November . . .

So, here I am again, writing way past the time I should have . . . but here's a brief update of what's been going on:

The school year here is a little different - it starts towards the end of January or the beginning of February, and ends in November - so November was full of end-of-the-year busyness. All of the girls had lots of testing (and for some, lots of re-testing=/ . . .). The girls in Segundo Bachillerato (essentially, the Juniors) presented the small business that they have been developing for their “practicum” to a panel of the teachers and sisters, and to some of the other classes. Their business is called “Delichips”, and will be selling organic potato and yucca chips. It's pretty impressive: they developed the idea, researched their market, researched the costs and the most efficient means of production, etc. Next year, they will actually form their business, and produce, package, and sell their product throughout Santa Rosa.

The presentation of Delichips

One of the hardest experiences I have had to face here so far happened during the last week of the school year . . . The dad of one of the boarding girls was shot by a stranger who mistook him for a former Honduran politician. He was placed in the hospital here in Santa Rosa, so we were able to offer the girl and some of her family a place to sleep and eat. It was pretty difficult for everyone, and it broke my heart to see how tough it was on this teenage girl, and to imagine how such a traumatic experience would affect the rest of her life. But I was very glad that we could be there for her and her family, and honestly very impressed with her bravery. For several days, we were almost sure that he was not going to make it, but thanks be to God, he has been slowly but surely improving (please keep him and his family in your prayers . . . they have a long road ahead of them still).

Of course, this month was also full of goodbyes . . . The boarding girls left in waves: some stayed for a week of intense cleaning (that was fun=P), a few others stayed for makeup tests, and the seniors obviously had their graduation. The goodbyes were a little hard, and made me realize how much I've come to love these girls. Pardon the cliché, but as it's been said, “parting is such sweet sorrow”.

On our 'outing' at the end of the week of chores

The graduation was beautiful, and I was so proud of all of the girls! (I was the photographer for the event, and my camera battery didn't have enough juice to last through the mass and ceremony; which meant that by the end, I was running back and forth to charge the battery during any of the less-important moments of the ceremony. It was quite a feat if I do say so=). The good news is that my camera lasted up to the end; the bad news is, that's all it lasted, and at this point it won't even turn on with a full battery=/ . . .). It was especially hard saying goodbye to the 14 boarding girls who graduated - I'm going to miss those seniors so much next year!

The graduation mass

Graduation

These last days have been a bit of a change of pace. With the girls gone, the school is pretty quiet. The sisters have been traveling for meetings and family visits, so we have even been missing several of them (we have had several visits from sisters from other parts of the province, which has been nice). I have had little jobs around the school to do for the sisters, but in general my time is not quite as occupied, so I was finally able to make a visit to the Sisters of Charity here in Santa Rosa. Essentially, the work they do here is with small children who are orphans or abandoned, and with children who come in to the hospital malnourished and simply need a place to spend a couple of weeks where they can get the sufficient care to become healthy again. Some of the stories the sisters told me of the kids were hard to hear, but they are doing beautiful work, and I hope I can visit them a few more times in this vacation period.

So, here's my thought for the month: God is amazing. We have a pretty messed up world, full of a lot of pain, suffering, violence, injustice . . . . But God enters this world. Through the incarnation, He – Love - came into contact with this same suffering, took it on, and transformed it. He didn't ignore the cross, or even wipe it out of existence, but made it into something beautiful. My time here in Honduras has put me into more contact than I think I have ever had in my life with the pain that people experience in this world. Yet love, expressed even in the simplest things – a hug for a girl going through a hard time, a smile of a Sister to an orphan toddler, a few words of gratitude and encouragement at a goodbye – has this amazing power to add a transforming dimension of beauty to the pain.

Happy first week of Advent!