There's not much more i can say that would thoroughly describe it. I met, saw and embraced people i will and should never forget. I met children whom were destined to die, but were so thrilled that i had taken time out of my day to visit them, and most importantly i made a new Family in Honduras, but MOST importantly i met God in a whole new definition there as well.
I would like to share with you one of the most inspiring and emotional moments our team went through as a whole, we went through many, but this one was one of the biggest.
"It was the 3rd day of our Mission work and we were still very naive to the customs and culture of Honduras, when we loaded up bags of rice, flour and beans and boarded our trusty school bus towards our destination: The Creamatorio a.k.a the Dump-where hundreds of people lived in their own filth because they had no other place to go, and no other hope. Our bus passed through the city and began to climb up a "bluff" in our WI terms, when an inhumane smell reached my nose-at first i figured it was the smell of the few garbage piles we had passed, however this was not so. The next thing i noticed was the sudden outpouring of flies that seemed to simply appear inside the bus. Soyla (our "mom" in Honduras) shouted for windows up, just as we entered the Creamatorio. The smell that i thought of as nothing, was actually only a small waft of what the dump really smelled like 24/7. This smell was that of every bodily waste of cows,dogs and the humans who lived there. It was so horrible that members of our team had gag reflexes because of how awful it was. It wasn't those people's fault, they lived there because they had no where else to go,what could they do? We were now fully into the dump, where we saw a grayish pulp of "who knows what" all over the ground, something my dad happened to notice was that-"even the dogs were a funny color." the same as the grayish pulp of trash. Our team was both agitated and repulsed,shamefully so. Soyla got off the bus (she had been here before) and began to organize the mob of people who were swarming the bus. My dad got up and said, "Let's pray" and it was exactly what we needed, he prayed for peace on both us, Soyla and the the people outside. Then, while we were praying, Soyla and the women outside started singing in Spanish and a sincere tranquilo fell upon us as a whole. We then were told we could get off the bus. A girl on our team was sobbing in the front seat, it wasn't something to be shame d of-and i'm glad she was because it caused me to stop and ask myself, "why am i not more emotional?" Later a si discussed with a girl friend of mine on the team, she agreed with me that i had probably gone into a form of shock, because of the surrealism of the situation we were in. I thank God every chance i get that He held onto my emotions and my heart, that i would be able to be the rock for my friends. 3-4 of us girls simply stood at the front of the bus and held hands because so many were gripped with their tears and emotions, a little girl named Angie broke the barriers between us and the people, because she started talking to us, we woke up and replied (she had the same twinkle toe shoes as my sister A back at home-makes me tear up every time)to her in Spanish. The fly's, vultures and horrible smell were stimulating all of our 5 senses, proving the situation we were in was horrifically real-Angie's madre, was pregnant. Some of the members commented-"can you imagine being pregnant out here? to have a baby in mounds of trash?" We passed out food to the people in lines and a girl on our team ended up giving away her favorite sunglasses (pink cheetah print)to a man drenched in sweat and grime, he looked beautiful. Later,there was a shout to "Get one the bus" and i used my biggest "no-nonsense" voice and shouted, "Perdon por favor! Lo siento, permisio por favor!" and we got on. It was later said that the people were very restless and something bad could have happened at anytime. This was a moving experience for many of us, and i was crying at the testimonials yesterday at church. My trip was both fun and horrible, beatiful and painful, comforting and strong, i made a family i will always love there and i pray to return soon."That's that :) any questions, comments? Find me on Twitter @ElizabethBrinks, or e-mail me at [email protected] or [email protected] or comment below :)
LizB
