A Working Break in Honduras
Most of the students on a Duke Chapel Mission trip who were pick-axing their way through cement-like dirt in Honduras over spring break were veteran Habitat for Humanity volunteers. Some had repaired houses in Appalachia. Others were seasoned travelers who had observed poverty in Third World countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
Still, shoveling under the blistering sun, popping anti-malaria pills, drinking in the smells of garbage and diesel fuel and adjusting to more primitive toilet facilities put to the test the best intentions of the 14 who spent spring break helping victims of Hurricane Mitch. Their spirits never lagged, though, buoyed by vistas of the tropical countryside, smiles and hugs from hordes of young Honduran children and spicy food lovingly prepared.
"Most of our friends went to the beach to lie in the sun," said J.C. Richard, a sophomore from Minneapolis, while taking a water break. "That doesn't even sound fun to me compared to getting the variety of experiences in another culture."
The group of graduate and undergraduate students -- led John Willard, the campus adviser at the Episcopal Center at Duke, Aby Algueseva, the Spanish-speaking wife of a graduate student in the Nicholas School of the Environment, and Will Malambri, a Divinity School student - spent the week working at the Episcopal Relief and Development's Faith, Hope and Joy project outside the industrial city of San Pedro Sula. The project consists of 200 stable homes for families whose shanty dwellings were washed away during the savage storm in 1998 that killed thousands, destroyed about 80 percent of the agricultural land and left more than 35 percent homeless.
About 115 two-bedroom, cinder block houses are completed, as well as a community center. The deeds are placed in the names of the women and children as well as the men, to encourage family stability in a male-dominated culture plagued by domestic violence. A church building is half finished and plans are drawn for a medical clinic and school. The community has potable water and bathrooms, a huge improvement over the "aguas negras" or river sewage water that thousands of Hondurans must use.
By the time the students left, they had helped residents and contractors put another six housing foundations in place and wire five houses for electricity. They had carted dirt for a floor in the church and dug a trench to support church columns.
The group stayed in the city at an Episcopal orphanage for impoverished or abused girls ages 2 to 18, called "Our Little Roses." The gated complex was guarded by an armed security guard. By relief work standards, the accommodations were luxurious -- air conditioning, a fridge with soft drinks, hot showers. Women bunked in one room and the men in another, sharing a common living room space. In evenings, Dukies gave piggy back rides to the little girls or chatted with older ones before convening for a half hour of informal, student-led "devotions" to reflect on the day and the spiritual insights that were gleaned.
Not all the trip involved manual labor. Students dined on homemade tortillas and sweets, as well as fresh pineapple and mangoes. They danced the "punta" at a discotheque. Ricardo Agurcia, a prominent Honduran archaeologist and Duke alum, led them on a tour of the spectacular Mayan ruins of Copan.
Mission trips are a tradition at Duke, said Will Willimon, dean of the Duke Chapel, who joined the group in San Pedro Sula for a few days. He estimated about 100 Duke students travel each year under the auspices of the chapel. Another chapel group, for instance, also spent spring break in Honduras working on a rural irrigation system.
Groups sponsored by the chapel have a Christian focus -- though denominations vary. The trips must also have an educational component, Willimon said. Before leaving, the San Pedro Sula group met six times to learn about the country and liberation theology, as well as to engage in team building exercises. Students raised money for the group as a whole to travel and leave a monetary donation, so that any Duke student, regardless of family resources, could afford to go.
Some mission trips have such an impact on Duke students that they devote part of their career to living among and serving the poor, Willimon said. "We have a saying that you can't change Honduras in a week but you might change a student."