Concert

Hello all,
This is Chris, I have not blogged yet so I figured it was my turn to give everyone the scoop on whats going on.
Tonight we had our concert for San Jose. It was an absolute hit. There had to have been 300 people there from all over to come see the gringos play their instruments. I was told that people were even coming from different villages and even up from the city (which is by no means right down the road). It was stunning to see the turn out of this event and how much an event like this meant to the community. I have not read the other blogs so I'm not sure if this has already been covered or not, but we were able to get the equipment for this concert yesterday. To our suprise two of our interpators happen to be very musicaly inclined, so we had one play keys and another play guitar. It might go without saying, but equipment we got was not exactly top of the line. However, in the end none of that mattered. The people of San Jose were absolutly blown away by the fact that they havce a full band with a sound system in their town. I can say with almost certainty that this was the biggest event to ever hit San Jose, and that was evident just by seeing the facination of happiness in these peoples eyes. There were other acts as well, there was a grounp of three women dressed in costume who danced to a song. A trio of little girls who sang, and another man and woman who sang as well. Things got interesting when an older woman came up on stage and asked my Dad to play guitar to her song. So he went up there with not prior knowledge of this song played to it. It went very well and the woman was greatful. The last one was another dancing performance with these people in costme. One person was dressed up with a scary holloween mask black robes (representing the devil) and others dressed in white (representing angels and Jesus). They preformed to a song that was completley in spanish so I cant tell you what it is about, but it was something along the lines of getting rid of the devil becasue by the end of their performance the devil was on the ground being kicked by the other people. They were also throwing glitter in the air and other things of that nature. Seeing that was amazing, alot of people in this village dont have shoes to wear or a change of clothes let alone costumes, masks and glitter to throw. It really hit home to how big of a deal this was to everyone. By the time we were on our last two songs, everyone was on their feet with their hands in the air. Words cannot describe the power and dynamic generated in the yard of a clinc in the rainforest of Honduras.
I did my best to describe the concert, it is impossible to put tonights events into words, and the whole trip for that matter. Tomorrow is our last day of teaching at the school and then, sadly, we leave on Friday.
Unti next time folks

Roosters

Hi. This is Tonya.
I have an idea. Let's round up all the roosters from around the world and move them 3 time zones to the west. Then they will cock-a-doodle-doo at 6am instead of 3am.

20 minutes till our concert. I don't know if anybody blogged this yet. But our translators are very talented. Carlos is an awesome keyboardist. Johanna has a great voice and Memo plays the guitar really good too.

The water is so cold in the shower. Plus we usually don't shower till after 9pm. So it is dark. You take your flashlight in the shower, and that is your light. Today most of us showered before dinner. So it was light. Finally I could shave my legs! :)

Speaking of showers I have a very funny story. Last night Johanna, one of the translators and Solange were taking showers at the same time. (2 different showers) So they were discussing which shower was better. I overheard this, and pointed out the geco that was in Johanna's shower. (Alisa and I had taken showers in the same 2 showers.) Johanna totally freaked out. She kept saying that the geco was looking at her! Haha

Post 70 by Carole Ford

Hi Everyone!!
We are doing great work here. Today we had our education projects at the school
It was very sucessful. From our teachings in the past we have seen changes for the better. While here my very good friend Carol Cooper passed away and today is the third anniversary of my husband's death. So at times my heart is heavy, but we are so busy and the people are so wonderful that I can't be sad for long. Y The kids are my favorite---they are so cute and love us being here. Our mission grp is known as Grandma's Recipe ----many talents mixed together. We also have learned why the chickens cross the road----to get to Mike Swaney. It is most definitely rainy season... I have never seen it rain as hard as it rains here. If it rained this hard in Sewickley the trees branches would be falling left and right I hope all is well at home. It is so hot here. Love to all, Carole & grp

Hello. This is Tonya.
Yesterday a little 3 year old girl came to the clinic with a bad ashma attack. Her mother had carried her several miles while her 2 year old brother walked. The doctor was giving her the breathing treatment for quite some time, and it just wasn't working. The doctor said she needed to go to the hospital. The mother said she didn't have money to get down the hill. She was going to walk. It takes more than an hour by truck! The little boy was obviously malnutritioned. It was heartbreaking to watch this situation. We paid for her and her children to go to the hospital, stay the night, and get some food. What if we hadn't been here? I am sure that happens from time to time. What about all the people who are sick, and can't make it to the clinic? I never knew people lived like this! When we walked to the school I saw several houses with children who were not in school. To go to school you need to have shoes and a uniform. Some people can't even afford that. Many of the people only eat 1 meal a day. They can barely afford that. If they don't get an education, there is little chance of them getting a job that pays well enough to get out of that cycle. As a parent I can't imagine... One woman gave birth to a Down Syndrome baby. She was not feeding him, because he wouldn't be a productive worker. She had 8 other children. They convinced her that he could be a productive worker. So she started feeding him. Some don't have enough food to feed the whole family. How do you choose which of you children to feed? He can't go to school if he doesn't have shoes. Also they get the parasites from bare feet. Do you use the money for food or shoes? I can't imagine having to make such decisions! These people work so hard for what little they have.

But even though they have so little their faith in God is soooooo deep! In America we have so much food and stuff, but not so much faith.

