TACA 390

(UPDATE 2) The more I think about it, see, and hear, five people dead...it could have been much higher given the circumstances: Had the plane gone just a little further, many homes would now be gone. Had the 2,000 gallons of fuel ignited, well, obviuosly things could have been different. The word still is that larger flights will be forced to use the US/Honduras military base in Comayagua for the new airport. The mass confusion, problems, and inconveniences are beyond my current imagination.

(UPDATE...those that know Brendy, from our Church that used to translate some for groups, and works for TACA as a flight attendant, she was on board the plane, transported to the hospital, and although beaten and shaken up she should be dispatched from the hospital "soon."

I am not sure where to start. Yes, TACA flight 390 from El Salvador (an Airbus plane somewhat similar to a Boeng 737 that Continental flies) did in fact over shoot the runway when trying to land this morning and, although CNN is reporting "stopped" on a road...it in fact is a fall over 20-30 feet down from the runway to that road. The plane did not just slide off a little...it fully went off the runway and to the road below....from the cliff that marks the end of the runway, it lay approximately another 20 meters.

CNN is also reporting fog and other weather conditions might have played a factor. I saw no fog here all morning, and although it has been raining, it has not been raining hard at all, and at the time might have been just light rain at most. Local media is reporting the pilots had reported they had mechanical problems (not confirmed as of this writing).

At this time, two deaths have been reported, but as you can imagine facts are few at this point. (including the husband of someone from Valerie's Bible study group, and the pilot or copilot, one of the two) Supposedly 18 injuries. I saw several cars under the plane, not sure if anyone was hurt there or not.

Yes...I said "I saw." The power went out, Oscar called me, and Soren and I went immediately to see what was going on. The scene was for the most part handled by the time we got there (walking...traffic was and will be a mess, but the traffic police did a good job to reroute people quickly) Unlike the US, all of (you can see we were not alone in the pictures) crossed the yellow tape, and I was probably 20-30 meters from the plane. If you got too close the police would handle it, but there was a line allowed, and people everywhere, just like for when there are car crashes, homicides, etc. here. The mood was remarkable...not much concern, lots of laughing, staring, picture taking (a few thousand while I was there) etc. but it was somewhat surreal, as you might be able to imagine.

Talk is now that they will move all the big plane traffic to Comayagua...I do not know if that is temporary for the accident, or permament. That could impact us quite a bit, since that airport is one and a half hours from us, and everyone else in Tegucigalpa. That airport is currently a military airport.

I should note for those in the US that will undoubtedly see this and be worried...I would have no qualms personally to board a Continental or American plane such as those that the groups come down on, today if given the opportunity to land here in Teguc again. This is the first accident like this since the US Air Force C130 did something simliar almost 11 years ago (which was attributed to crew error in assesing how to land at this particular airport....which does require special training for Continental and American pilots (I would assume but do not know for sure about TACA pilots.)

I took two videos as well (the ringing bell is a guy trying to sell ice cream...believe it or not)

This is showing where the plane is, and the height from the end of the runway from whence it fell.

Poll results

Well, I guess I am glad I put the poll about our email address up on the blog!

Despite most thinking that we have that email address due to my excellent Rook playing skills (they are good perhaps, probably not great)...if you scroll down to the bottom of the blog (which I am guessing almost no one does) you would see Sharkie.

I cooked up the email address rookshark@hotmail.com almost ten years ago. I liked playing rook, but because of chess, rook@ was already taken. I thought of Sharkie, our faithful Rook mascot while I was trying to come up with an email address that would not add some long string of meaningless numbers before it would be accepted (I believe rook285@hotmail was available…rolls right off the tongue, eh?) and tried rookshark, and it was accepted, so it stuck. The fact of being a card shark being taken as the meaning did not occur to me until much later when it was suggested back to me “oh, you are a rook master eh?” Uh, not exactly. One thing that makes it really work is that once you hear it, it does seem to be easy to remember.

How did Sharkie become the mascot? Long story: Honduras trip late 90s, Rook playing until 2:30AM daily, stuffed animals donated, mischievous Rook player (my partner Stan Nicholson) uses shark + Jaws theme to have said shark drop key card to defeat opponents (I was as shocked as they were…only somewhat pleasantly), opponents seek to destroy shark rest of the trip...mascot born, somehow with me ending up holding onto him for, quite likely, way too long a period of time.

