Some Stories

The past few weeks I've had some really thought-provoking experiences in Honduras which I would like to share with you:
One morning I was sitting on a porch selling shoes (we were selling the shoes which were too small for our kids so that we could get rid of things we didn't need and use the money to buy the shoes which we do need) and a woman was sitting on the porch with me waiting for the clinic to open so that she could go see a specialist which was in town. The woman began talking to me and telling me about her life. It was the story of so many Honduran woman. She was from a town up in the mountains and had walked over two hours to see the doctor about back pain she had lived with for years. She was in her thirties and had four kids ages 20, 18, 16, and 7. The kid's father(s) had left her and she was struggling to make ends meet with the help of her oldest kid who had to leave school because of financial reasons, her second oldest was studying in the university. She told me "this is what we [women] do here, work hard to try to provide for our kids because the men leave us to do it alone." Machismo culture is still predominant in Honduras and the sad reality is that many woman do settle down with a man and have a few kids with him and then afterwards he leaves her and she has to find a way to make ends meet. It is always a blessing when I see a man caring for his children, attending church with his family, and not only providing money for his kids but also actively participating in their lives, unfortunately it doesn't happen often enough here.
One day I was on the bus from Trujillo to La Ceiba and the food vendors were coming up to the bus selling food and sodas (actually, one of my favorite parts about riding the bus is bus food, yes Mom I eat it, no I don't get sick). I bought a bag of popcorn balls and mango slices from some kids selling food on the bus wondering each time what their lives were like, whether they had parents, whether they got to go to school in the morning. A really nice man came onto the bus selling bread (which I couldn't buy because I had already eaten too many popcorn balls), he was nice and stopped to chat with some of the people riding the bus. I noticed he had a wedding ring and wondered about his family, where his food came from, maybe his wife made it, whether he had kids and if selling food on the bus everyday was enough to support his family.
Last weekend on of my kids was in the hospital and I spent the day with her on Sunday. One of our nurses had been with her the night before and when I asked her if she wanted me to bring her anything in the morning she asked for hand sanitizer and toilet paper because they didn't have any toilet paper or soap in the bathrooms. We sat in the hospital all day waiting to leave but unable to because the doctor doesn't come in until the evening on Sundays. I watch the kids play in a sitting room during lunch wondering why they were in the hospital and overheard their mother talking about how they wanted to leave too but also had to wait for the doctor to come and give them the okay. There are some things we take for granted that should be taken for granted because we should always be able to have them, like doctors, soap, and toilet paper in hospitals, and yet so many people don't had access to them.
This is life in Honduras (and I'm sure in many other places all over the world). Please pray for everyone who has to go without lives basic necessities especially the last couple weeks of this Lenten season.