Canopy Tours---Zipping Through Tropical Rainforests!

La Playa de Tela (Tela Beach)

The Botanical Gardens

Ok, forgive me if I don't know all the names, genus and species of these plants. I know little tidbits of stories on most, though not on this. Just some beautiful flowers. and....yup....a weird-looking tree we all know these, water lillies bamboo from east asia...little fact: did u know that bamboo is considered a grass? and that when it is young it grows 15cm/day!! Now that gives new meaning to the phrase, "it's like watching grass grow"...that might not be so boring with bamboo...lol. Look close and you can see busy leaf-cutter ants carrying pieces of leaves bigger than themselves. For those of you that are real interested, I even have video footage of this. Yes I do! This is one of the deadliest trees in the world. If you eat from it, climb it, or even touch it, you will instantly go into anaphlaxys and die. There was also a stricknine tree in the garden.

Disfrutandonos en Honduras (Enjoying ourselves in Honduras)

On Wednesday, my host family and I went to a soccer game at a local stadium. The kids and I had a great time taking photos of each other in the back of the van en route to the game.


We all had a great time cheering for the away team, which eventually lost a very close match. It was alot of fun to hoot and holler--though I hoped I was saying it correctly in spanish.


Sorry I'll probably be dropping in alot of photos of the surrounding area just because it's so beautiful.

The Mission and Surrounding Area

The view from the church/clinic is breathtaking. It is situated on the top of a mountain and surrounded by mountains with a deep gorge on one side, carved out by a river. In the distance on the other side is the ocean.


La Clinica Salud Total


Dr Bailey and Dr. Sully. Before this trip, I didn't know Dr. Bailey too much. We attend the same church, but our paths rarely crossed. This trip has changed that. We began the trip with a 5 hour drive to NYC. During this trip we got a chance to talk about alot of things.

The biggest thing I came away from this time with about Dr. Bailey is that he is passionate about the Lord and passionate about being a doctor. He really loves it (even behind closed doors). He loves being able to help people. To me, this is very respectable. Also, some of the topics we discussed have given me alot to think about. For example, he told me that if you make an appointment, a decision, to meet with the Lord in prayer/bible study every morning, He will meet you there. He says he's done this for several years during the hardest times in his life. And God has never failed him.


This is the very steep, winding road leading to the clinic/church which sits at the top of the hill. It was built in a simple, yet great way. Before this road was built about a year ago, it was just a dirt road. When it would rain, because the way was so steep, it would become impassable. If you know anything about this area, it rains alot. So, three brothers from the church got together and with simple tools and alot of sweat and work, they constructed this road which is about 1/2 mile and winds steeply up to the clinic/church area. It is really an amazing thing to think about when walking up it. The walk itself is difficult, i can't imagine the work to build it. Also constructed at that time were acqueducts to run along side the road and for proper drainage from the clinic/church.



The Pharmacy. There's a few more shelves than this, but not many. It is always in need of help. Currently, members of the church volunteer their time to count pills and pass out the medicines as prescribed by the doctor.


One of the volunteer pill counters from the states.


Recently, a Honduran dentist was added to the clinic. As you can imagine, this has been a great addition for the people here.




One of the young ladies waiting to be seen at the Salud Total Clinic.


Believe it or not, this is baby#2 for this girl. But fortunately, she's not as young as she looks....23 years old. (I didn't believe her at first!)


Dr. Sully, the Honduran Doctor who works full time at the Clinic and I.

La Ceiba Here We Come!

We've finally landed! But the trip is far from over. After a four hour drive to NYC, then a short overnight at the Pierson's house. We flew out from Newark at 0500. Talk about red-eye. Then we landed in San Pedro Sulo Airport at Noon. The drive in the church's van took another 5+ hours and we finally got to our destination of La Ceiba at 5:30pm, tired but happy.


Funny, but our first stop was for lunch at a newly constructed mall just outside of San Pedro Sula. This was very beautiful and the view of the mountains through the windows caught my eye.


The Piersons: Tony, Desiree and Samantha. There are two other Piersons who stayed home to work and go to school.


The family I am staying with has 5 members, a mom, dad and three kids. Here are the mom, Erika, and two youngest children Christian, age 6 and Andrea, age 3. Both are adorable and very precocious. They keep me very entertained whenever I am home. Erika is 28 years old and we've had many great conversations (all in spanish of course!)


Here's a little of the food we ate when we first arrived. It's called Pupusa.


Pupusa involves heating a tortilla filled with cheese and/or meat and placing the carmelized onions seen above, on top. It's simple, but good and a typical Honduran dish.


The first dinner with the family. They were so hospitable and dinner was very yummy! There was also an extra visitor, which seems to be very common. This older gentlemen came over to study the bible with Daniel, the host family's dad.

October 2007 trip to D.R.

On the beach of Punta Cana. The sunny part of the trip.


A view of the tropical clouds from far above.


My dear friend Daniela and her daughter.


The flight from Syracuse early in the morning was breath taking.


The pastor at the church in Bani, praying. See below for full story.


The truck that lugged us through the flooded streets.


