We made it to Honduras!

October 22, 2023

We've arrived, we're officially missionaries at Finca del Niño, and here we are sitting on the front patio of our new home, Casa San Juan Bautista. Despite the road closures and political protests in Guatemala, we had a relatively easy journey to Honduras, and on schedule. It was still 22 hours by van, but not as bad as that sounds! However, we did have to leave Guatemala at 10 p.m. and travel through the night to avoid the road closures.

We had a wonderful welcoming committee when we arrived. I think the mosquitoes and biting ants knew we were coming because they were definitely ready to receive us, lol. No seriously, the current missionaries and the Finca community at large have been incredibly welcoming to our family and we feel very blessed to be a part of this extended family. From the "tías" (Honduran women who care for the children in individual homes like ours on the property) to the "watchies" (the Honduran men who've worked as security guards and drivers for decades), to the "Sors" (3 Franciscan sisters who live here in a small convent on the Finca property) - they have all been so gracious to our family.

We woke up on Day 1 to one of the girls vomiting and the other 3 with various intestinal distresses (let's just leave it at that.) The missionaries call it the "Gringo Tax" and it's pretty inevitable when our wimpy American stomachs are getting used to the food and water (even though it's purified.) Then Vivian had a spider in her ear that one of the Finca nurses had to flush out. Ewwww! And then we had so much rain that we lost power for part of the day and night. Fortunately, things got exponentially better after the first 24 hours! 😁

We are adjusting to life "poco a poco". Things that felt strange at first now just seem perfectly normal… like not flushing toilet paper (it goes in a small trash can and then gets burned every couple of days), little geckos climbing up the wall in the bedroom, re-applying insect repellent ALL the time, boiling water then letting it cool before filling pitchers in the fridge for drinking, mixing up a batch of powdered milk to keep in a pitcher in the fridge for cereal, and never wearing makeup or doing hair because we don't have a mirror in our house! Even the cold showers are only shocking for about the first 15 seconds. The rain has been welcomed this first week because it brings cooler temps (but then you're running like crazy to take the laundry off the line before the rain hits because you spent all morning hand washing it and you don't want all that hard work wasted!)

Little family jokes are already emerging, like "milking the clothes"... a little while after you wash them and hang them to dry, you have to go back along the line and squeeze the water out that has dripped down and accumulated at the bottom of whatever article of clothing you've washed.

Another thing we do every couple of days is drain and scrub the pilas. A pila is a concrete sink-like structure but it's hard to explain because they just don't exist in the US as far as I know. We have one in the kitchen for washing dishes and hands, and one on our back patio for washing clothes. Because the water goes out during various hours every day, we constantly keep a reservoir of water in these pilas to use for flushing the toilet, washing dishes, taking a bucket shower, etc. when the water is not running. Every other day for the kitchen pila (and once a week for the outside pila), we drain it, bleach it, scrub it, and fill it again. The outside pila has a special side for scrubbing clothes.

And the indoor pila has a large reservoir all along the bottom, but then an area above for washing and draining dishes. Both pilas drain into the ground.

Here are Helen and Bernadette getting creative with cleaning the kitchen pila! 😂

Then there are moments like these below that remind us why we're doing all of these unfamiliar things… for the children of Finca del Niño. No amount of bug bites, damp clothes, and rice and beans on repeat can negate the value of serving these children.

…and also moments like these, below, that make the inconvenient moments much more tolerable. The simplicity of life that our family is experiencing is one that has already had a profound impact on how we see the world and how our priorities should be aligned. I never imagined living in a house with just one large table in the main living space. When we got here, I was like, wait - no couch or furniture?! But we spend a lot of time over in the missionary house with the other missionaries, or we're outside in the hammocks, so it really doesn't even seem like a big deal. We already appreciate the little things in our humble little house, like the constant breeze off the water or falling asleep to the sound of the waves.

I recently learned that the word "Honduras" means "depths", and it was named that by the explorers who landed here because of the deep waters off the coast. I have a feeling that for us, Honduras is going to challenge us to really dig down to the depths of ourselves. And I think it's going to be amazing what we find there.

Hasta la próxima,

Shannon

xoxo

As always, please drop a comment if there's some way we can pray for you!

If you're wondering how you can pray for us, we're doing great but please pray for all the people of Finca del Niño… the children, missionaries, caretakers, teachers, staff, etc.

Of course, another way you can be part of this mission is by helping to support our work here… www.farmofthechild.org/looby

We need to meet our fundraising goal for the year in order for us to voluntarily serve in this way, so please spread the word to others who may want to share their generosity.