Does this make me a missionary?

And finally, after two seemingly quick months, I am back in the United States.  I have never felt such sadness to leave people or a place before; last Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were, hands down, some of the hardest days of my life. Saying goodbye to someone that you have talked with a couple of times is one thing, but saying goodbye to people that God has placed in your life to become part of your family is completely different.  Although my real family is here in Illinois, I truly feel that my home is in Honduras. 

Being back in the US is definitely overwhelming.  I have to re-assimilate to the impatient, unappreciative American culture that I left behind this summer and realize that it has always been that way.  Nothing has changed this summer, just me. Little things that never bothered me before suddenly make me want to curl up in a ball and cry. The entire two days of debrief we heard over and over again, "It's a process. It won't happen right away," and boy, is that ever true.  I have already cleared out my room of everything that I didn't need and packed up clothes to donate.  After living all summer on <10 t-shirts and 3 pairs of shorts, a full closet suddenly isn't so important.  I don't want to look at all of my stuff... I just want to look at all of the pictures of the people that I left behind because it makes them seem just a little bit closer. 

Through all of this there are two things that will pull me along: God and the assurance that I know I will return.  And, with that, the big news! I have decided that I am going to go back to Honduras in May for an indefinite period.  Saying that I will be there for 1-2 years seems silly when I think about how I know I will be there for longer, so I will just say it is a semi-permanent move. 
I had felt called to go back around weeks 2-3, but I really just thought I was enjoying my time.  After praying about it for numerous weeks and delving deeper into real life in Honduras, I realized that it wasn't just a temporary feeling.  At that point, I talked to Tony about coming back and if it would be possible at all.  In true confirmation-of-Christ form, he looked at me and said, "I have been waiting for you to talk to me about this. But I don't see you staying for a 6 month period. I see you staying for a year, two years, or being here forever." WOW! If God hadn't already shown me that he was serious, he did then. The idea is that, when I return, I will be leading street ministry.  This means that I will bring mission groups like mine down into La Kennedy or other parts of Tegucigalpa to minister and love on people. After everything God has taught me about myself this summer, I cannot imagine a better alternative for the next chapter of my life.  Any fears I had about my future, a career, a family, etc. have been erased. I know that God is calling me back to Honduras to be his hands, his feet, and his voice. 

And so, I will join all of those before me who have left the United States and moved to Honduras for the Lord.

Because I will be there on my own, I will be required to raise money to support myself and the ministry.  This will come out to about $15 a day to live on the property and whatever else I would need to keep up street ministry/ extra living expenses.  I still will be going to school part time in the fall until I graduate in December, so I will be able to prepare myself financially at least to some extent. I will be working full time in the spring in order to save money as well. Before I get to Honduras, Tony would like me to help fundraise to build a casita, a little house, for myself and a few other missionaries.  All together it will be about $3,000.  The goal is that it will be done by May, but I would be so comforted if it were done by the end of 2013.  
If you would like to continue supporting me on this journey, there are a few ways you can help! The most obvious is financially.  It would be wonderful to gain monthly supporters, but I understand that sometimes it just isn't possible for some people.  In that case, I will accept any sort of donation. Literally, anything.  I won't start fundraising for living until we have raised all of the funds for our house, so I ask for any sort of donation for that project.  Of course, an equally important way to support me is through prayer.  I have always looked at the lives of missionaries and said, "I can't imagine what it's like to have to ask for money all of the time and gain support! I would never want to do that!" Of course, God probably laughed at me every time because that's exactly what I'm doing now.  Please keep me in your prayers through this new process for me and for the future that I will have in Honduras.

I thank you all so much for keeping up with my trip this summer, but please do not think that it is over now.  Because this blog is already up and going, I will be using it as my primary communication vessel. I will keep everyone updated and I will send out a more formal request for support in the future, but for now, I ask that you pray for me and for this new adventure on which I am about to embark.  
I love you all, God bless!  


The area in which we are hoping to construct the house is shown below.  The goal is that there will be two rooms- each with two bunk-beds. The roof will be reinforced and the area where the tent and chairs are sitting will be made into the two rooms. 

 

More pictures, less words.

You all have followed, at least to some extent, all of my adventures this summer, so I will give a super quick recap of how things closed up after One Nation.

