Gross

Yesterday I participated in a necessary but disgusting part of a working cattle ranch. Gustavo, Olman, Wilson, Samuel, Bartolo and I stole the manhood from about 20 young bulls. I actually cut and removed once! The men were excited though becuase apparently "huevos de toro" are a delicacy around here. They even ate some of the smaller ones raw- right there- with salt and lime juice.... dont you wish you had been there?
Molly

Being a Researcher….

The past two days I have been working on the ranch with Dylan and some others on the ranch to help them finish up the corn study that Dylan has been working on all summer. It was exciting to get to see the final product after helping to work on it some this summer. I got to help direct guys with machetes on which stalks of corn to cut down at random and carry them to where they would be counted and weighed and some would but put into the shredder and turned into feed. One of my favorite parts surprisingly was helping to shuck the corn because I never knew what I was going to find in each ear, some had odd deformities and some were beautiful shades or purple and yellow, it was just like opening presents at Christmas…well almost…haha. But it was also really neat to know that I have been able to a be a part of a much bigger project and idea that is going to eventually help the people of Las Palmas produce the best corn that they can to use and sell for cattle feed and for people to eat.

---Kenz

More Adventures on the Ranch….

This weekend I got a chance to have a lot of firsts on the ranch. On Saturday I went with Emily and Shanna to feed the baby calves. When we went up to collect the milk in the bottles for the babies they were milking the cows and they let me have a try at it. It was my first time ever and it was exciting for me because I have never been that close to a cow before this summer, much less milked a cow. It was fun, and it wasn’t too hard after you got the aiming thing down, but it was a bit of an arm workout. After getting to feed the baby calves we decided to go for a horse ride and then a picnic up to a place on the ranch called Pride Rock. The horse ride was a lot of fun because we got to take the river trail and certain parts of the trail that we rode through seemed like something straight from an old western movie. After our horse ride, we got to have our lunch up on Pride Rock. The view from it is stunning; it’s so high up that you can see almost the entire ranch. I wanted to take a picture of it of course, but because I couldn’t seem to capture the whole view in one picture, so I just didn’t take one at all. And after our rejuvenating lunch, we all took a nice refreshing walk back in the rain to wind down another adventurous day on the ranch.

--Kenz

Riding Horses

Saturday was my first time ever riding a horse. I have to say that I absolutely loved it! I was scared at first…the horses seemed so big compared to me. However, with a little help I got on the horse despite my fears. Once I was on the horse Emily taught me some basic ways to control him. After that we were on our way. We went through a wonderful trail. It had so many beautiful views and I was able to enjoy the beauty of the ranch. It was such a peaceful experience and I got to enjoy it with the great friends I have made!

~Christie

Corny Pictures (ahaaa!!)

Check out these sweet pics! This first picture is one of the butt-huge ears of corn that we saw and plucked, complete with a few little ears growing out of the same spot. They were some of the biggest ears of corn I've ever seen.

This second picture is one of the really beautiful views afforded one by being in the corn patch---the misty highlands of southern Honduras! Just about everywhere you turn on the ranch, there are breathtaking views! I've had many-a-moment where I felt like I was back home in Wyoming (minus the palm trees, of course). But my all-time favorite view spot of the summer is at the top of Pride Rock. Pride Rock is this big, tall rock escarpment close to the big house at the top of the ranch. It also happens to be one of the very few points on the ranch where you can see all down into the big valley down to the intern house, as well as all the way to the big valley on the other side of the mountains where the main highway to San Marcos is. Plus, there are huge, smooth rocks up there that aren't covered with a ton of thorny brush, and are perfect for chilling on and eating a picnic lunch. Nevertheless, this isn't a picture of Pride Rock, but it's still a pretty picture from where the corn plots are.

