Honduras

Gary Becks, a World Emergency Relief Board member flew to Honduras with two shipments of baby food armed with letters from his boss- Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA). Gary proved extremely valuable in clearing customs and in receiving extra help from the Honduran police, military, and fire fighters. Gary your efforts have proved invaluable!

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Oro Poli, Honduras

It was about 2:00 in the morning. We formed a line to unload the first of 40,000 pounds of baby food cartons from the truck into the 'city hall' at Oro Poli, Honduras. Passing boxes to me was boy of about eleven years. As we worked, I mentioned to him that even though a boy, he worked very hard - as a man. He paused and looked at me: “I am very hungry”.

Typically, when working a mission in Central America, if I get half my goals met, I consider the trip a major success. This trip exceeded all expectations. Not only did we get two huge (40 foot) containers of baby food delivered; we also placed a container of medical supplies. And, because of WER's generosity we helped with water pipes for Oro Poli, and made several cash donations for special needs.

Friends in the Honduran Congress and the local Fire Department helped push paper through so that we had no delay with customs or bureaucracy. The first container to arrive had just over 40,000 pounds of baby food (in small jars - there will be baby food jars on the frontier for eons to come!). We had the container hauled to the Tegucigalpa Fire Department parking lot and off loaded half of it onto a cargo truck for transport to Oro Poli. The other half stayed with the fire fighters for them to distribute.

Oro Poli is about four hours south of Tegucigalpa, the capitol of Honduras. That is where the road ends. We arrived at Oro Poli about midnight and began unloading the supplies. (The Tegucigalpa Rotary added to our load about a ton of rice, sugar and canned meat for the outlying villages.) By 3:00 we were pretty beat, and morning would come early.

The mayor's wife prepared breakfast of beans, rice and fresh tortillas. Men of the city were already working at tying 180-pound bales of food onto a line of burros when I awoke. Oro Poli is in bad shape, but not destitute. Some of the food will stay in town for later distribution, must of it goes to outlying areas. With no more roads usable past Oro Poli we use burros for delivery.

The first village in priority was at Samayare, on the Honduras /Nicaragua border. It is about a 10 mile walk from Oro Poli. We started out early, as soon as the burros were loaded.

10 miles is a long walk!!! It was comforting to know that for the return the pack racks (not saddles) would be empty and we could ride the burros at least part of the way back.

At Sumayare, a farmer showed me where his crops HAD been. Now even his soil is gone. Thirty families totally destitute. We took 1,500 pounds of food to them. More is following, as are additional World Emergency Relief trips to villages throughout the area.

Four days after that first container arrived a second one came in. We repeated the process. Tomas Gonzalez, the Mayor, organized the distributions to those in most need. Your financial contribution paid for the trucking and expenses of getting the food to the 'end of the line' and to bring in more water pipes, 4 inch PVC, to get water restored to the city. Dirty, contaminated water was causing diarrhea and parasitic infections.

Dr. Claudio Casas, an M.D. from Mexico, now living and practicing in Honduras (his wife is Honduran - a psychiatrist) has adopted the Oro Poli area and is coordinating the water project. Dr. Claudio is a wonderful, devout Christian, please keep him in your prayers - he works too many hours on the frontier and his practice is suffering by his absence. There are just too many needs for him to turn away. As a doctor, he has much to give.

Riding the burros' back to civilization was not the treat that I expected. A cargo “saddle” is a wood rack designed onto which to tie cargo - not for riding, especially by a Gringo!

There are many areas like Oro Poli. With 2 million homeless in Honduras, and infrastructure washed away, there is much to do. I don't think we selected Oro Poli as a place to help - Oro Poli selected us! With 2 million desperately needing help; we cannot help everyone, but we can help some. It has always been the objective of World Emergency Relief- to identify a need that we can effectively fill. This area is a need of the right size, and where our dollars can, and do, make a difference! There is no such thing as “cost effective” in rescue work, but we must be prudent. Here we are a major impact on people's needs and lives.

On the outskirt of Oro Poli is a river. It is now small, about two feet deep, twenty feet across. It is the first 'obstacle' on the southward ten-mile walk to the frontier. On the North side of the river a gentleman offered to ride me across the river on his horse, that would be nice - save me taking off my shoes and getting my pant legs wet.

About half way across the horse decided he didn't like carrying doubles- especially when one of the riders is a Gringo, and bucked me off. By the time I got to Samayare my pants had pretty much dried out. But, a ten mile walk, and then ten mile return walk in wet shoes is a real nuisance!

A lady in the village, seeing my situation, gave me a pair of socks. It is a seemingly small thing, but not when one realizes these people are destitute - and that the pair of socks she gave me are most likely the only pair of socks in the whole region. (The widow's mite?!)

The people we work with, assist, are so very appreciative of the help you send. They give of their meager food to feed me when I come to their village. They also give their only pair of socks...

From them I bring you: Muchas Gracias, Dios le Bendiga. (Thank you VERY much, God Bless you.)

Yours in His service and with much appreciation,

Gary

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