Friday, December 31, 2010

It's a new year

Happy New Year to everyone! 2010 is officially over, and the new year just beginning! I wish everyone the best. I awaited the new year with the kids at the hogar. We ate a feast of turkey, and then later had cake and ice cream for dessert. The kids put on an awesome program of singing and dancing, of which I was the judge for the talent show. Some of the highlights were Venancio and Moises's mock fight/ dance in which they selected some lucky volunteers from a group who is visiting to dance the them. Extremely funny. The smaller girls danced a punta together, and Rosa did a solo dance while Maribel sang. Everyone did beautifully and fun with it. Later we all had some time to talk and dance and play, while we awaited the new year. Finally it came with the sounds of hundreds of fireworks and a fireworks show right in front of us. We clapped and celebrated and I got 5 new years kisses from the kids. I truly can't believe that it is 2011. Even with the celebration, it doesn't feel like it has changed! But so it is.

Thursday was an amazing day, and definitely a highlight so far of my entire experience. After classes, Ethan and I stayed with the jungle school kids and the two of us took 4 of them on a hike to the waterfall. Even though they live right by, none of them have ever been to it, mainly because it costs a little over a dollar to enter the park (for a Honduras- foreigners are more of course). Denia, Nelson, Geny and Alan all went with us for about a 2 hour uphill hike. The waterfall was just as beautiful as last time. It is so tall, and when you go under the spray it is an extremely exhilarating feeling. The kids were all freezing cold, but they were amazed by it. When I heard them telling the story later, I could tell in their voice how happy there were to have gone. Geny seemed completely stoked on life. Oh my goodness. Nelson found 2 dead snakes at the base of the waterfall. One of them was enormous. Over 8 feet long if not more. It was a big black boa of some sort, and both of them must have fallen from the top of the waterfall. The poor things. Imagine just swimming in the river and then suddenly the river ends and you fall. Well one of them thought it would be a good idea to put it around my shoulders. Let me tell you- not a good idea. I would almost prefer an alive 8 foot snake. It was just dead weight. Ethan's face though when he picked it up was absolutely priceless. A mixture between amazement, disgust and sheer terror. Eventually we headed back and stopped to swim in the river an hour later. I was happily soaking my feet since I was dry when they decided that wasn't enough and threw me in. Somehow Ethan avoided that fate though even though he was sitting right next to me. Must have been because he didn't react when they splashed him. ha. Oh we also saw 2 tucans which was exciting. Ethan and I spent the entire way back arguing with the kids that there aren't tigers in Honduras. They are convinced that there are, but we keep telling them that they are Jaguars, not tigers! They don't listen. Compound that with the fact that I told them that the 'birds' they see are actually bats, and they definitely think that I am crazy.

We didn't get back to the houses until about 6, so it was just getting dark. Even at the base of the road there is still a good 20 minute hike up to Geny's house. We started up, stopped at Nelson's house and then continued. I am so glad I thought to bring a gallon of water. Last time Ethan and Natalie stayed in the jungle, Natalie got really sick. They were careful to use our water for us to make any juices because of that. Last night though was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Truly. Living how they live is foreign to me, and the people are so generous and kind. Geny's house is a dirt floor shack with an tin roof and a woodfire stove. It has one section of the room portioned off for sleeping, where there are 4 beds. 9 people live in the house. And they gave Ethan and I each our own bed. Of course they wouldn't listen to any of our protests. Also, I have never felt so bad eating food in my life. They fed us so well and it was absolutely delicious also. Chicken, beans, cheese and tortillas. I could tell though that everyone else didn't get nearly as much as we did. I felt like I was in a movie or a painting, or something the entire time. Outside of the house there were bugs and frogs making their nightly noises. The stars shone brightly and there was a slight glow in the sky. From the path you could see the light from La Ceiba. Inside the house, the only lights were two gas candles. The ladies were huddled around the table making bread from the wood stove/ oven. They stalked coals into the oven portion, put in the pans with bread dough in, and then closed the oven with a special type of leaf to keep in the heat. The entire room flickered from the light and I just sat there in amazement, attempting to realize where I was and what I was seeing. It is so strange to think how they live every day, how they grew up living and probably will live in the future. There is no light except the candle. No water except what you haul from the river. Nothing to cook with unless there is plenty of wood. No food unless you have money from some sort of work that doesn't make much, unless of course you can catch something yourself. It is truly incredible, and to be part of that for even one night was an amazing experience.

