Our Christmas Season Begins!

I know it's too early to put up a Christmas tree, and yet ours has been up for over a week now. We have such a busy season around Christmas that we need to get going early, or our family celebration gets crowded out. It also takes us longer to get to feeling Christmassy here, since the weather doesn't cooperate. Besides, we have to use an artificial tree - which goes against my preferences - and to my mind the one and only benefit of a fake tree is that it doesn't dry out. I figure, if I have to use a fake tree anyway, I might as well take advantage of the one and only benefit and keep the tree up for a loooooong season.

With older kids in the house, more care is put into the final look of the tree. I remember when they were all little - I would let the kids decorate the tree without interference from me, then later, when they were in bed, I'd move the ornaments upward so that the whole tree was decorated, and not just the bottom three feet! LOL.

This year Rachel wanted to decorate the tree with mostly natural and homemade items, and her enthusiasm pulled most of the rest of the family into her plan. We found instructions for making these stars from twigs, on the Chickens in the Road blog, and pretty soon our kitchen table became a star making factory. The other homemade ornaments used on that site wouldn't work for us, however. We can't get away with decorating with actual food in the insect-and-rodent-filled tropics. I shudder to think what would transpire after a few weeks of having strings of popcorn, dried fruits and cookies hanging on our tree! Yikes!

Here's our version of the twig star - Rachel tied the twigs, instead of using glue.



After putting up the lights and a tasteful quantity of burgundy, green, and frosty-white glass balls (tasteful as determined by Rachel) we added the twig stars and lots of small pine cones we'd collected in our woods.



At this point the tree was too dark, as neither the twig stars nor the pine cones showed up well against the dark branches. We had, in our ornament collection, some light-colored stars woven from natural grasses, that I bought a few years ago in Santa Barbara Honduras, where crafters specialize in creating tiny items woven from straw and grasses. The grass stars helped brighten up the tree, and we also added some tiny baskets I bought years ago, just because I like baskets and I think these are cute. On top of everything else we draped icicles: we are an icicle-loving family. The tree just doesn't seem finished without them.





Our country-style rag doll angel, part of our Christmas celebration for many years, looks right at home sitting atop this tree!



And here is the almost final result (we'll be hanging up red and white candy canes once we get some):



Perhaps I can be the first person to wish you a "Merry Christmas" this year!

Allen receives a pat on the back!

A blog about bridges and bridge building, called Tallbridgeguy.com recently featured our bridge project in Mongual on their site. Here's the link.

It's nice to get some recognition for your work, from someone who knows about the technical side of it. Thanks for your kind words, Tallbridgeguy!

Being a bit on the silly side myself, I'm amused by the name, Tallbridgeguy. I assume the creator of the blog is a tall guy, although the name could refer to tall bridges, I suppose. The Sowers family consists of a rather short and stocky group of people (the stocky part makes us look even shorter than we are), and we joke around about our stature quite a bit. The indigenous people in this part of Honduras don't tend to grow very tall (we believe poor nutrition is a factor in this), so a favorite joke in our family is that we work in this particular place so that we can perceive of ourselves as tall. It works, too . . . see:

Allen is 5'8", by the way. I don't know the height of the pastor in the photo.

I wonder if I can get away with calling Allen "Shortbridgeguy", in the future. Nah, probably not a good plan. LOL.

What I don't write about - because it's boring!

I haven't posted anything here on the blog for a while, but I've been busy. I do have some interesting things to write about, plus some pictures, but first I'll share a bit about my part in the ministry work, which has been keeping me busy the past few days. Be warned - my part of the ministry is mostly boring and tedious!

Yesterday and today I handled paperwork. I hate paperwork, but it is the only aspect of the ministry work which I can possibly be expected to handle as well as (or potentially better than) Allen and Russell. Those of you who know me in real life know how giggle-inducing is the thought of me building a bridge, laying bricks, or driving myself out into the wild parts of the mountains where the pastors we work with live. So, I help where I can be of use.

