An Unfinished House

This was by far my most non-traditional Thanksgiving yet. The past 2 years I've gotten together with my Presbyterian friends to share in a very traditional feast; unfortunately this year they're on furlough and so this past Thursday I was on my own to think of a way to pass the holiday. As luck would have it a very interesting and wonderful day fell right in my lap. Those of you who read my November Update will know that as a result of Soplo I've gotten to know quite a few of the older youth in Los Laureles. This past Wednesday I was feeling hot and sweaty and had an hour to kill so I thought to make a quick run to the mountains and jump in the river. Not wanting to go it alone I decided to invite Manuel (one of those older youth that have started coming to church) along for the ride. On the way back I pointed out the waterfall that flows out of the National Park and mentioned how beautiful it is up there, he in turn said he'd like to go sometime and I thus suggested we...

This then is my November Report that I send out by email, not to be confused with the sporadic and verbose Newsletter that will be sent out next month. If you're not on my emailing list but would like to be leave a comment or write me at keismatthew@gmail.com . Enjoy! Happy Thanksgiving from Honduras, It's been a harried month since last I wrote with nearly all of my time being consumed by the home construction...I will be overjoyed when this project finally ends. In spite of that, a lot has been happening here in the life of the community of Los Laureles and the following then are some of the highlights as they relate to me and my work. Remember that if you'd like to read more about my work here you can visit my blog at www.honduraskeiser.blogspot.com My New Home Still isn't done - I was supposed to move in on November 18th and was really looking forward to cooking a truly thankful Thanksgiving Day feast in my new house but we have had some setbacks lo these many w...

Continuing on then with the birthdays this past week we had both Carlitos, also known as Chihua, and his little sister Dariana. I love this family, the way the take care of each other, the way they all tend to their mother...they way all 7 of them sleep in one bed. They're incredibly close and their daily interactions and ventures just leave me in stitches. We had a good 2 days celebrating the back-to-back birthdays. the youngest of the varela crew...still not sure how i feel about him ok, this isn't related to anything...it's just Kaka half-observing the fiesta. he's been hanging around a lot lately, on the fringes. which is fine, he's a joy to be around, it's just a bit curious. chihua is now 15. i remember the first time i met him 2 years ago - it seems like yesterday that i invited him and his brother to go to the river with us. he has become such a huge part of my life and door to so many other people within the community. he has enormous influence with ...

November is by far my month with the most birthdays to celebrate - we have a grand total of 15. Not all have been featured nor have all been fetted yet but the following 4 are the birthdays from last week. Interesting note, in that we're into our 2nd year of celebrating a lot of the kids know which other kids celebrate around the same day that they do - they've formed a special sort of birthday bond. Kids that wouldn't normally give each other the time of day throughout the year get all giggly and giddy with each other and insist on beng present for each other's celebrations. I haven't put my finger on what's it all about exactly but it does make me smile. ok, mateito didn't celebrate this past week but he certainly has become an addict to all things sweet. here he's pressing his body towards the cake in hopes of reaching it. his cousin karla turned 13 - please pray for karla, she's a sweet girl but there's a lot of pitfalls out there awaiting ...

Ronald took a nasty spill the other day in Laureles. As it wasn't deep enough to warrant stitches and it was already late in the evening a patch-up job was the best I could do. The next day then I came back, shaved his head, cleaned and medicated the wound, bandaged it all up and sent him on his way. He showed up for church yesterday and looked much better. not my finest work but i made do with what i had and this is after we got him all shaved and cleaned up

pichol was taken down by 2 runaway babies and their manservant.

one of the originals from way back

has been well, normal and interesting all at once. It's cold and rainy and as always that puts a damper on our activities, at the same time though it allows me free time to simply explore, be with the kids, take coffee unmolested...rain is freeing. this one is growing on me. i've discovered i don't really care for babies, i know i used to; i used to love holding them, playing with them, watching them. now though, well i just dont like them very much. they're messy, the smell funny, cry all the time and i swear are strong-willed and know better but are using their age as a cover to get away with all sorts of shenanigans. i really could simply do without them. is that bad? anyways, this one here, maybe it's his name (mateo) but i'm starting to like him. a budding mennonite flirtateous the other more sullen memo had his 14th birthday this past week. turns out he's not so sullen once you set a cake in front of him. and where better to enjoy the cake then in ...

The following then is a bit of a photographic history of the two intertwined stories that I wrote about on Tuesday. If you haven't yet read Tuesday's post I would encourage you to do so so that you'll better appreciate the photos here. The first set of photos are related to the recycling co-op and the second set to the dumping situation. Enjoy...no that's not right, get righteously angry. ok this first foto is from last february before the new rule went into effect - notice the ample space and amounts of recyclables (this was a slow day) working in a sea of plastic this now is from august after the rule went into effect not much in the way of work this is chana, she's the leader of the co-op. this was taken september 30th after the co-op had relocated to the gutter. because of space the plastics business is all but gone, they work mostly in metals now. conveniently enough, the co-op buys the metal and the sells some of it to this man on the other side of the ro...