Sister Dorothy Shares God's Mercy and Healing With the Mountain People of Honduras
by Dave Whorall
Doctor Dorothy Pelt, a Sister of Mercy, entered Honduras nearly 30 years ago. Her parish consisted of a major portion of the northwest corner of the country. The main church was located in the major port city of Puerto Cortes. In her charge were 26 villages. Some of these were along the Caribbean coastline, others bordered the city, but many were in the mountains inland. It was these mountain villages that drew her. Hardship and poverty were the norm throughout her parish, but in the mountain villages she also discovered incredible kindness, charity, and love of family and neighbor. The peoples' lives were simple and primitive, their poverty intense when the crops failed, and yet as the years passed, she found that their Catholic faith was strong and vibrant.
Sister Dorothy traveled first by foot, literally walking up the mountains. Later by horseback, she carried food, medicine, clothes, and many other supplies shipped through the Salvatorian Mission Warehouse. Sister Dorothy assisted with Mass as she helped organize and build churches, houses, orphanages, medical clinics, and schools. She helped establish religious and educational programs, as well a radio station to broadcast school programs throughout the villages and outlying areas.
Today, at 85, Sister Dorothy no longer walks or rides horses. Instead, she drives a four-wheel drive truck up roads most people from the US wouldn't risk to bring aid and hope to her people. Entire villages greet her arrival, and her love is reflected in the faces of those she serves. At her office in Puerto Cortes, the poor from the city and villages come to her doorstep, and she listens to their stories, providing whatever help she can.
Marty and I have been blessed to visit Sister Dorothy on four separate occasions, most recently this past February.
*****
After searching the Internet for a month, we purchased airline tickets for $385. At the ticket counter in Milwaukee, we booked our luggage and ourselves through to San Pedro Sula. The flight to Honduras went by quickly and without a problem. Sister Dorothy and her assistant Roque met us at the airport and took us back to Roque's house in the city of Puerto Cortes, the largest port in Central America, where we remained for four and a half days.
On the night we arrived, we drove through Puerto Cortes. We went past the port where authorities were holding a container of supplies from the Mission Warehouse. Eventually Sister Dorothy, along with Roque and another helper Ada, were able to get the container cleared through customs. Roque knows a number of important people in Puerto Cortes, including some of the customs agents, and thus was able to get the container released on time. (Unfortunately, all too often customs agents will refuse to clear a container. These "hold-ups" put more money in the pockets of various agents, while the poor go without the supplies they desperately need.)
On the second day we had our container. Unloading it took two and a half hours. The temperature was around 90, and the humidity was stifling. Delegates from the poorest of the 66 mountain villages were chosen to help. Their "payment" was a pile of donated material, which they got to carry back to their aldea (Spanish for "village") any way they could. The value of the goods they were given, many of which aren't available locally at any price, is equal to what it would take the men days of hard labor to earn.
About two years ago, Sister Dorothy took part in "The Heifer Project." Sister received enough money to purchase ten cows (each pregnant with a calf), specially suited for the mountains. She picked one of the poorest of her 66 villages, a village where the people as a community worked together especially well. She instructed the people to build a small barn and pasture. The cows were allowed to graze on common property, so as to keep them from overgrazing the land. Six months ago, men from the village worked for three days to improve the road so Sister Dorothy could drive her truck up the mountain to check on the cows. Although the road was once again nearly impassable, we were able to make it up the sharp hills and around the tight turns. All the cows were gathered in the field. The herd had grown to 28, providing the people with milk and cheese to eat every day.
Each family's first-born female calf is given to another needy family, so the "wealth" is not hoarded, but shared freely with others.
Our start up the mountain was delayed. An inspector wanted to see the dates on the medicines in the storerooms, plus a television crew from the local station showed up and interviewed Roque and me. We arrived late at La Suisa. Although the people were concerned, they had prepared a meal of vegetables and chicken, the chicken they seldom allow themselves. We met the representatives from the villages and handed out candy, toys, toothbrushes, and backpacks full of assorted creams and medicines. The village representatives were proud to show us how well the electricity was working, which we had installed in the Church two years ago. We had brought a generator up the mountain on horseback. The day was clear, and from their village on the top of the mountain, one of the men had showed me where Puerto Cortes was located and also other villages along the Caribbean coast. Another of the men gave me a gift of a Mayan spearhead he had found while cultivating banana plants.
*****
The drive down the mountain was even more perilous than the drive up. The hills descend at 45 degrees, with loose gravel and moist clay making traction difficult. At each place we visited we discussed what medicines, foods, and other donations were most welcome. In addition, we wanted to know what else the people could use to help them through bad times. Medicines, first aid supplies, personal hygiene items such as shampoos, soaps, toothbrushes, and toothpaste, hats, and especially candies and chocolates topped their list.
Frequently the most important item for old and young alike are the nutritional milks. We've often heard that people suffering malnutrition are literally "raised from the dead," thanks to the nutritional boost these drinks provide. Hand tools are especially welcomed. Any tool in good condition makes the lives of these wonderful people so much easier. Anything from the smallest knife or scissors to large hand saws, grinding wheels, files, etc., are godsends. Cooking utensils such as pots, pans, cups, plates, silverware, bowls, anything that makes our lives easier, improves their lives as well. School supplies, such as pencils, pencil sharpeners, pens, paper, crayons, markers, glue, calculators, notebooks, and pads of paper likewise are forever in great demand.
On the third day, we made our way up another mountain. This time the trail wasn't so steep; still, we had to ford a river over ten times with the truck. We arrived at the village of La Pita, where we again gave out toys and toothbrushes. We stopped in to say hello to the parish catechist, Maria Elena. Three years ago her husband lost his job in one of the free zones; they were so poor, they had to sell their pots and pans for food. When we got there, their children were sick, and there wasn't a crumb of food in the house. We gave them some money and what food we had. Her youngest boy needs an operation, and the surgery will need to be done in the city. The family hasn't the money, so they pray for help.
A few miles up the road we stopped at Las Pilas. A group from Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin is expected to install electricity in churches being built here and in La Pita, so as we did in La Pita, we took measurements and pictures and e-mailed them back to the benefactors in Menomonee Falls. Kids showed up, and we handed out more candy and toys. We also dropped off medicine at the local clinic. A patient showed us his hand, cut severely with a machete weeks earlier. He had no control or feeling in his fingers. We promised to pray that treatment would prevail and he would recover from the infection.
We know that God does hear the prayers of Sister Dorothy and those whom she loves, to whom she has dedicated her life, her profession, and her ministry.
+ Home