This particular batch of paperwork was applications to receive motorcycles. Pastors meet with Russell or Iris at their home, and Russell or Iris fill in the forms - a blessing for me, as those two have good, legible handwriting. A few times a year we submit a group of applications to Missionary Ventures for consideration, and then we hear back as to how many motorcycles we will be able to purchase and distribute. The much-appreciated funds for these purchases come from the efforts of the Christian Motorcyclists Association.

My job is to type the information from the hand-written applications into a computerized form created by our mission office, and email the completed forms back to the MVI office. I know this sounds like a really simple job, but in reality few of our tasks here are as simple as they would be in the states.

First, the computerized form into which I need to type the info was created using Microsoft Office Word. Our main work computer doesn't have this program installed, so I can't open and use the form on that computer. My laptop (the one which has given me so much trouble recently), had Word installed, but when I had to reinstall the operating system Word was uninstalled, and I haven't yet gotten it back - there's some problem with the product key. So, I'd planned to do this project on Russell's laptop, but then his power cord started to fail, leaving me with no computer on which I could access the application form.

Yesterday I found a free trial version of Word online, that I could download for long enough to handle this project. The download took six hours! I'd gone to bed before the download was completed, and I awoke to a message that the download had failed! I didn't have much choice but to try again, and this time the program was successfully downloaded within about one minute. I don't have a clue what was going on with all of that!

Finally I was ready to type the information into the forms. Because I'd originally expected to work in the evening (when our power supply is limited), I'd put the Word program onto my laptop computer, which uses less power than the desktop. Of course, that meant using the keyboard which no longer admits to the existence of the letter "T." I'm able to work around this, thanks to the suggestion of a reader that I make use of the available on-screen keyboard. While I'm grateful to have the laptop working at all, it certainly isn't convenient to have to remember to use the alternative keyboard every time I use the letter "T," especially when filling in a dozen application forms.

I'm happy to announce that the forms are now completed and returned to the office. That means I can turn my attention to all of the regular household tasks which had to be neglected while I handled paperwork.

Sorry if this was the most boring post in the history of blogging. I'm hoping for some sympathy for my life being so inconvenient, or maybe just empathy from those of you who hate paperwork as much as I do.

Crazing craziness

I have a collection of stoneware dishes - they are what we use everyday. Some of these are pieces Allen and I received when we married, some are more recent acquisitions. Although I have much of the stoneware on display in my kitchen, other items are stored away inside my buffet.

Recently Rachel was moving some things around, and she made an interesting discovery. Inside the buffet, a couple of spice shakers had gotten . . . dusty. These shakers are among the older items in the set; they'd have been purchased in the '80s. In their glazed finish, these shakers have a bit of the light crackling pattern known as "crazing." Notice how the dust settled in right along the lines of the crazing. Isn't that just the craziest thing?

The picture shows one shaker with the dust lines washed off. There doesn't appear to be any damage from the dust, although long-term I can't think this would be good for it!

Plus, you have to ask yourself - how did that much dust get inside my buffet?

-echnology -roubles

Well, I've recently had a bit of trouble with my newish laptop computer. This particular computer was a bargain, purchased as a refurbished unit. I've had great success with this type of purchase in the past . . . but this time, sadly, it seems I got what I paid for.

The laptop has given me so much trouble, right from the beginning. I felt terrible about having spent money on a piece of equipment which couldn't manage even the basic tasks required without glitching and crashing, so I took the time to attempt some repairs and improvements. At one point, I had to reinstall the operating system, taking the computer back to it's factory settings. It's a good thing I hadn't had the thing long enough to have important documents or pictures saved on it.

Eventually I had that laptop humming. It was fast, and not in the least glitchy. I'm so not a technical kind of person, and I was inordinately proud of myself. But, as you all know, pride comes before a fall. All of a sudden, with no warning, I could no longer type the letter "T". Just like that. No amount of wiggling the key, finessing the key, or pounding on the key would convince the machine to type that one, extremely important letter. I couldn't even type my own name!

In the short time that I'd had the laptop running well, I'd really gotten used to the ease of setting up to type on the couch, or on my bed, or just anywhere. Suddenly working at the old, weatherbeaten desktop computer seemed a burden. I could still browse the internet on the laptop (as long as I could find a way to insert each url without typing a "T"), but I certainly couldn't write emails or blogposts - so I sort of fell out of communications for a bit.

