Joy to the World

December 25^th – MERRY CHRISTMAS!  I hope your day was full of joy and time with your family, either your relatives or your adopted family.  My day was full of both … and my family here is full of love and warmth, joking and laughing … just like my family back home.

One of my little friends told me today that her sister had a baby.  She is one of my friends in most need of love and affection, the same little friend who fell asleep in my arms during Las Posadas.  I thought it was so appropriate that she receive this little gift on Christmas day, a new bundle of joy.

Today was full of cooking!  After going to church this morning, we had a simple Christmas brunch.  I spent the day cooking.   Three little helpers stopped by to wish us Merry Christmas while the others were resting.  I invited them up.  We had cookies and coke to celebrated Jesus´ birthday together and then helped me prepare the green bean casserole.  After that, they colored pictures to take home to their infirm grandmother as a gift.

Joy and St. Nick went to deliver donation bags to the family who is the most in need in our acquaintance.  They spent the afternoon with them playing games with the kids and talking with the adults.  Padrito had masses to celebrate and Grace prepared the house for the evening.  At 3 pm Grace and two of our teens came to help me.  And at 6 pm our twenty-two teens began arriving for our Christmas dinner of chicken, rice and green bean casserole.  Before dinner we sang carols and after dinner we had a secret Santa gift exchange.  The day was completed by talking with my family.  Today, though far from home, I felt at home, because we celebrated the day with love and with dear friends.

Silent Night (Or Night not so Silent)

Saturday, December 24^th we invited a family to join to us for lunch, and we ate out Christmas Turkey.  I got to cook the meal, which I loved.  We have an aperitif, a gift from a friend, and ended with a traditional Honduran dessert, Rosquillas de Miel.  Then we went out to deliver gift bags to six of the poorest families in our neighborhood.  We received donations from three different groups and were able to make generous gift bags of food and cleaning products to give to each.  It was wonderful to be able to do something special for these friends. 

After Midnight Mass, we went out visiting.  Here everyone is outside in the streets the night of Christmas Eve.  Everyone has something new to wear and everyone if celebrating.  The kids buy bags of fire crackers, which they play with.  We went to the home of a friend for the Midnight festivities.  At midnight the family gathered around the Cresh while one little one put Jesus in with help and others sang.  Then we had a Christmas Toast with sparkling grape juice and everyone hugged and kissed each other on the cheek to wish each other a Merry Christmas.  Finally, the kids were dismissed to run to the back of the house where Santa had passed leaving a gift for each child.

Two minutes before midnight our neighborhood erupted! It sounded like every child in the neighborhood ignited a fire cracker at exactly the same time, many small ones, some normal ones and some so large they sounded like bombs.  The neighborhood poured into the streets with sparklers and handheld fireworks.  The celebration lasted for at least 20 minutes, after which my ears were ringing.  Again we went out to visit our friends in the streets … hugging and kissing the cheek of each person we met. 

The night ended in the house of a family we are very close to which has three teenage daughters and a teenage son.  They were just finishing their Christmas dinner and shared it with us.  After catching up with them, it had only been a few hours since we last saw them; we played Jenga until after 2 am.

O Little Town of Bethlehem

Thursday, December 22^nd before Christmas we went to the women´s prison where our teens presented the Christmas Story acting it out in dialogue and song.   This was a huge success!  Another church was there with donations of clothing (the residents wear normal clothes) and food, so almost the entire prison was present.  They sang along to traditional Honduran Christmas carols and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the presentation.  One of the babies (women with children under the age of two are allowed to have their babies so that they can nurse and care for them) was Jesus.  He was perfect.  After being passed from one teen to another while we got ready (we were 20 in total), he slept soundly in my arms for the entire presentation until his grand moment when the angle placed him in the cresh.  At the finale he woke up to raise his little hands in the air and then fall asleep again.  After the show, he returned to his mother who was beeming with pride.  The afternoon ended with an impromptu game of soccer with our teens and many of the women.

