Sunday, July 4, 2010

Sick

There are viruses in the US and then there are Honduran sicknesses that make you think Jesucrtisto is about to walk in the door and pull a modern day Elijah. It's like your insides are not going to stay that way no matter how hard you try to keep them from falling out. You just know that any second gravity is going to win! That's how I felt Monday. In my haze of fevers and-we'll say-turmoil in the bano, I knew I still had to prepare the four hour seminar I had volunteered myself for before we left that Thursday for Nicaragua! I was so stress! And in hind sight I'm so amazed to see how it all played out.
It's awesome to me how God works in my life. Each and every day is a new experience, usually one I'm not prepared for. I got the seminar finished and translated just in the nick of time, only to find out when I got there that I wouldn't be speaking! All that preparation for nothing! I was so frustrated!
I was still not up to par when we left, but I was NOT going to miss the trip. I walked into the Helma's house (the woman that was hosting us for the trip) and sat on my bed frame. There wasn't a mattress; only three blankets laying on wooden slats. I was starting to regret the trip.
Enter Miguel (pictured above). He might be the most adorable three year old I've met to date. His eyes and his mischievous smile melted my heart and prepared me for what was about to be the most interesting 4 days of my life.
When life's comforts are taken away it is really hard not to complain, But that night as I tossed and turned on my "bed," I realized that the people I was about to encounter live this way. It's not an inconvenience for them for four days; it's a life style. They pull their water from a well, they eat rice and undercooked beans, they wash everything by hand, they walk up mountains for miles daily, they sweat in the sun because air conditioning does not exist, they don't know what fast food is, they exist to survive and use every resource to do so. And they are joyful.
I have been so uncomfortable for six weeks, but I am still not ready to leave. I have been bitten, sick, sweaty, dirty, peed on, and broken my ear (which is weird even for me)!
All random, all worth it.
The work that I have done here and the lives that I have encountered have made me a better person. It is inspiring to see life come from struggle. It is an honor to be apart of it. I feel like I am the privileged one, not because I'm American, not because I have money (cause we all know that's not true), but because I have been welcomed into the homes and hearts of the Honduran people. There is no feeling like a sense of home, and for the last six weeks I have felt that. Going back to the states is going to be very hard. I get teary just thinking about my life there and how different it will be because of Honduras. I'm not sure what I will be doing or who I will encounter there, but I will continue the work I have been doing. So... keep coming back. This story isn't over. :)