I'm trying to get over it now. I have a new keyboard for the laptop coming down in six weeks or so . . . until then, I'll just have to deal with my disappointment, and steel myself for my next adventure in computer repairs. If anyone out there has changed out their own laptop keyboard, and wants to give me some pointers, I'm listening!

Have you heard about the terrible weather we're having in Central America?

Well, if you have heard about it, it wasn't from me that you heard. I'm up here on our mountain, having some quiet, overcast days. We're not having much rain at all - less than the previous few weeks. It has been windier than usual, but nothing close to being dangerous. It has been cooler, so we've put on sweaters and pulled out some extra blankets for the beds. But really, nothing worth mentioning, in the way of weather, is happening up here.

A few days ago, I heard on the news that several Central American countries, including Honduras, have been having significant flooding and some mudslides, and there have been the attendant damage and deaths which accompany these events. That was the first I'd heard that anything out-of-the-ordinary was going on.

Yesterday I was in town, doing some shopping and banking, and we saw several troop transport trucks rolling in. Russell mentioned that the president of the congress, Juan Orlando, was in town (or soon to arrive in town), as he was planning to visit some of the flooding-affected areas in our part of the country. It was news to me that there was any flooding in our part of Honduras. I'm just blissfully ignorant up here on our little mountain, I guess.

Last night I read, on a blog I follow, about significant flooding and damage on the north coast of Honduras. Here's Patty's blog post, with lots of pictures of the weather-related damage, and the flooding.

So, now I'm in the know, and I'm sharing the depths of my knowledge with you. Bad weather is happening, apparently all around us, and the only way it has affected the Sowers family is that we aren't getting enough sun each day to power everything we need (and/or want) to run, so we're having to supplement our power supply by using the generator occasionally.

Our prayers are with those who are suffering from this weather event.

Horses for Pastors

While we're heavily involved in helping rural pastors get motorcycles to use in their ministries, there are some for whom a motorcycle isn't the best tool. Some pastors and evangelists work in areas where the "roads" aren't good enough for even dirt bikes. Some are too poor to afford the fuel and maintenance costs of a motorcycle. So, we sometimes help pastors acquire horses and mules, instead of motorcycles.

Here are some pastors who have recently received horses/mules:







The majority of our pastors have churches in several different villages, so help with their transportation needs is a real blessing to them. As always, your donations are what make it possible for us to help the pastors, as they continue the work of evangelism and church planting in the mountains of western Honduras.

We're making hats!

It gets cold up here in the mountains! Why last night, it was down below sixty degrees, if you can even believe that! Before the cold part of the year is over with, we may experience temps in the forties! We used to consider such temperatures mildly cold, when we lived in a more northerly clime, but apparently our blood has thinned to tropical norms, and we start to shiver when it gets down below seventy or so.

The Hondurans feel the cold, too. This year, to help ensure that we have enough gifts for the pastors and their families, and also to have a fun project, we've been knitting warm hats. Mostly I'm doing the knitting, but Boo is in charge of putting in any necessary seams and weaving in the loose ends of yarn, while Rachel and David make and attach pompoms.

Here's our intrepid hat model, displaying a recently completed hat:



We've completed about a dozen hats so far. Since we give gifts to hundreds of families, we're not planning a hat for everyone. We're just doing what we can.

Cleaning day at Trish's house

When you live in a bodega (warehouse), cleaning the house from "top to bottom" takes on a new meaning. It's higher, more athletic, a bit more dangerous, than regular house cleaning. Our home/bodega was significantly overdue for a thorough cleaning, and we knew that we needed to start high, and work our way down, since we'd be dropping so much dirt and dust and so many disembodied bug wings down onto the lower levels.

I hadn't planned to clean the tops of the open trusses, but I did send Gus up there - 15 feet above the cement floor - to clear out some large and distracting cobwebs. When he got up there, however, he said it was soooo dirty that it didn't make sense to clean anything else without dusting/sweeping the trusses, since this dirt would just keep falling on us from above. So, Gus swept the dirt off the trusses, cleared out the cobwebs, and wiped down the cords which hang down for the lights.





