Saturday, September 26, 2009

Dear friends and family,

           Greetings and assurances from rainy Honduras that we are safe and well.  We are thankful for the many messages we have received expressing prayers and concerns for us.   As many of you know, for the last three months, we have been living in a country in political crisis.  Where in the sitting president sought reelection, an act in direct violation of the Honduran constitution, was removed forcibly from the country by the military carrying out an order from the Supreme Court, and now wants his job back from the current president who took the post as the established person in the line of succession.  While peaceful demonstrations have occurred throughout the country, violence has been concentrated to a half-mile radius near the international airport and foreign embassies in the capital Tegucigalpa, an eleven-hour drive from our location.  Trujillo, where we live, is literally the town at the end of the road, where the heat, palm-tree shade, and lack of through traffic lulls people into a lethargic state where the motto seems to be something like, “don’t get too excited.”  Indeed, besides the morning of the Coup, when soldiers surrounded the downtown municipal building, Trujillo has not seen an increased police or military presence.  Yet, even here, the crisis affects us.  At the start of the conflict, a group of protestors blocked the main road leading into town with stumps, broken culverts and tires, for over a week.  This cut off Honduras’ largest container port from exporting bananas, pineapple, and palm oil from the interior of the country, no doubt leading to factory shutdowns, and job losses.  We placed extra emphasis on the existing hurricane season practice of stocking-up on fuel and food, since the blockade shutdown Trujillo’s only gas station and led to stores rationing basic foodstuffs. Dozens of scheduled visitors to the Farm canceled their travel plans leading to missed opportunities to see loved ones, bring down needed goods to the Farm, and accomplish planned projects.  The government has gotten in the habit of “preserving the peace” by shutting-off power for extended periods of time, limiting people’s ability to receive information through radio and television, and by instituting long mandatory curfews, often through the day time hours, and for days on end, thus canceling school, shutting down businesses, and making trips to town to communicate with home impossible.  A steady increase in tourism to Honduras over the past few years has surely now been lost for perhaps a decade.  This is all deeply regretful.

Of course, what cannot be disrupted by poor political choices are things like swimming in the ocean with kids, sleepy-eyed prayer at 6 AM, soccer practice, coloring welcome signs for the arrival of a new class of volunteers, maintenance projects like painting inside the volunteer house an uplifting yellow, and the rhythmic washing of sweat and dirt soaked clothes on our front scrub-board.  In spite of politicians and protests, life here remains remarkable and as a teacher and student of political science, fascinating.

All things considered, and humbly speaking, we have done fantastic here.  Although contracting malaria, odd foot funguses, an extreme amount of bug bites, and losing over forty-five pounds combined, we have remained healthy.  High waters have occasionally trapped us for a day or so but never have we faced a head-on hurricane strike. Our volunteer class of nine has remained remarkably close, and will be the first in which all original members complete their entire two and a half year commitment.  Theresa has done remarkable work as the school administrator, dramatically increasing the professional development of teachers, organizing the school to more effectively manage its resources, and raising the level of rigorous education received by students, especially in the core subjects of math and English.  From new roofs, a new chapel, revamped lighting, and avocado trees, I have led to completion a long list of infrastructure projects that have greatly heightened the security, functionality, and livability of the Farm.  Moreover, my efforts on organization and establishing procedures, worker morale, sustainable agriculture, preventative maintenance, as well as strong relationships with in-country contacts and American benefactors will ensure the continued physical effectiveness of the Farm as a place to love, and raise amazing children.

We did it with your help.  It has been 26 months since we left Oregon in August 2007 to begin this service.  We will be home in time for Christmas this year.   In that time we have been incredibly supported by loved ones and strangers.  To date we have received over 134 individual donations, countless more if you include individuals who bought goods at Rosemarie’s bake sales or paid for their children to throw dodge balls at us in Tigard.  In all, these donations totaled nearly $15,300, almost completely covering all our overseas healthcare, language school training, living stipend, and airfare costs.  Moreover, we opened dozens of boxes filled with all sorts of needed donations from toothbrushes, and jump ropes, to rope for tire-swings.  We opened emails and letters filled with encouraging words and photographs of houses bought, graduations achieved, weddings celebrated, and nieces born.  By the end of our time here, we will have also welcomed visitors over 18 times who took anti-parasite pills, red-eye flights, and mechanically questionable busses to meet this special place.  You all humble us and we say emphatically, thank you.  In the Farm of the Child we have found a project that we believe in, love, and will continue to support however we can after we leave.  We hope that many of you will do the same.

We hope to catch-up with you over the holidays or in January when we will be staying with family in Corvallis and making trips to see missed love ones.  Throughout the spring we plan to substitute teach in the Willamette Valley and pursue options for graduate school for the coming fall.

Que Dios les bendiga, y que nos veamos pronto.  (May God bless you all and may we see you soon).

Sincerely,

Nathan and Theresa

P.S. Recently uploaded photos and journal entrees from the past few months of activities at the Farm are available for viewing on our website, www.conroyfamily.org