Honduras Recap

Alright folks,

We're down to the last couple posts EVER of the The B-Team summer so enjoy...or hang in there, whichever way you see it. I spent 2 weeks in Tegucigalpa, Honduras living with 2 catholic nuns (that only speak Spanish!) in the basilica of Suyapa while working/helping Jorge Mahomar.

Jorge Mahomar's son, Jose, was a member of the Aggie Men's Club and through him AMC started sending a group of people to help his father every spring break for the past 5 years. I went with AMC this past March where we raised the money to pay for and build the foundations of 3 houses for 3 poor families of 6. Since 1984 Jorge Mahomar has been serving the poor of Tegucigalpa EVERY SINGLE DAY, with the exception of when he almost died of dengue fever. He is the founder and President of non-profit organization FANIVA, whose goal is serving the poor children of Honduras, as well as the President of the government relief organization CREA. He has founded 44 relief centers (drug rehabilitation, orphanages, day care centers, cafeterias, etc...) during that time. He receives over 200 phone calls PER DAY (on his 2 cell phones that literally do not stop ringing all day) from people wanting help. He truly is an incredible man and spending 2 weeks with him and his many organizations was truly incredible.

I lived day by day in Honduras, never knowing what was coming the next day. I simply woke up, had breakfast and waited for Jorge or one of his friends to pick me up to work for the day and then drop me back off in the evening. It was very unnerving at times, but incredibly freeing and liberating. I felt like at most times I was truly living in the present, not reminiscing on the past or looking ahead to the future, only in that day. Some days I was dropped off at day care centers or drug rehab centers to play ALL DAY with the children, other days I rode all over Teguci with Jorge and his co-workers running errands, doing heaving lifting and anything else I could to do help, and others serving with the 2 catholic nuns I was staying with. In the evenings I would study more Spanish, do pushups and situps, read and reflect on my day, and usually end up in bed 10:30-11:00 pm at the LATEST EVERY night! After 4 challenging, but very rewarding days by myself I was joined by good friend (and former freshmen in my fish camp and AMC member) Ryan Collett for the remainder of my stay. It was a welcome relief physically, emotionally, and spiritually to have him there with me and for that I'm extremely thankful, even though I had to translate for him and keep him in line for most the trip, haha! only kidding....here we go!

Los Tres Muskateros de Honduras (from left) : Wilson Maradiaga, Jorge, y Richard Flores

Having an amazing last lunch at Annie's (beautiful catequista second from the right) house with Jorge, Ryan, Annie's mother, and one of the nuns Emme.

Jorge got los gringos into dinner with the Catholic Cardinal of ALL Honduras, Oscar Rodriguez. He's a strong candidate to be the next pope! Incredibly humble, friendly, and speaks 9 languages, no big deal.

Leaving an Assembly of God church service to a beautiful view....over 2 hours after it started! Almost all of it was singing and praising the Lord!

Every Saturday Emme heads up the hillside in Suyapa (poor barrio in Teguci where I stayed) to run catholic church classes for over 300 children! The other people are all catequistas (catholic teachers) that help her teach. All the kids are incredibly excited to learn more about God and living a good life...as well as the milk and cookies we hand out afterwards!

Having breakfast at Suyapa with 3 absolutely incredible women of God: Emme, Mirian (local mother from Suyapa that helps out at the church), and the other nun Marisol.

Ryan and Director of Vista Hermosa (beautiful view) orphanage Isaac looking out at the beautiful view of the city

With the children of Vista Hermosa after a long day of futbol, homework, and chores!

Ryan and Marjorie clowning around while they were supposed to be shoveling dirt!

The church in the small, tourist town of Ojojona just outside of Tegucigalpa with Ryan and Wilson

At the children's day care center Leerya. Big, large gringo - HUMAN JUNGLE GYM for little kids! ALL DAY long (for 3 days too)

quick little of video of a normal calm, day at Leerya!

