We spent this week settling back into warmer weather after spending a few days in Lancaster, PA for the wedding of Dwain’s brother, Dean and his new wife Amy. Congratulations Dean & Amy! The whirlwind of a trip was good, but tiring. We enjoyed the warm dwellings and soft beds at our parents’ houses. Dwain relished the experience of dining on tender Livengood beef again.

Late Thursday night we flew into Reagan Intl. Airport in Washington D.C. where Audrey’s brother, Joel, met us. After waiting about 1 hour for our luggage, we realized the next flight’s luggage was already rolling in. The gentleman in charge of baggage claims informed us our luggage had not arrived and might arrive on the next flight, scheduled to land in about 1 ½ hours. It was already after 10 p.m. and he could not guarantee our luggage would be on the next flight, so we took him up on his offer to FedEx it to Lancaster. We agreed if FedEx could not deliver it to Lancaster by Saturday, he would call us and hold it at the airport for us to pick up on Sunday. The luggage did not show up on Saturday, and we scrambled to find empty suitcases we could use to transport items from the States back to Honduras.


We were happy to say hello to many friends and relatives at the wedding and at Lyndon Church Sunday morning. Unfortunately we did not get to speak personally with everyone in attendance at these gatherings, but we enjoyed being with you.

A trip to the States meant an eagerly anticipated vacation for the Horst children. Overall school continues to go well, though there are times when enthusiasm wanes. This week we spent one afternoon using paint to create a marbled effect on the front of cards.


Spanish class continues. Our teacher jokingly threatened to fine us if we try to speak English during class. Interestingly, we learned the elderly woman who sat beside Dwain on one of our plane rides was part of the convent that started Koinonia (our Spanish language school). She was from New York, but lived several years in Valle de Angeles. The closest she had been to Lancaster was the Jesuit Center in Wernersville, the location of Kairos: School of Spiritual Formation, with which some of you may be familiar.

Every couple of days we harvest a few vegetables from the garden. At present we are pulling radishes, picking green beans and zucchini and cutting a bit of lettuce. As we are able to irrigate, things continue to grow. Arriving back at La Finca after five days in the States provided ample evidence that things are growing here. The photos we’ve included were taken just before we left on the 12th. We continue to sow warm weather seeds like melons, beans and peppers anticipating enough water to keep them all growing until the rains come again in mid-May or early June.

On Friday, Harlan and Dwain met with the local butcher down the street, hoping to visit the butcher shop in operation. We learned the cattle are taken to Santa Lucia a town mid-way between Valle and Tegucigalpa. With several of the older boys, Harlan and Dwain traveled to Santa Lucia and witnessed cattle being killed and processed Honduran style in an open-sided butcher shop on a hill overlooking Tegucigalpa. All the meat was fresh cut and carried away in primal cuts as there is no large scale cold storage here for aging carcasses. The facility was apparently community owned and operated. The operation was a kind of bring-your-own-cow-and-butcher-and-catch-up-on-the-latest from the others waiting their turn. An interesting observation was the handling of the cattle. All were calm enough to be led to the kill floor without any corrals or clanging gates involved. A good learning experience for both Americans and the Finca boys.

Saturday was haircut day for the boys. Dwain took his turn.

This morning a group of children from La Finca walked to a nearby church to sing a few songs in celebration of Fathers Day, which is celebrated March 19 in Honduras. Andrea played clarinet, and Audrey accompanied with flute. The children who participated received new t-shirts to wear for the occasion.