A day in my life, which is anything but typical

Hello everyone!!
I am doing well, just wet most of the time as rainy season has arrived.  Currently sporting the awesome heavy duty rain boots I just purchased in town.  I miss home a lot but feel as though this is home now too, which I think is a good thing! I am busy busy with accounting work and work at the school. Sometimes, it gets a bit crazy.  For example, here was my day yesterday (Fridays are not a day I work at the school).

5:20 Wake up to the sound of chickens and my alarm, snooze it until 5:30 when I get up and get mostly ready for the day

5:45 Sleepily lead a prayer in the sala (living room) for a small group of missionaries

6:00 Head over to the chapel for a morning communion service (all in Spanish)

6:40 Eat breakfast with the 20 other people I live with and finish getting my things together for the day

7:00 Headed over to the office to start pay day... worked on preparing more checks and getting things ready

7:30 Workers from all over the Finca (including security, our house parents, and maintenance) came over to the office.  Rachel (the current accountant- I become official in mid November) signed everything and I gave them out one by one.  It is quite a process of receipt signing, money efectivo, etc. 

8:15 We leave the Finca with Rachel's two boys, a Sor (Franciscan sister who lives and works at the Farm), several neighbors and other Finca people in tow.  We head to town for errands- paying the gasoline bill for october, stopping by the bank to figure out exchange rate changes at the bank from august until now, picking up and paying for vegetables, trying to pick up mail (there was none because Trujillo hasn't had mail delivered all week!  O the mail system of Honduras!), running various errands for some fellow missionaries, etc.

10:40 We begin to head back to the Finca in the busito (big car that we drive back on forth on the dirt routes to town- about 20-25 minute ride)

11 Take Ruben (Rachel's youngest son who is 2) on a walk because his mom was feeling terrible, find Jacob (Ruben's dad and our missionary coordinator) at the maintenance shed with another of their sons and drop off Ruben.

11:30 Go back to the office and try to get all of the receipts put into the system and work on some cuentas until lunch

12:45 Head to the house and eat a wonderful lunch of eggs, rice, beans, vegetables. (note: I have to conjugate these back into English in my head because I am getting so used to the Spanish names)

1:30 Head back to the office to finish up some of the work from the morning getting our safe, computer files and office back to being organized

2:30 Attend a continued orientation talk given by the social work team about how we raise our kids here at the Farm.  Practiced the spanish phrases we might need if a situation should arise.

4:00 Realize that I am on to cook dinner and we only have 2 hours.  Okay, here cooking is much more time consuming because we deal with a fogon (which is basically a wood stove that is outside of our house).  2 hours can be plenty of time, or not enough time.  Both Nely and I had kind of forgotten we were scheduled to cook so we hadn't planned and didn't put out a pana in the bodega so our ration of pollo (chicken) was not put out to thaw.  Okay, explanation-  in our house, we only keep our weekly ration of foods not refrigerated.  There is only one refigerator for the entire farm community.  Each house has a box and we keep some queso and other small things in there. There is a big freezer and then thats it!  A trip to the Bodega involves finding the key (sometimes it is not on its hook), walking 2 minutes through the Farm, saying hi to House 5 (oldest boys) who are usually out and about, dodge a soccer ball, open up the bodega, get everything out, balance all the stuff you need and head back to cook.  Nely and I were saved by a bunch of ANGELS who came and helped with all of the work needed for our dinner of baleadas (tortillas de arena con huevos, frijoles, queso, y vegetales) y una ensalada con remolaches, lechuga, tomates y vinegre.  Ten points to the person who comments with all of the right ingredients in english!   Also note: Nely is from Nicaragua and speaks less English than I speak Spanish so everything we did was in Spanish. An adventure to be sure. 

6:30 Finally call "A comer" to signal its time to eat (yes late but still okay)!  Gather the troops together to pray and eat.  Have glorious tortillas- just a great meal in general because so many hands and love went into it.

7:15 Finish all of the clean up of the kitchen and take a shower!!  There was water and fabulous water pressure so it was a great thing after such a long day.  Reminder to those who forget: this was a cold shower on a cold night.  That is not a complaint just a reminder of how crazy it is that a freezing shower on a cold night can still be wonderful!!!

