Events

So, I promised a post on the events I attended the weekend of the 19th/20th, so here ya go~

Ever since I moved in, Valeria had been practicing for her school talent show, and one of our first conversations was her inviting me to it! During the following weeks leading up to the show, she told me that each grade level at her school had been assigned a country and given the task of preparing a dance to represent that country at the talent show.

Last Saturday evening, we finally got to see the fruits of their labor. Aurora, Kari, David, and I were in the audience to support Vale.

Before the show

Here's Valeria's dance! They won first place in their category (sorry, I missed what category that was 🙃... you understand I was a bit distracted that weekend!). Most of the dances had a similarly constructed soundtrack to the one in that video: a medley of songs that more or less represented the country (or region -- two grades had Africa and Puerto Rico 😅).

Then there was the Mennonite youth conference on Sunday. The previous Wednesday, Lars had asked if I would help represent MCC at this event, since it was a good opportunity to get the word out about YAMEN and IVEP and it would be good to have a participant representing the exchange programs.

Gotta be at a new place by 8am on a Sunday morning? Okay, I'll try!

So I got myself up in time, and Gustavo and Aurora were nice enough to take me in their pickup first to the office (so I could pick up the banners, flyers, and clipboard) then to El Arca where some of the other jovenes from Central helped me set up the table just before the event got started. (Lars was en-route from Tegus where he'd been visiting the others and helping Keyla get her visa extended.)

I enjoyed the singing and first message of the morning (Pastor Luis is a very engaging speaker!) from a spot pretty close to the front:

See me? I'll give you a hint, look for my white headband 😆

There was a short break where we staffed the table and talked with a few people interested in learning about the exchange programs. Then it was time for more singing and another message. However, we got news that we would have the opportunity to pass out flyers to all 400+ young people in attendance...! If only we had that many flyers! So we went to the office, printed some more, and some of the other people involved in the event helped us fold them.

This gives you an idea of the scale of it. MCC's table was set up to the left of the stage underneath where that projected red pattern is.

So we got to pass out our flyers and show the Spanish version of our YAMEN promo video, which was pretty cool that we could at least plant the idea of serving abroad in the minds of that many young Mennonites!

After the program was over, there was enough food for everyone! Cooked green banana, regionally-famous Mennonite chicken (super tender and delicious, with a secret sauce), and rice. Lars, Eliette (who had come as an attendee), and I sat in the courtyard and chatted over lunch before taking down the banners and sharing a cab.

So there you have it, a summary of my full weekend! Something I noticed right away at both events was how prominently the Israel flag appeared... no direct mention of it at either event, but it made me somewhat uncomfortable since its display evinces Zionistic sentiment and my own views on the conflict in that region are quite close to MCC's.

DOG BITE !

This post's title is a tribute to this masterpiece crafted by Zoe during our family service/learning trip to Palestine/Israel.

Yes, my friends, I was bitten by a dog. Fortunately, I was wearing jeans and it didn't get a super good hold on me; my only wound was a small scratch on my ankle left by one of the teeth that pushed down my sock, but yikes! did it give me quite a scare.

Biking home from the office last Thursday the 17th, I was about four blocks from home. I noticed I was coming up behind a kid walking two puppies on leashes and that there was another medium dog, not on a leash, next to the puppies. I made the decision to go around and bike on the left side of the street since it was in a residential area without much traffic. Swinging around and giving a wide berth, all of a sudden I saw a tan blur in my peripheral vision and felt something clamp down on my ankle! I screamed and biked home as fast as I could.

At home, my host family and I checked out the damage and found that luckily, my jeans had protected me. I cleaned the scratch, which just had the tiniest dot of blood, with rubbing alcohol and then called the reps. They WhatsApped the doctor who recommended cleaning it with hydrogen peroxide, so I did that, too. Gustavo drove me back over in the truck to look for the dog to see if we could find the owner, but it was already dark and we couldn't find it (official sunset time was 5:30 that day, but the mountains in the west make it a bit earlier than that). Since the scratch was small and I was mostly just shaken up, I had some dinner and then proceeded with my plans to go see Maléfica: Dueña del Mal with Valeria.

