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Bishops' Spouses Build Houses, and Relationships, in Honduras

Episcopal News Service. March 9, 2000 [2000-059]

(ENS) They shoveled sand and heaved cinderblocks. They talked with families still recovering more than a year after a storm's devastation. They visited a clothing factory and heard about abusive conditions in other, similar places where thousands work hard to earn a paltry wage. And they made time to meet and play games with their young hosts, the girls who live in Our Little Roses Home for Girls in San Pedro Sula, seat of the Diocese of Honduras.

In all, 21 spouses of Episcopal Church bishops spent a tightly scheduled week in Honduras last February seeing not only the work of the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief, which has been active there since the country was overwhelmed by Hurricane Mitch in October, 1998, but a bit of the country as well.

"Initially I thought we were going there just to help build houses" in the 95-home community rising under the fund's sponsorship outside San Pedro Sula, said Kate Smith, wife of Bishop Andrew Smith of Connecticut. "We ended up being immersed in Honduran culture."

The group arrived on February 5 ready to work. After Sunday worship at the cathedral and a meeting to learn about the fund's housing project, called "Faith, Hope and Joy," the spouses began the next day at the work site. They would spend a total of four mornings in their weeklong stay helping to move piles of sand, smoothing the dirt inside freshly built houses so that cement floors could be poured, forming a chain to move cinderblocks, and gathering pieces of wood left around the site by the busy construction crews.

'We made friends'

"We worked beside Hondurans of all ages," said Betty Creighton, wife of Michael Creighton, bishop of Central Pennsylvania. "We met and talked with the families that would occupy the homes, and we heard devastating stories of their suffering during and after Hurricane Mitch. We spoke in halting Spanish, and we made friends." A number of spouses noted that they were far from the first in their dioceses to volunteer at the work site, and that many, especially members of Episcopal Church Women, had enthusiastically raised money for the project. Clergy spouses in the Diocese of West Texas underwrote the cost of two houses.

Since the project's ground-breaking last June, more than 40 houses have been built and about 10 families have moved in. Plans are being made now for finishing the water system and installing sewerage. Volunteers from throughout the Episcopal Church have continued to flock to the building site, according to a supervisor, who noted that a total of 112 had arranged to come during February.

Each afternoon, after showers and a pause for lunch, the spouses made short trips to a variety of sites to learn more about the country.

One visit was to a maquila, a huge factory where pieces of cloth are assembled into ready-to-wear clothing sold by U.S. chains such as the Gap, J.C. Penney, Walmart and Old Navy. The maquilas pay very little, but many clamor for the work in a country where the unemployment rate soars. Workers, who start at a wage of $4 per day (with subsidies for meals and bus fare), average about 25 years old, according to Kate Smith.

The spouses heard from several women who had worked in these factories, and from Anna Reyes de Monje, a graduate of Our Little Roses who currently serves as a monitor of four maquilas that do work for the Gap, the only company that has such monitors. The Diocese of Honduras pays her salary, she explained.

Using her experience from four months of work in a maquila, where she saw abuses including forced unpaid overtime, ever-changing rules and frequent shifts in job assignments, and a constant threat of being fired, she inspects factories, reports problems to the Gap. If the problems are not fixed in a reasonable amount of time the Gap may move its operations to another maquila.

Our Little Roses

In another session, the spouses learned the history of Our Little Roses, the home founded by Diana Frade, whose husband, Leo, is bishop of Honduras. Begun in 1985 with a resolution at the diocesan convention, the home now has 50 girls, from babies through teenagers. All the children were at risk of abuse, have no relatives who can care for them and are from very poor families.

The home provides good schooling, medical care, and the support of a warm, church-related community, Frade said. The visitors, some of whom had brought games and other activities to the youngsters, joined with them to play, heard the girls sing, and came away impressed by the kids. The meeting left more than one spouse ready to find more sponsors, or simply pen-pals, for the youngsters.

At other times, the spouses viewed Mayan ruins and visited an inner-city congregation whose women are active in supporting the church's work. The local group of ECW has raised money for a number of projects and maintains a flourishing outreach program to elderly in the parish.

Smith, who is putting together a slide show to share with churches in her diocese, said she hopes to raise some funds to help pay for houses in the "Faith, Hope and Joy" project. "If we can collect and designate money for more houses," she said, "it will free the Presiding Bishop's Fund to allocate other money for the sewer system, which will cost about $500,000."

Becky Parsley, wife of Bishop Henry Parsley of Alabama, called the trip "in many ways a life-changing journey." In an article she wrote for The Alabama Apostle, the diocesan newspaper, she described some of the people she had met at the housing site. "After less than a week of work I felt physically exhausted and at the same time amazed and inspired by their energy and enthusiasm."

She said she had been moved to see what the Episcopal Church was doing for people in Honduras.

Griswold pronounced the trip a success. "I found these women to be so flexible, and very savvy," she said. "They have seen a lot about the church, good and not so good, but they have a wisdom that stops short of cynicism." She said that she hoped that, together, the spouses could realize and harness the creative energy that often is seen only within their own dioceses.

Griswold added that because the February trip had been booked so quickly, another spouse visit is planned for next October.

Joining Smith, Creighton and Parsley in the group were Jane Sigloh, chaplain of the group, plus the wives of 15 current or retired bishops. They included: Hyde Tennis of the Diocese of Delaware, Ira Leidel of Eastern Michigan, Nancy Persell of Chicago, Sheila Ohl of Northwest Texas, Louise Shipps of Georgia, Nancy Hibbs of West Texas, Elizabeth Allan of Atlanta, Hazel Kelshaw of Rio Grande, Carol Garrison of Western New York, Martha Murphy-Cole of Central New York, Elizabeth Hart of Southern Virginia, Mary Kelsey of Northern Michigan, Linda Rockwell of Missouri, Ann Vest of Virginia, Suzanne Whitmore of Eau Claire, and Phoebe Griswold, wife of Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold.

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