Honduras // April 2018

This was my 4th trip to Honduras with Humanity and Hope and once again, I came back to reality with a bursting heart full of love for the people in these villages that we serve, as well as for the new friends I got to serve alongside with this trip. We had an amazing group. I feel like I say that every time, but it's always true! There's something about joining up with other people from around the world that share the same passion for serving God by loving others. We had an almost ALL-female trip this time around, but luckily we were graced with Tyson's awesome presence to detour it from being a sorority slumber party, as well as some not-too-hard-on-the-eyes security guards, always keeping us safe, as well ;) 
This group truly was saturated with talented, intelligent, driven, kind, and compassionate individuals and I feel so grateful to have met and gotten to know each one of them!

Although a shorter trip than normal, we still got to visit all three villages and even got more quality time with them than usual, as our focus was to get to know their needs and priorities clearer and make sure we are serving them in ways that are actually achieving sustainable and prosperous change. 

I feel like I am better at speaking through imagery than I am with words, so I will attempt to keep these  summaries of each village brief, then let the photos do the talking :)

[La Cuchilla] We just started working in this village about 6 months ago. They were once referred to as "The abandoned hole" because nobody took the time to notice them. A few different nonprofit organizations even came through once or twice throughout the years, offering to help but never returning. Everyone abandoned them. Not us! They say that they prayed and prayed for some kind of help for their community, and then God led us directly to them. It took time to earn their trust and for them to believe that we truly cared about them, though. To see the difference from when I was there 5 months ago to now, is amazing! This village has some of the poorest living conditions I have ever seen, yet they remain so united as a community, so joyful, and so excited about the opportunity to work. It's so exciting to start providing them jobs within their own village! Tucked away, secluded, in the middle of a luscious jungle, La Cuchilla is one of the most beautiful places I've seen, and it only grows more beautiful once you meet the people that reside there.  It was fun to see my friend Chanel reunite with her beloved Kendra, seeing how much progress the men have made in the fields, to see Adan's (leader of the men) pride and excitement of what they had accomplished, and to watch Danica teach the women a trade of making jewelry. Two specific highlights for me were watching Tyson play with the boys in the tree. These 5 little boys were having the time of their lives climbing up and down the tree, belly laughing as they tossed fruit back and forth to each other. Ah, the simple joys in life. Another highlight was simply watching Adan with his son. I had only gotten to witness him being a bad-ass worker in the fields and constantly striving to provide for his family, so it was a treat to see him full circle - WITH his family, being such a good father to his sweet little son.

[Remolino] is one of the more developed villages now as we have provided them clean water, secondary education opportunities, and jobs ("projects") for both the men and women. However, the demand for jobs is greater than the supply currently, so the people of the village are trading off days and several of them are only getting to work a few days a week, which is hardly enough to support their families, even at $6/day. That's why it was really exciting to visit and pray over a large piece of land that we are hoping to acquire to start planting and creating more jobs for the men. The kids in this village are always a bit timid at first here, but warm up to us by the end of the day and start following us around everywhere, and I can't get enough of their beautiful faces! Some personal highlights from this village were getting to see Owen (born with a disorder but constantly progressing every time I see him), and spending time with my friend Wendy, who seemed to be having a rough week but also seemed delighted when she saw me. She is a sweetheart, and her son is my future photography assistant! 

[La Coroza] is colorful, bright, and cheerful. Always. They are probably the most developed village that we have been serving, and they don't let a day go by without thanking God for it either. When we were doing our assessments, they always said that first thing when they wake up in the morning, at 4am before they start working, is get on their knees and thank God. The kids skip around with so much joy. They literally skip. They hardly run or walk anywhere, they are always skipping and laughing and smiling. It's been a joy to witness a positive personality change in Isis in particular, a little girl with down syndrome, over my visits in the last year. Kids in the village didn't really give her the time of the day, she seemed sad, and scared of people, and now the kids are all including her in everything they do and she is smiling, laughing, and engages with all of us. Some other personal highlights from this village include reuniting with my favorite little girl, Yolani, whom is so sweet, smart, and endearing. At 10 years old, she is so motherly to all of the younger kids in the village, and I am just so fond of her little heart! Another highlight was the worship service we had in the village, which is always a highlight. To witness these people praising God in their little community is such a wonderful thing! Particularly this time, I watched little Gideon (orange romper) sway to the music with Landre, and worship her little heart out to an upbeat worship song. And then it literally brought tears to my eyes to watch her close her little eyes as the song shifted to a slower melody, and she was truly in her element with God. (see photos below!)