This next picture is a picture of the actual corn patch. You can see the different plots and how they are separated from one another by a little bit of space. At the top of the picture is where the little river is near the corn. The whole thing is nestled in a beautiful little valley, surrounded by verdant hills and mountains. There's also a little swinging wooden bridge that spans the river, and it was my favorite spot to eat a sack lunch, chilling out on the bridge and listening to the water trickling below. It's really relaxing and a nice break from measuring corn!

And finally, here's the ubiquitous corn guy---me decked out in all of my Honduras- and corn-etched glory, the utilitarian garb of the sun-drenched, the sweat-drenched, and the poop-drenched. Anyway, this is a picture I took as a size-comparison for my professor. Look how huge those corn stalks are! It's the tallest corn I've ever seen! So, I got a picture with it, of course. And, yes, I went on a safari after the picture was taken.

-- Dylan Wann

El Fin

The corn research is finished! Well, for the most part. Dr. Kent Gallaher and his dad, Raymond, came down this last Sunday to stay for a couple days and finish the rest of the data-collecting that needed to be done on the corn-only study. And, man, it was nice to see a familiar face, too! Dr. Gallaher (Dr. "G") is one of my professors in the Ag department at ACU, and was the one who set up all this entire research study with Mission Lazarus. And, his dad is a retired agronomist who taught at the University of Florida. So, they came out to the ranch and were all jacked up about the corn. Raymond was the one who had developed all of the different varieties of corn through years and years of experimentation with all different kinds of corn, in order to produce varieties that would produce higher yields in this climate than the local corn varieties. And according to our research, he was successful! We pulled off ears of corn that were almost as long as Dr. G's forearm (and he's butt-tall, so he's got some long forearms). They were, like, monster ears of corn! So, that was really exciting to see, even if it was just corn. That means that Mission Lazarus can start producing those kinds of corn in large quantities, and it will be very high-quality corn to boot.

Thus, the last couple of days, for me, have consisted of going through all that I had done already in the corn with the Gallahers, and then cutting a lot of corn down and weighing it. We ended up harvesting certain-numbered plants out of each variety of corn in all four plots (128 varieties in all, or 32 x 4), then counting the ears, and finally weighing them to get a weight for each variety for comparison. Then, we went back through and selected a few plants from each variety again from only one plot (32 in all), chopped them, then weighed the plants only (without the ears). After that, we weighed the ears with the plant matter. This gives us the weight of the actual ears of each plant compared to the weight of the plant by itself. From this comparison, we can figure out what percentage of the total plant consisted of just the ears. Now, all we have to do is wait for the samples we collected to be dried at Zamarano (an ag college close to Tegucigalpa), and then we will do the same weight measurements again for the dry-weights. Yeah!

Anyway, that probably is TMI for anyone who wasn't involved with the study. But, upon seeing the massive ears of corn coming off of some of those plants, it's exciting for anyone to know that those kinds of ears will be available very soon for Mission Lazarus to grow for human food and animal food. And it will soon be available for locals to grow for food, too, which is even more exciting! So, this is the most recent chronicle from the corn guy, who is excited to be finished with the research, but more excited to see what will come from it. Corn is cool! It's cornool!

-- Dylan Wann

Some Coffee and Jacobo

The other day, Jacobo decided to take us up to the coffee plantation. I would just like to say that it was a lot of fun. We moved a lot of coffee plants (about 500 I think) that needed to be planted, and got to hang out with Jake for a day. Also, Natosha got this super nasty cut right next to her eye due to the barbed wire that was above our heads. I'm really sad that he left. Jake was awesome with all the ranch stuff, and he did a ton of really great things while he was here. He just got a job in Iowa, and I hope that he enjoys every minute of it. I would like to thank him for teaching Natosha and me the entire coffee process and letting us see all the cool things that go on up there. This post is nowhere near profound in any way. It's just my simple experience with some coffee plants and a great guy named Jake. I can tell he'll really be missed here.