Everything in Honduras was brutal and in your face. I saw the remains of Popeye's chicken that was burned down, heard a man get murdered 50 yards outside the children's home I was playing at, and worked along recovering gang members and crack addicts. I listened to a man who had murdered, raped, and stolen tell me how God transformed his entire heart and soul and has now been selflessly serving the poor with Jorge for 20 years. I went to mass every sunday with Cristian (age 9) and his little sister Breisha Paola (age 6) and saw the pure joy in their hearts despite the fact that their mother was murdered and father fled to Spain. It was life changing, inspiring but yet scary experience that makes you realize how precious and short life can be. An experience that forces you to take a hard look at your life and evaluate what you're living for. I do not have any profound answers or epiphanies, I'm actually still trying to process what I saw in Honduras and on what I saw my whole trip as well as acclimate to my "old" life in the States where everyone else has been moving forward as well.

I will be traveling a bit more this month (state side though) to visit my brothers (both in the Air Force) before I start my job as a process engineer at Frito-Lay but hope to put up some reflections and lessons learned from all my travels for those of you who can stand my long winded nature!

hope all is well wherever you may be! abrazos.

kevin

I'm not done yet! Stay tuned...

Sorry for not putting up any updates on Honduras, computer availability was very scarce. I am currently back in the United States safe and sound, but am now traveling intra nationally! I got back home for a day, unpacked and then repacked to be a grooms man in my good friend Blake McDonald's wedding this weekend in Arlington!

Anyway, long story short PLEASE be patient and get excited because I will be putting up a recap of my crazy 2 weeks in Honduras and some sort of trip wrap up of what I learned on my travels and how it affected me...

hope all is well wherever you may be.

abrazos,
Kevin

Stuck in Argentina...pobrecito :)

Sorry for the delay on the update people. Downloading pictures takes forever abroad, which is no bueno when you're paying by the hour (which I am fortunately not right now)! The past week and a half or so has been absolutely incredible for me. I've been traveling for 75 days now by my count and my trip has undergone a significant change. Up until I arrived in Cordoba for the first time (I'm back for round 2 now) my trip was primarily touristy - arrive in a city for a couple days, meet people at the hostel, explore the museums, monuments, etc...which has been incredible, but gets tiring after a while. Lately, I have gotten a much more local experience through the people I've met in David's (missionary here in Cordoba) ministry, which has been incredible, so much so that I've extended my stay. I've met engineering students, english students, atheists that have recently accepted christ, missionaries, and everything in between. It really makes you take a hard look at what you believe in, what you care most about, and much more. Needless to say, it's been amazing, but now to the good part- pictures doing the talking for me!

Part of the crew in Cordoba (during round 2). Next to me are Kevin (communications major from NC) his Argentine fiancee Ivanna (studies english, awesome chica!), at the back is the missionary himself David, and the rest (front row if you will) are students (left to right) : Pablo (eng. student from bolivia), Javier (english student from Jujoy, AR), Marcelo (CHEN from Cordoba), Laureano (works in Cordoba), Gaston (ENGR, AR), Jose (english, Cordoba), Florencia (english, mendoza AR), Celeste (pharmacy, mendoza AR).

Becker Beer in Valparaiso, Chile! I felt obligated to take a picture with this sign

Eating Chorillana, a local chilean dish consisting of french fries, onion, egg, lots of beef, and a fair amount of grease! Bob and I are eating with our 2 German friends Alex and Minnie.

View of the Valparaiso coastline. Valparaiso is a charming city that is very hilly, lots of parks, and lots of beautifully colored houses, including the house of the famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda.

Se llama de la llama es Carlitos (the name of the llama)! This is at El Mercado Central in Santiago with our 2 friends Amanda (medical sales rep from south carolina) and Will (student at University of Arizona as well as football equipment manager) that we met at Santa Lucia.

