Wow... what a racing amazing day it was today!! Only our 2nd day here in Tegucigalpa and we got to see more than what a regular tourist would take to see in a week. Today was a productive day, it started at 8:30am with breakfast and off we took of to the Deaf Church. Once arriving to the Church also known as "Manos Felices" which stands for "Happy Hands"-the place is composed of a church and a school for the Deaf Honduran people. Arriving to Happy  Hands, we were given the opportunity to meet  a great number of Deaf people, varying from mothers to fathers to children and young adolescents. Everyone was eager to know who we were and what was our purpose of our presence. Introducing ourselves with the basics of Honduran Sign Language that we learned on the first day, it was definitely a communication benefit.  One of the things I noticed between the interaction of communication between the American Delegates and the Honduran people is majority of the information interchanged was through gestures, even though knowing ASL i noticed that their language was mainly composed of ASL. One of the Honduran people explained that Deaf Honduran people who were given the opportunity to an education in the U.S. Majority of them brought ASL back to Honduras and because of that, many Deaf Hondurans picked ASL as their mode of communicating. However, because Honduras is a developing country with a number of limited resources for the Deaf, the Deaf Honduran people at Manos Felices are trying to break the use of ASL and creating their own Honduran Sign Language. Feeling the need to establish their own language identity and respect for their culture, i was informed that their still developing new signs themselves. 

Among learning the language use and interacting with the people there, we also stayed and learned the dynamics of the Deaf Church. All i can say that it was quite an interesting experience, it went better than i thought. When i say this, it means that majority of what i perceived during the service, i understood it. The service itself was clearly visible, in normal churches we would see pastors talking and giving a "lecture or sermon" about their religion. However, in this service, it was quite the contrary, it was VISUAL. It was accessible not only for the Deaf Honduran Community but also for us the American Delegates.  Members of the church, provided us with a play of their sermon, they all dressed up in their costumes and acted upon their sermon. It got my attention and often i and the other delegates would look at each other to make sure we were understanding the play. I also observed the reaction of the audience in the service, majority of them were attentive and seemed to be enjoying the play.

After the service was done, we were introduced to the people. One of the leaders who is assisting us with our stay here in Honduras, gave a short description of what GRO and our purpose of being there.  

by Janette Duran