No Longer “In Country”

We were up bright and early on Saturday after a late night of packing at Casa LAMB. Final items went in the bags and Dulce and Gloria did their usual outstanding job of feeding us breakfast and helping with the final arrangements. Before we left, we gave them their tips and thanked them for all they have done for us over the past week. They look forward to having us back next year.

We boarded the bus with all our bags and set off for the Palmerola airport which is about an hour and a half drive from Tegucigalpa. This drive involves going through some scenic areas of undeveloped land, which is rare in Honduras. Jose Santos suggested that we make a quick stop at a high overlook along the road that is named El Mirador. We took our last team photo there with everyone wearing their new team return shirts…very stylish dark purple with turquoise print…great job by Amy in picking these out. We were soon at the airport checking in at both the American and United counters. We said our goodbyes to Jose Santos and thanked him for all his help and support as our volunteer coordinator. He did a super job and will be a real asset in this new role for him going forward.

While waiting in line to check in at United, Carol, Tom and I were informed that the United flight would be delayed, then the delay was extended. This caused us to be over 4 hours late leaving, which meant we missed our connection to Atlanta from Houston. So, we got to spend the night at a motel in Houston on United’s nickel. Even though it was late, Tom and I still managed to have a late night meal at a nearby Waffle House…Carol opted out. The next morning we were at the airport at 5:30 AM to make sure we were in an early position on the standby list for an 8 AM flight. Amazingly our prayers were answered and we all made it on the flight and got into Atlanta around 11 AM on Sunday morning! The rest of the team on the American connection through Miami had made it back to Atlanta late on Saturday night.

This trip was a wonderful experience for everyone. We were a small but mighty group that accomplished a lot of good work and shared Christ’s light with many in Honduras. We already have our mission trip week scheduled for 2023…June 17-24. We have also scheduled our fundraiser dinner at Holy Spirit for Saturday, February 11th. Please consider joining us for both the fundraiser and the mission trip. We hope to have our own week next year with St. Davids going the week before us, so some can crossover and do two weeks if desired.

Thanks for following our adventures in Honduras.

Peace,

Jay

Presenting tips to Gloria and Dulce

El Mirador

United plane finally arrives!

The team at El Mirador overlook on the road to the Palmerola airport in Honduras.

The Big Finale

Well, it’s finally Friday and our last day to visit Casa Hogar and the children we love so much. Our first stop was at the cabin with the babies to celebrate little Brian’s 3rd birthday. I was a fun time with a lively group of little ones that we introduced to the candy ball game.

We were on a mission today to finish all the work on the kitchen building and we accomplished that and more. We have been teasing Tom about his rookie status and how he has to make Mezcla before he can truly become a full fledged missioner. Mezcla is the Spanish word for mixture and it is used in Honduras to describe a mixture of Portland cement, sand and water. Well, we got a chance to do another quick project involving the mixture behind the kitchen building to pave the standing area at the outdoor wash basin. Tom got the full experience, plus we added gravel to the mix to make concrete. He has now achieved full missioner status!

While Tom, John and I were working with Mario to pave the area behind the kitchen, the girls were finishing off the last of the interior kitchen painting which included a small bedroom and bathroom for the cooks. The whole area was painted and upgraded with new bed spreads, a mirror and shower curtain. The cooking ladies were ecstatic when the big reveal finally happened.

After wrapping up our projects, it was time to say goodbye to the kids as they arrived back from their school. They presented us with many cards and artwork thanking us for coming and asking us to please come back. We told them we would see them next year and there were lots of cheers. They asked us to stand in the middle of a circle so they could pray for our safe travels. Next up was candy ball for all the age groups. They had a great time with the candy balls that Colleen had made for them. Then we had coloring and other games that continued right up until time for us to leave. There were lots of hugs and tearful goodbyes as we loaded into the van and left Casa Hogar.

Tomorrow we head for the Palmerola airport and fly home.

Peace,

Jay

Brian’s birthday with his candy ball.

Tom, John and Mario making mezcla.

The kitchen cooks see their finished bedroom and bath.

Our team with the kitchen ladies.

Kennedy with the kids.

Older boys playing candy ball.

Carol supervising the coloring.

With Clary and Naomie.

A Busy Thursday

Even with all the shopping we did in Valle, we still needed more! So, first thing this morning we left Casa LAMB and headed to Arte Giancarlo in Tegucigalpa and were at their doorstep when they opened. This is one of our primary places to get pewter and Lenca pottery items for our fundraiser that will likely happen in early February…probably the 11th. Well, we hit the jackpot, they even had a 30% off sale! After maxing out my credit card, we headed back to Casa LAMB with our treasures before we reloaded and headed to Casa Hogar for another day of work and play.

