Busier than ever

It's April here in Siguatepeque, Honduras. Of course it's April around the world, but it means different things depending on where you are. In Boston for instance, spring has arrived and flowers and trees are beginning to bloom. It's a beautiful thing. But here in Sigua, a normally perfect place weather wise, it's awful. It's the warmest month of the year, averaging mid 90s. This morning, and for several weeks prior, the air has been so full of smoke I haven't been able to see my beloved mountains from my second story porch. The smoke hangs thick and heavy in the hot air as farmers all over Honduras burn their fields in preparation for the May corn planting. Clouds of dust billow up from the cars traversing the dirt streets of the town. The wind lifts the dust and transports it through the open windows and doors and covers everything in a fine layer of beige. Our normally lush lawn looks like a desert wasteland. My head hurts and my sinuses are a wreck and for these three or four weeks each year I wish I were somewhere else.

I can't wait for the rainy season to begin, for the air to clear, for life to reenter the vegetation and the dirt to stay on the roads where it belongs. Historically, or perhaps wishfully superstitious, the rains are supposed to begin on May 3rd. Hmmm, we'll see. Last year, if memory serves correct, the rain came on May 17th. Either way, it is near. Thank God.

Mom and Alfredo

Whew, it's been awhile since I've written. I can't believe how busy life has been. Mom and Mark flew down on March 17th to visit. Mom has since returned home, but Mark is here for awhile or until he leaves for Europe in July. He has been a huge help to me, running errands and going to the airport, etc.

Mom is 82 years old, and for her this trip was a bit long, but she did great...even returning to Boston by herself. It was so good to spend time with her. We didn't do much besides sit on the porch visiting. The weather was perfect for us, and especially for her because when she left Maine there were still 2 feet of snow on the ground. She spent a lot of time with Carlitos and even visited with Alfredo.

Mom spending quality time with Carlitos

Carlos is growing so fast. He'll be 8 months old soon. He's is personality plus with a capital P. He might even be a bit spoiled. He certainly is used to being held all the time, so he isn't real happy when he has to entertain himself. He is crawling, enormously engaged with people, loves food, has big ears... he kind of reminds me of myself actually. Even has a bald spot, although mine is considerably larger.

It is unlikely that we will be able to adopt him (we would if the opportunity was given us) and with each passing day we are more attached to him and he to us. We are beginning to see the heart dangers of foster care. When I think of giving him up, it tears my heart out. He is our baby, We are the ones who went through the sleep deprived nights, the ones who cared for him when he came to us at 19 days old, small, skinny and quiet. Well, I keep telling myself, we went into this knowing what the game was...or at least we thought we did.

Carlitos and Thomas, playing

The Spanish Institute of Honduras is growing rapidly and we are quickly becoming a recognized name in the missions world as a quality language school. Almost monthly we add a new missions agency to our growing list of clients. A big welcome to BMDMI and World Gospel Mission who recently sent us their first students. Keeping houses rented and furnished for our incoming families and finding Honduran host families for our single students has kept me occupied...never thought I'd end up being a landlord here. We are currently looking to hire another 2 teachers bringing us to a total of 13. I love seeing what is happening here and just want to say this. We have great teachers and great students, all of this adding up to a really great school. Our slogan is, "Come as friends, leave as family" and that's what we are. ( Check out this video of the Institute one of our talented young students made for us)

Another event that kept me busy was the arrival of Pastor Steve in February. Together we visited villages far, far up into the mountains on barely passable roads and he also helped me baptize three people at our bi-weekly Bible study in Cerro Azul.

Continuing our Clean Water for Schools Project, drilling another well and working on presentations for two huge, new manufacturing projects, hosting Living Hope Adoptions Agency's very first adoptive family here in Honduras as well as helping to create from the ground up the all new Honduran Childrens Alliance, something I am hugely excited and passionate about, are keeping me more than busy.

And there's this new idea I have......

I Travel to China

Shanghai, Nanchang, Wanzai, Beijing. Thirteen days and nine flights totaling over 20,000 air miles not counting the travel in private cars.

Because of my commitment to bring jobs and investment to Honduras, I was asked to host an all expense paid trip to China to visit several potential investors. During this trip I rediscovered something I already knew. I was born to travel. During this trip also I discovered something new. The best kind of world travel is on someone else's credit card! Finest hotels, restaurants, sightseeing, airfare, acrobatic and Kung Fu shows...no problem, Just sit back and enjoy.

On the Boeing 747 to Shanghai, I sat next to a young Chinese gal who spoke just a little English. Between her English and her Apple translator I was able to learn a lot about life in China. She also gave me an impromptu and invaluable lesson in the use of chopsticks. She was so excited for me as I clumsily made progress using them, a skill I immediately forgot the next day...and the day after.

Something else she taught me was how to limit jet lag. Flying west for 13 hours at 550 mph, almost keeping up with the setting sun, she kept telling, "No sleep, Mike, no sleep". And she was right. Arriving in Shanghai in the late evening I was tired and ready for bed, but on Chinese time.

