HONDURAS 2014

Good morning!  We are boarded in Houston for a trip to Honduras with GCR youth to build a church building with Mission Lazarus. 

WEDNESDAY BLESSINGS

Wednesday we planned to use as a day of rest and reflexion. Mark is still under the weather.  He joined us at the breakfast table for toast and juice, but is planning another day of rest and recuperation.

The sun is already in full force by 7:30.  Without the rains of the monsoons, the heat is intense.  Even in my air conditioned hotel room, my laundry dries before I can return from a meal in the restaurant!  In Manikpur where the monsoons have only just  begun, clothes washed on Wednesday afternoon were packed wet Saturday morning for the train ride to Bagdogra!

Ray and I headed over to the school here in Bagdogra run by Naris, one of Ray's contacts.  They had planned for us to have a short visit at the school and lunch in their home.  The school houses grades nursery through class three.  In each of these schools the lower grades are larger as the school is gaining prestige in the neighborhood.  English medium school is an option these areas have not had before, so there were very few brave parents who took the chance five years ago to trust their children's education to a startup school.  This school has only six in grade three, but twenty nine in nursery!  The eight teachers rotate through the classes teaching various subject matter during the day.  While most classes are taught in English, the children also learn to read and write in Hindi (national language) and Bengali (state language)!  As we entered each class, the children rise and salute us with, "Good morning, Sir.  Good morning, Miss."  They only sit again when directed to do so.  We made our way to each classroom, shaking each hand with personal greetings.  Precious children and loving teachers!

This is a page from the copy book of a five year old child learning to read and write in four languages with four different scripts!

We visited in the home of Naris and Shamila and toured the chicken farm under construction.  When the children were dismissed early due to the intense heat (A child died from the heat in the southern part of the state this week.), we took the opportunity to visit with the teachers for a few minutes.  In India, it is not necessary to have formal training to become a teacher.  Teachers teach as they were taught.  They are eager to learn from anyone who is willing to share.

Lunch was delicious!  Rice, dahl, vegetables, chicken, cucumbers and carrots and warmed chips were followed by Sophna's signature dish...noodles, cashews and toasted coconut in sweet milk!  A small lunch by nobody's standards!

On the way back to the hotel, we dropped in on Joseph to learn of his current endeavors beginning a children's home called David's House.  He had a delightful family and a fairy tale love story that has produced precious little Jasmine currently in UKG.

Still no internet connections at the hotel! Still no peep from room 306!

This evening Ray and I walked to the home of Naris' in-laws.  Shamila and Naris met us there along with other church/family members.  We had a blessed time sharing with them.  Nine year old Grace sang a solo in English and shared right along with the adults in Bible discussions!  It was a day of refreshing joy and fellowship.

We returned for a light meal before bed and actually found the wifi had returned!

Tomorrow morning we expect a hotel visit from Mahendra and from Naris before we leave for the airport at 11:30 (1:00am in Texas!).  The journey home will be long and arduous.  We will arrive in Midland at 6:30 Friday night!

HATIDUBA BUSTY

Today's agenda was designed to introduce Mark to the village where Mahendra and his family live and work.  I especially wanted Mark to meet some of the people Jonnie and I met last September.  However, Mark partook of forbidden fruit last night...perhaps the mango juice at the cottage meeting.  He awoke feeling less than his best and decided that an hour's journey away from the hotel was not in his best interest!  He stayed behind to "sleep it off" as he termed it.

Ray and I headed on out to the Morning Star English Medium School to rendezvous with Mahendra.  He had made copies of various documents as well as proposed plans for the rest of the year.  After a brief meeting in his office, we boarded the taxi once again and drove a very short distance to the tea nursery.  This young man began his nursery enterprise as a youth.  For him it was just a hobby...making things grow and propagating new plants from older ones.  He had seen many movies with gorgeous gardens and dreamed of recreating those in his own areas. School students and teachers knew about his success with horticulture, so they often would come to him for plants to use in their school projects.  It wasn't long before others came to him and his hobby developed into a very profitable business!  He welcomes guests under the umbrella of a beetle juice tree near the entrance to his home.  

Beautiful exotic plants are being grown in small black plastic sacks around his garden.  Even the gated area around the mobile phone tower is enhanced by hyacinth, bananas, bougainvillea and other flowering plants.  The ponytail tree in the center of his show garden towers over three meters high!  

Mango and lychee fruits are still a couple months from maturity.

His most amazing endeavor is the acres and acres of tea plants he has propagated and sells to local tea gardens to replace their aging plants or to local enterprising young men who want to begin their own tea gardens.  From the precise cutting of each leaf to its placement in rich soil bags...mud dams and well water pumped into the bamboo thatched greenhouse...weeding and protecting...the leaf matures to a profitable plant!  When an order comes in,he is ready!  

Recently he has branched out into seeding various trees and his workforce has multiplied!  

