Coffee, beans, and culture shock

This morning I was just sitting down to a typical Honduran breakfast--coffee, beans, and crema* (in the beans, not the coffee)--when my daughter approached and asked what I was doing.

"I'm eating breakfast," I replied.

With surprise and a bit of what passes for derision in a three year old she declared:

"But beans aren't for breakfast!"

And I doubt most Honduran children would know what to make of her AppleJacks® either.


* "What is crema?", you may ask. I'm not entirely sure. I know that it is made from milk, has a consistency a bit creamier than sour cream, and that I like the taste far better than sour cream. I would say it is not as tangy as sour cream.

Colorblind?

Most Hondurans are brown. Like most people groups there is a range of pigment in the population. They are not as dark complected as other Latin Americans, and are darker than others.

I don't bring this up just as a ethnic curiosity. My actual curiosity is in how much of the advertising I encounter here seems oblivious to the ethnic reality choosing instead to portray very Caucasian looking models. And it is not just a matter of North American companies duplicating their ad campaigns here. Even the advertising for exclusively Honduran (or Central American) businesses like my bank tend to use very anglo-american looking models.

My curiosity with this is in part due to the excessive political correctness observed in much American advertising. Who hasn't chuckled at the absolutely improbable groups of fresh-faced ethnically diverse young people gracing the web pages of colleges and universities. (If it is a Christian college, at least one of the young people will be holding a guitar as well.)

But more importantly I wonder about the message that is being sent. Why are white people the standard? To whom are they appealing? Are the advertisers appealing to what they believe is a wide tendency to regard the European/American model as the image of what is desired? Are they trying to create that image? Are they heedless of their audience? Or, if the ads target the rich and the rich have North American tendencies, what messages are being sent to the rest of the people who see these billboards?

I honestly don't know. But it niggles at me.

Neither snow nor rain nor heat...

Today we received our first piece of genuine mail here in Honduras. We have previously received bills delivered by the issuing entity (electric, water, cable, etc.) and mail through a forwarding service (we have to pick this up at their office). But today a motorcyclist rang the doorbell and delivered a Christmas card from the states (Thanks YK!). We weren't even sure this sort of service existed!

For the detail oriented:
1) The envelope had a 98¢ stamp affixed as well as 2 airmail stickers.
2) It was postmarked from upstate NY on 16 Dec 2011.
3) It was stamped upon arrival to the airport sorting center on 27 Dic 2011
4) It was further stamped by the Empresa de Correos on 28 Dic 2011
5) It arrived mid-morning 28 Dec 2011.

Well, at least they're not dead...

Pastoral ministry typically includes a measure of illness and bereavement care. The pastor plays a special role ushering people from this life into the next. I don't have a great deal of experience with this, though I know that I don't like it much more than the next guy.

Due to the makeup of the congregation here, hospital and funeral care are not a significant part of my duties. I have attended a wake but funerals are rare. (And I am legal forbidden from performing marriage ceremonies). However, I have already discovered that there is a parallel responsibility: ministry transition care. If that sounds like a euphemism, it is. I could have written "helping people leave" or, as above, "ushering people from this ministry life into the next." This involves counseling people about ministry decisions, helping people sell their belongings, writing references, and taking people to the airport.

So far, I don't like it any better than funerals, but at least they're not dead.

Things I don't miss about America

At this point in our sojourn in Honduras (5 months and counting) you might be expecting a reasoned analysis of aspects of life "back home" for which we long wistfully. I might be able to write that post; I haven't given it much thought. I have thought about a few things that I don't miss about "home."

• Politics. Being at a distance helps me control just how much of the political wrangling (all the more pronounced in an election year) I am exposed to. When you're in the states avoiding political talk is a bit like avoiding air. Through TV and the web I get as much as I want and no political TV ads at all!
• Football fans. I don't care about NFL or college football. But I have lived the last 15 years in Wisconsin and then Nebraska, two of the most football crazy places in the country. The problem with football season as opposed to, say, baseball season is that there is far more talk about football than there is actual football. Wisconsin radio stations spend the entire 165 hours between Packer games reviewing, analyzing, anticipating, complaining, and whining. Since we spend a fair bit of our time with North Americans we do have contact with some football fans but not too many. I have never heard a Honduran talk about American Football.
• Car Commercials. There are car commercials on TV here but they seem to be far fewer than in the states. I don't know what it is about car commercials that bothers me but I have long disliked them. Of course, the trade off here seems to be that we have more perfume commercials which I can't say I'm fond of either. That and they seem to cycle the same commercials more often.
• Telemarketers. My Honduran phone line just never rings. Ever. Praise be.
• Junk Mail. For all intents and purposes there is no mail system here. Bills are delivered by hand by an employee of the company sending them. Accordingly, we get no unwanted mail at all. No credit card offers, no insurance offers, no contest entries. Nothing.

