working at MCM

My work life is not always the highlight of my blog entries here in Honduras...or in my journal for that matter. However, some days, when you least expect it, there is a moment to celebrate. Friday I had one of those. I think it was what I needed to get me through the day.

At 10am on Friday, Karina, my co-worker, had her second communal bank meeting of the day. I decided to attend this one, since I had been at the 8:00am bank for several weeks but for some reason kept missing out on the 10am bank, Restauracion. You never quite know what you're going to get when you step into a meeting. Some days there isn't too much excitement...other days you join in a party for the kids, play ridiculous games while blindfolded, or you get filled in on the gossip of the neighborhood (always better than the newspaper!).

The great part about this meeting was that almost all of the women were in attendance, and all were able to make at least one week's payment on their loan. They took charge of collecting and were very organized. Karina collected about 14,700 lempiras at this particular meeting (about $735). This is the goal for every meeting, but too often it does not happen like this. The loan officers are having a lot of trouble with attendance at weekly meetings and also with their debt ratios. Often, the meetings are very frustrating, with maybe only 7 or 8 women of 27 attending.

I asked Karina why this bank is so different from her others. She took the time to explain to me that many of these women have medium sized businesses, more service oriented rather then product driven...many live in a nicer part of town, their families have cars, and most have husbands who are around and working. All of this is in contrast to her other bank with major repayment problems--many have small businesses like making tortillas or selling bread...they live in a pretty rough neighborhood, and for one group of women in particular, many are victims of domestic violence. This is usually the reason they don't attend meetings, or can't repay their loans.

Then another loan officer joined in our conversation to discuss why training the socias, or clients, is so important and how the loan officers need to be working on this every week. He was very excited about this and has lots of good ideas. I also got really excited, as it was a small break through in my coworkers opening up to me. I told them that we need to have a longer discussion or Q & A time to discuss all of this, as I need to determine the needs of the clients before we just throw a business school at them that may not be what they want or need.

There is still so much I need to learn, but I was encouraged by the interaction with my coworkers. I have renewed energy to explore their ideas and tap into their experience as I continue on in this rather undefined journey. As I have shared with some of you, I feel like I understand the big picture goal, but am not really sure what that means for day-to-day tasks and expectations. Continue to pray with me in this as I try to find my niche here and try to contribute something useful to this ministry.

family foto fun

So last night we had a spontaneous family foto nite. They had a blast using my 'fresa camera' (which means cool).

So...here are some of my favorites :)

trying out his sister's new shoes...such a stud

this girl cracks me up.

we were all wearing purple, so i wanted a photo...

that started the whole photoshoot :)

the baby, yosua, who drives us all a little crazy

Josue wanted a new profile pic...

all the kids :) i love this photo!

me & kati

host mom and the dog

I just need you to know, this was ALL their idea. but it makes me laugh a lot.

wow. its october!

Some days it feels like I have been away from home for a really long time...then other days (like today) I stop to reflect and realize A) its already Oct. 7! and B) I have been 'away' for almost 8 weeks....that's crazy! 8 weeks ago I did not know anything about what my new home would look like, who I would meet at work, and how I would get around. It's crazy to think that 8 weeks ago there are so many cool people that weren't in my life :) Each day I am more and more thankful for the way God has been answering so many of my prayers, and the hundreds of prayers that so many other people have offered on my behalf. I am really at peace about living and working in this little spot God had in mind for me. Not everything is perfect...there is good and bad stuff...but I am really content with where I am at the moment--and for me, thats a rare, but cool feeling.

Some times I feel like I don't have anything to blog about because I haven't been doing anything majorly interesting, or gone on many adventures. But--most days I'm glad there is nothing too earth-shattering to report...that's just fine with me!

