Well-Being For All

Report from Terry Fielder in Honduras - Part 1

Rural Reconstruction Program (PRR), La Buena Fe, Zacapa, Santa Barbara,Honduras.

The rain has come early and exceptionally hard this year. Every afternoon the clouds begin to roll in. By dark, (about 6:15 PM) the rain begins. There is no gentle warning; it just starts to fall, and fall hard. The drops are big and they come in waves. Within minutes the puddles grow and flooding is quick. Some nights it only lasts a couple of hours; others it can go almost all night.It is early morning.

The insects and birds have been singing for ages, maybe trying to coax the sun up earlier to help dry things out a little. More than these sounds... more than the damp cool of the early morning... more than the growing light and the new long shadows, I am in awe of this place because of cheerful greetings of "Buenos Dias" - Good Morning - that people of every age send my way.

From the old man going to his fields in the mountains, to the woman already into the second hour of preparing the corn to make the tortillas for the day and the children and youth - some in uniform and some in their best clothing as they begin their daily trek to school - all are joyous. The diesel engines of the pickpup trucks and the gravel dump trucks rattle and rumble to life. And then the motor cycles start up and the agronomists head into the mountains for another day of helping the people transform their meager crops into something we call Food Security.

When I was young, I thought like a youth. I was told, and so I learned, that if I worked hard, I would be prosperous and happy. But people here have worked incredibly hard for generations and they have very little of what I might consider the Prosperity I expected in my youth. Now I am a man, and I choose NOT to put away my childish thinking. It is the farmer families here that help me remember to work hard, when I must work ... but also to remember greet the day and to greet others with the joy of life that comes from cultivating relationships with family and friends.

Everyone who is part of World Accord either as a donor or volunteer are neighbours to the project participants in developing countries, who now get a greater yeild of crops in their movement toward Food Security. There is even more Hard Work to do. More greeting and laughing to do. More living. More learning. These poor people with little education are part of our University of Life Long Learning. Young and Old. All our days.

So from Honduras.... Buenos Dias to you. Have a great day! To you I transfer the smile from the faces here that one might not expect. they are in part, the evidence of HOPE for their food security, education and better health.

The gravel trucks have been loaded by hand and off they go. One is loaded with gravel for road repairs in a local village. The other with sand to make cement for floors in homes. Cement floors are safer than damp mud for little babies to crawl around on. Small steps to make a better world.

Gracias... Thank YOU!

Terry Fielder

posted by World Accord Staff @ 10:15 AM