Enfermo

Is there any connection with the word sick in Spanish to the word for hell? I wonder. Enfermo...infierno. Probably not, and being sick, I do not have the inclination to look it up one way or another.

Besides my casual interest in the connection, make no mistake...hell is much worse. So much worse, it is beyond my total comprehension.

That being said, being sick is no fun either, although I have been given pause to thank God for my otherwise good health, the money to afford the food that made me sick (I know exactly what it was...since I saw it twice, if you get my drift) and plenty of time on the floor to increase my prayer time.

I did have plenty of time to think of the perfect sermon illustration for how needing to vomit is representative of being dead in sin before regeneration. Hmmm, that would have to be a very specific crowd to appreciate it.

Better to be sick this week than next I suppose, with the group arriving. Now I can pray better for good health for the next 2 1/2 months when they will all be here.

Interesting day

Well, we had another robbery, or attempted robbery today. Upon trying to open one of the containers this morning, Oscar discovered someone had jimmied the lock and went to great pains for it to look like they had not entered (probably to gain entrance again tonight with more friends or great ability to take what was inside) If they took anything, it was hard to tell. We just unloaded the container last week, and amongst the boxes of shoes and such, was the donated electrical supplies we just got. Ugh. Our "security guard"/construction worker that was there over night? So says he...heard nothing. Somewhat hard to believe, and we will need to make a change on that front, when we get the other guys back from Sampedrana (a sick daughter prevented them from returning last night.) And an upswing of graffiti on the walls around the property, which is not that much fun (some related to soccer, some of unknown origin...for some reason they did not leave their contact information.)

The Ford is in the shop...or rather in the yard next to the mechanic's shop (a former neighbor of Oscar's). Trying to get it in prime shape and a check up before the groups get hot and heavy. It was...conflicting to see how he changed the oil when I stopped by to drop off some money (not enough) for a broken, literally broke in half, piece of the steering mechanism. I decided not to ask, but the black slick running down the road (a dirt road, so the oil was keeping the dust down) gave me the impression they might have just opened the flood gate. "I could have managed that" I thought.

Work continues around the clinic at a frenzied pace...a latrine money was left to build from the last group, done. Work finally starting on Hayde's new house (although slowly with foundations and such) not to mention continuing on the new clinic, and continuing organizing and improving the man cave, while keeping all the stuff we will have to have when the time comes for the new clinic, and the remodeling of the mission house. It sounds like not that big of a deal, but will take a couple women a day or more. Not to mention that we will need all that space this week to completely unload the two containers we have to move to make room for the new clinic construction (for the crane to pick them up and place them properly...they have to be empty, and every one we have right now is in some state of fullness.)

It might sound crazy, confused, or sad...but you should see the smile on my face. I do not have to tell you where that smile comes from, do I?

Hard to imagine

Valerie shared with me tales of her day seeing patients.

Several items of technical interest to us, but probably not to you (care to have a discussion about the fovea?)

One story hit me though, and to be honest I have seen similar situations, but it is still hard for one to imagine the impact.

Valerie has been seeing member after member of a family that started with the older mother, her mother, her kids....all with glaucoma. Almost as an after thought yesterday, they wanted the 13 year old grand daughter seen due to some recent vision loss.

The girl could remember the exact date about two months ago that her vision decreased (from what was probably normal to 20/200) Valerie did the exam, and then had to give her the news that there was a problem with her macula (the part of your retina that helps you see to read, watch TV...pretty much everything except periphary vision) and that she would most likely never see any better out of that eye.

Tears followed.

Giving news like that, especially in the medical system here, usually involves an emotional disconnect, and almost always a spiritual one.

We may not have the answers as to the why, but we know the who, and that is ultimately all the answer we as Christians need. Sharing that in those beyond imaginable difficult times, is an incredible privledge...and responsibility.

Prayer requests, and other items

1. Victor. For those that know him, he spent the night with us last night...he has had severe problems with his family for quite some time, and things have come to a head and he had to leave. Pray he would find somewhere to live, and for stability in his life (and finding work)

2. Lilian. She has been having her own problems, and some things we suspect lately as well. We plan to talk to her about this tomorrow. Pray for her and us...for honesty, comprehension, and love in what and how we speak.