(Check out the bottoms of Gus' feet, and his seat, for some idea of the amount of dust up on the trusses!)

While Gus was up in the air, David had the job of assisting him from ground level - a surprisingly entertaining job, involving tying rags and the broom onto pieces of rope draped over the trusses and raising and lowering them to Gus as needed.

Meanwhile, Bethany worked on the loft/storage area above the bathroom.



Continuing our progression from top to bottom, Gus brought in our tallest ladder, to take down the quilt which hangs on the wall above the kitchen sink. The quilt is in the laundry now, and Gus wiped down the wall behind the quilt, where bugs and spiders had sometimes made cozy homes for themselves (this is the photo at the top of this post). He also scrubbed off the pencil line Russell had made on the wall, above the level of the quilt, when Russell first hung it up. How that line has bugged me, but I couldn't get up there to wipe it off! I'm glad it's gone!

Next on the list was cleaning the high side windows. These haven't been washed since we moved into the bodega, since they're impossible to reach without involving a ladder and some careful walking along the tops of high bookcases. Boo, being small and spry, was given this job.



As I type this, the kids are currently working on the next level of dirt, washing off the tops of the bookcases which serve us in place of walls, dividing up the large space of the bodega into smaller rooms.

I'd better get off the computer now, and get back to helping my enthusiastic cleaning crew!

Wow!

We're already seeing some growth on those dead-looking berry bush cuttings we received last week! Well, only on one plant so far, and it was the best looking one of the bunch, as it had some roots connected to it. At any rate, I'm delighted to see that we've got some activity here.

Take a look:



Wahoooooo! And yes, I am easily excited. LOL.

Honduras hits the International News - and that's never good

I know how the news works - stories about the good things that happen aren't generally considered news. Bad things, like murders, weather disasters, scandals, etc are always news. So, it pretty much goes without saying that when there are stories in the international news about Honduras, it won't be anything to brag about.

So, here we are, in the news.

The United Nations put out a report, ranking the countries of the world by their homicide rate, related to the size of the population. Guess who "won" top billing? Yep, Honduras. Read about it here. (That link, by the way, isn't to an international news source, but the story is out on those sites, as well.)

La Gringa's Blogicito has an article today on this topic, explaining - among other things - how the number of murders happening in Honduras is certainly significantly under-reported. That's not exactly reassuring. Here's her report.

And, on Friday, a group of men were killed, execution style, in the parking lot of the largest and busiest airport in Honduras - the one we happen to use whenever we travel. Several bystanders were apparently injured, as stray shots entered the main waiting area of the airport. Here's the CNN article about that event, which is significantly lacking in details. The Honduras News website article(in English) has lots more info.

For those of you who worry about us personally, we're still comparatively safe up here in our rural, mountainous home. Crime is increasing here, as well, but isn't to the levels of the big cities. Of course, we do have to travel to the cities fairly frequently, so we are exposed to this higher level of danger at times. Prayers for our safety would always be appreciated.

Comments

I receive lots of comments on the blog that you never get to read. Most of those include helpful links to online gambling sites, prescriptions-by-mail businesses, and then some really seedy stuff that I won't detail here.

The responses containing links generally include flattery about what a good job I'm doing on writing the blog. These reviews would be more appreciated if the links weren't attached! Here's a sample of a lovely thought I received, but didn't post in the comment section, because of the link:

"I really like the path you are posting! you enjoy an interesting essence of estimate!"

Now tell me, who wouldn't enjoy receiving uplifting encouragement like that? I may go around all day whispering to myself "You enjoy an interesting essence of estimate." I'm not certain just what it means, but it sure sounds purty.

October Garden Update

I haven't posted much about the garden lately - but it's not because we haven't been working at it. It's more because we've had so many failures lately.

I've learned, though. I now know that too much rain is not good for the garden. Probably lots of you already knew that, but sometimes I just have to try for myself and find out. Yep. Too much water = dead plants. Even though I'm gardening in raised beds with good drainage, my plants weren't able to overcome the sheer quantity (and probably also the driving force) of the rains we get during the rainy season, which is basically from late April/early May through October.

