Message to the Boys

Have finally received the Knights of Columbus 'Lloyd Herbst Memorial Scholarship'. Because it is worth $2000 and it has a deadline of April 15th, I wanted the guys to know they won't have a lot of time to process this after their return so they should give some serious thought to this. This scholarship is for any son, grandson, or nephew of an active Knight. It requires a completed application, an essay, and three letters of recommendation. So, I simply ask  the guys to be thinking of this and I promise to help them in any way on their return.

Another note: the motel in Omaha does have Austin's glasses. I will pick them up on Sunday and bring them to the airport. Please tell him.

Working Hard

We got off to a late start today due to a puncture in the bus tire. That happened during yesterday’s trip to Sulaco, but thankfully didn’t flatten until after our return to Esquias.

We enjoyed a nice rain last night. The accompanying lightning and thunder cut the trip to the park a bit short, but we definitely enjoyed the rain and the coolness it brought. Everyone agreed that last night’s sleep was better.

Now, picture a gravel road in Iowa and you need to dig through it with a pick-ax and shovel. That was what our group had to do today. It was a daunting challenge to keep digging through such hard material, and even a bit depressing when we’d check the distance covered, which didn’t seem much. However, we celebrated when the group got to move down the road and start in another spot. It was a small victory, but we appreciated it nonetheless.

Originally, we had planned to pour a cement floor for a poor family in Esquias. Julio & Carlos suggested that we choose a very poor family in El Picacho instead. So a family with 6 children will be getting 2 rooms of concrete floor during our mission trip. Today chaperones and students worked in shifts on trench digging. Others worked on the cement floor. We plan to give everyone a chance to make cement by hand because it’s a unique experience. The forms have been laid for the flooring and a little base cement is in place. Our team will pour the bedroom floor tomorrow and then do another little room for the same family.

Today’s lunch consisted of pescado (fresh fish fried with the heads on), fried plantains, red cabbage and vinegar, and tortillas. It is a time-consuming meal to eat because the fish is extremely bony. Everyone said they tasted it; not all ate the whole fish. It took our cook almost 3 hours to fry our fish in a single frying pan on her wood stove.

After lunch we returned to work. Everyone worked a little slower, but we are very proud of everyone. The students are working hard and not complaining about the work. You parents should be quite proud of your children. They are participating well, working hard, listening to us, and pitching in. A small group of them even fixed the gutter in the compound with string and a stretched out piece of clothes hanger. They are turning into true Hondurans. I’ll have to post the picture so you can see their fix-it job.

I’m sitting at the table now, waiting to eat supper (cena). We’re eating fried chicken, rice, and vegetables. Oh yes, there are always tortillas, and my favorite, watermelon (sandia). Gotta eat. Later.

Rachelle carries dirt out of the house getting a cement floor

Joe & Chad work at scraping the dirt out of the bedroom.

Bryce & Conor carry wet cement for the new floor.

Gehlen Mission Honduras at work with villagers

Mick & Conor with their Honduran buddy.

Ross shows off his lunch.

The boys carry 90 lb. bags of cement down the mountain.

Dave & Don do some digging,

Micah at Casa Carolina

Janet, Sister, Alec using MUAC Bracelet to Measure Malnutrition at Casa Carolina

Mick at Casa Carolina

Long Hours on the Bus

Megan Heissel:  Hola familia y amigos, today we went to the malnutrition center. It was an eye opener. The kids are so much fun to play with! It seems to be getting hotter everyday! Yesterday’s work was even harder than the first days. Rachelle and Ali lucked out and didn’t have to do any of it. Oh well, it builds character. We had today off but we start again tomorrow. Love and miss you guys.

Lauren Eide- Hey!! Today we went to the malnutrition center and got to hold all the little babies. We also stopped at the woodcarving place and I got some gifts for you guys! The trip was four hours there and four hours back!! It was a little scary because the roads got really narrow at times and it looked like we were about to fall off a few times but don’t worry we made it!:) I’m missing you guys a lot and I can’t wait to see you again! Bye love you!

Brittany Loutsch: Hey guys, I miss you lots. Um I am still alive ha I don’t have much to say-I love the kids, and I really want to go play with them right now so I’m going to go, but I love you and miss you. Right now, well in about and hour and a half I would be watching Khloe and Lamar, so I am a little depressed cuz it looks like a good episode. Watch it in remembrance of me, and Dad at the airport I want you to fill me in on what happened, and DJ fill me on on Tosh.0. K gonna go. Lots of Love<3

Ali Galles: Hey family! I forgot to mention Josie last time soooo hey jose J I miss you all a lot! It is getting hotter every day we are here. We got a day off today and attended palm Sunday mass. It was the longest gospel reading everrrr. We also went to the malnutrition center and got to see the kids. It was eye opening. They were so small, some of them couldn’t walk because they were too weak. It was a four hour trip there and back also. I love you all and miss you tons. See you in a week!!

Rachelle Lipp: It’s awesome how a smile is understood in every language.  Even though none of us are really good at Spanish, we all can understand a simple smile.  We’ve made so many friends even with the language barrier, and I’m so happy for my knowledge of Spanish. It helps so much! Yesterday I finally cracked open the peanut butter- not because the food was bad, because I actually missed it.  Tacha makes the best french toast (sorry mom), tacos, pancakes, rice and she’s just amazing.  Mom- yesterday one little girl (Molly) told me I was very “linda” which means beautiful. J Love and miss you all!

