In June of 2009, my wife and I traveled to a remote mountain village in the highlands of Honduras to deliver medical supplies, shoes, clothing and water filters to the 300 inhabitants of Potenciana. Little did we know what God had in store for us on this trip and how it would change our lives forever. A few days after we flew in to the island of Roatan we met with our Honduran team member Miguel, and began making plans for the trek to Potenciana. Miguel emphasized the need to begin our journey early enough in the day that we could be assured of arriving in the village before dark. After some prodding as to why we needed to arrive before dark, he hesitantly explained that Potenciana was in a remote region of the Olancho district and the roads were "not safe" after dark. After some more prodding, he admitted the danger was not so much bad road conditions as it was due to bandits that frequently ambushed vehicles at night. Needless to say, we were more than willing to leave early and asked what time it got daylight! We began our journey by taking an 1.5 hour ferry ride from the island of Roatan to the mainland city of La Ceiba. From there we rented a 4 wheel drive pickup for the remainder of our trip. Leaving La Ceiba, we drove on a decent pave road not much unlike typical farm to market roads in the US. After an hour and a half, we left the pavement and traveled on dirt roads for the next2 hours crossing some home made log bridges that I seriously doubted would support the weight of our truck. We then left the dirt roads and began traveling on primitive, washed out logging roads for the final 2 hours of our drive. We lost count of the number of creeks and streams we crossed and were greatful this was the dry season or the trail would have been impassable.
We pulled into the village late in the afternoon and surprised the inhabitants with our appearance. They knew we were coming, but didn't know what day we would be arriving. This information had been intentionally withheld as an added precaution to minimize the chance of being robbed.
Potenciana is a primitive village nestled in the mountains of the Olancho district at an elevation of about 3,200 feet. A couple of years ago, the Honduran government ran electrical power into this area but only 2 or three houses in the village are wired for power. There is no running water, no vehicles, no sanitation system, no phone lines, people still use outdoor latrines, plow with oxen and cook using wood burning stoves and ovens. The walls of all the houses were made with handmade adobe blocks (painted white) and the roofs made with handmade red clay spanish tiles. Each house was exceptionally clean and it was evident the people took great pride in their homes. We were taken to meet the president of the village, Don Armando who graciously offered to let us stay in his home during our stay. It wasn't until the second night of our stay that I discovered he and his wife had given us their bedroom and were sleeping on the floor of their kitchen. I can't say enough about how wonderful all the people were and how welcome they made us feel even though we were perfect strangers to them.
Okay, thats enough for tonight....tomorrow I'll tell you how we met Maely. For a hint, you can take a look at our website http://www.thekingsstorehouse.org/ , follow the "Central America" tab and then access the page we have dedicated to Maely. We have two video clips of our first meeting with her. The first clip is of her first ride in an automobile, the second shows the condition of her deformed feet. More on that later!
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