There are probably more, but this is what comes to mind today.

Christmas in July

When I was a kid our church celebrated "Christmas in July". The gist of it was that packages sent to missionaries on foreign fields took so long to reach them that if we wanted to give them something for Christmas it had to be sent in July. So we got together one Sunday evening and listened to Christmas music while packaging up whatever it was we thought would be meaningful to missionaries in Africa and Bangladesh. To my overactive young mind the thought that a package could take six months to get from West Danby, New York to Niger, West Africa was incomprehensible. It seemed like two guys in a rowboat could have gotten across the Atlantic in that time. This was the 1980s not the 1880s after all, wasn't it?

I got to thinking about this this Christmas for a variety of reasons. First, I am sort of a "missionary" now so all those missionary-ish things I remember from my childhood are put in a different perspective. Second, I am grateful that it only takes about 2 weeks for us to get things sent from the states and on top of that, there are constantly people coming and going so it is not that difficult to send or receive goods. Besides, there's not much that I want here that I can't get (perhaps more on that later).

Finally, the main reason that I got thinking about Christmas in July is because, well, to this Wisconsin boy, it's beginning to feel like July at Christmas. We have noticed, however, that in an act of what we regard as selfless solidarity, many of our Northern friends have chosen to celebrate a green Christmas as well.

We love you and hope that you have a joyous season celebrating and anticipating the Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ.

(Note: The poinsettias here are astonishingly plentiful and vibrant. Just one of the many flowers blooming this time of year.)

Money matters

Since our arrival I have found myself carrying more cash than I ever did in the states, which is a little unexpected given the prevalence of petty theft here. Some of this is due to the fact that until a few weeks ago we didn't have a bank account and were living on cash. But when I say that I carry more cash, I don't necessarily mean by value (though that is probably true too), mean by volume. And here's why.



The base currency here is the lempira. At present the exchange rate is about 20 lempiras to the dollar making the lempira worth about $0.05 or a nickel. Lempira bills come in the following denominations: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500. If you're doing your math quickly you've just realized that the first four of those don't amount to a dollar together. The bills' dollar values respectively are: $0.05, $0.10, $0.25, $0.50, $1.00, $2.50, $5.00, and $25.00. Yes, the largest bill that I am aware of here is worth about US $25.00. 

This means that if you are making any large purchase with cash, not only is the number of the cost very high, but you have to hand over a wad of bills. But it also means that you are likely to carry more bills than you normally would. I do not make a habit of carrying change. I put it in a jar and take it to the bank periodically. But I do carry bills. So here I find myself carrying bills with the value of change that I wouldn't bother to carry in the states.

Ironically, for system with no bill worth more than $25 it is amazing how often you catch cashiers short of change when you pay with a L500. They are forever having to ask their supervisor to break the L500 for them because they are out of L100s. 

Believe it or not, they have coinage too. This is even more ridiculous. The coins represent parts of lempiras or lempira "cents", if you will, and come in 5, 10, 20, and 50. Remembering that one lempira itself is only worth 5¢, doing the math you realize that these are worth: ¼¢, ½¢ 1¢, 2½¢. Needless to say, Ellyn gets these. 

One final note (pardon the pun). The bluish polygon that looks like an inverted ring is transparent plastic. It's the only bill with that feature. It feels very different from the rest which are made with standard paper.

FDR would be amazed

Americans love acronyms. They are ubiquitous. Just think of how much time you spend on CBS, NBC, and ESPN watching NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA not to mention CSI, CSI:NY, and NCIS. The government is in on it too: CIA, FBI, DEA, FDA, etc. (or perhaps ad nauseum).

One of the contributing factors to this is that all but one of the names for letters in English are monosyllabic. (You're smart enough to figure out which one isn't.) This fact is more important than you think. By contrast, in Spanish ten letters have two syllables (f, h, j, l, m, n, r, s, x, z), one has three (w), and one has four (y). What this means is that approximately half of the letters require two or more syllables to pronounce. That can lengthen the pronunciation of an acronym by 50-100% easily.