On the last day, we got up early before all of our flights and went to surprise La Cuchilla with donuts and orange juice. The sun just began rising over the palms, and the men in the fields were surprised to see us, and overjoyed with the treat. We got to deliver the remaining donuts to the women and children in the village, as well as deliver the good news that we will be starting the first ever women's project (chicken coop) in La Cuchilla the following week! Such a great way to end our trip.

My main highlight from this whole trip though was how much all three villages truly felt like family to me. They remember me, they call me by name, they laugh and joke with me, and they hug me like they never want to let go. As I left La Coroza hugging my sweet little friend, Yolani, goodbye, I told her I would see her again soon. This time, she asked "How soon? Last time was way too long."
You simply can't visit these villages, and never go back. They leave an imprint on your heart, and it's quite clear that we leave one on theirs as well. I'll be back very soon! Join me?
CHECK OUT MY HIGHLIGHT FILM AT THE END OF THIS POST. 
YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO SAY NO ;)

Honduras // November 2017

This was my third time in 9 months visiting the remote villages of Remolino and La Coroza in Honduras. Obviously they have touched my heart in so many ways, that I can't get enough and keep going back for more! I mean... look at these sweet faces. 
What was different about this trip was that the team that I go with, Humanity and Hope, is starting to help a new village from ground up, so we got to meet and start building relationships with the wonderful people in the village of La Cuchilla.
They have no clean water, no electricity, many of them don't have a real roof over their head, no jobs, and no education. Yet they still smile, and still welcome us with open arms.
Visiting La Cuchilla was all around eye-opening, heart-breaking, and inspiring at the same time. The whole village only has this one tiny well that the woman manually pull water up from, which is not even filtered or truly clean drinking water. Imagine what a safe and clean water tower would do for them? Also, what really struck was me that this one young man, who has started working in the first job project in the fields, was so passionate and excited about having a job and helping his tiny village. It was pouring down rain when we arrived, he was out working in the field, and he was shocked that we showed up to visit, with the heavy rain fall. He was out there working so hard in it, and he couldn't believe we showed up in a bus, with umbrellas and amenities, to visit him! 
His words to us were of so much gratitude and grace, and he introduced us to the rest of the men working, and then prayed over all of us. It was one of my favorite moments of this trip.

Welcome to La Cuchilla:

In Remolino, we re-visited the projects and the H&H board members on our trip had their annual meeting with the leaders in the village to see how things are going and prioritize future needs. One of my favorite moments in Remolino was seeing Owen. I met Owen in February, but learned that a few months prior- a fellow H&H friend, Kahlila (an occupational therapist), had met Owen and assessed his situation. He was born with a disability that didn't allow him to develop fine motor skills; he was unable to even hold his head up or crawl at 6 months old. Living in a remote village, and being the youngest of 7 or 8 children, him nor his mom had access or opportunity to the necessary tools that could help him develop properly, despite his condition. When I first met him in February, other members of my group who had met him prior were brought to tears at the site of him walking with his mom helping him. A true miracle. Kahlila had spent many hours drawing out a plan of exercises for his mom to do with him back in December 2016... and what do you know, less than a year later - I got to meet the infamous Kahlila, I witnessed a miracle once again, and little Owen is walking on his own. He is the shyest, but sweetest little boy. He is my absolute favorite to capture, his smile is infectious, and he truly is a miracle. Here is a photo of him from back in February and a few photos from him this November trip:

We began our day in Remolino by praying over one of the men in the village who is really ill. We then checked out some of the projects, and the boys got their regular haircuts from Ronnie, also a fan favorite - he's so full of life and always smiling. And he really loves giving those "fresh fades."  We also taught some of the women in the village how to make a bracelet, that you can read the story behind and purchase here. 
We also all wore our Gen-Us shirts all day, which you can purchase here. Both of these are part of the "Purchase with Purpose" campaign going on right now, and I encourage you all to make a simple purchase - where all of the proceeds go into helping the people you see pictured in this blog post.