We woke up, were served another delicious breakfast in which they gave us way more food than they should have, and then went to visit Lucia's house. It was about another 20 minutes further up the mountain, but there was one point where we came to a clearing and you could see all of La Ceiba, and the ocean beyond. It was a perfect day out and the view was amazing. Geny climbed a tree to get us Coconuts, we went back down to Geny's and said our goodbye's and thank you's, left some money and then headed down to the road to go back to the house. We of course managed to miss our bus so we hitchhiked with Denia, Geny, Glenda and Carlitos down to the road. Denia and Geny came back to the house to skype with Ana and Natalie, and then we got ready for the fiesta this night. Quite amazing. Everything.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

It's Christmas Time

It's been a long time since I've written. I find that as things become more routine, it becomes more difficult to write. I am making the shift from a vacation spot to somewhere that I am living. Though I am more used to things here as they are, that doesn't mean that the constant flurry of activity around HHK has lessened. It actually increased incredibly during the holidays. Christmas finally came! Every kids dream, and this Christmas nearly put the kids in heaven I believe. My family arrived with four huge suitcases full of presents and supplies, just for the kids. I couldn't believe it. It took hours to sort through it, but luckily Danelia, the director and 'mother' for the kids, came to save us and delegate what gift should go for which kid. We eventually got the clothes sorted out, the sandals distributed, and all the many toys relegated to extremely lucky kids. 

One thing I realized was that you don't realize how much you miss people until you actually get to see them. It was so exciting for me to watch my family step off the bus. I also forgot for quite awhile how short I was, bus was quickly reminded when everyone once again towered over me. Skylar is about my height now or will be soon, and Danielle is super tall. I've been accustomed to being on the taller side here in Honduras! I started talking to Skylar in Spanish and had to switch my language over. The week with them was spent very nicely. The day after they got in, we went up to the jungle school for the christmas party to hand out presents. Ethan and I distributed all of the presents as fairly as we could and then the kids had fun whacking a piƱata. After the fiesta, I wanted to show my parents Geny's house so we all made the trek up there, with the 22 hogar kids in tow as well. Well, technically I didn't make the treck because I got a ride. As we were first starting up, one of the boys shows up with a horse and asks me if I want to jump on. Without hesitating I said yes, and enjoyed an amazing ride all the way up to the top of the mountain, and had fun waving as we passed everyone else. Denia was amazing, because she was leading the horse and was hauling up the hill so quickly. After our quick visit, we descended and spent some time swimming in the river. The jungle school kids all made this enormous tower of people by standing on each others shoulders, while the river current passed by. It was extremely impressive. 

Next day we visited Cayos Cochinos. The day started out beautifully, even with a rainbow around the islands, but towards the end the rain caught up with us. You still can't beat the warm and crystal blue water though. We all enjoyed snorkeling around the reef and watching the fish. I love being in water like that. Right when we got into the water I saw an enormous barracuda! It was a little nerve racking but neat nonetheless. We made a trek into one of the islands to search for snakes as well. The pink boa lives on the islands and its the only place in the world where you can find them. Mom was the first to spot one surprisingly, even before our guide. We ate at a spot on a smaller island where there is a little community, and while the meal was delicious fried fish, we are relatively certain that our problems later originated from that same meal. Every single one of us, me included, got sick. Typical gringo's. I was surprised that I did because I haven’t gotten a stomach sickness since I came. But most of the rest of the trip was filled with interesting bodily functions. Christmas eve was kind of a bummer. I watched 8 hours of crime scene shows. Half way through my marathon I got fed up and took a cipro pill. Cipro completely clears out almost all bacteria in your body but 4 hours later I was feeling perfect. I had to miss helping Professor Kenya make tamales, but I did make it to the fiesta that night. Danielle at this point was the only healthy one. Chris and Skylar had to stay back, and while mom came she had to leave early. Not exactly how I had planned Christmas but you can't always plan for these things. I at least got to be Santa for the 22 kids! That was really neat handing out all the presents. Not a kid left unhappy. There were so many clothes, toys and jewelery being opened. Minor walked away with a half a quart bag full of marbles. I was so happy to be there and watch them. They deserved it. Each one of them. At exactly midnight there were fireworks everywhere. We walked out on the street and it was like a battlefield because loud booms were coming from every direction. So cool. 