Bus to the Women´s Prison

Stage in the openair pavillion at the prison

Little Baby Jesus Sleeping

Friday, December 23^rd we presented the show in out patio.  We invited everyone we talked to in the days leading up to the show and at my last count, 117 people came, with more arriving during the show.  The teens loved it and performed even better in our house than in the prison.  And the crowd enjoyed it also.  Everyone sang along to the carols which served as an interlude between each scene.  At the end, we all ate the Honduran version of our tamales, Nacatamales, and drank coke and mingled.  It seems like to whole neighborhood pitched in to the dinner. Some donated a chicken, others a bottle of soda or a bag or rice.  Others gave money to cover the cost and others worked for two days making the food.  In my eyes, it was a huge success.

Our cresh with banana palms

Finale!

It’s Christmas Time in the City

Christmas Season in Honduras is full of song, food, visits and joy!  I love it! 

A cool front arrived just in time Christmas Eve, that night.  So I wore a sweater to Midnight Mass and today there is just a bit of cool in the breeze … it is really nice!  We started celebrating 9 days before Christmas with Las Posadas. One friend and local benefactor invited us for a Christmas luncheon in her house with her mother the week before Christmas and gave us a Turkey to use for Christmas Eve dinner.  Another dear friend and benefactor invited us and eight of our teens to a Christmas Dinner (otherwise known as a feast) in her house the Sunday before Christmas.  Her whole family was there and we spent the night singing, dancing, praying, eating, laughing and celebrating.  

Another friend invited us to Christmas Dinner in her house with her three children.  The night ended in singing Christmas carols in four different language with Padrito and St. Nick playing the guitar.  It was such a lovely celebration and really felt like a Christmas at home, only with my new family.

Here are some pictures from our the dinner at our friend´s house with the teen -

Deck the Hall with Boughs of Holly

I saw my first Christmas tree shortly after I arrived in October, but decorations were not in full swing until the end of November.  Like the US, here Christmas Trees, Nativity Scenes and Christmas lights adorn houses rich and poor, but the style is different.  Great attention is paid to the nativity scenes.  They are not just a cresh, but often an entire village of figurines, complete with colored sand and wood shavings.  This is one of my favorites.

But sometimes they are very simple too!  In the house of one of our friends we encountered another one of my favorites.  It was two statues, one of Mary and one of Joseph on a table covered with a white sheet.  In between them was a single white candle glowing brightly.  Here you do not put baby Jesus into his cresh until he arrives at Midnight on Christmas Eve. 

All the Christmas Trees, all stored carefully at the end of the Season to be used the following year, have ribbon wrapping them.  Some also have balls, others poinsettia flowers or butterflies.  Bows of sorts decorate the tip top instead of angles and stars.  And usually the tree is one or two colors – red and gold being the most prevalent.  Tensile and apples are also popular decorations.  Many are very beautiful and look like they belong in a catalog.

My neighbors love blinking lights.  They blink on the trees and they blink outside of the houses.  Most homes only have them inside, but one in ten has a few strands outside too.  It is nice to see our neighborhood so festively decorated!

We decorated our house too!  We have a little Christmas tree, a gift from years ago, complete with its blinking lights.  And we have a nativity scene which we made in the local style.

I made an advent calendar for us to use … but didn´t complete it until the second week of December … so I supposed it will get more use next year.  And we all worked on our handmade advent wreath.  I think it turned out quite well!  When we were working on it, my housemates laughed about how I would make a good preschool teacher, creating something out of poster board, crayons and some wire!

My First Friend

I am little by little learning why I am here and what it means to our community.  My first friend here, Eva, is a 16 year old, beautiful young lady who came to greet  me at the bus station when I arrived from El Salvador.  Like some many of our friends, her life has had more than its fair share of heart ache, yet she is constantly laughing and joking with us.  She is possibly the most frequent visitor to our house and love to help.  She like to accompany us when we go to the market and washes dishes that are not hers as if it were something she enjoyed (without being asked). 

She craves friendship and love.  She needs affirmation.  She is often very easy to love and very helpful.  But as a teenager, she has a rebellious streak as well. 

