Down for the Count...

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Gurgle gurgle, glub glub. That my friends, was the sound of my stomach this morning. In an effort to calm it down, I had oatmeal at the house before heading up to breakfast. There I choked down two forkfuls of eggs.

Immediately after breakfast all the children met in the courtyard for their morning worship service. We were asked to join in and sit with the kids while devotions were read in Spanish. Classes started after that at 7:20am.

Morning worship in the courtyard.

I wasn't expected to help in the classroom until 9:00 am so I went back to the house to lay down for an hour. I was laying in bed an hour later willing myself to get up, but my body was having no part of it. I was stuck in bed for the rest of the morning.

It started to thunderstorm. While I was wrapping myself in every sheet available to stave off the chills, my cohorts decided to inventory the donations we had brought down with us. We had nine full-size suitcases pack with items. I heard counts of 67 pairs of jeans, 34 towels and 54 pairs of flip flops. The members of our congregation were very generous. The storm passed and they all left to work on the service projects for the week. Now I could actually get some rest.

Suitcases we brought down filled with donations for El Hogar.

Speaking of the service projects, in addition to helping in the classrooms, one of the other things we had been tasked to do was help build a bathroom. We left that job to the guys who got heavily involved in mixing and hauling cement.

Bathroom that was being worked on.

Lunchtime came and my roommate came in and announced, "We're taking the kids to the movies at 2:00 pm." Wait, what?? I'm sick, you can't be going to the movies! There was no way I was going to miss this, so I ate a few crackers, popped some more Imodium and said a prayer.

So how do you get 73 children, 9 volunteers, 2 teachers and 2 drivers to the movies in two, fifteen passenger vans? Very carefully. There don't seem to be any driving laws in Honduras. The roads are a free for all, seat belts not required, feel free to sit on the edge of a flatbed truck while bouncing down the highway. We could have used bungee cords to secure kids on top of the van and it would have been ok. So each van made two trips to the theater with about 25-32 people on each trip. It was only a few miles away. At the mall of course.

We purchased the tickets, bought popcorn and soda for each child and in we went. What were we seeing? How to Train Your Dragon 2. In Spanish of course. There was a bit of confusion with the seats. Apparently in Honduras theaters you purchase assigned movie theater seats. A few of us weren't in our correct seats and it was confusing the other patrons.

I have to say, the children were very well-behaved. Of course with a giant popcorn and soda, there were numerous trips to the bathroom.

Even in the bathroom the girls wanted their pictures taken.

Wednesday night was spent in the amphitheater with the second dormitory of boys. We did the same type of craft. Who would of thought a white paper plate would make someone so happy.

More fun with paper plates!

This seemed to be the never ending day. My head was so happy to hit the pillow. 

Just Another Manic Monday...

Monday, June 23, 2014

We were all up and about by 6:00 am for breakfast in the cafeteria. This morning it was pancakes.

We found Raul first thing to let him know about the water situation in the volunteer house. After a bit of investigation, the culprit was a broken pipe in one of the bathrooms. It took a good part of the day to repair, but by dinner time we were back in business.

After breakfast we met in the amphitheater with all the children and teachers. I was immediately grabbed by six-year old Juliana, she wanted me to sit next to her. She held my hand the entire time. They had their morning worship service. There was a flag ceremony. They sang the anthem song for their school. Our team was welcomed for the week and a few little speeches were given.

The children went off to their classes which start at 7:20 am each day. We went to meet with Claudia de Castro, Director of El Hogar de Amor y Esperanza, the Elementary School program. She also happens to be Raul's wife. It was our orientation session for the week. She gave us her history with El Hogar and shared some personal stories. We also bounced a few ideas off of her. I thought she was going to start crying when we asked her if we could take the kids to a movie. Pizza night was our other suggestion. Claudia was going to figure out logistics and let us know if the timing would work out. She also gave us an update on Anthony, the boy we brought home from McDonald's. As of that morning they had not been able to contact his mother and no one had come knocking at El Hogar's door looking for him.

Claudia, the director of El Hogar

Two of us were helping out today as teacher's aides in the fourth grade. Claudia walked us over and introduced us to Profesor Karen. She spoke no English, but somehow we managed to communicate. The classes are run the same way as in the United States. They switch subjects every hour throughout the day.

My challenge for the day came in the form of a boy named Gael. Profesor Karen gave me his binder and the worksheets she wanted me to do with him. Gael spoke no English and my six years of high school Spanish really didn't help me, but we muddled through a reading comprehension page and two word search puzzles. I was asked to write a review of him when I was done. Classes end at 3:00 pm. The rest of the afternoon was free time for us. I took advantage by signing onto the wifi and checking out what was going on at home.

