Balancing the Social with the Science - from Jake Pinkston on teaching mission in Honduras

It has been an extremely busy week here in La Ceiba as final’s week approaches for the first term. I have been running around, frantically trying to hunt down the students who have not turned in labs or homework. It is amazing how quickly they can disperse when I pull out my grade book and start calling names to see me after class. Momentary deafness and restless feet syndrome suddenly reach pandemic levels and the stampede is initiated. You would think that I was trying to improve my grade, not theirs…

The typical complaints have started pouring in since I handed out the review sheets for the classes. “We have to know all this for the exam.” Well, yes, that is what we covered in the last 9 weeks. “Mr. Jake…” At this point, the sob stories start pouring in. I then ask them what they do between the time school gets out at 2pm and they go to bed. The usual answer is eat, but nobody really elaborates further. The idea of spending 45 minutes a night reviewing for the upcoming exam is too distasteful to justify debate.

Mike and Betty summarized when I first I arrived a key cultural difference between Hondurans and Americans that I have found to ring pretty true in the last 10 weeks I have spent in La Ceiba. Americans for the most part are task oriented. A goal is set and pursued, and professional relationships are built around that end. Hondurans are people oriented. The relationship always takes precedent over the goal and the goal itself is often influenced and even changed by the relationships.

This weekend, I got to see this cultural value in action. The civics teacher, Ms. Olga, had a birthday last week. Birthday’s are a huge deal in Honduras so we sang to her in school and many student brought her homemade cards. But instead of celebrating her birthday at home with her husband and children, Olga and a couple parents threw a party for almost half of the secondary school and included Mike, Betty and me. They reserved a space at a private picnic / park down the road near the ocean, rented one of the buses that can fit 10 comfortably but always cram about 30 in them, and bused most of the 7th, 8th and 9th grade down for a Saturday of swimming, soccer, music, and barbeque.

The students spent hours playing in the stream running through the park, which has been dammed with sand bags to a depth of about 4 feet, throwing each other in, tossing around the soccer ball, and having a good time with each other outside of the classroom. Mike, Betty and I served as the supervisors but they encouraged us to join them in the water. I played soccer with the boys as well, who decided that pulling out my chest hair was the funniest game ever created. Wonderful. Olga’s husband brought his DJ equipment so the most popular Latin pop hits were blasting all day. The students were quick to find the microphone and while they urged their classmates to dance, it seemed as if the real goal was to hear their voice at 80 decibels. Olga and another mom were happy to run the traditional Honduran barbecue of beef, chicken, refried beans (always), tortillas and chimol, a fresh tomato salad. However, they too found time to play in the water and walk out to the beach.

While I cannot remember anytime in my educational career that a teacher threw a party for 25 students on a weekend on her own time, this is very typical at Trinity. Hondurans love to plan and throw special events for any reason. In class, the attitude is very similar. The students love the opportunity to chat, hang out, and plan events and activities. On music day, I spend my lunch break with the 8th grade boys, jamming and singing songs on guitars that stay in tune for about 5 minutes at a time. It is a congenial social atmosphere that makes working at Trinity very enjoyable. However, this makes getting things done more than a struggle at times. When I remind them that I need to check their homework so that we can begin the class lecture and maybe finish the chapter, they give me a look of shock and almost disdain, as if my priorities were completely ridiculous.

My goal has not been to break the cultural values that the students have but to try to find some middle ground. While I still hold high expectations, I build into my lesson plans time for talking about last night’s soccer game or how funny I sound when I speak Spanish. My biggest focus and challenge has been convincing my students that they are capable of working hard, they are smart enough to master the material, they can be strong students if they put in the time and effort. If they do that, there will be more time to hang out. While I don’t think they like it very much, I think that they have at least begun to accept and buy into the idea. I look forward to next week’s results to see where we are and where we will go from here.

Who Are We?

Here's a new video about Who Episcopalians Are from King of Peace parish in Kingsland, GA. Bravo to the team who put this together! What do you think?

Sermon, October 11, 2009 by the Rev. Frances A. Hills, Rector

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke all tell the story, of the rich man who asks Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Of course the story varies some in each Gospel. For example in Matthew’s version he’s a “young” man, in Luke he’s a “ruler,” but in today’s Mark, he’s just “a man.” Another thing that’s unique in Mark’s telling is the part about, how Jesus “looked on him and loved him.”

