Random Facts about Honduras Continued: (Karen W)

6) No matter how full a bus is if you bang your hand against the side of top of the bus while riding it the driver knows that someone wants to get off and he needs to stop. Definitely helpful after you realized you missed your stop.

7) Sometimes for certain issues Hondurans, or latinos in general probably, have a round-about way of telling others to do something in order to not offend. For example, when Andy, Josh, and our friends Carlos and Mike were getting ready to go to Roatan Mike asked/whispered to Carlos to tell Andy to pay him for the trip instead of Mike asking him directly. And they were all even in the same room at the time that this happened. This sometimes is definitely a good thing when trying to avoid offending others, and sometimes it is rather inconvenient but really it doesn't happen super often.

8) To my knowledge there are no exhaust regulations in Honduras for vehicles so you can imagine the walk to and from Rachel's house along a busy highway.

9) It is not strange to hear an occasional slap/splatter against the tile floor. This sound is someone who just blew their nose in their hand and then threw the gunk on the floor. It sounds gross, and is, but they mop the floor several times a day so it's ok...

10) It's normal for husbands or the man of the house to just up and leave his family to start a new one. For this reason there are a lot of single moms and pretty much every family is broken, and yet it's not strange either for the new and old families to know and do things with each other, like celebrate birthdays.

A weekend in La Ceiba and the end of class (Joshua)

Thanks for the pretty photo Andrea, we miss you in it!


Introduction Video

Last weekend we went on a trip with a local Mennonite church from Tegucigalpa. We packed thirteen people and luggage (some luggage on the roof) into a van and left on a seven to eight hour trip, or so we thought, as it turned out to be about nine hours each way! We made the rule to only speak Spanish in the van and tried to speak it most of the weekend. I get the feeling many times that people don’t understand the difficulty or respect our decision to do that, but we know in the long run it will help us and make the locals feel more comfortable with us. We feel sometimes our personalities come across as very different because of our limitations in speech, but that can be overcome as a smile and laugh translates easily and accurately.

The weekend overall was very draining as this retreat did not believe in sleep, at least that’s how it felt. We fully understand how much change can make a person tired and when something like this happens, we feel the full force of the lack of sleep. The girls were able to put mattresses in the aisle on floor between bunks (we arrive at about 2:30AM Saturday morning, so all the beds were occupied) in the girls dorm and then got trampled on all through the night. Andy and I had to put mattresses in the main passage area between the sleeping quarters and then pulled a chalkboard and coke machine for some privacy (though I was so tired I couldn’t have cared less).
And that’s how the weekend started.

A devotion at 4:00AM Saturday morning started shortly after we arrived.

I think we were all surprised at how reserved others were and unwilling to speak to us. I personally found that it was awkward to approach the girls and the guys weren’t interested in getting to know more guys. We were able to have some conversations with a few locals and some of us were able to understand pieces of the services that were going on all day. We managed to get a break Saturday afternoon to go to the beach which was very close; it was great to have an hour and a half of English town.

Saturday night there was a good speaker who had actually lived in Pennsylvania very close to Harrisburg (where we trained for this trip). Afterward there was a good time of worship followed by some crazy dancing that I didn’t think Mennonites were capable of doing (see video below). This was a fun and confusing time for all of us and we enjoyed the energy but I think most of us were relieved when the commotion and craziness stopped and we didn’t have to dodge people. This was followed by a talent show and we left to hit the sack because there was no hope of understanding and we were zonked.

Here's a short clip of the Saturday night dance worship.

The next morning we stayed through lunch and then left with our group to stop by the beach (might as well being so close). Then we left for Tegucigalpa and got in at about 2:30AM. The weather wasn’t great and we know we were in God’s hand through the long trip and were protected in many ways. We actually saw one accident on the way home that did not look good at all (what an expression, how can an accident “look good”). It felt weird to be with a church group and not stop to help when others weren’t there, but I asked and found out thats how it is here, it’s dangerous to stop as it can be a setup or many other bad things can happen. I felt I had my hands tied, but at least I could pray and I am learning more about the power of prayer each day.

Please enjoy the pictures and videos below! If you have any ideas please email them to joshua.hershberger@gmail.com as I want to continue to make this blog interactive, fun, and informative for everyone! We also love to receive posted comments, though please keep them appropriate and free of information that is too personal as they are publicly posted.

A couple brief saga’s from the weekend:

“Do you ever have trouble pronouncing a foreigners name? Well the same is true here. Saturday morning the MC was calling out the names of every new person at the conference. He was calling out the first and last names of everybody, at least until he got to us. This is how it went: “Andrea … Simmerman, Andee .. Logs… Andy, Joshua ….. …. Joshua, Karen Ess, ee Karen Weelson. For those of you who don’t get it, it is, Andrea Zimmerman, Andy Logsdail, Joshua Hershberger, Karen Hess, and Karen Wilson. Once again, a fun way we can laugh at ourselves in this place that is still so new in many ways”

“We were sitting in our seats while the speaker talked and we are trying so hard to understand. They were calling out the names of the churches and cities represented. As our time neared we didn’t know what we were going to do, cheer or not since we weren’t technically part of the church we had come with. We sort of all had the same idea to wait for the locals from our church to stand and cheer and we would follow suit. Churches were called and people screamed, finally, we heard, “Y Tegucigalpa, el capital!!” – at this point, imagine crickets chirping and people looking around to see the people representing the capital city – finally, three to four of the five gringos timidly rose and gave a weak, faint attempt at a scream. The place burst into laugher, us included. We had been expecting support from the locals in our group which turned out to be absent. Getting embarrassed yet again in front of 400+ people was a fun experience in a way, but the type that reminds us how foreign everything is because we are foreign to everything.”