Our final day of La Kennedy ministry was on Wednesday the 24th, and it also happened to be Jefferson's 5th birthday.  Since we gave Oscar a pretty great party, we obviously had to do the same for little Jefferson! He wanted the same type of cake as Oscar, so we made two vanilla cakes with strawberry icing decorated by wonderful Dan. Instead of doing typical spaghetti or chicken & rice, we decided to make him macaroni and cheese...a meal for a kid! Of course he was equally as shy as Oscar was on his birthday, but everything went super well.  Everyone was fed, everyone got cake, and everyone danced a bit. 
Unfortunately, it was sort of a bittersweet birthday party since it was our last day.  About an hour and a half into our visit, all of the community members started to realize that we weren't coming back the next day, and things became very sad very quickly. In particular, I was touched by one of the girls to whom we had been minstering at the beginning of the summer.  She hadn't been in the community for about two or three weeks because she had been too busy working 'arriba' in the streets. When she had been there earlier she was on thinner about 85% of the time and she very rarely would have a full conversation with any of us. However, she was the first person to cry on our last day.  Tony  mentioned to the community that they should start exchanging contact information (if any) and saying goodbyes, and this girl just started to bawl. Before any of our group or anyone else cried, she was devastated. I never realized how much we were impacting her just by being there. She didn't need to tell us her life plans or do an in depth Bible study with us each day; it only mattered that we were there and that we loved her. This girl, this high, lonely, homeless, dirty girl, is the reason that I fell in love with street ministry. Everything was worth it to realize that she was impacted just by my presence.
After we said our goodbyes everyone started to slowly filter out to the car to go back to the property.  I was one of the last people to leave (no surprise), and I had to make a conscious effort to stop hugging people and to just leave. As I started to walk up, a group of them started to shout my name.  I turned around and Carla, Jefferson's mom, yelled to me (in Spanish), "I will never forget you. I love you so much... You have changed this place." As if I wasn't already about to cry, this did the trick. I walked out to the car sobbing. When I finally got to the car, I turned around and, of course, a group of about 5 people had followed me out and wanted us to keep hugging them.  Tony realized that everything was just going to get harder, so he decided to just pray as a group and head out.  While we were all sitting in the car waiting for Tony to leave I heard a little knock on my window.  When I looked over, Jefferson was being held up by Carla and he was waving to me with tears in his eyes and the saddest little face I have ever seen.  My heart just kept breaking! Needless to say, it was a quiet ride home aside from the sniffles and nose-blowing from all of the crying, but it was such a great way to go out!

Here are lots of pictures from the party, our final day, and other days of ministry.

 Oscar and I

 The whole group!

 Eddy and Oscar, brothers!

 Jefferson's birthday cakes

 Jose!

 Jefferson, Oscar, Carla, and me

 

Jefferson and I!

 Oscar on his birthday with his new jersey

 Oscars birthday cakes

 Caesar, Jose, and me

One Nation, One Day

Because I'm home, I have a bit more time to devote to writing solid blogs.  For the sake of everyone's eyes (and patience) I will split them up like I did for Roatan, etc. :) 
 