We installed some great new LED lights in the kitchen building that really improved the lighting in some key areas, then stopped for lunch. As we finished lunch and headed back to start work again, we encountered Elias, one of the children that we help support at the children’s home and presented him with an Atlanta United Soccer shirt that we brought for him. Elias is moderately intellectually disabled, so has trouble understanding certain concepts. People who support children here are known as their padrino and madrina (godfather and godmother). Elias has for some time recognized me as his padrino, but had trouble understanding who Carol was. Well, today he finally got it after Jose Santos and Menguin (a supervisor) explained it to him. He immediately gave Carol a huge hug…it was an amazing moment!

After putting in several hours of continued painting in the kitchen, we stopped for the day and went to play with the children. At one point Amy was swarmed by kids wanting to paint and I became the chalk guy as all the little girls started using chalk to draw on every available sidewalk in Casa Hogar. I was impressed by the ones attending the Joy Academy because they would come up and ask very nicely for their chalk color in English. As we finally packed up the team bag and headed for the van to take us back to Casa LAMB, two of the smaller boys grabbed hold of the bag to help Amy and I. Tomorrow we should completely finish all the work inside and outside of the kitchen building and then say our farewells. It’s been a wonderful experience for us all.

Peace,

Jay

Rainless Wednesday

Finally we had a day without rain interrupting our plans. Wednesday is our fun day out that starts with a visit to the school in Flor del Campo, includes lunch at a local restaurant and a trip to Valle de Angeles (Valley of the Angels). We got a very complete tour of the school, including spending time with the day care group…some of the cutest kids on earth that even sang to us in English! After that, it was the devotional on the school’s concha led by several of the older classes. In all, the school in Flor has 232 students, not counting the the day care.

We made a quick stop to visit the transition boys house, then it was off to La Tejitas for lunch. The food was wonderful, but more than we could eat. It rained some while we had lunch, but stopped before he left…perfect timing. The road up to Valle was just as steep and winding as I remembered from past trips. Once there, it was shop, shop and shop! We acquired may great items for our next fundraiser. Our rookie, Tom, earned his wings and Colleen found an open air street side place that cooks pupusas…her favorite! The big disappointment was that our favorite ice cream place, that we had visited on all previous trips, had closed. The pandemic clearly has changed some of the businesses in Valle, but there were still enough of our standby places to get the shopping done.

We made a stop at Walmart and a hardware store as we returned to Casa LAMB to pick up items to be installed in the kitchen building tomorrow…plus ice cream. After dinner, we finished packing up all the remaining towels and shoes to be distributed to the workers at Casa Hogar and then had ice cream and a rousing game of Crappy Birthday. This game involves cards that list presents you might get and the goal is to select the one that the player will like least. Colleen seemed to have the knack of picking the worst gifts for everyone and was the big winner!

Tomorrow will be another work day where we hope to finish up all the work in the kitchen building at Casa Hogar.

Peace,

Jay

Day care group in Flor

Devotional in Flor

At the school in Flor with Suzy

Our lunch group with Suzy and Julio

The rookie earned his wings!

Colleen’s Favorite

Rainy Tuesday

We knew we had to get an early start today because there was more rain in the forecast…especially in the afternoon. On our way to Casa Hogar today we stopped by the Joy Academy where LAMB is operating a school to teach various subjects in English to many of the children from the Children’s home. We visited several classrooms, including the one that Amanda Scott teaches. It was amazing to see how even the youngest children were learning to speak English so well. As these kids get older and continue with the program they will have a real advantage over others in a country like Honduras.

After our visit at the Joy Academy we headed on to Casa Hogar and started painting again where we had left off on both inside and outside the kitchen building. We were able to finish all the outside painting, most of the inside kitchen and got a good start on the cook’s bedroom and bath areas. At one point the herd of sheep that LAMB maintains on site came through the kitchen building area and distracted us for a short time from our painting.

The rain did arrive just as scheduled as we finished lunch under the portico at the chapel building. It continued to rain as we kept working on the inside painting in the kitchen. We left Casa Hogar earlier than usual to drop off towels and shower shoes that we had packaged up for the transition house youth. Suzy McCall joined us for dinner at Casa LAMB and brought her guitar so we could do some singing and incorporate some music into the Compline service that we did also. It was really great to visit with her and learn more about all the programs in the works at LAMB in Honduras. Tomorrow will be our fun day out as we visit the school in Flor del Campo for their weekly devotional, have lunch out and do our shopping at the Valley of the Angels.

Peace,

Jay

Amanda Scott’s Classroom.

Active participation by Joy Academy kids.

The sheep herd at Casa Hogar.

Jose Santos finishing the kitchen accent wall color.

Our sing along with Suzie McCall at Casa LAMB.

The work begins

We set off this morning in our work clothes to begin a project at Casa Hogar. When we arrived, we quickly picked up paint, brushes, rollers and a ladder at the bodega and headed off for our task of repainting both the inside and outside of the kitchen building. The kitchen is a busy place so it was a tricky process to paint inside without disrupting the cooking that was going on. Half our team started on the inside and half on the outside. We got a lot accomplished before the lunch break, but after lunch the rains hit, so work proceeded only on the inside. This allowed part of the team to leave and go play with the children…one of our favorite things!