7:45 Come out to the Sala to hang out for a little bit.  I just started reading the Narnia series (I have never read them all the way through!) but didn't realize that Sara was also doing this.  I read a bit faster than her so I caught up and gently encouraged her to finish the last ten pages she had of the next book.  I am trying to read the next two by Monday so I can pass her and she doesn't have to rush.  Thus far, I have read 10 books since arriving at the farm (I'll finish number 11 tonight).  It is my favorite thing to do here in my down time.  That and play Settler's of Catan.  Look up this board game- it is fantastic.

8:30 Get in bed and read a few pages of The Dawn Treader before turning off the light and falling into a wonderful sleep!!

Okay, well- there you go.  This is just quick snapshot of a day here.  I didn't have much action with our kids except during dinner when a bunch of them were among the angels who helped us!  Every day is a bit different here but I hope this helped you see a little of what I do here when I am Erin the accountant.  Note:  I also become Erin the check writer, mail man, organizer, cook, babysitter, reader, game player, housekeeper.  It is really a blessing of a life that we have here.   

Love you all so much!!!

Erin Lucia

P.S. I didn't even hear about the hurricane until after it didn't hit us.  We are all safe and sound but praying for those who are struggling, including those in our surrounding area who struggle quite a bit during the rainy season!
P.P.S. I am currently sitting at TBay using the internet and one of the workers just came in with a pajaro (parrot) that was mimicking him saying "Hola!"  Hahaha... o the things I see and hear in Honduras. 

I have a job!!

Well, I have two fun things to share. 

First off, I have officially been given a job.  We have been going through the discernment process, as I mentioned in my last blog and I officially have a job now!!  I will be serving as the Special Education Teacher and the accountant.  These are both jobs that are 2/3 jobs so, needless to say, I will be quite busy.  However, I think I will do better to have a stricter schedule and really be productive during my time here.  It will be a great thing to balance the concrete of accounting and our budget and the somewhat spontaneous nature of special ed which will consist of a lot of one on one work with kids who have some learning disabilities.  Everyone hear is also given specific small jobs.  I will be the Saturday morning swim coach and a member of the Personnel committee, who reads through all of the new missionary applications and selects both the full time and summer missionaries.  I am sooo excited about all of my jobs and feel so blessed.  Every missionary also serves in various other roles including but not limited to cook, babysitter, tutor, mentor, catechist, housekeeper, etc.  It is a beautiful and simple life at the Farm but simplicity does not mean a lack of work to be done.  Don’t worry- we have a lot of fun too! Last night we ventured down to TBay, a hotel down the beach where we get to use the internet!.  We had a great night of crazy games and fun community bonding to celebrate the jobs that we, the newbies, have received!!

I also have a fun little story about my morning yesterday.  Well folks, I helped to cut down a tree and chop it up into firewood- with a chain saw and machetes.  Okay, so I only tried the chainsaw once and kind of failed at it but totally got the hang of how to use a machete!!  It was so fun and very rewarding work, seeing as there was a tree there before and now there is not.  Don’t worry, we don’t just chop down any old tree to use for our stove firewood.  This one was leaning very dangerously, had several dead branches and we only cut it off at a certain place hopeful that it will grow straighter.  The team consisted of other first year missionaries David, Sara, Kevin and I.  We were led by Raul, a former Finca missionary from two years ago who has been back at the Finca for a few months assisting in small projects and helping us through orientation.  Learning to use a machete for a little intimidating but I eventually got pretty into it and have the blister and sore muscles to show for it!

Pax y Bien de Honduras,

Erin Lucia

P.S. I am using another recently acquired skill (or, well, a skill that is still being developed).  I have had the great privilege to cut two people’s hair since I have arrived. Erin Marina and Raul both got trims!  Super fun :)

Life at the Farm...

Well, I have now been living here at the Finca for 5 days now.  Wow, it has been quite the week here.  A bit overwhelming at times but so blessed in many ways.  I don’t have much time with internet but here is a quick snapshot about what I have experienced here:

I live literally 50 feet from the ocean- I can currently here the waves from here in my room.

We eat a ton of rices and beans and all of our meals are shared among the 23 people that live in my house.

