Molly had a list of the 17 mothers to invite to the Mother's Day Party. We decided if we made a quick stop at each house and sent the boys out to invite some of the ladies who live in places where Molly and I shouldn't go, we could get it all done before Molly's kids get home from school. (Molly has 2 young kids whose Mom "lent" them to Molly indefinitely over two years ago.)
You'd think inviting 17 people could take days, but everything fell into place perfectly.
As we drove up the main road Molly saw the grandmother of the kids who live with her, so we pulled the car over to invite their grandmother to the mother's day celebration.
It was funny because she complained she had been waiting for the bus for a long time. Suddenly our body guards started talking. They said, "Look! That's the guy (they know his name) who got in an accident. He is not supposed to be driving a bus but there he is!" Then they decided it wasn't him after all. Apparently this guy is still driving big yellow school buses all over Los Pinos, but everyone knows he shouldn't be driving and nobody will get on the bus with him.
When they figured out it wasn't him, they told the lady that the bus was coming, but she was so busy talking to Molly she didn't pay attention. Molly told her a few times, run and catch the bus, but she just kept talking. Finally when the bus was about to leave she realized it was there. Then she thought it was the bad driver, but the boys were telling her No! Go!! It's not him! Still she just stood there until she finally saw they were right, it was a different driver. By then it was too late. We told her to run, but she missed the bus. One of the boys said, "I told her 30 thousand times!" That was only a slight exaggeration.
How crazy that everyone knows not to get on a bus with that man but he still drives around.
As we were parked there another lady came up to the car. She works at the school across the street. Molly has been trying to pay one of the kid's school fees for a few weeks now but nobody at the school wants to take the money. They keep telling us to come back at different times and talk to different people.
This lady asked Molly if she is still trying to pay the school. Molly said yes. The lady used to receive all of the payments last year, so Molly knew her. She explained it was too much work, so this year she doesn't have that job anymore. However, she said she could take Molly's payment because she knows it is not easy for Molly to come to the school and make the payment. She also took Molly's number so in the future if the boy has any outstanding fees she can contact Molly directly. That was a relief because Molly had been concerned about getting those school fees paid.
We left that bus stop excited. Two things accomplished and we hadn't even parked the car yet!
Molly said she felt like the walk into Los Pinos was pretty sketchy. I saw 2 boys sitting on a wall. But other than that, it felt okay to me. Of course she knows the area and who is normally there better than I do, so she would get a more accurate read of the situation.
At the first house we met with Mari, whose son Daniel had been sick with bloody diarrhea for a week the last time we were there and they had no food or water in the house. This time they had lots of buckets of water, as it has rained every day since the first rain last Wednesday. But all of those buckets of water made me worry about dengue and this other thing that everyone is getting, which is much worse. You get a really high fever, your bones ache horribly and there is a skin allergy that goes with it. People are unable to even stand up for weeks. I was scolding myself for forgetting bug spray.
We talked in whispers as Mari showed us the page of the newspaper she had set aside on the table. It talked about the two girls who were killed right above her house. Mari said her daughter is "traumatized" because of the deaths. Mary has left her house once to go to the doctor. At 5 a.m. a man followed her out of the neighborhood and on the way home someone else followed her. She said she yelled at them to go away. She is very weak with a bad heart. It is not good for her to be scared or to move quickly. She said she got home safe, but terrified, and doesn't want to leave again.
We are trying to think of people who can help her get to her doctor appointments safely. Molly and I can't go in and out of Los Pinos without the boys. Besides that, our main goal is to try to empower the community to work together, instead of the way it is now where (I am generalizing here) everyone is only looking out for themselves. Admittedly, taking care of yourself is a hard enough job. But our hope is that through the women's group, someone will feel called to serve Mari in this way and the women will realize they are stronger together.
I read the newspaper article about the 2 girls. Their Mom watched as they got ready to go out Friday night. They left the house at 5 p.m. When they weren't home by 10 p.m. the mom got worried. She stayed awake all night. Two bodies were found in the early hours of Saturday morning, one with many shots to the front of the head, one with many shots to the back of the head. The bodies were identified at the morgue and the mother was contacted Saturday morning. She lost her 16 and 19 year old daughters because they were wearing leggings.
It's no wonder Mari's daughter is traumatized. The girls were exactly her age and everything about it was so senseless.
Next we tried to visit a 26 year old mom with five kids who lives above Mari, but nobody was home there. All of the doors had locks on them. I like her. She has a great smile and is very friendly. She also has the chubbiest kids in the world, but she, herself, is tiny.
Molly decided we should not go anywhere else without the boys. I told her she knows the area better than I do, so I will follow her advice. We went back to Mari's house and waited. Soon Ariel came in. He said Carlos' Mom was at home so Carlos was visiting his family. Ariel took us to the next house where I got to hold a two week old baby. Last time we visited the mom was almost a week overdue, and ready to be induced. The baby has a little cold, but had been to the doctor that day and was going back today for nebeulization. She was a cutie.
