honduran diet is all carbs with a wee bit of beans. So we will RBI g her some stuff on Friday when we go. I told her to drink a lot of water, she says she does but it is from the sink. I told her needs to get excelencias which she says she tries but there is not exactly a lot of space to walk. I told her to go ahead and lift things if she can't walk, she liked that.
Of course when we left the rain had stopped and a lot of the standing water gone. We had to wait a bit for them to let us out, Cristina says that sometimes she waits longer to leave than to get in. 
We have not had brigade there since 2014, I hope if we can get a team together do one next year.

Currently Pastor Marvin is sick so please send prayers his way!

Monday = shopping

Today Cristina and I went all over la esperanza shopping for her store and me shopping for things to make on the weekend. Which it is really hard to find enchilada sauce in Honduras or even canned chilies. So I will see how everything tastes on Saturday...all I will say is the amount of vegitables I got for $3 would have cost me $10 in the states. We eat a lot of vegitables here. 

We also went to the bank were I could exchange my money. They are sticklers on the bills! They have to be in pristine shape or they get denied. So I exchanged some of my money and noticed that they put the big bank right next to the prison.. coincidence? I think not!

Monday, May 29, 2017

Photos 05/2017

Cause for some reason photos are not uploading... I feel this is my problem every time I'm here!

You thought your coffee grinder was bad! This guy is grinding coffee!!!

 
  

The weekend in La Esperanza

So Cristina wanted me to rest on Saturday which I did. I had set my alarm and didn't realize it was in Miami time so it woke me up way early. So a nap was also due... around 3 I went to Cristina's store and hung out there. I had forgotten how much people stare and without a group with me all of the stares are focused on me and me alone. It can be very unnerving. I miss being able to hide with in the group.
Norma's son brought more mushrooms! I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that Cristina had bought some mushrooms. These mushrooms are native to this area and only grow when the rainy season has been good. She cooked some up to go with the chicken. These mushrooms are red and look like all of the artistic mushrooms seen in paintings and sculptures. Well and now we have more mushrooms! I am normally a hater on mushrooms but these aren't too bad, and they are picked in the forest!

Sunday was a day!
First we traveled to a church and Marvin preached. It was a small chapel. And we were given more mushrooms! Then we drove to San Antonio to drop of rosa and Perot Carlos, the chapel is at rosas mothers house. Marvin preached there twice a month. Lots of mountain roads! 
Then Cristina, Marvin and I went to San Juan and had lunch at a cute little comedor which is a little eatery. We talked and visited. Then we went back to San Antonio and picked up rosa and her children and we went to Valle. These roads were crazy and I wish we had a Go pro for the end of the truck. Some of these road angles I have only seen on roller coasters!
There Marvin preached on Galatians taking about what not to do and the fruit of the spirit.
the picture below is of the Sunday shook at this church. The servic starts at about 4:20 and the the children below have been ther since 1pm! They go for Sunday school/ discipleship. They have been given children's bibles from Samaritan's purse. I can't believe the children go there for 4+ hours!!!
As the service let out the children started running to marvins truck they wanted to make sure that they got a ride home! As we left Marvin had about 20-30 people in the back of his truck! We were so lucky that it had stopped raining for this trip. Four wheeling out there is serious!
After making our various stops dropping people off we made our way back to San Antonio and dropped rosa and her children off. They invited us to their church service but we were exhausted and we will try next week!
Sunday was a very long day and Monday will be our day of rest. 
Prayer requests:
Health for Marvin, Cristina, and I as we travel to different villages and shake a lot of hands. :)
That as Cristina, Marvin, and I talk that we will be able to think of ideas to raise money for the ministries here.
And of course safe travels everywhere!

Until the next post! I think I will be going to the prison on Tuesday but we will see. We have a big day on Wednesday traveling to different villages and taking in the schools.

¡Adiós!