When I think about what we “do”, she comes to mind.  For our neighbors, we are their support system, we are their first recourse in times of trouble.  We clean wounds and we give food.  We receive donations only to give them to someone who needs them more.  We are companions for the family Christmas dinner, to the wedding of a child, for the death of a child and for a trip to the doctor.  When a baby is sick, we receive a knock on our door (or a jingle of the lock).  When a grandchild leaves to work in Spain, we are a shoulder to cry on.  And when a story needs to be told, we listen. 

When Eva had a dance recital and received a set number of tickets, she wanted us to be there.  And we were.  Eva dances in a high school troupe which performs traditional Honduran dances.  She dances well and loves it.  The day after the recital, she called us early in the morning.  That day we accompanied her to the doctor where she received three stitches.  For the next week, each day we applied her ointment. 

What do I do?  That depends, on the day, the moment, on the friend who appears on my doorstep.   

An Expat Thanksgiving

Yes, I celebrated Thanksgiving this year!  As a new friend, Fr. John, from Boston said, ¨this holiday is sufficiently important as a reminder to us Americans, that we must celebrate it wherever we are¨.

My dear friend, Nancy, drove me to an import supermarket to buy turkey, yams, cranberry jelly and pumpkin.  For three days I felt like a six year old waiting to Christmas.  I made decorations with cardboard and crayons, made place cards listing on the back the little gifts my housemates give for which I am thankful, then i cooked, and cooked, and cooked.  And I prepared Thanksgiving Day prayers to pray before we ate, with Joy´s help to rewrite my terrible Spanish grammar.  We had a real southern Thanksgiving dinner complete with stuffing a pumpkin pie and a guest.  It was so much fun! 

All week I though about the things for which I am thankful!  I am thankful for my family full of love and support for me and for the love I have for each of them.  I am thankful for my 20+ years full of life, excitement, joy and struggle which brought me here.  I am thankful for my friends who continue to love me, teach me, and encourage me.  I am thankful to be here with such precious companions who show me kindness and patience everyday.  I am thankful for my new friends who loved me before they had time to get to know me and who are showing me a new side of the beauty of life.  And I am thankful to have the opportunity to write this today, to be able to write it and to be able to post it.   My heart is full of gratitude!

The Widow´s Limpera

Last sunday we planned to have a fundraiser at our local church.  Joy called many of our friends and benefactors here in Honduras who come from middle and upper class families to ask them if they had clothes or other items they would like to donate.  We were then going to sort them and have a garage sale to raise funds for a feild trip with some of the teens from our weekly soccer game.  We received two donations.  The others either forgot or were to busy.  One friend very genrously donated household goods which we sold with some success.  I am hoping it is enough for a picnic in the city park or a trip to the museum in the center.  My joy from the other donation far surpassed any sadness I might have had at our request being forgotten by our other friends. 

Darling is the mother of two precious children who come to our house to play, to pray and for catecism classes.  They frequently join us when we have mass in our house on Wednesday nights.  Darling works cleaning houses, but is going to school to have a better job.  Her husband left her for prison and another family, but they are better off without him, because he would take her hard earned money and give it to his other family. 

Last month we invited them to lunch to celebrate her son´s birthday.  It was a joyful occasion full of laughter, signing along to Padrito playing the guitar and complete with a birthday cake with one candle on which Little John could make a wish for his 8th birhtday.  I think our gift of a box of crayons was his only birthday gift this year.  He loved his little party as much as we loved celebrating with him.  Darling´s youngest daughter is named after here and truely is a darling with a simple but deep faith, a quite spirit and a constant smile. She is six.

Two weeks ago we invited the family to dinner.  Darling overheard that we were going to try to raise funds for the teens.  The following Monday, we had nine bags full of clothes and shoes which she wanted to donate.  I can´t tell you how humbled I was and am by this gift from our friend who has so little and lives day to day. 

And in case you were wonderful, the Limperia is the currency in Honduras.

Pictures from the Gringo Visit

At long last ... Pictures of a Hike on our day off ...