Christmas itself was extremely laid back. The Christmas celebration here is always on Christmas eve, so we just hung out at the hotel and played card games. David took us to see the property in the afternoon and later we spent three hours assembling a foosball table. Mom and I put together a million pieces but now they have a fully functioning table and love it. We had a Christmas dinner at Pizza Hut, and then headed back to the hotel. The next few days were rainy so we had to cancel our plan to hike to the waterfall, but I still enjoyed staying with my family and playing spoons and BS. It was sad when I had to say goodbye. I felt more homesick than I have all trip, because I wasn't going home with them. But not to worry, I am over any homesickness now. It was a passing weakness. The boys (Geny, Paco and Alan) stayed with us last night again. Ethan made a rather humorous discovery. When the boys shower, they keep their underwear on. We know this because after their shower, they hand us their clothes and their underwear is always wet. Finally we figured it out and confronted them about it, and they were confused to find that yes, we do indeed bathe nude. They were getting angry at us for telling them that they don't need their underwear in a shower. I was dying of laughter. 

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Recovered

I am finally better after almost a week out. I self prescribed myself some anti-biotics and the next day i was mucho mejor. Thank goodness. I despise staying home sick, even if I was productive. Yesterday I decided I wanted to make some Christmas Cards so I got ready to make a quick trip out to buy some construction paper. However, when I went to grab my money it had completely disappeared. I was keeping my large bills in the bottom drawer of my closet and taking them out as needed. I had just reloaded my stash the day before so I was positive that I had money. I looked around and slowly spread out my search for the missing $200. It was my fault somehow I was sure, because I am always the first to misplace things. But no, it wasn't there. Then I had a realization. The rat took it. There was no other solution. Our friendly house rat that is still lurking somewhere, nibbling at the corners of our food. So reluctantly I set out in search. Previously it had been around the closet area, so I began to pull out the drawers. Not with my hand mind you, I kind of pushed them out with a broom handle, just to be safe. The first drawer came out and I heard something pattering, little feet running across the floor. Eww. One by one the drawers came out until the last one. I pulled it out and in the back I saw the rats tail flash to the other side. I will admit that this entire time I was hopping from foot to foot. There was no bravery involved in this. It was out of complete necessity. Finally I looked in and he was there, huddled right behind my $200. The rat freaking burgled my money and now was guarding it from me. I put the broom handle in and he zoomed out and I screamed and then Ethan let out a little gasp/scream which I found extremely funny. Finally I recovered my money and the rat ran into the kitchen. I think he's residing under the fridge. Ah well. I missed Natalie quite a lot. Ha.

I made my Christmas cards and today helped the kids make some. We had a late start because we were both  catching up on sleep. Ethan was recovering from a fever, but he seems better now. It was good to see the kids again. It always is. We saw Narnia with most of the kids tonight. I enjoyed it for the second time. Paola and Cherlin had my hands the entire time. I don't ever want to let them go.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Just Hanging Out

Stayed home sick three days, hoping to ward of the worst, succeeded- or so I thought- acted normal on Saturday and Sunday, am paying for it now. The same illness as last time, only this time I at least know what it is. Tonsillitis. And trust me, I don't recommend it. Before, during the days I took off, I don't think it was full blown but now, because of my lack of care, it definitely is. On one side of my throat at least. The other is perfectly fine. Ugh. It's never ending. Ah well. It's been a good past couple of days. During my sick days, I was very productive. I read an entire book- (The Kite Runner, very good by the way. I recommend it. Cried through the whole thing). I also finished my rough draft of a story I was elected to write about Luz Mila. I think it turned out well, but there are many parts I need to work on, add and review. I'll post it soon once it is finished. Other news, all of the kids have facebooks now! Or almost all of them. If you want to wish any of them welcome to facebook, look them up. Tag photos of them and write them a message. They are thrilled. They can't exactly use them all that much, but the idea excites them. I think it's a little odd but a good idea. It lets all of the volunteers and sponsors keep in touch. Hopefully we can keep them up.