With the end of the rainy season in sight, we've started getting ready to really grow some food, maybe. Some plants need to have their seeds placed right into the ground, but others can be started inside and then transplanted.

Right now, I have green peppers growing in little pots:



There are also some sunflowers just starting to come up:




I learned a few weeks ago that there are wild berry bushes (I think they're raspberry, but they might be blackberry, and I don't really care which they are) growing on a mountain not too far from Gracias. I hired one of the pastors that comes into town for the pastor school, and who comes from a village on that mountain, to bring me some cuttings. I'm not knowledgeable about this kind of thing, and neither was this particular pastor. Here's what he brought me:




I've seen plants that looked deader than these come back to life, so I have hope that these will gradually grow into plants with berries. We'll see. Right now I have some sitting in water, and some planted in very wet dirt . . . I'll let you know what happens with these.

Yep, I've been sick . . . plus, Church Construction in Canadas de Belen

We've been passing around a flu bug down here, and I had to take my turn. I'm back up and going now, and I need to announce the winners of the give-away . . . but not just yet. Maybe tomorrow.

Russell recently received some pictures of a current church construction project, and I thought I'd show you those today. This church is being built by a congregation in a town called Canadas de Belen. I figured I'd use the posting of these photos as an opportunity to explain how we handle assisting churches with construction projects.

First, let me make it clear that we don't ever want to step in and "give" a church building to a congregation. Does that sound awful? It has been our experience that people appreciate things they've worked for much more than they appreciate things that are given to them for nothing. In the end, we want the congregation to know that this is their church building, not ours. It isn't unusual for congregations which have received a "gift" of a church building to then assume that the giver will also pay for furnishings, maintenance, etc. We want to avoid setting up a situation like that.

Second, as you might imagine, we always have to deal with having less money for church construction than we have requests for help. That's just the way it's going to be, and we've had to figure out a way to spread out the funds to more churches, while still managing to be a legitimate help to each church.

With these goals and limitations in mind, here's what we've come up with, over the years, as a system for helping with church construction projects.

We require the church to purchase/own their land, and that land must be titled in the name of the church, not to any individual. This is important so that the building doesn't become someone's personal property after some future church squabble or something. It's been known to happen, so this requirement helps to prevent that.

Because the early stages of the construction process involve lots of labor but not much expense for purchased materials, we don't get involved in helping with the funding of a building until the walls are up. (Allen is frequently involved in giving construction advice during these stages, however.) The members of the congregation dig the footers, and haul stones, sand and gravel from the rivers to make the footers. Then they make the adobe bricks by hand, using local clay. Once the bricks are dry, they can build the walls. A small amount of cement is generally used in these early stages - some is used in the footers, some to create headers above the doors and windows, and then some to construct a concrete band around the tops of the walls, which helps to create a stronger building.



For those non-construction types amongst my readers . . . in the photo above, a bit of the footer is noted with a red circle, while a header above the door is circled in blue. The poured concrete beam around the tops of the walls is hidden behind those wooden boards, which were used to create the form to hold the concrete until it dried. Being a non-construction person myself, I have great sympathy for those who don't know the lingo. LOL.

That's how much is completed at this time on that particular church. The next step will be to build the roof structure. Usually the church will harvest wood locally, and have one of those highly skilled chainsaw guys come and cut the lumber into boards. (See this post for more on the chainsaw guys - they're pretty amazing.) Once the boards are up on the roof, then the roofing material - usually either clay tiles or metal sheet roofing - is installed. This part of the project involves an outlay of cash, so this is the part where we help churches with funds, when we can do so.

Once the roof is on, congregations often begin meeting in their church building, as the rest of the structure (doors, windows, floors, etc) is gradually completed. You can see how our limited amount of funding goes into the construction of more churches this way.

I'm posting the picture below, just because it's the kind of thing I like to show you here . . . that's the scaffolding the church members built and are using in the process of constructing this church. Kind of scary, don't you think?

The End is Near!

The end of the Gifts for Gracias Christmas Project, that is!

If you are mailing in gifts or other donated items, you have until October 1st to get things into the mail and on their way to us in time for the shipment. That's just two weeks away!