 
 

The Lone traveler

Well who would have thought I would be going to Honduras without a team? This trip to Honduras will be a a lot of firsts for me.
First checking in and not being given a seat. My trips are booked through a travel agency for nonprofits and I normally get a decent seat either a aisle or window and sometimes I randomly get economy plus. None of this happened. I kept asking for a seat, I didn't even have an option to upgrade and I totally would. Right now I will pay to about of pain. So after our boarding time I was finally given a seat. A middle seat or as another guy called it, "the conversation seat".
When I boarded, I got to my seat, it was like someone played a prank,  the amount of space between the two seats was so tiny. It looked to be about 6inches but as I measure it it appears to be 12 inches, judging with my fingers and my arm..my feet are longer than the space between front/back seat. And since it's an  older airplane, they added charging outlets so less space under the seat. My backpack barely fits side ways and doesn't fit length wise, so that means absolute no leg room for me my knees are in the seat ahead of me and of course the person lowered their seat so it's practically in my face. So my knees are screaming and all I can say is this is going to be a long day. And I immediately used my spending money on upgrading my other seats on the flights cause I guess that's how American Airlines does it. You got pay extra for the preferred seats!
Then to Miami, I could not just leave my luggage with the team and go explore, I had to lug my heavy backpack and bag sound the whole airport. And then there was no one to talk to, which was probably good cause I was tired and not in a pleasent mood.
My flight from Miami to Tegucigalpa was a better experience, no one sat on the aisle seat so the middle seat guy moved to the aisle and I found out that there is less leg room on the window seat dure to the charging pack for the outlet. So I awkwardly sat with my legs in the next space over. I kept repeatedly thinking, "why can't southwest fly to Tegucigalpa?" 
The guy on aisle was a dentist from Boston who was coming for a brigade. He was worried about the heat. I told it wasn't as bad as the Dominican Republic but he said they were by the ocean so maybe it is as bad. 
I was one the last ones to get off the plane and of course the one time I am not with a team the line for foreign travelers is longer and slower. So by the time I got out of customs Cristina and Marvin were waiting for me and they thought I had maybe missed my flight.
The trip to La Esperanza was longer then I remebered, more pot holes and we stopped more. I miss the bus but I didn't miss the bus. We stopped at stand on the side of the rode about an hour and half from La esperanza and we got some edible flowers, hopefully in a pic below or the next post. They cost $.50! Cristina says they are good with eggs we will see. Another reason to stop there was for the fresh piña! The lady ended up chopping up two different ones to prove the two different kinds of pineapple were tasty, and they were!! I am hoping Dennis will buy some when he comes up on Saturday or we will have to find some good ones at the market. I don't think the pineapples in America ever get this yellow.
Once we got to town Cristina and I stopped at Walmart. Now it didn't have a big sign saying Walmart but the plastic bags do and they charge for the plastic bags! The one time I really need my reusable bags!
And that was it to my long travel day... I feel like I did not need to do as extravagant as a post cause I have no team but there you go!
 

