Carmen’s Place, Part 1:
As I begin writing this, it seems
impossible to describe Carmen’s home with words. Truly its very existence seems
almost impossible to believe. If I had not been there, worked there, and seen
it for myself I would doubt that a home could be built, and a family can live
in this place.
After twisting and turning on the narrow, bumpy, often steep,
unpaved local streets of a small neighborhood in the middle of Tegucigalpa, our
van backed into an open spot between two homes. We unloaded and were pointed in
the proper direction, “Down”. The hillside simply dropped off into a sheer
cliff. This ravine was much too steep to walk down, but not too steep for plants,
wild grass and small bushes. My view, standing at the top, went steeply down and
the bottom was a lush, thick forest of wild, tropical plants with the large
leaves and tangle of vines, maybe 100 yards down from the top edge where I
stood. The sound of a rushing stream at the very bottom was loud but invisible.
The water obviously fed the lush green everywhere at the bottom of the ravine.
Coming up out of the ravine, presumably on the other side of the rushing stream,
was a steeper cliff, bare rock too steep for plants to grow. I could see homes
perched on the top of the other side of the ravine. My view went straight down
this ravine, and it caught my attention. I wondered, “Where are we going? How could there
be a house down here?”
It is impossible to walk straight over the
edge of the ravine, and quickly I realized a well-worn path hugged the side of
the ravine off to the right and dropped down very steep directly behind and beneath
the home which was next to our parked van.
With only several steps down the path, the back wall of this home was
straight up above my right shoulder. The path dropped precipitously, so much so
that I checked my traction, making sure each step was planted solidly and I was
not going to start sliding. The path dropped, then flattened out a bit and
continued down to where I could see two homes perched below, one sort of above
the other. But our direction switched back fully, and started down several,
precarious steps which were carved into the hillside. Now, because of the
switchback, the steep hillside rose up on my left, the ravine fell downward to
my right side. And there is Carmen’s place. A carefully constructed, new,
concrete landing welcomed us and we arrived at her front door.
I still do not have any idea how a
previous generation of Carmen’s family had acquired this property and this home
was built on the side of this very steep ravine. But there it was, and the
contribution from our Presbytery and our work for the week was a major
renovation and remodeling of her home. Welcome to Carmen’s place.