-Tristan McPherson

Christmas

A majority of my day was devoted to translating for a corn experiment. 35 years ago an indian corn sample made its way back from Guatemala to the U.S.A. and was genetically improved. In 2007, a ton of different varieties were planted and now have fully matured, in some samples, to nearly 4 times this size of the indian corn. Every two rows of corn the variety changed, sooo..when we went to shuck the corn, it felt like Christmas time! You never knew what would be unveiled. The presents included gold corn, bug covered corn, indian corn, gold corn with purple kernels, and all sorts of exciting combinations. Don't try to eat it though, its pretty tough.

Seth

La Hacienda

Beauty surrounds me. A creation that defies words. What a location for a children's home. Three phases with 10 houses per phase, 10 kids per house: 300 kids who will grow to know Christ and who's quality of life will improve because of God's wonderful love, grace, and mercy.

Trees, grass, streams, mountains, thick, green vegetation...the deepest green I've ever seen. It is gorgeous. Crops of corn, tomatoes, beans, horses and cows, so much of God's creation is easily visible here at Refugio Mision Lazaro. There is so much too learn from this place...carpentry, agriculture, zoology (I caught a boa constrictor this morning), masonry and so much more.

I am truly amazed at all that God is doing for Honduras through this mission. I hope and pray that it continues to touch lives and hearts just as it has mine.

Seth

10 reasons why Samuel is so cool

10. He´s a real cowboy.
9. He lives on a ranch.
8. He eats calf fries.
7. He could kill Chuck Norris.
6. He knows how to use a lasso, and use it well.
5. He wears chaps.
4. He wears spurs.
3. He carries a gun.
2. He´s the only person in the world who can sport a ´stache and still be cool.
1. He wears chaps.

natosha

tarantulas and the like...

what makes a tarantula so repulsive? maybe it's the size. insects shouldn't be that size. maybe it's the hair on the legs... everyone prefers smooth legs, we know that. i generally really really really dislike spiders and all creatures of the arachnid genre, but for some reason tarantulas aren't that bad. maybe because they are more like small animals. fuzzy and warm. killing a tarantula is kinda like killing a mouse, i would suspect, though i haven't tried...either

we had the pleasure of seeing two such furry creatures guarding our back door at the ranch not too long ago. quite an adventure. and during our medical brigade in duyure, i had the opportunity of chatting with one in the bathroom stall. as soon as i sat down to do my business, i noticed her about two inches from my right foot. i thought about moving, but decided it was against my better judgement. we had a nice little discussion about how i didn't think tarantulas were harmful to people and then i was on my way. does anybody really know?

all this to say... really, tarantulas, though they might not be as pretty as we'd like them to be, they're not so bad and why should we be so afraid?

natosha

Attack of the Baby Cows

To everyone who thinks that baby cows are not to be feared, you are quite mistaken. We went to feed the baby cows their bottles the other day, a quite innocent activity, until we were ravagely attacked by the older, more mature baby cows. At first, I thought that I was going to be eaten alive by a cow. As I was holding a bottle, a cow came and clamped down on my arm….I screamed, and feared for my life, I didn’t know what was happening. I tried beating the cow off with my arm and the bottle, but nothing worked. (That's Natosha above beating a baby cow over the head with the milk bottle to keep it from attacking me.) He came back and got my arm again, but this time I noticed that he was biting, but merely sucking. I was being mistaken for an udder. Eventually we were able to fight the cows off and give the babies their milk. We were terrified at first, but eventually we couldn’t stop laughing at the cows and their desire to suck on us.