When we'd purchased tickets the night before, I'd thought it'd be a great idea to see the dub instead of the sub (that was a new experience: having to pick the language of a movie I'd be seeing in the theater!) to practice my Spanish, but the adrenaline made it difficult to concentrate. I still enjoyed the movie; it has some beautiful animation and an engaging (da dn tss) but pleasantly easy-to-follow Disney storyline. Although I caught most of the dialogue, I probably could have caught more if I hadn't been so shook.

Friday morning, Jenny took me to a private clinic and the doc said it was nothing to worry about, but I still couldn't focus on my work very well; of course after the movie I'd gone down the Internet rabbit hole and learned that it's possible to get rabies even from a scratch. That evening I was more nervous about my mortality than my public speaking gig.

The events of last weekend (Valeria's talent show and Sunday's youth conference) deserve their own post, and I tried to be fully present for them. I knew the chances that I'd come in contact with rabies were super slim, and talking to Dad on Saturday, he was able to remind me that a lot of my nervousness was probably due to being in a completely new context that puts me on alert, even if somewhat subconsciously. I even learned between Friday and Sunday that getting bitten by a dog is almost a rite of passage; all of the service workers who've been here over a year (Sarah, Eliette, Lars, and Rudi) have all been bitten by Honduran dogs too. "But," the nervous little brain subprocess said, "they all knew the dog had an owner..."

The other dog bites the team has experienced fell into the blue category, but mine is in the purple category. Table from the CDC website

Monday I made this case and the reps and ADs helped me track down the closest public health center. On my way home that evening, I looked again for the dog, but again found no trace. Tuesday morning, Lars accompanied me to the health center and we figured out the steps for how to get me seen by the right people. There was an outdoor window to check in, a room several hallways away to get weighed, a wait to talk with a nurse who heard the story and took a look at the scratch. From there we were directed to talk with a public health official who⁠—upon hearing the dog was an unknown⁠—recommended I get the prophylaxis series and wrote down a list of appointment dates. Then I went to the vaccination room, received shot #1, and was told for the next four in the series I could just return directly to that room.

The whole process didn't actually take that long, and we were back in the office by 10a. Peace of mind is priceless (and hey, so was the vaccine! Thanks free public health service) and I was able to concentrate again. A couple days ago, I returned for my second dose and, despite waiting behind several babies receiving their routine shots, was only there for about 20 minutes. I have 3 more doses at increasing intervals over the next few weeks, and will get the last one right before we leave for our next retreat. And in the meantime, I can focus on the exciting communications work I've been up to. I'll write a post about that, too!

Answer

Since y'all were clearly on the edges of your seats 😉🤣

Oratoria

Yesterday evening, we had a Noche de Oratoria at church, and I'd been encouraged, and agreed, to participate with a 3-5 minute speech. The theme was Matthew 4:19:

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”

I'm pretty comfortable with public speaking, but I'd never given a speech in another language before. But hey, I thought, it's a great way to get involved in the community and practice my Spanish in a different context than the day-to-day.

As I was preparing my speech, I struggled a bit to accurately reflect my Christology in what ended up being a four-and-a-half minute presentation. What I ended up saying is somewhat more traditional than what I might have given a longer form (and let's be honest, English) opportunity to present on the same topic. But the conclusions are the same.

There were about 15 participants, and⁠ I went third or fourth from last

During the refrigerio (refreshment time) afterwards, me di cuenta que from the comments I recieved that it had gone over well. ☺️

So I wanted to share it with all of you. I'll paste the English text here, but if you'd like to read it in Spanish (which I like because the word redes means both networks and nets, and pescar peces isn't as redundant as "fish for fish"), it's here.