Gael, my student for the week.

Dinner tonight was the usual rice and beans, cheese and fried plantains. I had two plantains. My stomach was starting to feel a bit wonky. Which I expected. Two members of the team had spent the day in the volunteer house nursing their stomachs.

The school had four different dormitories divided by age group and gender. Each night after dinner we had a special activity with each dorm. Tonight was dorm one, the little guys. Mix six-year-olds, paper plates, glue and glitter and you get one sparkly, rambunctious mess of fun.

Coloring was also a favorite activity.

Simultaneously while the dorm activity was going on, we had special groups to spend time with. One member of the team had brought her guitar, so she was helping a special group with music lessons.

Music lessons

I went with two other members of the team to instruct six students in English. They were in training to be tour guides for the school. This group was very enthusiastic and eager to learn. At the same time they were a goofy bunch.

Goofy tour guides in training.

We had our first thunderstorm of the trip as we were finishing up for the night. We headed back to the volunteer house. It felt good to take a warm shower and get into bed.

Broken Hearts, Broken Toilets...

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Sunday my roommate and I awoke to two inches of water on our bathroom floor pouring down the stairs onto the tile in our room. We figured something was wrong with the seal on the toilet and turned the tank off. It was no problem, we had three other bathrooms in the house.

Today we were going off the property and worshiping at St. Mary's Episcopal church. The service wasn't hard to follow even though it was in Spanish. The prayer book was a duplicate of our prayer books at home, even down to the page number things were on.

St. Mary's Episcopal Church

As a reward, each week some of the children get to join the service teams at the church. As a special treat, we get to take them out to lunch afterwards. McDonald's is their restaurant of choice. So off we went to the McDonalds in Tegucigalpa. Of course it was at the mall. Which of course was gated. We arrived before the children who were in a different van. Each of us bought a child or two a happy meal and had it waiting for them when they arrived. There were thirteen children.

McDonald's in Tegucigalpa.

This is where things got interesting. I noticed some of the kids wolfed down their french fries but didn't touch their cheeseburger. I took my child's cheeseburger out of the box and gave it to him, encouraging him to eat. He smiled and put it back. Hmmmm. I finally asked Raul why they weren't eating. He said they take the food back to share with someone who wasn't picked to come on the outing.

The kids enjoying their meal.

If you don't have the tissues out yet, you will need them for the next part.

Outside of McDonald's there is a little boy named Anthony. He attended El Hogar for two years and then his mother pulled him out. She needed him at home so she could bring him to places like McDonald's to beg for money. She had dropped him off earlier in the day. She had given him a quota to make. All the children immediately recognized him. Claudia (the director of the elementary school, more about her tomorrow) brought him into McDonald's to have a hot meal and play with his old friends. They made the decision to bring him back to El Hogar for the night. While Anthony was excited to come back to El Hogar, at the same time he wanted to go home because he had secretly stashed 150 lempira from his begging. Claudia was going to contact the mother and bring her before the court to get him back into El Hogar. We came to McDs with thirteen children and left with fourteen.

Anthony talking with one of his friends.

So many things went through my mind during this incident. How does a mother leave her 8-year-old alone to fend for himself and beg for money? How could we just as easily put him in a van and take him away? There is no one there watching, no one looking, no police to say "Hey, where are you going with that boy?" It really just boggled my mind. The whole thing was very disturbing.

We arrived back at El Hogar about 2:00 pm. The rest of the afternoon was spent playing with the children in the courtyard. Soccer is a favorite game as well as rollerblading. These kids have endless energy. They are in motion from 6:00 am until 8:00 pm. And those Happy Meals? We saw signs of them all afternoon. The boxes became hats and airplanes, the sundae cups became a treasure holder, nothing goes to waste.

Future soccer star!

Me and some of the kids.

At dinner time we were able to watch the United States vs. Portugal soccer game. They have a TV in the cafeteria. Tonight's meal was rice and beans, cheese and fried plantains. I had a plantain. I am not a big fan of beans and the cheese didn't appeal to me.

Typical meal served family style.

We were back on the volunteer house by 7:00 pm. I went to take my shower for the night. Unlike last night, the water was pretty cold and there was no water pressure. The next person went to take their shower and there no water. Then the sinks were not working. Then the toilets were not flushing. This was probably my worst nightmare. But we knew when we came here we would have to keep an open mind. So we just went with the flow (or lack of flow) and used the bottled water to flush until we could let Raul know there was a problem.

I was in bed and asleep by 9:00 pm. At home I would never be able to do that. Here it is the norm.