A Letter from Sr. Joan January 2007

I bring you greetings from the mountain top in Honduras. And with these greetings comes expressions of gratitude for our part in making “Mission Honduras” possible. My mission this trip was to interpret for the medical team of “Mission Honduras” both on Mt. Flor and two other villages. I cannot speak Toll, the language of the Zicaque tribe but Spanish and the combines languages of love and care (which need no words) was all that was needed. Some of the highlights of the trip:

Going to Mt. Flor. I remembered the first time going there with Sr. Fatima. The people came but they were shy, stayed at a distance, some even hid at first. This time as we came to a stop and I was getting out of the car, they came to greet us, one Indian lady carrying her child came running to me, embraced me lovingly and I knew I was home. Later on I was brought a pumpkin and a plant which, of course, I couldn’t bring back with me. What I brought back was the love these gifts expressed.

A free day that gave me the chance to go to Sulaco and spend time with my teachers, Teodora, Ana and Henry. Seeing the Academia so well kept, the sewing machines ready for classes next week, sharing with the teachers their plans for the new year, listening to their concerns, their decisions … it reaffirmed that they can do it!

Seeing in particular two families in El Guante for whom I previously did interpreting, helping them get the medical help needed through “Mission Honduras” and seeing one child healthy after surgery and a mother doing well after being brought to the States for a bone marrow transplant.

Knowing Casa Carolina, the center for malnourished children has reopened. Being able to talk to Father (who came from Victoria to see me) getting the assurance the project will continue.

Days of interpreting were long as it extended not only for the regular hours of the medical team’s services but evening translating for people coming for help, the Honduran personnel at the El Guante clinic, a meeting with the Celebrators of the Word and then for team members trying to converse with the people. It was a grand ten day trip!

A Letter from Joan March 22, 2006

Dear Sisters, Family and Friends,

Once more my guardian angels brought me safely to my destination! I was greeted at the airport by Fatima, Lillian, Fito and 88 degree weather. How could I not say I had a “warm welcome.”

Classes are going well. There are 14 in first year, 7 in second, and 8 in third. Only two girls dropped out from last year’s second year. Even I am amazed at all the projects they have already completed.

The Internet office that is close to us is built but unfortunately is not open yet because no computers. There is another one farther away but I haven’t had the opportunity to check it out yet.

I have three different kinds of orchids blooming at the Academia though they tell me I missed the best of them. Most of the day lilies are gone and the roses are a sorry sight. They don’t get any rain now nor can we water them sufficiently as our water gets shut off several hours of each day. Even here at the house we can’t water as much as we would like. And one hopes to have your shower finished before they decide to shut the water off!

The emergency hospital is nearer to completion. Sulaco will have a marathon during Holy Week to raise money for the hospital. Arrangements for a doctor are in progress.

Sr. Joan

Reflections from Sr. Rita Ostry's visit April 2005

To reach Sulaco, an agricultural community in the mountainous inner region of Honduras, I traveled about 150 km on roads that were either pot-holed pavement or gravel roads with deep ruts. I came to visit Sister Joan Polak, who has represented the Notre Dame Sisters in Sulaco for the past ten years. Sister Joan is part of an international effort to help provide basic necessities and a more hopeful future for the people of Sulaco and neighboring villages.

Job opportunities are scarce in this part of Honduras, even more for women than for men. The Madre Theresa Academia, where Sr. Joan supervises local teachers, girls learn skills that will help them get jobs or begin businesses. During the three year program the girls learn to create patterns from paper. They progress from making simple articles of clothing to more complex pieces such as dress suits and formal dresses. By graduation, each girl has a five foot long sampler that she has created over the three years which showcases her sewing, crocheting, knitting and stitching abilities. These graduates are sometimes hired by garment makers in larger cities, but just as often they return to their villages to go into business for themselves. A woman who is the only one in a village to be able to sew and repair things can make clothing for her family and earn extra income from others in the village. Sometimes two graduates go together into business sewing clothing for others.