One Nation, One Day:
For three days we went into local schools to share the word of the gospel.  Depending on the age group, we either shared testimonies, read/acted out a Bible story, presented a movie, or acted out a skit.  On the first day, I was one of the members of our group that shared my testimony- mostly because I can speak Spanish and could actually communicate it. Although I am pretty confident in my Spanish speaking abilities, it was completely different to pour into 35 seventh grade students in another language. Fortunately, my nerves were calmed pretty quickly and I was able to present coherently to the class.  Along with my testimony, we also read the Parable of the Lost Son and talked a little bit about what it means for God to be our father. Because of the lack of fatherly influences and the 'fatherless nation' stereotype of Honduras, it was awesome to be able to share this specific parable.  Telling a group of students that they are not actually fatherless and that they have a father in heaven was incredible and powerful! The movie that we presented was 'Most,' which is a European movie that depicts God giving his only son so that others will be saved.  Because it is a bit lengthy, we only presented the movie to the older kids.  Sam, one of our group members, did an awesome job asking questions and interacting with the students after the movie so that they would understand the message.  The skit that was presented was 'Everything,' which is about how Jesus is the only one that can fill your heart.  Overall, we were all very pleased with the outcome of the three days of going into the schools.  Although we won't necessarily see the fruits of our time, I am confident that we made some sort of impact in at least one life, which makes it all worth it.
On Friday we went to a conference for leaders and pastors that was sponsored by the event.  Wow! All of the worship and initial presentations were in Spanish.  It was a little tough to stay focused and not be sidetracked.  We were in an indoor stadium that got progressively hotter as people poured in and the speakers were pointed inwards, so those of us on the floor were completely overwhelmed with the noise.  Unfortunately, we only stayed for two of the speakers because it was so uncomfortable and we were definitely not benefiting as much as we could have been. Even though it was a challenging couple of hours, it was really awesome for me to see so many native pastors gathered together in order to support the nation. Being able to see their passion for their country and for God was so powerful! It was a great way to kick off the stadium event the next day.
The big event for One Nation was held at the national football stadium on Saturday afternoon.  We weren't really sure what to expect, but it totally blew all of us away.  To see so many Honduran people gathered in the same place to worship and to start 'The New Honduras' was incredible. Even though the whole thing was in Spanish, I know we could all feel the presence of God in the stadium; it wasn't necessary to understand even a single word of it.  We were blessed enough to be able to bring Caesar, Oscar, and Wilder (a new friend) to the stadium with us, which was pretty awesome.  At the end of the ceremony, the final speaker invited people to go down to the field and accept Christ into their lives and to be prayed for by some of the missionaries that had come.  All three of our visitors went down! I cannot even describe the joy that I felt while I watched them walking across the field with tears in their eyes because they could feel so strongly the power of God.
As per usual, we had taken a pick-up truck to the event, so the ride home was just straight joy as we all celebrated the power and the love of God that we had felt that night.  There was no better way to finish off the summer than feeling the tears on my face from the wind as we sped up the mountain after One Nation and knowing that each and every person in the bed of the truck would always be my family.  Hugging Ariel on one side, holding Wilder in my lap, and feeling Victoria on the other side... just pure joy. 

Sam teaching for One Nation at our local school. Many of these were students that we had been teaching all summer.

 Dan giving his testimony to a classroom of kids.

 Full stadium!!

 Oscar, Fisher, Ariel, Carlos & Me at the stadium event

 Night time shot! The event lasted about 5 hours in total!

Final Ministries

Property ministry, La Kennedy, teaching, etc!

We are continuing to work around the property doing random little projects like planting trees, using machetes, and working on the gardens.

Thursday was our last day of teaching at our local school because next week will be filled with One Nation, One Day. Although our schedule was pretty sporadic with teaching, I am so thankful that it was one of our ministries. The kids were so grateful to us for giving them our time! On Wednesday, my student Wilfredo asked me to translate a phrase for him. Of course I was more than happy to do that, but I my heart was filled when the phrase he gave me was, ‘Siempre te recordaré cuando tú te vayas.’ In English: I will always remember you when you leave. Wow! I didn’t realize the impact that I was making there because I had been sort of putting it on the back-burner. It was really awesome to see that he was so thankful for me being there.  The teacher even asked for my name so that she could find me on Facebook. It is pretty awesome the connections that were made just through forty minutes of teaching each day.

And, por fin, La Kennedy! We have been making huge progress in La Kennedy in the past couple of weeks, even amidst all of the trips, but not necessarily in the exact way that we had been planning. I had personally been talking a lot with Jose and Caesar, but the past couple of weeks I have been drawn to someone else as well. Most of the kids that live down there are there because they have either been kicked out of their family or because they don’t have a family and have found community there instead.  One of the boys there, Oscar, lives there because all of his family is there. He has two sisters, a brother, both of his parents, and 5 nieces and nephews in the community.  Unlike most of the other kids there, Oscar is never on thinner and is always sober.  He is one of the most polite kids I have ever met, even though he is a little bit shy.  Because he is so different than any of the other kids, God has really put Oscar on my heart.  I have talked to him a lot about participating in One Nation, One Day, and he is super excited about it! We have also talked with Tony and are considering bringing him to the property within the next couple of weeks for a few days. Oscar’s 16^th birthday is on Sunday, so we are bringing a huge meal with a big cake for him. I am so excited to see how God will continue to work through Oscar and to bring him closer.

