SALT report one!

I was supposed to write this thing for MCC describing my goals for this year and since it inspired some reflection, I thought it might be cool to post here. Apparently I was supposed to follow a format, but I managed to not see the attachment(happens fairly often), so I just wrote it out.

Coming into this year of service with SALT, I had little direction. I knew that I wanted to do work in the development of local, sustainable agriculture and other appropriate technologies. I had no formal education in either field, in fact all I knew was that the projects that I had heard of sounded exciting and seemed to mesh with my beliefs. Now that I have been in Honduras for nearly three months, I have come to understand that my role here is different than what I had originally hoped. I now see great value in immersing myself in Honduran culture, bringing the best of my culture to this one, and learning as much as I can about sustainable farming and appropriate technology.

I believe that by immersing myself in Honduran culture, it`s struggles and joys, I will be able to develop an alternate thought process and worldview. I want to acquaint myself with the struggles that many Hondurans regularly encounter in an effort to become more compassionate. A few of these are food insecurity, fragility of life, and lack of access to health care, transportation, and the world outside of their immediate community. While I view all of these as struggles, there are joys that come out of them as well. Some of these are the celebrations of life, death, and the harvest, the ability to focus on people and relationships as opposed to time or task, and the joys of community life that come from the development of networks of strong relationships.

I would never describe myself as patriotic, but Honduras has helped me appreciate my culture in different ways. Most children and adults here have never known a time free of obligation that is known in the United States as childhood. I have a desire to bless my community here with the practice of the American notion of childhood, a time to have fun and practice social and practical skills through rejuvenation and community building group games. Individuality is one thing that my culture can stress beyond what is healthy; however, a stronger endorsement of individuality, empowerment, and equality in this culture could go a very long ways. I also hope to develop compassionate leadership skills in both youth and adult groups. My ambitious goal with community groups is to inspire autonomous community based action that will empower individuals to bless their communities both socially and materially.

My last current major goals are to learn about local agriculture and sustainable farming and to encourage development of appropriate technologies. Since I know very little of these things, I can only try my hardest to soak up knowledge and provide humble suggestions. I want to learn about herbs, vegetables, animal care and meat production so that I can understand more of what it takes to sustain a community on healthy diets.

My attitude toward and understanding of these goals (and surely more that I don`t know yet) are prone to change as I attempt and am continuously frustrated by the challenges presented by each one. I will do my best to seek out the joys of the journey and keep the ultimate goal of Kingdom building steadily in mind.