I watched the first year students baste together paper, creating a pattern that they use to sew into a garment. I saw other students more confidently using these same skills to prepare dress slacks, one of the assignments for third year students. The confidence and competence that I saw growing in these students would serve them well in future years.

Travel remains a problem in and around Sulaco. The girls who attend Madre Theresa Academia often travel several hours over mountain trails to come to classes. The trails can be dangerous, particularly for girls who must leave home during the night to reach school by morning. Several girls have had to stop coming to school after they were assaulted on the trails or mountain roads. This year donations have helped provide bicycles that allow the girls to take longer but safer roads to get to school. Travel is also a component in health care for the area. The Notre Dame Sisters are helping in the effort to build an emergency hospital to provide at least minimal health care. The land and the building materials have been purchased, but there has not been enough money to complete the construction.

At 9:00 p.m. a lady knocked on the door of the small house Sr. Joan shares with another missionary. She explained to Sr. Joan and me that her child had fallen that evening and broken his arm. She planned to take the 5:00 a.m. bus and ride for two hours to get the child to a doctor so that the bone could be set. She asked for cloth and something sturdy to hold the arm until she could get to the doctor. Sr. Joan gave her a length of stiff, light board and a large white cloth to make a sling.

There are three local women who help provide 24-hour care in the Nutrition Center. They tend to sixteen children from age 8 months to age 12 years who are spending weeks or months recovering from lack of food. These malnourished children are brought from surrounding villages and from mountain areas. When they return to health the children go back to their families.

There was a little girl who had just arrived when I visited the Nutrition Center. She was so malnourished that her feet were badly swollen. She was brought to the Center from a remote mountain village by a visiting U.S. medical team. She was very homesick and asking for her mother. I hugged her, and then I held and cuddled some of the babies. I ended up trying to hold three children at a time, feeling as if I didn’t have enough arms to hug and hold them all.

Agriculture is still hampered by the lingering effects of Hurricane Mitch as well as the periodic droughts in the mountain area. One of the goals of the mission is to teach people to garden more productively while continuing to replace trees and plants that were destroyed during the hurricane. Many of the women in Sulaco mix their own potting soil and start trees that can be planted throughout the area, helping with reforestation while propagating useful fruit-bearing trees.

I went with Sr. Fatima and four ladies to a village. We had the back of a pickup truck filled with sapling trees. When we arrived, many eager hands unloaded the truck and took the trees for immediate planting. The trees were like gifts that we’d brought.

Education is important for the future of Sulaco. The children attend school in the morning. In the afternoon, when the heat halts work and school, many of the children go to the library that was recently built with the help of the Notre Dame Sisters. In addition to books, the library has a computer and videos to help the children learn.

In a nearby village a young man works at a library built by the villagers. When I visited, I found a sign that said the library opened at 4:00 p.m. Because I was a visitor, the young man opened the library doors and invited me in about 2:30 p.m. Within minutes children were flocking into the library to read.

Sister Joan’s people, the people of Sulaco, get along with very little in the way of material goods. Pure, clean water is especially scarce. But the people, Sr. Joan included, creatively use what’s at hand. They use machetes to cut the grass and brooms made out of wild brush to maintain neat homes and roadways. Fences are made of close-growing cactus. People devise ways to build what they need. They are resilient and creative. They get along with very little, but they have such a spirit of gratitude for life! They inspired me deeply by their gracious hospitality and warm acceptance.

An Interview with Sr. Joan December 2004

This graduating class was 15 girls, the largest ever. One of them will start her own business and will hire another graduate to work for her; she had contacts in a couple of the larger cities where she might sell her products. Most graduates go back to their villages and sew for people in the village.

The woodcarving part of the Academia is in crisis right now due to the sharply rising price of wood.

The nutrition center is full almost constantly. Several of the kids have needed hospitalization due to their health problems. Sr. Fatima’s success story is one young girl who has had eye surgery due to Sr. Fatima’s efforts, and her sight is much better.
The emergency hospital is nearing completion. There are Honduran doctors and nurses who would be willing to staff the hospital, but the Honduran government has not indicated a willingness to pay them. Sr. Fatima is hoping for an American doctor to volunteer to team with Honduran doctors and nurses. There is currently an American doctor in Yoro, a larger city not too far distant, who volunteers 6 months a year there.