On Wednesday I missed an adventure. We had planned on going to spend the night at Geny's house on Tuesday, but the rain scared us away, so we moved it to Wednesday. Natalie and Ethan went but I couldn't because I was sick! I'm super bummed. They said they had a really good time and all of the family's filled them up on a ton of food. They went from house to house with an entourage of kids, ate food and met everyone's parents. Geny's family gave up two beds for them to sleep. Poor Natalie though got sick. She was throwing up all night. All of the food didn't sit well with her. In all they said they had a good experience. Luckily Geny has invited us back to spend next weekend with them. We'll see if I can make it this time. Three of the boys spent the night again on Friday. We made pasta and sauce, went on a little walk outside to look at lights, and gave the hot cocoa for the first time. I also had the urge to make a key lime pie of all things and after looking up the recipe I discovered it wasn't at all difficult to do. The boys finished off the entire pie that night and the next morning. I was considering being motherly and not letting them have both fruit loops and key lime pie for breakfast, but then decided against it. If they didn't eat it, it only meant I would ;) . The rest of the family came that morning to wish Natalie a good trip and say their goodbyes. I cooked up 5 pounds of home fried potatoes and 2 dozen eggs. The 14 people who were in our tiny casa polished it all off, complete with a full bag of bread. I'm still astonished. It was a sad goodbye. Natalie had visible tears running down her cheeks, and Glenda and some of the kids were tearing up also. It was strange, even for me who is not leaving, walking away from the group of them and towards the Hogar. The entire Hogar was so sweet and threw Natalie a going away party. They served food and the kids put on a little program in her honor. When the time came to say goodbye, it was so sad. Mostly for Natalie. One of the tia's said something that is really true. Volunteers get so much out of an experience like this, and to say goodbye to people they love is something foreign to them. It's always harder on the volunteers than the kids, because the kids lives have been full of past goodbyes. I truly hope that the time we spend here is for the better, and that it doesn't hurt the kids too much to say goodbye. I think, I know, that there is more good than bad in it. Plus, I know I will always be back.

I took Daniel and Rosa to see a movie today. It didn't work out completely as planned, but I had a really good time. Those two kids grab my heart. We went to eat at the mall and it was so difficult for the two to choose where to eat. They kept asking me to. Then I realized something. They never truly get to choose for themselves, not much at least. What they are doing every day, where they go, who they hang out with- everything is pre chosen. That has to be tough. Rosa also looked disconcerted. She told me that this was the first time that a volunteer had ever taken her out just to hang out. She was so happy, but she kept looking over her shoulder for the other kids. Rosa is the leader of the hogar. She is the second mother. She is, in a way, the boss. She is the one who organizes, teaches, cares for, and keeps the kids in order. When the group goes out to eat, she distributes the food equally. On the way over, I heard her giving instructions to Mercedes about how to portion out food. She takes on so much responsibility and I think most people who visit don't always see that. She tries to be strong all the time, but it's hard for a 14 year old girl to do so. The three of us wandered around the mall, looked at dresses, played some video games, and passed the time until the movie. I tried to get her to relax a bit and may have succeeded. She was so worried about how much money they were spending. As i said before, it's a weird thought to know that no one has ever really taken them out shopping and treated them to a nice day. Not their mother or an aunt. I felt the need to do something special for them, show them how much they are worth. That's what the day was really all about. Maribel was supposed to join us but she was a tad bit late. I think that worried Rosa, so she couldn't be completely worry free. Daniel was perfectly content to wander around and look. We saw Narnia together, and I really liked it. I wasn't too lost at all, even though it was in Spanish. I had brought some drinks into the theatre, a Dr. Pepper and Root Beer. Daniel took a sip of the rootbear and asked me where I got it, saying it tasted like medicine. I thought that was too funny. Maribel met up with us later and as we were talking I realized that she didn't know I was Stewart's daughter! She hadn't recognized me and I thought she knew. I told her and she became so excited and laughed at not knowing. It's funny to think she and Livio never would have known if I hadn't said something. I knew her from before, in my previous trips, but I had cut my hair and so she didn't know! Too funny. They were talking about my Dad and how he is always happy. I had to laugh.