Sunset on top of Cerro San Cristobal in Santiago after a pretty tiring bike pedal up!
The amazing ladies of Mendoza, Argentina. We headed to Mendoza after Cordoba (round 1) and had a blast. Flor (green shirt in the middle) is of friend of Jose (see above pics of Cordoba crew) and her and her friends were extremely nice! They played tour guide for us throughout Mendoza, which is a beautiful little city right near the Andes that has wide avenues, parks, and a ski town type feel to it. There are also amazing vineyards here, that we of course, had to visit. And during the night, our tour guides took us dancing...a lot...and then we danced some more. The other girls from left to rigth are Tati, Karen, and Sofie and they are all students in Mendoza. Don't know who the random weird guy is jumping in the picture behind Bob.
Our first day in Mendoza it was snowing! My first time to see snow in July!
In Cordoba, we met 2 sisters from Montreal (Rosanne and Laurelou, 2 girls on the left) that came to Mendoza with us. We are on a "bike and wine" tour with them and 5 lovely Irish ladies we met at our hostel in Mendoza. We visited 4 wineries, this was the first one, Weinert.
Eating delicious chorripan with some of the guys in Cordoba, from left: Jose, Laureano, Marcelo, and Kevin numero 1(I'm Kevin numero 2 here! He was here first so I let him keep numero 1! jk)
Jose, Laura (study abroad exchange student), and I with David and his incredible family: wife Kristin, daughter Chloe, and son Cohen, who at age 4 already speaks better Spanish than I do!

Argentina Update

Well I am currently in Cordoba, Argentina staying with my friend Leigh McDaniel at a missionary's house and enjoying some much needed R&R, free internet, and an American keyboard (you would be excited if you've typed on the european ones I promise)!

I have been in Argentina for 10 days and it has been amazing. The people here are very friendly and welcoming, but the spanish is very different! Argentinians love to eat meat, sleep in late (most mornings start around 11), drink mate (herbal tea), and spend time with friends and family - so needless to say I think I've fit in pretty well here!

I spent 4 days in Buenos Aires at the amazing Hostel Estoril where I met my traveling companion, Bob, and two girls from Austin! We went bike riding in the colorful La Boca neighborhood, shopping in the San Telmo antique market (where I ran into two of my childhood friends randomly,crazy), and saw an awesome tango and flamenco show on Avenida de Mayo. Plaza de Mayo is at the end of Avenida de Mayo and is the where Evita sang from the balcony.

Then Bob and I headed off on an amazing charter bus to Iguazu Falls which were just incredible. I'll let the pictures do the talking, and the first ever Becker blog video!...if it works

Marcelo, Jose, Leigh, and Tim. Friends of the missionary's in Cordoba
El punto de tres paises! Standing in Argentina, Brazil is across the river on the right, Paraguay is across the river on the left

Pondering the mysteries of life...

uhhh...it felt right at the time

Still more of the lower falls of Iguazu

Ignorance is bliss...bife de chorizo

Police officers riding thru the famous Plaza de Mayo

Sunset on Puerto Madero

Learning a couple tango moves in La Boca

La Caminito in La Boca with Audrey and Bob

trying on a sweet hat in the San Telmo market

Renee and Chloe in the ancient elevator of Hostel Estoril

Hanging out from a century tree look alike in Buenos Aires

What you've all been waiting for...

I'm now about to push off for Santiago, Chile with Bob but it is somewhat bitter sweet. It was a welcome relief getting to witness the ministry David and Scott (the missionaries) are doing here in Cordoba. I've met some amazing people from Argentina, North Carolina, and other parts of the world! God is definitely working here in Cordoba.

Hasta pronto amigos

Adios Europa!

Well folks, it's 3:20 in the morning and I have the computers of the ridiculously nice Auditorium Hotel in Madrid all to myself after my flight to Buenos Aires was delayed until tomorrow afternoon due to bad weather. So I'm going to try to crunch through my past 10 days in Spain without drooling or trailing off to much........