The Love gives us a context for understanding Jesus’ tough demands of this man. Jesus knows the man does not feel the closeness with God that he desires, because he asks for eternal life, life with God. Jesus also knows the man lives an upright life, and, Jesus knows what is needed.

After Jesus names off the commandments, the man says he has never murdered, committed adultery, stolen things, lied, defrauded anyone, and he had always honored his parents. He is a good man in his relations with others. Jesus knows that already. It’s interesting, though, when Jesus lists these commandments, he only lists 6 of the 10—the ones about human relationships. Jesus leaves out the ones about loving God, putting nothing above God, respecting God in thought, word and deed, and setting aside time to worship God. For some reason, Jesus leaves those off the list. Maybe Jesus knows the man can’t answer “yes” to the commandments about his relationship with God. But, “Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said,‘You lack one thing; go sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’”

Now this is TOUGH LOVE. Jesus “loved him” enough to ask him for what the man apparently valued most: His wealth and many possessions Jesus asked for these not because wealth and possessions are bad in themselves, but because these are the things that got in the man’s way of his experiencing life in God, Eternal Life. His material possessions had become the man’s idols, the things he placed above God. They’d become an end in themselves, instead of a means to an end.

I think this story focuses us on the commandments about having no other gods and about not making idols (even though Jesus didn’t explicitly list these). Jesus knows our human tendency to put wealth, material things, power and prestige at the top of our lists. By our actions, our schedules, and our checkbook stubs, many of us may show these material things to be the most important things in our lives. And although I don’t think God despises this material world (After all, God made it!) or our human tendency to enjoy material things (After all, God made us like we are!), God knows we cannot find spiritual contentment when we make these our #1 priority. When we do that, it’s like we’ve built an altar to them, and they become our idols, what we really worship.

As Jesus longed for the rich man to find his true heart’s desire, God longs for us to find ours. God looks on us with love and invites us to give away, get rid of, give up anything that weights us down spiritually. God wants us to finally get inside and learn the true essence of keeping God’s law…God wants us not to be so concerned with the Letter of the Law, but with the Spirit of the Law, which is always LOVE.

Maybe that’s why Jesus suggests to the rich man that he sell his possessions and give the proceeds to the poor. This would not only free him of his idol, but also such sharing of wealth would embody LOVE and the Spirit of the law. This would give the man the life with God he longed for.

As we begin our Stewardship Season, I hope each of us will look at our priorities, and we can easily do that by looking at our checkbooks and appointment calendars. Where we spend our time and our money tells us about our priorities. In a sense, the discernment process we’re in as a parish community at St. James should include this kind of  “Priority examination” as well. As individuals, families, and parish family, what are the things that keep us from life with God/eternal, abundant life?

A preacher from Virginia tells the story of how his daughter asked “What would you do if you won the $526 million VA State Lottery?” . . . “Give it all away?” The preacher deflected the question, “I don’t buy lottery tickets. I don’t believe in the lottery. So we don’t have to worry about what I’d do if I won.” Over the next hours and days, the daughter’s question haunted the preacher. He confessed to himself he thought he might quit his job, even though his vocation meant the world to him. He mused he could travel, attend seminars, explore Christianity all over the world, all at his leisure. And he wouldn’t have to worry about money to put his children through college or for retirement. He could just preach and pastor when and where he wanted to, not because he had to. Oh yes, and he’d be generous. He’d give lots to the church. He’d share. And with so much, he’d hardly notice all he gave away. ‘Wouldn’t really have to sacrifice. The preacher admitted he had these thoughts. Then he realized what a creature of our consumer, materialistic world he really was.

He realized his daughter was not really asking about money but about priorities and the real point of life. So he pondered: Are we here to have as many enriching experiences as we can? To accumulate all the wealth we can? To buy all the things we can? What about service? What about making a contribution? What about being responsive to the great needs of others in the world? What about sacrifice?
So the preacher said to himself, “It’s God’s mercy that I don’t play the lottery, for I don’t know if I could face the temptation if I won.” Then he concluded, “Thanks to my daughter’s question, I know what answer this particular Christian soul needs to give, ‘What would you do if you won? Give it all away?’ YEP!…Give it all away.”
(J. Christopher Price, quoted in Synthesis)

God looks on us and loves us. God wants us to be free and to love deeply, serve others, travel light in this life, so that we can enjoy life with God both now and always. Amen.