-Emily

Bees

Wednesday morning as several of us were enjoying a nice cake for breakfast, Jake relayed the exciting news that some of us were going to be able to help him try to harvest honey from his bees. When I heard this, I was as happy as a fat kid in a candy store. I love adventures, especially once in a lifetime type ones, an I just knew that this was going to be one to remember. So, Shanna, Natosha, and I piled in Jake’s truck and make the long trek up to the coffee plantation. It was a bumpy ride, but, as always, full of beautiful scenery. Fortunately, I was sitting in the back, so I didn’t have to open any gates J When we made it to the top, we were kind of waiting a few minutes for Jake to get everything ready, and I was standing on this thin concrete curb type thing, and almost fell off the mountain. Bit of exaggeration, but I did almost fall. I was also excited because I was wearing my cool boots, and that’s probably why I tripped, because I’m not used to wearing things with heels. So, it was finally time to don the bee suits. There were only 2, so we had to take turns. Jake got to wear one, of course, and I was lucky enough to be the first of us girls to put on the suit and play with the bees. I had to put on a full body suit, gloves with sleeves that went all the way up my arms, and the head net. I felt quite protected, which is a powerful feeling. I was in charge of the smoker, which was a high responsibility. As Jake opened the first hive, we discovered that there was no honey!! Apparently there aren’t really any flowers in bloom, so the bees have been eating the honey themselves. Anyhow, we continued to venture into the depths of the hive, and what did we find?!? Well, we found a fat ole lizard at the bottom of the hive. Jake picked it up by the tail, and then it tried to bite him, so Jake flicked his tail and the lizard’s body flew off, with the tail jiggling in Jake’s hand. Meanwhile, Shanna and Natosha were waiting patiently to put on the bee suit, so as I went to go let one of them have a turn, disaster struck!! Jake had a hole in his suit and bees had gotten into his head net!! I ran back to try and grab the smoker, but it was too late…Jake was being stung over and over again. We could hear his wails of pain echo through the woods. I eventually caught up to Jake, shot him a little smoke, then started taking off my suit to give it to Shanna. As soon as I had removed my gloves and head net, bees started swarming Natosha’s head. They were all stuck in her hair, so we had to use the gloves to remove the bees. As soon as those bees had cleared, I noticed Jake’s hole and went to help him fix it, then the bees started attacking me. I could feel them fly by my face, and I could hear nothing but the buzzing, so I did the only thing that I could, and I started running. As I ran, I could feel the bitter stings of these killer honeybees. Natosha was running with me, and we didn’t know where to go, we were surrounded!! All of a sudden, Don Perfecto seemingly popped out of nowhere to save us. We ran to the house at the coffee plantation, but the door was locked. We were getting desperate and time was running out. Finally we got the door open and were able to make our way inside. Finally we were safe.

-Emily

from coop to nuggets...how to kill a chicken

have you ever wondered how those little nuggets get to those cardboard boxes in happy meals. well i learned first hand the other day when i helped a couple of ladies kill 30+ chickens at the ranch!

here's how it's done.

1. first you must catch the chicken
2. tie the chicken upside down from a tree using a slip knot. both feet in the knot please.
3. hold the chicken's head and find the exact spot to cut on the neck.
4. apply pressure to the kitchen knife you are using and cut the head off. don't be suprised if it takes an enormous amount more of strength than you intended. these guys are tough.
5. run for your life from the flapping blood-splattering headless body.
6. return to the now dead chicken and remove from tree.
7. place body in boiling water. this helps to de-tatch the feathers.
8. cut off feet and other unmentionable extremeties that would not be appetizing.
9. make some precise incisions and remove the possible eggs that are inside of the chicken.
10. gut the chicken. save the stomach.

so this is what seth and i did on our ranch day. we had heard that the chickens that live in the coop below our house had not been producing eggs very well and were goin to be killed to be sold for meat. so when i saw the ladies beginning their work that morning i really wanted to go down and takes some pictures and see how it is done. of course i couldn't just go gawk at them without offering to help so seth and i both learned out to kill and gut a chicken in the process. some other interns walked by while we were helping and were apalled at the fact we were "aiding and abedding the chicken murderers". in all honesty it was really gross...but this is life here! livestock is a way of life and way to support and feed a family. this is how they feed their kids! i felt a lot less guilty about the one little chicken life i took when i thought about how hard those women have to work for EVERYTHING in their lives, including the chicken on their table.

