Family and Friends,

THANK YOU!  For Thanksgiving this year, I am especially thanking God for your financial and moral support and prayers.  I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for your support.  I am so grateful for this opportunity.   Also, don’t worry about me today.  Yes, I will definitely miss the usual Thanksgiving with my family (with extra emphasis on family), but the gringos here are going to celebrate with a meal too.  Also, we’re in the midst of a month-long soccer tournament, which is a good distraction from homesickness.  I scored two goals in my team’s game last week!  :)  Though, ahem, I was playing with younger children and other women.  

A few weeks ago, I had an awesome experience, and I wanted to share the story with all of you.  A group of our Amigos de Jesus kids had the opportunity to partake in a service trip.  This service trip was organized by Joanna, one of the volunteers, and I was lucky enough to be invited along.  The trip was centered around sharing a day with people of another hogar, El Buen Samaritano, which is especially for adults and children with severe disabilities who have nowhere else to live.

We set off early on a Saturday morning for the drive to San Pedro.  We were a little squished in the pick-up truck, but the atmosphere was jovial.  Our group was comprised of two of our young men, two of our teenagers, one of our school age boys, and two of our school-age girls.  When we arrived at El Buen Samaritano, we were greeted by staff into their beautiful facility.  They brought us to an open cement court surrounded by foliage, and they began to bring out the adults who live at the home.  Almost all of them appeared to have severe handicaps as most of them were in wheelchairs and were unable to speak.  When our kids saw the severe condition of the adults, they jumped right in to help.  They began pushing the adults around the courtyard, and the faces of the adults just lit up with these gigantic grins.  We also had brought art supplies with us, and some of the adults enjoyed watercolor painting.  I watched our university boy patiently guide the hand of one particular adult from water to paint to paper over and over again until the painting was finished.  Another one of the adults was extremely talented and used his feet to create his own work of art.  We also had brought face paint, and pretty soon the majority of the people had some sort of facial embellishment.  After an hour or so, we ended our “play time” with a game of bingo.  

Next came lunch.  We went inside the home, and we were all handed a bowl or bottle of food and directed to a person to feed.  Personally, I was slightly uncomfortable because I wasn’t sure what I was doing.  Some of the people were sitting in wheelchairs, and some were laying in beds.  There was also a lot of coughing and other eating-related sounds that were a bit unnerving.  But then I looked around and saw our kids giving food to these people, and it brought tears to my eyes.  They didn’t hesitate at all, and they completed the task with such care and willingness.  I was so amazed by them and so proud of them.

Though we interacted mainly with the adults, there were also a good number of children at the hogar.  Somewhere in the course of the day I noticed most of the group of our kids standing by a bed inside the home.  I walked up to join the group and saw that there was a baby in the bed.  His head was swollen two times the size that it should have been.  I know that I had a pained expression on my face because our little Amigos boy looked up at me and simply said, “Que bonito, How beautiful.”  I could only respond with a strained “Si” as one of our kids once again moved me to tears.

After lunch wrapped up, we said goodbye and loaded up into our truck.  We did a little bit of reflecting before we headed home.  Our kids reflected positively about the experience.  They expressed gratefulness for our health and also that we had gotten to help others that day.  On the way home, the beautiful Honduran mountains were bathed in sunlight, and the littlest guy of our group fell asleep on me.  I felt so at peace.

The day, like the people of El Buen Samaritano, simply was bonito.  It was a beautiful day, and we have beautiful kids.

Two of our kids having fun with face paint after our visit

Thank you for making it possible for me to have experiences like this.

October 29th, 2013/29-10-13

Hola!  Another update from life at Amigos.  Things are going well.  We just wrapped-up testing week at the school and a 3-day weekend.  The 3-day weekend was fun.  On Sunday, four of us volunteers cooked lunch for the whole hogar, (130 people).  It was a bit nerve-wracking as we were afraid we were going to run out of food or not have everything ready at the right time.  We made spaghetti, and it turned out great!  Most everyone liked it and was satisfied.  Yesterday, we spent the day at the nearby river.  The river itself is a little rough.  It’s about 2 feet deep at its deepest parts, and it’s kind of dirty as farmers use it for their cows and some trucks use it as a shortcut.  Nevertheless, we had a good time.  The kids loved it, and some stayed longer than the six hours allotted for the activity.  We played in the water, practiced floating, looked for pretty rocks, had water fights, played with clay, and ate a picnic lunch.  

