Category Microfinance in Honduras
Returning to Honduras – Chilo
I stood in the middle of his living-room and looked up into blue skies. Chilo giggled like a child and worked like the devout. When I met him, he was a giddy eighteen-year-old finding his swagger. I had just arrived in Honduras to begin my two-year journey. He was my ‘national staff’. Anyone in international […]
Leaving Honduras
Closure is important to me. Like the two years of my life spent in Honduras, I would like to be a short chapter of righteousness in a much longer story… Leaving Every time I remember leaving Honduras, I get shots of anxiety in my system. The circumstances under which we left were not normal, although […]
The Shadow Of A Community
I feel confident in saying I’ve been accepted by the community, but that doesn’t mean I’ve got it all figured out. I wanted us to meet in a no-man’s-land, so I chose the soccer field. The hot April air was almost unbearable, but a patch of shade appeared at 3 pm. We set up the chairs […]
Poverty In Dog Years
Every time I scratch a Honduran dog behind the ear and see them light up, I think of Pelusa. For a while, I’d refrained from donating to other causes because stipend money was short. But then there was a crack in the dam when I saw a GoFundMe page for a dog named Foxy. Anybody who […]
Why Immigration : Part Three
Living Honduras, you see that immigration isn’t just statistics, it’s a mind set. Teens in the communities spray MS13 on walls because they think it’s cool. They have little else to do – no jobs, not many fathers – so they either work in the fields or join the club. Gang communities feel claustrophobic. Their […]
Why Immigration : Part Two
In the summer of 2012, I was backpacking in Arizona when I met my church group in the sizzling streets of Phoenix. We were attending a general assembly, and one of the activities on the list was an organized protest. We mounted a fleet of school buses and headed into the outskirts of the city, […]
Why Immigration : Part One
It took her three buses and less than a month to reach the US border from Honduras. Once there, she had no choice but to stay in a border town and save money; the coyotes were charging something like $3,000 for the smuggling. She settled in with a local family and watched their kids in exchange […]
The Quarters Effect
The sun was setting but she had one more thing to show me before I left. The cement walls of the house were dull and kept the humidity in. The orange light rippled through the sheet hung over the bedroom door as she disappeared behind it. When she emerged, she carried in her wrinkled old […]
Meet The Client : Reina Menjivar
Although she may not eat it, Reina Menjivar is as sweet as the breads she bakes. At the age of eighteen, she’s one of the sharpest minds in the family. She works hard at the local high school making meals in their small cafeteria. She wakes up early in the morning and returns tired and […]
Robbed With A Machete And Winning
He came strutting out from behind a tree. Before I could really absorb what was happening, he was standing five inches from me. He wore a thin facemask and a hood that covered everything except his eyes. He had thick eyebrows. His clothes were all black; black pants and cheap knock-off crocs with mud on […]
Jeff Paddock
Suddenly-Human 