     Jesus called the disciples: come, and I will make you fishers of human beings. Peter and his brother Andrew left behind their boats; James and John left behind their nets and their father. If we follow the example of the apostles, we drop everything and choose to walk with Jesus. But it can be difficult to leave everything behind, including our families and our livelihoods.
     Recently, Jesus said something similar to me, calling me to Honduras to help work for peace and justice by amplifying the voices of MCC’s partners here. Like my father before me, I was working as a computer programmer, and here God was asking me to work with stories, language, and people. I could have questioned the call, and said, “No, thanks. I’m more comfortable translating code between Java and Python than I am translating articles between English and Spanish.”
     The disciples could have said “No, thanks. I’m more comfortable in the profession of my father. I know how to fish for fish and that’s what I’m good at. Why would I want to fish for people?” But they didn’t. They left everything and followed Jesus. This is what we must strive to do.
     Although walking with God gives beautiful fruits, it can be frightening and it can be dangerous. As followers of the Way, we go against what people expect, and that can cause them to get angry with us. Matthew 5:11-12 tells us we should rejoice when this happens; it means we’re doing something right. And we don’t have to be afraid. Through Jesus, God has shown ultimate solidarity with women and men by becoming human.
     The Pharisees made life difficult for him, and in the end, Jesus experienced one of the most awful forms of oppression: murder at the hands of the state. We still see this happening today, especially to activists working to protect people and the creation. But since God understands what this is like, having experienced this and all the other aspects of being human, we don’t have to be afraid.
     Matthew 1:23 tells us that God’s purpose in becoming human was to walk alongside humans. Jesus experienced the joys and sorrows of being human, even to the point of painful death. Since God has walked alongside us, isn’t it the least we can do to walk alongside Jesus in the same way?
     So when God asked me to leave my network programming job and follow Jesus because doing so would make me someone who strengthens networks of people? I said yes.

Morazánicos

"Um, so, Lily, why exactly did you have a five day weekend?" Semana Morazánica, my friends. The Honduran national holidays of Fransisco Morazán's Birthday (October 3rd), Discovery of America Day (😬, but traditionally October 12th), and Armed Forces Day (😬😬, October 21) were bundled to the last Wednesday-Friday in October in 2014 to encourage tourism. In 2015, the long weekend was moved to be closest to Morazán's birthday. Hence, the Morazán Holidays!

"But who's this Morazán guy?" Well, let's step back a little bit. Central America declared independence from Spain in 1821 and formed the Federal Republic of Central America in 1823. Francisco Morazán was from the state of Honduras and served as the president of this nation from 1830-1839, enacting freedom of speech, religion, and the press. The nation was disestablished into its constituent states in 1841. Ever wonder why the flags of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica all look so similar? It's because they're all modeled off of the flag of Central America. If you're interested in more FRCA history, it makes for an interesting Wikipedia sesh.

So, Wednesday I headed down to Tegucigalpa. Keyla and ASJ had the whole week off, but Kara didn't have any holidays given that week (odd, since AFE is a school and most students in the country had the whole week off including Valeria, Kari, and the reps' kids... but AFE'd had all of Independence Day week off so I suppose it evens out). Keyla had invited me to stay at her place, but the first night her friends invited us to a pizza party/sleepover!

Construction

It turned out super tasty

Noche de muchachas!

The next day, Keyla and I explored the centro. We went clothes shopping and found some nice articles at good prices.

Armed Forces Day display in the center plaza. They were just standing there all day!

On Friday, we headed up into the mountains surrounding the city to another coworker friend of Keyla's who lives near La Tigra National Park. We went on a nearly seven-kilometer hike and saw some great vistas of the city.

La Tigra National Park

Kirsten, Katie, Allison, Comfort, me, Keyla

In the pines, in the pines ❤️

View of Tegus from the mountain

As the weekend proper arrived, we could finally meet up with Kara! We spent Saturday in El Picacho National Park, known for its statue of Christ.

Some nice panoramas from this park, too

They have a plaza honoring Confucius

"Hemos llegado a los pies de Cristo" — Keyla

At 150 lempiras each, the Canopy (zipline) was a deal not to be missed!

Wheee!

The next day, I headed back up to SPS. This past week I felt rejuvenated from my vacation and found that I'm no longer feeling the need to just zonk out at 9pm, which is nice. Maybe my brain is finally getting used to the constant interchange between languages, or maybe it's a temporary stamina boost from a relaxed vacation. Either way, I'm grateful for it!

Highlights from this week are that I bought a bike (Gustavo actually offered to sell me his at a pretty decent price, so I just opted for that) and finished translating the CODESO article (Spanish will be available at the same link pretty soon).

Gotta get ready for church now! Catch ya later.

No

Can you guess the context of this photo? Leave your suposiciones in the comments. I'll tell you the answer in a post or two.

As promised, I've got some of my work to share with you! We published our newsletter and my CODESO article on Tuesday.

That's a lot of reading material already, so I'll keep this one short. But I will tell you I just arrived in Tegucigalpa yesterday afternoon to spend the Feriados Morazánicos (national holidays) with my CCM sisters. Tune in next week for the story of what's already shaping up to be a lovely five-day weekend!