Sermon, October 4, 2009 by the Rev. Frances A. Hills, Rector

For those of us who are divorced, or thinking of divorce, or even know someone who is divorced (and that surely includes all of us), today’s gospel about divorce & remarriage is just a hard scripture passage. It would be much easier to go for the second half of the reading…the part about Jesus taking the little children up in his arms and blessing them. The second part is easier, but somehow I think I need to talk about the first.

It initially seems strange that Jesus, who is usually disagreeing with the legalistic attitudes of the Pharisees, this time seems to be “one upping” them when it comes to being legalistic about divorce. They ask “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” Actually in those days, the legality of divorce was hardly the question. According to Moses’ Law (Deuteronomy 24:1) a bill of divorce could be drawn up by a man if his wife had committed some “indecency.” Divorce was a legally accepted practice in the First Century when Jesus lived.

So the Pharisees real question was probably really about what constituted an “indecency.” One school of thought says it’s a single offense of adultery. Another says any number of things could constitute “indecency” like talking with another man in public, not having children, speaking disrespectfully to in-laws, maybe even burning dinner!

The Pharisees were trying to get Jesus either to take sides or somehow contradict the Law. They wanted to trip him up, as they had tried many other times. And like those many other times, Jesus side-steps the trap. He takes the conversation to much higher ground. For one thing, Jesus creates more parity between men and women. In those days women couldn’t divorce men. Only men could write a certificate of dismissal. But Jesus says, “If she divorces her husband…” making it a possibility for the woman to have equal rights (and responsibilities) in the relationship.

I don’t think in this passage Jesus wants to talk so much about DIVORCE as God’s intentions for MARRIAGE and relationship. It’s not just for convenience, or for the end of having children, or for the prestige it might bring. Jesus goes back to Genesis and God’s original intention for the way creation should be…

“God made them male and female…for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” Marriage is about relationship/companionship. Two individuals mystically become One.

Now the verse that follows this in Genesis Chapter 2 (which Jesus doesn’t quote here) is, “And the man and his wife were naked, and were not ashamed.” That comes at the very end of Genesis 2, so it serves as the transition from the first and second chapters of Genesis, which describe God’s intentions for Creation, to Genesis 3, “The Fall”… Adam, Eve, and the snake in the Garden. It’s a metaphorical story about how it is these creatures God made, these human beings, came not to be in harmony with God, themselves, each other and the rest of creation. One of the signs of this Fall is that the man and woman began to be ashamed of their nakedness, and needed fig leaves to cover themselves up. It seems to me in these verses from Genesis, Jesus holds up the ideal of deep relationship, of how we are meant to live in relationship: Relationships of intimacy of mind, body and spirit. Relationships where the two are mystically joined as One. Relationships where each partners’ love for the other makes their heart’s desire the well-being of their partner, the desire for the partner to be whole in mind, body and spirit.

Such intimacy is core to marriage as God intends it, and that means the partners feel safe enough in the relationship that they can dare to be all of who they are. They can trust each other enough to “bare” all that’s in their hearts and minds, and not be ashamed. That’s God’s ideal, the way God intended things to be from the beginning. That’s what Jesus is reminding the Pharisees and us of in today’s Gospel. God wants us to live in relationships of deep trust and love, relationships that hold the well-being of the partner’s mind, body, and spirit in highest regard. Such relationships are truly gifts from God.

As we begin our Stewardship Campaign this month, I encourage each of us to be good stewards of the precious relationships God gives us. Remember being a steward is not ownership, but being entrusted with the care of something/someone who ultimately belongs to God. So we’re called to care for our relationships at home, work, church, and in the world; to be open and honest with those dearest to us; to make their well-being a priority, as they make ours their priority. God knows that’s not always how our relationships are: We can go from Genesis 1 & 2—God’s Intentions—to Genesis 3—The Fall in the blink of an eye. We mess things up in a myriad of ways. Maybe we enter a relationship that’s abusive or oppressive to start with in an environment where trust is impossible and true love cannot exist. Or maybe the relationship starts out ok but somehow over time, things happen. We feel ashamed. We feel rejected. We feel resentment, and we start the deceptive process of “covering up” our real selves. We’re afraid to show our true feelings and afraid to make ourselves vulnerable again.