Housemates

I am so blessed to have four wonderful friends to share my daily joys and struggles here.

Joy is 24, from Argentinia, and is my bunkmate.  She is full of energy, ideas and love.  To watch her enteract with a disabled friend in our neighborhood is to watch someone comunicate and love much like how I imagine Mother Teresa used to love.  She is in many ways my teacher, teaching me how to dress, reminding me to pray before each visit and helping me do my exercised diligently.  She is very generous with all of her personal posessions, almost completely unattached to the things which she owns. She is brights and fun to be with, loves to dance and loves music.  And she loves to laugh.  Twice in the last week we have laughed, on the floor of our room, so hard that my sides hurt.

Grace is in her late 40s and from Brazil.  She is dedicated her like to Heart´s Home for the rest of her life.  She is  like my mother here.  I go to her for questions and she patiently, meekly answers.  She is very unselfish and has a servant´s heart.  Often she does the little things around the house which need to be done ... washing or finishing my cleaning, without being asked.  She also loves to laugh and to laugh heartily.  I enjoy very much our evening tea after dinner. It is a time to chat about anything or nothing before bed.

Padrito is a 40 year old french priest who is also a permanent member of Heart´s Home.  He is full of wisdom. Often his homily seems to be specifically written for my heart that day.  He loves the children and is very much a child himself!  He laughs with his eyes as much as his voice.  He enjoys cracking dry jokes and speaking in english.  However his confusion of english words often makes us both laugh.  I am not familiar with ¨Rebel without Cows¨, but do know of ¨Rebel without a Cause¨.  Another fun switch was ¨witch¨ and ¨wish¨.  As I help him with english, he helps me, very patiently, with my poor spanish.  He also takes care of the difficult jobs around the house, like cutting trees and cleaning the inside the water tank of our washing area.

St. Nic is in his late 30s and also from France.  He has also dedicated his life as a Heart´s Home volunteer. The children love it when he visits.  Like your favorite grandfather, he can make his face do things which make them explode with laughter.  He helps them touch the roof and throws them in the air as they reach for the sky.  He is our handyman around the house.  And like Padrito, he plays the guitar and sings.  He is passionate about reach people through online media and has a gift for this.  He enjoys walking briskly through the streets.  And thankfully, he helps me learn the culture here - having lived in the US, he understands well my own culture and thus the struggles to adjust to my new neighborhood.

An American in Teguc

Actually, there were 13 americans in our small parish yesterday morning.  I was so happy and very surprised to see so many gringos!  They are on a week long mission trip from Cinncinati and had come to visit our church because they sponsor the neighborhood school.

I had trouble concontrating on what was said during mass, because I was so excited to go say hello after.  This kind crew invited me and one of my roommates to join them for a coffee at Duncan Donuts after mass, their treat!  It was fun to go and talk with them for a little while before their next appointment.

Fortunately, their schedule cleared for the afternoon and they came back to our house after their lunch to have coffee, juice and pan dolce (cookies).  For over an hour we talked and answered lots of questions!  It was wonderful to make new friends and introduce them to our home and to three of our friends from the neighborhood.

I look forward to the next chance encounter like this that changes our schedule and enriches my life!

A Tale of Two Girls - Martha and Mary

If I has a limpira (the Honduran currancy) for everytime I was asked what I do each day for the second or third time ... I could buy groceries for one of our friends for a week!  So, forgive me for not telling you until now about what I do, but I am still learning myself.  Much of my time is spent in quiet - cleaning, praying, sitting on a bus which is too loud to talk to the person next to you.  And the visit are the opposite.  So I feel like each day I am part Mary and part Martha - part listening and part acting.  So below is my schedule, daily and weekly, to give you a better idea.