Over the weekend my family took me out for dinner, which is the first we've done that since I've been here. We went to Pupusas Miraflores which was fun and delicious. Pupusas are really from El Salvador, but Hondurans like them too. A little hard to describe, but they are kind of like round pita bread filled with cheesy goodness. You should all come and try them :)

Also in family life, my 13 year old brother does not like to study! (Shocking, I know!). They all give him a pretty rough time because he's always into sports and never wants to do homework. Now that I am here, they have given me the great privilege of being his English tutor. He really hates English...and really doesn't know much...so...its a struggle. Also--I do not feel called to be a teacher. Thankfully, I've had enough Spanish grammar training that I can kind of convert it into English lessons. So, last night I spent a couple hours with him, crafting fill in the blank sentences and examples for him to practice. [To all my Messiah education friends, I think you would be proud of me]. I have another friend who wants English help too, so I might just borrow Axel's notes and teach her the same stuff.
*By the way...who the heck uses the passive voice in English? I was always taught to avoid that like the plague when writing essays...apparently teenagers learning a 2nd language need to understand this unfortunate grammatical construction. Just in case you cared.


Here are some photos of the family:

me and my host sister, Kati 

Josue & Axel

The only other news that I have right now is Monday is Canadian Thanksgiving! Since there is one other gringo in my neighborhood who is from the Great White North, his wife is throwing us a little Canadian Thanksgiving party :) I think we might even have turkey. I'm pretty stoked.

Oh, and in parting...Today is October 7. One month away from November 7. This should be plenty of time for a package to make it to my hot little hands ;) If you don't know why November 7th is important...well... check facebook.

settling in

hello blog-reading friends!
It's been a little while since I posted, so I'll try my best to summarize of of the happenings in my life here...

• I'll start with the most recent thing...last night I went with some friends and coworkers to a concert at the national theatre. It was a Taiwanese jazz ensemble...and best of all, it was free! It was really cool, and a very weird cultural mixture, as we were enjoying Taiwanese music, played by a group of people from Belgium, Japan & Taiwan, in a theatre in Honduras, with friends from Honduras, England, Denmark and the US :) But its things like this that make me love getting out and exploring the world
• work life... is good. I am getting to know people better each day, and have fun with my coworkers, as they are learning my sense of humor and know that I am not as serious as I look (i know, i can look serious, go figure!). I have a more clearly defined list of tasks, but I'm just not sure where to start tackling my biggest project. I am excited to help start a business training school, I just feel very inadequate for the job most days. So, praying for wisdom and grace with all of that. They also keep joking that I will have 2 years to do all of this (as the girl before me stayed 2 years) which is always a fun conversation when I don't know what to say!
• My family is doing well. We had lots of fun staying up late the other night and listening to music together while our youngest brother was demonstrating his dance moves for us.  This week is my host mom's birthday (thurs) so there will likely be some extended family festivities on Thursday night. Should be fun.
• On Friday I went to meet my fellow SALTer, Elise, for coffee after work. It was my first solo bus ride, and it went very smoothly. I was very glad for that. Little by little, I'm learning my way around.
• On Monday's we have an office meeting at work, and usually it's very boisterous, overwhelming, and a lot goes over my head. This week, I think I understood about 80-85% of what was going on. (Note: this is a big improvement. You should be happy for me.). Some days are better spanish days than others...but I'm learning all the time.

That's about all from here. I am feeling a bit under the weather today, so you can pray that that would take care of itself. I keep the fruit man across the street in business by buying oranges almost everday...for my health, you know :)
Hope all is well wherever you are.
Love and prayers
C

family fun...

So most of my weekend was spent at my house, hanging out with the family. We have a lot of fun together, as I make ridiculous mistakes in Spanish, then they try to learn English from movies on TV, and we all get frustrated with the 3 year old terror who rules the house.

For one thing, last week, some supermarket thought it would be a good idea to give live chicks to small children...probably in honor of "dia de los niños" or children's day. So, Joshua brought home 2 chicks to live in our house. Not only are they continually chirping and jumping out of their box, but one looks like its dying, and is whimpering in the corner. On day 2 of the chicken adventure, chicken little (with a gimpy foot) looked about dead, while chicken grande looked like his fuzz was starting to be shed for real feathers. By day 3, chicken little was running around like he'd been given a new lease on life. Much to our surprise, by day 4, chicken grande was found dead in the box! No one saw that coming...I suggested fried chicken for lunch, but no one made that happen.


