Regional

Me, Rosa, Elieth                               Me, Rosita again, Rudi, Clivia

On Tuesday of this week, we piled into the 15-passenger van of an hermano from church and headed down to Siguatepeque for our meetings with the LACA Central America/Haiti sub-region! And by "we," I mean Rosa, Clivia, and Gaby (friends from church who had agreed to watch all the reps' kids during our meetings); Sam and Emmanuel; don Marcos; Elieth, Rudi, and I. We got to the retreat center in the early afternoon and Rudi and I worked to get everything in order for the others' arrival (matching shirts to nametags and folders). The rest of our team, as well as the Nicaragua/Costa Rica, Haiti, and Guatemala/El Salvador teams all arrived at various points throughout the later afternoon and early evening. We played get-to-know-you bingo (organized by Jenny) which was a fun way to learn who all was having birthdays during the week (Christy, the comms SALTer from Haiti; don Marcos; and Clivia) and other random tidbits!

On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings, we had devotionals followed by workshops on trauma healing. Our team was in charge of devotionals on Wednesday morning, so Joel, Keyla, and I led three songs before Elieth gave the message about spiritual resilience. Wednesday afternoon, Cesar and Lizette gave all of us who are new since the last regional get-together an overview of LACA and how it ties in to MCC as a whole. Then, in the evening, we had a Zumba session led by Abner from the Guatemala team followed by a campfire complete with s'mores (made out of Chiky cookies since chocolate bars are expensive) and songs (some Christmas tunes got thrown in... the lack of both Halloween and Thanksgiving here means there's no buffer! I was already seeing trees up when I went shopping with my host parents back in September).

Thursday afternoon after taking group pictures (you can see the Honduras team photo on my Facebook), we had some free time. Sarah (rep from Guatemala) and I spearheaded a trip to the Mennonite Bakery down in town. I found some granola, pumpkin bread, chocolate, and peanut butter there! Several of the others got ice cream, which I heard was really good, but I thought I probably already had enough of a haul... 😆 After dinner, we had a karaoke night organized by Wendy, the CPC from Nicaragua. One of the kids kicked off the night with "Baby Shark" and I followed next with "Me Enamora" by Juanes. It was really fun to see the variety of songs that people chose! Later on, Keyla and I sang a duet of "Rosas" by La Oreja de Van Gogh. After karaoke, Gaby, Lars, Rudi, Honduras Sarah, Clivia, Rosita, and I engaged in a rousing game of Spoons.

The end of the talleres yesterday meant it was time for some sightseeing! After lunch, we had one group go for a cave tour and another group go for a boat cruise on Lago de Yojoa. I was part of the second group.

Me, Rudi, and Gaby during snack break from the Friday morning workshop

Views from my seat on the boat

Eastern shore of Lago de Yojoa

We headed back to the retreat center for dinner and a Noche Cultural—our team had brainstormed a skit imagining how the baleada got its name, and Lars wrote a parody of "Sencilla" to make it about a baleada sencilla which we sang after performing our skit. Highlights of the night for me were Guatemala's hilarious dramatization of a trip on a chicken bus and Keyla's performance of "Colombia Tierra Querida"—poignant in light of recent events there and a history of Colombians performing this song abroad during times of turbulence in the country. After the show was over, all of the SALTers from the region (Jenna, Kailey, Christy, Josh, Andrew, Kara, and I) got together and videoed ourselves dancing to a song that our IVEP friends from the Republic of Korea had taught us at orientation back in Akron and posted it in the group. It had been fun reconnecting with all of them over the course of the week, but we had to say most of our goodbyes before bed since many of them had to head out early early this morning.

This morning after breakfast it was time to head back north to SPS. Since getting back late morning, I've been recharging my introvert batteries before Valeria's 16th birthday party this evening!

