2 guys from massachusetts & $14K from texas

I hope you had a great Turkey Day, the months are flying by!  Hard to believe it's almost December. 

This is an interesting time of the year in Honduras as many families are preparing to eat that pig they have been feeding for the past 10 months.  The big preparations here are for Christmas Eve Mass and the dancing and food that follows until the early hours of Christmas Day.  Christmas Day itself is a day to relax/recover.  While a child may receive 3-4 small gifts, adults don't give/receive gifts like we do in the states.  If they do it's 1 or 2 items, but certainly no need to buy a case of wrapping paper. 

Two volunteers from Massachusetts (Rick & Don) were here for 9 days in November. Rick and Don are both retired but haven't slowed down a bit.  They visit Juticalpa for a 9 days in November and assess the needs of the organization, basically a game planning session, they return for 8 weeks in January and February and that's when the real work begins.  Plumbing, electrical work, lite construction, you name it, these two will do it.  They work with 2 Olancho Aid employees (William & Toni).  These guys have a blast together, Rick and Don know about as much Spanish as William & Toni know English...20, maybe 30 words.  Not only are they saving the organization a small fortune by donating their time and talent, they are teaching William and Toni how to properly resolve issues.  As our founder preaches, "Education, Education, Education", it's what Honduras needs most. 

Rick & Don also provide a scholarship for Toni's daughter (Neomi) to attend school.  They discovered that Neomi has problems with her vision, so the January trip always consists of a visit to the eye doc for a check up and new glasses. The world needs more guys like Rick & Don.  

The long-term volunteers built a trench around the home of an employee (Dona Marina) a couple weeks ago.  During the rainy season water flows through her kitchen and living room, sometimes 1-2 feet high.  Rick, Don, William & Toni also built a small brick wall and installed a gutter to keep water away from the home.  In exchange for the work, Dona Marina made us baliadas.  A baliada consists of a tortilla (toasted) with beans, cheese, avocado, egg, and a little chorizo. Very popular here in Juticalpa. Here is a picture of Rick, Don, Dona Marina, Toni, William, & some of the long-term volunteers. 

Hondurans don't celebrate Thanksgiving, however Padre Ricardo (founder of Olancho Aid) had a nice feast for us this past Sunday.  Padre is also President of the University here in Juticalpa so we were able to use one of the University classrooms, tables, and chairs, it was a nice feast. The Bishop was in attendance as well, Thanksgiving with the Bishop...that was a first!

One of the churches that I attend on occasion has been raising money for years to build a parish hall.  They want a place to gather for meals, parties, religious education, et cetera.  At the beginning of October they figured they were still about $14K short of their goal.  Somewhat frustrating considering all the work they have put into raising funds.  At the end of October a generous couple from Texas got word that the church was short of their goal and scratched a check for $14K.  I hope someday I make it a priority to give a gift like that. 

We hiked Boqueron Mountain for the second time this year.  Hondurans don't really understand the concept of walking, running, hiking for exercise/fun.  They get plenty of exercise walking to work, church, bus, school, the grocery store, so the thought of hiking for fun doesn't really make since.  I was pleasantly surprised when Carina wanted to join us on the hike. Should I tell her what to wear?  Should I warn her about the distance?  Nope. I did something I rarely do, I kept my mouth shut.  When I picked her up she looked more prepared for a trip to Macy's than to the mountains but she was a trooper....rocks, rivers, snakes, she never looked back.  She also brought sandwiches for everyone, she will be invited again! 

Tomorrow I will be attending the Baptism of Bicry, a 9 year old boy who attends our special needs school,  Escuelita Nazareth.  Bicry has asked me to be his Godfather.  I get to visit with Bicry a few times a week as he attends the school where Carina works, we have become good friends.   Here is a picture of Bicry visiting the Fire Department with his class. 

  

Carina and I will be going to Panama via the Tica Bus for Christmas to visit her Aunt and Uncle.  We will leave Juticalpa on December 21 and arrive in Panama City on December 23.  Yep, 3 days on a bus!  We will travel from Juticalpa, Honduras to Tegucigalpa, Honduras...Tegucigalpa to Managua, Nicaragua...Managua to San Jose, Costa Rico...and San Jose to Panama City, Panama.  I'm not sure what to expect but I'm looking forward to the unexpected, seeing Central America, meeting some more of Carina's family, and we will definitely visit the Panama Canal.  We will go to Mass on Christmas Eve and afterwards attend a dinner and dance.     

The non-profit that I'm working for (Olancho Aid Foundation, Inc) operates 4 schools,  a special needs school (Escuelita Nazareth), a bi-lingual grade school (Centro Escolar Santa Clara), a Middle/High-School (Instituto Cardenal Rodriguez) and a bi-lingual Middle/High School (Instituto Bilingue Santa Clara).  The majority of our students come from extremely poor families, these students are only able to attend our schools due to the scholarships they receive from people in the U.S.  Please consider sponsoring a child, with your monthly donation ($25 - $100) we are able to provide Education, Hope, and Transformation to many disabled and extremely poor children in Honduras.  Visit http://sponsor.olanchoaid.org to see photos of the children that need sponsored.  E-mail me (mfreesmeier@olanchoaid.org or michael.freesmeier@gmail.com) and I will send you step by step directions on how to sign up. 

