Nueva Suyapa

We have really entered the 3rd world, folks. After several bus rides, we arrived in the capital city of Honduras called Tegucigalpa. Thanks to our good friends Ryan and Emily Hartford, we got connected with this amazing group of people, and are hunkering down to do our volunteer work here. When we got off the bus, we caught a taxi ride to the section of the city called Nueva Suyapa, but upon hearing where we wanted to go, our taxi driver responded, ¨Oh, I almost never agree to take people up there. It is the most dangerous section of the city.¨ At that moment, we knew we were going to the right place. We have both had a great desire to live and work amongst poorest of the poor, and have loved being able to jump right in.

Chris and Maureen Hodge are two amazing people who felt a call from God to live in this neighborhood of Suyapa and serve them in whatever capacity they could. This family has been here 3 years, and have nearly finished adopting an adorable young Honduran girl named Abigail. They are setting up several businesses to employ locals, help expand opportunity, etc. They opened up a internet cafe which is the first one around here. They got internet into schools, opened up a bodega (small store with staples like flour, sugar, non perishables, etc.) which offered more opportunity for local employment. They also opened a pizzeria and are building a sports court on top of the internet cafe... it will be one of the only open places to play soccer, do exercise classes, etc. They have invested so much time and energy into community development and have employed 50 people in the process. They are also helping out with some people who have their own businesses in trying to make them stronger so they have more opportunity. We have felt very humbled and honored that they have allowed us to be part of their work here.

The family just left for 2 months return to the States... their first real long term return in 3 years. So they generously are allowing us to stay in their house which is amazing for many reasons, one of which is that their house is already established in the neighborhood as a welcoming place and lays the groundwork for incredible ministry opportunities. They are so nice and gave us a crash course in how things here work and how we can help out while they are gone. We basically spend our days visiting with people, mostly kids, and meeting whatever needs we can whether that is with a band-aid or a cup of juice or delivering a wheel chair to a sweet young man who was shot and paralyzed at age 20. Next week, we will be having a few activities for the neighborhood kids at Chris and Maureen´s house which we are really excited about. The kids are out of school right now, so really do not have much to do and eat up any activity or attention that they can get. And they are all so sweet.

This truly is a very very poor area. Very poor. The typical daily wage rarely exceeds $5. Most kids drop out of school by 6th grade if not earlier to go get a job and help the family. It is not uncommon for 15 year old girls to be having babies. One of the saddest things we have learned about is a community of really poor folks who live at the dump and spend their days fighting with the vultures over scraps of food. They search for metal and objects of "value" from the trash, all to make about $1 or $2 a day. We hope to visit before we leave.

The big struggle now is language. People talk way faster here than in Guatemala... and we are having a hard time communicating. We usually can say and express what we need to albeit awkwardly, but understanding them is hard. We are both trying to study vocab every day. We feel exhausted at the end of the day as a result of struggling to understand things, but being here is gratifying at the same time. And there is no doubt that we will forever be changed by this experience.