The Rahm Family is Returning to Honduras!

Greetings Family and Friends,

While we have spoken with many of you personally, we also want to send out an email to our family and friends to let you know that we are returning to Honduras as a family at the end of April. We will be living on The Leadership Center campus, a university-level school dedicated to educating, training, and developing the future leaders of Honduras. We will be teaching, tutoring, and mentoring the young women to become leaders of integrity and to influence change in their poverty-stricken country. We are excited about the opportunities that God will give us to impact many lives and to help provide a better future to marginalized and impoverished families throughout the country.

Because many of you already know about the mission and vision of The Leadership Center, we don’t want to take too much of your time explaining what we’ll be doing. However, we are always excited to share what is going on at The Leadership Center, so please get in touch with us if you have any questions. 

We ask that you would consider supporting us through your payers, encouragement, and finances, if you are able to do so. We are volunteers on campus, so we are responsible to raise our own support to cover living expenses, transportation, health insurance, and other miscellaneous expenses. If you desire to support us financially, we have made this easy for you through the use of gofundme.com. Just follow this link to donate: http://www.gofundme.com/28dyqw.

It is with great joy, peace, and anticipation that we send you this letter. We are excited for the things that God has in store for our family in Honduras, and hope that you will consider staying in touch with us through our blog or email. Many blessings to you and your families, and we look forward to hearing from you in the future.

Much Love,

Joseph, Hailey, Micah, and Abigail

New Blog...

I am sure that you know by now, but our family has returned to the United States after 10 months in Honduras. What an amazing it experience it was, and we look forward to continuing to participate in the lives of the students in a new and different role. I (Joseph) will continue to make trips to Honduras on a somewhat regular basis as I have accepted a leadership role at the university.

Rather than updating our family blog, we have decided to create a new blog for The Leadership Center (http://theleadershipcenterhonduras.blogspot.com/). Please subscribe to it so you can stay updated with what is happening at the university. It will include posts by our family, other staff members, volunteers, and students. It will be a great opportunity to stay up to date and to know how you can be a part of what is going on in Honduras.

As always, thank you so much for your support. Without you, many young women in Honduras would not be educated.

Trouble on Two Wheels...

The day before we left the US to head back to Honduras, a cousin of Hailey’s invited me to go mountain biking with him just outside of Nashville, so I decided to join him. Of course I did not have bicycle, so I rode his wife’s bike. Even though it was a very nice bicycle, it was a few sizes too small. Nonetheless, I had a TON of fun riding the trails. At first I was a bit nervous, as the bike handled much different than my motorcycle in Honduras, and it actually took some effort to make it move (instead of just turning my wrist). As we were nearing the end of the trail, I had a minor accident. Nothing too bad, just a big bruise on the inside of my left thigh.

I learned today that accidents on motorcycles are motorcycles are worse than on bicycles. On my way into town to take one of our students to catch a bus back home, we hit a slippery patch in the road and my back tire slid out from underneath us. We slid on the dirt/rock road and finally came to a halt with the motorcycle on top of our right legs.

“Duele mi pierna…duele mi pierna,” cried Martha. (“My leg hurts, my leg hurts”)

I lifted the motorcycle off our legs, and we both lifted ourselves into a sitting position. My attention immediately turned to Martha, ignoring the fact that my shoulder and knee were in pain. After firing off several questions, I determined that Martha was not hurt seriously and a quick trip to the neighbor’s for some gauze and bandages would be the best choice. It was as I climbed back up on the moto that I realized that I too was injured, though I knew it was nothing serious.

When I returned from the neighbor’s, Martha was standing up with a small smirk on her face, so I knew that she was ok. We treated her cuts and bruises, and she even joked with me. “Last night I prayed that if this trip to my family’s house (the reason for going is not important) was not right, that God would not allow me to go. This is not what I had in mind!”

I told Martha that we had three options:

1) Continue on to Zambrano for her to catch the bus

2) Return to campus

3) Ask a neighbor if he could take her in his truck

She chose option one, so we hopped back on the motorcycle and finished the remainder of the trip with no problems. I waited with her for the bus and we joked about how the morning did not go as either of us had planned. I apologized to her many times and asked that she tell her father I was sorry and explain that I was not being reckless.

