26 Teen-Agers Spend Summer Helping Hondurans

For most teen-agers, looking forward to summer means looking forward to days in the sun, a vacation with the family, or maybe just flipping burgers for minimum wage.

For 26 Orange County teen-agers, however, this summer meant a trip to South America--specifically, Honduras, where they not only learned to live off the land but also helped to bring education to the villagers.

Teen-agers between the ages of 15 and 19 from the North Side, Sunny Hills and Mission Viejo Churches of Christ, headed into Honduras to dispense lessons in sanitation, nutrition, building and farming to the inhabitants of tiny, underdeveloped towns throughout the countryside.

Although the South American trip was a fairly independent adventure, it was not an unsupervised one. Along with three youth pastors who accompanied the teen-agers, missionaries Robert and Amy Machem were also there to provide guidance and support.

The Machems run Rancho Paradisio, a ranch on 1,600 acres in west-central Honduras near the village of San Martin, where the Orange County visitors--along with youth groups from throughout the nation--made their home.

Although the teens stayed only two weeks, a busy work schedule ensured much progress.

Chris Rhodes, 18 and a June graduate of Orange High School, said the group awakened at 7 a.m. each day and worked until late in the evening. Smaller groups of teen-agers worked in the schools, teaching the village children. Others taught planting and gardening to the adults, and still others were involved in various construction tasks.

Besides teaching the children small amounts of English, Rhodes said their lessons included instruction in nutrition--such as the importance of the four major food groups--and sanitation, even “just knowing that you need to wash your hands before you eat,” he said.

In terms of construction, Alison Curtis, 18 and a June graduate of Foothill High in Santa Ana, said the teens performed “service projects.”

“We built latrines, did road work and helped build a drainage system,” she said.

The trip also gave something back to the young people, allowing them firsthand experience with a lifestyle very different from their own.

Rhodes said the teens were surprised when they found themselves in “this little village in the middle of nowhere.”

“There was no running water, except for a little dripping faucet,” said Rhodes, adding that he learned to wash his clothes on rocks in the river and bathe in the river as well.

Because of the volatile political conditions in South America, several of the young travelers were apprehensive about their trip.

“I was kind of nervous,” Curtis said. “I didn’t really know what to expect.”

Said Rhodes: “I was excited until I got on the plane, then I was nervous.”

He also admitted that seeing the Honduran police with machine guns at the airport put him on edge. “It was just like the Contras or something. . . . They looked at my luggage and searched through everything.”

Tension was put to rest once the youths settled at Rancho Paradisio and began to discover that while their trip was to be a working one, it would also be a vacation.

Recalling their host country, Rhodes said, “It’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever been to. There was green everywhere.”

Both Curtis and Rhodes agreed that the most exciting part of their trip was a group day hike into the surrounding jungle.

“We trekked through the jungle and found this waterfall,” Rhodes said. “It was maybe 30 feet high, and we jumped off it into the water. It was great.”

“The work that we did (in Honduras) this year was crucial,” said the Rev. Robert Jacobson, youth pastor at North Side Church of Christ and one of the trip’s organizers. “The mortality rate is almost 30% in Honduras, and it has to go down.”

Sommer Velin, 17 and a June graduate of Orange, will return from Honduras on Saturday, having decided to extend her stay to six weeks.

Velin is making a return trip to Honduras, having visited last summer, and has made similar trips to Mexico. Her mother, Rhonda Velin, says her daughter is teaching English to the village children as well as assisting the village’s doctor.

“She feels like she wants to be a missionary,” Rhonda Velin said, “so it’s another way for her to confirm how she feels.”

Interested teen-agers seeking more information can contact Jacobson at the Northside Church of Christ, 2130 N. Grand Ave., Santa Ana, 92701, or call (714) 542-0809.