The Obrigado Times

Check out the new trailer for “Children of Hope: The Liberia Mission Story“. We’ll be releasing this six-part documentary series over the next six weeks. The doc tells the story of Liberia Mission, Inc. through some of its most remarkable children and explores the history of Liberia, its unique ties to the US and its drive to rebuild.

Watch the trailer for the doc by going to our front page or clicking here:  www.liberiamission.com/video.html

For more information, visit: www.liberiamission.com
Thanks!

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Each day of our journey brings new experiences, new sights and sounds and people, and new ways that we are challenged to grow.  Thanks for checking in – We wish you joy in all you do!

For a ‘quick’ preview of all our pictures from the past year, check out our photo sets by clicking here: Obrigado Times Photo Sets

April 2nd – Just returned from a somewhat impromptu four day trip to Tegucigalpa, which ended up taking us to the region of Olancho several hours north of Teguc.  On Tuesday we traveled from Juticalpa to Gualaco – a one hour car ride today thanks to a new road, which 40 years ago took 20 hours by horseback.  The roads and electricity are fairly new to this area, which only got lights a little over a decade ago.  We had the opportunity to interview a number of people who knew the first martyr of the Central American conflict, Fr. Casimir, and learn about the history of the area during his time there in the early 1970s.  A truly fascinating and inspiring trip.  We also met up with friends in Tegucigalpa for more filming, eating and catching up. A few pics are posted.  Next week is Semana Santa (Holy Week) and the whole country essentially shuts down.  Schools, businesses, services will all be closed for the week as people travel to be with family.  Comayagua is the premier place to celebrate Semana Santa – we’re told the streets will be covered with art and there will be live stations of the cross throughout the days.  We’re looking forward to celebrating here and will be sure to post pictures.

March 29th — Today we are posting several new articles and reflections:  En Carne Vida, Part II;  Walking through the Clouds (A Meditation in Monteverde); Transparent Eyeball.   It is summer here, dry with temperatures in the very hot range.  Friday the girls at Guadalupe held a “mini festival of summer” – a talent show with singing and dancing and a lot of laughter.  Yesterday was a beautiful day which included hanging out and playing with the kids, helping the new moms make bread, tending to the goats with the older girls (see pics of baby goats); and laughing for nearly an hour straight while Todd and a dozen children ran around the site throwing water on each other.  The sheer joy that a water fight on a hot day brings!… Even the moms were helping out Todd who was severely outnumbered.  Everyone was soaked; and one five year old girl, with squeals of joy, jumped into the pila (the clean-ish part of the tank where clothes and dishes are washed) dunking her head and splashing around as though it was a luxurious swimming pool.

March 21st – We’ve recently created several new sets of photos, which you can link to from the photos page on this site.  There are a ton on the flickr photostream, so hopefully the ones organized into sets will be a bit easier to sort through. One collection is of a morning playing at Margarita Cook (the community of moms and kids next door to us, where between 9 and 12 families live at a time, some for a few months and others for several years).  The highlight of each day is spending time there – just being, for the most part – talking, laughing, just sitting around together, and at times making tortillas or pancakes or donuts, fixing locks or windows or the one crib there, painting, helping with homework, cleaning and patching up the inevitable cuts and scrapes of very active kids.  The collection from a morning at play was just that – one morning where Todd and I went up with video and camera in hand to hang out with the kids, who were playing as kids would anywhere in the world – playing house (though cooking corn in a tin can over a real fire), making up games and creating toys with whatever they could find.

‘Scenes from Margarita Cook’ also offers a glimpse into daily life there: boys with wood just chopped with machettes for the stove they cook tortillas over three times each day; the beautiful families and children; the arrival of one family, who had been walking for two days, one late afternoon as some of the mothers and I were making bread in the panaderia; and the departure of another family, who separated that day as the boys went to the boarding facilities and their mother went to live in a rented room and look for a job; and the mothers making rosary bracelets, a project we began in January which has been a joy for me and will hopefully continue to build both valuable income for the moms and community, as well as a new skill and, with it, an outlet for the moms who often spend all their time cooking and cleaning and tending to the kids (and goats and chickens).  (Speaking of chickens – they recently slaughtered all 180 of them for reasons I don’t understand but have something to do with the chickens’ health and how productive they are at laying eggs.  This was a big affair – lasting two days and involving everyone, even the two-year-olds where running around picking up chicken heads.  I do not, however, have pictures of this, yet, anyway, but Todd has lots of footage for those who like that sort of thing.  The new chickens recently arrived so we’re back to the usual egg production again, though the feathers of their predecessors still litter the ground around the coup.)

