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Andresen Scholarship Winner Builds in Honduras

by Richard Marymee

"What the heck was I thinking?!?"

My first thought on waking up in Honduras in our hotel room was, “What the heck was I thinking?!?”

We arrived in San Pedro Sula on Thursday, November 20, 2003. There were 12 of us from all over the United States, and one woman from London, England. We were met by a liaison from the local Habitat for Humanity affiliate, Luis. He and our driver, Elmer, drove us to dinner and to visit the local Habitat office. Afterward we drove 2 hours to the town of Siguatepeque and to our modest hotel, the Palacio Real, where we would stay for the next seven days.

We started working on Friday, November 21. Our main job was laying row after row of cinder block to build the structure. We soon learned that construction materials and techniques were very different here than at home. No wood was used in the structure of the home, so instead of hammering nails we became good at cutting and laying cinder blocks, as well as mixing cement the old-fashioned way—with shovels and a strong back. Two local masons helped us with all this work, showing us how to lay the lines of blocks level and keeping things going smoothly.

The home we were building was for a lady named Blanca, a divorced mother of four, two of whom were still living at home with her: Marlo, who was 12, and Mara, who was 17. Blanca is 45 and works as a housekeeper at the local Evangelical hospital. When completed, the home will cost her about $60 a month. The home itself has two bedrooms and 48 square meters of space, or a little less that 500 square feet—basically the size of a small one-bedroom apartment. However, her new home would be above average in size and quality by local standards.

A Fascinating Experience

There is so much to tell about an experience like this that cannot be quickly and concisely described in a few paragraphs. I had a terrific experience getting to know all of the different people on this trip—people from Alaska, Oregon, Texas, Alabama, and Massachusetts.

Working with the local masons, trying to talk with some of the local kids in Spanish, and being surprised here and there by little reminders from home, like Aldo, who lived nearby and spoke perfect Southern California English. His father is a doctor at the Evangelical hospital, and his family had lived in Redlands for about 2 years several years ago. Or seeing Blanca’s daughter Maya wearing a t-shirt from the San Diego Wild Animal Park, which is located only a few miles from Escondido, where I grew up.

Seeing things like a roaring waterfall and even taking a tour to the bottom of it, seeing the water coming crashing overhead, was one of the most remarkable experiences of my life. Traveling to places like Copan to see the Mayan ruins and the natural beauty of the area. It was so lush and tropical all over the countryside. Everywhere you saw banana trees growing, and at small shacks along roadsides everywhere entrepreneurs were selling bunches of bananas and jars of local honey.

The last four days were spent on the island of Roatan, a small island with many resorts just north of mainland Honduras, that is most famous for the various pirates who used it as a base in the 19 th century when it was a British possession. Although it rained most of the time on and off, it was still a remarkable place to see.

And everywhere we went there were interesting people to meet. In Copan it was Tanya, an ex-pat Brit who owned and ran a restaurant named “Twisted Tanya”. On Roatan, we met Peggy, who is a nurse from Ohio who decided to move to Roatan three years ago and opened a clinic out of her house to help treat the people of Roatan. This she does for free, receiving donations from various supporters at home and on the island.

I’ll never forget the friendliness of the people, like the cab driver who enthusiastically asked why I was there in Honduras. Was I visiting or working? Was I from Germany or los Estados Unidos? I will especially remember the kind lady at a small church in Siguatepeque called Iglesia de Calvario who loaned me her Bible at a service I walked into my first Sunday night there. Her kindness reminded me that no matter how far I go from home, no matter what language they speak there, we are all one family in the Lord.

Altogether, it was a fascinating experience, and a great opportunity to see a very different part of the world that isn’t even that far away from us geographically. I have been terrifically blessed to have experienced this, and I am grateful to Habitat and the Betty Andresen Memorial Global Village Scholarship for making it possible, and more importantly to the Lord for putting it all together. Thank you!

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