We arrived at the Finca on Monday, 9/30/19, and we were
welcomed at the gates by all the children and staff, after our 20+ hour voyage
from Antigua, Guatemala. They sang songs
for us con mucha alegria and presented us with personalized art projects to
welcome us…and so it began!
We were introduced to the missionary house and to the
existing missionaries, five amazing young women who will orient us and leave in
December (the end of their term). We
settled into our rooms, unpacking and setting up our little decorations, and
then all 12 of us shared our first mish dinner.
The next few days were a series of supposedly abnormal
fiestas, including pastel (cake), piñatas, and skits. It just-do-happened that the feast days of
St. Francis of Assisi and of St. Terese of Lisuex were this week, Independence
day, and the birthday of our founder, Vincente Pescatore. The missionary house hosted a party for the
feast day of St. Terese because she is the patron saint of missionaries. All the kids came over to our house, and we
played games and made a little shrine from the surrounding plants. We prepared cookies (galletas) for the fiesta
too!
Life is a bit different here. We live in a concrete house with a tin/wood
roof. There is a courtyard in the middle
of the house with our bedroom doors that open up to the courtyard. We flush the toilet with a bucket of water,
wash our dishes and clothes in a pila, and cook about half our meals on a fogon
stove top. The water goes out usually a
few times per day for a few hours, but once we adapted to preparing for that,
it was no big issue. We have lots of 4
(+) legged friends that keep us company-geckos scaling the walls and GIANT wolf spiders are among our favorites. The geckos are cute, but leave little gifts
on our pillows, beds, countertops, and every other surface.
As far as community goes, we’re still adapting to it! We will take turns cooking meals, cleaning,
etc. So I am excited to get started with
that!
The kids are great, some more welcoming than others. Right now there are 18 kids at the Finca,
ranging in age from 7-18 años. They are
separated into 5 houses, by age and gender, and each house has a Tia, or house
mom. We have prayed morning prayer, gone to fiestas, and done small activities
with the kids, but more interactions will come as time goes on! I’m excited to learn more about them and the
Tias
too!
Zulena, Vincente’s wife and co-founder of the Finca, shared
with us missionaries the story of the founding of Finca del Niño (Farm of the
Child), and my heart had never been so moved. Please see the bottom part for
the story!!!
~~~~
Vincente’s parents
were from Italy, and he was raised in the US, but travelled to Guatemala to
serve as a missionary in the hospital, at which time he met Zulena, a
Guatemalan young adult. Vincente loved
with all his heart and deeply desired to serve those in need and the forgotten,
so he asked Zulena to be a missionary with him and serve in the selva (the
rainforest). On the night of their
wedding, they announced that they were starting a mission in the selva, and so
it began. ..
They travelled into the deep rainforest and set up camp
there, 10 hours from civilization, which meant 10 hours from grocery markets,
hospitals, schools. There they built the
first Finca del Niño, taking in over 60 kids whose parents had been killed in
the Guerilla warfare that plagued Guatemala in the years prior. According to Zulena, anything that the they
needed, Vincente learned to do. Vincente
learned to treat parasites, tended to wounds, and educated himself so that he
could educate others. He read for hours
each night after working tirelessly each day.
They built a school and clinic along with this children’s
home, and people in the area were VERY sick. Many people died from their
ailments because they didn’t have access to the treatments they needed, and so
Vincente taught himself to fly a plane so that he could transport people to the
hospital. Together they saved hundreds
of lives and improved outcomes for hundreds more. Vincente and Zulena fought
Dengue and Malaria, all the while raising their own family. After a few years, Vincente
pleaded to Zulena to move to start another Finca in Trujillo, Honduras. After much prayer and reflection, the couple
decided to move their family to this rural part of Honduras to serve the people
there, and so began Finca del Niño in Trujillo (actually 20 minutes from
Trujillo).
Vincente died in 1997 in a plane crash with his 2
brothers-in-law, after only about a year at the new Finca. Vincente was flying
with construction materials to finish building the chapel at the Finca, when a
strong storm took the plane from his control.
Zulena raised her family there and oversaw the mission for about 10
years, before transferring leadership to another and 3 Franciscan sisters, per
Vincente’s wishes.
Today, the Finca stands as a highly respected
organization. A town and community has
formed in the area surrounding the Finca.
On our grounds is the only school in the community, and children from
the community and from the mountains come to go to school there. We have a clinic that serves the community
and the mountain country. A community
church is currently being built by Finca staff. Vincente’s dream lives on every
day through this mission.
El SUPERmercado en la ciudad de Trujillo
