Little Joys
One day a fellow missionary, Kelsey, said, “I’m going to make a list of little joys that I encounter while I’m in Honduras and a full bar of soap is going to be the first on the list”. I liked the idea of making a list of things that bring me joy even if it’s as small as the feeling of rolling a full bar of soap over your clothes as you wash them. We started 2021 off with a bang with a fun New Years Eve party to get the ball rolling. It’s hard to believe we are half way through January already. I’ve found plenty of “little joys'' to add to my new list. Without further ado, here are 5 things that have already brought me joy in the New Year.
1. Sorting Vegetables
One of my jobs at the Finca is to sort the vegetables that we receive weekly and partition them to each house. When I go around to each house asking for their saco, or red burlap sack, some of the kids inevitably ask to help me. It’s extremely difficult to refuse their requests, so I end up bringing along kids that want to be helpful, but result in the job taking twice as long.
One week I had three girls helping me ages 4, 6, and 10. They love reading the sheet that tells me how many vegetables go to each house, but the two youngest can’t read or identify numbers. With the six year old holding the paper, I teach her how to read the grid and whisper what it says to her. Then she announces it to the 10-year-old who grabs the vegetables and tosses them to me to put in the correct bag while the 4-year-old pretends to be a fantasma rojo, or red ghost and walks around with an unused sack on her head. This in fact is more helpful than asking her for three avocados, because she comes back to me with as many avocados as her tiny arms can hold. We’ll work on learning numbers this year in Kinder. Needless to say, vegetable partitioning can take a while with these kids, but they’re funny and make me laugh.
This week PAVI has started. In English, PAVI stands for Bridge to the Independent Life and is an afternoon work program that kids ages 12 and up participate in to learn life skills and earn PAVI points, money that can later be spent at Finca events or saved to transfer into real money when they graduate out of the Finca. This program was designed to teach kids money and budgeting skills and give them opportunities to learn trades and skills that they can use later in life. One of my PAVI classes is Vegetable Sorting with one of the teenage girls. Another girl that didn’t have PAVI that day asked to help, so I had two helpers who were capable of reading and counting. It was incredible how quickly separating vegetables went.
2. Baking cookies
Making treats and being able to share them is always fun, but it can be a tricky process trying to bake over hot coals. As I learned from prior experience, if the coals are too hot you’ll just burn the bottom and have raw cookie dough on top. When Megan asked if somebody wanted to make a treat in the fágon once the beans were done cooking, I took the opportunity to make oatmeal cookies for the other missionaries. It was a slow process making only four cookies at a time in a pie plate because I was using the outdoor stove with it’s narrow opening instead of the outdoor oven. But with patience and lots of attentiveness, I was able to make a batch of really yummy cookies.
During the process 5 boys came over with their Tía while they were on their Sunday walk around the Finca. It was perfect timing for them and I couldn’t refuse them cookies. While that meant the missionaries got less, it was fun sharing the goodness with hungry boys who appreciated a warm, fresh cookie. They ended up staying around our house all afternoon and into the evening sitting in the hammocks, playing marbles, making mayhem, and just talking. It was an unexpected, but perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
3. Newborn chicks
We have different flocks of chickens living around the Finca and a few hens have decided to go broody recently. The kids love checking up on their hens and showing off their newborn chicks. A flock of week old chicks can usually be spotted hanging out around house 1 and 2, and there are new chicks being born everyday over by House 4. The kids are very protective of their birds. When us missionaries were cleaning out House 1 for two missionaries to complete their quarantine in after vacation in the US, a hen was living in her cardboard box while incubating some of her eggs and tending to a half-dozen or so newborn chicks. The boys from House 2 came over curious to see what we were doing and when they discovered that Marisa and Adam would be moving into House 1 in two days they picked up the cardboard box with hen, chicks, eggs, and all and walked in the rain over to their covered fágon area to keep ownership of their coveted chicks.
4. Unbroken yolks
While we are on the topic of eggs, it’s always fun to crack a bowl of eggs and have nice, yellow whole yolks. For lunch one day I made smashed beans, rice, and scrambled eggs. As I cracked the eggs individually, I was so impressed that none of the yolks broke (a rarity around this place) and had to share my excitement with another missionary and even took a picture of them because it made me smile. Sometimes it’s the really little things that make your day.
5. Kids leading Mass in Trujillo
One exciting change in 2021 is that we have returned to going to Mass in Trujillo on Sundays. It’s fun cramming into the bed of the truck with either the boys or girls and riding over to Trujillo. We leave at 7:15 to get to 8 o’clock mass and bump along for the whole car ride. It’s certainly different than the minute car ride at home. I didn’t realize that the Finca frequently does all the Mass parts. So one Sunday morning it was fun to see all the girls sitting up in the choir and listen to different teenagers proclaim the readings and petitions. It’s so good for our kids to get practice participating in the Mass with others from outside the Finca and to practice their public speaking.
Every day brings new excitements and little joys to life in Honduras. My list of things that make me smile continues to grow. The 5 listed above are just a glimpse into little parts of my days and life here at the Finca.