Right, so after Whitney prevented a guy from stealing her purse on Las Ramblas in Barcelona and caught her plane to NY, I headed back to Madrid where I was going to head out to South Africa the next day. Due to lack of planning, money, and a desire to give more time to Africa to do it properly I cancelled my flight and decided to start from scratch. My wonderful mother actually suggested I wait around to WATCH (yeah right) the running of the bulls the following week. So the following morning I hashed my grand finale in Europe: a relaxing day of booking hostels and trains in Madrid and chilling at the amazing Way hostel, 1 day in the historic city of Toledo, a weekend on the beach in San Sebastian, and then catch the first 2 days of the San Fermin Festival in Pamplona before flying out to Buenos Aires, Argentina on july 9th. So here we go...



Toledo

Toledo is a beautiful city about 30 minutes outside of Madrid by train. It is very similar to Granada in that it was shaped by Muslim, Moorish, and Christian culture. With in the small city walls there are Christian convents, churches built on from remains of mosques, mosques, monasteries, and an impressive fortress with the Arabic name Alcazar. It was also very hilly and hot, but I managed to make my way around most the city while visiting their large Cathedral, a monastery, the El Greco museum, and another large church. Toledo used to be the capital of Spain and was a very vibrant city. But when the capital moved to Madrid coupled with its central location away from the major waterways, the city became almost obselete. It is largely because of this that the city has been preserved in excellent condition! All in all it was a very enjoyable day.



San Sebastian

An absolutely beautiful beach town nestled in the hills of the Northern Basque country of Spain. It has two large beaches: La Concha and Zurriola, the surf beach. Both are beautiful but there are more waves at Zurriola. My time flew by with a friend I met from Melbourne and two Kiwi girls from my Hostel. It was a welcome reprieve to rest on the beach for an afternoon, and also go for a bike ride on the boardwalks all throughout the city. I also "surfed" for an hour and a half, and by surf I mean flop around on a tiny board on small to decent sized waves! I did stand up on 2 waves and ride several others on my belly so I'm going to stay positive and at least say I improved on how to catch waves!



...so I didn't quite make it...in Argentina now but I digress



Pamplona

So I booked a hostel called "El Centro", which is run by a couple South Africans that follow the world's largest festivals and set up a HostIVAL soley for that event. An very interesting concept...in theory. I showed up and was promptly put to work putting together beds! And it gets better, apparently there was one little piece of paperwork out of order- the one allowing people to sleep overnight in the building! And for the cherry on top, the chief of police lived next door and decided to make sure everything was in order the following morning...and boom Hostival is shut down, effectively becoming a very nice storage center. A simple stamp from the Ayuntamiento (city hall) would have remedied the situation but they are closed for the festival!



Anyway, we got one night's rest and decided to make the best of the situation. We were allowed to leave our stuff in the Hostel for another day and take much needed showers before we left. We then went and enjoyed the opening day festivities, partied most of the night, tried to get some sleep in a park with thousands of other like minded people, RAN with the BULLS, and then packed up and headed back to San Sebastian for another relaxing day on the beach!



The festival itself is INSANE! The city is literally covered in sangria, beer, and water. Everywhere you go people are dumping it on you. It's a 24 hour a day party and when people do try to get some rest they just lay down and sleep! I saw people sleeping on benches, in parks, random patches of grass, doorstops, and the bus stations (even though we got kicked out when we tried!).



