Honduras!!

I never told ya'll that I went to Honduras this past summer on a mission trip! I'm pretty sure my brain would explode if I attempted to summarize the experience I had or the way it changed me. I will, however, show ya'll some pictures. This is a rather long quote that I sent to the school paper and it does explain a little of the emotions I felt while I was in that amazing country.

She asked me what we did...this is my response.

"We built a wall with this really awesome honduran man named Santiago.He taught me some useful skills in masonry and was a bit of a jokester. I'll never forget how happy i was whenever Santiago would compliment my workmanship because for the first few days working with him all he would say was "malo malo mao" which means "bad". When we werent working on the fence, we would visit the kids at Guadalupe, the mothers project, or la Via. Playing with the kids was the most fun I've had in years. They were little rascals that just wanted to play soccer or roughhouse or in the girls's case, just sit and hold your hand. These kids showed me how few things in life are required to find happiness. The simplicity of our living quarters also reinforced this idea of happy simplicity. I found peace in the fact that there was no t.v., no computers, no phones, no ipods, no dishwasher, no central air. In Honduras the distracting noise of everyday life that gets in the way of finding yourself disappears. In the simplicity and silence you are shown a new side of yourself and are given the ability to truly listen to other people. My favorite part of this trip was getting to know my fellow missionaries (students and chaperons alike) because we were devoid of any preconceived notions about each other and the only way we connected was through regular conversation. There was no texting to distance ourselves from one another, no friending on facebook to see if we had mutual friends, and no way of hearing gossip about the other people. We didnt know each others stories, but all we knew was that we liked one another from the start. It was straight up human connection and it was beautiful. Im so grateful i had the chance to go on this trip. Im so grateful for the amazing people i got to go with, especially the chaperons. Mr. Murphy, Mr. Kern, Ms. Kacie, Mrs. Conroy, and Mrs. Martha, were huge inspirations to me and really gave me some great advice. We all became friends, regardless of age and we all equally shared in a very empowering experience. We are all planning on keeping in touch and reaching out to our own home community as a group. I would recommend mission work to anyone who is up for the challenge because my only regret is that I wont be able to return to Honduras next year."