📌 Edition #23
📆 July 2022
🌎 Copán Ruinas, Honduras
📸 This month’s Snaps 🎪
✊🏻 Tribute to the Life of Berta Cáceres 🎂 UPH’s 13 anniversary 🌞 Camp Joy | Summer Camp 🥾 Half-year retreat 🧅 GAMA's agricultural microtunnel workshop 🦜 Youth program conference 👨🏻🚒 Copán’s fire department Visit 🔦 AIR program’s artistic painting session ⛺ Trekker’s Camp Ágape
Pigeonholed🐧
I hate those personality tests, those that label you as an intro or extrovert; all those ways of defining you or what you do, whether they are vocational or personality tests. Even as a child, I would roll my eyes when my friends made me answer their questions about their Origami of the Future—you know what I'm talking about, the one you made with a sheet of paper, and you folded each end to the center, making a diamond that you moved with your fingers and on top of it you drew numbers that had questions.
And let's not talk about the horoscope or zodiac signs claiming a baby’s personality before they are even born. Even "God made him that way" can sometimes feel like an excuse. On some level, I believe we all detest these evaluations and labels. Many of us don’t enjoy being lumped into a group, destined to be this or accomplish that in life, which is why I despise them.
Somehow, we became more tolerant to being generalized, locked into a list of three or five personality traits, even by our closest friends or family. I understand that at some point, the comfort of knowing who you are is healthy, but to what extent?
At UPH you're not boxed into any category, label or expected to act according to your past, personality or errors, even triumphs! You are asked to dream and to use this platform to grow, retaining the natural inclinations of your personality and skill set, with the ambition to grow and be refined, continuously.
If you ever spend a week in our office, you’ll for sure hear the youth shout at the top of their lungs: “No se amolden al mundo actual, sino sean transformados mediante la renovación de su mente. Así podrán comprobar cuál es la voluntad de Dios, buena, agradable y perfecta.” Romans 12:2, followed by genuine cheers and claps.
Inevitably, in UPH you grow, you add and add skills to your toolbox as long as you’re here—our staff who have been working with us for more than 10 years are proof of that. You develop a deep character. Your thoughts gain more color and you become accustomed to regularly leaving your comfort zone. It would be a disgrace if you describe a UPH staff, kid or youth simply as funny or calm. Their rainbow of talents and character quirks will make such a quick answer feel shortsighted.
And this, naturally, reflects on our work. What we do here at UrbanPromise Honduras is impossible at times to describe. We could be celebrating our 13th anniversary with a soccer game mixed with a halftime show of art, dance, and a harmless display of camp leaders battling it out in cardboard armor with paper swords; then at the same time, in the same month, commemorate the traumatic event—where our youth and staff were held hostages at gunpoint—with creative forms of therapy and fellowship, while also doing our best to keep you all in the loop about the process, what we have done with this group, and their wellbeing.
At UPH we do not pigeonhole people or programs. And definitely not our donors either.
You are not people who "support the organization with resources" and that's it. You are NOT a faceless number in our database. Many of you are family. Friends, of course. Every time we receive a visit from a donor in Copán Ruinas, we make sure that they live the UPH experience, where they get to know more than the Camps or tourist places. They know our families, our homes. We treat them as one of our own.
And if you're one of us, that means you're also a person with many qualities that go beyond your jobs, where you live, or what you do. You are all that and more. You are part of this platform of dreams we call home. Because we are like that, we wish it so for everyone involved with UPH.
When I think of Jesus, the messiah depicted in the scriptures, I find a basis for depth of personality. He is shown as a daring theologian who tossed out merchants from the temple with a whip in hand, and who could also work peacefully from the fishing boat in the afternoon; I am motivated by his hospitable phrases to children, owners of the Kingdom of Heaven; and to keep silent before the powerful governor Pilate. He was an angry carpenter with the religious pharisee, but then he was patient with Pedro, who denied him and yet is the rock where his church stands. His example takes us out of the comfort zone and encourages us to embrace contradictions.
You’re always invited to visit UrbanPromise Honduras. So we can dine with you at the house of our staff, serenade you with the skills of our youth and have a deep conversation with one of our camp kids.
Thank you for believing in us. We know that we are not just another non-profit for you, and you are not just another donor for us. Our burning desire is to be able to meet you, get to know each other and together continue to engage in this wonderful work.