Weekends… as promised

Weekends are definitely refreshing after the school week.  Breakfast on Saturday begins at 8:00 and consists of pancakes and hot chocolate.  Yum!  We (the volunteers) then have two hours to do chores around our own house.  This time is crucial since houses in Honduras are not sealed to the outside.  Tons of insects and dirt accumulate inside a house in the space of a week.  Around 10:00, we head back out to partake in whatever is going on outside.  There is a planning meeting every week to plan the weekend activities, which have a good variety.  We’ve gone once or twice to the local water park.  One weekend we had an entire-day long competition with every person at the hogar participating.  The competition involved teams eating together, doing chores together, creating songs/dances/skits, and playing games.  My team, “The Indestructibles,” won. Another weekend was centered around bicycle races, and of course there’s always several soccer games and movies every weekend.  

Last weekend was neat as I got to spend a few hours on Saturday morning at the local cemetery with two older boys.  We cleaned up Oscarito’s grave and planted some flowers around it.  Oscarito passed away before I arrived, but I feel his presence here.  The kids pray for his soul daily.  Here’s a blogpost my director wrote about him and his amazing life: http://amigosdejesusblog.blogspot.com/2013_06_01_archive.html

Sundays are another good food day as we have cornflakes and granola with hot or cold milk for breakfast.  After breakfast, we load up into pickup trucks for Mass (as long as the river isn’t too high to cross).  On average, we probably fit about 10 people inside the cab of the truck and about 15 in the bed.  If I’m in the bed of the truck, I prefer to stand and hang onto the metal casing.  Sometimes I’m not sure how some of the teenagers stay in as the roads are really rough.  Mass is very hot and long with the homily taking up most of the time.  Even so, I am so grateful to be able to access Mass and the Eucharist.  After Mass, we load back up into the trucks or sometimes some of us walk back to the hogar.  For the afternoon, it’s usually more games, futbol, and just hanging out.  Our prayer circle is earlier so the kids get a good night’s sleep to start the school week.

Other things

This summer a speech pathologist visited Amigos and identified kids that have speech impairments.  She couldn’t stay longer than a month, however, and these kids still need therapy.  Therefore, I’m starting speech therapy with them.  I don’t really know what I’m doing so prayers are appreciated!  I have materials and a list of kids and some Spanish skills and enthusiasm and… we’ll see what happens!

In October, I had two “turnos.”  There is one adult who sleeps in the kids’ dormitories every night, and this job rotates between workers and volunteers.  Turno begins around 8:15 PM and ends at 5:15 AM.   I was nervous about it beforehand, but it’s not a big deal at all, and I’m really glad that I now know this side of the kids’ lives.  It made me think a lot.  There’s about 18 younger boys who sleep in a big room.  Some of them keep all of their material belongings in or under their beds.  During my turnos, I said goodnight to them, but it’s hard to think about how it’s a different person every night that watches over them.  I brought a book to read, and the nearest boy playfully grabbed it from me, and we practiced some reading for a few minutes.  It made me think of the innumerable nights my parents read to/with me.

October really flew by.   I bought my plane ticket for my vacation in January, which doesn’t seem far away at all.  As always, thank you for your love and prayers!  

September 24th, 2013

This blog post is overdue!  I have so many things in head that have happened recently.  Here’s kind of a basic overview of how things are going right now.  You can skip to headings below to read more about individual topics.  :)  Things are going well.  I’m really busy, but I’m happy.  I like teaching, but it is pretty difficult.  I’m finding myself constantly redesigning lessons right in the middle of classes as I see that what is and what’s not working.  I think that my Spanish has gotten a little better just out of necessity in the classroom… stop! sit down! hands to yourself!  I love my students, but most of them are angsty preteens that are just on the verge of being too cool to learn English.  Definitely still trying to win some of them over.

Vacation!

I just got back two days ago from my first vacation.  It was wonderful.  The other volunteers and I took a couple buses to get to Tela, a coastal town.  It was wonderful to eat in restaurants and cafes and sit on the beach.  The water was really clear, and there very few people there.   We only had one full day there, but it was worth it… cold drinks, good company, a beautiful Mass, and pizza.  I really missed the kids, and I’m feeling refreshed and ready to get back to work.

Dia del Nino (Kid’s Day)

A couple weeks ago we celebrated Dia Del Nino. The festivities began with a fiesta during the weekend.  Everyone dressed up and got “guapo” for the event.  The fiesta was in our cafeteria and was pretty legitimate complete with a disco ball, Honduran pop music, classic rock (Rock Around the Clock), and Gangnam Style.  Needless to say, we were all sweating profusely the entire time.  The night ended with a present for each kid, which was a new shirt, unless you were lucky enough to be a preschooler and get a giant stuffed animal.  Later that week, we celebrated again at the school with a carnival of sorts.  Everyone got the day off of school, and all of the teachers planned and ran games.  After games, there were pinatas and cake.  

