Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Esta nueva vida es una bella vida




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.

Nuestra casa, mi habitacion est en la esquina

La pila donde nosotros lavamos nuestra ropa

El dia de Santa Teresita

El SUPERmercado en la ciudad de Trujillo