3. Clinic staff...and all mission staff. With the rising prices of...everything (electricity rates have gone up 120% this month, an article in the paper today talked of a woman contemplating suicide just at the sight of her new bill...construction materials are going up 15% per month, rice, beans, milk, etc.) it is harder for the salaries they receive to allow them to make ends meet. We are working on ways we can try to help in the long term, but pray that the short term we will have ways to help, discernment about what to do, and for planning

4. Praise...today the first rains in quite some time came to Tegucigalpa, even if for only fifteen minutes (where I was...Valerie said the clinic only got a brief sprinkle.) It was enough for us to see several leaks in our roof already painting their interesting trails on the walls and have bugs literally crawling/flying out of the woodwork.

Random things

I suppose they are not random in the strictest sense, but I use that term just to annoy Valerie, which when you really know her, is actually not hard to do. I suppose being annoying to begin with might help.

People sometimes ask...boy, those Fords take a beating! I will bet you go through (tires, brakes, shocks, etc.) every six months! Hmmm, not exactly a question, but close enough. Those brilliant manual transmissions help control the brake usage (better to use the motor than the brakes to ensure safe arrival), and here you see a picture of one of the Fords with its new tires. Tires last about two years here if you are fortunate (and assuming you do not want to drive on bald tires...which happens quite often here) and the last set had given the white truck almost 2 1/2. I figure roughly we got perhaps 20,000 miles or so out of them. Given where we drive...I was more than satisfied. We downgraded from mud to all terrains, paid less than 2 1/2 years ago, and bought ten tires (those spares...uh, were quite spare) Gulp. It was a big purchase, but needed with all the groups quickly approaching.

Second, poor Sisko really should not have gone out the night before. Really, he should not have been sleeping peacefully when Soren was bored and got the idea this would be funny. Soren was right though...and Sisko slept like that for another half hour easy. He is a good cat...he takes the kids picking him up (awkwardly at best) playing rough with him...you get the idea, without scratching or fighting, well, most of the time. I actually encourage him to teach the kids a lesson, but better his restraint I suppose.


I was reminded today that I have not seen a blue sky in some time. I was reminded because I actually saw it. The picture here gives you a glimpse of not even a normal beautiful blue sky (not bad, but not clear and crisp) and immediately to the right what has been normal for the last month or so....the haze. I am so used to having haze this time of year, it did not even occur to me how hazy it was, until the sky parted briefly. Why parted? Jet stream? I do not know. It was a sight to behold however. I prefer the blue sky...for several reasons. For those interested, my running has not been affected with the smoke, although someone else I know said she felt a little shorter of breath as of late running. I suppose it is not terribly surprising.

Another panel in the wall

Greetings all,

I wanted to send out the latest pictures of the container wall almost completed. The second container is in place, and there is just a little extra that Lakota's generous donation did not cover that is left to be done. Add that to the fact that the Sherwood Oaks group we believe officially finished the pre-fab concrete portion of the walls...and that means we are done, yes? Finishing up the last portion of the container wall should be wrapped up and finished hopefully within a week. The extra good news is that we are seeing the Church take a hand in completing the fencing work. They are going to put up a gate at that bottom corner entrance, will handle repairs and modifications to the bus entrance gate, and be putting up a tall closely spaced barbed wire fence along the front of the property and continue the rock wall to some extent down along the soccer field as well. That frees up resources and time for us to tackle new jobs, like helping continue the ditch near the soccer field (to in turn help the status of the road) and get our containers better situated for the soon to be started new Church meeting place to be built. We will not have to move them far, but two of them are in the way (see Oscar Jorge and Jorge as we went to measure the currently buried fourth corner of the building? The meeting place I believe is to be 35 meters by 20 meters...something like that)

The new clinic is now getting some walls on the inside going. Once they are done (with all the minutiae of outlets, sinks and such laid out) then the roof will come next and while that is being put up we can get the guys currently living in the little wood shed into sleeping in the clinic where they can keep a better eye on things, as well as have some more space where to sleep.

With the groups left to come this summer, hopefully we will finish filling in that container wall (yes...people still crawl under it to get back and forth) at least start the ditch continuations, as well as get to help with some construction in San Juancito getting the new floor into the Church building there in preparations for that to begin being used full time, and the process of turning the pastorship from Celeo to Jonatan, which will take a few months as Jonatan is also working on getting the Church in Cantaranas started as well.