Sometimes there’s a way back. Sometimes it seems there’s not.

God knows that, in fact, that’s why Jesus came, because God knows we can’t always get it right. But God gets it right, and no matter how we mess up, God’s perfect love is always there, always trustworthy. As they say in the Black Church, “God is good…all the time!” God’s grace and mercy and forgiveness are always there when in our frailty, we cannot love our partner as One, when we cannot fulfill God’s intentions in our relationships. And when we can admit THAT, with all its pain and sense of failure, then we have the opportunity of going to Jesus as a little child, and being taken up into his arms, and being blessed. Amen.

GOOOOOOLLLLL! from Jake Pinkston on teaching mission in Honduras

There are guns firing, horns blasting, fireworks going off, and people cheering in the streets all over the city of La Ceiba this evening as two international sides pulled off spectacular results and secured positions in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Carlos Pavon, the proverbial goat of the Honduras-USA match after missing late from the penalty stripe for the tie, scored the lone goal in Honduras’ 1-0 win over El Salvador. Immediately, every television in the country switched to the Costa Rica-USA match and boy was it exciting. Costa Rica, needing a win to secure third place in the CONCACAF, took an early two goal lead into the 72th minute. But the US clawed back and secured the draw and first place in the group on an unlikely header goal by Jonathan Bornstein in the 5th minute of stoppage time. The tie gave Honduras the third place berth, their first in more than two decades and the celebrations began. No chance I will be getting anything done in class tomorrow.

It is impossible to understate the importance of this World Cup qualification to the people of Honduras right now. Their political establishment a mess, the fall off in the world economy compounded by the loss of aid and tourism have made life difficult for a country with 50% of its population living below the poverty line. But they have their futbol team. For old and young, male and female, the Honduran national team is their team. They know the players, they know the schedule, they know what is at stake, and they watch every game from start to finish with a passionate intensity. Victory and defeat are shared experiences that seem to be the glue that binds them together through these difficult times.

At Trinity, the students have been anticipating the final games of qualifying for weeks. They were particularly excited about the USA-Honduras match, which was played in nearby San Pedro Sula on Saturday. I made a bet with the 10th grade boys that if Honduras won the game, they could give me whatever hair cut they wanted, as long as I did not bleed. If the United States won, they would have to buy me a baleada (tortilla with red beans and fried egg, a staple here) and lemonade (which comes in a sandwich bag with a straw) a day for a week. Needless to say, the morning recesses have been quite filling the past two days. I ended up buzzing my head anyways, but only because it is so hot down here and I was having way too many bad hair days at school.

Today was Honduras Spirit Day at school in anticipation of the big game against El Salvador this evening. As a fundraiser, the Trinity allowed students to break the uniform dress code and wear jeans and a Honduras jersey (they are selling them on every corner) if they paid 10 lempiras (about 60 cents). Almost all of the students and many of the teachers came sporting their blue and white colors and a couple even wore face paint. Ms. Betty’s 8th and 9th grade English classes used the new vocabulary they had been working on to come up with cheers. Everyone was in a great mood and although it wasn’t the most productive of days, the whole school had an energy to it that made it a fun place to be.

The interim president just declared a nation holiday to celebrate the qualification. Trinity will be having classes tomorrow, but I am guessing that more than a handful of my students will not be in school and everyone else will be too excited to be interested in Newton’s First Law of Motion or converting liters to cubic centimeters. Even with first quarter exams coming up and a lot of material left to cover, I can’t really complain. Right now, this country needs something to celebrate. And I have a tasty snack coming my way.

In the Desert (or San Pedro Sula) from Jake Pinkston on teaching mission in Honduras

While the political sparring has continued to ebb and flow back in Tegucigalpa, life has returned to normal again here in La Ceiba. The curfews have been late at night so not particularly burdensome and the police presence minimal. We have not missed any school and most people’s concerns are whether or not Honduras will qualify for the upcoming World Cup. Considering who their opponent is this coming Saturday, I will save this topic for Sunday evening.