Alec Mousel: Hey there friends an fam. Today was a long day of driving that’s about all I have. Jordan needs to see this message: I spent most of yesterday telling they had high altitude pulmonary edema on all these mountains we were walking up. It wasn’t as fun without you there saying it with me. Oh and Brittany I saw a cat. See ya’ll in a few days or so.

Mick Sitzmann- Hola Familia y Novia (Monica)!!! Miss you guys! Its absolutely amazing how attached you can get in such a short time!  My friends Dilmar and Alixsson are the best! They are so much fun and always find ways to communicate with us even though our Spanish is very bad!  They spend most of the time laughing in our faces about our words but it is ok I suppose!  I love it here and the kids make all the work completely worth it.  That’s all the time I have, we are going to the park now! Happy Birthday, Amanda!  Cya!! Love you guys!

Chad and Joe Langel: We just heard our first thunder and saw a bunch of lightening.  I think we are going to have a rain storm tonight.  Hope it helps cool things off, as we have to go back to “work” tomorrow.  Katie (wife) hope you have a good week of work as well, don’t worry it won’t be that bad in Des Moines alone!!  Miss you and love you.  Barb, glad to see you are following along with our adventures as well.  Katie (sister) hope you are holding off having our nephew (Chad’s Godchild J).   Talk to guys again soon.  Byeeeeeeeee

Joe Begnoche: Hi everyone! Still miss you guys a lot and can’t wait to see you in exactly a week. Today we were on a bus for like seven and a half to eight hours! I slept so it wasn’t too bad haha. I hope nobody is missing me too much;) How are things going with you guys?? Tomorrow we start to working again and it should be pretty good. How is the weather there?? It is still pretty hot here so ya you all better not be complaining!J Well talk to you later!! Oh and Kendall Hello! I’m glad that you got my blog. How are things going with you?? Everything is good here and I’m still keeping up with your letters haha. Well talk to you later! Byeee!:)

Trevor Bouma: Hello family and Steph, I am still having an awesome time. Today we had mass and went to the malnutrition center. We also stopped at shops. I am looking for gifts for everyone. My Spanish is getting better, but still not good at all. The kids are so awesome here. They are starting to really warm up to us and we are creating many friends. Tonight we may have a rainstorm. Hopefully it cools down so I can sleep better. Miss and love you. Be back soon.

Linda Reichle:  Hello to my family, friends and co-workers.  I am having a great time as usual and even got to see the stick lady today. Of course we will have to change her name now since she no longer lives in a stick house. It was a bittersweet moment to see her in her new house the Mission Honduras team was able to provide for her.  I miss everyone and hope all are well. Most (all) of the others throw off their sheets at night, but I seem to need to put on a couple of towels to keep warm – figure!! I need to say Happy Birthday to my Mom for tomorrow and hope you have a great day. Love to all and give my little grandkids a hug and kiss for me. 

Carolyn Bickford: I don’t think there is a lot for me to add because it looks like everyone has filled you in on our day. The Palm Sunday procession is special because they dress up like the people looked in Jesus’ time and act it out like that also. The man that played Jesus’ part fits the look, I think.

The kids were right about the tough ride. However, I agree with Linda. I was really anxious to see Virginia’s (Stick Lady) new house. It was quite gratifying. And watching our group intermingle with the malnourished children is as close to seeing Jesus work through them as we can get. Jesus would want us to hold those children, clothe them, feed them, and show them the love they need.

Meals today were French toast and fruit for breakfast, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and granola bars on the bus via Sulaco, and spaghetti & watermelon for supper. It’s back to work tomorrow. Hopefully, the rain will help us have a cooler day tomorrow. We’ll be digging trenches and mixing cement to put a new floor into a home.

We chaperones pulled a great April Fool joke on the students tonight. I told them that the Hondurans always fast from midnight to midnight on the day after Palm Sunday. Since we try to follow all Honduran traditions, that meant that we could only have water the whole day. Sr. Juanita had a story on why they do it. Mike had to argue that we shouldn’t do it. Everyone wanted to know if we could eat more tonight, and we even told them they couldn’t have Gatorade. It was a great joke, and it fooled all of them, including the chaperones we forgot to advise in advance.

Hellow to Jay, Miranda, Paige, Drew, Ali, and Mya. I watched a video of my granddaughters that was on my video camera. It was fun to see them. Give my granddaughters a kiss from their grandma!

PLEASE everyone - send us comments. We look forward to hearing from you.

8:15 a.m. Report from Esquias

Greetings to all readers.
Carolyn called at 8:15 a.m.
They were all up and ready for the day. She didn't think she would have time to blog this morning. They will all be part of the Palm Sunday Procession through the village of Esquias, which begins at 8:00 their time. Sometimes it lasts for three hours so Fr. Bonilla has been warned they might cut out early. They leave for Casa Carolina (the malnutrition center) in Sulaco at no later than 9:30. It is a long and hard ride and they should get back before dark. They will probably be able to spend no more than an hour with the children.
I encouraged her to take the computer just in case she might be able to blog right from Casa Carolina.
Casa Carolina has been in danger of closing for just over a year now. A year ago I asked for help to keep the malnutrition center open. Support has been good but has fallen short of my hopes. Mission Honduras LeMars, coupled with a couple other Catholic Orders of Sisters, has been able to pay the monthly bill for the center - $2200.00 per month. As I write this I am not 100% sure of the status of Casa Carolina. About 3 weeks ago I was informed that the parish in Sulaco would be taking it over. I will be anxious to know the final decision. In any case, Sister Joan is along on the trip and Casa Carolina was one of her most important missions. I know she will get to the bottom of the issue.
Carolyn said everyone was fine and looking forward to the day.
Take Care,
Seiv