GOING THRU THE DESERT

Riding in a taxi one Saturday evening, the driver and I struck up a conversation. Turns out he is a christian. Upon learning this, of course my ears perked right up. Christian? Well, what kind? I started asking about what changes Christ has made in his life. What he believes about certain key doctrinal issues. All seemed in sync with the bible. At the end of the ride, he gave me his taxi card to call him if I needed transportation anywhere else during my stay.

Well, it just so happened that night I got stranded and the friend who was supposed to take me home, couldn't get there. So, I called Jose, the christian driver. That night he encouraged me. "God is calling you, Gracia. Maybe He wants you for his service in the mission field." Well, this isn't the first time I'd heard that line before. To which I told him I just don't know. My impulsive side would love to jump into the mission field. But I don't want to do anything without God's leading. I also shared that I felt like I needed to serve God more where I am and felt so often like a hand was in front of my mouth when it came to sharing the gospel. I can talk so freely and excitedly to other believers about Jesus, but at work or back home with unbelievers, I clam right up. He then shared his experience of going thru a desert time. "Every believer goes through this at some point in his life" he believed. And said that his time lasted 3 years. For 3 years he felt like the heavens were silent, he had no money and life was really difficult. Then when the Lord finally spoke to him, it was like the sun breaking through. He shared that the Lord showed him that Moses had to go through 40 years alone before God worked out things in his life and he was ready for service. He also told me that now, he's a pastor. Money is very tight, which is why he drives a taxi, but he invited me to come visit his church on Sunday. "Well, thanks" I told him, but I already had plans for the morning at a church I have attended during every visit.

The next morning I went back to Fuente de Salvacion and once again was very blessed by the worship. And then you'll never guess the message: Moses and the children of Israel had to spend 40 years in the desert. And when the Lord told Moses he'd take them into the promise land, Moses said to the Lord, "If your presence does not go with us, I don't want to go." Wow! The same topic we'd been discussing. And my sentiments exactly about not wanting to go if the Lord didn't go with me. I called the taxi driver that afternoon, and said I'd like to visit his church that evening. Delighted, he said that he and his family would pick me up at 5:30.

It was starting to rain when they arrived in a beat up old 2-seater pick up truck. Jose and his wife and I in the front seat. The two young kids rode standing up behind us holding onto our seats. "How poor their lives are" I thought. Then we arrived at this run down church in the middle of a kind of dangerous-looking neighborhood. A bunch of excited young people between the ages of 15 and 24 began loading musical equipment in the back of the truck. I had no clue what was going on. But obviously they all did. It took no more than 30 minutes to load drums, amplifiers, guitars speakers and sound controllers into the back. They then covered the equipment with tarp and we set off with 4 more people now crammed into the cab of this two-seater truck. Two beat up cars followed close behind filled with the rest of the young people. By now the rain was beating down hard. The windshield wipers were broken and there was no air to defog the windshield. But these people acted like nothing was wrong. They were so happy! The pastor drove on and on with his arm out the window to move the windshield wipers occassionally. I grabbed a towel and kept obsessively cleaning the windshield in an attempt to make visibility better. The roads in the Dominican Republic are difficult to navigate on a good day. Now add torrential downpours and no visibility. But the group kept laughing, excitedly talking about the coming service. We didn't arrive there until after 7pm.

The church was in the middle of nowhere, a town called Bani Torro, primarily made up of Hatian laborers. The church was very simple, but clean. The pews were obviously hand made of plywood. The bathroom was an outhouse located in back of the building. I was surprised to learn that there were no adult attendees. In the three years they'd been working here, only children from very young to 15 years old attended. Their parents were still leary of this church. Sometimes they visited, but none converted. The pastor's young wife informed me that they hold services at the church 3 times a week.

When we arrived, the young people went to work setting up the equipment. The pastor and his wife changed out of their tattered wet clothes into cleaner tattered dry clothes and in about 30 minutes, the service began. The pastor spent quite a while kneeling in prayer before the service. And at first no one else was there but us. Then the Hatian children started arriving. You would have to have seen the service to really understand. But these young people, who in our country probably would have been standing bored mouthing the words to church songs, were instead singing their hearts out. They were clapping, raising their hands and encouraging the kids to get involved in worship. And they sounded great on top of it all. The service lasted into the night. The pastor preached and after some more singing, it finally ended around 10pm.

By now, I was blessed, and thoroughly impressed with all of this, but exhausted and hoping we wouldn't be cramming 8 people in that same pickup truck. I was dreading the long ride home. But we loaded all the equipment up again and crammed 8 bodies back into the vehicle. This time, one of the young people had rigged up the windshield wipers with ropes to be pulled by the driver and the far left passenger. We laughed and sang all the way home. The ride back seemed alot shorter. But by now the streets were practically flooded. We hadn't known that Tropical Storm Noel had arrived that day. At points, the water was up to the top of the tires. Once we made it back to Santo Domingo, the pastor pulled into a dingy flooded restaurant and ordered chicken for all of us to thank the young people who had helped to lead in praise and worship.

Finally, I arrived home after midnight and fell into bed, exhausted but unable to sleep. What was all that? Who gives their life in service like that? I don't want to forget this experience, but more importantly the lessons I still feel like I'm learning from it.