Daily Schedule:
Our days are marked our by prayer time and meal time.  I enjoy the structure and seem to fill every moment.
   7 am - Morning prayer
   7.30 am - Time to read
   8 am - Breakfast
   9 am to 12.30 pm -  Hand wash dishes, clothes, sheets, towels, etc.
                            -  An hour of individual prayer
                            -  Exercise
                            -  Prepare for upcoming activities
   12.30 pm  - Lunch
   1.30 pm - Siesta
   2.30 pm - Pray with the kids from the neighborhood
   3 pm - Afternoon activities
   5.45 pm - Evening Prayer
   6.30 pm - Mass
   7.30 pm - Dinner
   9 pm - Night prayer

Weekly Schedule:
   Monday - Day off - Internet, Sleep, Write letters, often in the house of a friend who lives outside of our                                                                                                neighborhood where we can rest
   Tuesday - My day to cook all three meals!!!!
                  - AM - Shopping either at the Produce Market at 6 am or the Supermarket after breakfast
                  - PM - Visits in the neighborhood
   Wednesday - AM - Clean our house from top to bottom!  With the windows and doors always open and dirt roads throughout our neighborhood, you can imagine how important this is!
                  - PM - Soccer with the teens (pm)
                  - Evening - Mass in our house and a reception after for anyone who wants to join us.
   Thursday - Visit to the Home for the Elderly or the Women´s Prison - Right now I go mostly to the Home for the Aging and to the prison only once every three or four weeks.
   Friday - AM - Weekly planning meeting
               - PM - My day for the Permenancia - The house is open to all the neighborhood kids to come play.  We often have 20 +!
               - Evening - Book club for young adults which we call the ¨School of Community¨
   Saturday - PM - Visits in the neighborhood
               - Evening - Teen girls book club - Right now we are reading The Little Prince
   Sunday - Seems to change every week.  Church in the morning in our neighborhood.  Once a month we have an afternoon ¨retreat¨ in the mountains with friends of Heart´s Home from around the city.  We go visit or invite people to visit us.

We often have guests who stop by as they are passing and frequently invite friends to join us for a meal.  We make a simple cake for the birthdays of the kids and either invite them over or take it to them.  Our days are very full and our schedule constantly changing as needed to accomodate opportunities which present themselves.  Everyday is different!


     

First Impressions

I have now been here for three weeks.  Three weeks of meeting people, making new friends, learning about the language and culture.  It has passed very quickly.  I thought you might want to hear a little about my neighborhood.  Unfortuantely, I have pictures, but don´t have the proper equipment to upload them.  Hopefully next week I can show you the neighborhood also.  For now ... i will describe my neighborhod.  What I see here isn´t all of Honduras. It is simply my neighborhood.

Everymorning I wake up to rooster´s crowing, dogs barking and the sounds of children and adults talking as they walk past our house on their way to school or work.  Our neighborhood is full of noises ... the men talking as they hang out infont of our house (their favorite impromptu gathering place) ... firecrackers which the kids love ... trucks and buses passing by.  And it is full of the smells of cooking ... tortillas made fresh each day, plantains, beans, fried pigs skins and occasionally chicken or meat.

Tegucigalpa is built in the mountains.  It´s streets resemble those of San Fracisco in the grade as many are very steep and others not so much.  Our neighborhood has some very steep streets, like the one directly in front of my house where cars have to gain momuntum to go up the hill.  Many of our ´streets´are narrow alleys which are also stairways.  Others are just normal alleys.

Out side out neighborhood the streets are paved, but in our neighborhood only the five main streets have pavers, the rest are dirt.  Homes are all built next to each other usually sharing walls.  The nicer homes like ours have brick or stucco exteriors with a tin or terracotta roof, concrete walls and tile floors.  Other homes are make of tin or wood often with holes.  Rooms are often devided by curtains rather than walls and curtains often serve as doors as well.

We have lots of plants growing in our neighborhood ... hydrangea, hybiscus, azaleas, fruit trees and various grasses.  It really is beautiful in its own way.  Many of the homes are painted reds, blues and yellows, but many are also hues of brown.

The reason I love my neighborhood already isn´t the dogs and cats and chickens which wander in and out of houses or the close proximity of the homes of our friends, but the inhabitants who are warm  and whose children are playful and loving.  I am happy to be beginning to form friendships with them!