-reb.

moo moo mr. cow

moo moo mr. cow is the name of the kids meal at my brother and I's favorite resturant in nashville, Moe's. it is also the first thing i said when i walked out of the house the other day to the sight of cows roaming our front yard. they were practically on our front porch! of course it's no big deal here. we live on a ranch. cows need to graze. cows need to rotate pastures. still....i wouldn't be suprised if next week i found them kicking back in one of our hammocks : ).

- rebekah

Drip Irrigation Seminar

About 2-3 weeks ago, Healing Hands International sent two representatives to Las Palmas to conduct a "drip-irrigation" seminar for 20-30 Hondurans in our area. For an entire week, the Honduran farmers stayed in hotels in San Marcos and learned about composte, pests, drip-irrigation, and other agricultural topics that are helpful for farming here in this country. The seminar was no doubt a success, and it seemed like the men got a lot out of it. It was really neat to watch the men from different areas come together and learn something new that could make a big difference on their farms. The four plots and systems that the group built are located below the main barn and "Hacienda" and there are vegetables already growing. Samuel, one of our ranch managers, has been watching them and keeping water on them. He was one of the men that attended the seminar.
Molly

Horse Catastrophe

A couple of weeks ago, while our horses were tied to the feed shed, Rubio and Tortuga got spooked, pulled back on the posts, and the entire roof fell on top of 9 horses. Sounds like it should be a fatal accident but luckily all of our horses turned out fine. One mare got a deep cut in her front leg and the vet had to make a visit. He was originally going to give her stitches but she ended up not needing them and now is recovering well. It was an exciting day and for a moment I felt like a vet and was about to start stitching if I needed to. There is never a dull day on the ranch.
Molly

Why Every Mission Lazarus Intern Should Have a Ranch Day

Oh the joys of working on the ranch. Every person in our internship program at some point during the summer should experience that joy for the following reasons:
1. Horses are fun to ride and pretty to look at
2. Shoveling horse and cow manure is good for the soul
3. Samuel's/Bartolo's spanish is hard to understand and therefore helpful for your comprehension skills
4. Molly is usually there
5. Sometimes you get to give cows shots
6. You get to wear your newly purchased cowboy boots
7. Everyone loves to measure cornstalks

I am very lucky to get to spend 3 days a week at our ranch, working with the animals, land and people at Las Palmas Refuge and I think it's great that we all get to experience it atleast once every week.
--Molly

ode to jota...

the best part about being an intern is the threat of having an all expense paid (by me) trip to roatan taken away from you at the last minute...

i love blogging...

natosha

Oh the Ranch! Where to start... I have so many great memories from my days at the ranch! Each day living on the ranch as well as working on it is a new adventure. I rememebr one day the people on the ranch let me help them round up the cows, I got to ride a horse and go out in to the field and round them up, I felt like a real cow girl....almost! Another one of my vivid memories from the ranch was a day when I worked with Dylan and we supposed to transplant grass from one place on the ranch to another. It sounds much easier than it really is, we were to take a fairly heavy pic ax, i think it was, and swing it over our heads into the ground and dig up this bermuda grass from the roots and fill up a wheel barrel full of it and the take it and replant it somewhere else. It sure made me appreciate the kind of hard work it takes to upkeep a ranch and the work that some of the people here in Honduras live and do everyday. And God bless Dylan for his patience and extra hard work that he had to do that day to make up for the work the manual labor that I attempted to do, but was not extremely successful at. Working on the ranch can be hard and dirty work sometimes, but I love it and it has just really opened my eye and strengthened my appreciation for the farmers who live and work here in Honduras. --Kenz

My First Ranch Day!