Consider ESPN. In English this is an unproblematic string of single syllables: ee-es-pee-en. But in Spanish (and yes, we have ESPN access here) two of the letters are double syllable making it eh-ese-pe-ene, or 50% longer. Worse still is Major League Soccer, the MLS. All three of these are double syllable--eme-ele-ese--making the acronym 100% longer than the English original.

To compensate Spanish speakers make their acronyms longer. The point of this is to form the acronym into a collection of letters that can be pronounced as a word. The result is some astounding acronyms. A skim through the paper here on an average day yields an absolute alphabet soup of these, so many I can't keep track of them all. ENEE, SANAA, CONASIN, UNAH, IHNFA, FARP, AHCORENA, SOPTRAVI, etc. The list is endless. (Notable examples of the same phenomena  in English would be POTUS and MADD). Explaining one will suffice. One of my favorites is INJUPEMP. It just looks silly to me and doesn't even work that well as a Spanish word. That m-p consonant blend is unusual. Here's what it stands for: Instituto Nacional de Jubilaciones y Pensiones de los Empleados (roughly translated: National Institution for Workers' Retirements and Pensions).

The NFL suffers the same fate as MLS; its acronym requires six syllables rather than three. Maybe it could improve its chances if it modified its acronym in Latin American countries to NaFoL, or better yet LiNFA for Liga Nacional de Fútbol Americano.

That and if it could somehow become as interesting and beautiful a game as fútbol. 

It's the economy, stupid

Winston Churchill famously described Russia as "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." I feel somewhat similarly about the Honduran economy. On the one hand, many financial indexes rate Honduras as one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. It scores much higher than many African nations, but lags behind many of its neighbors. But I don't need the numbers to tell me that. I see evidence of poverty and a depressed economy everywhere I go here.
  However, there is another side. The other day I was at Toncontin International Airport here in Tegucigalpa and it was absolutely mobbed with people. Now obviously many were there to send off or receive family and friends, but the lines for check-in were busy too. Flying costs money. Flying out of Tegus costs even more because of the unique challenges of take-off and landing. And it can't be possible that ALL or even MOST of these passengers are foreign visitors going to and fro. Some of these must be Hondurans that are departing and arriving.
  I then went to one of Tegucigalpa's malls, the one with Walmart (Mall Cascadas). It, too, was lousy with people. Some of the traffic was doubtless attributable to the holiday but I have been in that mall at other times when it has been similarly crowded. From this mall one can actually see another of the city's malls (Metromall), and nearer the church there are two more more sharp, clean malls with upscale stores (Mall Mutiplaza and Mall Novacentro). The food court at one of them is constantly busy. On top of that, they are building another mall near the airport. (All that and I haven't even mentioned StuffMart, I mean, PriceSmart.)
  What gives?
  Latin American economies are notorious for having a small upper class living in luxury and a large lower class, mired in poverty. As compared to the US economy, this is still probably true of Honduras. But I don't think such an imbalanced system could possibly sustain the level of commerce that one sees here in Tegucigalpa. There must be a middle class of some sort to sustain these businesses.
  That said, there is certainly poverty in the city and the economy outside the main cities is another matter altogether. But the poverty here is still different than that in places like Africa. In those places the daily effort to find food, never mind pay for it, is burdensome. As near as I can tell, there is no shortage of food here. The produce is generally plentiful and beautiful. The open air markets teem with people and the spread of seasonal fruits and vegetables is a sight to behold.
  Such is the mysterious, enigmatic riddle of the Honduran economy. I am glad that it is not mine to unravel, though perhaps, as a minister here my task is no less mysterious.

When statistics go bad or Who are you and why are you looking at my blog?

As part of its user settings Blogger provides the user with an array of information about one's blog: number of visits per posting, recommending sites, how people arrive at your blog, etc. Among these details are two pieces of information that I find intriguing, one because it's useless and another because it's vexing.

First, one of the details they provide is what software one's readers are using to look at your site. Now for big time bloggers I suppose that it might be helpful to know what platforms people are using so that you can modify the content to maximize its appearance on that software. But for your average blogger like me it is a useless bit of information, though I admit to being a bit curious as to who it is that uses Linux.