Remolino:

Isn't there an evident visual difference between La Cuchilla, the village we are starting out in, and this village of La Coroza? However, the one thing that is the same between the two villages currently is the smiles on their faces and hope in their eyes. The connection between these two villages is pretty neat too, because Emerita, the female leader of this village - is the one that connected us (Humanity and Hope) to the other village in need, La Cuchilla. True example of this radical change having a domino effect... we are helping and changing the lives of those who have the hearts to go out and want to do the same. It's a pretty exciting time for La Coroza, as they are about to get electricity in their village, too! That is what all of the wood piles are that the children are playing on in these photos. So exciting! And so awesome to witness the process.

La Coroza:

I'll leave you with this: If these photos alone don't inspire you to want to be a part of this story, talk to me. I can only fit so much into a blog post, so I'd love to share more with you in person! Come on a trip with us, donate, purchase with a purpose for gifts this Christmas.
Be generous, live a generous lifestyle, and help make the world just a little brighter :)

Generous Coffee // A Quest for the Best Cup of Coffee

Back in February, I joined a team in Honduras with the non-profit organization that is now family to me, Humanity and Hope United. While on this trip, Ben briefly mentioned this idea he had for a company, "Generous Coffee." Back then, it sounded like a nice idea -- but exactly that, just an idea. I wouldn't have imagined back then that a couple short months and a few unexpected connections later, I'd be a on road trip across the central american country with him and 2 others on a quest for a grower, a story, and the best cup of coffee.

First of all, who are these guys who mysteriously whisked me away right in the middle of wedding season? Ben Higgins: board member of H&H, one of the three founders of "Generous Coffee," lives in Denver, Colorado, funny, friendly, compassionate, heart of gold. Riley Fuller: president/founder of H&H, Ben's best friend, one of the three founders of "Generous Coffee," lives in Austin, Texas, caring, intentional, driven, heart of gold. Darwin Suazo: works for H&H, lives in El Progresso Honduras, absolutely hilarious, sweet, spontaneous, heart of gold. Truly, these guys are gems; I adore all three!

When invited on this trip, my mind was blown that they wanted me to capture it all. When I returned from this trip, my mind was even more blown by what I experienced on this trip, and most of all - the crazy ways in which God works if you truly surrender your heart to Him, and faithfully trust in His plan.

We were in such preliminary stages of Generous Coffee, that I had no idea what to expect, especially because it sounded like Ben and Riley didn't know either. Truthfully, I wasn't sure how much we would actually accomplish, but I was still excited for the experience! I myself am a planner and always have an itinerary of some sort while traveling. I knew I was in for a wild ride with these guys when into the first 40 minutes of the road trip, Riley (driving) looked back in the rearview mirror at Darwin and asked, "Hey, we are going the correct way... right man?" Darwin, dumbfounded, responded, "Um? I have no idea. Where are we even going?" Ben chimed in, "Do we even have GPS?" None of us had an international plan on our phones, no GPS, no maps, and apparently nobody knew where we were going. Jesus, take the wheel. 

I had a feeling that was a sign for how the whole trip was going to go, but honestly I trust these guys with my life and have so much fun with them, that I wasn't completely worried. But, in that moment, I may have been slightly concerned. Jesus really did take the wheel though for the whole trip! The order of events, the people we met, the views we witnessed, the amount of things we learned, it was all God, guiding us and completely present with us for the entire journey. 

Day One: Doing Business on a Mountain Top

We drove for a good three hours in order to meet up with coffee grower and producer, Cristian. He led us to one of his areas of production, literally on top of a mountain, Taulabe Mountain, with outrageous views, to show us where his coffee beans are dried with the natural air. This is when we just started finding out exactly how little we all actually knew about the coffee industry, haha. Cristian was very informative and educated us quite a bit, while also telling us a little about his story, his family business, and background in the coffee industry. He was also showing business developer and coffee expert, Habib, of Project Origin in Australia, around his farms... so even just listening to their conversations, we got so much insight into the coffee world! Right place, right time. We also got to meet Cristian's longest employee, who was the exact epitome of what we had in mind for a Generous Coffee story. Cow-skin cowboy hat and all, we even kind-of-kiddingly said that he should just be our company logo.