Many blessings to you and your families during the holidays & Merry Christmas! 

Michael

a toll bridge, the bay islands & a special Mass

It's October!  Which means we get a break in the weather, kind of..Juticalpa goes from really really HOT to just hot.  We have had some cool nights.  And for the Hondurans, mornings in the 70's means it's time to break out the stocking caps and jackets, no joke. 

I crossed my fingers and my first Honduran Toll Bridge a few weeks ago.  The bridge was made of wood, nothing real official, loose boards we may use in the U.S. to build a tree house.  It cost 5 lempiras (about 25 cents) to cross.  You just pay a guy standing at the end of the bridge, not sure I even had to pay him, but for 25 cents I wasn't going to find out.  Nissan North America was generous enough to donate a van and a truck (pictured below) to Olancho Aid, we had just picked up the vehicles a few days before my experience on the Toll Bridge.  That would have made for an interesting "thank you", "thanks for the vehicles we already lost one in the river". 

The end of September was wedding season.  Carina and I attended are first wedding together, we had a great time!  The groom (Oscar) works for Olancho Aid and during the summers he assists the mission groups with day to day activities.  I have had a chance to become friends with Oscar over the years and Carina and Oscar have been good friends since they started working for Olancho Aid, so Carina and I were both looking forward to the wedding.  Weddings and Birthdays are huge events for Hondurans, so it was all the buzz for several weeks. We drove about 30 minutes Northeast of Juticalpa to Catacamas for the wedding, very nice little town.  The wedding (based only on the invitation) was to start at 7:00. We arrived at the wedding at about 7:05, I was certain we were late, surely they start their weddings on time??  The wedding started at 9:00, yes 9:00, we danced until 11:30, Carina danced until 12:30. I tried to show the Hondurans that gringos can dance, not sure I was successful. 

I made my first trip back to TN at the end of September to stand in my good friend Josh's wedding.  Josh and I were out for a guys night 2 years ago when he met Katie, she is quite a catch so I had to see to it that he went through with the wedding, and he did.  The wedding was very nice, it was fun to catch up with some friends and family.  I also stocked up on some items I had been craving. My mom made enough chocolate chip cookies for every child in Honduras, but the staff and volunteers at Olancho Aid ate them before they could be distributed fairly.    

Last weekend Carina and I flew to Roatan, which is just North of Honduras in the Bay Islands.  This was Carina's first time on a plane and her first time snorkeling.  Everyone should get the opportunity to fly and snorkel with someone who is experiencing it for the first time.  Carina really enjoyed both, I was blessed to share that experience with her.  If she didn't like flying, that was going to make for an interesting relationship.....& return flight to the mainland.  Roatan is a huge destination for divers, the water is extremely clear and the fish are beautiful.  It was nice to lose track of time for the weekend and just relax. 

Padre Ricardo (founder of Olancho Aid) celebrated a special Mass this past Thursday.  The Mass was an opportunity for the students, parents, staff, & volunteers of Olancho Aid to pray for and thank the donors, sponsors, and mission teams that fund our efforts here in Juticalpa.  Without the generosity of our supporters in North America, Olancho Aid would not exist.  It was nice to see so many parents attend the Mass.  In a country where education is not the focus for many people, parent participation says a lot about the work Olancho Aid has accomplished. Padre's homily was centered on Education, Education, Education.  He was very direct with the parents.  If they have an interest in breaking the cycle of poverty in their families they have to focus on education.   

The non-profit that I'm working for (Olancho Aid Foundation, Inc) operates 4 schools,  a special needs school (Escuelita Nazareth), a bi-lingual grade school (Centro Escolar Santa Clara), a Middle/High-School (Instituto Cardenal Rodriguez) and a bi-lingual Middle/High School (Instituto Bilingue Santa Clara).  The majority of our students come from extremely poor families, these students are only able to attend our schools due to the scholarships they receive from people in the U.S.  Please consider sponsoring a child, with your monthly donation ($25 - $100) we are able to provide Education, Hope, and Transformation to many disabled and extremely poor children in Honduras.  Visit http://sponsor.olanchoaid.org to see photos of the children that need sponsored.  E-mail me (mfreesmeier@olanchoaid.org or michael.freesmeier@gmail.com) and I will send you step by step directions on how to sign up. 

Michael

the prison gym & futbol with the orphans

Hola from Honduras -

Thanks for visiting my blog.

All is well in Juticalpa.  Juticalpa is located in Olancho, the largest department (State) in Honduras.  See map below.  I arrived on August 3rd, got settled into my new home and started my new job as the Development Coordinator for the Olancho Aid Foundation on Aug 8.  As for my home, I don't have AC and there is no hot water, but the house is much nicer than I thought it would be.  The Olancho Aid Foundation rents homes for the long term volunteers, so I did not have to search for a place to live which was nice.  I did take my first bucket shower the second week I was here.  When the electricity goes out so does the water.  If you want to shower you take water from the pila (water storage).  The electricity goes out sporadically.  The electricity is also turned off one Saturday a month so they can work on it, however there was a televised Honduran futbol game on the Saturday it was supposed to be off in August so they waited until Sunday. Priorities!  My home is located about 1.5 miles from my office, about 1.5 miles from the city/town square, and about 3 miles from Carina's house.   The street pictured below is a road that I travel almost daily between my house and the town square.

