Amigas del Senor
Money, Notebooks and Pencils -- Feb. 22, 2008
By Beth Blodgett, missionary to Honduras

Dear Friends,

Everyone has challenges with their budget. So why should I bother to tell you about ours? Because we had too MUCH money. Enough is the right amount.

How could such a thing happen? A long story, of course.

From about last July, we were aware of having money that we had decided should be donated, but nothing came through. Let me elaborate:

Our priority of giving donations is the purchase of bulk medicines for the public health center. It didn't need anything from last February until this January. Prairie reports today that the medicine order that she made the day I left Honduras went smoothly; it cost just over $500 and the medicines have been delivered and are being dispensed as needed.

The local Roman Catholic priest had been buying groceries for the poorest people, without regard for denomination or belief or lack of belief. He is skinny and gets around by bus and bicycle. (This means he is not corrupt.) He got transferred and not replaced. Not an option.

Sor Leonarda had a good set-up for her 50 orphans. She has a fund for medical care; she has salaries for her workers; she proudly told us that she has food security for the first time ever (that will extend for months at least). But she didn't have dental care. We said that we could pay for the start ($100). She checked around and found a dentist that would be willing to come out from the city as a volunteer, he just wanted his expenses paid. OK, sounds good. Gave her the money. (It took about a month to connect for various parts of this conversation, finally left the money for her with our trusted friend, Gloria) Now we are in October. The dentist suggests that the project wait until mid-Nov. when school lets out; no one would have to miss classes (because, of course, you would keep a child home from school to recuperate from any dental procedure). OK, sounds good. And we had figured on $100 a month for several months until the backlog was cleared up.

November came and went. The dentist had a relapse. A relapse of what, we don't know, but it took him out of the picture. So another dentist was found. Same deal. She would come to evaluate the kids and prepare a plan of care. Sor was sure that she could write a UNICEF grant to pay for the dental work once it was clear what the cost would be.

In January, the dentist came. Only the two kids whose toothaches brought the topic up needed dental work. So, no request for more money for dental care.

Finally, the public schools. We have spent hours in conversation about how to help improve public education. The information that I had obtained directly from teachers is now several years old. We want to help the most remote schools, thinking that they are likely to need help the most, but to visit them to learn the needs would be formidable. It would also be rather high profile. We do not want high profile. After all, we are a monastery, not an aid organization.

We had let this question wait for a while since the school year ended in November. However, February is the start of the new year. We decided that Prairie and Autumn would visit the superintendent of public schools and ask what the needs were (thinking that notebooks and pencils would be the priority, since many people are too poor to even provide a 40-cent notebook and an 11 cent pencil for their child.

Also, inflation is skyrocketing. There was an article in the newspaper about the rising cost of school supplies. Details were given and there was NO good news.

Prairie and Autumn were able to meet with the superintendent and arrange with Andres (who owns a general store in Limon) to order the notebooks and pencils.

Today, they went to the bank in Bonito to withdraw the money to pay for them. The school superintendent said that about 70% of the families with kids in elementary school are in financial need. There are about 2,500 students. Prairie ordered $1,000 worth of notebooks and pencils.

I am so grateful. My kids will have notebooks and pencils. And our budget is back in order.

be well,
beth