Because everything had settled down, Mike, Betty and I were able to take a bus trip to San Pedro Sula for a diocese orientation for Americans teaching in Honduras Episcopal Schools. We were a little skeptical of the whole thing; it seemed that 5 weeks into the school year is a little late to be telling us about what to bring to Honduras. However, it ended up being a blessing in disguise right off the bat. We took off from school around noon on Friday to get to the bus station by 2:00. About an hour later, 3 cell phones disappeared and the secondary school went on lock down while they administration tried unsuccessfully to find the scheming serpent. Definitely a good afternoon to miss, even if it meant being on a bus for 3 hours.

We were met at the station by a woman named Barabara, a Texan in her 70s who has been in Honduras for 11 years. She is widowed with no children and decided to go to seminary school before relocating to Honduras as a missionary. The woman has had her leg horrifically broken twice since arriving and walks with a cane but never seems to miss a beat. She is a warrior in every sense of the word.

We were in earlier than the other teachers so she offered to take us to Price Mart. Mike and Betty were thrilled, as they have wanted to go for the past two years and nobody would take them. Think Costco shrunk in half. It is all bulk, brand name low cost products, mostly imported from the States. We loaded up on the essentials that cost an arm and a leg in La Ceiba: huge blocks of cheddar cheese, olive oil, and salsa. It was Christmas in October (complete with a 5 foot sing and dancing Santa with reindeer accompaniment in the kitchenware aisle for only $80… gross).

The four teachers from Tegucigalpa did not get in until 7:30 so they picked up dinner at Power Chicken (Honduran KFC) and we ate together in the breakfast room of the B&B where we were staying. It was an interesting variety of people. There was a 40 year old former actuary who teaches secondary math, a woman in her late 50s with grown children who had recently married a Honduran postal worker and teaches 2nd grade, and a retired couple from DC who were former school administrators in the Bedford school district. He teaches history and civics while she teaches 1st grade. We spent the meal getting to know one another, sharing strange and crazy stories about our students and discussing how little anybody knew about what this meeting was about. Most of the group had a beer at the bar afterwards but with all the traveling after a week of school, we all packed it in early.

The next day we had breakfast at the B&B then piled into the back of Barbara’s pickup truck and drove a short distance to the Episcopal compound where the Diocese offices are located as well as the flagship Episcopal school in Honduras that gives us most of our second hand books. It is huge and nicely finished but Mike and I think that Trinity will catch them in the next five years if things continue as they are going. It was encouraging to measure that progress but there is still a lot of work to do.

The actual meeting was more an extension of the dinner conversation. There were some interesting handouts but not a lot of structure so the conversation drifted to what people felt was most important, which I thought made sense considering the wealth of knowledge that everyone already had. We had lunch with the Bishop, who is the first native Honduran to ever hold the office and is a powerful yet soft spoken man. The Episcopal Church has doubled in congregations since he took the position in 2003.

Afterwards, we said our goodbyes, the Tegus folks joined the Bishop who was driving back to the capital and we went back to the bus station. Mike and Betty know the bus line very well and have met the owner several times. We saw him in the station, they struck up a conversation and the next thing I know, I have been bumped up to first class, free of charge. Not a bad way to finish off the trip.

Although I cannot say that I learned very much from the meeting, it was a good opportunity to share ideas and observations with teachers who shared my perspective as an outsider. We joked that every stage in life was represented there at the table: post college crisis, midlife crisis, late career crisis, and post retirement crisis. Only the 2nd grade teacher is planning on staying beyond this year. Honduras represents a transition period for everyone, a time of intense work in a new environment that challenges both mind and spirit that will eventually lead to a new direction with new perspectives. I feel in many ways like Jesus did when he went into the desert early in his life. Every day I am being questioned and tested, not out of malice but often out of mischief, as my students look to see where I might bend or break. I am finding it difficult at times to focus on the present because the future is still not clear and I am still weighing my options. But everyday I feel a little stronger, a little clearer, and a little more confident. I am in no hurry to leave the wilderness just yet, but I think that when I do, I will be ready for the next step.