So, we still have chicken little running around (Joshua wont name him...he just calls him pollito, which literally means little chicken). This thing chirps at 6am...all through the day...gets out of his box to join us in the living room when we are all watching TV...pecks your toes, crawls up my host mom's pant-leg...really, an endless bundle of joy and entertainment. I asked when they thought he would die...I guess they are catching on that I don't like that it wakes me up every morning with its pitiful cries for attention :)

Our other family fun was our weekend field trip to the mall multiplaza. I hadn't been there yet, and they were very excited for me to see their mall. It was rather impressive, and we had fun doing some shopping and eating Little Caesar's pizza together. Being that I live with 2 guys who can eat you out of house and home, one pizza was not sufficient. They also ordered Burger King combos and ice cream cones...but we had a good time getting out of the house and enjoying some time in the land of materialism together.

Sunday nights are a pretty big deal in my house too. Their favorite show, La Academia, is on and starting this week "Bailando por un sueño." The first is like Mexico's version of American Idol, except everyone is in a music school, so they dont go through the ridiculous audition process that Americans love to hate. The second show is Dancing with the Stars, Honduras-style. The catch is, La Academia only comes in clear on one tv in Kati's bedroom...so, we all pile in there on the bunk beds to watch together. All 6 of us, actually. Its quite cozy, and very entertaining to watch the boys sing along to all the songs, and decide which girls are the hottest and therefore deserve to stay another week ;)

In other news, the Colts were on ESPN for Sunday Night football...and being the great country that it is, the game is available in Honduras! It was pretty exciting. Especially cuz Peyton beat the pants off of his little brother, Eli. I am also trying to teach Josue, my host brother more about american football. He is a pretty big sports nut, so we frequently bond over our plates of bean and tortillas while watching ESPN. Oh, I should also mention hes a Yankees fan. I've tried to change his mind, but he likes them a lot.

There is so much more I could tell you about my time here...how much I'm learning about cultural differences and immigration issues and family dynamics...but maybe i'll save that for another more serious post ;) Oh, and I'll also try to get more photos of the family, too.

dia de independencia

September 15 is Independence Day in Honduras...pretty much everything was shut down on Wednesday for the parades, and the students (at least in my house) don't have school til Monday. Since I have been here in Nueva Suyapa, various high school 'marching bands' have been preparing for the festivities. It was not uncommon to hear the drum core practicing at 6am and continuing on and off until 5:30 or 6 pm! Lets just say I am glad that part is over :)

My job is part of MCM, which operates several different ministries in Nueva Suyapa. Our offices are housed in the Christian school that is run by MCM. On Tuesday, the school (El Verbo) had their own independence day parade down 'main street.' We were supposed to gather at 7am...of course, things did not get rolling til about 8:15...and the parade route, which I calculate to be about 1.5 miles uphill--took 2 hours and 30 minutes. It was pretty extensive. Thankfully, one of my coworkers (who I can barely understand) was driving a truck full of preschoolers in their costumes, so I tagged along in the cab :)

Since the office was closed Wednesday for the holiday, my host brother, Axel, offered to go with me to the big parade in Tegucigalpa. Everyone else in the family wanted to sleep in and watch on TV (I wasn't smart enough to know this was a good plan!). We left at 6:45 to get downtown...The parade was not over til 12:30!
It was a lot of walking and standing, but the general mayhem of the parade was entertaining.

The few pictures (above) are from the school parade in Nueva Suyapa...it isn't usually a good idea to go anywhere with valuables, so I left my camera at home for the big parade.

Later in the day, we went to a birthday party for my family's cousin. She was turning six, and all the cousins, from age 2 to 23 were pretty involved in the pinata.

This is a picture of me with with my host mom Lucia, and her youngest son, Axel.



That's about all from here. Have a good weekend, wherever you may be :)