.: Week 9 Report

It’s currently Semana Santa (Holy Week) and Tegucigalpa is slowly shutting down in preparation for Easter.  Businesses started closing yesterday and today the public transportaion stops running.  Everybody who works in the city hightails it for the coast during this week so the city could qualify as ghost-town status.  It’s kind of nice to experience a quieter Tegucigalpa… not so many car horns, yelling, people in general.  Some of us left the city for Semana Santa and others didn’t.  We just arrived back in Tegucigalpa on Friday night after our 2 weeks in Cofradia and our week of Spring Break.  Cofradia was a challenging and tiring experience for most of us, but we learned a lot.  We had the opportunity to visit a lot of places and talk to many interesting people.  Plus, we had the chance to get to know another family in Honduras!  While in Cofradia, we had to choose one of the 6 topics that we covered during the 2 weeks and prepare a group presentation.  We had the option of : Land, Maquilas, Banana Plantations, Gangs, Immigration, and the Role of the Church.  We gave those presentations on Tuesday of this week and had a good, long day of discussion and learning.  Our presentations wrapped up our 3rd class (except for the 15 page paper we have due next week!) and so we start our 4th and final class on Monday. 

With only 5 weeks left on the clock, many of us are starting to think about going home and what kind of challenges we will be facing.  We are considering what we can do to make this experience in Honduras a lifechanging one, not just a good memory.  We struggle with the knowledge we have gained from this experience and how to apply it to our own lives.  Some of us will go home to graduate and make plans for “life after college.” What if we thought we knew what we wanted to do but because of our experience here, now we don’t know?  Where do we go from here?  Even if we can’t quite articulate them, or don’t want to try, all of us are asking big questions and sometimes it’s hard to admit that we don’t know the answers.  Please pray for us in these last weeks as we struggle and grow and learn together.  Pray that God would give us patience and love for each other, and the self-control to keep our hearts and minds here as we anticipate heading home.  Thank you for your support and prayers!  Despite whatever challenges or difficulties we will have transitioning home, we are excited to be there when the time comes!

Until next time…