Mi Amigo Carlos

Carlos Chicas was our constant companion over our nine-day stay in Honduras. Though ostensibly hired as our bus driver, he became our close friend and an integral part of our team. As I told him in front of the whole team at our rest stop near Entrada, such was his love and care for us that he was like a father to all of us during our stay.

I first met Carlos two years ago on my first trip to Honduras, and he has become the "go-to" guy for every Greensboro Habitat trip since then. While the team two years ago also held him in high regard, my sense was that something special happened this time, a new level of bonding between team and driver.

My friend Carlos is a big, handsome, muscular guy who carries himself with dignity and grace leavened with humility and a dedication to serving others. He absolutely excelled in those duties for which we had hired him -- driving our team S.U.B. (sport utility bus) and keeping us stocked with water, drinks and snacks. We rode in a 25-passenger Toyota bus over open highway, mountain passes, switchbacks, dirt roads, army bases, construction sites, narrow cobblestone streets and wide open spaces. I have watched him turn into 20 foot wide city streets with a cars or trucks parked on the corner, parallel park -- PARALLEL PARK, for crying out loud, with only a foot or two on either end using only his mirrors, and best of all, drive the bus up a mountainous one-lane gravel road to the zip lines, then TURN THE BUS AROUND. I could not believe my eyes. And all the while he's just as cool as a cucumber at the wheel, like he was sitting next to the pool with a cool cerveza.

One thing that distinguishes Carlos is his work ethic. He does not adhere strictly to his job description, but instead often pitches in with working on the job site or helping to fix things. Early on, we busted one of the block-making machines, and he came over and worked on it for about an hour, diagnosing the problem and basically making parts from construction materials around the site to put it back together. He told us a story about how he had taken a group of journalists one time well off the beaten path -- ten miles from the highway -- in his 1958 Toyota Land Cruiser. There he hit a pothole and broke one of the springs on the car. He put together a new part out of a tree root and some barbed wire and drove that way the rest of the weekend without his clients even knowing the car was broken.

Another is his dedication to serving others. He is not content to just sit on the bus and wait fr us to finish our work. Many times throughout the week, Carlos would appear in the heat of the day with a plate of watermelon or cantaloupe slices to give us a break and cheer us up.

You see Carlos is kind of a Honduran Renaissance Man, somebody whose knowledge is both broad and deep in all kinds of unexpected areas, especially related to his native land. He seems to revel in a kind of fatherly or even grandfatherly teaching about the world around us. After visiting a small family cigar-making enterprise, we were waiting for team members to finish making their cigar purchases. Carlos spotted sugar cane growing in the back yard and somewhere came up with a machete which he used to cut down a cane. He then cut chunks for team members and showed how to chew the inner part for a sweet treat.

Later in the week, he was talking with my son Dan and starting making a slingshot -- not the forked-stick kind we think of in the U.S., but the real deal like David used to plant a stone in Goliath's forehead. Using nothing but discarded nylon cord and the cuff of a work glove, he put the slingshot together and was soon hurling stones more than 100 meters, and hitting what he was aiming at. He then proceeded to show Dan how to do it.

On the way back to the airport yesterday, the team took up a collection to give Carlos as a token of our affection, which we presented to him at our one rest stop outside of Entrada. I believe he was genuinely touched, because about an hour later he asked Cathie (who was sitting in the front seat) to translate a message to us over the bus PA system. He told us that we were one of the best groups he had ever had and how much he loved us.

Carlos has (I believe) four daughters and six grandchildren, including one named Carlos. When we arrived at the airport, two of his daughters and Carlito were waiting for us. In the mad scramble to make our planes, Carlos introduced us and each one gave me a hug. Carlos was already part of our team. Now I guess we're part of his team too.