Day one of any trip is about travelling. Over the past several months our team has fundraised and prepared for the trip. This year we are all alumni of past years, looking forward to our return, and reconnecting with the community here. Day one is about laying the groundwork for the upcoming week and experiencing the transition from our lives at home to our lives as visitors.
Lucky wasn’t happy about being separated by a door, let alone four thousand miles.
Drok and I travelled from Nashua NH to Logan Airport in Boston Massachusetts, it was a 46 mile trip by car, we woke up at 3 am and took an Uber, to arrive at 4:15 am.Jyl and Sam travelled from the Manchester area.
We flew from Boston to Atlanta, our first layover, 1,086 miles, the flight was just under three hours. Delta was kind enough to check us in as a group and not look too closely at the six bags we checked, weighed in advance at just under 50 lbs each. Two of them contained educational activities and supplies collected and donated by the Nashua Police Athletic League. Four of them contained paint for our murals, donated by Nashua Wallpaper, and packed in 1 gallon plastic jugs donated by Riverside Barbecue, duct taped shut, and wrapped in garbage bags. Once we checked them, they were out of our hands for the duration of our flight, bit our hands were full anyways. Trip members packed their own clothes and supplies for a week in carry on bags. Samantha discovered her first aid kit had too much liquid disinfectant, Tom had carefully organized cell phones, cameras, chargers a laptop and a projector only to unpack it all and repack it all for inspection. Drok has some kind of automatic knack for search and pat down, anywhere he goes, despite being the most harmless person in the world, and Jyl passed through without incident.
In addition to our carry on, Jyl bought a Viola and a guitar to donate. While Delta allows for a musical instrument separate from bags, it has to be stowed, so it is always a challenge to get on the plane before all the overhead space is taken, otherwise the guitar ends up in storage below.
Sitting beside Tom and Drok and behind Sam and Jyl, was a coffee salesman from Honduras, travelling back from a conference. Sam made good use of the networking time
From Atlanta, we flew to Tegucigalpa, the capitol of Honduras another 2751 miles, it took us three hours and forty seven minutes, but we also set our clocks back two hours. At last we had arrived in Honduras!
Tegucigalpa was hot, in the upper 80’s. It was pretty humid, and dusty. We collected our check bags and were greeted by our host, Mario Ramos, director of Project Eden, as well as Moises, an artist from Tegucigalpa who would be joining us, and Arte Positivo for the week. Since our last trip, Mario has gotten married, has a four month old, and helped his wife started a coffee shop. This year’s trip might be about change!
From Tegucigalpa we travelled by pickup truck to San Francisco La Paz, a final 128 miles in about four hours with three stops.
Mennonite rest stop halfway to San Francisco, on the side of a major road it has grown over the years, this past year completely transformed into this space. We ran into a few Los Micro Chip members along the way. Drok’s movement spreads into the surrounding communities. We were aware one member was planning to visit, another was spotted in the distinctive Los MicroChip dance T shirt. As we approached Juticalpa we met Luis, leader of Arte Positivo, and Marvin, another Arte Positivo artist.
We travelled a total of 3,911 miles. and travelled for a total of 17 hours, arriving around 6pm.
There’s Drok waving like he’s done.
Now that we had arrived at Hogar Los Ninos, we had to unpack. The volunteer housing was left in good shape by the previous team, probably Mary Fitzpatrick’s group from Littleton NH. We picked our rooms, then examined our bags. The paint we checked in, back in Boston survived mostly intact. One jar leaked into it’s plastic bag but didn’t affect the rest of the suitcase contents, probably the best results we have seen in years, and a good sign. The guitar IMMEDIATELY snapped a string, but Jul had prepared, and packed extra strings.
Los MicroChip began to arrive, as tired as he was, Drok was talked into coaching a few, and then Lucio, their leader arrived followed by Luis.
We met as a group, helping Sam and Drok plan our second urban Art Festival for Saturday, working out activities, prizes, participation and promotion. Dance teams will be coming from surrounding areas to compete, Arte positivo artists will be coming to show their work, we run our plans by the Mayor tomorrow.
Through out all of this travel and planning, we settled back into the rhythm of this community even as we left ours behind. On a team fully comprised of experiences travellers, we spent time reconnecting with leaders and volunteers we have come to know through past service. The activities we do wouldn’t be so unfamiliar to anyone from Nashua NH, where the energy of Positive Street Art is there for all to see, and the Downtown Arts Fest is a similiar gathering of artists, but there’s a different flavor to it here. In Honduras, they have their own tempo, their own strengths, their own barriers. This week we will work together in this community in service, bringing the best from our own, as leaders.