Since the older boys/teenagers weren’t too thrilled about the carnival/pinatas, they got their own treat for Dia Del Nino.  The principal of the school invited all of them to hang out at his house that night to watch the Honduras Panama soccer game.  I got to go too, and it was a pretty cool experience.  Side note here, the principal of the school, Osman, is amazing.  He’s 23 (younger than me!), and he owns a modest house in the neighboring village where he lives with his wife and baby girl.  He works so hard, really cares about all of the kids, and is leading a team of teachers that don’t all speak the same language.  Anyhow, back to the story, Osman dragged out his plasma screen tv onto his little front stoop, and fashioned some homemade benches from cinder blocks and random scraps of wood.   About thirty of us crowded around the tv for two hours, and I loved watching the emotion of the game.  When Honduras scored, there were back slaps and cheers that lasted for several minutes.  The sad part was that the game ended in a tie after Honduras had been leading.  The teenagers still had a good time though.

The teachers/volunteers put in a lot of work before the festivities

Doesn't he look fancy for the fiesta?

Fiesta!

The little one in the middle is our youngest kid here

These two goofballs are my students

Pinata with circle of safety

Day-to-Day Life

During the week, the kids get up at 5:00 to get dressed and do chores before breakfast, but I get up around 6:00 to get ready for school, which begins at 7:15.  Sometimes I go to breakfast in the comedor, but more often than not I hide in the house to enjoy cornflakes.  Typical Honduran breakfasts consist of beans, tortillas, cheese, and maybe eggs.  My digestive system is just not ready for that before 7:00… or at least not yet.  During the school day, I teach four to five 45-minute classes.  We have a thirty-minute snack break in the morning, which is always some type of fresh fruit.  Lunch lasts about 30-40 minutes.  The food served in the comedor is usually pretty good and we have a nice variety: beans and tortillas of course, chicken fried rice, spaghetti, chop suey, balleadas, baked chicken, etc.  Every once in a while we’ll get a day where every meal seems to be based around beans, but those are rare.  No one needs to worry about me withering away here, I’m well-fed!  School ends at 2:15.  The kids head back to the hogar where they do more chores and their homework.  

Usually I do some planning or grading after school, and then head home for a little break before evening activities/dinner.  A large portion of that “break” is also spent doing laundry.  Laundry is a losing battle here.  It’s done one article of clothing at a time by hand in a basin type thing called a pila.  I kind of like using the pila.  It’s relaxing; it just takes so much time.  After the whole cleaning process, the clothes are hung to “dry.”  It’s the rainy season right now, and the climate is so humid that you’re lucky if your clothes dry before they get rained on or get that musty smell that’s just horrible and need to be washed again.  Anyhow, usually I head back out to the main hang-out areas in the hogar an hour or so before dinner, which is at 5:30.  After dinner, everybody just kind of hangs out in the main area of the hogar for about two hours.  We end the day with prayer circle, which is pretty beautiul.  We hold hands and people take turns saying intentions aloud.  We end with an Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, and “Buenas Noches”  hugs for everyone.

There are some variables within the week.  Twice a week my community (the other volunteers and I) have community time with dinner, conversation, and prayer in English.  Once a week, I spend two hours with the teenagers during an afternoon homework session time.  On Thursdays, we have a holy hour with some type of religious activity/service after dinner.  So far, I’ve found time for about one run a week, which consists of me running laps around the soccer field after the kids are in bed.  Weekends are a little bit different, but I think that you’re a hero if you’ve made it this far in my musings so I’ll save your eyes and my thoughts for a different post.

Our Living Room/Kitchen

My Room shared with my friend/fellow volunteer Emily

One Final Story

Last week, the volunteers were in charge of the holy hour for the week.  We based our theme around forgiveness, and planned a mini-skit of the prodigal son.  We were going to watch the complimentary Veggie Tales episode, but of course the power and internet went out an hour before the holy hour started.  We brainstormed to come up with another activity.  We decided to do an activity to show a relationship between two people represented by a string.  During the activity, the string would be cut with scissors to show an offense/sin, and then it would be tied back together to show forgiveness.  To kill more time, we decided that we wanted all of the kids to do the activity at the same time… all 92 of them.  Yep.  It was raining cats and dogs outside, and the kids were wound up.  I was the one giving directions (in Spanish) on the microphone during the activity.  It was utter chaos.  Kids were refusing to do it or had no idea what they were doing, and nobody was listening.  Finally, I pointed at a pair of kids who were holding a string between them and seemed to be doing the right thing, and said, “This is a good example right here.”  I failed to notice that at least one and possibly both of the kids had the string in their mouths.  Next thing we knew, everyone around the room started putting the strings in their mouths or looking at me or the other volunteers with very puzzled expressions.  I tried to say “not in your mouth,” but I think it got lost in translation.  Somehow we muddled through the rest of the activity, and I think the message of the activity got across to maybe about half of those present.  During the quiet reflection time that followed the activity, I just kept laughing quietly, and the whole thing still makes me smile now.  Things may not be perfect or easy here, but they are pretty entertaining and interesting all of the time.