The run is organized chaos. It originated from back in the day when herders would move bulls from the pasture to the bull ring. Locals would line the streets to watch and some would try to prove their bravery by running alongside them and touching them, and the rest is history. The run is approximately 800 meters and all that stands in your way is 10 550+ kg bulls and thousands of terrified tourists. They release the bulls in 2 shifts - 6 monstrous bulls first, and then 4 smaller steers that tend to be a little feistier second. There are 4 bells - the first one people take off, never see a bull, and get pelted when they enter the arena for being cowards. The second and third bells people slowly take off as the rumble of thundering hooves gets closer and then start running whenever their bravery runs out. The 4th bell is when the bulls are released. The majority of the carnage takes place right at the beginning with the crazy people at the back who wait for the 4th bell and Deadman's corner. Deadman's corner is a 90 degree right turn, the key is staying on the inside of it. The bulls can't turn quickly and with all the water and sangria on the ground often slip and go careening into the wall. I left just before the 3rd bell and made it to the inside of deadmans corner and smeared myself against the wall with about 5-10 seconds spare before all 6 bulls blew past me less than a foot away! But probably the biggest danger is other people, it's every man for himself and many people get pushed, elbowed, shoved, and often times trampled. After the first wave passes, you have to beat the second set of bulls into the ring to make it in, or else they close the doors and your run is over. Inside the ring is more pandemonium as the big bulls are herded straight out, but they release smaller ones with capped horns to wreak havoc on people. Needless to say it is a very exciting 5 minutes, but probably the worst part is waiting over an hour for the bulls to be released (you start lining up at 7 am). Everyone is standing there, staring at their watches while simultaneously defecating in their white pants and wondering "What the h*** am I doing here?!?" I did not make it to the ring and decided to stay in San Sebastian the next night after the hostel was shut down so next year maybe I'll make it to the ring!...

I then returned to the awesome Way hostel in Madrid, caught an awesome local Flamenco show and one last Madrid pub crawl before heading to Argentina (after a 1 day delay in cool hotel)!

Pictures from my Traveling Alone in Spain!

In front of the Department of Agriculture in Madrid, which became my home base my last 10 days, AMAZING people, AMAZING city.


Sunset on Zurriola beach in San Sebastian after surviving the running of the bulls.

A look at how every street looked like in Pamplona...pretty much 24 hours a day

Opening day Festivities of Pamplona 2009 with my South African pal Simon. As is fairly obvious, the main activities were pouring water, sangria, and silly string on everyone!

Fellow Hostival members before the opening festival started. From Left to right: Eric from LA, SteveO from Melbourne, Simon #2 from South Africa, me, and Suzanne from England

View of Zurriola beach from the Statue of Jesus in San Sebastian

On the way up to the Statue of Jesus, La Concha beach in the background

On top of the towers of Iglesia de San Juan Bautista in Toledo

Holding my imaginary scepter in front of the famed Alcazar fortress in Toledo

View of a beautiful courtyard in the Monasterio de San Juan de Los Reyes in Toledo

The freaking COOLEST pizza cutter ever with Nick, a musician from Austin, TX (what are the odds of that right?!?) and my friend Parrot from Melbourne, OZ

Took an evening stroll through Retiro Park in Madrid after a long day of trip planning!

I finally got a straight edge shave! I only had to go to Madrid to get one, but it was definitely worth the wait

Home Alone!

Oops I added the pictures after the text, which in blog language means it comes first. These are some snapshots of New York City, read below for the story.

Time Square

Central Park

Lifesaver Nicole!

New York Cabbies

This is Whitney. This is probably my last time writing on the blog. (bittersweet) I am now at home in Austin and about to start working for my church until I go back to A&M for my last semester!

This trip has been full of adventures and incredible scenery, so it was only appropriate that my return home had one more left.

Homeward Bound

I tearfully left Kevin at the Barcelona airport on June 3oth. My itinerary was to fly to New York City-Chicago-Austin. I only made it to NYC. After waiting 7 hours in the JFK airport because of bad weather my flight was cancelled to Chicago and I was stuck in NYC for the night.

I quickly called American Airlines and asked them for the first available flight out the next day and they told me they had an 8:40am flight to L.A. and then to Austin! I asked there was a different flight that didn't involve me having to fly across the country and then back to get home!