His taxi service is another hobby he enjoys.  Mahendra has called on him in emergencies with the girls' health or to ferry guests such as Jyoti's sister or "Sisters" Jonnie and Pam to and from airports, schools and train stations.

Fifteen years and dedication to both of his "hobbies" has provided his family: wife, son, daughter, mother and father with a very nice living.  The income from the cell tower augments his salary as well.

We enjoyed lemonade and a tasty treat similar to our hush puppies made from beans, peppers, etc. All grown on their land!  Even the milk in the tea was from their cow!  They are self sufficient indeed!

From the nursery, we headed over to the house where Jyoti had prepared lunch for us.  We enjoyed the banana buds Mahendra had shown us yesterday all stir fried and seasoned.  Dolma (Elizabeth) had picked lady fingers and they had fried them as well.  We were honored with slices from a large cucumber Amit had brought back from Darjeeling recently.  The rice base enhanced by Dahl and a potato dish completed the meal.

Later we drove out to see the children's home some of the Morning Star teachers had told Ray is being run by an American lady named Alex.  When we got there, she was not in town, so we were not granted entrance.  She is from Minnesota and has a huge gated compound.  The walls are high and topped with glass and nails, so we could only see the top of the two story home that houses the children.  We walked around to the three roomed school from which we could see the church building and guest house in the opposite direction.

We returned to the house for a "last tea" and to get a family picture.  Jyoti had prepared a rice and coconut pudding instead of tea!  It was a delicious treat as we waited for the girls to return from school.  

After a last picture, we headed back to the hotel.  The rains have not come to this area of West Bengal yet, so the clouds hanging over us seem to envelop us in a blanket of heat.  A refreshing afternoon shower and the refuge of an air conditioned room welcome us at the end of the ride.

Mark is still sleeping it off...

MORNING STAR SCHOOL

Mahendra has been the headmaster of Morning Star English Medium School since 2009.  He took over a Hindi Medium School inheriting the students already enrolled. As of the end of last year, those children have aged out of his school.  Now the 105 students in grades nursery, lower KG, upper KG, 1, 2 and 3 are all studying all the time in English!

The physical plant has changed somewhat since my last visit in September.  The children now have a playground complete with swings and seesaw.  The primary building has a wide sidewalk and flower beds.  And the upper school building has two new classrooms with plans for a second and third layer to house up to class ten!

Monday morning we visited the school...enjoying time in the yard for the welcome and children's songs, in the classrooms watching the teachers with the children and in the office with Mahendra.  

It's so impressive watching four year olds gaining command of the English alphabet, five year old Nepalese children reciting the times tables up to five times ten in English, and seven year olds in virtual computer class learning the parts and functions of each.  

The nursery students break for lunch at 10:15 and leave for the day at 12:15 while the rest of the children have their lunch.  Kindergarten through class three stay until 2:15.

Jyoti fixed Chinese food for our lunch at the house.  It was a delightful change from rice for three North Americans!

This afternoon we went in three directions.  I stayed at the house with Jyoti and the girls.  We had a precious afternoon with the story of Esther complete with tiaras! 

Ray taught the English students with an Indian version of the Good Samaritan.  Mark and Mahendra had time to discuss details, plans and dreams!

This evening we had a cottage meeting in the home of members...the home where Mahendra and Jyoti boarded in 2009 when they moved to Hatiduba Busty.  Ray brought a fine lesson on seeing God.

Then they honored us with a meal on their back porch!  What a blessing!  How delightful the day!

SUNDAY IN HATIDUBA BUSTY

Sunday morning came early!  (Every day comes early when the sun rises at 4:30!) we had breakfast while the taxi driver waited to take us out to the village of Hatiduba Busty to meet Mahendra.  He was ready to load up with us and head out to the Sunday School location for us to experience one of three simultaneous English Sunday Schools he runs before church each week.  Grace went with us, but the other two girls were already at the local class.  About twenty five children met us in the yard of one of Morning Star School's students.  Six other children were also students from the school.  The children were excited to sing for us and were very attentive as each visitor presented a lesson.  They had pencil and composition books to copy down whatever we dictated to them.

The owner of the house is suffering from partial paralysis of his arm and leg and pain.  Mark anointed him with oil and prayer.

When we got back to the house, Jyoti, Tabitha and Glory had already left for church.  All were seated and set for service when we arrived.  Their worship is much like our service, except it is conducted all in Nepalese.  Everyone was involved in the worship including round robin readings from both the Old Testament and the New.  Even Grace had a part in collecting the offering!  I really liked the new communion cup tray Mahendra had designed.  Mark did an excellent job with his sermon!

Lunch at the house was quite a surprise!  This is a totally vegan family, but Mahendra heard Mark say he liked to eat beef.  So he had gone to a special market and got beef in a country that holds the cow as sacred to make a meal for his honored guest!