Bienvenida in Honduras!!

I arrived in Honduras one week ago.  I have been overwhelmed by the warm welcome by the people of my neighborhood - hugs and kisses on the cheek, invitations to visit their homes and gifts of food.  They are teaching me what a welcome truely is.

The night I arrived, I came by bus from El Salvador.  It was a beautiful ride.  Padre Jose, one of my fellow volunteers, and one of the teenage girls from the neighborhood came to meet me.  They waveds as I pulled up, a welcome sight after 8 hours on a bus, and hugged me as I came out.  Then, after we had a good laugh about the amount of luggage I had and after I blushed more than I would like to admit at my american sense of 'need', we headed by cab to my new neighborhood.

The taxi could not enter our neighborhood, because the street was too wet (i think), but the driver still insisted on helping carry one of my three checked bags to the house a few blocks away.  There the other volunteers greeted me as heartily as Padre Jose and my lovely new friend had.  Nicolas and Padre Jose are both from France and both speak portugese as well as spanish, french and english!  Rita is from Brazil and speaks the same number of languages.  These three are all about 10 years older than I and all permanent members of Heart's Home who have given their lives in compassionate service of the poor.  Flor, my bunkmate, is a few years younger than me and from Argentina.  She will be in Honduras another 10 months.  We are already becoming very good friends.  I am grateful for their patience with me as I learn the cultural norms of our neighborhood and the way of life in our home.  And they are very generous in explaining things to me in simple spanish when I don't understand.  I am grateful to have such kind companions in this journey who also love to laugh.

That first night Flor was the cook. We had a traditional Honduras meal Beledas (spelling??), which she prepared with the brother of the girl who met me at the bus stop.  It was delicious - a honduran version of our borritos which consisted of wheat totillas (corn for me), refried black beans, guagamole, scrambled eggs, cheese and plaintains.  I think I could eat it every night!  Over the table where we ate hung a lovely 'Bienvenido Victoria' sign.  Unfortunately, my camera was not charged to send you pictures.  I will try take pictures this week though!

Estoy aqui´!!!!!!!

Finally, I arrived in Honduras on Tuesday.  I spent four days in El Salvador before coming to Honduras.  El Salvador was wonderful.  The first three nights I stayed at a retreat center run my Sisters in the hills an hour from San Salvador.  It was beautiful at the center.  The grounds are a garnden with a farm going down the side of the hill.  They grow coffee, oranges, avacados and many other fruits.

On the third night, I went with the Sisters to visit a delightful family which lives a few minutes away.  They invited us for a dinner of papusas - a traditional El Salvadorian tortilla filled with beans and cheese or other delicious fillings -  and hot chocolate spiced with cinnimon.  It was delicious!

The family was very jovial ' A husband and wife who are newly married and their parents and one aunt.  They live together in a beautiful home decorated with columns and cement work wich the grandfather has done and takes great pride in.  The grandmother, who sings beautifully, enjoys games.  So she taught us a song - Quien sera´- in spanish of course.  Then she asked each of us to sing it.  I was the second and sang it as poorly as you can imagine.  But the beautiful thing is the quality didn´t matter, only that i tried.  We all laughed heartily.  Then one of the sisters sang.  She sang the first verse, then the chorus, then in the same tune changes the words.  She sang that she did not want to sing more, but that someone else should sing.  The others began responding in the same tune that they did not want to sing and joking with each other.  This ended in much laughter.  Finally, the young bride sang a farewell song which rhymed well to one of the Sisters who is leaving next week for Argintina.  It was beautiful and moving.

So I left El Salvador for Honduras excited to arrive and sad to leave behind my lovely new friends!!

Leaving on a Jet Plane!

Today I finally leave for my mission in Honduras.  I am going first to El Salvador and then on to Honduras in a few days.  I am so excited I can't sleep.

Thank you to everyone who made this possible, especially my family and my sponsors. 

I will let you know when I am settled!