The women’s project, in its second year, has gone extremely well. The women have involved the villagers to help plant thousands of trees that they started from seed. Sr. Joan has a compost heap in her back yard and she wonders if it smells anything like the pigs in the yard next door. The women use black plastic pots and create their own potting soil using the compost and other sources. When anyone eats an avocado, a tangerine or any other fruit, they save the seeds for planting!

Class at the Academia starts up again in February. Less girls are registered this year, due to the lack of transportation and the lack of safety associated with foot travel. Sr. Joan would love to obtain several mountain bikes (these are real mountains) for the girls to use for transportation to and from school. These might be purchased in Honduras or shipped at a larger expense from the United States.

Letter from Honduras September 2004

As usual, the girls greeted me warmly with hugs and kisses and then when all were assembled, in came the cakes and coca cola. The next day they received their treat of chocolate. They had completed the projects I left for them to do. We will have items to sell at the end of the year but I'm afraid we won't have much of a sale. The reason? There will be no corn crop nor beans. Rains have come too late and the fields are dry stalks. Not only here but in most of the country where there is no irrigation. Already the malnutrition center is near capacity. In another month we don't know what to expect.

Another problem we're having… one of the hills between here and El Progreso has been falling and blocking the way. Sr. Fatima was "trapped" in El Progreso for a few days. The bus couldn't pass so passengers had to walk for an hour to get to the other side where another bus was waiting. Of course, she couldn't make the walk so had to return to El Progreso. She took a bus to Tegucigalpa and then from there home… a whole day traveling. Another time we had to be in El Progreso so we took our car and went via Tegucigalpa. A trip that usually takes us three to four hours took us 9 hours. Now if one gets to the place where the mountain is falling before 6:00 a.m. you can pass, usually. Danielo came today and he said he had to wait two hours for passage. And tomorrow I have to make that trip. Julio will drive. I have to go to renew my residency as my "carnet" expires Sept. 2. I'm begging all the angels to accompany us. Sr. Fatima is already in El Progreso waiting for me.

I went to Mt. Flor with Frank and Al from Iowa to make plans and negotiate for the medical team to spend a couple days there serving the people. When we arrived at our destination we found a woman and child very ill lying on a heap of boards. We didn't have any medicines with us but eventually through a lot of talking found she had been given medicines at the health center across the river. The problem was they didn't seem to understand how to take the medicine. I tried explaining to her, then to the husband, then to another lady who was with her. Finally this lady said, "You aren't speaking Spanish." I WAS! What I wasn't speaking was their dialect. So through Julio and his brother we finally went from Spanish to their dialect. To this day I wonder if she was ever able to follow directions. Our work will be cut out for us when the medical team comes in January.

Love,
S. Joan

November, 2003

Sr. Joan (right ) and Sr. Fatima came to Notre Dame this month to pack up donated supplies such as material, notions and craft supplies. The Sisters also enjoyed packing up some toys for the children of Sulaco. Sr. Fatima, who also directs the Honduran women in the making of cement blocks and roofing tiles, told the story of the newest project to help the people of Honduras help themselves.

Deforestation caused by people attempting to survive is a problem throughout Central and South America. Earlier this year Sr. Fatima recruited 17 families from 10 different villages in the area of Sulaco. These families agreed to care for and protect new trees. Through the efforts of these families and one-time funding from the Hilton Foundation, many hundreds of trees have been planted this year. Hundreds of mahogany trees and an evergreen-type tree native to the area were planted. The families are also planting and caring for some flowering trees, and fruiting trees such as lemon, orange, mandarin and mango. Replacing trees will have an impact on the lives of the people in Honduras long into the future.