So hopefully I shall make a quick recovery, be able to talk again and continue on! It will be very strange without Natalie here. She left this morning. I wish you all the safest travels Natalie! We'll miss you!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

When we thought it was over

The rat saga, unfortunately, did not come to an end. A new rat made a special appearance on Sunday, this time in Natalie's wardrobe. We heard a light commotion in the room and went in to find her pulling out her drawers, searching for this rat. I began to help and just when one drawer was about to come out, the rat launched itself out and under the beds. We poked around with some broom handles and found it in my empty suitcase. Again, it flew out and this time headed right towards me. I looked down to find it running in circles around my feet and let out a scream. Until that point I hadn't thought I would have reacted so strongly but nope. I did. A full out scream, complete with hopping from foot to foot. It then took off and disappeared. We think it might have escaped through the bathroom window. I'm crossing my fingers.

Sunday morning was really fun. Ethan, Natalie and I took a kayaking tour in El Cacao, where there is a large lagoon with mangrove trees and little inlets. A steady drizzle rained down the entire time, which cloaked the lagoon in silence. It was extremely pretty and a little surreal. We went through the channels and saw little bats that blended in with the wood. They were impossible to spot unless the guide pointed them out. We saw a monkey! Granted it was sleeping, but the idea was so neat. But, what was even neater- we talked to a monkey. After we moved on from the first monkey, we went around the lagoon and the guide taught us how to make monkey calls. Ethan was the best at it. We heard one call, so the guide called back. It responded and then Ethan responded. It went back and forth between the monkey and us for a good 10 minutes. We were willing it to reveal itself to us, but we didn't know how to say that in monkey talk. It was so close, we could here from its voice, but talking to it was just as much fun. On clearer days, they sometimes see alligators as well.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing at home. We practiced our cooking skills, made some delicious potato cream soup, some fresh bread, salad and snicker doodle cookies. It was a feast. Monday we had school again. As we walked up the steps I became so sick with worry, because Geny had spent the night on Saturday. On Sunday when we left for our outing, we sent him off to find his way home. I gave him some money for a taxi, but he still would have to take a bus or hitch a ride up. All of the scenarios were running through my head of what would happen if he had never come home, and his family was expecting him to be with us. I was so scared, but of course I was worrying for nothing. He was at school today safe and sound. But I got a little taste of what a parent must feel like at times.

School these past two days have been challenging. The kids, for the most part, don't study. We've spent the last two weeks learning forms of 'to be' and today when I ask them to do exercises, they don't even know what 'I am...' means. I feel bad because I feel like I’m not encouraging them enough, or that I'm making it boring, or I can't explain things well enough. Solutions are running out. So I baked cookies today to attempt to bribe them. We shall see. The hogar kids are learning a Christmas play and some songs so that's been taking up the afternoons. It's been raining non stop. It's probably about high 60's and everyone here is freezing. Quite amusing. I can only imagine Luz! We skyped her with her family today. She was all bundled up and looked so cold but so happy. She showed us her room and the snow and I got goose bumps. I'm so happy and excited for her. I shall be adamantly stalking her facebook as time goes on. :)

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Visitors

 Yesterday I remembered why Piano isn't my favorite activity to engage in. David owns a keyboard that stays at the Hogar, so I decided to pull it out and play a little. My first discovery was that I couldn't remember any of the songs I once knew. Bummer. So after doing some scales (yes, I could still do those) I went online and printed out some music. To my relief I did remember how to read the music, albeit slowly. I got through some extremely basic songs but I was content with that. Of course, once the kids saw the piano every one of them was clamoring over me saying 'I want to learn! I want to learn!'. So I thought- why not? I can teach some basics. The problem arose when they didn't understand the concept of one person at a time. 3 people sitting at a keyboard with more crowded in behind, while on a couch without a proper stand is claustrophobic. You have so many different sounds and the kids prefer to press random keys instead of listening. Definitely not ideal. I actually think those three words describe just about everything in Honduras. Especially learning conditions. Anyways, I put the piano away but then Paola asked me is I could teach her that night. Those lessons went better, but I still don't think piano is my thing, especially on a keyboard where every note is the same and you hear it over and over again. It was the first time I felt myself loosing patience with the kids and I felt bad. Tia Yolanda asked me if I could teach them a song to sing while I accompanied them on the piano for Church on Christmas. I'm still thinking about that. That I think I could handle. It might be fun :)