Traveling on to Nanchang we met with directors of economic development for Jiangxi Province. Jiangxi is a province of about 45,000,000 people and has a rapidly growing GDP, which the director proudly told last year was 9.8%, which if true is truly amazing.

Everywhere I looked there were new or under construction high rise apartment buildings...for miles and miles. The cities' populations continue to rise as people from the country flock to the cities for work. So much so that China has begun paying people to stay home and farm. I'm pretty sure I saw a housing bubble forming though because most of the new buildings seemed to be unoccupied and the prices for a very small apartment were outrageous.

Driving in Wanzai was what I termed "random". Even being used to the seeming chaos of Tegucigalpa, it was somewhat nerve wracking. The drivers in Wanzai had the oddest way of making left turns. They would begin a gradual turn left about 300 feet before the intersection wandering slowly and aimlessly across two lanes of oncoming traffic. Entering the main highway was even worse. This process was begun by driving on the right hand shoulder towards oncoming two lane traffic and then beginning to slowly drift across towards the correct lanes, often splitting the oncoming truck traffic. Our driver had the rather discomfiting habit of driving mostly in the oncoming traffics lane, blowing his horn and flashing his lights to make them move over, which never worked, forcing him to dive back into our lane at the last moment. We also spent a lot of time driving on the shoulder.

One of the interesting things that ended up on my plate, a fried pigeon head

As good as the food was, after 5 days of non stop Chinese food, breakfast, lunch and dinner, my guest and I were craving beans and tortillas. I was able to find a bag of red beans in a small international market in Beijing along with some tortillas imported from Mexico (I didn't even want to look at the expiration date) and as we were staying in a house that night, I got up at 3:30 am to cook us up a pot of beans, omelettes and tortillas for breakfast, chased by good Honduran coffee we had brought with us as gifts. After that, all of our spirits rose and we were able to face with enthusiasm another five days of new and exotic foods.

A menu we found on the wall at one place we ate..

I don't want to misrepresent the food. These were just some of the "fun" things that ended up on our plates. Overall the culinary experience was fantastic and every meal a new experience. I have observed that each culture has it's own "soul food"and after a time we long for that food with a craving that goes beyond just hunger.


I loved Beijing. An incredibly beautiful and new city full of skyscrapers, wide spacious boulevards and amazingly, all new cars. I did not see one, not one old vehicle. Not only were they new, but they were Mercedes, BMWs, Audis and VWs. I find it incredible that China has gone from a third world country to a first world country in 35 years all the while holding politically to Communism while walking a Capitalistic path, apparently rather successfully. If anyone has any doubts that hard work, incentive to invest and the hopes of personal gain are the best way to bring about economic growth, I urge you to visit China. I come from the heavily welfarized State of Maine and the difference is clear. You cannot give your way out of poverty, you can only work your way out of it. And speaking of hard work. The Chinese work week is 30 days. You read that right. One day off a month.

Oh yes, in Beijing the driving was very, very orderly, that is all except for our bus driver who seemed to picture himself as the Chinese Mario Andretti. He spoke Chinese with a very interesting accent that sounded a bit like a dog yowling. He and I would talk to each other as we wove furiously in and out of traffic, he in Chinese, I in English, neither of us understanding the other. I, for the most part, was telling him to watch out for the rear bumper of the Mercedes he was about to scrape or the BMW he was cutting off.

Of course we were able to visit the Great Wall of China. I was amazed at the quality of the ancient construction and at it's vastness stretching for almost 2000 miles. The only troubling aspect to me was that it's multitude of stairs had no consistent height, varying from 3 to 14 inches, which made it difficult to climb...well, that and the extreme angle upwards and too many Chinese banquets. And it was cold and bleak!

We also visited the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. 

One of the many buildings in the Forbidden City

I was just going to get some of the many excellent photos of all these places online, but this is what it looked like when we were there. Cold, grey and windy I would love to go back in the fall and spend more time exploring these ancient wonders in better weather.

The picture above is me with several "elderly" Chinese women who were probably about my age. They asked me to take a picture with them which I thought meant they wanted me to take the picture of them. Imagine my surprise when I ended up in it. When I asked why, they told me it was because I was handsome. Gotta' admit it, I was kind of flattered until I found out that is was actually because I was an American and they love to have photos with themselves standing beside us. I ended up in photos with a Tibetan monk in a red robe standing with his arm around my shoulders on the Great Wall, standing next to a young wife and daughter as her husband took our picture.... I did insist on taking a picture of them standing together as a family, just in case there was ever a question.

Travel Note: Be sure and use the public restroom before entering the Forbidden City and limit your water intake as there are no bathrooms except at the entrances and it is a very long way from one end to the other. Halfway through I was forced hurry to find a restroom barely arriving in time and missing much of what there was to see. The signs pointing the way to the restrooms were very inadequate and finally in desperation I went up to one of the soldiers guarding the entrance to the city and asked in English for the bathroom. He gave me a blank stare so I pointed at the appropriate body part and he pointed in the direction where I eventually found the bathroom. It occurred later to me that he could have arrested me for propositioning him...as I suppose my sign language could have been taken either way.

