Thursday, March 11

Our group went to the agricultural school and farm today, and so our group of sisters nominated me for the blog since I grew up on a farm and was the most keen on all the agricultural school activities. (Yes, as a former Sullivan County Tennessee Dairy Princess, the group felt I could fill y`all in on our farm adventure.)

The agricultural school is about an hour outside Tegucigalpa, and the drive was lovely. Mountainous roads with gorgeous views of (very dry) pine forests, mostly. We visited a small city near the farm, called Telanga, which has about 45,000 residents. It is fairly prosperous, with a middle class we haven´t seen much in our part of Tegucigalpa. Lots of low-slung houses covered with adobe or stucco, painted in pastels or whilte-washed with lime, with terra cotta tile roofs. The roads aren´t paved, which must be tough in the rainy season, but it is a charming town. The church is lovely, located in the center of town, and facing the town´s central park. The only huge line was at the dentist´s office. With no national health at all, and only three per cent of the population insured, health care is pretty hard to come by.

The farm and school are beautiful. The farm is (I hope I heard right) over 375 hectares, and they grow many crops. We heard corn, beans, potatoes, and carrots, and saw a huge herb garden. They have chickens for laying, supplying all the eggs for the school, and probably some of the meat. They also have a few ducks and turkeys. There are seven horses, several goat and sheep, and a herd of dairy cows. (Sorry vegetarians, but the word in the kitchen is that the cows are used both for leche and for carne--all the meat comes from the farm.) The boys work on the farm all morning (though this is the driest and least productive season--planting is in May, with the harvests in July, August, September). The lads clean up and have their main meal at noontime, then spend the afternoon in classes.

Suzanne got to meet her godson or sponsee, Carlos Jesus, and they had a wonderful talk together. We also spent some time with Liz Kinchen´s lad, who spoke most eloquently to our group. Claudia, as usual, did lots of translating. Last year, she had a run in with a dread perro negro, or most fierce black dog, so she says she was glad to miss the farm tour. All we saw were very friendly (albeit skinny) farm dogs, some adorable puppies and a not very aggressive black goat.

The boys have, as Raul says, rural manners. They are courtly and respectful to a fault.

On the way home, we stopped at the Tegucigalpa Marriott (unmistakable, no matter where they are) to look at some pottery made by indigenous women, that, it is hoped, might be used as part of a fundraiser. It was most disorienting to go from El Hogar to the farm, then to a posh hotel all in one day. It was a sort of dissonance to remember our own privilege.

Celia is coordinating the beautiful pillows the sewing team at Epiphany made, and the kids absolutely loved them. We bought the last pillows to go in the cases made at Epiphany this afternoon, another bit of dissonance, as we stopped by a glittering mall only a few blocks from the deep poverty in our neighborhood at El Hogar.

We´re almost finished with the garden. Anne and Susan have done a huge amount of work today, and have the last of the plants laid in, and Betsy and Jenny are painting the wall--although, like Tom Sawyer, our painting crews seem to attract boys who take the brushes from our hands and leave us with nothing to do. The rest of us are hauling water for the new plants. Kara and Jenny´s windows are all done, and the wrought iron screens went in today. Cory and Celia´s painting of the computer lab is finished, and they had a teacher´s meeting today in the pristine, white room.

Soccer and cards tonight, and maybe some reading with the kids, the best part of the day. I´m off for supper, which, I suspect might involve some sort of beans, eggs, and tortillas. Just a hunch. Love to all our loved ones at home and many thanks to our prayer partners from Epiphany.

Paz,
Scottie Wagner