Seven laps around my neighbourhood is a mile, not the most interesting run but it's the safest option at this point, so I'm making it work.  I did join a gym a few weeks ago and I'm grateful to have a gym, that being said, let me be honest and tell you that this place looks like something from a prison scene in a 1950's film.  Concrete floors, grey block walls, dusty, dirt floors in some spots, none of the equipment matches, it's not the Brentwood Y, but I'm loving it.  I'm learning to be creative and there is a great tienda on the same block where I can pick up a drink and something to eat after I work out.  As for the hours of the gym, the sign shows Mon - Saturday 7:00 - 9:00, however that is Honduran time, last Saturday I sat in front of the locked gate from 7-7:45, at 7:45 I gave up and returned home to prepare for a hiking trip.  Rule #1 in Honduras - Be Flexible.  I will take pictures of the gym at some point and post them, I should probably wait a few weeks, I'm already getting some pretty unusual looks from the members, probably not a good idea to take pics at this point.

We (the volunteers) hiked the Boqueron Mountain last Saturday.  It's about a 30 minute drive from Juticalpa, part of the hike was on a trail and the other portion was in the river.  We found a great place to stop and swim for a few hours as well.  Honduras is a very beautiful country, the city I'm living in (Juticalpa) is situated in a valley and is surrounded by amazing views of the mountains. 

The temperature this time of year is reaching 85-95 degrees, it's been very sunny, and there is not much humidity (compared to TN).  We had a "cold evening" last week, it was probably 70 degrees, I saw Hondurans in jackets and stocking caps.  Apparently they were cold.

As for the people here, they are very friendly.  While Honduras is a 3rd World Country the people seem to be very happy.  I would say while they are materially very poor, they certainly are not spiritually poor.  It's not uncommon to see kids playing with a dirty tire in the street, with huge smiles on their faces.  Yesterday I played futbol (soccer) with about 20 orphans who live next to a home where I have stayed on previous mission trips to Honduras.  We had a great time.  The children at the orphanage are raised by the Nuns that they live with.  Some are truly orphans and never see their families while others come from families who can't afford to keep their children, but they may go to visit them 1 or 2 times a year.  Here is a photo of Maximus (one of the orphans), at school he is all business and will hardly crack a smile, but yesterday playing futbol he was having the time of his life, ALL smiles.  Maximus is a great kid and an awesome futbol player (Maximus is able to attend our special needs school due to a scholarship from a family in the U.S.)

The biggest adjustment I have had to make has been the change of pace.  Hondurans are never in a hurry and there is no rushing anything.  Everything is done at a very very slow pace. You should see the check out lanes at the grocery store, they have cashiers at all the lanes (not something you Wal-Mart shoppers have ever seen) but they are as slow as can be.  Fifteen minutes to do my grocery shopping and 20 minutes in line to check out (I have a more efficient way all figured out, just need to work on my Spanish before I present it to the store manager).  NOT to be confused with laziness, they are very hard working people. It is not uncommon to see people walking miles to work, school, church or a water source.  The benefit to the slow pace is that they really value quality time with each other. I have been to Carina's house for watermelon on two different occasions and that was the only plan for the evening, just stop by, have watermelon, visit.  I can handle that... and the watermelon is amazing!

Everybody wants to know how tall I am.  Little kids stare at me like I'm a giant.  The first couple times I went to the gym everyone just stared at me for the first 10 minutes, it was weird.  It's not uncommon to walk into a store and hear..."grande hombre" (large man).   The staff at the Olancho Aid Office couldn't find a desk tall enough for my legs to fit under so they actually nailed wooden boards to the bottom of a desk to give it another 3 inches of height.  I don't feel that tall when I'm in the U.S. because I see people everyday that are tall, but I don't see many tall Hondurans and certainly none that are 6'5".

The non-profit that I'm working for (Olancho Aid Foundation, Inc) operates 4 schools,  a special needs school (Escuelita Nazareth), a bi-lingual grade school (Centro Escolar Santa Clara), a Middle/High-School (Instituto Cardenal Rodriguez) and a bi-lingual Middle/High School (Instituto Bilingue Santa Clara).  The majority of our students come from extremely poor families, these students are only able to attend our schools due to the scholarships they recieve from people in the U.S.  Please consider sponsoring a child, with your monthly donation ($25 - $100) we are able to provide Education, Hope, and Transformation to many disabled and extremely poor children in Honduras.  Visit http://sponsor.olanchoaid.org to see photos of the children that need sponsored.  E-mail me (mfreesmeier@olanchoaid.org or michael.freesmeier@gmail.com) and I will send you step by step directions on how to sign up.

Michael