I fall into the same trap as other humans....we get excited by what we can see with our eyes (or with our eyes by seeing pictures) of the construction and such (including that great new soccer field in Sampedrana beginning the long road to hopeful completion), which is great, but by no means the only work going on in the mission. Valerie continues to do a great job at the clinic under less than ideal circumstances. The staff as well is perservering even with the rising cost of....just about everything. The usual asking for raises just because it seems right is one thing, but when it is hard to feed your family, or put your kids through school. It hurts. And Valerie working and struggling spiritually with them on a daily basis makes it hard for her too.

Monday?

Wow, time does not fly, but it sure goes by rather quickly, yes?

Today we distributed corn to support the Church in San Juancito. We split up into four different groups and go to see quite a few people that were blessed and thankful God sent us. In addition we got to see the continuing construction of the new Church building. Seeing the women and children there today sorting and carrying sand...and working hard in the hot sun, was humbling and encouraging...to see that much effort being put in to have something the body there can call their own.

After souvenir shopping, and a nice liquado, it was time for supper out at El Patio once again...where I still maintain the best steaks available are found. For some, steak was not enough, and we found ourselves quickly at Baskin Robbins/Dunken Donuts for them to feed their fix....some people's fix was smaller than others.

The group is tired, worn out, exhausted, but I trust encouraged and ready for new challenges as they travel back challenged to take what God has given them here to change them there...and every where. I suppose being tired means they worked very hard, physically, spiritually, and emotionally.

Did I miss a day?

Saturday was heading out to Guasucaran for a clothing distribution, and then back to the property for Youth Group. Long day, but good.

Today was Church, and then after some relaxing we headed out to Cantaranas to go door to door for a while to invite people to a movie (we showed Left Behind) projected on the side of a school after it got dark. We headed back...with a stop for fast food at 9:30, and that made for...yes, another very full day.

My literary desires to ramble on have decreased as my sleepyness has increased. Time for me to head to bed.

Hostilpital

Today we were out to visit one of the public hospitals here in Tegucigalpa, specifically the one that serves as the primary point of entry to the hospital system for the entire country. Mostly we visited children...children with hydroencephalitis (spelling error possibility #1 of possibly...many), mylo...phalitis, cancer, surgery, physical therapy, orthopedics (falling out of trees, being run over by cars, etc.), dialysis, brain tumors...you name it, little kids have it. Giving some encouragement, toys, and most importantly...love and planting seeds for Christ, with the parents and the children.

Then came moving huge pieces of metal for the wall construction. Thankfully the wall should be put up soon, and I am sure the group is thankful someone else is going to do it. It was a very hot day. So naturally then we did corn distribution for 20 familes. That is 1,200 pounds of corn distributed to some extemely financially poverty stricken families. Praise God for the corn, for sending us, and for His name being shared with those families.

Then plans came up out of the blue to take a quick trip for the group to experience a Honduran mall. Other than some minor differences...a mall is a North American concept, so they are fairly similar...although I am sure they noted all the differences that are second nature to me.

Break your heart

Today was our trip to La Oki for clothing distribution, and afterwords heading to see the Church in Sampedrana and the new soccer field. On the way back we planned to do some corn distribution with corn Gender already had up there.

The clothing distribution was less than we were anticipating due to the school teacher's lack of communication to the community. We got to see the new field though, which looks....incredible already even without the walls and fence we will eventually get put up. The group quickly seized the opportunity to play frisbee on the relatively pristine surface.

Distributing the corn was heart breaking. We started breaking up into smaller groups and into a few different homes. I went with one of the groups, and we went into a small, dark, very warm home where a woman was with her four year old son. I asked her some standard questions to get to know her, and then she told me of how her six year old daughter had just recently died from malnutrition. The doctors had prescribed enfamil (or something similiar) but they had no money to buy such expensive "medicines." I stood there, ready to pray as I have before to people in difficult circumstances, and it was as if the Holy Spirit inside me just let me know...you are going to cry for her while you pray. I stopped, mustered my composure, said "let's pray" and knew from before the first word. We finished a very emotional and God directed prayer suffering and mourning with her, reminding ourselves of God's sovereignty in this world and over all us. Whew. Then we finished and she asked me to pray again, her mother also just died in the last month.

Anyone live near you? Yes, my brother and his family. So off we went with another bag of corn. We get to the home...and the "woman" in charge was six years old, watching her three year old sister, not to mention the chickens and pigs in their very small house. Add that to the fact that they had a radio and the song playing was one special to me for many reasons "More than Words" and I was ready to cry all over again.