September 7, 2013/ 7-9-13

Well I am now an experienced bilingual teacher as I have an entire week under my belt.  The week of school definitely had its ups and downs, but overall it was good.  It’s a tricky balance of figuring out how much instruction to give in English and how much to give in broken Spanish.  Almost all of the kids know very little to no English.  The feedback I got after the first day was that nobody understood what was going on.  I know it’s just going to take time.  Luckily, the kids really want to learn, though they have some hurdles to overcome.  They have severe gaps in their educational backgrounds, and they don’t seem to be accustomed to high expectations.  My Honduran co-teacher is really helpful.  She is only 19 and is studying education at a university on the weekends.  Everyday she walks about a mile to school and then walks back after school with other teachers.  She lives in the nearby town where we all go to Mass on Sundays if it doesn’t rain too much on Saturday.  We have to walk or drive across a river to get to the town, and if the river is too big, we’re stuck so we have a prayer service on the grounds.

Last weekend, there was a soccer tournament in the nearest town.  It was pretty serious business.  There were even official Amigos de Jesus jerseys.  Both of our teams of the younger boys and the teenage boys were victorious so it was a good day.  After dinner last night, I played soccer with several of the little boys ranging from about 6 to 9-year-olds.  Yes, that is the level of my soccer skills.  Plus, these little guys are really good already!  Like I said, it's really serious here. First of all, I had to ask them if I could play.  They gracefully agreed, and then proceeded to yell a bunch of complicated rules at me in Spanish.  This wasn’t just an ordinary game of soccer.  It took me about 10 minutes to figure it all out, but I eventually got it.  They were so cute and mighty running up and down the field in their bare feet.  I see bright futures for them in their futbol endeavors here.

One of the awesome things I get to do this year is have a caseload of kids with whom I check in periodically.  I began that process today with an 11-year-old boy who is quiet and kind of hangs out on the fringes.  I taught him how to play Crazy 8s and Go Fish.  He learned quickly, and we played for a good hour.  It was really cool for me to spend some time one-on-one with a kid, and I think he really enjoyed the individual attention too.  With ninety-plus kids here, just about everything is shared.  Sometimes its hard for me to figure out how to share time, attention, and activities with everybody so I really enjoyed my time with him.

The other volunteers here are doing amazing things in different roles.  Click on this link to read an amazing story written by one of the other volunteers about one of our newest kids: http://www.amigosdejesusblog.blogspot.com/

August 27, 2013, 27-8-13

Hello friends.  I found out last week that my main job here is to be a teacher of “educatodos bilingue.”  This is a class of nine kids who have shown great potential to learn in the past, but haven’t been given many opportunities.  They all really want to learn English.  There’s not really a curriculum so wish me luck!  We begin on Thursday.  I have a Honduran co-teacher who knows a lot of useful information that I don’t, like how to laminate posters by hand.  We spent the majority of two days cleaning and setting up the classroom.  I had to relearn how to set-up a classroom with minimal supplies and without being able to run the nearest Walmart.  Tomorrow, we’ll be planning our lessons.

I’ve started to settle in a little more, and the kids are continually the best part of this place.  I love hanging out with them, though my conversational skills are still limited.   Weekends here are like summer camp.  This past weekend, we played ultimate frisbee, capture the flag, kickball, soccer, and card games.  On Sunday, we had a couples dance competition.  One of my favorite kids (a tiny little guy about 7-years-old) claimed me for his partner as soon as it was announced.  It was great.  In the evenings, we watched movies.  One night the sound for the movie (Astroboy) didn’t work.  There was something faulty with the dubbing I think. The kids sat on hard wooden benches in the cafeteria and watched it for an hour without sound.  It’s a different world here.

