por fin... estoy aqui!

Mis queridos,

¡Por fin… estoy aqui! Well, actually, I’ve been safe and sound “aquí” at my new home at the Farm of the Child for nearly a month now, but both my heart and my schedule have been plenty full, and combined with the rising rivers of rainy season which make trips to town more of a rarity (okay, we’ve only been stranded once so far, but it still sounds exciting), getting an update out has taken longer than I’d hoped. Around here, though, no news is good news – so please know that I’ve been safe and busy and well, and am quickly settling into my new home, my new community, and my place here at the Farm.

I wrote you last amidst an escalating political situation – the recap is that just days before our departure from Guatemala, ex-president of Honduras Zelaya made a sneak return to the capital and was hiding out inside the Brazilian embassy, which temporary closed the country’s borders, reinstated curfews and roadblocks, and generally made traveling a bit more difficult and unstable. After changing our plans several times and consulting our families and the Farm’s board of directors, we rushed to a Xela travel agency and booked our flights to Honduras less than fourteen hours before they took off. After a midnight ride to Guatemala City and three different flights (one of which took us to El Salvador!), we arrived safe and sound to the outstretched arms of familiar faces in La Ceiba, and happily settled in to begin our orientation as the first EVER group of Finca volunteers to arrive by plane. (FYI, the political situation appears to have calmed significantly, and the Farm and nearby Trujillo haven’t been at all affected. So while our travel was less than ideal, please know that we’re safe, and the story of “the time I entered Honduras in the middle of a post-military coup regime” will be a great one for the grandkids one day…)

I can’t really begin to describe what it was like to pile eight new volunteers and all our luggage in the back of a Landcruiser and a pickup truck, cross the seven rivers that wind between Trujillo and the Farm, and pull up to the front gate of the place we’ll call home for the next two-plus years. All the kids were there, and volunteers, sisters, house parents, employees… singing and holding signs and playing guitars and drums, receiving us openly to come be part of this family. Some of the kids offered hugs and smiles; some tried to trick us by giving us wrong names for themselves; some hung back awkwardly or shyly. And as we newbies danced and sang and let Spanish swim all around us, we laughed and cried and felt excited and overwhelmed and terrified and grateful.

And I do feel grateful, above all, I think. To be here, to be part of this project. To have such a sense of trust that this is exactly where I am called to be. I believe in this place – not that it is perfect, but that it is good… and after being gone for two years, it’s a blessing to see how these kids have grown and changed, how they are becoming bigger and stronger and hopefully kinder, better people. How the struggling first grader I spent hours on the alphabet with after school each week now loves to read aloud in front of her peers in church. How one of my more difficult fifth graders is now actually a really mature, responsible young woman. How the boy who always held his head a little crooked now runs and plays, full speed ahead across the campo, falling down with the others in a pile of laughter and exhaustion. And it’s still hard – really hard, actually – and there is still a lot of brokenness here – but it gives me strength to see that this place is doing a good job, and that, somehow, with a LOT of grace, I, too, will play a part in the work that goes on here, as do so many others.

And the big news of this month is that, after a two-week orientation, we’ve finally received our job placements for the coming year… introducing Profa Erin, 5th and 6th grade math, science and English teacher (slash, newsletter writer, swim instructor, hospitality co-coordinator, future Landcruiser driver? :) …) While I can’t pretend that it’s quite the job of my dreams, I’m coming to trust that it’s where the Finca needs me, and hoping and praying that the joy and the excitement will come with time. I welcome and am grateful for your thoughts, prayers and words of encouragement as I continue to transition into my new role and in the months of planning and preparation ahead (school here runs from February-November, so the next few months will be full of lesson planning, tutoring, and finding ways to keep our children busy in “winter school”, aka glorified summer camp.)

Know, as always, how much I miss and love each of you, and how much you fill my thoughts and my prayers and my days’ labor. When things get hard and my own smallness overwhelms me, your support keeps me going, and I find myself continually grateful for you… for allowing me to be here, for helping me be here, for your sharing in the good work that is done here – for it is your work, too… and for knowing how deep and strong and wide is the net cast over us which binds us all together.

Much peace to you all!

Love,
Erin

“The answer must be, I think, that beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there.” – Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek