my frustrations / being in Oregon

Since we've been home the last week we've been sharing what's going on in Honduras, what we are doing, and why we're doing it. We realized that Honduras has been our life for over 2 years - including teaching, preparing & fundraising, and living down there! Seems like it's been a long time...

When I speak to people I hope to portray all the feelings, hopes, frustrations, and staggering facts about orphans and children and poverty that are so extreme it doesn't even feel real, yet it's so hard to really tell people - because it feels so far removed from life here in the United States. How do I share enough that people don't just say "wow, that's nice." Because most of the facts aren't "nice" and life sure isn't easy there. Yes I love it, but being home in the states just reminds me all the more how hard life is for the people in Honduras. The lack of food, physical abuse, most families having 10 children and not being able to care for that many. I've gotten used to the things there: I think of the school we go to and the children with rotted teeth, dirty, sizes too small uniforms, tortillas for lunch, and lots of garbage, dust, & soccer balls flying around as normal.  I don't really know what i"m trying to say, just that life there is SO different and most people here don't really get it - if they did, I think more people would be doing something about it. (oh no, here's my soapbox). The life that the kids we work with have lived, is so awful compared to life here, it's easier to let it in one ear and out the other - it's so bad that it doesn't even seem real to people and it's so far away that it's hard to even put a face to it.  If only I can figure out how to share what's in my heart in a way that people get it...that's my frustration. But I guess not everyone can be passionate about the same thing - we all have our purpose right? 

anyways, we're up in Oregon right now and we're enjoying just being around. Labor Day we went to Haul Lake - it's a beautiful little lake on the other side of the sand dunes from the ocean - so you can climb the sand dune and look out over the dunes to the ocean, with the lake and the pine trees behind you - it's beautiful! We rented sand boards and the boys boarded and tumbled and played in the dunes and the water. Hannah (my niece) is quite a trooper and did well with all the swimming and hiking in the sand. We all enjoyed the sand and the sun and came home tired and feeling like we had a really good vacation day. The other days have been spent catching up with my family and some friends that live around here and the rest of the week will be the same - dinners, talking, coffee, etc. Today I taxi'd my grandma around to do her errands and Tristan went to work with Daniel so they could hang out - so they're doing some construction.  Tristan's going to figure out how to put a video on the blog - we'll see if he can figure it out to share it with you - it's pretty funny.