It is also puppy and kitten season in Los Pinos. Everywhere we went there were baby animals. Of course you can't touch them because who knows what diseases they are carrying, which is tough for me. Especially when I saw a 3 week old grey kitten. Luckily at that point my arms were full with the baby.
Somewhere in our wanderings, we bumped into a mom. I didn't pay much attention to her conversation with Molly until afterward when Molly said that her heart was really heavy for that lady's two kids. I had heard her say that her kids were at home while she was leaving to do something. (I think go to work?) What I didn't know was that her kids are 2 and 4 years old with developmental delays. According to our "body guards" the kids have already burned the house down once. The boys said it is even more dangerous because if someone knows they are alone, they are likely to break into the house. But the Mom feels like she has no choice and whatever she was doing is more important than caring for the kids. So she locks them inside, alone.
Our final visit was to Carlos' Mom. Although I have known Carlos since 2009, I never met his Mom. When I first met Carlos he was living with his Grandmother, who was not doing very well. His mom was prostituting and collecting garbage at the dump. Her kids (including Carlos) were begging for food and collecting garbage too.
Now Carlos has a good life. He started school soon after I met him and is doing really well there. He is healthy and tall and strong. There is no sign of the little boy I knew in 2009. But his brothers still choose to live on the street. They have gotten heavily involved in huffing and don't want to/can't stop.
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| August 1, 2009 |
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| Two weeks ago when I saw Carlos for the first time in 6 years |
Although I didn't go inside, that place was the filthiest home I have ever been to. The ground was covered with garbage all around the property. Clothes were piled outside, food remnants and packaging, bits and pieces of odds and ends were everywhere. It was like a "Hoarders" episode in Los Pinos. Everyone has their own style of living, but in general the people I know in Los Pinos do the best they can with what they have and keep things tidy. This was the opposite of tidy.
We spend some time with Carlos' family. I have to admit I was anxious the whole time because I kept thinking I was going to get bitten by a bug carrying some horrible disease. (At that point I had already been bitten twice.) I know that people can sense when someone is not comfortable, and I wished that I could change that because Carlos is important to me and I do not want him to think I am uncomfortable around his family.
His brothers, mother and a man were busy filling the hugest bag I have ever seen - it was a huge tarp tied together - with plastic bottles. The whole back yard was FULL of bottles. There were more bottles there than would fit inside some homes in Los Pinos. In Honduras, people don't collect glass, they collect plastic.
I have no idea how they got all of those bottles up that mountain, or how they are going to get them back down to sell them. The tarp/bag was already an unmanageable size, taller than our heads and as wide as the front of my truck. Good thing plastic is light.
Molly visited with Carlos' brothers and I played with Carlos' puppy, without touching it. It was super cute and fat. At least it is starting its life healthy. It was sad to think that once it stops nursing it will be another hungry street dog in Honduras.
As we left Molly checked off her list of people we needed to see. Between the boys running house to house, and our visits, we had seen everyone but the lady with the pretty smile and five chubby kids. But we will see her Wednesday at the women's group.
Not a bad day's work in Los Pinos!
As we walked out Molly prayed that the streets would be empty while we left. It was bizarre how clearly God heard and answered her prayer. We walked out to the road, got into the car, and drove all of the way out of Los Pinos. Normally those streets are full of people. But yesterday I could have counted on two hands the number of people we saw in that 20 minute trip.
Our body guards headed off to school. Molly and I sat down and planned for our first real meeting of the women's group on Wednesday. It is cool because I think we both have the same goals for the women. So far I am also impressed with our ability to communicate. If we don't see things the same way I think we both feel free to speak up and express our opinion and why we think it's important. It seems like we are both flexible and open.
The plans for Wednesday feel good. Our only problem is that we would like for the ladies to take ownership and lead this group, But they can't do that very well if they don't have bibles. Molly thinks only about two of the 17 have access to a bible. We are going to have to figure out how to get our hands on 15 Spanish Bibles, which are SUPER expensive here. But God will provide.
All of this seems to be His will. We see that in the way we were able to meet with each of the women so easily, and get in and out of Los Pinos safely. Molly and I will continue to move as we feel called (and be still when we feel led to to be still as well). Our goal is to have the ladies group eventually be self sufficient. It is not about Molly and me. It is about the ladies of Los Pinos.
We would love to see them coming together in each other's homes so neighbors and the community can hear their song and prayer and the word of God being spoken in Los Pinos. Molly and I will encourage these ladies to unite as one body to support and look out for each other, so nobody has to be scared and walking alone, and nobody has to leave their two and four year old children locked alone in a house. Our goal is for them to learn to be women of God - God's holy body in Los Pinos.
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