Shanghai, population 23.9 million and growing. Another new city and full of new cars and skyscrapers.  Below is the view of the river from the 15th story restaurant of our hotel, our rooms were on the 22nd floor. Either my camera is slightly off plumb or the entire city is built on a 5 degree tilt.

So what are my thoughts on China and the trip? Well, without a doubt I am glad I went and hope to return some day, when it is warmer. I do hold a 10 year visa. I also discovered that even as capitalistic as China is, communism is still evident. I was almost completely unable communicate with the outside world as I exclusively use Google, Gmail and Facebook, both of which are blocked by the government. One thing the trip did do for me was to solidify in me the fact that I love Honduras. I missed Honduras in a way I never imagined. I of course missed my family very much, but I also missed the life we have here. I missed our language school. I missed our teachers and our students. I missed our home fellowship group. I missed the warm weather and the warm, Latin American culture. I missed beans and baleadas, pupusas and oh, did I ever miss coffee.

The Thing about Responsibility

To me, being responsible is one of the most desirable character traits a person can have. What more could any parent, employer, pastor or teacher hope for in a person than to know that the things they have asked to be done actually get done on-time and without needing to be followed up on. 

I can't imagine living an irresponsible life, even though doing so isn't always fun.

So recently we had this great guy from Ontario, Canada come down and lead a Living in Your Strengths workshop. His name is Baha Habashy from Integrity+ Consulting.  What I learned from the workshop is that each of us have strengths and abilities that affect the way we see and live life. According to the Gallup Strengths Finder 2.0 test my second strongest strength is Responsibility, my first strength being Ideas. 

Here is what Gallup says about a person with a strong Responsibility "strength".

Your Responsibility theme forces you to take psychological ownership for anything you commit to, and whether large or small, you feel emotionally bound to follow it through to completion. Your good name depends on it. If for some reason you cannot deliver, you automatically start to look for ways to make it up to the other person. Apologies are not enough. Excuses and rationalizations are totally unacceptable. You will not quite be able to live with yourself until you have made restitution. This conscientiousness, this near obsession for doing things right, and your impeccable ethics, combine to create your reputation: utterly dependable. When assigning new responsibilities, people will look to you first because they know it will get done. When people come to you for help—and they soon will—you must be selective. Your willingness to volunteer may sometimes lead you to take on more than you should.  © 2000, 2006-2012 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.

So as I read this, I'm like, "Yeah, that's exactly the way everyone ought to be...utterly dependable." And then I realized that not everyone has that as a strength, or as Baha says, "Everyone has every one of the 34 defined strengths, most are just lesser strengths". Which means that there are a lot of people out there living responsibly weak lives.

So here's the truth about me. Irresponsibility in a person really irritates me. 

Yep...that's my sentiments exactly

I was having a "discussion" with one of my sons the other day on the subject of "being responsible" and I used the dreaded "you need to grow up" phrase. Cringe. The response I got back was from his heart. I could hear it in his voice. "I'm trying to, Dad". It was so plaintive, so honest that it actually startled me and stopped me dead in my tracks. ( I use this with my son's permission) 

I'm trying to? Suddenly it dawned on me that maybe my son doesn't know what growing up actually looks like. I mean, what defines being grown up and what does the process of getting there look like anyway? Does it mean he now has to shave? That he can get a drivers license? A girlfriend? Come and go as he pleases? What does growing up, this thing of becoming an adult look like? 

Well, from where I stand it looks an awful lot like being responsible. And I don't think it matters that this is my particular strength, Learning to be responsible, and all that entails, really is what growing up is all about. I'm pretty sure about this.

For me, maturity/responsibility came at an early age. At thirteen I bought my first chainsaw and went to work in the great Maine woods. My job was that of "yardman". This was back in the day when the mills only took 4' pulp wood. As the skidder drug the harvested trees into the wood lot, I would cut them into 4' lengths and, using a pulp hook, stack them into long, waist-high rows for the logging truck to load. It was a man's job; hard, back breaking work for very little money...and I loved it. I continued working all the way through high school learning various trades, doing my classes at night. For me, working hard, providing for my own needs and the needs of my family is a huge part of being a responsible adult. Maybe this is why I am passionate about bringing jobs to Honduras in order to help men and women who want to live a responsible adult life do so.

Then of course there are life decisions we all need to learn to make responsibly as we grow up. Some of these we learn how to make wisely and responsibly from our own mistakes, some we learn from other's mistakes. 

I love the saying shown above. For me, bottom-line, responsibility and maturity is about being willing to take the blame for one's own actions, wrong choices or mistakes. Bottom-line. But, this is all coming from a person who is "driven" genetically to live responsibly. 

What say you?