Day 2: Coffee Education from Cristian

After leaving the mountain, we checked into our cute hotel, and walked around the quiet town of Siguatepeque, Comayagua before ending the night at the only restaurant left open that late.

The next morning, we met up with Cristian again at his little coffee shop where his coffee is actually sold in town, Cafe Tio Juan, where I enjoyed the most delicious iced coffee I think I've ever had. Cafe Tio Juan is named after Cristian's younger brother, who tragically passed away trying to protect their family coffee from thieves in their fields in the middle of the night, a few years back.

It was a lovely little morning sipping Cristian's coffee, and the waitress serving us was so sweet! Before trekking onto our next adventure, we soaked in a few minutes standing in the geographical center of the Americas and of course had to take a squad photo. Kind of neat!

From there, we visited Cristian's farms and learned what a coffee plant actually looks like, haha. It was kind of wild how much we learned in that one day though. Between listening to him and coffee expert, Habib, and asking several questions, we definitely soaked in a tremendous amount of coffee knowledge in one day. As Ben said, "I think I learned more about coffee in one day than I have in my entire life." 

Day 2...Continued: Gracias Bound

The rest of this Day 2 was spent traveling into Gracias, one of the cutest little towns that I've truly ever seen. The architecture and stone streets were so beautiful, yet it still had a very small town feel. We had all afternoon and evening to kill so we checked into our adorable hotel, had a nice lunch talking about coffee since we felt like experts at this point, and then roamed around the town, cigars in hand, singing with locals and taking pics.

Just when I thought the day couldn't have gotten any better, we finally got to meet Carlos Javier, newly hired agronomist for the Hacienda Montecristo Coffee company, one of the largest coffee producers in Honduras. He gave us a warm welcome by treating us to one of the most delicious dinners in by far the LOVELIEST setting I've ever dined in. Strung lights, streaming river, delicately designed details everywhere, fresh mountain air, elegant wine, and divine food. Seriously, the evening was perfect. I remember sitting at the table sipping my wine, looking around me and just feeling all around blessed. It was a beautiful evening that I will remember forever.

Day 3: The Best Cup of Coffee, complete with a story.

Okay... just when I thought the entire trip couldn't get better at this point, the third day ended up being the absolute best. Cristian had educated us so much in the last few days, and we had been lucky to taste his delicious coffee and get to know him, but we were still in search of story.

We awoke the next morning to Carlos Javier taking us on a "2.5 hour drive" to meet a small coffee-growing family that his larger company outsources to. We drove about 10 minutes before turning onto a quite treacherous bumpy, rocky road and that's when I realized we were in for a 2.5 hour adventure, not just a drive, in order to get to this family.

Driving up the mountain with my hand out the window, I literally felt tears coming on because the views were just so magnificent, and quite literally, breathtaking. I, unable to control my photographer brain, may have politely asked Javier a couple times too many to please pull over for the several photo-ops ;)

About halfway up the mountain, after seeing these crazy views, small little homes built on side of the cliffs, and naturally a little boy randomly in a tree in the middle of nowhere, we stopped to let these 2 ladies and a small newborn into the back of the truck so they didn't have to continue walking. We were probably driving at least 30 minutes straight up hill before we approached their destination. I couldn't believe these people living on this mountain walk up and down that terrain on the daily, or weekly, as they have no other form of transportation. 

After a few other hiccups that included Riley falling out of the back of the truck and waters too high for our vehicles to pass, we hiked up the remainder of the mountain to the family's farm.

I'll never forget approaching their home. There are 4 main brothers that run this family coffee farm that has been in their family for over 100 years. Each brother has a rather large family of their own, a wife and several kids, that each live in their individual, very small, manmade homes. Coffee is their life. The men farm the coffee beans, the children pick them, the women process them into coffee. It is my understanding that the children have not ever seen the real world, much less have ever left the mountain that they live on. When we approached, the children scattered so fast and hid behind doors, their parents, anything that would hide them! They were so, so shy. After all, they had never really seen people outside of their family members.