T is for Time

Written in September ...
I blinked and summer is ending.  As usual, my time has not been my
own.  When I was little it belonged to my parents, then school seemed
to own it, then work.  If I learned anything this summer, it is that
there is a time for everything.  Time to travel, to move, to study, to
make new friends and to say goodbye.

In July, it was time again for camp.  My "maybe one more year" came
true as I went back to the place where I have received so much in the
hope of giving something back.  Instead, I received far more than I
could ever hope to give.  I went back this summer living, as Merry Dad
says, every Mystic mom's dream of going back when I am still young
enough to enjoy everything and old enough to try to savor each
fleeting moment - each swim in the Guad, each trail ride, each cabin
devotional, each Sonic Slushy filled night off and each time someone
stopped me to chat or invited me to go on a walk.  Deep in the heart
of Texas, I went home to one of my many a homes, one full of many
happy, summer memories.

It is amazing to me how richly blessed I am with friendships.  The
time I had this summer was short, but full.  And if home is where the
heart is, then I have homes all over the country thanks to this oasis
in the middle of the Hill Country.  A part of my heart will always be
in Hunt with the beautiful family who invites so many girls into
their hearts each summer. But it is also in Boston with my boss who I
call sister.  In New York and in Penn with my co-counselors who are new,
life-long friends.  In Dallas with my first camp friend who is now
playing house with her husband.  And with my new cabin scattered
across the state and around the country.  I will forever smile when I
hear Celine or watch a wobble ... thinking of the cabin time we had.
So as summer ends, it is time to start thinking about packing I should
soon have a ticket for an early October departure to my new home.

Making Friends in Brooklyn

Orientation was wonderful!  I spent two weeks with the volunteers in Brooklyn praying, studying Spanish, visiting neighbors and preparing for Honduras.  There were four others there preparing for their missions as well.  We were a varied bunch, ages 17 to 28.  We were a dancer and a singer, a theologian and a philosophy major, a social worker and a business major.  We come from all over the country.  Quickly, we were friends.

I spent time in a nursing home and visiting neighbors at their homes.  I played dominoes with neighbors at the House in Brooklyn and worked in the garden at the house in upstate NY.  Everyday we discussed topics pertaining to our volunteer mission to prepare our minds and hearts.  We studied writings on each of these topics.  The most touching part of the orientation was how quickly the friends from Brooklyn opened their hearts' to me.  They didn't know me at all, but loved me because they love the volunteers in Brooklyn and knew that I was their to learn. 

One of my new friends has been in the nursing home.  When I walked in with Moinette, she smiled at us happy to have a visitor.  Moinette normally meets her in the recreational room or lounge area, but today she couldn't go.  We sat and talked for almost an hour.  We talked about the arts and crafts class that she took recently and she showed us the mask she made.  It was simple, but beautiful, just like her.  My new friend had been in  her room for three years, but the walls were still the stark white of a hospital.  So I hung her mask up to make it a little more "homey".  It was such a small jester, but so appreciated.  When we left, she invited me back.  So small and so short, this encounter with a lovely middle aged woman made my day.  She and some of her fellow residents at the home lifted my spirits and made my heart grow because of their love and welcoming acceptance.

Estas Vale??

I wrote this somewhere 40,000 SF above the Atlantic Ocean on my return journey from a holiday in Europe with my sister, Maria Dos.  As Maria Dos would say, I went to collect her.  On day four of our journey, sitting outside a little restaurant at the foot of the mountains in Sintra, Portugal, I asked Mary Dos, “Estas vale?”  “Estas” is the Spanish for “are you?”  “Vale” being a new Spanish word I learned from her in Madrid for “ok.”  This question had the unintended consequence of immediately cheering her up as she burst into rather infectious laughter.  Apparently, I should have ask, “Estas bien?”  “Vale” is used as a response to a question.  So if you are wondering how I am progressing in my study of Spanish, the answer is not so well in spite of my sweet sister’s patience with me in practicing in three different countries over the last nine days.

