Did you know that cashews grow on the end of fist-sized fruits and that the outer shell of a cashew is toxic until roasted or steamed off? It is true and among many interesting things I have learned on my trips to Honduras. Last year, we got to try a drink made from the cashew tree fruit and it had a taste all of its own. Other plants we have learned more about are avocado, mango, papaya, guava, ugly fruit, pineapple, and passionfruit. I was able to try a fresh mango one morning, one straight from the supplier, and it beat every mango I have had stateside by a long shot. It was amazing! The mangoes bought here in our stores are picked sorta green and are grown for traveling long distances, but if you can ever try a fresh one from the tree, I recommend doing so. It was so sweet and juicy that I could not eat it all.

Now on to some more film photos! These were all taken with Kodak Portra 35mm color negative film.

These first three portraits are from our first day in Yamaguarde. We helped put down sawdust and also raise a tent for group gatherings. There is a new church being started in that community and in our time there, we helped run a VBS program and the evening services. The sawdust you see in these photos was put down to manage the dust and dirt.

We also did VBS at a school outside of Cantarranas, called Cindy school. Pastor Flavio, seen below, helped lead some songs with the children. Our story time included Jesus’ miracles and related crafts. You may notice that several of the photos are of kids working on the scratch cards, which was our craft for the healing of the man born blind story. We also told them each day about some of our country’s states and regions.

It is not uncommon for older siblings to bring their youngest siblings with them to school and take care of them during class. Often mothers may need to go to work or be otherwise unable to care for the littlest ones during the day. We got to hold some of the babies during VBS and our Saturday morning picture time.

On our Saturday morning there, we gathered up the mothers and children for photos. Our team packed a small Epson PictureMate printer, extra supplies, and cameras to be used for this project. Many of these families do not have a single family photo or photo of their loved ones. We gave each family prints of posed photos we took of them. I was able to be more part of the Cindy school photobooth than the one in Yamaguarde and I loved being able to use photography in ministry. On our morning taking photos, our team also gave parenting advice to the mothers and balsam wood airplanes to the children.

In this first photo below, you can see a crop of sugar cane growing. There is a sugar cane mill between Cantarranas and Yamaguarde. The fields go on and on and on. The mill is a main source of employment for the area. Along one stretch of the road it smelled like brown sugar.

These are views of streets in Cantarranas. You may notice the lack of street lights, signs, asphalt, etc. It is a small town and the roads are either dirt or cobblestone/concrete. We drove through town several times, between the hotel and Pastor Flavio’s home. On a walk down to the square, I noticed the town cut down a huge tree that had previously cast really cool shadows on the square.

There are many stray dogs in Central America. It is not unusual to see them sitting around, walking down the road, or underfoot. They act much like the tame squirrels here in Charlottesville. The second photo is a view from the hotel.

I am still working on scanning in two more rolls of film! There is a black and white Kodak Tri-X roll and one more color Kodak Portra roll to process. I look forward to seeing the photos of Valle de Angeles as well as the rest. Thank you for stopping by today! Feel free to comment below. Chao!