In February, we visited the boys orphanage/boarding facility in La Barca.  We hadn’t been back since our several day visit in November with the medical mission group, though we saw the kids over Christmas, when they came to Flores (the high school site about 10 min. from us, and about 2 hours from where they live) to celebrate with the whole community.  Christmas Eve there was a beautiful evening Mass with children and families from all of the mission’s sites, followed by a special feast of tamales and apples (yes, applies are a luxury item here and the kids go crazy for them, eating every last part of it, core included; the tamales are made by the moms and older girls – you can see how in the Christmas photo set).  Then each of the sites or grades of kids prepared plays and songs for an evening of entertainment!  It was among the most joyful, simple, and deeply moving ways to spend Christmas – a celebration of the great abundance we have with us, even in the midst of material poverty.  The next day, we had another feast and it was one of the happiest moments to watch those kids – many of them orphans, none of whom would be opening gifts that morning – devour the 12 pies and cakes that we had made the day before with so much delight!  From the recent trips in February, there is a set of photos from some of the boys boarding facilities, including Toyos, La Barca (were we visited to take pictures of the new kids for the sponsorship program) and La Villa, where we have done a lot of work recently to repair the school roof, paint classrooms, and fix a drainage problem in preparation for classes in February.  We’ve also been working on the boys’ dorm houses, cleaning, painting and, great thanks to the St. Alphonsus group, providing nice new clean mattresses for the boys.

Late January and early February brought changes, with the start of school (there are a few pictures from the days before school started, when all the girls at Guadalupe helped in cleaning out the classrooms), and with the departure and arrival of new families at Margarita Cook.  Two mothers who have both been there for several years and who are among the rocks of the community, decided to leave the project so that they could work in order to save money to buy a house next year.  ‘Moving Day’ is a set of photos from their leaving, which was a community affair.  Their grade-school aged kids are now boarding at Guadalupe, La Villa and Flores, so we still see them, though the change has certainly impacted the community and the kids.  The family with twelve children, who were finally getting healthy with consistent meals and medications, whom we grew very close to over the holidays, left suddenly in January.  We were all deeply saddened to see them go and can only hope that those children continue thriving as they had begun to here.  We welcomed two other mothers for a short time, each with two small children and a baby, who left suddenly presumably to return to family.  Another family only stayed with us for a couple of weeks.  Their situation was complicated and they were extremely vulnerable.  I felt helpless, unable to provide the resources we would typically mobilize in any similar situation in the states.  Here, there is nothing like the services that we would call on – mental health care, women’s health care, counseling, child specialists, confidential therapeutic housing programs.  So, we offer blankets and food, medicine and books, and a safe warm place to sleep.  And now we hope that they are safe wherever they are, and that their time here provided a little sustenance along their tough road in life.  To be continued….

March 19th – The new school year is now well underway here in Honduras, with classes starting in early February.  Along with new children at the schools and boarding facilities, we have also had several families leave and several new families arrive at that the Margarita Cook project for women – our neighbors a short walk up the dirt path.  Our deepest connections are here, with the mom’s and kids, and in the last couple of months we’ve had the privilege of being with the families for some of the exciting and funny moments in life, and also some of the saddest.  We continue to film extensively for the potential documentary projects.  We also started a jewelery (rosary bracelets) making project with the mom’s which has taken off and is providing some income to help them individually and also providing income for general community needs (like new supplies for their community kitchen).  We have also welcomed over a dozen groups of volunteers from the states in the past couple of months, which keeps the volunteer center busy and full of energy (and we also get lots of work projects done).  It was great to have the group here from our home parish, St. Alphonsus in Chicago.  They did much for the kids and we here are tremendously grateful.  Blessings to all!

January 31st — Thanks for checking in. We do apologize for the lack of articles and updates. Please stay tuned. Throughout January, we have been very focused on film projects, in addition to working on a variety of other projects around the mission in preparation for the new school year which begins in about 2 weeks. After a couple of months of collaborative work on pre-production and filming interviews and daily life, Todd completed a 20 min. promotional documentary on Mission Honduras. We are also in the process of constructing and filming what we hope will be a longer documentary about the organization and the families who live here. We are also looking forward to welcoming a volunteer group from our home parish, St. Alphonsus in Chicago, on February 13th. If you’re in Chicago, you can support their trip and attend a cocktail fundraiser on Feb. 7th, 9pm, at The Joynt, 650 N. Dearborn. On behalf of the children and families of the mission, we are grateful for all your support.

December 27th– Seasons Greetings! We wish you all peace in this holiday season and blessings in the new year. While many in the states are struggling due to the economic crisis, we hope that all will also remember the poor in Honduras and throughout the world who are also affected and who depend so much on the generosity of those of us in the “first world” for the most basic of needs. Donations to Mission Honduras are down significantly (by more than a third) from last year, and there are thousands of children´s futures that quite literally depend entirely on the contributions of sponsors that help provide their food, shelter, and education. We have been inspired to share this season (Advent, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Baptisms, and Christmas) with the children here.  We continue to be encouraged by their strength, resilience, laughter, curiosity, and care for one another.  It is truly a testament to the spirit of life!  Now that we are back from our visa-renewal adventure to Costa Rica and Nicaragua, we will be writing and posting more articles soon. May peace be yours this Season!