We got to chat with the brothers, and I finally got the kiddos to warm up to me by snapping photos of their sweet faces and then showing them the back of the camera. They were the sweetest little children. The one particular little boy in the majority of my photos, in the red shirt (then later in the maroon/white striped shirt), holds a special little place in heart, as he followed me around all day, at a safe distance from me of course, so secretly, and so bashful. At one point, I noticed he had gone and changed his dirty shirt into a clean shirt and then he snuck over to their outdoor sink to rinse off his dirty face and arms. He seemed so intrigued by us, but I think I was more intrigued by his curious and sweet spirit. I caught sight of him at the wash basin, and every time I glanced over he would take turns hiding behind the pillar than doing more rinsing. I finally convinced him to give me a hug by the end of the day, and it melted my heart how he held onto me for a few lasting seconds.

After wandering around their farm a bit, my favorite part of the day came when we all sat in the eldest brother's dining area of his home, overlooking the view from the top of mountain, and sharing a cup of coffee together. His very own coffee. It was truly charming how his wife so eagerly prepared and served the coffee to us. It was even more touching to have the brother repeatedly telling us how much he couldn't believe we were interested in their coffee and interested in their story. He seemed radically humbled and I'll never forget the tiny tear I saw in his eye as he was smiling at Ben and Riley, thanking them over and over again.

In my mind, in that moment, the quest for the best cup of coffee had been accomplished. This family has a story. And it needs to be shared.

Day 3...Continued:  A treat from Ramon

Leaving the mountain that afternoon, my heart was completely exploding with love and adoration for this family. The endless labor and sacrifices that they make for their family coffee business is completely astounding. It sounds like Hacienda Montecristo has really helped this family out by giving them more demand for their supply, by outsourcing to them.

This is how perfectly God's plans work... None of that would have happened that day if Riley wouldn't have randomly met Ramon, family heir of Hacienda Montecristo, on an airplane to Honduras a few months prior. Like, what?!!! Talk about perfect place, perfect timing.

Although Ramon was out of the country at the time we were there, he still graciously invited us to his family property in Copan, where he had his employees and wait staff completely TREAT us to another fine meal and great tour of his family's gorgeous plantation. As soon as we arrived with Javier, these sweet little waiters (they had to be like 14 years old!) came out and offered us cocktails as our jaws dropped in awe of their beautiful home. So much history and so much beauty, their home is seriously unreal. Someone overheard Riley and Ben talking about how they should have saved their Honduran cigars from earlier to enjoy on this fancy porch we were now standing on, and sure enough - 5 minutes later - this little boy comes out with a platter of cigars for them. It was so sweet! We definitely felt completely treated. After another lovely meal and a DELICIOUS coffee cake desert, we started our personal tour of the plantation, learning all about their growing process, how many families work on the plantation, the history behind it, and we even got to experience the task of "cupping" coffee by these two sweet ladies who are in charge of that particular process.

Another educational experience for sure. It was also very interesting to literally go from one extreme to the other, having experienced the way that the small 4 brother families live to the fairytale sights of Hacienda Montecristo, in only a matter of hours. However, it did make my very happy that wealthy, successful people like this also have huge enough hearts to want to help smaller families in the same industry. Thanks, Ramon, for the special treat of a wonderful day!

We ended our 3 day adventure driving back to San Pedro Sula area in the pitch black of night in a dangerously heavy rain storm. Thank you, Riley, for keeping us alive on that scary drive.

We chatted life, reminisced about the people we met in those short few days, and talked about our excitement for the future. Personally, I believe Generous Coffee is going to change the world.

They brought me along to capture a small documentary / promo-type film for the new company... which will be coming soon. However, I didn't expect to take so many photos and I certainly didn't expect to blog about the trip either. 

I ended up wanting to document every moment especially so I could remember it for myself. Like I mentioned in the beginning of this extremely long blog post, God works in such crazy ways. The order of events, the people we met, the experiences we shared, I don't know that it would have A) been as effective or successful if it was any different, and B) deepened my faith and touched my heart the way it did.

Riley and Ben, thank you so much for including me on this wildly awesome adventure. I'm so proud of you guys and blessed to call you guys friends.

