conocer

There is a word in Spanish that I have really come to love and appreciate. The verb "conocer" is translated to mean "to know"...but there are 2 verbs for this word in Spanish. Saber is used for knowing information. Conocer is used when you meet a new person, in general reference to knowing someone, and also used for knowing places. You don't ask someone if they've been to the Pacific Ocean, you ask if they know the Pacific Ocean. I really like the way that sounds...as if each place on the earth has a personality, characteristics that you can't just go and visit and say "Yeah, I've been there..." but you can say instead you know it, like a new friend you just met; someone you'd like to get to know better.

A few weeks ago I went to check out the festival for the Virgin of Suyapa, the namesake of our neighborhood, and of the beautiful basilica that sits at the bottom of the hill. People come from all over Honduras for this week long festival to celebrate the Virgin Suyapa of Honduras. My host family was not really interested in going, as they are not catholic, and have little interest in anything related to catholicism (lots to explore here, but we'l leave it for now). When I came home and shared about my experience inside the Basicila, and then moved on to talk about my upcoming trip to La Campa, my host mom was laughing at me and said "Charissa, you really like to conocer new places, don't you? You are always going to new places and seeing new things." My first thought was, yes, that is the life of a foreigner in Honduras. Always traveling to see another new place.

But then I thought about it for awhile longer, and realized that really is what much of my life has been about. I love knowing new places and learning new things about those places. I love knowing new people, and it especially makes a new place more meaningful for me when I experience it with people, old friends and new. I don't know what that says about me, but I realize that so much of my life has been about seeking out things that are new to me, finding new experiences and using what I know to help process the next unknown.

And so I will segue into my latest adventure to conocer a new place and give you a brief update on my weekend trip to Nicaragua!

The purpose of my 4 days in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, were to attend a regional conference for small business owners. I was privileged to attend the conference with 2 coworkers from MCM, a bank client who runs his own car-wash business, and 2 great women who work with Diakonia, another lending organization from the Christian Reformed Church here in Honduras. It was fun to travel with them and share the experiences of the conference with them as well.

a weekend in the country

Living here on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa has made me very much a city girl. It was not until I took a weekend trip to visit the western part of Honduras that I realized just how very 'urban' my Honduran experience is, compared to the very 'rural' experience of my friend Alison.

5 of us left Teguc on Friday morning to roadtrip to La Campa. Here's a little map to show you...we went from Teguc to a village about 15 km beyond Gracias. It took about 6 hours.

I was struck again and again by how beautiful Honduras is, and what a mix of contrasting regions it contains. I said to someone once that you could be dropped in one part of Honduras for a day, thinking all of Honduras is like that, and have no idea what else you're missing. There are mountainous regions like Tegucigalpa, very dry, deserty regions like Choluteca; very agricultural areas like Gracias and Olancho, beautiful lakes, and of course the tropical northern coast with sandy beaches. (to set up your personalized visit, contact Honduras Tours: charissazehr (at) gmail (dot) com :) But I digress...

We met up with Alison, our fellow MCCer, as she was translating for a medical team from the U.S. We are all so proud of her, as she really didn't speak much Spanish at all before coming 6 months ago--and now she's a certifiable translator! She rocks. From that little town, we drove to her house in La Campa and had a walking tour of town. The town has one main paved boulevard, one catholic church, 2 little hotels, and an awesome setting in a little valley. Alison works for CASM which provides a lot of food security training and agricultural development to the surrounding area of La Campa.

We had a fun time together, being a group of gringos and attracting a lot of attention (yes, way more than in Teguc!)...eating good food and thick, yellow tortillas (very different from our city-fied tortillas)...exploring some small towns, visiting microenterprises, buying some local-made souveniers like hand-made paper and red pottery...visiting a Lenca history museum, checking out the hot springs tourist stop, and generally enjoying the quiet, rural village.

volunteer

Volunteer. I use this word a lot but more and more am becoming unsure if I like the definition of this word, or what images it communicates within the community where I work.

There are several things that have been stirring all these thoughts within my brain...enough that I'm not really sure if this will even be a post that makes sense or if it is just a personal way to try and organize the shuffle of thoughts that I can't seem to articulate. First there was the Mennonite youth retreat and some awkward encounters about being a volunteer...there have been some more personal experiences of my own, here in Nueva Suyapa, and the experiences of other MCCers in Honduras...and I've recently been doing a lot of reading about the good/bad/ugly of volunteerism, thanks to some fellow SALTers in other parts of the world.

So I guess the first thing is thinking about why I'm a volunteer and what that means to me.
Then looking at reasons why I try and detach myself from preconceptions of "volunteers" and what that communicates to those in my community
And in the end, why ultimately I feel criticized by all these outside voices for being a volunteer...and from my experience why I think its really not the way they think it is...or something like that.

1) My definition of being a volunteer is easily summed up by "I work and I don't get paid." But, most days, that is not sufficient. There are many layers to this definition...I am an un-paid worker in an organization, but I have also made that decision out of a desire to work with others in a way of serving...this is not just serving the community (though on good days, I hope to do that) but also about exploring the tangible ways I live a life of serving Jesus, the one who should be the foundation and inspiration for all of this.

mennonite family

It's the first day of February! Less than 5 weeks til one of my favorite friends, Paula, comes to visit...less than 3 months til Easter week (which is a big holiday here) and about 6 more months left on my SALT term.

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to attend a retreat for young adults in the Mennonite church of Honduras. Lucky for me, it was just outside of Teguc, so I didn't have far to travel :) A few other MCC friends went along too, which was really fun. I wasn't sure how the whole thing would go, being that I only knew 6 other people attending the retreat...but in true Mennonite fashion, we were warmly welcomed and offered plenty of hospitality as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Friday night's worship service started around 7pm and lasted til about 11:30pm. We were instructed that devotions on Saturday morning would be before breakfast, at 6am. When this announcement was received with a round of groans, we were asked "Did we come here to sleep? Or have we come here to worship the Lord together?" ...in the rather quiet auditorium, the leader then said "Can I get an amen?!" ;) Apparently youth the world over hate getting up early. Who knew?!

So Saturday started early, which had us fighting sleep the entire day. There were devotions, breakfast, worship time and then 2 workshops. For the 2nd workshop, we (the MCCers) got to share with the country-wide leadership committee of the youth about our volunteer experience with MCC. We shared a bit about what MCC does, what service programs are available, and why we serve. It seemed like many of them were not familiar with what we shared, so it was great to be able to help connect MCC with the church in that way. Especially with the rising leaders of the Mennonite church.