Nobleton family brings goodwill and baseball to Honduran community

August 13, 2014 · 0 Comments

By Jake Courtepatte
Last month, the Orlandi family of Nobleton embarked on a missionary trip to the north shores of Honduras to give the locals two of their passions: philanthropy and baseball.
Nino Orlandi, joined by his sons Noah, 13, and twins Max and Jonah, 12, teamed up with some friends to join Missionary Ventures, a Christian-based interdenominational group.
Although Nino had done missionary work a number of times throughout his life, it was the first adventure of its kind for his three boys. All three play baseball in the King Township Baseball Association.
The main goal of the trip was to construct a 16-by-24-foot house for a local family, built on stilts due to the area’s flood issues. Scott and Susan Ledford, field coordinators for Missionary Ventures in the El Porvenir region of Honduras, teamed up with local workers to handle the heavy construction prior to the Orlandi team’s arrival.
“When we got there, we were able to start systematically building the house,” said Orlandi.
Although the house lacked electricity like many other dwellings in the country, Orlandi was pleasantly surprised that running water would be available. The house was built on the outskirts of town near the base of a mountain, where a dam had been built on a mountain river to create a reservoir.
This would be the new home for Rosa, a Honduran domestic worker. She and her five children subsist on her $15 per week salary.
Compare this to the minimum wage of a Honduran worker at a 20-plus employee company. Their minimum wage is $70 per week, more than four times Rosa’s salary.
“For Rosa and her family to get this house, it would be the equivalent of someone up here winning the $50 million lottery,” said Orlandi.
Although Orlandi describes Rosa as shy, he said she was overwhelmed by the missionary team’s work.
“Hopefully it can make a big change in her life and her kids. Now she maybe can spend her money on feeding her kids, and doesn’t have to worry about spending it on living expenses.”
Honduras is the second most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere, after only Haiti.
“There isn’t much opportunity there for work,” Orlandi said. “There aren’t large manufacturing companies … people just don’t really have much they can do.”
After spending five days building the house, the team took time to visit three orphanages in the community run by Christian Americans. In impoverished Honduras, the term “orphan” often takes on a different meaning from our definition.
“To us, it usually relates to someone who has lost their parents. In Honduras, most orphans are technically abandoned kids. Their parents just could not afford to keep them.”
These orphanages were where the Orlandis hoped to accomplish their second goal of the trip, to spread their passion for baseball.
Prior to the trip, the Orlandi family collected as much new and used baseball equipment as they could from the community. By the time of departure, they were able to bring down five bags full of gloves, bats, and baseballs.
The fifth bag was an added bonus on a nice gesture from American Airlines, who upon realizing the purpose of the trip allowed an extra bag at no cost.
At the orphanage the first snag in the plan came almost immediately, as the team had trouble finding a local field to play. Even the soccer fields were built too small for baseball, having been built with limited government funds.
Not giving up, the team, along with the local children, arranged a game on the beach. The 10 Canadian kids gave instructions on the rules and the fundamentals, to which Orlandi said the locals were genuinely interested to learn.
The Ledfords, who live full-time in Honduras, are holding on to the equipment to arrange baseball games for the local children once a week.
Orlandi believes the Honduran children would be happy to play again, regardless of where it’s played.
“It’s a different kind of trip,” said Orlandi. “It’s so different from the life we live, it’s almost like a different reality. I would recommend it to anybody.”
For more information or to get involved with Missionary Ventures, visit www.mvcanada.org.