So yesterday was my first time ever being around farm animals and doing work on a ranch. I have to say it was quite interesting. Kenzie and I worked together throughout the day. Our first job was to clean the cow pasture. It was pretty easy to sweep the dirt off the walkway and wash the manure down into the drain. However, the next job was much more difficult. We had to herd the cows into the feeding trough. These cows were so stubborn and did not want to put their heads through the little gates. It didn't help that I had no idea what to do to get them to move. It was very frustrating, but finally after a long time we got all the cows through. Next we cleaned out the horse stalls. It wasn't that bad until one horse didn't like us being in his stall. He put his ears back and started stomping one leg over and over and we knew it was time to get out of there! After that we swept a few floors here and there and our ranch work was done. On our way back to the house we saw chickens getting their heads cut off. It was disturbing...and I must add that we had chicken for dinner later that night. Lets just say I couldn't finish my meal.
~Christie

I am super-jacked, because this last Sunday, I finished measuring the corn!!! Yes!! If anyone has read Shanna's really nice entry, they will know a little of how exciting that is for me. Not to mention, all of the interns know full well how exciting that is as well! The story with the corn, for those who do not know, is that a professor of mine at ACU set up a study with Jake Tincher and Jarrod Brown here at Mission Lazarus to test 30 different varieties of indigenous corn to see which varieties grew the best in the kind of climate found at the ranch. The purpose of the study is to identify the variety of corn that produces the most corn and the heartiest plants, so the workers at the ranch can start growing it in mass quantities on the ranch for livestock feed. This allows Mission Lazarus to save a ton of money on feed for their livestock, and it'll also allow them to give corn seed to local farmers to grow themselves, for food and for livestock feed. So. . . my job this summer was to measure the heights of the different corn plants, as well as the heights of the first ear of corn on every plant, then calculate the averages for each variety. That means that I measured a lot of corn, often by myself for nine hours a day, with only the spiders and the corn plants to talk to. Aye yay yay! I like to talk to people a lot, and it was definitely a challenge being alone for so long! I don't know how the other ranch workers do it, hoeing corn alone in a field all day! The worst, though, was being the only one on the ranch for a day and coming home to an empty ranch house for the evening. It made the coming-home of the interns in the evening a really happy event!! But, with the awesome help of some of the interns, (and with new knowledge that I actually didn't have to measure every single plant), I was able to finish all of the corn measuring last Sunday morning! Praise the Lord! So, I'm pretty pumped that the measuring is all done. Now, to finish the rest of the study, I will harvest corn and legumes (beans, peas, etc.) together to see which combination of what will yield the most plant matter and the highest protein content. This is important because which ever produces the most will be used as high-protein silage feed for the dairy cattle. Thus, it's been fun helping with something that will be such a help to the Mission in the future. It'll be exciting to see how everything turns out! Until then, I will remain a child of the corn.

-- Dylan Wann

The Big Picture

I remember my very first day working on the ranch. It was about week 3 because due to some schedule changes, I had consistently missed my assigned day to hang out in Las Palmas. I walked up to the barn and we relaxed for a few minutes, then we herded the cows into the feeding stalls and watched them eat for a while. Then Bartolo told us to clean out the stalls. That was quite a task: shoveling the sawdust (and other things) into a wheel barrow and then pushing them through an extremely muddy and thick corral. It was pretty hard work, and I was just thoughtless enough to get my water locked up in the tack room. Wow, that was not the best decision I've ever made. After lunch, Molly, Drew, Dylan, and I cut up pieces of sod and planted them in another field while chasing the colts away that wanted to rip our handiwork up. Overall, it was a super taxing day, and I was completely exhausted at the end. However, it definitely gave me a better perspective about what Mission Lazarus does here in Honduras. Sometimes I forget that this program is not just about one thing. It is a holistic mission that is focused on improving the lives of the people here in so many different ways. I just thought about all the jobs that have been provided on the ranch and what that does for the community. I was also incredibly grateful to be able to do a hard days work, because so many people just aren't capable (although I'm sure Samuel and Bartolo definitely laughed at our shortcomings that day). I'm so glad that J.B. and Alli have a better and wider perspective on things than I do. Otherwise, we would be missing out on so many opportunities to show the love of Christ to others, and I can't think of anything that could be worse.

