Anglican Communion News Service

"But the disciples took Saul by night, and let him down over the wall, lowering him in a basket." Acts 9:25

The food basket

In most of the places I know, you carry the food that you buy in a basket. In Honduras these days if you want to take food to a part of our country called El Paraiso you have to get inside the basket with the food. When I first heard of the way that you get across the river after the effects of the hurricane I could only think of Paul escaping of Damascus in a basket after his recent conversion.

We are taking food to El Paraiso. There is no food there at present. They are completely disconnected by road because the force of the water has created a canyon full of water. I never thought that it could be possible for that to happen in that area. Actually El Paraiso is one of the dry region of Honduras and rain is not something they have in abundance, well until Mitch arrived. Now water is what they have too much.

In order to cross that canyon you get into a basket with your packages and then they pull you across with a rope. You only pay 5 lempiras to go across, that's about 35 cents American, and then when you get to the other side you wait for buses to take you to the different towns. It makes sense of course. It is hard to make it to paradise, which is what paraiso means in Spanish. But if you want to go to El Paraiso you better bring your own food if not you will be hungry. And of course you have to be willing to cross the deep canyon on the basket and hope that the rope will hold you.

The end of racism

Racism is a sin. That's what the church says. Of course it is, but for those who suffer racism it is much more than that. It is pain and suffering of not being recognized as equals and being denied what its truly theirs. Sadly racism is part of our existence in Honduras. The problem for us is the same as many places. We are racist but we do not know it or at least we are not fully aware of it.

Yesterday I got a telephone call from Fr. Antonio in Puerto Cortes. He was very concerned about a community of Garifunas, which are the people descendants from African slaves that rebelled in the Caribbean islands of St. Vincent about 1½ centuries ago and ended in the Honduran shores courtesy of the British that preferred to have less troublesome slaves.

They have lived for a long time in Honduras and became part of the Spanish and Native culture around the beginning of this century. They should be accepted fully and share in all the benefits of the nation but that is not the case. Racism is also a sin in Honduras.

"Nobody is caring for us. We need food, medicines, clothing. Our children are sick. We have lost about 35 houses, our churches are destroyed. We need help."

Fr. Antonio told me of his meeting with them. They needed all of those things but also they were asking for gasoline in order to fill their outboard motors and fish for food. But they had nothing, they had spent every cent they had buying food and medicine. Nobody had helped them and they were mad and desperate. Tomorrow we will get there with food. We got someone to drive another shipment to this villages of about 2,000 people in need.We will also bring money for gasoline. They will bring their containers. I am told that after hurricanes fishing gets real good.

But at least that group is alive and eventually through their hard work at the sea they'll get back on their feet. The ones that were not so lucky were those in the capital that lived by the river. Racism ended in that area. They all died. I saw the body bags being piled up one on top of the other. Indian and White, Black and Asian all covered with dark plastic. They were buried together in several huge holes of death.

At least in death everyone was the same. Racism had ended.

We made it to Corinto!

My amphibian invasion did not happened. Please don't think that like in D-Day we were giving wrong information on our plans to confuse the enemy. Luckily after they got to the rivers the waters were down and the convoy made it through the rivers. They were able to ride all the way to the border. They had to cross around 20 rivers from San Pedro Sula and many of them with no bridges.

I am sure that my Archdeacon will give you a full report.I got a preliminary one from one of the lay persons that went. Jose Raul is a PE teacher in one of our schools and he went with a Canadian and an American teachers. On the way they met with Fr. Guardado and two of the new deacons. It was a full scale international invasion! When they got there they saw some of the fallen houses. Our church, vicarage and clinic were still standing, thanks God. The people were more than happy for not being forgotten. Actually their hopes had gone up when the Army Helicopter that never delivered the food came to give them medical attention. Yes, the army had told them that the Episcopal Church had sent them there, that we were praying for them , that we were on our way. To be patient.

I need to remember that when I despair and feel down for being left alone with no one to help me. The Word of the Lord tells us: "Wait for the Lord, be strong, and let your heart take courage; yea, wait for the Lord!" (Psalm 27:14). Help is on the way maybe not as you planned it, by air or by sea. Just wait, the Lord is around the bend driving a truck with a whole bunch of angels driving fast to get there, not willing to forget you or anyone even if you live far away.