May 2025

Our visit to El Naranjo:

How Relationships Make Everything Possible

Hello friends and family,

We just came back from three days in El Naranjo, a community tucked in the mountains of San Francisco de Opalaca. And I left with my heart both full and aching in the best way.

What we’re building through Relentless isn’t about showing up with answers. It’s about showing up with presence, again and again, until trust has time to take root. That’s what these days were about: being with people, not just working for them.

Community leader Joaquin and his son Eduin. El Naranjo, San Francisco de Opalaca, Intibuca, Honduras.

“Opportunity can open doors, but it’s relationships that hold the door open.”

This week, I had the privilege of spending day and night with the women in El Naranjo, especially with Cori. She and I are the same age, and soon after she joined our sewing class last year, we became friends. She had invited me to her home many times, but because El Naranjo is three hours from the nearest town, La Esperanza, and eight hours from the city I used to live in, it had never worked out.

Until now.

Pictured: Cori and I working in dinner, corn tortillas from scratch.

I spent three days with her, her beautiful family and her community. We cooked meals together, laughed, and shared stories about our lives. And of course we worked on producing standard sewing patterns for their new clothes business co-op.

What a gift it is to build trust not in a meeting, but over a wood stove. Her husband is a great man, and their whole family carries themselves with dignity and kindness. They have so many dreams. They are hardworking, resilient, and deeply rooted in their land and each other. Life is simple but can be very hard in those mountains and what’s missing isn’t potential. It’s opportunity.

"Poverty is not a reflection of laziness. It’s a reflection of systems, of inequality, isolation, lack of access to education, healthcare, and fair markets."

People like Cori and her family are not short on effort; they’re short on options. And that’s what we’re here to change. Through RFI we create opportunities, not just to learn a skill or launch a cooperative, but to feel seen, to be heard, and to imagine something new together.

Picture: This community's life is simple and sometimes can be very hard.

We’re now in conversation with families and local leaders in El Naranjo to explore what’s next. The vision emerging is to bring some new methods to improve the production of what they are already doing. It has to do with coffee, honey, corn and chickens! But it's not just about resources, it’s about voice, cooperation, and long-term resilience. This community deserves it!

These moments aren’t flashy. They don’t always photograph well. But thanks to Luis we have some pictures to share. They are sacred moments and they remind me why this work matters.

If you’ve ever believed in the power of second chances, of community-led change, of walking at the pace of trust, I invite you to keep walking with us.

Give here or connect with us if you’d like to learn how your skills or presence could support what’s next.

We move at the speed of relationships, and that’s what makes this real.

Saludos! See you next month!