If you are in Florida, and want to personally deliver items to the Florida address, you can safely do that until about October 10th. If you want to personally deliver items to the Maryland address, you will have an additional couple of weeks.

I will be randomly selecting the winners of the give away on October 1st, so if you haven't yet contacted me to let me know of your participation in the project, make sure you do let me know before then!

Odd Green . . . Caterpillar?

Boo brought me this slug-like caterpillar she found, so that we could share it here on the blog. She also took the pictures - didn't she do a nice job with that?







Here you're looking straight down on the back of the bug.

The underside of the bug - Boo said this picture was hard to take, because the bug was very quick to get itself back on it's feet. Boo also said the feet were more like suction cups.

Boys and Puppies

Lots of "awwwwww" factor in this post. Enjoy!

Bridge Construction Update from Paca-someplace

I recently posted some pictures, about the beginning of the current bridge construction project. With today's post, you'll get an idea of how old those photos really were - just look at how much progress has been made! In the photo above, you can see one of the bridge towers already completed on the far side of the river, while closer up you can see the second tower under construction. The concrete pour of the second tower was completed this week, and the concrete is currently curing. The next time the men head out there, they'll be removing the panels which formed up the tower for the concrete.

Some views from the work:

Off the edge of the photo at the top of this post, to the right, was where the men mixed concrete on the ground, and loaded up buckets.


Buckets are carried from the mixing location, over to where the tower is being poured.



Buckets full of concrete are handed up the scaffolding, from man to man, until they reach the top. Russell oversees the pouring of the concrete. If the concrete isn't poured in correctly, the wall panels could blow out, the rebar (metal bars which add support from inside the concrete) can be pushed out of place, and other bad things can happen.

This week, the men are working on the water project in Mongual, and Allen took the camera along today, so there might be an update on that soon. Meanwhile, today is the 8th of September - so if you're planning to take part in the Gifts for Gracias Christmas Project . . . and I sincerely hope that you are planning to take part . . . you need to get rolling on this! The last day to mail is October 1st, remember! I'd love to get some feedback, from people who have already sent gifts, or those who are planning to. It's hard for me to gauge how the collection is progressing, from down here in Honduras! Thanks!

Feel free to ignore this post

This is the year of the giant grasshoppers. We've seen these before, and we've been told that they come every other year. However, I blogged about them the last time we saw them, and that was in 2008, so I know it was three years ago, not two. My kids asked me to blog about them again, so that we have a record of their visit we can refer to, the next time they show up.

The grasshoppers are almost gone now, so I took the new camera out and worked on learning to take some close up shots, before they all disappeared. It was windy, so the tree branches kept swaying, making a clear picture difficult to come by. If you're not into grasshoppers, please feel free to ignore this post.

A Bridge Allen DIDN'T Build

On a recent trip to Copan Ruins, Allen saw this small bridge crossing a river that runs alongside the main road. Sometimes people think the hanging bridges we build look scary - but I assure you, they look great to the people who are used to using bridges like this one!

You can't really tell in the pictures, but the span of that bridge is around 100 feet! It looks to be mostly held together with twisted wire.




Care to walk across?

By the way, don't forget that we are closing in on the deadline for donations to the Gifts for Gracias Christmas Project. Please join in, if you possibly can. It's a tough year for donations, and every little bit helps! Thanks!

The bridge project in Paca-someplace

In spite of the fact that most of you will never try to check my spelling of Honduran place names, and in spite of the names themselves often being ridiculously difficult to spell (the capital of the country is Tegucigalpa, for goodness sakes!), I have hesitated to write this post about the current bridge project, since I'm pretty sure I'm going to spell the name of the location incorrectly. But, honestly, I'm doing my best here. Pacallales. Or Pacayales. Or something. Pronounced pock-aye-EL-es. Or something like that.

Allen and Russell have spent several weeks working in the place mentioned above. They stay there for four or five days each time, because of the distance and rough terrain between that place and Gracias.

Here are some photos from the beginning of the work, involving moving supplies to the construction site. Some of the supplies were purchased, but the sand and rocks were collected from the riverbed, and carried up the hill to the bridge site.

Going down to the river for rocks and sand

Climbing up from the river, toting rocks

An accumulation of laboriously collected rocks!