-Tristan McPherson

Home, Home on Las Palmas

Man, it´s been a wild summer so far. My name is Dylan and I am one of the ag-related interns at Mission Lazarus this summer. So, needless to say, I spend most of my time on the ranch at Las Palmas, most of it measuring or chopping corn. However, this entry is dedicated to sharing a few of my thoughts about living in the intern house at the ranch. Man, I've always wanted to spend some quality time out in a log cabin somewhere, working outside all day and then coming home to a quiet house in the wilderness. This summer has definitely given me that opportunity! All of the guys live upstairs in this way-funky studio-esque place that's really woody and rustic. It's kind of bunk-style living, too, which is fun because we all get good time to hang out and get to know each other at the house. The house is super-funky, and it's, like, the coolest place for the interns to live for the summer. Though it is a ways from San Marcos (and anywhere else, for that matter), it's very peaceful out there. Particularly when one is lying in one of the divine hammocks on the wraparound poarch, relaxing or reading in a cool breeze. There have been a few perfect moments for me this summer, chilling in a hammock and enjoying the sunset over the mountains after a long day in the sun. So. . . how cool is it to say that you lived on a ranch in the mountains of Honduras all summer, traveling to and from everywhere in a Land Cruiser? It's pretty cool. It's nice, too, for those of us who work a lot of days on the ranch, to be able to just walk or catch a quick ride up the hill to where we need to go; we don't have to spend a lot of time getting where we need to go. And, if you're like me, where else could you hike along a beautiful mountain stream to go measure corn all day? Where else can you find boa constrictors under your couch and tarantulas on your back door? Where else can you be serenaded by Seth's guitar-playing while lazing in a hammock on a Saturday afternoon? The ranch is beautiful, the sunrises and sunsets are divine, the casa is funky, the hammocks are divine---what else can I say? TIH.

-- Dylan Wann

ah the tranquility...

what is it about the ranch that makes it so peaceful? maybe it´s the gentle mooing of the cows, or the crowing of the roosters before dawn... or better yet, the guys upstairs breaking into their front door in the middle of the night...

no, really it is quite tranquil, and i must say, i sleep through all the big noises, so i can´t complain. my favorite part about being at the ranch, though, is how magnificent the stars are on a clear night. it reminds me how majestic and sovereign our father is and really how insignificant are all my little worries...

natosha

The People and their Language

Yo amo a Honduras. After 3 years of studying Spanish at Harding University I finally get a chance to REALLY learn the language by completely submersing myself into the smooth southern Honduran dialect of the Choluteca region. It has been so fun to pick up local sayings and mannerisms and to learn, sometimes through making mistakes, how to speak in a way that truly relates to the people. On a daily basis we chat with our driver, Holman, and ask each other countless questions about local customs, beliefs, culture, politics, religion and the like. Living on a ranch, I have expanded my vocabulary to include topics ranging from drip irrigation and carpentry to cow milking and artificial insemination. Also, every Sunday it's wonderful to walk into the church building of San Marcos and greet each and every one of the brothers and sisters and spend time with them worshipping and singing in their language, and experiencing the wonderful feeling on a week day of having a little child call out your name as you walk past the school gate. Be it by receiving a text messege from a local preacher that attended the drip-irrigation seminar saying, "hope you're doing well, you're in my prayers", or by receiving a call from my friend, Yelson, up in Las Pitas to tell me excitedly about a recent baptism and share with me the joys of his time with his family, my excitement for being here has grown exponentially as my friendships with these beautiful people have increased. I thank God for giving us a gigantic means of showing love for a people and for it's culture, I thank God for language.