Today Nelson, Denia, Geny, and their Aunt and little Carlitos came over. I had invited the older two to study English with me and the rest kind of followed. We made a pancake breakfast and then got to work. The problem is that it is difficult to have them practice speaking with the English they know. They know a lot, but never use it. I don't know how to teach it so that they use it. I think I will just have them learn the vocabulary and keep practicing, practicing, practicing.

Those were the welcome visitors. We also had a not so welcome visitor. As I was finishing up working on some stuff on the computer on Wednesday at about 12 at night, I saw something zip past me out of the corner of my eye. I turned and then I was sure that it was a huge rat that had just run in from outside. I froze and spent some time considering what to do. I decided to ignore it for the time being and pretend that I had just seen something and was mistaken. When I went into our room (Natalie and Ethan were sleeping in the other with air conditioning) I flipped the light on and I saw it sitting on my bed for a brief second before it ran underneath. At that point I had a difficult time not letting out a tiny squeal. I ran out, grabbed mypillow and blanket and flew into the 'sleeping room' where Natalie and Ethan were. I closed the door behind me and spent some time calming my beating heart. In the morning I told everyone of our visitor and we all crept around searching beds and clothes without any luck. The next night was Dan Collins last night, so Luz Mila and her mother were sleeping over because Luz had to go early in the morning. She was so excited but you could also tell she was nervous and sad because she had already said goodbye to her family. Such an enormous thing to go through! Saying goodbye to everyone you know and going away for the first time in your life. She was handling it so well though. They slept in Dan's room so Dan and his dad were on the outside couches. I decided to chance it and sleep in our room, hoping that the rat escaped or was in a different part of the house. At five o'clock in the morning, after dreaming all night about rats crawling around and biting me, I discovered that I had made a poor decision. I woke up to the sound of knawing on wood, in the corner of my room. The crunching was so loud and there was no question of what it was. I jumped up on my bed so fast so that as little of me was exposed as possible. Then I took a few minutes to gather the courage to jump down and run outside. Luz and Dan were just getting up so they could catch their bus, so I had a chance to say goodbye. I am so excited and nervous for her. Her story hits me right in the heart. I think it is amazing. But the rat story is not yet at an end. While I was teaching piano last night, Natalie and Ethan came home early, and they recounted their story to me. They went into our room with the intention of searching for the rat, and sure enough- zoom! it runs right past them into my and Ethan's closet area. Natalie was the brave one and she began to pat down all of our clothes. She couldn't find it and then she hit Ethan's one jacket which was hanging up. The rat flies out, hits her and jumps past into the bathroom area. They run to shut the door to lock it in. Natalie then suits up in tennis shoes and gloves, grabs the bottom of the trash can to catch it in, enters the bathroom and closes the door behind her. Screaming, yelling and banging emanate from the bathroom as she tries to trap it under the trashcan. "AHHHHHH!" "Holy Sh*t! It's a jumping rat" "Oh my god!"  "EEEEEK!!" -BANG-. The rat was jumping everywhere, off the walls, off the toilet, in the sink and finally she trapped it vertically on the door. This entire time Ethan was rolling in laughter outside, because all he could hear was her screams sprinkled with some creative cursing. Once the rat was under the trashcan, she moved it down the wall, did a quick flip to the floor, and escorted it outside. I can not believe I missed it.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Exciting Things are Happening