I enjoyed a few minutes with each of the girls and ladies of the house to share a few treats I had for them while the men visited in the living room.

Then it was off to Morning Star School for a tour before the young people came for classes.  Two new classes, a sidewalk, flower gardens, teacher toilet and shower, a new well and a playground have been added since September!

The land adjacent to the school has been purchased and cornerposts are in placed designating its size and shape.  It will eventually be the location for the new church building and preachers/Bible school.

Mark was blown away with Mahendra's record keeping and the meticulous handiwork of the school!

We had about eighteen students for English classes ranging in age from 14-24.  Ray discussed Indian Geography and his own family history.  Mark covered US geography.  I visited about careers and travel.  Long and hot are the descriptors for today, but what a blessing!

TRAIN TO SILIGURI

This morning we packed and had a huge breakfast (It was delivered course by course...veggie burgers, fried eggs, fried bread, fruit, juice...)before loading up for the ride into Bongagaon to the train station.  The children circled up for one last goodbye song and another round of handshakes and hugs. Nalini and I have had a chance to bond this year over tea and projects with the kids.  She has seemed to enjoy the times she dropped by to visit in my room.

Lugging our luggage up the train station over bridge is always such a hoot!  Most tourists do not travel as heavy laden as we do!  What is it with us?  The weight of all my gifts for the Burman girls, Ruth Gunter staff and children should have helped make this trek easier, but between Manu, Nalini and Saphna giving me outfits and the various honor towels we have received, my weight is back up to the same level!  I have to get the suitcase down to 15 KG for the flight from Bagdogra to Delhi!

We waited at the top of the landing until they announced the track our train would be using.  Then we hurried back down the correct staircase and wandered along the track trying to guess where car "B4" would stop.  When the train finally came to a stop, we were about six cars away, so we made the wild dash.  Dimbeswar helped us get on board and situated between others already occupying our area.  With our suitcases all stashed, they said their goodbyes and headed back to the village.

We swayed back and forth along the tracks for four hours.  Mark read from his Kindle. Ray visited and dozed.  I cleaned up email and photos from iPad and iPhone while listening to my music.  We were served yet another breakfast with tea, later juice and still later a tiny tomato soup.  Then the young man came by to collect his tips.  He didn't seem to mind how much or how little, but he wouldn't leave without a bill from each passenger!

Getting off the train was more fun than getting on---Not!  We maneuvered luggage out of the racks...but then there was the bottleneck at the door with everyone pushing to get on!  Someone took my suitcase (45#) and threw it off the train into somebody's waiting arms.  By the time I maneuvered my two carry ons in that direction, it was down the way.  I got hold of it and simultaneously sighted Mahendra coming by me.  He pushed on through to help Mark...who didn't want to let him take his bag!  We had two men to carry our large bags on top of their heads...upstairs and down without missing a beat!  The bags had to be strapped to the top of the vehicle in order to accommodate all of us inside!

Our hotel was such a welcome oasis!  Mahendra had printed schedules to give us and discuss before he headed out to shop and home.  We ate a bite and caught up with technology and ate again before drifting off to sleep.

WBS AND DRAMA

Sunrise with the girls is a muffle of joy!  As much as I would have loved to have snuggled down into my B Bag for another hour, but their joy called to me.  They were enjoying the treats from their gift bags which delighted me to see.

After breakfast we had an opportunity to sit down with Dimbeswar to discuss his works and future hopes and plans.  It was most informative to learn of all of the arms of his programs.

School was not in session today, but some of the students came for English classes with the American guests.  We each had a classroom filled with children for a little over an hour.

Raghav came and got me from class for the next program.  WBS students from Guwahati and Manikpur who had completed their first lesson in Assamese came for a presentation of their certificates.  Raghav led a song before announcing that I would speak to the group!  It is always a new story here.  We had about a dozen students and several guests present.

We visited Ruth Gunter Children's Home and saw the new rooms that have been built for the expansion of the Nazaret English Medium School.  We enjoyed the visit with Mitu and Shinu and Sopna.

Saphna had made me a typical Assamese skirt and was excited to see me wear it!

There's always a rush for the computer while the electricity is available.  

Back for a late lunch served in the upper room before our meeting with Raghav, Jayanta and Zeenat, Mama Patgiri, Jaganath, Pratep, Dimbeswar and others.  Each gave a testimony and made a request for support.

We had a little free time to repack before dinner.

Devo was delightful!  Several children had memorized parables and other memory verses in English. They are using the Bibles we brought in 2012!  The songs included both Assamese and English praise songs...LORD, I LIFT YOUR NAME ON HIGH; BRINGING IN THE SHEAVES; and others.  Then the children dramatized three stories in English...Zachaeus, the Good Samaritan and the Ten Bridesmaids!

As they sang the parting song shaking hands all around the circle, I slipped bubblegum into their palms!