From Easter to Ascension - from Jake Pinkston on teaching mission in Honduras

During Monday’s morning assembly, the Trinity student body and staff saw for the second week in a row a dramatization of the Resurrection Day by one of the fifth grade classes. The week before, the sound system was not working and it was impossible to hear what the students were saying, so the teacher elected to show it again. Even with the microphones, the dialogue was indecipherable and the skit degraded to students running to the “tomb”, looking around puzzled, and then running back without any answer as to what was really going on. Reflecting on the awkward chaos, which contagiously spread through the seated children who also wanted to be running around, I realized that it was a much more likely interpretation of the events that occurred that first Easter morning than the controlled, organized, celebrations we mark the occasion with today. And yet out of that early morning disarray a revolutionary new covenant was made for all.

The teacher ended by reminding everyone that Easter is not just a one day holiday but a celebration over the next forty days, culminating in Ascension Day. She encouraged everyone to wish each other a happy Easter throughout that time, to commemorate the sacrifice that was made for us. So, as my turbulent life seems to be progressively settling around my May 19th departure, I am hoping to resurrect the blog for this last month as I begin to reflect on a year completed and prepare for a year to come. I will begin by wishing all of you a Happy Easter, even if we are two weeks in.

It has certainly been a busy time since I last wrote. The arrival of the mission team from Colorado that I first came to Honduras with coincided with my second cousin John’s stop over on his way home from kayak guiding in Costa Rica as well as my birthday in early March. John joined the missionaries and me that Saturday painting buildings and roofs at the Emilia D’Cuire School for Special Needs Children. John and I were able to combine our Eagle Scout ingenuity to successfully construct a cargo net for the children out of a 100 foot piece of marina rope, which had us both giddy with excitement when we realized it would actually work. We were rewarded with an evening of guacamole, steak fajitas, and Honduran cigars courtesy of the principle and her husband before John took off the next day to catch his flight out of San Pedro Sula.

My birthday presents from the team were two boxes of granola bars and a toaster oven. The granola bars were a reference to my lunch of choice (and necessity) last year as a ski boot repairman. Vail Resorts gives Nature Valley bars away at the ticket counter and I used to grab a handful on my way off the slopes before going into work to keep my food budget down. Needless to say, six months of eating 4-6 everyday became a little tiring. Last year on the mission trip, one of the team members found ways to hide granola bars in my bed, clothes, and even dinner just to make sure I did not lose my taste for them and so the birthday present continued that tradition. The toaster oven idea was leaked by my mother to the team. I had been complaining that I could not cook any of her recipes because they all required an oven, which my two-room apartment is not furnished with. I had been in the market for a toaster oven, but the team beat me to the punch, hauling it all the way down in a duffle bag. I would not call myself a master of the toaster oven just yet, but I have successfully baked a few dinners in it. The toast of course, could not be better. It was a great birthday. I would like to give a special thanks to Mrs. Ide, who has always written me wonderful birthday cards on behalf of the congregation and once again hit it out of the park. She does a wonderful ministry for St. James, and it is always something I look forward to.

The first annual science fair that the secondary students put on that week was a rousing success by all measures, though it had more than its fair shared of bumps along the way. My goal of avoiding the last minute panic and rush to finish projects a day the due date by setting weekly deadlines for the 6 week process were dashed and smashed by week 3 when the every deadline calendar I had handed out mysteriously and simultaneously vanished from the Earth. This meant a lot of handholding throughout the project and at times, I was completing more of the 18 projects than my students. With many of the projects stalling, I finally decided to create a cut off date for experimentation and as a consequence, the entire 7th grade and a few other less motivated groups who refused to even begin their investigations were given alternative assignments. They were disappointed, but I think they learned from the experience and will do better next time. Most importantly, it saved my head from explosion.

In the end, the move saved the assignment and the remaining kids jumped on board and started to do some solid, independent work. There were projects on rockets, catapults, trace fossils, paper airplanes, acid rain, and yeast fermentation to name a few. It was fun to see experiments and data collecting going on all over the school during lunch periods and after school. All at once, there was a collective realization among the students that this project was actually going to happen and they could do it. The students made posters, showing the steps they followed through the scientific method to test their hypotheses, and then gave oral presentations and peer evaluations to their classes before the big day.

Partly out of disorganization on my part and partly out of fear that the event might not even come to fruition if I set a firm date, I did not get invitations out early enough to parents so only a few came to see the Friday afternoon extravaganza. However, the Colorado team cleared their afternoon schedules and was a wonderful audience, walking around the auditorium, asking the students about their posters and projects, and taking pictures for me. I was blown away at how well the students did, talking with people they had only just met in English, answering tough questions and explaining their research with passion and clarity. I also invited the elementary students to come and visit, and they added to the electrifying, inquisitive atmosphere. I am hoping that it will get them excited about studying science at the secondary level, especially the incoming 7th grade class that has to make the decision of whether or not to continue with their education. It was a fantastic culmination of a long and difficult project and I was gratified to see the students making the most of the experience and showing how capable they are.

