An Attempt at Comic Relief

As a team in Tegucigalpa we headed to Hospital Escuela, or the free hospital. It was your typical hospital scene in the sense of doctors and nurses running around, the lovely smells, and a woman and her child walking up to you asking for ten dollars in the lobby.

I had little Mario with me. He is one of the five brothers we had with us and is one of the cutest kids I've ever seen. Mario tugged on my arm and said he had to go to the bano ironically so did I.

So I found Ashley, our group leader, and asked her where I could find a bathroom. She gave me a random point so I started in that direction. Her point led me to some other ward- so the help desk Mario and I go.

Mario asked for us where the bathroom was and yet again we were answered with a point.

Off we went.

I couldn't read any of the signs in this place because the words were so different and unrecognizable. (Didn't I study "words to be found in a hospital" in Spanish III?) Anyways, I finally see the palabra "Damas." I recognize this word as a term for woman and I peek inside the already opened door to confirm that yes it is a woman's bathroom.

No luck for us Hombres.

Mario is literally going to pee himself I think. As he starts doing that hop and grab thing little kids do when they "really gotta go."

I decide to find Ashley.

Ashley was with some other children singing so I come in mid song and ask her where the bathroom is again. I told her I found the Damas and she said "Just go use it. Noone in here cares if you use the girls bathroom."

Um-hmm.

To the Bano de Damas we go.

I was nervous. This may have been the first time I conscientiously walked into a ladies bathroom.

The time has come. I walk in.

And immediately realize none of the stalls have doors. (searching for words to describe thoughts....)

Awkward. Confusing. Finally hit me I was in Honduras.

Let's not forget little Mario is still by my side.

Not ten seconds am I in this foreign place (a pun?) and I am grabbed by who I think was a mother. (pause for visual from mother's perspective- naive white American boy who doesn't speak Spanish well walking into the first bathroom he sees with probably her daughter in the bathroom...play) She quickly pulls me out and starts saying "No, no, no, no, no...(and on)." Shaking her finger. I am glad "no" is an universal word.

I then proceeded to fill my stereotype of myself to her by asking her where the "damOs" bathroom was. (for the spanish impaired- there is no such thing as damos...i just attempted to make damas a masculine word by adding an O and hoping for the best.) My best was not enough as it turns out there is no such word. The woman chuckled. Now I know why.

In the end the kind, motherly woman led me and my tag along amigo to our bathroom- the one without a sign- right around the hall- about 20 feet away. We did our business and walked again, tall and proud men, Mario and I.

When looking for a bathroom in Honduras, and you're male, the word your looking for is "caballeros."

Aliens Do Exist, But Not on Spaceships

Who is wrong? What is right? What is human? Who is the Alien?

En la pasada semana, I have been wrestling with these questions, along with many others on my trip. I have seen many things from dirty street kids who smelled like poop to weathly businessmen in the first class drinking away their Skyy Blue. So who is wrong-the niave and selfish businessmen or the unsanitized child? Someone must be...right?

Right?

I handed shampoo to a kid who was begging and begging me down the calle and finally I gave the shampoo to him. Immediately he turned to his mama on the hill and shouted from his little body " MAMI MAMI- THEY GAVE US SHAMPOO." Who is wrong? Me, the one looking for a reason to give shampoo to the ninos not begging, or the boy, the one who just wanted shampoo and the only way he was going to get it was to beg and beg and beg?

Wrong?

To be human and selfish in want, and human and beg for need seem to come naturally to us.

What would you do? Who are you?

Anthony does what is right. Billy Graham does what is right.

Where True love Lies, Divine Love Lives.

There they are. There we are.

Aliens to this world.

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
- 1 Corinthians 13:13.

Jesus Christ was right. Jesus Christ was an alien.

Finding the Needle in a City Dump

One of my continuous prayers is that the Lord always set my eyes to those who are weak, broken, and need something in life to have faith in because everything else has let them down. I ask for the eyes of God in this world. Today I received an answered prayer.

I am currently in my third day in Tegucigalpa, Honduras with my friends doing numerous service projects. Whether it be building houses, feeding the poor, giving out ropa, or just loving on some beautiful people; I feel like we're doing it all- and I'm loving it.

Today we set out for the city dump. Approximately 1200 people are living here. Men, women, children, aunts, uncles, babies, abuelas y (pronounced eee) abuelos; they are all there. This place is the definition of homeless. The dump is their bed, their bathroom, their shelter.

Humbling. Broken. Questions.

I was one of the men who passed out food from the back of the truck today. Preparing for this task was tough. Don't get me wrong I enjoy service projects as much as the next team member here but I will admit I'd rather be listening to people's lives, philosophizing, or sleeping. I just don't like the fact of doing something for someone and not being able to build a relationship beyond hola y hasta luego.

I prayed for our group before the trip for divine appointments.

So the truck was surrounded with the homeless grabbing at our food in the back of the truck and it was heartbreaking. My legs started to shake. Literally yelling fila, fila! for them to get back in the line telling them to back up from the truck- it was heart wrenching. Pause for visual.

A man approached me con su amigo and just leaned against the bus. He had his food and refused more when I told him to take more water. Refused. This opened my heart. Why would this homeless man in 90 degree weather refuse mas agua? He told me to give it to the boy begging beside him. The boy who had three waters, a PB and J, and a banana in his hand- this man told me to give that boy more and refused more for himself. This man has nothing. Nothing. NOTHING.

I am interested now.

He was wearing a cross necklace made out of wood. I asked him if he knew Jesus- he said yes and we smiled. He gave me his name ("Anthony"), and then told me he liked the verse on the back of our team shirts. Oh yea, this man also spoke English- well. Which is good and from God because I couldn't have communicated all of this totally in Spanish.


Divine.

I asked him to read the verse word for word in English from our shirts- he nailed it. I asked him if he had a Bible- he said no. I knew what I had to do because there was a reason I met this man, this man who in a crowd of 1200 homeless hondurans- spoke and read English. I went to the bus, grabbed my Bible and handed it to him. His eyed swelled with tears. I showed him words in rojo- the words in red that Jesus spoke and told him to read it every day. He said he would read every night. The Holy Spirit wasn't done just yet. I told him he had to share; that he has to talk about Jesus with these people.

My turn to cry.

Thankyou Lord. For your loving self and spirit.

The conversation with Anthony moved me. The spirit was moving and I allowed it- Anthony received it. I don't know entirely why, or can't entirely comprehend why God still uses me to do His work. I fail every day. Every hour. I failed on the bus to the dump. And doubted His power when I saw for myself the over thousand homeless. Yet...He still moved. He still used me. He can and will use you. Soften your hearts to hear Him. He won't dissapoint. I promise. I am living proof.

His name is Anthony. Pray for him.