I got Scammed!!

OK, it isn't quite as bad as the title makes it sound, but last Friday I was about as frustrated as I have been in quite some time. That doesn't necessarily mean a ton from a guy whose high school baseball coach told him, "Joe, you gotta get mad every once in a while. Throw a bat, kick a glove, yell at somebody. Just do something to show me that you care when we lose!!" But still, I was upset.

We (The Lucia family and I) arrived in Puerto Cortes on Thursday afternoon in time for me to call Emilio (A Honduran I had met my last trip to Cortes) to make sure everything was on schedule for the boat to Belize the following day. He assured me everything was good and that he would pick us up at the hotel a little bit after 7. I thought, "Great, we will leave at 8 and be in Belize by lunch."

For background information, Honduras has a boat company that leaves Honduras on Mondays and returns from Belize on Fridays. However, we wanted to leave Honduras on a Friday, so Emilio supposedly set up a boat for us on Friday. This is where things went wrong...

Emilio picks us up at the aiport on Friday around 7:45. A little late, but no big deal since we are only 3 minutes away from the boat dock. We hop in the car for the short car ride and start driving in the opposite direction. "Hmmmmm," I thought, "there must be another dock in Cortes that I am not familiar with. But after 20 minutes of driving I ask Emilio, "Are we going to Guatemala?" I asked him this because I am familiar with the other methods of renewing a visa by going to Belize, one of which is taking a boat from Guatemala (The very reason I called Emilio in the first place is so that we DIDN'T have to go to Guatemala).

"Yes," Emilio replied, "we are only 45 minutes from the border."

To spare you of all the details, I will just summarize what followed in the next several hours:

-I had to pay an extra $50 US to get to Belize because Emilio lied to me repeatedly.

-I had to painfully endure one of the hottest and most uncomfortable taxi rides of my life.

-We almost didn't make it out of Guatemala because I had no Guatemalan currency to pay the departure tax.

-I expressed my anger quite loudly to Emilio in the middle of the port, which attracted some attention by people passing by. I am quite certain it isn't every day that they get to witness a Gringo angrily accusing (in Spanish) a Honduran of being dishonest and disrespectful.

It is sad that I am becoming less and less trusting of the very people that I am striving to serve. The more I give of my time, abilities, and finances, the more I am lied to, stolen from, and cheated. At the point of my greatest frustration with Emilio, I was reminded of Christ's love for us. That while we were still sinners, He died for us and provided something that only He could provide...forgiveness of sin.

So after apologizing to Emilio and calmly explaining (once again) why I was so frustrated and what he could have done differently, we boarded our boat and were off to Belize. After a 1.5 hour boat ride, a 2 hour bus ride, and another 15 minute boat ride, we arrived in Placencia, Belize. We had to walk about 20 minutes in what felt like the Sahara desert with humidity, but we finally made it to our hotel.

We have enjoyed the last 5 days in Belize, although 10-15 degrees cooler for us Northwesterners would be greatly appreciated. We leave on Friday to head back to campus and start up classes after the girls vacation.

Serve, Protect...and Steal??

I had the privilege of visiting some of the families of our students this past week. Our students left campus on Tuesday morning for a two-week vacation. I too, along with the Lucia Family, left campus early in the morning and began the long drive from campus to Tocoa, Honduras to meet Mayra's family. We spent Tuesday night in a hotel in Tocoa and left Wednesday mid-day to drive to Rio Esteban to meet Martha's family. After spending the night in a soon-to-be orphanage, we drove to Puerto Cortes, where we would catch a boat to Belize in order to renew our passports (and have a little vacation ourselves).

I'm not sure how many miles we put on the car, but I think it was near 20 hours of driving in three days. Along the way, I was stopped by Honduras police somewhere between 8-10 times (I lost count at 7). This is not an unexpected occurrance for someone driving a black Nissan XTerra with black tineted windows. Instead of having police cars out on the road, Honduras has "checkpoints" along the roads, usually at the entrance or exit of a decently size town or village. These checkpoints are locations for the police to stop anyone they feel like stopping. If they are suspicious of your car, if they thought you were driving too fast, or if they flipped a coin and your car lost the flip, they will stop you at a whim.