Emotional day for everyone...several such stories abounded. God is working in us. Praise be to Him for that....may that be used to glorify him more here in Honduras, in Bloomington...and to the ends of the earth.

Amen.

Construct Bob, construct!

Ah, those wacky pre-fab walls we put up. Thankfully we are done with that project that began almost two and a half years ago. I remember thinking then that it could take us years, and here we are. The only stage left to do is that of the container mounting which should be completed in the next few days. But for now, no more buying pre-fab concrete. The group was a great help in these last few sections...some of the toughest since we were plugging holes.

With a group so big and willing to work and work hard, there were plenty of projects and people split up and all around the property...on the two distinct wall projects, cleaning out the ditch to get ready for the rainy season, taking seven dumptrucks of fill material and getting it all into the new clinic to raise the level closer to what it needs to be, and some minor but much needed painting on some rusting important parts. Take that into account with the men working on the container wall, and finishing the installation of the new garage door openers...and it has been a busy place.

And as can be seen from just this one picture, again all projects are OSHA approved. As long as you undertand OSHA stands for Opportunities for

Serving Him Always.

I think they are working hard though...this was taken at lunch. I believe they did eat before sacking out for a nap.

Raise the fill

Work began again today with the SOCC group. We used them to help begin the fill of the new clinic, and putting more of the finishing touches (uh, there are several more to touches but they all should be completed soon) of the wall around the property. Pictures to come (I am too tired to walk down and get the camera) but already they are proving to be a hard working and quickly integrating group.

Golfayagua

Long story short...Valerie has been a bit frazzled as of late, so much going on, stresses, stretching, she needed to get away. So, we found ourselves in Comayagua (not exactly a long way away, but far enough.) Due to some brief googling, we stayed at the Comayagua Golf Club. With a night's stay, we had access to play as much golf as we liked. Granted, there was no practice area with buckets of balls, and it had been ten years (back in Biloxi) since we had played, so we got quite a bit of excercise looking for our balls along the way....the few of them that we had purchased. Six balls got us through 8 1/2 holes, and it took almost three hours or more to accomplish. (8 1/2 because of the nasty water hazard on the 9th hole and our lack of practice.)

So, we played, relaxed, and hopefully refreshed, as a group of 23 arrives today. Two weeks after they leave, the gauntlet falls and we host the seven groups almost in a row, from June 2nd through August 9th.

Pray we can get some diesel here today. There has been a big shortage the last probably five days. With the group coming today...it would be nice to have them riding in the vehicles instead of pushing them.

Running the risk

I have I told you about the recent protests, both violent and peaceful here? I will not be an alarmist or exagerate what is happening (there are enough people out there doing that already) but it is enough to say that some people are unhappy with the corruption, fuel prices, food prices, and for those that are just looking for a reason to hit the streets to join whomever might be there.

So, I got the bright idea last month to deliberately take a run after seeing the tear gas, beatings, etc. and head for that area, despite the US embassy's warnings to the contrary (one would think people would not have to be warned about crossing lines or trying to drive through protests, but alas it is necessary.) Also, the violence is not widespread, and if one is careful, these things are relatively easily avoided. All that to say...I am not trying to scare you or say it is not any less safe (than it has been...Honduras still has either one of, or the outright title, for highest murder rate per capita in the world. For some reason that is not on our tourist posters.)

I was not quite as stupid as it sounds, and only fully broached the area when I was sure that most of the bad stuff had passed. One advantage for me runner (instead of us runners since I have not seen anyone else doing this) is that the police usually close the road allowing me to run in places I would not otherwise be able to do...at least not without being run over. I get enough looks running on a normal day...running through a march of sorts only adds to that.

I unknowingly almost stumbled into a protest on Tuesday again. I was heading downtown, and upon getting closer, I noticed traffic backing up. It is hard to resist passing stopped traffic, since you feel faster than you are. I could not see the reason for the back up, and then passing an intersection, I looked down just one block, and there they were. I turned the other direction to go by the stadium, otherwise near the congress building there were students (like 10-15 years old) throwing rocks, and generally causing mayhem.

And then today is a holiday here, Honduran labor day. I hit the streets mostly to take advantage of reduced traffic, but soon found myself avoiding another march. Not violent...at least not that I have heard, but it did cause me to change my route...and gave me another time to pass quite a bit of stopped traffic....and at least a 1/2 mile of open road. With the smokey haze everywhere, and the most heat we have had this year this week, it was a dehydrating, interesting, physical run.