November 26th — Thanksgiving Blessings!  Today we will have a U.S. style celebration at our house thanks to the volunteer group from Minnesota (they even brought pumpkin pie filling in their suitcases!)  The Hondurans we work most closely with will also join us, so there will be a wonderful community of sixty or more of us celebrating in our large dining hall!   Check out our new articles on the front page for more details and thoughts from our daily life, especially the Thanksgiving Litany and La Vida Tranquila , which provide a glimpse into our lives here.  Blessings and peace to you and your families!

November 23rd– Today we´re in Comayagua with two volunteer groups – one from MN with 32 people and another of 9 people from around the US.  In the past several weeks we´ve been coordinating and working with 4 different groups (the two mentioned above, plus another organized by great folks from Arkansas and a two week medical mission group). Todd and I were able to spend several days with the medical team at La Barca -  one of the boys’ orphanages.  We helped coordinate the team´s water, food, transportation and other basic needs, and helped sort the 28 suitcases of medicines and supplies they brought with them and set up the make-shift clinic. The clinic was open to the public and by Monday morning word had spread far enough already that families were walking from miles and miles away to get the only health care they’ll probably get all year or in two years, until the next medical team comes down. One family, which arrived before we opened at 7am, with six children – all under the age of 8 (two of the kids younger than walking age) – had walked an hour and a half from their village to get there. The second week the medical team set up at San Jose, a relatively remote and beautiful mountain town.  There, some people walked three or more hours to receive care.  Most people were subsistence farmers, growing corn and beans and possibly a little coffee to sell.  Aside from coordinating the medical mission, we´ve been preparing for the groups we´re now hosting, planning painting and repair projects for the coming weeks and months, preparing for graduation (which is this Friday) and spending time reading and playing with the kids.

November 4th – President Obama!  A new day has arrived!  We traveled to the capitol, Tegucigalpa, about 2 hrs away, so that we could watch the election coverage. (This was the closest we could be sure to get clear coverage of CNN in english!) What an incredible night!  We are speechless at this profound time in our history and are utterly inspired by this change and by the millions and millions of people who are energized to work together for the common good for all!  Central America is also very closely following this election because their lives are so intertwined with what happens in the US.  Everyone that we have talked to – cab drivers, waiters, hotel staff, etc. – all seem to be very happy that Obama will be the next U.S. President!

October 25th – We are going to the north coast tomorrow for a few days.  The north coast has been hard hit by the recent storms. Also next week a medical mission will be here, and we´ll travel with them to two of the other sites, La Barca and San Jose, to help with coordination of their work. We are looking forward to meeting more of the people connected to the mission sites, seeing more of the country, the other sites, and the work there is to be done.

October 11th– Today we are in Comayagua, Honduras. We arrived at the mission´s volunteer house last Monday, and have been learning all about the various different schools, housing, agricultural projects, and so much more that Mission Honduras helps to support. We are enjoying our new home, the beautiful people and landscape. It is good to finally be here. We are helping to coordinate the volunteer groups that come to visit the site and work and play with the children. Todd is the projects coordinator and I am the hospitality coordinator for the volunteer retreat house. We are learning a lot and each day is a new adventure!

October 3rd -We completed our Spanish classes today! We have had an amazing time in Antigua; met many local folks as well as fellow travelers; learned about the history, culture, and political and social situations of Guatemala; visited stunning ruins; learned indigenous traditions including how to make tortillas and grind coffee; and Todd and I even got to be the bride and groom in a mock- traditional wedding (pictures of that coming soon). We wish we could stay longer, but it is time to move on to our final destination (via the Copan Ruins in Honduras). We leave tomorrow morning and will spend the weekend in Copan, arriving at the Mission on Monday. We had dinner with one of the Mission’s long-term volunteers last week and we are really looking forward to getting there!

September 27th – Today, we’re studying spanish at the CLI language school in Antigua. Our first week of classes has been challenging and rewarding. We’re learning a lot and are already better able to understand and communicate; though we know this will be a life long process… one day, one sentence at a time! Our teachers are terrific and we have learned much about the history, culture and social conditions of the area — this has made it a very rich experience. Last night we went to a small cafe to watch the documentary “When the Mountains Tremble”. We highly recommend seeing it to learn more about Guatemala’s history. Learn more at docurama.com.

September 20th– Today, we started our Spanish classes in Antigua, Guatemala, with individual 5 hour sessions with our very patient instructors. We also made our first trip to the local super mercado, which was stocked with similar items as supermarkets in the US, only crammed into a space about a quarter of the size. With peanut butter, bread, cheese, salsa, granola bars and fruit, we are set for several days of dining in at our spacious apartment on the language school grounds!

September 17th– Today we are in Panajachel, Guatemala.  We arrived yesterday, taking a mini-bus from Antigua with several other people from the US, France, and Italy.  We are staying until Friday, enjoying the lush mountains and volcanoes that surround Lago de Atitlan.

August 2, 2008 Thank you for checking out our new blog! I will be posting more reflections and information soon, but for now, I wanted to share with you some links to the Mission Honduras website that you might find interesting. We are blessed to have the opportunity to serve with such an incredible organization.

Check out pictures from our trips to El Salvador and Guatemala in 2005 and 2006 here: obrigadotimes.wordpress.com/photos/