We only made it to the beach for a little, but that's more than what we had expected. How do you expected us to be so close and not indulge at least a little?


Spanish class is over as of 12:00PM on Friday the 25th of January. Here are pictures of each of us with our incredibly patient teachers!





Karen H giving some information about how our mornings start, the only out of date information is that starting next week, we have no clue how our mornings will start. Then Karen W lets us know about Spanish class, the only problem here is those classes are over (not that we are dismayed).

What's going on "Mel"? (Karen W)

So I was going to try and give an actual educated and informed report of some of the controversial political decisions that have been made in the past week or are in the process of being made. But all I have time for is my very limited and biased perspective of what is happening with the government. My completely unbiased reliable sources (cough...sarcasm) are my host family and my Spanish teacher, and how I understand what they tell me in Spanish. If you want a more informed version of the political news in Honduras, though probably not less biased, I suggest doing your own research on the internet. So here goes with what I think I know: President Manuel Zelaya, nicknamed Mel, has made changes in the government leadership; such as the leaders of the Police department and the Health department. He is also proposing to reform the election law so that he can extend his term of presidency, which will be completed by 2010--in two years. This apparently isn't enough time to implement the changes that Mel has planned out for Honduras. Obviously you could see how this could create waves among the people of Honduras, particularly with those who do not agree with Mel's style of leadership and decisions.

Also, for a reason I haven't learned yet, the U.S. embassador in Honduras is leaving. I believe he is going to Spain. This has also been on the news a lot, but I'm not exactly sure what the implications of this change are.

We have learned that even small countries like Honduras keep up with the politics of the States. Especially with the anticipation of the upcoming presidential elections this year. Though it certainly isn't a necessity for me, I hope that I can keep myself somewhat informed of what's happening with the possible candidates. And I think it would be good to learn how such a change in our country affects other nations, such as Honduras of course.

One last thing: Honduras has been graced with the presence of Hugo Chaves. Today Chaves, the president of Venezuela, arrived in Honduras. Aparently he and "Mel" are good friends, or at least allies. And the two of them are also allies of Fidel Castro in Cuba. Depending on who you talk to here in Honduras you will find people who really do not like this trio and those who do support them. We are particularly interested in Mel's relationship with Chaves because one of the YES teams is there right now doing there outreach. We got to know and hang out with the YES Venezuela team in particular because we studied Spanish together. It will be interesting to see what happens, if anything, within the government here and it's relationships to other nations, and nations' leaders.

Join us in prayer for the government of Honduras.

Can you find Andy?

Here is a photo of the new church building on a beautiful Sunday morning.

Happy New Year! (Karen H)

This has been an unsual week as it has been cold here. One day this week, the high was probably 50 degrees. We as a team were cold, but our host families were wearing multiple layers to try to stay warm in their homes. The homes here do not have any heating system and they are very open. Josh lives up on a hill and he was awaken by his brother because his room had water in it and a section of their roof blew off. The weather that we have been experiencing is more like weather in November so this is unusual.

On a typical day, after we complete four hours of spanish class, we walk to Rachel's house for culture study. A typical smell is exhaust from the vehicles driving down the road, an aroma rising from trash dumped in a creek we pass by, and other dumpsters that are full and overflowing where people sometimes rumage through trying to find something of value. As we walk, we pass many people who are selling things, handing out advertisements, or begging for money. We cross the busy road by means of a walking bridge. On this walking bridge there are people who often sit on the steps asking for money. We see the same two women most days who are handicapped and not able to work. One day this past week, after eating out for our lunch at a Chinese restaurant, we packed up our extra food and headed for Rachel's. We used the walking bridge like normal passing the same lady sitting at the top of the bridge. She is probably in her mid 40's and her leg is disformed. She looks so lonely as she watches people walk past and ignoring her or just drop some change in her box. As I passed, Andrea and I heard her say that she was hungry so we gave her our extra food. If we keep our eyes and ears open, there are many opportunities like this where we can meet someones needs in a specific way, even if it is just a word of an encouragement. Pray with us that we will be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and be able to not only show compassion, but share our love that comes from our love for Jesus.

We each brought in the New Year is different ways; Karen W. was able to experience Latin dancing, Andy had Christmas again with the exchanging of gifts, Andrea brought in the new year by praying with her family, Josh ate dinner three times at three different homes, and I brought in the new year by eating at midnight. As the team reflected on the year to come, we realized again that if we miss recognizing Jesus during this time, we miss everything. We want this time in Honduras to be not only of ministering to those around us, but a time where we can each deepen our relationship with the Lord.