But the other detail is much more tantalizing to me: blogger tells me where (as in what country) people are accessing the blog. Most of this info I find easily explicable. Obviously most of our hits come from the US. Second, not surprisingly, is Honduras. So far so good. Third place goes to Russia. Here I get confused. I have been to Russia but exactly none of the people I met there would care (or be able to) to read this blog. My only conclusion is that the hits come from a former student who spent the semester in Lithuania. THAT might show up as Russia, right?

Fourth place goes to Swaziland. I know that you're thinking that seems more unlikely than Russia, but as it turns out I know that another former student is spending a year working there. Makes sense.

Fifth is Belgium. This is a problem. It is a problem because it means that my sister who lives there is not reading the blog very faithfully. She really should be ahead of Russia and Swaziland.

The next five go like this: Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Czech Republic and France. Each of these has multiple hits and I can't explain any of them. For my sister's sake I hope it means that her internet service provider is periodically assigning her foreign IP addresses. Sounds like something the EU would do. (Though even if I add all those hits to the Belgium count, she still lags behind Russia).

Otherwise...Who are you people and why are you reading this blog?

Fired up, powered down

On and off last evening I was hearing noise from surrounding neighbors and neighborhoods. I didn't think a great deal of it until about 9pm when it rather abruptly got crazy. Fireworks were going off incessantly and people were shouting and screaming. At first I figured that there was some festival or other; I have yet to have a real handle on Honduran holidays--when they are or how they are celebrated. Then it occurred to me that there may be a more simple explanation. A brief search online revealed that Club Deportivo Olimpia had just defeated Real Club Deportivo Espana 2-0 in the League championship (3-0 on home-away aggregate). This was somewhat unexpected I believe, because Real España had dominated in the regular season. Olimpia is based here in Tegus while Real España is from San Pedro Sula, the second largest city in Honduras. Needless to say, fútbol  being the official national religion sport and Olimpia being one of the home town favorites, there were some fired up people in town. 

Though I doubt that there was any relation, last night's excess of energy was followed by a shortage today. For the first time since our arrival, the electricity was intermittent this morning at church. The church has a generator for such circumstances but the noise of the generator and the instability of the electricity it provides made for a different sort of service. Fortunately the congregation did not seem too bothered by it and, as most of my friends know, I have a big enough mouth to make up for the lack of amplification.

As I explained in a previous post, today we also said "Goodbye" to a good friend and fellow minister Jesse. It was good to hear him present his decision to the church and to pray with him and for him. He will be sorely missed but we rejoice with the direction that he is moving for the good of the kingdom.

How my life got better by moving to Honduras

I am sure that one of the first thoughts many people had upon hearing that we were moving to Honduras was to assume that this move would involve a change in quality or comfort of life for us. Our imaginations find it easy to run wild with this sort of speculation about places we have never visited. Tegucigalpa, Honduras sounds remote (but not exotic) and the common assumptions about Central America conjure images of burros laden with sacks of coffee beans on their way to markets made up of colorful tents and awnings festooned with recently beheaded chickens. I will admit that I have seen the beasts of burden (though it was loaded with bottles of soda) and the meat section of the central market is not for the weak of stomach. However, Tegucigalpa is not all that far behind in the services and luxuries that most North Americans regard as necessary for life. In fact, there are distinct ways in which I am living better here in Honduras than I ever have in the states and it is not primarily because of where my salary places me in the Honduran economy (which I don't really know other than that I'm better off than most but far behind many). Let me give a few examples.

• We have a bigger home than we ever have. Except for the year spent house sitting and the year with my parents, this is the largest place we have lived. It is not lavish and the rent is reasonable, but by its layout and design, it is a spacious place. (Except for the kitchen. If both Debbie and I are in the kitchen it is a bit like the circus routine of the guys riding motorcycles inside the spherical cage.)
• We have a bigger and better TV than we ever have. Up until a year ago we were using the 13" TV we bought a year after we got married. I probably wouldn't have spent the same amount on a set in the states but a friend from church was leaving and offered a good deal. (People are coming and going constantly and the speed with which the vultures gather people reach out to support the departing by relieving them of their earthly possessions for rock bottom prices is remarkable.)
• My banking is more convenient than ever. Once we finally got our bank account set up here it is very easy. The online bill pay is more intuitive than any I've used in the states. I can do banking from my cell phone and I don't even have a smart phone.
• Beans and rice are readily available. I love beans and rice. Obviously these things are available in the states but here, virtually every restaurant offers beans and rice as a side dish.
• I have a nicer office than I ever have. The church building is made of brick. This includes the interior. I love brick. My office is brick with two walls of shelves. It is spacious, well ventilated, well lit, and comfortable. I have had other comfortable places to work from in the past but this certainly surpasses them.
• I have a better view than I ever have. Tegucigalpa sits in a valley and is surrounded by verdant hills. We have yet to tire of the scenery, the hills, the play of clouds upon the summits in the morning. This is a beautiful country.