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Honduras // July 2017

It was such a blessing for me to last minute be asked to come down to Honduras and film a promo film for a new company, Generous Coffee. The three awesome guys behind this company are Riley, Ben, and Drew, whom also happen to be founders and board members of the non-profit, Humanity and Hope United.

Currently we are in very pre-limary stages of Generous, so I knew that the 5 days I was going to be down there with the guys were going to be filled with new adventures for all of us, as we had no idea which coffee farms we were visiting, who we'd be meeting, where we'd be staying, etc.

I'm creating a whole separate blog post about our Generous road-trip and research that I'll share soon, but for now I wanted to share the days that I was in Honduras outside of the Generous trip. I didn't know that I was going to get to meet and spend time with a 26 person crew from Humanity and Hope that was down there at the same time, a group being led by Ben and his mom the previous week. IT WAS SUCH A PLEASANT SURPRISE! It was so wonderful getting to know the people on the team, whom were (for the most part) all new to H&H. I could already tell that they had built some very strong friendships amongst each other, and I was happy to get to be a part of it for the last 48 hours of their trip.

With that, I also got to spend time with them in the village of La Caroza and reunite with the cute kiddos that I met in February when I was there earlier this year. Loving on these sweet faces and seeing their smiles never gets old! It was fun to see how well the 26 person H&H team not only connected so well with each other, but also connected with and had already made such an impact with the families and children in the villages. 

One of my favorite stories from their week was how one little girl was unable to attend school one day because she didn't have any shoes to wear. An H&H team member, Sarah (whom I was so blessed to get to know, she has the biggest heart!), was the only one made aware of the situation at the time, by the girl's concerned friend, and immediately said, "Well, let's go get her shoes!" With Darwin's help, they went and bought some shoes, and the girl was able to attend school that day. I love so many things about this story. One, that the girl's friend was so concerned about her friend not being able to go to school. Two, that Sarah is such a humble soul that nobody on the team even knew about what happened until the end of the week. Three, that there was a moment shared at the end of the week that Sarah spoke with the two girls and told them how inspired she was by the strength of their friendship, and let them know that if they can be there for each other through something like that, then that kind of friendship will be a solid rock for them throughout their entire lives, in any kind of situation. Sarah's words and tears also brought tears to the girl without the shoes, and it was such a special moment that I'm so glad I got to capture. I included a series of a few photos of that moment, just because it was so touching to not only see how much the girls' friendship inspired Sarah, but how powerful Sarah's words of encouragement were to the two young girls.

We also spent a day in Remolino with the new "health squad" for H&H finding out health concerns and needs of the village in order to bring a health program/clinic/care system to them in the near future. Along with visiting household to household and doing some data analysis, we hung out more with the children, and witnessed again just how labor-intensive both the women's jobs are with the sheep and pigs and the men's jobs are in the fields. It is insanely inspiring to see how hard these people work for $7.50 US/day. Which to them, is a lot. 
I also loved getting to spend more time with Catherine and Androlla, two of the translators that live in Honduras, that also have huge hearts! They are such a blessing to H&H and the villagers absolutely adore them.

After the Generous trip, we also came back to spend a few hours in a new village, La Cuchilla, that H&H intends on working with in the future, who currently has zero electricity and no access to clean water. The village of 27 families lives in 20 small homes, and shares ONE well to manually get their water, and still must boil the water before it's even okay to drink. Can you imagine living in that heat and having to pull up your own water from a well and boil it before you can even drink a glass of water to quench your thirst? It was heart-breaking to witness first-hand and I'm thankful H&H has connected with these wonderful people to help their community prosper! I truly look forward to seeing these families again in the very near feature and can't wait to be a part of bringing hope and prosperous change into their lives. Just look at how joyful they are right now with so little... imagine the smiles on their faces once they can drink water without getting sick and find out there is opportunity for them to experience jobs and education.

Once again, I left Honduras completely humbled with a heart full joy, hope, and gratitude. A kind of joy that literally hurts my face from smiling so much, a kind of hope that inspires me to share their story and get more people involved, and a kind of gratitude that encourages me to invest all that I have into these people - their communities, their hearts, and their new opportunities.

Find out more about the vision of Humanity and Hope by clicking here.

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