After I returned to campus, I cleaned my cuts and took Ibuprofen for a very sore shoulder. My injuries are nothing serious, but I will take a fall on a bicycle over a motorcycle any day. I am sure I will be very sore tomorrow, but am very thankful that our injuries were nothing more serious. It was a good reminder to live every day with joy and to be grateful for the life that God sustains every day.

Back in Action...

After a two-week break in the United States visiting family and friends, we arrived back in Honduras last Monday, October 10^th. We landed in the airport and headed off in a taxi to the “bus station” where we would catch a bus to Zambrano. After arriving in Zambrano, we waited another 2 hours before our ride was ready to head back to campus. On our way back, we came to a river that is usually only a foot deep, but this time there were cars lined up on both sides waiting for the river to subside so that they could cross. We, on the other hand, decided that our truck was big enough to cross. After Hailey, Micah, and I exited the car and crossed on a small bridge, Elias took the plunge in the blue truck. Even though the water flowed over the hood of the truck, he safely made it to the other side. After another 40 minutes, we arrived on campus, exhausted from the long day of travel.

The next day, I was planning to head to San Pedro Sula to have a meeting with our organization’s attorney. However, two hours into the trip, our bus came to a sudden halt. After sitting for 15 minutes, we learned that there was a 5,000 person protest in the middle of the highway and that we would be stuck for hours, if not the entire day. After sitting a talking with my new friends on the bus, I decided to head back to campus since there was no way I could make the meeting on time. I got back to the nearest town, Zambrano, without a ride to campus. I started walking, thinking that not long into the 10 mile trip someone would pick me up and I would hitch-hike back to campus. Finally, after walking 5 of the 10 miles, I got a hold of Ira and he came for me on the motorcycle. We rode back in the pouring rain and returned soaking wet. What a day!

Now that we’ve been back for almost a week, we are starting to settle in again. We are enjoying our lives back here and the simple way of life. Although we are having problems with our water supply and electricity, we are grateful for what we have down here.

Thanks to everyone who made our short trip an enjoyable time. We look forward to seeing you all again (hopefully soon)!

Back in Action

After a two-week break in the United States visiting family and friends, we arrived back in Honduras last Monday, October 10^th. We landed in the airport and headed off in a taxi to the “bus station” where we would catch a bus to Zambrano. After arriving in Zambrano, we waited another 2 hours before our ride was ready to head back to campus. On our way back, we came to a river that is usually only a foot deep, but this time there were cars lined up on both sides waiting for the river to subside so that they could cross. We, on the other hand, decided that our truck was big enough to cross. After Hailey, Micah, and I exited the car and crossed on a small bridge, Elias took the plunge in the blue truck. Even though the water flowed over the hood of the truck, he safely made it to the other side. After another 40 minutes, we arrived on campus, exhausted from the long day of travel.

The next day, I was planning to head to San Pedro Sula to have a meeting with our organization’s attorney. However, two hours into the trip, our bus came to a sudden halt. After sitting for 15 minutes, we learned that there was a 5,000 person protest in the middle of the highway and that we would be stuck for hours, if not the entire day. After sitting a talking with my new friends on the bus, I decided to head back to campus since there was no way I could make the meeting on time. I got back to the nearest town, Zambrano, without a ride to campus. I started walking, thinking that not long into the 10 mile trip someone would pick me up and I would hitch-hike back to campus. Finally, after walking 5 of the 10 miles, I got a hold of Ira and he came for me on the motorcycle. We rode back in the pouring rain and returned soaking wet. What a day!

Now that we’ve been back for almost a week, we are starting to settle in again. We are enjoying our lives back here and the simple way of life. Although we are having problems with our water supply and electricity, we are grateful for what we have down here.

Thanks to everyone who made our short trip an enjoyable time. We look forward to seeing you all again (hopefully soon)!

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!