I went to the beach with the kids on Sunday. Every weekend is a new beach, and this was my favorite so far. A shallow river channel ran right into the river, so we had a little bit of both.  There was a good sized flat sandy area for playing soccer, and across the channel were a lot of chocolate plants. Cacao is a better description, though it is the fruit that chocolate is made out of. The kids all ran right over there and picked a bunch of them. They are interesting, because you break the hard case open and then the fruit is inside, though there isn't much fruit. It's more like a slimy case around the seed, and you suck on it and spit out the seed. The fruit is very sweet though there is nothing chocolaty about it. Each of the kids came back with arm fulls, very proud of their finds. Soon after, we started up a soccer game in the sand. It was me, moises, and Venancio against Gerson, Daniel and Carlos. I have so much fun playing! I have hardly ever played soccer but Venancio gave me a compliment and said i was a "buen jugadora". I did learn the hard way though that playing soccer in the sand is not the best idea. Towards the end I looked down at my leg and it was completely red and scratched up and bleeding in spots from the sand. Beautiful. But totally worth it. I wish the kids had more chances to play! Around the hogar there is absolutely no room so that's out of the question meaning that the only time they can play is when we go to the beach. I'm attempting to set up some sort of PE class in the afternoons but it's difficult because there is no space, no supplies, and the kids don't even have tennis shoes. We had a semi PE class the past three days. The kids are split into groups for the afternoon so the first day was the younger kids. We played (or attempted to play) capture the flag. They had a blast though actual running around was minimal. The older kids took there turn the next day and we had even less space and it was less successful, but everything is mostly make do. Today while the younger kids ran around I helped out Eddy with the computer's class. I found some games that taught basic typing, and everyone seemed pretty responsive. Daniel, Carlos, Cherlin and Sara picked it up the quickest. They all love to play games on the computer, so hopefully with practice and time we'll get them all pretty good at using one. It's strange thinking that it's not a common skill here. I never really considered it a skill before but it is I suppose. English classes went well more or less. The kids don't study so it's frustrating when I have to slow down my pace and can't move on, especially when there are some kids who do understand and want to move on. I gave them a little bit of a talking to today and decided to split the class next week, so we'll see how it goes.

Big news!!!! We got the land donated from the city of La Ceiba to Helping Honduras Kids for the purpose of constructing a new Hogar de Amor!!! This is a HUGE step and means that the 22 kids and 4 tias will now be out of the small three bedroom, 2 bathroom house. We could not be more excited, but it also means that we have a huge step ahead of us. Fundraising! We need the funds to construct our permanent home. We will be starting from scratch and building in stages, taking and using all the help that we can get. We need to build the wall around the property, bring in electricity and sewer, build the foundations, build the house and provide for all the necessary things that raising kids requires. The property is about 1.3 acres, so thankfully there will be space to run around and space to live. Now is the time to call up all your work groups, church groups, friends and family and get a group together to come down and pitch in!

Also, our second big news... Luz Mila is leaving for Canada on Friday! Dan Collins and his dad, Gord, arrived on Monday to bring her up with them to study for the next chapter of her life. Just thinking about the experiences she will have, the new things she will see, the opportunities she will be presented with, gives me the chills. I can't even imagine what's going through her head. Moving from the jungle in La Ceiba, Honduras to the city of Toronto Canada. Changing from a place where she had to walk an hour and a half every day through a jungle path and keeping away from Jaguars just to get to school, to somewhere where everyone has a car, school is close and the temperature is below freezing. Switching from a house with earth walls and dirt floor to a suburban modern day home. I wish I was there the entire time to see her reaction to everything new. I instructed them to keep me updated with pictures and a video of the first time she sees snow. Luz Mila is an amazing individual. She has the spark in her that tells you that she will go far. Right now her English comprehension is amazing. She is so dedicated to learning and she will take full advantage of what is presented to her. I will be writing a story on her this month, explaining everything that went into taking her up to Canada. Just when you think that it's impossible to make a difference, you realize that amazing things do happen.

In the van on my way to the beach on Sunday, I feel like something changed within me. I don't know how to explain it, or what exactly it was. Mynor was sitting on my lap, leaning his head back against my chest. He had hold of my hand and seemed so comforted with me being there. I felt like he trusted me completely and a feeling just rose up within me and I realized that I'm making almost a lifelong commitment to these kids. They are taking pieces of my heart, and I won't ever be able to take them back. I'm going to be tied to their well being for as long as they grow up and beyond. I'm doomed.