The on and off rain broke for a while and a pickup volleyball game started on the concha and some of our team members participated with the kids before another shower stopped the action. With the rain, we decided to head back to Casa LAMB a little early so we could pick up everything for Kennedy Allemand’s Birthday celebration. The celebration happened after dinner and included cake, party hats and a pinata!

Tomorrow we will be visiting with Amanda Scott and her class at the Joy Academy before we head down the road to Casa Hogar and continue our painting of the kitchen building. Photos of some of our activities are below.

Peace,

Jay

Upside Down Church & More

It’s Sunday, so that means Upside Down Church at Casa Hogar (children’s home)! In most churches today the service usually has 80% adults and 20% children. Not so at Casa Hogar…it’s 80% kids! The children and youth are involved in many aspects of the service, including the praise band. At the peace the kids were running everywhere and hugging everyone.

Amanda Scott shares a testimonial with us.

After the service it was time to start the cookout. We had some difficulty getting the wood to burn as we started the fire due to the amount of rain that they have experienced lately in Honduras, but got it going with help from little Alex who helped fan the flames with a paper plate. We served somewhere around 120 hotdogs along with chips and drinks. A heavy rain storm hit as we were finishing up the cooking, but luckily the new outdoor cooking area has a roof over it, so the cooks and servers stayed dry.

Next up was the field day and much of it was conducted on the porches of some of the cabins due to the continuing threat of rain. Activities included coloring books, cookie face and hair coloring. Many from our team had their hair colored by young stylists that live at Casa Hogar. The final activity of the day was the distribution of the towels, shower shoes and pillowcases that we brought down from Georgia. Various team members visited the cabins with the zip locked bags that contained the items for each child. The kids all enjoyed their new possessions. Tomorrow the work starts on a project at Casa Hogar.

Peace,

Jay

Super Saturday in Honduras

In past years, we have always traveled in and out on Saturdays, but not so this year. Since we came in on Friday, we were able to enjoy some different experiences today. We started by going to the school in Flor del Campo and interacted with several of the Youth in Action teams. We brought plenty of things to share with them…there was noodle ball, Pictionary and defy gravity. Noodle ball involves playing baseball with pool noodle bats and a beachball. Needless to say it got a little wild as the kids made up the rules as we went along. Photos below of some of the fun.

After the fun in Flor we headed for Casa Hogar (children’s home) in the mountains south of Tegucigalpa. Once there, some of us took a tour of the area including the large garden, Steve’s workshop (where we saw a number of wooden crosses under construction by the kids) and got to renew some connections with our favorite kids and youth. After getting back to Casa LAMB, Amy Hill and I headed off with Jose Santos to buy everything we needed for the big cookout we are sponsoring tomorrow at Casa Hogar. It will be a feast for sure! Tomorrow will be a really busy day with church, cookout, field day and then passing out the shower shoes, towels and pillowcases we brought down for the kids and youth.

Peace,

Jay

John Pitching Noodle Ball

Colleen leading Pictionary

Us with Youth in Action group in Flor

Hike to mountain top at Casa Hogar

Crosses under construction

With some of our Favs

We Made It!!!

We left Atlanta at 0-dark-30 and headed to the airport. There were two groups; some of us were on United Airlines through Houston and others on American through Miami. Amazingly, we ended up making it to the Palmerola airport in Honduras within about 15 minutes of each other around noon local time. Getting through customs and immigration was a long process and several of our 21 bags were selected for inspection, but we ultimately got everything to the curb and were able to load the bus and head toward Casa Lamb with our seven brave and fearless missioners led by volunteer coordinator Jose Santos. We grabbed a late lunch and then started organizing all of the towels, shower shoes and pillowcases we brought for the children at Casa Hogar in San Buenaventura. By the time we finished getting the organizing done, did a Compline service and had a late snack of pupusas (prepared by our wonderful cook Dulce), we were all ready to crash for the night. It was a successful first day in Honduras!

Peace,

Jay

Finally going back to Honduras!

It’s been a long time and the children have grown so much older, but after two and a half years we are finally going back to Honduras! We will have 5 people from Holy Spirit and 2 from St. Davids in Roswell on this trip. Our packing party was a two part effort over Saturday and Sunday, June 11th and 12th. On Sunday at the 10:45 AM service at Holy Spirit we had a commissioning of the mission team by Fr. Brandon Mozingo. Those in attendance included Amy Hill, Tom Smith, Carol Franklin and Jay Franklin. We will also have Colleen Norris, Kennedy Allemand and John McKinnon joining us. We will be checking a total of 14 large bags (two per missioner) and taking down pillow cases, shower shoes, towels, games and much more for the children and staff at Casa Hogar (Children’s Home) and staff at the school in Flor del Campo. Thanks to all who have sewn pillow cases, contributed the shower shoes and towels or made donations to the cause.

Please visit this blog daily starting on June 17th to see what we are up to in Honduras.

Peace,

Jay

Fr. Brandon Blessing our crosses

Some of the 14 bags going with us

Carol & Tom at the Packing Party

Commissioning at Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit on June 12, 2022