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.

And Now for Something Completely Different...

Saturday, June 21, 2014

It's 3:00 am and I have just arrived  at Newark Liberty Airport. I am about to embark on my first mission trip. Nine members from Church of the Saviour in Denville, NJ are traveling to Tegucigalpa, Honduras to spend a week at El Hogar de Amor y Esperanza, The Home of Love and Hope. It is one of four centers of El Hogar Projects. The mission of El Hogar is to transform and empower abandoned and hopelessly poor children in Honduras by providing a loving home and education. The goal is for them to fulfill their ultimate potential as productive, caring and independent Honduran citizens. You can read more about El Hogar here.

This trip has been 18 months of planning and fundraising. Today it comes to fruition.

When I first started telling my friends and family of my intentions to do this, the reaction was very mixed. From, "Oh, it's really hot down their," (really, I had no clue it would be hot near the equator!) to "that's really great, I would like to do something like that." My co-workers are convinced that I am not coming back. They were trying to scare me all week by sending me photos of Honduras snakes. The fact of the matter is, I almost didn't get to go due to an emergency appendectomy three weeks prior to the trip. But here I am.

I have no clue what to expect. I know I will be out of my comfort zone. I know some of things will be trying. Will it be worth it? Absolutely! It is necessary to challenge ourselves. How will we ever grow if we don't?

Our trip to the airport was uneventful. We had a pickup truck pack to the gills with 20 plus suitcases.

2:30 am at the church, packing up the truck.

The nine of us plus an extra driver were packed into one car and the pickup truck. Our 5:45 am flight was on time. We connected in Houston where our flight was delayed a bit. I was fortunate enough to get an upgrade to economy plus, those four extra inches of legroom do make quite a difference. We were not the only service team headed down to Honduras. There were no less than three other teams on our plane. We knew because they all had matching t-shirts. The one gentleman I chatted with was from Illinois and headed down to help build an orphanage. This was his eighth trip down. After ten long hours of traveling, we landed in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

We had to go through immigration and customs to get out of the airport. We were greeted by members of the El Hogar team, Jimmy and Eduardo. They did an incredible job of loading up the van and we were whisked away.

Loading the van. We fit 19 suitcases, 1 guitar, 9 carry on bags and 11 people in here.

My first impressions of Honduras?

Apparently we had just landed at the third most dangerous airstrip in the world. It has an extremely short runway between two mountains.

There were armed military guards at the entrance to the airport.

There was a mall, movie theater and assorted fast food restaurants in the area.

There was evidence of extreme poverty on the short drive to the orphanage. While Jimmy and Eduardo were loading up the car we were accosted by a beggar who had been deported from Miami that very day (yes, that very day!) and needed money to get back.

It was about a 20 minute drive to El Hogar. With a series of car honks, the sliding gate was opened and we were safely on the property. A note here, the property was secured with a 24-hour guard and barbed wire fencing.

The entrance to El Hogar.

Our accommodations? We were staying in the volunteer house. It was the place we would call home for the next week. It is a four bedroom, four bathroom house with a kitchen and a nice screened in porch. Sounds nice, right? Hmmm, think more like a camping bunkhouse. There were bunk beds and everything was pretty old. It was relatively clean.

Outside the Volunteer House.

We went right out to get the nickel tour of the facilities. The compound consists of classrooms, dormitories, a computer lab, an amphitheater and cafeteria. The tour was led by Raul Castro who is the Director of Capital Projects and Service Team Host. Don't let his modesty fool you. He is a Fulbright Scholar and has met President George Bush Sr.

Raul Castro

The children were all out and about playing in the courtyard. I think we all immediately fell in love with these kids. One could feel the warmth emanating from them. They came right up to us with greetings of "hola" and "como te llamas". They weren't shy. They posed for photo after photo and wanted to see the results on the camera. Their names were Nancy, Angie, Maurie and Juan. They were all here to get off the streets of Honduras, get out of poverty and get an education.

Dinner was served promptly at 5:30. It was simple, some sort of egg dish, beans, cheese and tortillas. Not exactly my type of food, but it was filling.

After dinner, we had time to relax and settle in. I took my first shower. I actually had  hot water and water pressure (this would become an issue the next day). We were all pretty exhausted. There really wasn't much to do at night. I climbed into my top bunk at 8:00 pm. I had been up since 2:00 am. I fell asleep and managed to sleep through the night.

Sunday I awoke at 6:00 am. What will the day bring?