I wash my clothes in a pila- which is like a huge sink that we fill with water and then fill up bowls and pour out the water onto our clothes. We also use a pila for our kitchen sink, with which we wash our plates after ever single meal.

I made muffins using a fogon, which is basically a huge clay oven with an adjoining cook top that uses fire wood.  We use this to cook at every meal  except breakfast when we are allowed to use the stove in our house.

We can’t put toilet paper in the toilet and have to burn all of our trash. 

Showers are cold but so nice- although the line of girls is quite long since there at 18 of us and one shower, one sink and one toilet.

I really like my roommates Betsy and Mary Kate (two for now but only 1 after mid November since MK is moving to Ceiba to work with the adolescent program for her second year as a missionary). 

I have decorated the room and they were right- a bed, a couple of shelves and little else.  I am so lucky that I brought things to organize- hooks over our window shutters were such a blessing!!  Being organized is one of my trademarks here- word seems to be getting around that I really like it.  J 

There are a ton of bugs- just flicked an ant off my arm as I sit here in my bed and type (I like to type things up on my computer and then when I can get internet, I just send them!).  

There are also a ton of chickens and roosters and turkeys.  Every single one of them likes to begin making ridiculous amounts of noise starting at around 4 am, every day.  Since I get up around 5:20 it’s not terrible but still, that hour is quite important!!

As for how jobs are going here, it looks like the 6 jobs available for the group of us are:

2 social workers

Colegio (Middle School) Math

Colegio Science

Kinder/1^st Grade

Special Ed/Accountant

Please pray for us as we shadow and figure out in the next two weeks where we will be spending the next year!

That is all for now!

Much love to all at home,

Erin Lucia

Photo Post!

Here are some photos of the last couple of weeks that I wasn’t able to include in the previous posts!  

First, we have our group picture from the retreat. We are standing with the sisters from the convent where we had the retreat.  Here is a run down of everyone in the photo-

Back Row (L-R): David (1^st year missionary from the Bay Area, CA), Raul (former missionary back to help us with orientation), Felicia (she is slightly blocked and in purple.  She was a missionary at the Finca when it first opened in Honduras 15 years ago and now serves on the board.), Sara (1^st year missionary from Nashville), Erin Marina (1^st year missionary from upstate New York), Kevin (1^st year missionary from Memphis), ME, Allison (1^st year missionary from Chicago suburbs)

Front Row (L-R): Ashley (1^st year missionary and nurse extraordinaire from New England), Erin Patricia (3^rd year missionary currently serving as a house mom in La Ceiba in our Phase II program), 3 sisters from the convent, Zulena (one of the founders of our project and seriously one of the most amazing women I have ever met!!), Ysmary (our amazing director at the Finca)

Not Pictured: Jacob (2^nd year missionary and the volunteer coordinator)

My amazing birthday presents from my parents and host parents!! 
(see birthday posts for details)

 Celebrating my birthday with my whole house!

A destroyed Buzz Lightyear Pinata for Erin, David and I 
from the awesome other missionaries!!

School children in the extravagant Independence day parade in Parque Central here in Antigua.  

 This is a picture from our awesome trip up to Pacaya, a volcano about 1 hour away from Antigua.  This is one of the other volcanoes that we could see on our way up.

A group photo with all of the climbers (minus our guide)!!  That is the peak behind us.

  We didn’t go all the way up to the top but stopped about ¾ of the way up at a plateau.

Close to the top there are a ton of hot saunas because of the molten lava beneath the surface. We got to get in a couple!

 Some of the saunas were so hot that we could roast marshmellows!  FYI, the marshmellows in Guatemala are colored- pink, blue, yellow.  It is quite ridiculous.

Well, I hope you enjoyed looking at some fun photos from the past little while!

Much love to all,

Erin Lucia 

God Is...

Well, I wanted to write another blog post to share a little peek into what we have been talking about within our community. Felicia, who was one of the first missionaries of the Farm when is moved to its Honduran location, gave the missionaries a prayer book with a weekly reflection.  Today we met at my house and talked about seeing God in the people around us.  I wanted to share some of the places where I have seen Him…

… He is in the eyes of my new little Guatemalan brother named Kenneth as he knocks on my door and peaks into my room with a bright smile. “Cartas?” I have taught him several American card games and he can’t get enough.  He asks to play constantly and hearing his laughter when he gets a pair in Go Fish is wonderful.