Pollo

The last week and a half have been pretty busy, so I'm going to split the events into two posts. Starting on the 14th, two of MCC's IT techs, Sam and Emmanuel, joined us in working from the office here in SPS. They were able to work on our computers and do some updates that would've been more difficult to do remotely, like update my graphics drivers to hopefully address a flickering screen issue I've been having.

Meanwhile, I was helping get ready for the regional retreat by making a new nametag template in InDesign, making some of the content that would go in the folders everyone would get, printing out habitación occupancy pages, and other such details.

On Saturday, Emmanuel, Sam, the reps and their kids, and I met at the church for the BBQ chicken fundraiser that the congregation puts on several times a year. I think the last one happened during our miniretiro in Copan, though, so this was my first time getting to participate! Pollo menonita has a reputation for its tasty secret sauce... and each iglesia in the Honduran Mennonite Conference has a slightly different recipe! We had been treated to pollo menonita when we'd met with Pastor José during orientation, but that was with the salsa recipe of his other congregation.

I always thought that was just a counter before... but no! Remove the tabletops that usually cover it up, and it's a giant fire pit used for grilling chicken!

Insulating the chicken after grilling so it'll still be warm when peeps come to buy it

Most folks take the chicken to go, but the seven of us ended up just going upstairs and eating in the office kitchen (AC 😅). You get half a chicken, cole slaw, and 2 tortillas for 100 lempiras (about $4)... So I definitely had leftovers for my lunch on Monday!

The reps were going to take S&E to the Bazar del Sabado, so we said seeya and I took my bike to the shop since the cord connecting the gearshift to the front gear set had snapped a couple days earlier (luckily, the chain was on the middle gear, so with the 7 gears in back, it was still pretty versatile). While he was at it, the mechanic also adjusted my brakes and put on a new, more comfortable seat that I'd purchased back in September but hadn't had the time or tools to install myself.

Bike in the shop

Comfy new seat! Oh yeah, and a bit of spray paint on the handlebar connector. Looks nice!

I was a bit taken aback when he said I didn't owe anything, but could tip him if I wanted, since he'd used spare parts in good condition that had been left over from other bikes—so I tried to pay him fairly for his time. I tried to estimate quickly what that would be, and then later looked up the average hourly wage in Honduras. I think I did pretty well; I probably aimed a little high... but I'd rather be on that side of fair! When I got back on my bike and realized how smoothly it rides now, I decided it was worth every lempira!

Tour

Accompanying the learning tour last weekend was, as you may have guessed, quite informative. I hadn't gotten to visit partner org CASM (sitio en español) yet, so I was grateful to get to learn more about what my CCM compañeras who work there do. Thursday morning, we learned about Elieth's project. She and her coworkers offer services to internally displaced persons (especially kids and adolescents) who have moved to SPS and now live in bordos—communities close to the rivers. Because of their locations, these poorer neighborhoods are more prone to flooding.

Many of her coworkers have psychology backgrounds so can offer support to children and teens who have experienced violence, especially bullying they may face in school because of their economic status. Elieth is part of the the team that offers fun workshops to the children in which they learn games that help them process and regulate emotions, learn alternatives to violence, and develop self-protection skills.

Elieth teaches a member of the learning tour how to play one of the games

The Dado de Saber with the roulette wheel on top

I wish I had gotten a better picture of the Dado de Saber (🎲 of Knowledge), one of the teaching tools used in the games. To show us how the game works, Elieth had members of the learning tour come to the front of the room and learn the games as one of the children would. For example, they would spin the roulette or toss the dado, and based on the resulting color or number, the child would be asked a question or get to read a situation and then need to respond appropriately. For example, "How do you react if a classmate pushes you?" or "What are some of the consequences of bullying?" are some of the questions which give kids a safe-space opportunity to talk about these issues, practice their responses, and process past experiences.

 

The hanging flowers outside of the CASM conference room are beautiful! Also, here's a picture I took of the tour participants with Elieth's team.