After the science fair, the rest of the third term flew by as everyone transitioned back to normal class mode, and I rushed to finish up chapters and get in tests before finals week arrived. Our finals ended and were followed by a week long vacation for Holy Week or Semana Santa. I decided to get out of town for a bit and took off for Utila, which is the smallest of the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras that also includes the more touristy Roatan Island that is a frequent stop for cruise ships.

My buddy drove me on the back of his dirt bike to the port outside the city Monday morning. I jumped on the hour long ferry, arriving on the island around noon with a backpack and my dive card. I learned to scuba dive for a geology trip at Colby when I went to Bermuda for a week in January 2007, but I had not been since. As soon as I got off the ferry, with no reservations or plans, I was greeted by a local who brought me fifty yards through what I guess are two peoples back yards to a two story boarding house with chipping white paint. It had a long, covered porch with a couple hammocks hanging from the rafters and sat almost in the bay. Tethered to the uneven pier with planks missing was an old 1940s decommissioned anti-mine boat with faded sign in graffiti styling that said “Paradise Diving”. I knew I was in the right place. Within 30 minutes, I was 30 feet underwater, doing my warm up dive then exploring the reef. I stayed for four days and increased my certification to Advanced Open Water Diver. I made nine dives in total, including a wreck dive to a sunken freighter a hundred feet down and a night dive that was more like being in a disco with the thousands of bioluminescent plankton that lit up the reef as we swam around. During the evenings, I spent time exploring the little town (it only has one road) and hanging out with a fellow from Boston who was working to get his dive master certification. It was an awesome (and cheap) vacation, and it was tough to leave on Thursday afternoon.

Easter services at Holy Trinity on Sunday were momentous as a dozen parishioners were confirmed or received into the Episcopal Church by the bishop, including several of my students and one of the staff members. It was the first confirmation I had attended in years and it reminded me of my own at Saint Paul’s back in 6th grade. After the Eucharist I had the opportunity to eat lunch with the bishop at Veronica Flower’s house. Bishop Lloyd Allen is a powerful presence and a fascinating man, the first Honduran born bishop of the Honduran Diocese. This was the fourth time I had met with him. We talked about his biggest project right now: making the diocese completely self sustaining. In 2003, only 2% of the diocesan budget was covered by the Honduran parishes, almost all of the funding coming from the United States. In the interest of giving the church autonomy in choosing its rectors and setting its programming, protecting it from what will likely be large budgetary cuts in the United States, and most importantly reenergizing the church’s mission, he has undertaken the impressive and often unpopular task of redefining how the church runs itself and the roles of both ordained and lay people in the congregations. He has made significant headway, improving the Honduran budget contribution to over 53%, but concedes it will likely be a decade before it reaches total financial independence.

The next related obstacle is teaching people how to give to the church and take ownership of the church, both new necessities in the difficult financial climate. Besides increasing plate donations, one way Bishop Allen is addressing this is by improving the lay ministry training in Honduras. From both a financial and ministerial perspective, he sees it as the most efficient way to strengthen the existing membership and expand the churches reach, especially in rural areas that might not have enough congregants to support a full time rector. Father Joe Rhodes, a South Carolinian who has served as the spiritual advisor to the Colorado teams as well as other mission groups visiting Honduras for years, has committed to moving down to Honduras and heading up that educational initiative with his wife Tina beginning once his daughter graduates from high school next spring. It is an exciting step for the Episcopal Church here in Honduras that will hopefully allow the church to remain self sustaining and grow to fill the needs of more Hondurans. The church is lucky to have Bishop Allen at the helm.

Now I am focused on the fourth term and finding ways to squeeze in a couple more chapters while still keeping the students engaged. We have some field trips lined up for the students in the coming weeks to visit the jungle and the local universities so I am sure that will be a blast. It is hard to believe that I only have a month left in this school year. It has certainly flown by faster than I ever could have imagined. I am pleased with how far my students have gone and it will be sad to say good bye to Mike and Betty, who are finishing their tour of service as long term missionaries in Honduras. However, I am determined to celebrate and make the most out of every moment that I have left and build momentum for August when I get to start all over again. On May 19th when I fly out of San Pedro Sula, I won’t be traveling quite as high as Jesus did ascending into heaven. I can only be inspired by how much he accomplished in those 40 days and try to do the same, using my last month as a springboard into next year.