… He is in the hands of an older indigenous woman wearing the vivid colors of traditional Maya dress. She is kneeling in the church with a posture of fervent prayer. She pats the head of her grandson who has run around the church and over to her looking for some love.

… He is in the face of a young teenager running through the streets of Antigua with his friends. He is blowing a whistle and following banners and a torch, celebrating his country’s independence from Spain so many years ago.  It begins to rain, as is the norm in the afternoons, and that only excites the group more, bringing out smiles and a lot of laughter.

… He is in the words of my new sister Allison.  She stopped by to see me twice while I was not feeling well yesterday. Her encouraging words and generous spirit warmed my heart and were yet one more reminder of the blessing of this new family the Lord has called me to.

… He is in the laughter of the guys I live with while we sit at the dinner table and attempt to speak Spanish with our host parents.  The little ways they remind me of my brothers at home are such a blessing.

… He is in the hard work of Ana Rosa, my Spanish teacher. She wakes up every morning at 3:30 to work in her parents’ bakery, spends four hours with me in the morning and goes back to working for them in the afternoon and evenings. She never seems tired and always has a positive attitude.  Her interest in my life and the ways she adapts based on my needs are true gifts!

… He is also in the friendly spirit of the other international students at La Union.  Sharing and talking with new friends… having a 15-minute conversation about the culture and food in Iceland- ever had horse before?  God is allowing us all to grow and learn so much more about the world.

… He is also in the grateful smile of a Guatemalan mom who took her children to play in the park. She has just watched her kids pounce on the candy from a Buzz Lightyear piñata that Ashley, Allison, Kevin and Sara bought for Erin, David and I. Sharing that moment with a bunch of children and watching their smiles and their moms smile made the piñata just that more special.

… He is in the 10-minute long video message from a dear friend from the States. Seeing the daughter of Christ she truly embodies reminds me of our journey at Elon and how much the Lord worked in the lives of all of my friends there.

I could go on and on about all of the places where God is.  He continues to show up and promises to keep doing so as long as we keep looking for Him.  Go check on Danielle Rose’s song God is.  She is amazing and the lyrics of this song are fantastic.

Much love to everyone at home!  

- Erin Lucia

My Birthday!

Well, I was more than blessed yesterday on my birthday. Seriously, I felt the love. I woke up in the morning to greetings of happy birthday from everyone in the house. At school, my missionary family, who had a wonderful card and notes, greeted me first.  Kevin is awesome at origami and he created a St. Crane-sis of Assisi. He (St. Cransis) was brown and Kevin drew a habit on him. It was fantastic. My teacher also brought me a gift! She gave me a beautiful rosary since we talk about God so much in class. Seriously, Ana Rosa is wonderful. I have really loved getting to know her.

Home for lunch, some reading, and laundry (hand washed and dried out on a line!). I went back to the school to meet up with some of my friends and they took me out for ice cream! Saritas is a franchise here and I had this awesome mango and cream cone.  I think that fruit ice creams here in Central America are much better than the States!  We walked around for a bit and eventually split up to go home for a Skype date I made with the lovely Tracy Schell.

I was very fortunate to have been able to Skype with a lot of people this week- email me if you want to set up a time!!  Seeing so many wonderful people that I love on and around my birthday was so great. 

Anyway, when I got home, there were even more surprises waiting for me.  I seriously think that I have the best parents in the world.  First off, they have let their daughter move very far away to a remote part of Central America for 2 ½ years.  Not only did they let me go but did so with so much support and love.   The first time I talked to them about wanting to be a missionary, one of the very first things my parents did was pray over me saying that while it would be very hard and that they would miss me a lot, they knew I belonged more to the Lord than to them and that they had complete trust in His will for my life.  Wow, it brings tears to my eyes to write it down- not to mention the wreck I was almost a year and a half ago.   