A couple nights ago we got to have the oldest “kids” over to the volunteer house for dinner.  They all grew up here, and they’re all really cool.  The oldest is twenty-five, and he’s in charge of the agricultural department now, and the youngest is twenty and is still studying in high school.  We asked them for advice for our year here at Amigos, and they told us to respect the kids and the kids will respect us.  After dinner, we played games, including the card game, Pig or Spoons.  It was a pretty fierce competition and entertained all of us for about an hour.

Sorry, there aren’t pictures yet!  They’re coming!

August 16, 2013, 16-8-13

Hola!  I’m here!  It’s difficult to write an update because I’m in such a different place now than I was a week ago, both physically and mentally.  Copan was a vacation, but Amigos is amazing.  In all honesty, the first few days were very overwhelming.  The language barrier is still so tough, and there has been a ton of adjustment in such a short amount of time, but every day it’s getting better.  Today, I worked in agriculture, which was awesome.  I got to try about ten fruits that I’d never heard of before and chew on sugar cane fresh from the field.  I weeded part of the garden, tried to use a * (hoe), got a tour of the entire grounds, and chatted with the workers during our snack break of pepsi and chips.  All of the workers in agro are former or current children of Amigos.  

Later I got to hang out with the little girls for a while and they were kind enough to braid my hair.  And then the bell rang to summon all of us to the front gate and... Amigos welcomed three new children today!  It brought tears to my eyes to watch the entire Amigos family welcome these children home.  One of the new little guys is just so excited that there are pants and shoes here.  

Even though I can’t speak too much with the kids, I am able to see their excitement, openess, and resilience.  Already, a few of them have stolen my heart.  The entire hogar is simply beautiful.  The kids live in dormitories divided by gender and age.  There is an entire Honduran staff that cares for the children along with a good number of gringo volunteers and workers.  The whole thing is a really smooth operation, though there are so many needs still.  

Currently, I’m in the midst of orientation, which lasts until next Friday.  Sometime next week I’ll have a semi-official job here at the hogar.  Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, and emails.  I’m sorry that I haven’t been able to send individual emails or phone calls.  My internet access is kind of limited right now, but I’m hoping to have more access in the future.  

One final thought.  As I alluded to above, the first few days were pretty tough for me here.  Sharing a house with ten semi-strangers, not speaking the language, meeting over one hundred new people, seeing the intense needs of the hogar... it’s just a lot to process.  So of course I did what most people from stable families do, I called home and cried on the phone to my mom.  She listened and gave me exactly the words of encouragement I needed to hear.  The juxtapostion of it really hit me after I hung up though.  Here I am falling back on the support system that I’ve had for my entire life, and these kids don’t have that.   They arrive at Amigos de Jesus after surviving incredibly traumatic events usually with nothing more but the clothes on their backs.  They have to adjust to this strange place without a familiar face or voice anywhere.  What strength!  I’m not sure how to resolve or justify this juxtaposition in my own mind, except to realize that I am SO fortunate.  We live in a broken world, and life just isn’t fair.

August 5, 2013/ 5-8-13

This is my final week of Spanish classes in Copan, and I’m so excited to be heading back to Amigos de Jesus soon!  I leave Saturday, and there is supposed to be some sort of singing competition/festival with the kids and staff when we arrive back at the hogar (home).  It sounds like a great welcome.

Last weekend, I visited an inactive volcano in Guatemala.  The other volunteers and I went with an awesome Honduran family with lots of random relatives packed into an “autobus” or 13-passenger van.  The hike was tough, but the views made it worthwhile, and there was a beautiful lake in the crater of the volcano.

Ipala Lake Inside the Crater

The water was cold, but it felt great!

This weekend I went kayaking in the Rio de Copan.  Very beautiful and a whole different perspective of the culture.  Men and boys were fishing, and women and girls were washing clothing against the rocks of the river.  All of the people were wearing little clothing, and stared pretty incredulously at the gringas in the the mini plastic boats who were disturbing their laundry/fishing waters.

Later, we visited a pretty awesome bird park.  The second photo is more indicative of my feelings with those three aves on my person.

The bird on the left was so pretty

And as if that wasn’t enough for one weekend, I was invited along with a group of people to dinner at a finca (small farm) about a mile outside of town.  This finca is owned by a retired couple who formerly lived in Canada and decided they wanted a change of pace.  They have open air structures, including an outdoor kitchen, many lemon trees, two horses, four dogs, chickens, three Honduran workers, and all the time in the world.  It was fascinating to observe their life and imagine what it would be like to drink fresh-squeezed lemonade all of time and interact very little with the outside world.

Gigantic lemon from the finca

Next time you hear from me, I’ll be at the hogar of Amigos de Jesus- God Willing!