The majority of the stops went something like this:

1) Police signals to me to pull over

2) I roll down my window as I am pulling off to the side of the road and they look surprised to see a Gringo (White person)

3) The police walks over and asks (in spanish, of course), "good afternoon, is everything ok."

4) I say, "good afternoon, yes sir, everything is going just fine."

5) He looks at my drivers license and car registration and says, "you're fine, have a great day."

6) I drive off thankful that I have escaped another opportunity for the police to steal my money

However, the first time I was stopped (only a few hours into our drive) did not go so pleasantly. I could tell from the start that this guy was interested in finding something I was doing wrong so that he could steal some money.

-He asked for my license and registration: Check

-He asked for my passport to verify I had not been in the country longer than 90 days: Check

-He asked for the passports of the other 4 Americans in the car: Check

-He asked to see the fire extinguisher: Check

-He asked to see the emergency triangles: Check

-He asked to see the ID's of the two Honduran students in my car: Oooooops

One of the girls did not have her ID, which somehow translated into him thinking that I was kidnapping them. So he threatened me saying that he would keep Martha (the student with no ID) in the police station and that I could continue on my way. Of course that was not an option, so I continued talking with him. We explained the situation, why she didn't have her ID, and thought he was going to let us go on our way. Then he called me over to the side and told me he would let us all go if I bought a gallon of gasoline from the police station for over $10 per gallon (more than twice of what it would cost at a gas station). I told him, "Thanks, but I am actually fine on gasonline now." He didn't appreciate that and decided (once again) that Martha would stay with him. After much conversation and back-and-forth bantering, I finally convinced him that $2 US was sufficient and we were on our way.

I was thinking about the police and their checkpoints and was thankful that most of them are just a quick pass. I was also thinking about the one bad apple who wants to take advantage of any foreigner who can spare an extra few bucks and thought, "maybe this is just one reason why Honduras is the 2nd poorest country in the western hemisphere." Not because one officer stole a few dollars from me, but because corruption and bad behavior is so tolerated in this society.

I think I will change the Honduras police force slogan to "Serve, Protect...and Steal" based on my experiences from this last week.

Oh, I also learned the hard way that driving with sandals on is also against the law in Honduras...ooops!

Textbooks Anyone?

We are trying to get a few introductory textbooks in Honduras for the teachers to use as guides for lessons. Up until now, most of our lessons are focused around teaching English, but the students have learned enough that we are starting to teach other topics as well. If you have any textbooks that you'd like to donate, or if you'd like to sponsor a textbook purchase online, please let me know. Here are the topics we are looking for:

-Accounting

-Finance

-Economics

-Marketing

-Leadership

-Psychology

Sixteen People, No Bathroom

I learned something shocking (well, not really...I'm living on the 2nd poorest country in the Western Hemisphere) just the other day. Our cook, who is one of the most generous and loving people I've met my entire life, lives in one house with 15 family members. This, I already knew. What I did not know; however, is that the 16 of them do not have a bathroom. They just use the woods every time they need to go. I couldn't believe it. Could you imagine every single time (especially as a woman) that you needed to go having to walk out in the woods with TP in hand, dig a hole, do your business, and cover the hole.

What happens when you dig a hole in the same place that your sister dug yesterday? You have to dig another hole. Then you dig a hole where your aunt did last week. Dang it! Hopefully the third time is a charm!

Anyhow, when I heard this, I started asking around here what it would take to build this wonderful family a bathroom. Here is about what it would take:

-Lots of physical labor to dig the septic hole in the ground (With 15 people in the family - we pretty much have this covered)

-About $300 worth of bricks to lay the walls of the septic tank

-About $100 worth of PVC pipe

-A toilet (Cost ???)

-Less than $100 of cement

If anyone is interested in helping this family not to have to dig holes every time they use the forrest (I mean, bathroom), please send me an email at rahm.joseph@gmail.com and I will let you know how you can contribute.

Two Become One...

The phrase "Two become One" that is so often used in weddings and in reference to married couples has always been a bit of a mystery to me. Sometimes I feel like I understand what it means intellectually, but how can two people actually become one? Of course, they can't literally become one, but how can they even become one emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, or in a variety of other ways? I certainly don't want to waste anyone's time trying to explain that, nor do I want to give myself a headache, but it is an interesting phrase that I have been thinking about today.