The second reason why I think they are so amazing is that they found a florist here in Guatemala and surprised me with roses, chocolate and wine. Seriously?!  It was amazing! Even though I have not physically been with them for the last 5 of my birthdays (because of college and now this one), they have always made me feel so special and continue to surprise me.  Anyone who reads this and then is able to see them, please give them a huge hug from me. I am expecting them to get bombarded, so please don’t forget!!

My host parents also had a surprise for me. They bought a wonderful cake for our entire house to share after dinner. It was so sweet and their hugs and love were priceless.  There are now 12ish people living in our house, plus visitors all the time.  A very large group came to sang Happy Birthday (in two languages!) and have cake.

After dinner, I was able to spend some time in the Perpetual Adoration Chapel that is 2 minutes from my house.  It is such a blessing to have that so close and accessable!  Afterwards, I met up with Sara, Kevin and David (the other missionaries were not feeling well and two of them are still sick- please pray for them!!!).  We went to this fun bar, had a beer and enjoyed an acoustic guitarist.  Sara and Kevin are both from Tennessee and literally couldn’t get enough.  It was such a great way to end a fantastic day!

Again, thank you so much to everyone who sent emails, posted on FB, or sent me anything.  Grandy and Bibber, I loved my card!!   You all have been such instruments for the Lord to show His love for me.

Until another post, Erin Lucia

P.S. My four new “host brothers” moved in and all 5 of us are now sharing the bathroom. My dad commented that my posts have been soo positive and that I should share something that is a little difficult too. Well, this is one but it is preparing me for life at the Farm where all of the girls will share.  

A Typical Day

So I thought it’d be fun to take you all on a virtual tour of my life here at La Union language school and then back to my house! Let’s go!

      This is the entrance to my language school.  It has a great set up with lots of individual tables. Each student is paired with a teacher and we each sit and learn at different paces. A lot of the teachers have different styles. Some of the other missionaries in my group didn’t mesh well with their teachers and needed to change but mine is great!! I have been so blessed. Ana Rosa is really fun to talk to and we have a great balance of book work, practicing verbal skills, games and just having conversations. Today, I also told the story of Little Red Riding Hood. It was ridiculous but such a great way to practice my spanish. It’s been a while since I heard the story so I definitely had to make some things up which made it even funnier.  My language skills are improving every day!

Okay, now I have to head home from language to have lunch at my house! 

Here is my front door.  I live at #45 and you basically walk in to the garage.

     Through the garage is this courtyard- which is beautiful!!! All of the rest of the rooms are off the courtyard. My room (you’ll see it in a second!) is off to the back.  There is a living room and dining room and kitchen. My host parents live in a really big master bedroom in the front right corner of the house, off the living room with their private bathroom.  And now…

      Here is my room! As you can see, I have moved in and made it my own with pictures, books, and other things to remind me of home. These pictures were taken while I was packing for the retreat so please excuse the stuff on the bed.

I also have a bathroom that is pretty much just for me.

Warm water for showers (!!!!!!) and plenty of space- its perfect.

This is my host family. Elder and Marina live in the house and have been hosting students for 8 or 9 years, since he retired. I have absolutely loved getting to know them and practicing my Spanish, especially with Elder. They have three children and 3 grandchildren. They are all precious! Kenneth is 5, Steven is 3 and Joanna is 7 months.  None of them live here but visit all the time!  4 of their nieces also live here during the week. They study and work in Antigua during the week, and return home on the weekends. There is another girl from the States who arrived on Saturday. She works for Google and took her vacation time to come study and teach computer skills for 10 days. Tomorrow, 4 guys from Michigan are also coming. They will be here for the entire fall semester. Basically, it will be a very full house when everyone gets here! Lots of fun!

A typical day for me starts by waking up at 7 to eat breakfast and get to school by 8. School from 8 to 12 Daily mass is at noon and at a church less than a minute from the school. Lunch at home and back to the school or a café called Y Tu Pina Tambien, to meet up with my fellow missionaries. It is totally a café for gringos (foreigners) but it has free wi-fi and great couches.  The afternoons are always different (Today, I went to 4 different travel agencies with Allison and Ashley looking into prices for some traveling our group will be doing). Home for dinner, homework, reading, internet use and bed.

Alrighty, I hope you enjoyed our little tour and a look into my life here. Sorry that this is so long! I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

Love always,

Erin Lucia