Communicating

Living in a country where the primary language is not your own can be very interesting at times, and we have all had some issues communicating. Whenever Gordon introduces himself as “Yo estoy Gordo” – he gets some funny looks because he is saying “I am fat” and people don’t realize that Gordo is his name. Chantalle has decided to go by Nicole because the way people were pronouncing her name meant “piggy”, and she didn’t like the giggles that often accompanied her name. I thought a lot of people in one town were named Lisa because I kept hearing people saying my name, but then Chris told us that Lisa means “slippery”. Natalie’s name doesn’t appear to have a double meaning, but she has had her share of communication mishaps nonetheless.

Natalie seems to have some trouble when it comes to discussing relationships. We were in San Pedro and someone asked Natalie if Gordon was her “novio”, and she smiled big and said, “si, si”. The man gave her a funny look and left. Later she realized that he had asked if Gordon was her lover, and she had said that yes, he was… therefore the funny look! Another time when we were talking with a young man, he asked Natalie if she had a boyfriend, and she started giggling. He asked why she was laughing, and she meant to say that she was embarrassed (embarzoso), but unintentionally said that she was pregnant (embarazada). He asked her if she really was, and Natalie, still thinking he was asking about a boyfriend, replied, “no, not right now, but it’s possible in a short time”. He looked VERY confused!

A couple of days ago, we went to Siguatepeque with Chris, and Gordon and I dropped Chris and the girls off at a market and went to tour a cemetery. (They have some of the coolest cemeteries here! Very much like New Orleans…) We were walking around, and a man asked us if we needed help finding anything, and we said no, but he continued walking with us. After awhile, he asked, “do you have family here?” I thought that he was asking if I had family in Honduras, so I said yes, and he asked what the family name was, so I told him “Rivera”, and he nodded his head, and took us to a different section of the cemetery. After about half an hour of walking around and reading tombstones, I realized that he was looking for the grave of Chris Rivera, which, of course, was nowhere to be found. We did find four graves of people named Rivera, and he told us that he would look for the grave of Chris Rivera and if we came back, he would show us where it was.

So far, it has been a really interesting experience living in a different culture and standing out wherever we go. Natalie and I went to the doctor, and Chris called the doctor, who said that he would send someone out to get us, and I wondered how he would know who we were, but everyone knows who we are here! It’s a little strange when we take a taxi home, and the driver, whom we have never met, knows exactly where we live. Sometimes we feel like aliens, and sometimes we feel like royalty around here. All of the attention can be very tiring, and it’s nice to take some days off to spend with just our family. After this experience, we will all definitely have more compassion for foreigners in our own country!

In spite of all of our mis-steps, overall we are having a good time here, and I think that our impact overall is a positive one. We enjoy the natural beauty of this amazing land that God created – it is absolutely breathtaking here, with a lot of waterfalls, lush greenery, amazing animals, and beautiful people who love to smile. As with any place, there are people who try to bring us down and discourage us, but we are trying to keep our eyes on God, and realize that ultimately He is the only one we have to please, and that relieves the negative pressure.

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Two months and counting...

Whenever we cook anything and have leftovers, we have a tiered system of getting rid of our leftover food. We give our best food to our neighbors, then sometimes we slip Conan a tortilla or two, and if there is food we don’t think he would like, we give that to the starving neighborhood dogs. Well, one day I had a bowl of food that was going to the dogs, and one of our neighbor girls came over and started eating it like there was no tomorrow. I stopped her and told her it wasn’t good to eat, and she insisted that it was “muy rico!” (very rich or decadent). She told us that she hadn’t eaten for almost two days and was very hungry, so we ended up giving her some chicken, which she ate at record speed. It is still difficult to fathom the sad fact that people here are literally starving to death.

We did a trial run of our feeding program for one month, and are planning on resuming the program in a couple of weeks, if we are able to get enough support raised for it. The program was a big success, and a couple of people came forward to receive Christ, which was really exciting. We are excited to be able to expand the program and for our church to grow. We also take children with us every week to church, and afterwards we go to a restaurant for lunch, which the kids LOVE. Before we got here, most of the kids had never been to a restaurant, so it’s a fun treat for them.

Thankfully, we were finally able to get a car! Eulogio drove Gordon and I to San Pedro last week and we looked at a bunch of cars with him and Roberto, and Gordon and Roberto returned to San Pedro the following day and purchased one of the cars. After being without one for the past two months, we really appreciate having the freedom that a car offers. The day after we got it, we were able to take our neighbor who was suffering with a high fever to the doctor! (She ended up being diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia) We are still waiting on our internet – the necessary equipment is being delayed in customs, but hopefully we will have internet in our home very soon. As it is, we go to one of Chris’ good friend’s place of business, where he graciously lets us sit in the air conditioned room and use his Wi-Fi, so we really can’t complain.

We are getting pretty good at making tortillas, after helping at Sister Maria’s every week, but the Honduran women are still able to make about 3 tortillas for every 1 that we make. Most people around here eat a lot of tortillas, and they are mostly made of corn flour called MaSeCa. We are not big fans of these tortillas, mostly because we have been fed too many of them, but there is a lot of other food here that is really tasty. The neighbor girls and our housekeeper have been teaching us how to cook some classic Honduran dishes, like Chicken with tomatoes and fresh limeade. We feel a little bit inadequate when we have to have the 10 year old neighbor girl show us how to properly cut up a chicken, but we are learning to set our pride aside and learn some new skills.

This week some of the neighbor boys have offered to take us out on the lake and teach us how to fish “Honduran style”. We’re looking forward to another adventure, and it is fun to get to know the boys better. It is really impressive how much these boys are capable of, and at such a young age. We have hired the boys to do a lot of random things around our home, like repairing our fence, digging a trench, fixing the kitchen cabinet, and cleaning our windows. I don’t think most 10 year old boys in the states would know how to do most of these things! There are some benefits to not having TV available!

It has been a big adjustment for us to not have Jenn with us! She was an enormous blessing to everyone here, and we are all sad that she had to go back to the states. We are praying that she will be able to return again before too long. In order to help her with a return, she is selling COFFEE that is grown right here in our little town. If you want to buy some wonderful Honduran coffee, please let me or Jenn know, and she can hook you up!

We all hope you have a wonderful week, and if you are led to come see what we are doing here in Honduras, we would love to have you come for a visit. It is more breathtakingly beautiful than you can imagine here, and you can’t help but fall in love with the people!

(both of our cameras are broken, so presently, we can't take pictures...)