Seth

Casa Lazaro

Rebekah is right on when she talks about the house we live in on the ranch. The setting is beautiful, peaceful, and serene, putting the area into words is a near impossible task. One thing that has amazed me night after night is the sky. The stars we see are simply amazing. I know that any way I describe it will not do justice to the awesome view we get every night of Gods creation. When you look up, at first all you notice is black. The sky is dark and with no lights anywhere (especially this week since we do not have power) you can not see a single thing. But then one twinkle catches your eye and it is like the sky opens up. Suddenly there are a million tiny starts above you. I didnt know there were so many stars. Growing up in a city, I have never seen as many stars in the sky as I do here, at the ranch. I guess it is just another thing there for us to gaze at and realize that our God really is awesome.

Shanna Crossland

Dedication

For those of you that do not know Dylan, he is one of the interns here. He is our ¨Ag guy¨this summer. I want to dedicate this blog to him. I have spent several days with Dylan in the corn. Yes, in the corn. Mission Lazarus has started a corn study with the help of Abilene Christian University to test several different types of corn to determine which ones produce the most and best corn for the people here and also to use as feed for cattle. Dylan knows more about it than I do. Anyways, while Dylan is here, one thing he has to do is measure the corn and average the measurements to help with the study. That doesnt sound so bad does it? Well, one thing about Dylan is that he likes to talk. In our group of 12 interns, Dylan always has a story to tell or a question to ask or just something to add to the conversation... and they are always funny. I think I can speak for the rest of the interns when I say I really appreciate the things Dylan has to say. Knowing that, you can imagine how hard it is for him to spend an entire 9 hour day in the corn by himself. There has been nobody for him to talk to, just corn. Like I said, I have gone with him a few times to help him measure the corn, so I know how boring it is with two or three people, I can not even imagine doing it alone. So, I just want to use this blog to say how impressed I am with Dylan and his dedication to the corn.

Shanna Crossland

Hammocks and House Warmers

Being a third year intern, I feel like I have a few different perspectives about some of the things that we experience as an intern group. One of those perspectives is how awesome it is to live at the ranch. In previous summers, we have lived in an apartment in the center of San Marcos, and while that was convenient and very accommodating, it is nothing compared to the serenity and beauty of living on the ranch. I love our house here. It is an old A-frame house with a tin roof. Storms are a symphony out here. They start with the rumble of thunder from out towards the right of our front porch. All the tall grasses in the fields around our house start to rustle and whisper in the wind and the trees in the wooded area behind our houses sway and swoosh. Then the drops of rain fall at random on our roof. As the storm draws in closer the whole roof sounds as if it my crumble with the next drop of rain. It is so lound! Remember in elementary school music class when you got to hold the rain maker and you heard the trickle of beans fall through the wooden posts of the stick? Well, whoever invented that was right on. Every time we get rain out here, I hear an amplified version of that and it just makes me smile. If the wind isn’t too strong you can curl up in one of our brightly colored hammocks that line the edges of our house. They hang between the big wooden posts that hold up the overhang over our porch and they are the perfect spot to listen to the rain come in and out. They are definitely my favorite part of the house, and im obviously not alone in those sentiments because it seems that as soon as we all get home from our day of work, every single one is occupied with someone reading, or journaling, studying (yes some of us are still taking classes and working on school work while here!), or catching a siesta. It’s a great place to get away at the end of the day. Of course don’t think we’ve raised support to come live in a paradise. There are still plenty of aspects to living out here that I would be just fine doing without. For example, the other night we came home to a beautiful housewarming welcome gift. Two HUGE tarantulas at our back door. That’s right, just like you are imagining, a big brown/black fury small rodent creeping around ready to pounce on your foot. Another uninvited habitant of the house would be the scorpion I found on my towel, or his brother that Shanna and I found on her bed. It seems that the scorpions particularly like our room. There was also a boa constrictor found living under our couch. Things like this are definatley not my favorite things to think about, especially when I get up in the middle of the night, or in the pitch black at our 5:30 wake up call during the week. But they are all a part of the life out here and I am really enjoying it.

- rebekah