Here are a few of the trip highlights, pictures are on FB:

·         Taking a “paseo,” or stroll, in Retiro Park in Madrid, Spain to recover from jetlag 

·         Happening upon two of my favorite paintings, Raphael’s Visitation and Fra Angelico’s Annunciation in the Prato Museum (even though I didn’t know they were there) – plus numerous delightful works of Spanish art

·         Watching the mist move swiftly through the Moor’s Castle and surroundings tree’s above the quaint town of Sintra, Portugal

·         Seeing a black swan in the lake below the Palacio Reale in the same woods

·         Wandering through the caves under the Quinto Mansion in a successful attempt to try to find the entrance to inverted towers on the grounds - Crouching low and using a camera for a flashlight hoping to avoid spiderwebs - Maria Dos kindly let me go first J

·         Surviving the hail storm atop a bald hill in Wicklow County, Ireland … Maria Dos and I crouched beneath a boulder to try to avoid some of the wicked little ice balls and laughing with Maria Dos.

·         Walking off path to get closer to the waterfall and surprising a Momma goat with her kid.

·         Live music over Guinness and Bailey’s in Dublin

On the last full day of our trip, Maria Dos and I took the bus from the Irish country side back to Dublin.  Amid a smattering of Jimmy Buffet, Garth Brooks, The Fray and Frank Sinatra on my iPod, it finally hit me.  I am not returning to a new equity placement and a take-over checklist on Monday.  Tuesday morning I will not wake up at 6 am to talk my dogs past the home which has been occupied by two sets of friends.  This week I will not enjoy the conversations with colleagues who are friends or return to my desk to find nerds in my In-box.  I miss Dallas and my friends, but I will have a different week this week.

Littlest Mary and I will drive 1,100 miles from Florida to Houston after a say goodbye to the puppies.  (They will be in the capable hands of my sister Marianne while I am gone.)  Then I  will head to Brooklyn for my orientation program with Heart’s Home.  Along the way I will stop to see family friends and try to do some wash.  It will be a good week.

“Estats valey,” you ask.  Yes, estoy bien. And I miss you! 

Why go ??

In just I few months I will move to Tegulcigalpa, Honduras to volunteer for 14 months with Heart’s Home.  I will living with four other volunteers in the impoverished neighborhood of Colonia Monterry. Heart’s Home is an inter­na­tional, faith-based, non-profit orga­ni­za­tion which strives to serve its neighbors where they live and just as they are.  For the last twenty years, the organization has worked to pro­mote a cul­ture of compas­sion through its efforts in 40 homes and two villages across 21 countries.  As a Heart’s Home volunteer, I am only required to have a heart open to my community, ready to love and full of empathy.  To summarize the Heart’s Home charism, it is an intentional and actionable compassion.  

Each Heart’s Home has different activities based on the needs of the community where the volunteers live.  Much of my time will be spent visiting neighbors in the mornings and inviting the neighborhood children to the house in the afternoons.  I will have three purposes: first, to make friends and to let my friends know that they are loved, valued and supported; second, to welcome members of my neighborhood into the house and into my life; and finally, to serve as a bridge between local charities and services and my friends anytime someone in the neighborhood is in need of help.  At my home, the volunteers spend two afternoons each week out working with other organizations,one afternoon at a women’s prison and the other at a home for the disabled and aging.  At each the purpose is the same, to encourage our friends. 

Everyday will be different in my neighborhood and in many ways the days will be similar to my interview weekend in Brooklyn, NY.  On one visit we sat and talked with a gregarious elderly woman who rarely leaves her home.  She was full of joy as she eagerly shared the most recent exploits of her grandchildren in New Jersey.  On another visit I played with three toddlers giving a struggling mother much needed quiet time to share some of her worries about her illness and finances with another volunteer.  On another I sat and held the hand of a woman confined to her bed and barely able to speak as we sang hymns she requested and prayed with her.  In Honduras, I will be a homework tutor and a basketball player.  I will color and cook.  And when a mother has a sick child, I will help her find a doctor and find an organization to pay for her child’s care.  Then I will go with her to all of the appointments if she wants a companion.  Each day, I my only goal will be to patiently love all those I meet.