There have been some ups and downs with Caesar in the past couple of weeks as well. He came to the property before we went to Gracie’s and it went really well! I think he mostly just enjoyed being able to relax for the day and have a safe, clean place to sleep. Tony even brought up to him that it would be possible for Caesar to be discipled in august by a Guatemalan pastor that will be here for a few months. God has worked through Caesar so much in the past few weeks, which has been so great! He is really excited about working with Alejandro (the pastor) and starting a new chapter of his life.  Unfortunately, Caesar also had a couple days where he just really wasn’t doing too well.  I have realized that part of street ministry means being there for everyone during the bad days and not just the exciting, get-to-know-you weeks.  Working in a community where drugs are so prevalent means that people are going to slide back down and regress every once in a while, too, even if it’s people that you think are progressing rapidly. Rather than getting down on him for not being his usual self, I sat with him for a while and we talked about how life.  At the end of the day our whole La Kennedy mission group went in and prayed for him, even Carlos! It was so inspirational to hear everyone praying individually for Caesar, especially since it switched back and forth between English and Spanish every other person.  Seeing Caesar’s face at the end of our prayer really hit home and convicted me.  He was so thankful for us and kept blessing us before we left, and God put on my heart even more that this ministry is exactly where I need to be right now.  After that day, Caesar was ‘back on track’ and started to focus more on the future and what he is doing with his life from here on out.  I am so glad that we were there for him while he was unhappy for those few days; I know it strengthened our relationship as well as his relationship with the Lord.

We have also been continuing to go to a parking lot in La Kennedy on Saturdays in order to serve the community and talk with them for the night.  True to form, we usually take either a pick-up truck or an 18-wheeler downtown so that everyone on the property is able to go.  I will definitely miss feeling the wind in my face as we zip down the hill on our way to do ministry for the night. 

One of my big ‘God-moments’ in the past couple of weeks came in a very unexpected way.  Tony had sent one of his cars in to get fixed a while ago, and it was finally ready to be picked up one day that we were going to La Kennedy.  Rather than having someone else come down on a bus to pick it up, he asked one of us if we could drive it back.  For whatever reason, I was the only one who had brought any of my stuff that day, which meant I was the only person with a license...so I was able to drive the car home! I was a little bit scared at first considering that Tegucigalpa is super dangerous to drive through, but I figured it couldn’t be that much worse than Chicago, so I gave it a shot.
Everything was going fine for a bit and we were all enjoying the American-ness of driving in a car with friends again. Randomly, before we had even made it to the bottom of the huge stretch of hill that leads to the property, the car started to stall.  I pulled over to the side of the road as soon as I felt it stalling, and I was able to turn it off and start it again pretty easily.  Unfortunately, that happened 2-3 more times during rush-hour traffic before we reached the hill.  We started to make it up the hill eventually and I just finished saying that the car was doing well when it stopped again; however, this time it didn’t start back up. So, I am driving a car with 4 other girls and we have stopped on a busy hill at about 7:00 at night.  Of course we were all a bit freaked out, so we all said a haphazard prayer that the car would start again.  Within a minute of ending our prayer, a woman walked out from one of the side streets and asked if we needed help.  Of course we did, so she walked away and came back with a man on a motorcycle.  I got out and talked to him about what had happened and he opened the hood to check everything out.  He honestly just fiddled a bit with the battery and then told me to try the car again.  We all crossed our fingers…and it started! He closed the hood quickly and we took off up the hill. Not 3 or 4 minutes later, it started to stall again.  I pulled off again and had just started to turn the car on again when he came up behind us; he had been following to make sure we made it home! Luckily, the car started that time and we made it home after a few more stalls.  While it may sound so simple that we made it home, it was truly a miracle.  None of the girls knew anything about cars and we had zero experience with driving through Tegucigalpa other than that day. This man on the motorcycle truly was our guardian angel for the night. God is so good!

This upcoming week is One Nation, One Day, so we will be occupied with that for the majority of the time.  We are continuing to go to La Kennedy so that the ministry does not just drop off during our final days here as well.
 I am not sure that we will be able to get internet again, so I won’t be able to post about One Nation until I have gone back home.  Please pray for our last weeks here so that we can finish strong and make the most out of every second that we have left.  Also, keep our hearts in mind as a lot of us leave a place that we now consider home.  I know it will be a rough day when we leave on the 26^th, so all of your prayers are greatly appreciated!

Thank you so much for following me on this trip! I apologize that the blogs have been a little inconsistent, but I will definitely be doing a wrap-up post when I get back to the states. Have a wonderful weekend! 