After a series of events and a couple of hours, I found out my friend Nicole was living in NYC for the summer and offered to take me in for the night! So, because I wasn't in a rush to get home I decided to book an evening flight and enjoy a day in New York! (I have never been to New York.)

I took the subway and blissfully left Kevin's huge body bag at the airport. Kevin took my backpack for the rest of his trip and in return gave me all his souvenirs and stuff he wasn't using to take back home. What a good sister, right?

Moving this story along, I stayed with wonderful Nicole and her sweet roommate Holly for the night. And then took on New York City the next day. I felt no shame in being a tourist. I went to Central Park and Time Square with my camera out clicking away. I ran into other tourists from Ireland, Canada, and Spain. It was fun being back in my home country observing the foreign tourists. I was just them yesterday!

I took the subway to far west Manhattan to visit my aunt. After figuring out the hard way that Uptown and Downtown directions are not small details, I made it to my aunts with a small detour to Harlem and seeing Yankee Stadium. What a great day. See, having your flight cancelled isn't always a bad thing...

We cut time a little close, so I took a taxi to the airport. I got to flag down my first New York taxi. And I'm feeling pretty cool.

An hour and 20 minutes later, I am jumping out of the taxi (which did not know the concept of smooth driving) and flying through the airport with Kevin's huge body bag trying to check in. I am 10 minutes late for check-in, so I miss my flight!! I am tearfully standing in line and I notice the girl behind me wearing cowboy boots is crying too. We had missed the same flight! So Kenna, and I become BFFs in our 40 minute check-in line. She is a girl from Dallas who just finished her first year at fashion school.

Dun dun dun...I get to the front and the not very friendly check-in lady grills me on why I missed my flight! She then books me on a 9am flight the next day. Kenna was on a 6 am flight, so I asked my lady about the 6am flight and she said, "You wouldn't make that." ouch.

I hail another taxi (this has lost all appeal now) and trek down to LaGuardia airport to maybe fly standby on a 7:30pm flight that night. I get there and am told promptly no, there is no chance of me getting on. I said no problem, can you direct me to the luggage storage. She tells me there is none. I say, no no, maybe you didn't understand, I just need a place to store this massive, heavy body bag and small duffle. She said firmly no, it is a security issue "we can't just go storing bags around here."

I schlep out to the street with all my crap to find another dang taxi to take me back to Nicole's. I find out that it is illegal for taxi drivers to pick up passengers in the departure zone and that I needed to walk downstairs...with all my crap. Or, I could buy a $5 cart! This nice man ends up giving me a squeaky cart to get me downstairs!

Wheeling toward the taxis, I get approached by a man asking me where I was going and that he could take me. I thought he was a local being nice and giving me a ride. So as he is loading my luggage I ask, "Who are you?" and he said "I'm a limo driver, baby!"

Long story short. I become fast friends with the guy. Who is the owner of this limo company. And by limo, I am in a nice Denali. I end up sitting in the front having a dance party with him. And end with him asking me on a date that night.

I get to Nicole's with the massive body bag and face 3 flights of stairs and no elevator!! (My bruised shoulders and I are not having charitable thoughts towards Kevin right now.) At that moment, a young, athletic guy walks by the top of the stairs. I yell out "Strong MAN!" but he doesn't hear me because he has his ipod on. Shoot! So, I hobble up one flight, and I spy him doing his laundry and breathlessly say "what are you doing? Can you help me!" He graciously hauls the body bag up to the room and was like "this is really heavy. what happened to backpacking Europe!"

AHHHH! KEVIN!!!

We made friends with Peter, from 5B, and had a good laugh. And bringing this long tale to a close, I enjoyed another night in New York, and my favorite limo driver had one of his driver's pick me up the next morning to take me to the airport. No, I did not go on a date with him :)

Thanks for listening guys. It was quite a trip!

It will be fun being on this side now waiting for Kevin's updates!

I hope you are enjoying the backpack Kev! Miss you! You're the best Aggie brother ever! Enjoy the rest of your adventure!