Another quick post

It's my turn and I only have 2 minutes to blog before lunch - we just returned from the school. Our education day went really well. The 7th grade experiments only took half the time we thought they would - the class time was almost half what we expected. This has gone by fast - can't believe the concert is tomorrow - our equipment is supposed to arrive this afternon. The Labyrinth has been well received, we are going to paint the bricks with the youth at 4. Music practice afer lunch and a church service after dinner at 7. We had a wonderful sharing last night during our debrief. It has been a very emotional time so far with one of our interpretors finding out that his best friend was killed in a motorcycle accident on Friday morning, then Carole's best friend of 47 years passing away from cancer on Sunday, then the little girl about to die from ashma right in front of our eyes. Praise God we all together to support each other. Love to all, miss you.

Samstag

Buenas Dias, from Sam! It's raining in bucketsfull! But that's life in San Jose in the rainy season. Fortunately, it waited until we had finished our outdoor work, and we could be under the roof cover. We've worked most of the day at recon and planning for the education effort the next three days and walked the school rooms and yard to plan the classes. We've practiced the lessons and divvied up the work. Now it's just up to the Lord to help us to do what we have planned as El Senor would want. The late afternoon brought us an emotional all too familiar prayer opportunity. A little girl was brought into the clinic with extreme respiratory distress. Asthma is common in the land of wood-fired in-house ovens. But moist breathing treatments were not helping and the outlook is dim. We gathered around and prayed for her and her mom and obviously undernourished boy. We contracted with a local with a truck to get her and the family to the city where we hope the hospital will help. As we are unable to follow her case well, we leave them in the hands of the Lord to do what He will with them. We will continue to pray for them and hope for their safety.
Tomorrow we hit the ground running, and get an early breakfast. Then it's off to school to teach about environmental stewardship and hygeine. We see lots of positive changes since our 2009 mission, and this gratifies our hearts! Thanks for following our mission and thinking and praying for us! We love you all for your assistance and prayers for our mission. In His precious name, Sam Prepelka

Hola from Honduras

Mike says:

Things could not be going better, We went through with the village adults yesterday what we plan to do with hygene enducation at the school and esplained the labyrinth to them. This morning we went over to the school and spent about half an hour with the principal and the teachers and they worked with our education committee on how we can set up tomorrow. We're all set.

The reaction to the labyrinth was interesting. It really looks great as the pictures we took will show. We could not believe how the children helped. Digging, clearing. carrying and laying out bricks. The adults seemed bemused by the idea of labyrith as a worship tool. But Gladis walked it and seemed deeply affected. She spoke to the other people in very emotional terms about how she felt walking throogh it. We hope this will convince eveerone to keep it ad use it.

All is well.

Mike

Quick Post

It is not my turn, but I just logged on to get it ready for the next person. We now have a laptop b, borrowed from the clinic since it is open for business today. They have seen their first patient - Chris Bartley - since he got an earplug stuck in his ert last night - Dr. Hurst took care of getting out, Dr. Castillo check it and it's just irritated. Love to all, thank you for your prayers, they are being heard and answered.

Sunday June 26

Hello. This is Tonya. San Jose is so beautiful the mountains all around and the trees with such colorful flowers. There is so much vegetation here. We are near the top of one of the mountains. It sort of feels like we are right next to heaven!

Alisa lost her luggage on the way here. We were all loaning her clothes and and stuff. But Medardo took her to the airport yesterday, and there it was! Our prayers are answered!

Yesterday we made a lot of progress on the labyrinth. We got the land mostly level and cleared off the rocks. The bricks are all buried on the outside perimeter. And we started on the inside bricks. Then there was a big heavy rain while we were eating lunch. It showed us where our low spots were. Also the water routed itself straight towards the bathroom at the clinic. Chris figured out the problem, and we dug a trench to make it go down the hill. Thanks God it rained so much! If not they might have had a big problem when we left.

Today we will go to church at 9am. Then work on. The labyrinth in the afternoon and show the interpreters what we plan to teach at for education this week. At 4:00 the adults will come to learn about the labyrinth, hand-washing, and watershed models. Then at 7:00 is church again (a different church).

Last night some of us went to a concert at one of the churches. And guess what we saw on the way back? A tarantula! It was right in the middle of the road. How awesome!

I miss Joe and the kids so much! Tell Delaney they have beautiful umbrellas here. Some people carry them when it is sunny to keep the sun off them.

Safe arrival!

Hello everyone this is solange.
I don't have too much to say because I am typing this from Hurst's cellular. Haha. Anyways, we are SAFE! We arrived in san Jose after a couple plane flights and a long ride up the mountain the back of medardo's truck. The view was incredible. On the way there we had to stop because cows kept getting in the middle of the road. It made me laugh because it made me think about how at home we have to worry about deer, not cows! Once we got to san Jose we realized that Alisa lost her bag. We are still trying to figure out where it is. Even if it was left at Pittsburgh. It is very weird.

One week before take off

We're leaving....on a jet plane! But, we know when we'll be back again. 11 days. Tomorrow night we pack up our supplies and weigh/mark the luggage. We've done all of our planning, raised all the funds, prayed and prayed and prayed. Now, it's in God's hands. Well, it always was. Here's a quote I found on a friend's facebook page today who has lived with ALS for 18 yrs; "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can." - John Wesley (Founder of the Methodist Church). This describes how our week will go - it'll be intense and exhausting - but it will be exactly this quote - early mornings, long days, late nights in intense heat - but it is one of the best experiences you can ever have. I'm looking forward to working with the team and getting to know them and our interpretors and meeting some new friends in San Jose. Here we go!