August 9, 2003 - Sr. Joan's Letter from Honduras

Dear Sisters, Family and Friends,

Greetings from rain-soaked Honduras! According to our paper, La Tribuna, “hundreds of acres of corn crops are under water, a hundred homes were damaged by the swift waters bringing in mud. Sulaco was on the verge of disappearing and the roads impassable.” They exaggerated the situation but it has resulted in some top officials from Tegucigalpa coming out to check the disasters. Hopefully there will be monies to share with us to improve the roads, waterways, drainage, etc. I’m reminded again … we can’t control circumstances but we can control the attitude we take toward it. I have a lot to learn from these people who accept what is and hope for better days to come.

I fought a brave battle with the mosquitoes but I lost, they won. I spent three days in bed with “dengue” and the rest of the week I went to work late and came home early. And the spiders have me constantly caught in their webs. I don’t know when the insect world invaded my world so much. I also lost the battle with our neighbor’s chicken. She flew up on the windowsill and knocked down two of my African violets. Fatima, too, lost the battle. She came down with “dengue” the day after I did. She still is spending most of her time in bed after three weeks. She ended up seeing a doctor and is on medicines, receiving injections, and even had to have liquids via the needle!

Some time soon I have to get to El Progreso to renew my residency which expires this month. I went last month but when I got to the office it was locked and the guard said the workers were in Tegucigalpa. This is the last year that I have to renew it each year. Next year they will be able to give me one for three years since I will have been here 10 years.

Casa Carolina, our nutrition center, is full to capacity. In fact last week there were three over capacity so the lady in charge had to make the decision to send the most healthy home and not wait for the doctor to come to do the dismissal. A doctor from Victoria comes every Monday to see the children and check them. We hare having a hard time financially with the center but hopefully donors will come to our aid.

I was with you, my Notre Dame Sisters, in spirit and in prayer last Sunday as Patty became officially Sister Patty. Congratulations.

Love to all,
Sr. Joan Polak, ND

I want to share with you the wonderful grace of my trip to Sulaco, Honduras. We can be SO proud of Sr. Joan (Juanita) Polak for the wonderful ministry she shares with the people of Honduras. She and Sr. Fatima, SSND, make a dynamic team with all the women and men they have nurtured, making an obvious difference for so many.
I experienced in a new way our founders' call and charism to empower the poor and to take care of unmet needs, especially those of women and children. Sr. Joan not only teaches the students at the Mother Teresa Academia how to create craft items, she also teaches them honesty, respect for themselves and each other, and industry. She teaches them the skills to change their lives. It was very obvious to me that she is greatly loved by the girls and her teachers.
Sr. Fatima and Sr. Joan have organized a group of women to be leaders in the area so they visit with the mayor every now and then, they make cement blocks and build houses, hospitals, libraries, clinics, and residences for the poor of the area. These women take great pride in their work and it shows in how they care for their own homes, their families and each other.
I learned very concretely respect for the goods of the earth since food and water are very precious commodities. If we had leftovers at suppertime, we filled plates and distributed them to the neighbors; very often the neighbors brought their food over for us also. There is a drought in Honduras now so conservation of water is key. Sometimes the water supply was cut off from the town.
Prayer took on a new dimension for me. The psalms came to life with new imagery of women and children walking down the road carrying on their heads laundry and corn just washed at the river; or the men coming from the fields bearing firewood for their families. Praying with Sr. Joan and Sr. Fatima for world needs and the needs of Sulaco broadened my view. Jesus' words of compassion spoke more loudly to me with the poor immediately before me.
The people raise such items as bananas, tobacco, coffee beans, papaya, sugar cane, corn, etc., still using primitive means to harvest them. Since the terrain is mountainous for the most part, this work is very difficult. But in the midst of the harshness there is a beauty. Flowering trees dot the mountainside, and neighborhoods and gardens reveal the effort to introduce numerous plants, vegetables and fruit trees. Even where buildings are partially completed the trees and flowers have already been planted. Therein lies the hope of the people for a better future.
I saw church operating as the community of God's people caring for each other. The people's great faith, their prayer, and their compassion are quite active. The clergy in the area are Jesuits or native priests but they cover wide territories which means some people see a priest maybe once a year; but church still happens among the people -- probably very much like the early church.

Sr. Margaret Hickey, ND
President, American Province