Monday, May 1, 2017

The rest of Honduras 2016

Monday
Well today ended in bang. We have no electricity in the church and I used the flashlight to find my toothpaste. As I was brushing my teeth i kept thinking this toothpaste taste gross.... I kept brushing... It wasn't foaming so I figured it was because it was new toothpaste. Then I looked at the tube and saw I had used hydrocortisone cream instead of sensodyne. Lucky for me my mom taught me to never swallow the the toothpaste stuff. So after everyone laughing at me, making me laugh spitting out the water, I finally rinsed my brush and brushed my teeth with toothpaste.
That was the cherry on top to my very clumsy day. It started out great I woke early and was packed to go to the village of carrazel by 7:30. Cristina made me some Camille tea for my stomach and I relaxed while she got ready. After getting to base camp I walked into a room of students on wifi, it saddened my heart how much they stick to their phones and the necessity of the Internet. I pull my phone out to take pictures and that's about it. I update my blog once a day and that's my internet consumption. Anyways some of the team was not packed, we weren't leaving till 1 so I went with Cristina to the supermercado and bought food for the team for the next week in the villages. It was fun except there were no prices on the food so you have to go to the computers on the aisles to scan the barcode to obtain the price. Very annoying when you have to scan 10 different brands to figure out which is the cheapest plates. 
After lunch we prayed for each team going to the villages. Then the Dolores and carrizal team left with the bus. We stopped off at Dolores first then onto carrizal. We arrived and the church is very nice. They had rigged the back of it with a curtain by the stage with us sleeping on the stage eventually putting up a tarp also. After we had some of our stuff put together we were led to Norma's house. At first it was no big. Deal then it kept going hiking into the jungle/ Forrest, through the coffee fields and more forest. At one point I sorta fell/ ran down the mountain definitely twisting my knee. The whole team missed it cause they walked way ahead with Norma's son. I was salon g with Norma. After me falling and slipping a couple of times Norma gave me a stick to use to walk with. Every house I came to I figured it would be her house but then we kept walking and walking some on nonexistent path, Norma knew where she was going so we kept walking. And I kept trying out my steps to see if this next one would be when I totally biff it. We finally made it to Norma's house where we had pineapple tea and cake but they call it pan- it was definitely cake. Norma kept offering me to sleep/ rest on her bed but I felt fine with my knee hurting a bit. We hung out at Norma's until dinner was ready. Spaghetti with rice, tortillas and beans. Interesting meal... The girls and I started discussing how we were going to go back up the mountain now that it was dark. We then found out that a neighbor was going to drive us back. We still had to hike to where the neighbor was m, but boy oh boy was the back of that truck fun!!!!
So we return to the church with a candle in front lit and I use the wrong toothpaste. Long day and now for bed!

Well I accidentally delete my Tuesday and because it was so long ago I can remember...

Wednesday may 11-may 15
Well as the days pass in carrizal it has been hot and interesting. Wednesday after school we did lesson plans for the the next day. In the afternoon we visited a lady who is unable to come to church because of her rheumatoid arthritis. After the hike to her house I understand how she cannot leave her house. It was a definite hike. All the while of going down I just kept thinking how are we going to get out? Thursday was similar to Wednesday we visited a girl with dwarfism. Her head is so big she has a chair to help hold her head up. We visited with her family and then hiked back to Norma's house. This hike was not has had as the first day because the steep coffee plant area was skipped. When we were heading back one of the girls was bit by a dog while taking a short cut through the ladies house/land. We got back to the church and I was able to use my first aid kit. I told the girls something was going to happen beachside they had a nurse in their group. Friday morning I was awoken to the pipe on the toliet exploding with water going everywhere when one of the girls was about to take a shower. We had no running water and no toliet use for about 2 hours. One of he girls had never use the bathroom in the Forrest before. One of these days camping will have to be a precursor to going on a mission trip...Friday we had school at the church because the teachers had a meeting. About a group of 30 showed up we were able to go over the English we had taught them and the songs. And then they played in our little area around the church. Friday afternoon I got a migraine/ cold, so the group went on a hike with the pastor to different houses inviting them to church on Sunday. Through the last few days a group of children have begun to come to play/ hang out with us. Bri has really enjoyed it and Alison has also. Saturday we had a relaxing morning with some of the children showing up. In the afternoon we hiked and visited a few more families inviting them to church and letting the children know that we are going  to sing a few of the songs that they had learned in English. Saturday closed with us having dinner at dusk and all of us counting up our bug bites.
Sunday was great! We had church, the kids sang the songs, we sang a song, and Tashie gave her testimony. After church we hiked to Norma's and did not take the shortcut. There we had lunch then she taught us how to make her pan(sweet bread- pueblo style). It was interesting definitely no measuring. And a lot of weird stirring techniques, including slapping the dough with the spoon. It was interesting to see the way they cooked the bread in the pueblo oven. It was a nice day with overcast and cool. After dinner and once the bread was cooked we hiked back up into the mountain no shortcut allowed. As our last night in carrizal we were excited to head back to base camp and see the other teams.