Interim in Honduras

2008-01-18T10:45:00.000-08:00

pics 1 & 2 : La Tigra

3 : shot from the plane

4: Erin and Carly enjoying a Honduran delicacy, choco bananas

5 & 6: boys and girls from Kingdom

7: cute house in a neighborhood

8, 9 & 10: Mayan ruins in Copan

11: beautiful birds in Copan

12: beautiful shot on the way to Copan

Last week

2008-01-17T09:47:00.000-08:00

With about a week to go in our trip, we are winding up work at the two schools tomorrow and then heading out to Nueva Suyapa on Saturday to hear about the work going on in this development community and to do some activities with the children who live there and then stay overnight with families.

Monday we will say goodbye to our Tegus families and spend a couple days together as a group at Lago de Yajoa and Villa Gracia before we head off to the Airport on Wednesday morning.

The new pictures posted are: 1 & 2 Proyecto Manuelito-- an orphanage in Talanga, 3 Valle de Angeles--a town with lots of good shopping for tourists, 4 Our travel bus, 5 Visiting the ruins of Copan early in the morning, 6 Working at the Kingdom School, 7 In Copan in one of the three wheel taxis, 8 At the banana plantation, and 9 Working at Kingdom School

2008-01-16T13:51:00.001-08:00

Pictures finally!

2008-01-14T10:50:00.000-08:00

We are back from our trip to the banana plantation in La Lima and a visit to the Mayan ruins in Copan. It was a long trip but well worth it.

It was a very interesting tour of the banana farm and the harvesting, cleaning, and packing operation. The bananas we saw being washed and packed and loaded on Friday are probably being unloaded from the ship in Miami today and will soon be on their way by truck to various locations.

There was a bit of tension between the union representative and the management who were on the tour with us and they didn't want us to take pictures of the production/packing area--and the students were saddened by the sight of the women working the 10 hour days packing 30 boxes of bananas per hour in order to earn 300 Limpares for the day (about $15 US). We are confronted by poverty everywhere we turn in Honduras. After each of our group dinners we box up the left overs and find someone to give them to before we have gone 30 steps from the restaurant.

We carried on to Copan on Friday afternoon and arrived in time to stroll around a very pretty well lit old town with stone streets, a very nice central park, and lots of street vendors and restaurants. Maribel Gomez found us an inexpensive but nice hotel with wonderful plants, flowers, patios and a large veranda on the roof where we could all sit and talk while observing the beauty of the surrounding hills. Saturday morning we went out to the tour the ruins early in the morning to avoid the heat. That worked out really well; we had an excellent tour guide and learned a lot about the amazing Mayan culture that existed in that area at one time.

It's Monday and we are back in the schools now. The students are enjoying their work here at the International School and at the Kingdom School. Tomorrow night we are going out for dinner with a small group of young North American teachers from the International School (mostly Calvin and Hope grads) so they can share stories of their experiences of teaching in Honduras. On Thursday we are going to squeeze in a hike at La Tigra which was rained out earlier.

Thanks to Erin we have now finally posted some pictures and if we have time later today we will try to post some more.

Jim Rooks

2008-01-14T10:19:00.000-08:00

Upper Left: Villa Gracia Hotel

Upper Right: Overview shot of Tegus

Upper Left: El Picacho

Right: In the park of El Picacho

A couple group shots out and about

Working in the Schools

2008-01-09T10:56:00.000-08:00

Hello parents and friends of the Calvin students in Honduras:

Sorry you haven't heard from us through this site up until now, but I think all of the students have had a chance to send some e-mail last weekend. Up until now, our access to computers has been quite limited, but now that we are working in the schools and living with our families the access is better for some of us.

It's Wednesday. We are about one week into the trip and it seems like we already have a month of experiences. We have eaten at many local Honduran restaurants and seen a lot of different part of Tegus and the surrounding area and learned a lot about the country and the culture. This is a really great group of students: they are open to learning, flexible when things don't go as planned, and they are getting along really well and forming new friendships. The days when we have been together for sharing and devotions have been very wonderful.

Right now all of the students are spending their first day in a classroom. Most of them are here at the International School, but three students are at the Kingdom School, a very small school that ministers to low SES families. Everyone will spend some time at both schools. We had a wonderful tour of the Kingdom school yesterday and we were very impressed by the ministry happening there.

We will spend one more day in the schools this week and then head out to the banana plantation and the Mayan ruins in Copan on Friday. On Sunday evening we will be back with our families and then back here to the schools on Monday for the full week.

Now that we have access to the internet, I'll see if we can post a few pictures. The International School has a very beautiful campus and everyone here has extended us a warm welcome--even the Hope college graduates teaching here:) I think there are four Calvin graduates working here as well.

That's all for now. Everyone's doing fine and rest assured we are being very vigilant about our safety. We are grateful for your prayers.

Until later,

Jim Rooks

itinerary

2008-01-01T05:36:00.001-08:00

ITINERARY - January 3 - 7
DAY	TIME	Activity
Thursday, Jan. 3	11:55	Arrival
	2:00	Lunch at Villa Gracia
	4:00	Cultural Issues with Pablo Villalta
	6:00	Dinner at Villa Gracia
Friday, Jan. 4	8:30	Breakfast
	9:30	Down town
	10:00	Visit Museum
	11:00	tour down town
	12:30	Lunch
	2:00	Back to Villa Gracia
	3:30	Visit Gomez's home
	5:30	Dinner at the Gomez's home
	8:00	Back to Villa Gracia
Saturday, Jan. 5	8:30	Breakfast
	9:30	Cultural Issues with Pablo Villalta
	10:30	Viisit La Tigra (Park)
	12:30	Lunch in La Tigra
	2:00	Back to Villa Gracia
	4:00	Cultural Issues with Pablo Villalta
	5:30	Dinner Down Town
	8:00	Back to Villa Gracia
Sunday, Jan. 6	8:30	Breakfast
	9:30	Church
	12:30	Lunch
	2:00	Visit to El Picacho
	4:00	Back to Villa Gracia
	5:30	Dinner at Villa Gracia
Monday, Jan. 7	8:30	Breakfast (Bring Suitcases)
	10:00	Visit a Tourist Town Valle de Angeles
	12:30	Lunch in Valle de Angeles
	2:00	Shopping time
	4:00	Back to Tegucigalpa and meet families
Jan. 11-13		La Lima and Copan
Jan. 18-20		Nueva Suyapa
?		Academia Los Pinares