It has been on my mind because my better half left with our son this morning to spend two weeks in Nashville, TN visiting her family. We decided that it would be best for her to see family, get some good food, and have some extra help with Micah since her morning sickness has been so bad. I do what I can to help around here, but my schedule gets busy with the students and volunteers.

Back to the point...I actually feel that part of me is not here in Honduras. Hailey and I have spent some time apart, but for some reason it feels different this time. While I have a lot of work to keep me busy while she is gone, the first 10 hours haven't felt right. I've done the usual routine - teach class, shower, eat dinner, and hang out - but it doesn't feel normal. It feels like something is missing. Something IS missing!

So from now on when I hear the phrase "Two become One," or a phrase meaning something similar, I will understand on a new level.

I am missing part of me.

Joy in the Midst of Trials!

In the book of James in the Bible, the author writes in the first chapter - "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds..." (Joseph Paraphrase). This statement, while I understand the intent, has always seemed a little backwards to me. Sometimes I think it should say, "Just try not to be raging angry when you face trials of many kinds. As long as your anger doesn't hurt anyone, you are OK." At least that way it would actually be doable.

These last couple weeks, my family has faced MANY trials. I will list just a few for you:

-Hailey (surprise if you don't already know!) is pregnant and has horrible morning sickness. With Micah, she was sick a couple hours a day for a few weeks and only threw up a few times. This time around, she is throwing up almost daily and has been extremely fatigued. For some reason :) the rice and beans here don't look appetizing to her and she is having a hard time keeping other food down. The result is that she has to spend a lot of time relaxing, which makes my schedule that much more busier. I am not complaining because we are thrilled to be having our second child, but it makes for quite the trial.

-Micah, thank God, has stayed extremely healthy through many sicknesses that have passed through our campus. However, he got something this last week and woke up two different nights and vomited all over his crib. He was up crying both nights for a while as we changed his sheets, clothes, and blankets. This was not fun!

-I was very sick for a couple days. I will spare you all the details - use your imagination!

I will be honest; there were several days that I thought, "What in the world am I doing in Honduras and how quickly can I get back to the U.S.?" I wanted a carpeted floor, butternut squash soup with a spinach salad, a cold smoothie, a bed with no mosquito nets, and much more. Hailey and I were not doing well. We were discouraged, annoyed, frustrated, tired, and sick of being sick.

However, just the other day we were sitting out on our back porch enjoying the lovely weather while Micah was taking a nap. I think Hailey had just thrown up minutes earlier and I was afaid (once again) that I was about to poop my pants. And in that moment, Hailey looked up at me and said, "I really do like it here! I love the weather - the landscape is beautiful - and Micah absolutely loves having a playground all around our house."

I can't remember my exact response, but I think I just sat there and stared at her thinking, "You must be crazy! Yesterday, we were talking about going back to the U.S. and dreaming of brownies and ice cream; what has changed?!?"

Then I realized, nothing changed. Hailey truly had joy in the midst of trials. We didn't know if Micah was well or not. There were no signs that Hailey would be feeling better soon. And I was still rushing off to the bathroom at the drop of a dime. But someway, somehow, Hailey had joy in the midst of trials. And it was contagious!

So today, we are pretty much the same. I feel quite a bit better, but still emptied liquid from my hind-side this morning. Micah is doing better and hasn't thrown up in several days. But Hailey is still sick and lacks energy. The organization's truck had a flat tire this morning. It wouldn't fill with air so I had to put the spare on. Then I got it stuck in mud on a hill and almost ran over a huge rock and into a tree. This made me late to class, and I am currently sitting here writing this blog with sweat dripping down my face while my students take an exam.

And for some reason, I am joyful. It is amazing how we can change our perspective and how joy is contagious from person to person. If we allow God to act in our hearts the way that he wants to, we truly can have joy in the midst of trials. It is possible!

Harvest Time!

Hailey harvesting the radishes...

The beautiful basket of radishes

Hailey with a radish in her hand :)

 Hailey harvesting cucumbers...

Yummy cucumber for a vegetable salad...

Hailey with a basket of beets!

Our first garden ever has been a success. We have harvested remolacha (beets), rabano (radish), pepino (cucumber), and zapallo (squash). We still have a few more vegetables that we haven't harvested yet, but the garden is very healthy and the vegetables are tasty. It has been a lot of work, but also a lot of fun and we are excited to provide some much needed nutrition to the students!