Sorry pictures have been so sloppy. It's really hard to do pictures with the internet here, so I figured it's better for them to be imperfect than non-existent. =]

Below: Worshiping on the property. 

 My student, Wilfredo. Yes, he is only 13 years old. CRAZY!

 The class threw us a party on our last day...so sweet!

Roatan!

After our visit to Gracie’s we had two days to jumpstart before we left for Roatan. I’ll go more into detail with the happenings of La Kennedy, etc. in another blog so that I can continue on the travel topic.

Roatan was certainly a massive switch in comparison to Gracie’s.  As I had said previously in my fundraising post, Roatan is an island on off the northern coast of Honduras.  Even though it is part of the country, it has a very different culture and is nothing like the mainland.  The closest thing I can compare it to would be a Caribbean stop in a cruise…pretty fitting since about 2-3 ships stop there each week.  Thanks to everyone’s donations, we were able to bring four of the boys on the trip with us, which made it even more like a vacation. YAY!

In order to get to Roatan, we took a 6 ½ hour bus ride at 5:00 am from Tegucigalpa to La Ceiba, a city on the northern coast.  Because groceries are so expensive on the island, we had to quickly go grocery shopping in town and make it to the ferry which would take us the rest of the way.  Unfortunately, grocery shopping took the place of eating for the day, so everyone was increasingly tired and hungry as the day progressed.  After shopping, we took a 1 ½ hour ferry ride to the island.  The ferry to Roatan is known for its choppy waves and sick passengers; every person is even given a Dramamine pill for the ride. I chose not to take the pill because I didn’t want to fall asleep on the ride, and luckily I didn’t suffer for that, but there were a couple of people that were sick by the end of it, including little Anderson who ended up sleeping on my lap because he had never been on a boat before and was about to throw up.
Eventually we made it to the island and after a total of 14 hours of travelling.  We stayed in a house which is rented out by a missionary woman named Deborah.  Deborah is a teacher on the island and she also ministers to other missionaries who want to come to Roatan by providing cheap housing and transportation.  After unpacking and eating a make-shift meal, I think we ended up going to bed a little after 11 so that we could wake up and teach school with Deborah in the morning. Such a busy day!
The school we taught in was made up of kindergarten and 1^st grade in the morning and 2^nd and 3^rd grade in the afternoon.  The kids are bilingual, which made it a blast to teach.  We really only helped out with their work every now and then, because they each work at an individual pace similar to a homeschool.  I would love to say we were all full of energy and ran around a ton with the kids, but we were all super exhausted afterwards. I think the majority of us ended up just going back and crashing in the house after school.

The remainder of our trip was essentially a solid, much-needed vacation. I don’t think any of us really realized how heavy our ministries were becoming in Tegucigalpa until we could just let them go for a couple of days, relax, and debrief.  We spent an entire day at the beach (I am now suffering from that as I shed all of my skin) and went to a Mayan animal park.  At the animal park, we were able to hold baby monkeys, snakes, and some other creature that no one recognized.  It was so great to have all of the boys with us so that we could get to know them in a different setting and just be free with them.  Three of the boys had not ever been to the beach, so it was such a blessing to be able to experience that with them for the first time.  It is such a simple pleasure for so many people in the United States, but seeing their faces as they first jumped into the water showed me how truly blessed we are.
The day we spent at the beach was in West Bay, the tourist beach, but we had a local beach about 2 minutes from our house.  I think we spent more time lying out on that dock at night than we did in our rooms.  The stars were SO CLEAR because there was no light pollution, so I was able to geek-out and talk about space with everyone each night. 

If nothing else, the trip was worth it for me because I was able to fully grasp the beauty of God’s creation.  Between the incredibly blue water, the perfect stars, and swimming along the coral reef, it was definitely the best 3-day vacation I have had in a long time. I’ll refrain from posting the picture of me holding the snake for the sake of my mom’s heart. =]

Gracie's Ministry

Wow! What a crazy couple of weeks it has been. I am splitting up everything into different blogs for the sake of your time (and attention span), so hopefully it will be a little bit easier to follow. Everyone loves going to new places and on vacation, so I’ll start out the string of blogs with the trips we’ve taken in the past weeks.