In the afternoon, we visited ERIC in El Progreso where Sarah works. It was my second visit (we had gotten to visit in August during our in-country orientation tour of partners and I mentioned it briefly but not by name at the end of this post) but since the learning tour was focused on migration, it was interesting to hear a different presentation of theirs about the current context in Honduras which illuminates reasons why so many people are driven to migrate. One that stuck with me was that the country-wide 90% impunity rate rises to 97% when you look at crimes against environmental protection activists (one of ERIC's focuses is accompanying community groups who are protecting their lands and waters from extractivist activities).

On Saturday I got to learn about Rudi's project with CASM, which offers job training for returned migrants. Jill, the SALTer who worked in this digital media specialist position last year, wrote an article about this program which I encourage you to read.

In the welding workshop, we got to see some of the projects the students had created (some had actually already sold, and the CPCs even decided to purchase one of the grills). These skills enable graduates to work in talleres, start their own small businesses selling commissioned items like the ones you see here, or work in roofing.

There are several vocational tracks the students can choose to follow here, including welding, machining, electricity/AC repair, and cooking.

Students learn how to use lathes to fabricate items like screws and pulleys

The graduating culinary class made lunch for us!

Since I was due a comp day on Monday for accompanying the tour on Saturday, I decided to spend the night with Sarah in El Progreso on Sunday night (we'd talked on Thursday about the possibility of spending time together). She told me the bus route to get there (it's just a little bit further from SPS than Longmont is from Boulder), and I was able to catch the bus down easily on Sunday afternoon (¡y por tan sólo 30 lempiras!). We shopped for dinner ingredients, made ourselves some tacos, and did some watercolors, all the while having some great conversations.

Chia pudding, cinnamon-ginger tea, breakfast tacos, and good conversation... the best way to start a week that I can think of!

On Monday morning after a leisurely breakfast, I was able to visit ERIC again and pick up some materials that will hopefully help me write an article about their MCC-supported project. Caught the bus back up to SPS; stopped at the office to pick up my bike and—since I happened to be arriving just in time—stayed for cafecito with Jenny, Joél, and don Marcos; and then headed home for lunch... and a 6-hour nap!

Equipo

This past weekend, we had a noche del equipo (team night) which—for Keyla, Kara, and I—meant we got to have an entire day to hang out, as well. They came up from Tegucigalpa on Friday night and left SPS on Sunday afternoon.

Keyla and I had been pumped about potentially hiking to the Coca-Cola sign on the mountainside overlooking the city, but Saturday morning greeted us with rain. So we YALTers headed to the mall where we browsed the shops, got lunch, saw a movie, got some ice cream... It was good to catch up with those two!

There's a Ferris wheel inside! We didn't ride it, though

I was not expecting to see an ACE Hardware store in Honduras...

In the evening, we convened at the reps' place for a potluck dinner: tasty tacos courtesy of Lars, perfect guacamole gracias a Eliette, a yummy salad of ramen and cabbage contributed by the reps, and Rudi's glorious galletas of the chocolate chip and pumpkin-spice chocolate chip varieties!

Gotta love this crazy team!

After dinner, I made popcorn (well, popped maicillo technically) in coconut oil and we watched Ferdinand. A good movie for a group of pacifists to watch 😊

Sarah was the only team member who—unfortunately—couldn't make it to the gathering on Saturday, but she did come to SPS on Monday and stayed over so she could renew her residency on Tuesday. She took this photo of me making popcorn in the office; I wanted to try to make up for the fact that she'd missed the movie night!

Not as good a pop ratio as over the gas stove at the reps', but it worked!

This week, we have a learning tour visiting some of our partners. Lars is leading the tour along with Michael, the CPC from Guatemala, where the tour will be next week. There are about 15 participants from the US learning about migration. This morning, they visited the office and got to see the bulletin board I finished last week:

Tada! An overview of all the MCCers and partner organizations

Tonight, the whole tour group is descending on the reps' place for dinner; tomorrow and Saturday I'll get to accompany them on some partner visits with the hope to garner material for another feature or two.