We write to taste life twice...

Today is going to be a day that’s hard to beat. We started the day with an amazing egg breakfast that Monique made us, along with a fruit salad of pineapple and watermelon that we sliced up last night (both of these pieces of fruit together were less than $2 American dollars). We also had some guacamole that we prepared last night with avocados from Monique’s tree out back. It doesn’t get much fresher than that.

During breakfast we were able to spend some time getting to know Monique better. We have learned from our 3 days here so far that she truly is an amazing woman. Like I said in a previous post, she is originally from Europe, and moved to Guatemala about 7 years ago. Since then she has met a man from Honduras, moved here, and decided to sell her home in Holland, along with all the possessions in it. She told us that currently everything that she personally owns could fit inside of a backpack. What an amazing thing to say; to be freed of materialistic items, and to live purely with memories. I would be lying if I said I don’t like the sound of that.

We also were able to learn a little bit more about the poverty here in Copan. With every third world county that I’ve traveled to, poverty has also seemed to be a key part. Hence the “third world.” While here we have had multiple children run after us trying to sell us small trinkets for a buck or two just to make a living. This is always hard for me, as I often just want to say yes, and give the child a dollar without accepting the souvenir in return. After all, what is a dollar really? It seems so easy. It really seems like nothing to me, the greedy, white American. And here, that dollar could buy the child a meal. Jesus says multiple times in the New Testament that we should give to the poor, that we should help the needy, but to do this without pride and the acknowledgement of others. As I have been reading the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has been putting on my heart more and more on how we should treat others. This part of scripture is a series of teachings from Jesus Himself. Specifically in Matthew 6: 1-4 Jesus says:

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

What an amazing piece of scripture, and a passage we could all learn from. Monique, particularly here in Copan, seems to be living this passage out in daily life. Since living in Copan, Monique feeds 3 children and an elderly woman daily, who she calls her Copanica; meaning her Mama of Copan. She told us that each time she feeds this woman, the woman hugs her for at least 30 seconds. Apparently the woman has no other family here, and no one to take care of her, as true of many of the elderly people here. What a blessing Monique has been for this small city, as she is leading by example and following what Jesus would want us all to do for the poor.

Along with having these amazing exchanges of words with Monique, today we were able to visit Macaw Mountain. This place is a reserve for birds that are donated, never bought or sold, and then trained to be released into the wild in order to build the diversity of bird life in this part of Honduras. An amazing concept really, and also an amazing place to visit. We felt as though we were walking though the jungle, seeing many kinds of different colored, beautiful birds. We were even able to hold them, 3 at a time. At one point in the day I had a green macaw on my shoulder, a red macaw on my left wrist, and a red on my right. How crazy is that. Then, a few minutes later the red bird was sitting on my head picking at the beads in my dreadlocks haha. It was surly an experience I’ll never forget. Okay, off to the next adventure for the day! Until next time….

#honduras