Because we are here to minister to the entire country of Honduras and not just Tony’s Ministry in Tegucigalpa, we spent about three days near Olancho at “Gracie’s.”  Since we arrived here in Honduras, we have been hearing about Gracie’s ministry, but no one ever really told us what it was.  Before our trip, I think I almost viewed Gracie as some sort of phantom person because I just heard vague tidbits about her and what she does here in Honduras.  Basically, I knew she was a Gringa and that her ministry was working with women…not a whole lot to kick-start a three day visit.
At our orientation, I learned that Gracie’s ministry is called the Heart of Christ.  Not only does she work with women, but she works with women who are victims of rape, abuse, domestic violence, and prostitution as well as the children they have had as a product of rape.  On top of that, Gracie has three little girls who have cerebral palsy and three little boys who were left by their mothers.  Essentially, Gracie is Mother Teresa for the special victims’ cases in Honduras.
A bit about some of the kids staying at Gracie’s: The three girls with CP were all given to Gracie by INFHA, the country’s adoption agency, because they had all been abused and were in critical conditions.  Gracie put it candidly when she said the girls were each given to her separately so that they had a nice place to die. Of course, God had other plans.  Within just two or three weeks of being there, each girl began to thrive; all they needed was A LOT of food and A LOT of TLC, both of which they found at Gracie’s.  One of the little boys, Moises, was also given to Gracie for his last weeks by INFHA. Moises developed an 18-pound tumor on his side by the time he was 2 years old, and no doctor in Honduras was hypothetically skilled enough to operate on him.  It was planned that Moises would be able to travel to the states for his operation, but because of lack of funding, the planning fell through.  As a last resort, Gracie prayed and prayed and went back to one of the hospitals and begged them to operate.  By the grace of God, Moises made it through. Now, he is three years old and a normal, happy little boy…with over 100 stitches down his side. The remainder of the girls living there, 4 in total, range from 12-18 years old and have all given birth as a result of rape. At Gracie’s, they each live in a separate room with their babies.  Because three of them are still so young, they attend school each day of the week for four hours in the morning in order to get back on track.

A bit of side information about INFHA: INFHA is sort of like the adoption agency that you would tend to see in a horror movie.  Any time a child under the age of 18 is found on the streets without a parent, they are taken to INFHA, especially if some sort of crime has been committed. If a child is claimed by a relative afterwards, he/she is allowed to leave; otherwise, INFHA becomes home until the age of 18. Unfortunately, INFHA is also the end of the line for most children, both special needs and otherwise, who have been taken out of homes due to domestic violence. With this mix of children, those with special needs do not get anywhere near the right amount of care, and the ‘violent’ kids are left to run free.  Many times, victims are brought to Gracie’s property for 72 hours and then are sent back to INFHA, because she cannot currently take in any more people.  Carlos and Josue, our boys from the property, both were at INFHA for a time when they were living on the streets. Luckily they were claimed by their mother after a few weeks, but they both say that it was an awful place to live. There was never enough food and the conditions were a nightmare.  Unfortunately, one of the boys we have become friends with in La Kennedy, Jovani, has been taken to INFHA because he was on thinner and was involved in violence during a protest.  Because he is only 16 and parentless, he will have to stay at INFHA for 2 years.

God really tested me while we were at Gracie’s, because I have never really had any experience with this sort of ministry.  I have heard about it and know that it exists, but never have I been right in the middle of it and witnessed first-hand the effects of domestic violence, rape, and neglect.  Given that giant lack of experience, I was thrown in to feed the CP girls one day. WOW- what a task! We worked with a six-year-old girl, Evoña. As a result of not being fed at all and being a victim of abuse in her previous home, Evoña strongly dislikes to eat, yet she is on a diet of over 3,000 calories a day. Fisher, Becca, and I sat with her in shifts (realizing it was not a one person job) for close to two hours until one small bowl of oatmeal was gone. By the end of it, I felt 100% comfortable with Evoña and the other CP girls. Considering that Fisher and Becca both study early childhood education for special needs, I was definitely the odd girl out, but I know that’s why I was there.  God pushed me way out of my comfort zone so that I could actually delve into Gracie’s ministry.

Fisher and I feeding Evoña.

  Gracie took us on a tour of her village one
afternoon and Carlos took it upon himself to find
flowers for all of the girls. He proceeded to put
a flower in our hair and called us all his girlfriends.
Nothing like a big, sloppy, wet kiss on your cheek
by a 14-year-old Honduran boy.