Honduras the Country-and final plans!

Well...I am off to Honduras in just a few short days! I can hardly believe it. I will fly into the capitol city and make the trek out to the school all in one day. I leave this Saturday at 5:30 am from Wichita, KS and I will be in Tegucigalpa, Honduras before 1 pm, where I will be picked up and head on out to Catacamas (where I will be at Escuela El Sembrador).

Right now I am just working on the last minute details. I still haven't packed, but since I have moved home for the last little bit of my time in the US I feel like the work is partially done.I am hoping that I can fit everything I "need." :-)

I have all of the money to I was required to raise and I have received several generous donations towards art supplies, but of course I could still use some. I had originally thought about getting donations from stores like Hobby Lobby and bringing them with, but this didn't work out from several angles (including the $200 cost of bringing another suitcase!). If you would like to donate to my art supply fund you can donate with the same forms as before, just write "Sarah Larson-Art Supplies" on the memo line of the check, this will earmark the funds so that they can be spent on the art supplies. This can be done at any time during the school year.


Let me try to give you a picture of the country of Honduras...

It's a pretty mountainous place...which means that it takes longer to get from point A to point B, of course, it also means that it is really beautiful.

As far as natural disasters go it has frequent, mild earthquakes (there weren't any while I was there that I know of, but there was on in June or July) and it's long coastlines make it very vulnerable to hurricanes. In 1998 Hurricane Mitch devastated Honduras leaving 5,600 people dead and many homes and other building destroyed. It's still something that comes up commonly in conversation.

Honduras is the second poorest country in Central America and according to some sources the second poorest in the Western Hemisphere. It's major exports are
coffee, shrimp, bananas, gold, palm oil, fruit, lobster, and lumber.

Update...and more on El Sembrador

I could use:
*Old digital cameras that work but that you do not need anymore
*Temperature-controlled storage for a couple of boxes.
*A place to park a car-preferably in a garage because I would like to store some things in it like clothes that can freeze or get hot and also because my parents would like to not pay insurance on it while it is out of use.

El Sembrador

The Missionaries



I will be working with Jerry and Sherri Murphy, whom I had the privilege to work with last year. Jerry does a number of things around the school, including organizing sporting events for the boys. Sherri works with sponsorship programs (people sponsor boys which helps to pay for their living and educational expenses).



Another couple that I know from my first trip is Thad and Ruth Gouge. They are one year volunteers. They have two children, Reed and Shannon, who are 7&5 respectively (unless one of them has had a birthday, which is entirely possible!). Thad, like Jerry, does so many things around the school that I am not sure what all of his responsibilities are. Ruth teaches English at the school . Reed is all boy and his favorite Spanish word is "Vacero" which means "cowboy!" Shannon is all girl and loves princesses and all things pink and purple.

Those are the two couples that I have had the chance to get to know. There will be other families there whom I will write about later. I also will tell you more about the Murphys and the Gouges as I get more acquainted with them and their duties at the school.

More about the school:

It is mostly a boarding school. The majority of the boys who live there are there to learn a vocation as well as to finish school. They come for a variety of reasons, but in general they are disadvanted boys who need the head-start El Sembrador can provide. There are some students from the community who attend the academic classes. There is also a seminary there. The students who are part of the seminary are generally a little bit older though some of them are in the academic classes as well. The seminary has classes for those who are currently pastors as well to help them continue their theological education.

Life at El Sembrador runs on a schedual which is ruled by "La Campana." La Campana is a bell in a tower connected to the dining hall. The bell rings are different points in the day such as wakeup call (which is very early), times to eat, time for chapel, call to quarters and quite a few other important daily events. The boys like to call the bell "mother" and joke that she is very old and has had many children but has never died.

The boys where uniforms for school (which, by the way so do all students of any type of school in Honduras) and they have special polo shirts for work and vocational classes.

Most of the boys have at least one family who sponsers them. The sponsership pays for the boys food and clothing and educational expenses while at El Sembrador. While I was there I got to witness several very special relationships between the boys and their sponser families. Many of the families visit every year or two to get to know their boys better and the boys write several times a year to their families.

Update on Fundraising and Preperation

Well, I have a ways to go, definitely, but I have seen God beginning to provide as well. I asked the guy back at the mission for some specifics and he was able to answer my questions.

I need to have 50% pledged to me before they are able to buy the plane ticket and 100% before I am able to actually leave. It doesn't need to be all be in my account, it can be monthly pledges. I need about $900 a month in pledges if all of my money comes in monthly. The way it brakes down is $705 a month in monthly expenses (room and board, stipend for food, etc) and $1815 in one time expenses (plane ticket, Visa, etc).

Also, I need money given to provide for art supplies. Without money given to art supplies there will no art supplies-I am even responsible for pencils and paper. There will be around 100 students. I plan to mostly teach drawing and do a segment on painting to teach them a little bit of color theory and how to mix colors and work with brushes.

Basically, without money to fund the art supplies I won't be able to teach the classs. I don't know what the cost of art supplies is like over there...it's hard to guess because it is boughten differently than how I would buy supplies here. If I was here I would buy all of the kids a thick sketchbook that would last them all year if I could afford it or if I couldn't buy giant boxes of typing paper. And buy pencils in bulk. And I could call someone and see what the cost would be. Things are different in Honduras...things are sold differently. What is available in stores changes too often to really plan. Also, it will probably be hard to find paper and pencils in bulk because things are bought more individually there...for instance if your child needs construction paper for a school project you would find out what colors and go buy the individual sheets instead of an entire package.

As for other preparations I have bought my art textbooks. One of them is a very simple one that teaches perspective, shading, and other basics. It's originally made to be a self guided course, but it will work very well for teaching, especially since I need simple explanations. It teaches still light and a bit of landscape drawing, which is good for a beginning course. The other book that I bought is a more advanced book which teaches a lot about drawing portraits and animals along with more advanced information on techniques.

I'm getting really excited about going and praying for God's continued provision!

I'm Going Back!

So, I have spent 3 months in Honduras this past fall. And now I am going back. I haven't raised all of the money...by any means, but I trust that if God has called me to this (and I believe that He has!), then he will provide money for me to go. And I am excited to see how he is going to work things out for me go.