There are probably more I could list, and, of course, there are downsides too, but I will not dedicate a post to them; it would smack too much of complaining. And besides, they are not that significant a part of our lives. We are truly blessed and want you to know it!

Festivities and "Fare thee wells"

Today Union Christian Church celebrated Christmas with a luncheon and a brief service of celebration with singing and special music. Both, I think, were well received. Midway through the lunch we were afraid that we might not have planned for enough food but in the end I think it worked out. The time of singing was brief but I, at least, enjoyed the participation of singers and accompanists. Thank you!

If December 11th seems early to some of you for such a celebration it would help you to know that the coming week is a week of departures for many. Some, whose ministry schedules permit it, have already departed statesward. Between now and next Sunday many more will follow; this especially applies to those of our number who serve in the various schools in town. Most churches experience attendance abnormalities around the holidays. Ours may very well be the reverse of those experienced elsewhere. So today was not just about Christmas cheer it was also a good day to well wish the many who we will not see for a few weeks.

There is one particular farewell that is tinged with more sadness due to its finality. This week the part-time associate pastor of worship, brother, and friend, Jesse, decided to make his long-scheduled visit to the states a permanent move. There is no way to sugarcoat this: it is a real blow to the church body. We are in a bit of shock. It is sort of like those first moments after you tumble down the stairs: you don't know exactly what your injuries are but you are sure you're hurt. I imagine that it will be some time before the church and the leadership fully understand the extent of what we have lost with his departure. He has done much. He has done it well. He has done it graciously. For that we are very thankful.

So our festivities have an air of sobriety about them but hope as well. We sorrow the departure of a friend and fellow-laborer while rejoicing at the warmth and conviviality shared amongst the congregation in our celebration of Christ's birth. We look ahead to the new year with hope and some uncertainty, but also with confidence in the grace of Christ.

Suppose he's house broken?

We discovered this furry little fella in our patio area the other day. He was softer than he looks. A few hours later he was gone and we're not sure where he went.

Catracho Pride

Hondurans, or catrachos as they self-denominate, love their fútbol. This past week has seen some important games between rival teams in the national league. But there is also considerable pride in la selección or national team. Internationally Honduras is currently ranked 54th though they are 5th in their region (CONCACAF) behind México, USA, Jamaica and Panamá. There is a particularly strong rivalry between Honduras and El Salvador for reasons having more to do with politics than soccer. Qualification for the 2014 World Cup in Brasil is underway and Honduras is hopeful to secure a spot though only three from the region are guaranteed spots in the final 32 teams (the fourth place team enters a playoff with a team from another continent for a possible spot).
All this by way of prelude to displaying my Honduran pride with the national team jersey that my wife purchased for me. You know who has been included as gratuitous cuteness.

It's beginning to feel a lot like...Memorial Day.

People frequently ask us how our transition is going. We can answer completely honestly that it has gone very well. We have been healthy, have had relatively few difficulties in establishing a home and various services, and even anticipate that our residency paperwork will go through soon. We are very happy in our home and find our church home equally comfortable.
The only "problem" is that Christmas is 20 days away but my brain thinks it is late spring because the sun shines every day and the temperatures are in the 70s. Having lived almost our entire lives in places where there are four distinct seasons this two-seasons-only-really-differing-in-the-amount-of-rain-that-falls thing will take some getting used to. It was helpful that last week a cold front came through and temperatures dipped occasionally into the 50s. We could pretend that it was autumn. (It was also humorous to see the Hondurans bundling up as if an Arctic blast had struck.)
But if this is the only thing we have to complain about, we're doing pretty well, no?

Picture pages

Several new pictures of the church, congregation, and worship service have been posted at Union's facebook page. See them here. Enjoy!