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McCarty Expected To See Poverty In Honduras, But This Was So Much Worse

Photo: McCarty said the most moving experience of the trip was helping these girls, their brothers and their mother move from living on a foam mattress to inside a home. Pictures of the finished homes built in the one week in Honduras can be seen below.  

In mid-march, Kuemper middle school teacher, Mike McCarty, boarded a plane and flew into Tegusigalpa, the Honduras capital; a city he says was very westernized. But as he and the 35 other Mission Honduras missioners boarded tour buses and headed up into the mountains, he said things changed drastically, really only about a quarter mile from the airport.

In this area, electricity is a premium and the terrain is rough and unforgiving, completely formed from lava and rocks. Thousands of rocks have to be moved to build the shacks and shanties they live in and the missioners did a full week’s worth of back-breaking labor to clear a space for a 450 square foot garden. The environment is so barren that dirt had to be trucked in for this small food plot. McCarty said it’s easy for others to look at this and question why these people don’t just pick up and go somewhere better.

The missioners worked for one solid week, getting up at about 5 to 5:30 a.m. every day, getting their different assignments and spending their time either building houses, making home visits with the over 100 pounds of goods each person brought with them on the trip, teaching English in the Catholic school or helping build the garden. McCarty said the most moving experience he had was when he was working on the detail building one of the three houses, which, he says, by our standards would be considered glorified sheds.

 

McCarty said despite the abject poverty these people live in, they are gracious, generous and all-around, happy.

These traits were even more evident in the children, who embraced without reservation the very tall, very bald man, McCarty, who was one of the missioners there to help. McCarty said he expected to see poverty, but admits this was so much worse than anything he ever could have imagined. It was overwhelming to the entire group and they all wanted to do more; especially as they walked through the area and saw the look of longing in the eyes of others. It was as if they are asking, “What about me?” And that, McCarty said is exactly why they will be back. His goal is to see that Kuemper students get involved, hopefully leading to a team of their own to join the Mission Honduras efforts of Gehlin Catholic. McCarty also says that anyone who donated money or goods for the trip that would like him to put on a presentation need only give him a call; and to rest assured that their donation provided the best gifts that money can buy.

 

final pic of completes house IMG_0219 IMG_0227 IMG_0251 IMG_0529 IMG_4744

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